Late Third Thursday Thoughts and $10 Budget at Target.

OK. Let's be honest, it is Friday already, lunch-time to be exact but I did mean to write up this Third Thursday Post and I started writing most of this since last night but then I was tired and went to bed instead. So, it still counts that I thought and wrote most of this, last night! There is only one other weekend left in October besides this one and I am amazed how fast each week flies!

- Since this Spring until now it has been very hard dressing Vivian, what I mean is choosing her outfits. She chooses most of her outfits and she almost wants every thing in pink: shoes, socks, tops, leggings, skirts, dresses, bows, you name it. But her wardrobe is filled with many more other patterns and colors like navy, green, yellow, red, teal, flowers, graphics, Disney characters and more. She is very very stubborn though, opens her own closet and drawers and chooses what she wants to wear. I could use all the advice you can give me on this matter so please speak away. Do you have a stubborn toddler whose mind is made up and they want things a certain way, insist on wearing a certain outfit? What should I do? I did buy a little mini dresser and I am thinking of using it to stash all of Vivian's clothes and keep that little dresser outside her room. Only me and the grownups in our home should know that all her pink clothes are there. I think it will force her to start wearing her other clothes, what do you think?

- Speaking of Vivian, Halloween is so close and I am very excited for her in regards to that, this year. I can tell Vivian is very excited for Halloween and for the first time in her life she totally understands Halloween. Plus she has been watching all the videos, kids' songs and I have even downloaded a bunch of Halloween games for her. Earlier she used to tell us: Vivi will be a vampire, mommy - a witch, daddy - a zombie, grandma - a monster and grandpa - a skeleton. Yep, all the scary characters, I guess they didn't scare her. But the last couple of weeks she has been all about fairies and butterflies. If you ask her these days what she wants to be for Halloween, she usually says a butterfly. It is a good thing since I may have bought her some butterfly wings. She hasn't seen them yet because she'd probably want to wear those things every day lol.

- I have recently started using a great new conditioner for my hair. It is an all-organic conditioner by Maple Holistics. I have used it 3-4 times so far but I can also see results in my hair. It leaves it soft, smooth and my favorite - not frizzy and easy to brush after washing it. I will continue using it a few more times and do a whole review post on it, soon after.

- I have been contacted by several companies lately and a couple of local brands/boutiques. I am actually liking most of their products and aesthetics. After turning down several companies and collaborations most Summer and Fall, I am excited for some new goodies and new opportunities coming my way (on this blog). I will also do a couple of giveaways, one right before Thanksgiving as my thank you to you my readers and one or two before Christmas.

- Have you guys watched the current season of "Project Runway"? It is already 6 episodes in but to me honest, this season there are only two designers that stand out to me: Erin and Laurence. Most of the others I am not very impressed with. Last night they had my favorite challenge of this season so far: Cocktail Dresses. I love dresses and I love cocktail dresses. But to tell you the truth I didn't like most of them, only 3 or 4 stood out and were beautiful, however Laurence's was the perfect LBD. The designer that was eliminated last week was a favorite of mine too and I think the judges made a mistake. So far in 15 seasons (and I haven't missed one) I have never seen a designer leave this way. He was super nice, grateful, sincere, humble and lovely all the way to packing up. Tim Gun almost used the save on him - he should have. It is nice to see up and coming designers who are not diva-like and think their sh*t doesn't stink. After "Project Runway", a new spin-off premiered last night. It is basically like "Shark Tank" but the innovators/business people are all involved in fashion. Handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff and Birchbox CEO Katia Beauchamp  are two of the investors the up and coming fashion business people are asking money, from. I watched the premiere and it was real nice.

- Earlier today we went shopping with Vivian to a local dollar store. I hadn't been to a dollar store in ages. This particular one is very nice and you can buy a few nice everyday products for a great deal (1$ duhh!) like bathroom sponges, air refresheners, tissues and cute Thank You cards, colorful pens and such. As soon as we entered in Vivian went straight to the Halloween decorations. I was willing to buy a few Halloween things (as decor) since most of my Fall decor this year is mostly pumpkins and not necessarily Halloweeny but I didn't care much for their Halloween decorations, they had cute Christmas stuff though. Vivian of course touched many things and kept adding things to our little shopping cart. She might have said once or twice that she loved shopping. She definitely takes that after her dad not me lol. Anyhow, after all that I was lucky I only spent money on a "magic wand" for her (and nothing else) in pink, of course lol. But yeah 23 dollars later and I'd say a successful trip to the Dollar Store, we left.

- We have had some days in the upper 40s all the way to upper 50s this October, but our Fall so far has been very mild and warm. We even had about ten days or so of temps in the late 60s to as high as 80. That is why you haven't seen booties or boots on me yet this Autumn. I have still been wearing some dresses, skirts, bare legs and sandals. And since October is breast cancer awareness month, I have also been wearing some Pink and photographed some of my pink outfits too. But none of them has made it onto the blog yet, sorry. I will make sure that the rest of my outfits all the way through the end of October feature a dose of pink daily. I will also post a pink-themed outfit each day for the next ten days (starting today) on my Instagram so stay tuned for those. I actually still have a lot of posts I plan on doing for October so you might see something new daily from here until October 31st.

I have a fancy engagement dinner party/pre-wedding dinner to attend next Saturday and even-though I have a ton of dresses and nice things I could wear, of course I am a girl who loves fashion so I grab at the chance for when I 'need' something new. Banana Republic has some gorgeous dresses out this Fall. I am eyeing this gorgeous velvet one (my first choice), this red scalloped one (a very close second choice), but I also love this blush dress (it is a steal too!), this gray boucle beauty (so chic), this neck-tie floral piece (elegantly bohemian) and this red flutter sleeve piece (fun, feminine and in my favorite color). Which two of these dresses are your favorite? I am hoping to make it to Banana Republic tomorrow morning after an AM work meeting and try some of these beauties on. Vivian needs some new dressy shoes too. After all her foot size has grown.

- OK, so no quotes today since this post is already very long. However (a little late this month), but I still wanted to share my $10 monthly goodies from Target. The $10 budget at Target is a monthly collaboration by several bloggers and it is such a fun and adorable idea that I have decided to join their monthly linkup for several months, now. You can linkup with them still for the next few hours, here.

First of all, I did not one but two shopping-spree $10 budget days at Target, just keeping things real and being sincere. The other trip for which I did not take photos, was basically all around Halloween decorations and actually the total of those items ended up being 9 bucks - in case you are wandering I got two boxes of mini pumpkins (fake ones) for decorations and a skull. I plan on posting my Fall Home decor next week so you will see all of these items soon. While the total of all the items above was 11 bucks (a little under 11 bucks including tax, because I had a dollar off coupon plus used my Target card with which I saved 5%).  In this second trip (items pictured above) I bought a great-smelling tin candle named "Caramel Lime Smoothie" and it smells delicious, not very sweet. I bought an adorable aqua knitted owl beanie for Viv to wear during Winter. And the last item was also for Viv. I have mentioned she loves coloring so I try to always look for/find fun coloring books for her. This book features some of her favorite princesses (she knows all the princesses' names), Ariel, Belle and Rapunzel. It comes with 3 coloring big crayons that were each shaped like the three princesses on the head. She loved the book and she loved her beanie too and kept it on for a full day around the house lol. What fun, little items have you bought at Target lately? What plans do you have this weekend? And do you enjoy this type of post?

TGIF EVERYONE!!

P.S. I am also linking with Anne, Becky, Carly with Molly, Carrie, Claire, Erin, Good Random Fun, Katherine, Lauren, Monica, Rachel, Rebecca, Tiffany and the ladies of "Tuesday Talk"  Stephanie, Jessica, Michelle + Whitney.