In 2019, I had felt guilty I didn’t do this after I had signed up for Spotify several years ago, I finally created a Halloween playlist. I had hoped it would be more of an aesthetic pleasing to both the traditionists out there that enjoy the classics like “Monster Mash and the original version of “Thriller” by the legendary Michael Jackson, and for anyone like myself finding modern hits that could pass for the season. Once it became October, I immediately wanted to revamp it with songs I’ve been listening to for the past three years.
So, this post is all about the music I’ve found and we’re going to discuss some of my ultimate favorites here and there.
A type of mood or vibe I go about looking for awesome candidates.
I am a lover of darker tones when it comes to music in general. It doesn’t have to be autumn or Halloween for that matter to generate that type of vibe for me because I want it all the time.
This didn’t exactly happen for me until I found a collection of artists in their early days of releasing music; now when it comes to the type of music BANKS and Ruelle releases, they’ve barely changed since their first singles, and usually that’s not like me because I love the evolution musicians tend to do after doing the same for so long, and you can thank Linkin Park for that by the way!
For these women though, I just can’t let it go and they continue to give us as fans, more and more, and I just consume all of it. Unfortunately, I saw Laurel and Zella Day make that switch fairly after their first albums/EPs were out to the public and a part of me was very sad, but I can learn to enjoy these new changes and search for more devoted to that certain style I was drawn to in the first place.
Heavy metal, hard rock and a tiny bit of grunge…
As you finish with the classics, you start to notice a pattern because instead of hearing straight pop music or songs you think belong in a playlist like this and you instantly move onto the melodramatic beats and vicious screams. In the beginning, I wanted an even mixture, but it quickly became a mess after a while because I couldn’t hold myself back any longer.
The one thing I have never enjoy is music like grunge, but I find it absolutely perfect for Halloween!
Back to Linkin Park and I was never a fan of their grunge-y album, that had a slight nod to the nu metal fanbase that most of us fell in love in the first place. The album in question is “The Hunting Party” that was released in 2014. I will say, it is rightly titled for this time of the year! Anyways, this is one of three albums LP ever made that I didn’t really enjoy that much but I tend to have a craving for it by the end of October. I don’t know why it happens, but it is consistent, and I’ve learned to live with it.
If it was featured on a recent film and/or TV show, or just a freaking ad for a product, I’ll find it.
I am NOT sorry to admit this, but I actually enjoyed the first Suicide Squad film–actually, both my dad and former brother-in-law are in agreement with me about it. They also liked Ben Affleck as Batman too, but let’s not get too sidetracked here, and let’s talk about the soundtrack. I really love “Purple Lamborghini” with Rick Ross and Skrillex, but I’ve never thought of it as “Halloween-y.” but like many others, I’d put Twenty-One Pilots’ “Heathens” on the list in a damn heartbeat. It took me a bit longer to add “Sucka 4 Pain” with Logic, Lil Wayne, Quavo,
Two of my absolute favorite tracks to date that I will listen to all year long but instantly be drawn back to the first season of The Chilling Adventures to Sabrina on Netflix is, “Black Mad Woman” by VCTRYS and “A Little Wicked” by Valerie Broussard, which plays during the end of the last episode where Sabrina becomes a bit of a bad b(w)itch and her hair goes from a natural blonde color to platinum and her whole swagger just changes in those final scenes and I just adore them!
Here are some of the most recent additions to the actual playlist.
Sweet But Psycho by Ava Max Mad Hatter by Melanie Martinez Lurk by The Neighbourhood Diseased by Icon for Hire Wish You Hell by Like A Storm Red Cold River by Breaking Benjamin Spellbound by Lacuna Coil Bloodmoney by Poppy Halloweenie: IV: Innards by Ashnikko Come Little Children by Clovet Mae Dead Man Walking by Jelly Roll Yikes by Nicki Minaj Like A Villain by Bad Omens Zombified by Falling In Reverse Sweet Revenge by Kat Leon featuring Jo Blankenburg Burn by 2WEI with Edda Hayes I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift Man or a Monster by Sam Tinnesz featuring Zayde Wolf To The Hellfire by Lorna Shore Pink Venom by BLACKPINK
If you would like to check out the whole Halloween playlist, click here to be transported to a new window and you can listen to your favorites and maybe you find some brand-new tunes along the way. Before you go, how about you tell me about your absolute favorite song for Halloween in the comments below.
If you are from the States, I hope you were able to enjoy Thanksgiving yesterday! I know a lot of people were debating whether or not to travel to be with their families for the holidays, so whatever you came to conclusion I still want to wish you a great time anyways!
For this post, I am discussing pretty much everything that happened this fall, including everyone’s favorite: our cats!
The year was somewhat weird, as the transition from summer to fall, was actually smooth compared to the previous years. Here in the Midwest, we tend to go through seasons very quickly! For us, the switch to autumn was fairly nice. I was able to go outside on our deck a lot in August through October, but once the cold finally arrived, it came like a roaring train and I wasn’t prepared for the aches and pain in my body.
While I was in high school, I would go to football games covered with two layers of pants and socks, plus a blanket tucked around the seat of my wheelchair to keep me warm but also lessen the chilling temperature going into my joints and making me feel horrible for the rest of the night. As of gotten older, the pain has been getting worse of course, but at least I’m not sitting outside for two-three hours at a time in the freezing cold and depending on my muscle relaxers earlier than we usually take them.
This fall has been an interesting one, the temperature would go back and forth between in the low 50 degrees to 65-70 degrees in a matter of days! Everytime we would think I would have to stop going out, it would change and the cats and I would enjoy the love and apparently, my comfortable bench to take a little nap on.
I was able to finish five books in the last two months, and in the beginning, the cats didn’t really mess with me or books, but towards the middle of November, they became a little bold and Bear-Bear would just plop down on the pages I was reading, and recently he did it again but this time of just wanting to find a place to sleep, he let me pet him on his side, and considering all of his fur, he is really soft! He and Oscar are the softest cats in our pride – I call them this, because they’re not really “domestic” instead they are more wild as they still eat, birds, mice, frogs, and the occasional bug too.
I love it when the trees change into various colors, but the one person who absolutely hates this season is my dad, he does not care for the leaves in his yard and my mom would reflect this whenever she would sweep away the leaves that would land on our deck. A couple of weeks ago, we had a big collection of leaves in the right corner of the porch and we were just going to leave them there for Nolan, but as we found out this autumn, was our cats loved sleeping on top of them! We have caught Stormy in the leaves the most, but on a day I was out reading and taking photos of everybody for this post, Tavis, who is quickly becoming my sister and brother-in-law’s cat, decided to clean himself and take a little snooze on the pile and well, I just couldn’t help myself…
I’m not really sure what Nolan thinks about the trees shedding their leaves, but I know he is having the same joint problems as his papaw and Aunt Meg though. In the beginning of the new season, he would come over bearing the newly acorns that have dropped from the tree by their house. We have a mug full of like seven acorns and I doubt we’ll ever get rid of them because it was such a sweet thing he did one evening and continued for like two weeks until he started bringing toys over instead.
Since with the COVID-19 mess, he didn’t dress up and go trick-or-treating for Halloween this year. Honestly, he’s still too young to have a lot of candy, especially with his gag reflex still causing him issues here and there. He has been getting better about it though, but we are still very cautious with him on candy in general. Here’s a fun fact for you, he actually doesn’t like chocolate! I think the main reason why he enjoys M&M’s is because they have a color coat around them and he can’t figure it out. Trust me, the day he refused chocolate swirled ice cream freaked me out! My sister was obsessed with anything milk chocolate when we were growing up but her son isn’t a fan out of it! It’s so crazy!
Okay, I think it’s time for the rest of the pictures. Hope you enjoyed our pretty babies!
Okay, we are finally at the end of this post. Unfortunately, it will also be the last until spring comes back around in mid-April. I will try to persuade my mom into bringing one cat into the house while dad is in his mancave this winter, but I might just pay attention to the cat(s) and be less concerned about taking their picture for my blog. I hope to continue these types of posts in the new year!
What did you do this fall? How do you deal with various aches and pains in your body with the changing of the seasons? If you are a cat owner, do your cat(s) respect your space? What is the one thing that they hate the most if you’re not paying enough attention to them?
I bet you’re confused–it’s Monday but I’m not publishing a music playlist! I still think you’ll enjoy the change though, especially if you love decorating as much as me.
Let’s start with my door, because I have the only thing that has never changed places since it arrived to our house, and it is the pumpkin styled wreath that has faux berries, flowers, and leaves placed in the middle of the structure. It gives you a little sneak peek into what you will surely see once you go into the room.
I have really enjoyed seeing this wreath every day, and will probably be really sad to see it go once we get our Christmas decorations out sometime this week. As of now, I do not have a Christmas wreath and I don’t know if I will have one at the moment, but if I do find the perfect one, I’ll be posting it on my social media for you all to see of course!
One of my favorite things about my room is that I have a space in between two of my large treasures that allows me to not only have a Christmas tree but a good size autumnal display as well.
My mom purchased this absolutely beautiful sunflower rug when we first moved in two years ago, because the rug next to my bed blends into the floor but when we transferred from the bed to the wheelchair or commode–because we tried both!–my feet were slipping and sliding all over the place! What was really funny about this, is that on the tag it says, “non-slip” and although the rug never moved, we knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to keep it there! The material is like velvet, so really fuzzy and soft but apparently not great for what we do in front of the bed, so it was moved by the window and would be used for decoration for all holidays.
I have loved only having one window, in my room,. In our old house, I actually had two windows, but I only used one because the other was covered with plastic to keep out the cold in the colder months.
I have a translucent curtain with orange-y sunflowers all throughout; once I found it, I thought it would be different from having the normal thicker and darker shades of fabric and the latest addition are white cord lights all around the sides and front of it, which makes you feel cozy like instantly. I cannot tell you how happy I am when it’s nighttime and see the whole room illuminate in this warm glow and I feel so safe inside compared to how I felt in our old house.
Anyways, I have always wanted to decorate that area for the holidays. Christmas is easy because it is the perfect width to support a tree that’s both small and tall as you’ve probably seen in my posts last year. However, for autumn, I wanted to create a little oasis, that would blend in with the curtain, lights, and rug and thankfully I found some stuff that was perfect to showcase my love of fall.
When the stacked pumpkins arrived at our door, I knew that they would be perfect in the space in front of the window, but finding something that would separate them a little was somewhat difficult. I have another faux flower arrangement in a basket, and I’ve had this for years and have used it as props for blog posts but never had a place where they looked like that on purpose so I thought of putting it in between the pumpkins and placing other autumnal things around them. It took me a bit to arrange everything together, but I did get it all together where I thought I was happy with, but then within a week after taking my pictures of the finished project, I was given even more stuff to spruce up the piece again.
This is what it originally looked like for a good week and half until I changed most of the layout.
So….
My mom went to work one day and sometimes, they do little games and she had won this beautiful plump black and white plaid throw pillow that is somewhat heavy to lift but has a nice design on the front: it reads, “Pumpkin Patch” in between a dark grayish truck full of pumpkins (my nephew is in love with the truck by the way!) and at the bottom of it, has the words “pumpkins, apples, and hay rides” and it is just the cutest thing ever! It doesn’t match anything in our living room, so mom instantly just gave it to me and I had it for one day before I came up with a brand new plan.
The day I worked on this, I was committed to take on the challenge of moving this pillow around and switching out various things by my window to make my vision happen. I kept my pumpkins the way they were, but moved out the flower arrangement and put the pillow in its spot. Now here was the tricky part. The pillow did not want to stay still once I got it in the right place. Thanks to the silky rug underneath it, all it wanted to do was slide down as I was moving everything around! It was annoying but I got through it in one piece! I ended up having to squeeze everybody together to make sure it stayed upright, and that’s why you’ll the pumpkins sitting very close to it.
The flowers I moved to the right side because on the other side I had another project that has taken me ages to finish, but it is very heavy and takes up quite a bit of room on that left corner so the only thing I had that could fit on that side was a witch figurine that my nana gave me a few years ago that has never had the best luck at finding the right home either, so it was amazing luck that everything worked great together and made the display even better than I had dreamed the night before!
And now I can show you the final result that is in front of my lone window.
During the week my mom received the pillow, we went up north to visit with family for a couple of days, and my cousin Amy, her wife Danielle and their kids came over on the second day we were there and they brought these cute wood cravings in different Halloween-y designs for everyone to do together. Nolan painted the cutest pumpkins ever and my nana and I worked on my witch, I did the sides in brown while I painted the front in this purple-blueish hue and added a lot of white dots everywhere! Inside each craving are lights that are battery operated and mine flicker with multiple colors at once and even though I was slightly angry I added so many dots, it actually worked out great with the lights in the background. We placed it in front of the TV because I don’t have a bigger space for it, maybe I can come up with a better solution next year.
The final item to arrive and put up was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever encountered while decorating and DIYing!
As I mentioned in my haul, I absolutely adore the moon. I have always wanted something that was moon related in my room, whether it was a poster or banner, I didn’t care. However, I found out through this, that it pays to look at reviews before buying because it was a disaster!
When it arrived, we opened the package and it didn’t come with instructions so we relied on YouTube for help, which was fine! The next part was getting them attached to their pedant and this was really irritating both of my parents and what made things worse was we had three that broke upon clipping together and then on top of that, you have one side that is very shiny gold and the back is grey and dull which at first, it was okay, until you went to put them on the wall and they were facing the wrong direction.
We were going to put it underneath my TV, because the base and we were hoping that the gold line would be able to fit across the mantle. We had made that decision after my mom lost the long cord, and after finding it back in the box it came in, we were back to my idea that was having it hang above my bed and it does fit between the long section of the wall and thanks to the Command hooks, it was easy to arrange it like a theater stage curtain with a rounded effect. You could easily have the two markers but I saw an image on Pinterest that had a third hook in the middle so it makes that loop design on each side and I really loved it that way so that’s what we agreed on!
Once we got it hung up on the wall, we kept it there for a bit before deciding on how to fix our next problem. The worst part of the whole thing, was ours had some type of red markings on at least four pieces! Since we were still painting pumpkins during this time, I was allowed to do a little experiment and use purple paint to hopefully solve our issue; and it happened to be the greatest thing because it didn’t matter if they were facing each other or not, at least they were one color. I painted 10 moon phases with two coats of a royal purple on both sides – while the middle moon was left out of the family day of painting and was only covered with one coat with the same paint. This one is more purple-y because of this decision but everybody is in agreement, it makes it look more unique because its the full moon.
Here was the before and after pictures of the moon banner!
In my mini haul, I said I had bought a throw blanket and a T-Shirt but I don’t have any photos of those things. I am hoping I will maybe do a OOTD for you but we’ll have to see what happens because December is coming and I have a lot of Blogmas and New Year posts to get up soon so I might have to do it on Instagram or something.
The last time I did a post about pumpkins was in 2017! So, that was two years before my sister had my nephew–technically, she might’ve been pregnant with him if I remember correctly! Anyways, we were hoping to have all three of them over to have a big painting party but between the COVID scare and work schedules, it didn’t end up happening.
For once, we finally decided on a theme for the pumpkins. We have always wanted to do that, but then after some time we would forget about it and end up on doing our own thing. However, my mom was looking through her Facebook memories and found a photo of around six pumpkins painted with various M&M faces from the commercials, I shared this with her back in 2015, and I’m so glad I did because this was a perfect idea to do with our front stairs display, but of course we had to do ours differently.
Things you will need:
Pumpkins – various size is optional
Old newspapers
Brushes – sponge & regular
Paper plates
Acrylic paint
The last time we did this, our cats were fairly distracted and didn’t even come around to the front porch to rub up on us, so it was a pleasant surprise that I think all three of us enjoyed. For this project, we started off on feeding the cats before going outside to start and I think that was our issue because they eat quickly and if they know someone is on the porch they think we brought out even more food for them! They act like we don’t feed them at all and we do, trust me!
I want to say within five minutes of coming outside to get into a comfortable position, and actually begin to paint the pumpkins, all of the cats came up to the porch to find giant orange things stealing their attention. Honestly, they behaved like good kitties throughout the entire thing.
This was a two day project, as the first my mom and I just painted on the base coats on the five pumpkins we had, and unfortunately my mom didn’t take my advice to purchase the primorary colors in medium size bottles, because it is really easy to mix the colors with acrilyic paint. As I mentioned above on the things you’ll need, your pumpkins can be in various sizes but you also need to keep in mind about the size of paints you have too. We had somewhat larger ones with small tubes of paint, so we ran out of some colors quicker than we expected to; which is why I heed this caution to you as I do not want you to be stuck with one color and find it run out before finishing the entire surface. We had to do this with our blue pumpkin. It started out with a bright blue but the next time my mom went back with a darker color for the bottom and she wasn’t very happy about the contrast in the end.
In order to cover the entire pumpkin with paint, we used the large sponge brushes. I really enjoy using these types of brushes because since they are sponges, they can absorb quite a bit of paint so you don’t necessarily have to go back and get more on the tray, but I also like them for the fact they are easy for me to grip and move around the object. I ended up painting three out of the five pumpkins while my mom did the other two and the bottoms of mine because I can’t keep my balance and paint at the same time.
The really cute part happened the next day, after we left them outside to dry fully, my dad really fall in love with the red one so he decided to come into my room later that day to create a face for the pumpkin. He made his very animated and everything had to be perfected but unfortunately he was only able to do that one, while the next time my mom and I went back to them, we just freehand the faces with a sharpie. I thought this would be easier so to give us some kind of guide to what the faces should look like, and I’m glad we did it this way and because it was helpful to us.
After my mom finished her pumpkin: the only girl and green pumpkin. (which turned out really cute, but I think we overestimated the size of the pumpkin because the whole face is so small compared to the rest, but like I told her, everything is a trial and error; we learn from previous “mistakes” and move on. If we had decided to keep the letter “m” underneath the faces, I think we might’ve liked it a lot more, but really it was not only her first time doing freestyle, she also exercised that she does have some patience stored within her. Honestly, both of my parents have expressed that they don’t have any patience at all, but yet they really took their time to get their ideas in order. It was a lot easier to convince my mom that she didn’t need to be perfect with it than dad, because for us we got through our pumpkins faster than he did and he also became very messy too!
In his defense though, he not only went off a totally different picture we did and on top of that, everything was bigger and since he likes everything to go right, it was very critical of his handiwork. Since we only gave faces to three of the pumpkins, I was next on the latter and I think I mirrored what each of my parents did with their pumpkins. I kept myself contained in my mind and thoughts but I really attempted to find a medium to both of them and I think I did a pretty good job after not painting a face for a long time.
As my dad was working on this lone tomato looking pumpkin, my mom was busy with creating the “M” on our final two pumpkins. Since she went back with the blue one, it hadn’t dried enough before she started on the white so on the picture you can kind of see how the letter blending into the background a bit, but thankfully she was able to add two coats on it so it is readable and personally, I think it looks cool like that. It is unique with the marbleizations of all three colors. The brown one also has a cool factor too, two of pumpkins had these great greenish veins going from the bottom to the top and unfortunately they were painted over with the red pumpkin but I guess mom thought it was neat too, so it almost turned out to look like a bowling ball in a way!
It was pretty fun and interesting to do a craft with my folks, especially since one has confessed that they are not a big fan of these types of things, but has painted quite a few pumpkins this month! After we finished our creations, my dad has made me a desk out of a Styrofoam so I can have an accessible table for my future projects. I am really happy that he didn’t make it before the pumpkins because I don’t it could take all of the weight of the some of them!
I think I am officially done with this post. I’m not sure when I will be doing another project, but when I do, you know I’ll try to put it on here for you. So, I hope you have enjoyed this crazy adventure that happened in the middle of October and here are the rest of the photos that were taken in the course of two days!
Have you been able to do any type of DIY or crafty projects for Halloween or fall in general? It doesn’t have to be with paint like ours, but I would still like to see your end result. Send me your pictures through Facebook or Instagram please!
October is a strange month; you have artists coming out with a softer note to their music, it makes their fans and other listeners feel cozy and enjoy everything that is autumn as a season. On the other hand, you have others creating purely for the spooky vibe that is Halloween. In years past, I feel as though I haven’t appreciated the gentle side and I am noticing how much I never watched the raining of the leaves with excitement as I have recently. And because of this, the music I have wanted to listen to has taken a totally different tone.
My intake of both Evanescence and In This Moment has been massive! I feel like they are the perfect bands for this time of the year. They have a certain creepy flare and almost every song, whether it is a ballad or heavy are built around the notion of mystery. Unfortunately, I only have two full albums from each band on my iPod but thankfully I have a giant collection of other metal bands from all over the world that also love that type of thing for their music. And I share a number of them on my October playlist from Spotify. If you would like to check it out, just click here to be transferred to the see everything that has some grain of monstrous in it.
Before I start going into depth about my Top 25, I have a little surprse for you. Here is this month’s Artist Highlight!
I am always so happy whenever artists and bands send me a message on my social medias or in a regular email – just as a warning, if you have sent me an email, please send me a DM through any of my socials as a head’s up! Mandala was very nice and patient with me while I tried to figure out the best way to highlight him and music on my blog. His newest single, “Modern Struggle” is out and he will release his album “The Chronicles Of A Blind Man” next month!
The introduction has this a nice melodic but also sounds like an ode to a cell phone ring in a way. The entire beat is really good and subtle but thanks to the fact that his voice is nice and clear, you can clearly hear the lyrics and the meaning behind it is brilliant. We, as a society have a struggle between good and evil, a mere modern take of what is right and good. So, there is a lot of things to take into consideration about what we do as individuals living our lives.
I hope you have enjoyed that little review of a brand new artist! Let’s change gears, and go back to our regular schedule. Here are my Top 25 for October and I really hope you enjoy it!
Rather Be by Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne I’m Not Mad by Halsey Californian Soil by London Grammar Wonder by Shawn Mendes Pretty Savage by BLACKPINK Still Have Me by Demi Lovato Supermassive Black Hole by Muse Power Over Me by Dermot Kennedy Runaway by Ziggy Alberta Eyes On The King by Benn Moral Of The Story by Ashe featuring Niall Horan No Place by Backstreet Boys Running by Malinda Change by Taylor Swift Tears Of Gold by Faouzia Everything I Wanted by First To Eleven My Own Dance by Kesha Harley by Letters From The Fire Frontline by Pillar Happy by Kurt Hugo Schnielder Underdog by Alicia Keys Together by for King & Country featuring Tori Kelly Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey Haunted by Violet Orlandi featuring Jake Munro Blood by In This Moment
If you follow me on Instagram, you might know I have tried to do a ‘Song Of The Day’ early in the evenings, and since I listen to a lot of different music, the genres and artists differ with every post. I was inspired to finally do them after my friend Ella started them in late September and one of the songs she shared actually made it to this list, Can you spot it?
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