Adding seasonal decorations to my home is maybe my favorite part of being a parent. Don’t get me wrong it’s definitely not the only thing, but creating an atmosphere to make the most of each season is something I love! One of the easiest ways I have found to spruce up my kiddos rooms is a refresh to their bookshelves.

Today, for my Friday Faves, I am sharing our most recent list of books we have for each room! I have every single book linked in my Amazon Halloween List HERE alongside additional decor, you can find the link for the clear bookshelves HERE, the link for the dollhouse bookshelf HERE and if you prefer the LTK app you can find a roundup of books and cute skeletons HERE!

For more details on the bookshelves I would love for you to check out my Instagram Reel HERE!

I would love to know, are seasonal and holiday themed books part of your decor in your home? Do you love a themed bookshelf as much a I do? If so, I would love to hear some of your favorite Halloween books below!

A couple more notes 🙂

Our amazing wooden signs are from Against the Grain. An amazing small business that hand cuts and hand crafts each piece with love. Their Fall and Halloween collections are sold out, but their Mistletoe + Holly collections releases today! If you are looking for bookshelf or room decor, gift tags (yes acrylic and wood personalized tags) and more check out their site HERE!

As always, when I talk about any brand I won’t share it if I don’t own it, or love it. From Against the Grain I earn nothing by sharing this small business. It is one that I simply love and hope that you love it too!

However, when you shop from any of my Amazon or LTK links I am earning a small commission. The cost of the product is not more for you, but the commission exchange happens between the retailer and myself, through the affiliate link you likely clicked on! Most of these links are only tied to me for 10-15 minutes from your initial click. As an entrepreneur I am in the business of affiliate marketing and appreciate you shopping my favorites through my links!  

Thank you for reading, shopping, sharing and engaging in my posts! I hope you love them as much as I love sharing them!

We had so much fun sharing our You’ve Been Pinched baskets for St. Patrick’s Day that we thought it would be so fun to do a Boo bucket for Halloween! Let’s go!

Truth be told I grabbed all of this from Target and have linked as many things as I could HERE, but have also included an Amazon shopping list at the bottom of this post!

The jest of these buckets is to have some fun! It’s a way to celebrate with neighbors, meet a new friend or simply drop a little joy on someones doorstep. Share who it’s from, or remain anonymous – its up to you!

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You all also loved the printouts for the St. Patty’s Day baskets, so I thought I would add another one here. Simply save this image to your phone and print. You can print 2 or 4 per page depending on how many buckets you would like to pass around your neighborhood!

I hope this post helps spark your creativity and allows your little ghosts and goblins to participate in a little holiday fun, too! Don’t forget to tag @TheHelpfulHost on social media for us to see your buckets!

Shop our Amazon Halloween Holiday idea list HERE!

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I told you last week that I would share my proposal story with you, so here we go!

It was Friday, October 28 and I was preparing for a super fun client halloween party. Blair was headed to Pennsylvania for business and was going to stop though Tulsa about 11:00 to have lunch with me and the girls from the office. Needless to say I got a phone call about 9:15 to ask if I didn’t mind picking him up, his morning meeting got canceled and he got on an earlier flight.

He told me a friend of ours (that we went to college with) was on the flight to come into town for the homecoming game and that our friend got a rental car, so Blair rode with him to TU so he would be closer to my office. (We met in college, you can read that here.) Needless to say I was a little irritated that he came in to town early and didn’t give me a heads up to rearrange my plans to get him. He told me not to rush, but just to let him know when I was close to campus (one reason I love this man; he is patient with my work schedule).

As I got close to campus he told me that he ran into some Thetas, and since he had his bags they invited him in to the house so I needed to go there to get him. I told him I was almost there and asked if he could come out and get in my car, but he persuaded me to come me for a minute. (If I hadn’t been in a hurry and wasn’t thinking about the girls in the house that would want to say hi and chat I may have figured out something was fishy… but I didn’t.) I parked my car in front of the house and hurried to the door. As I knocked on the door it opened, which was odd… low and behold there was Blair – standing alone.

I think I may have given him the irritated “get your bags, let’s go” look while saying hiiiii…, but he just smiled and gave he a big hug. He told me that he loved me and he had missed me, then reminded me we were standing in the first place we ever met nearly 5 years earlier. He also said he knew then there was something about me. Before I could get my bearings the man of my dreams was on his knee asking me if I would marry him! I think I may have said “are you serious?!” He held out the ring box, wide open with a perfect ring, and said “Christina.” Stunned and shocked that he actually pulled off a surprise without me catching on (I despise surprises and am sometimes nosey to avoid them) I said, “YES!” and he put my new shiny ring on my finger! We were engaged, I had a fiance and so many questions; does my mom know you’re here, do you really have a business meeting in Pennsylvania.. oh my gosh!

Needless to say there was no early meeting that was canceled and no meeting out of town, there was no friend of ours on the plane (he caught a taxi) and he went up the the Theta house and knocked on the door by himself. Since he has the best luck my Great Grand Little, Lauren, opened the door and because she knew me didn’t question him when he said “Can I come inside to proposed to my girlfriend, she’s on her way here.”

He knew if he had a big speech I would have figured it out, and he knew to catch me off guard while I was thinking about putting on the perfect event for work. He had known he was going to propose on October 25 for an entire year! October 25, 2010 was the first time we talked about spending forever together, this guy remembers it all! He asked my mom for permission two weeks before and she didn’t say a word! He thought about everything! He even stalked my Pinterest boards for the perfect ring and Bailey Banks & Biddle helped him put the perfect setting and stone together!

Our weekend was full of fun celebrations with the girls in the Zinke office, my family, our friends and the homecoming football game at our alma mater! Yes, he even went with me to set up, and clean up, my fun client Halloween party! I am so excited to marry the most amazing man and my soul mate on September 15, 2012. God is so good and knows what He is doing every step of the way!  I can’t wait to share our wedding journey with you all; next week I go dress shopping!