Merry Christmas To All, And To All A Good Night

 Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house...

{Look at all my Bee mail!}

Not a creature was stirring, not even a...

 Sophie... go back to bed. You're ruining Christmas.

The puppy stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

In hopes that St. Nicholas would soon put a lot of fancy pantsy gifts under our tree.

Because... really...that's kinda the whole point of Christmas.

{Isn't our first married ornament pretty?}

When out on the lawn, there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

False alarm.

Apparently it was just the rare one-antlered unideer.

One part flying reindeer, one part unicorn.

It was a Christmas miracle.

Now on to the gifts.

A few of my favorites: 

Of course, I had to open the blue box first. Duh. What kind of girl do you think I am?

Next up:

I adore these boots. Aren't the studs down the back divine? I can't wait to wear them!

Aaand finally:

Yes. This flat iron is amaaazing, and it comes with all kinds of warnings to prove it.

"Burn hazard! Keep away from children! This product can burn eyes!"

I laugh in the face of danger.

Mwahahahaha.

But for reals. I needed a new flat iron so badly. How bad?

This bad. Eww. I'm kind of embarassed to even post this picture. I've had this damn thing since high school! The plates are all chipped and there's product build up everywhere. Nasty.

I hope everyone had a wonderful ChristmaHanukKwanza!

What was your favorite gift?

#WEverb11 Prompts 6-10

Time to catch up on the second batch of #WEverb11 prompts!

#6:
Favor
What was your favorite month of 2011? Why did it beat out all 11 other months?

This is easy. January- it's the month in which I married my best friend.

#7:
Travel
Where did you travel this year? What was your favorite part? If you didn’t get to travel, where do you want to go next year?

Ha! No where, unfortunately. Life has just been too crazy to travel this year. Next year we hope to do an east coast road trip and go at least one place outside of the country. Fingers crossed.

#8:
Choose
What was the biggest choice you made in 2011? What caused you to choose what you chose?

I think my biggest choice is in process right now, so I can't really talk about it yet, (ooh, cryptic and mysterious!) but it's certainly work related.

#9:
Appreciate
In which moment did you find yourself flooded with gratitude? How will you rally around gratitude in 2012?

Gosh, when have I not been flooded with gratitude this year? All the people I truly care about have exceeded my expectations this year. M and my parents have been so supportive of everything I've gone through this year. I will say the gratitude super star of 2011 is my mom, though. She always, always, always comes though, no matter what it is.

#10:
Create
Share a creative project you undertook this year (art, writing, DIY, cooking, home decoration, crafts, photography … whatever comes to mind). How do you use your creativity to express yourself?

Creativity is my entire life. I'm always doing something- whether it's decorating, doing makeup, DIY art, or busting out some crayolas and a coloring book. Most recently, I made life-sized polymer clay replicas of our wedding rings for our first married christmas ornament.

 {our rings}

{our ornament}

Pretty Palettes: Floating Tones

A pretty palette to perk up your Monday!

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Absolute perfection.

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I want these streamers so bad!

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How fun are these nails!?

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Love. Love. Love this super girlie bedroom.

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Eee! So ridiculous and adorable.

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Four more days until Friday! ;)

A Very Fashionable Christmas

Now that I've gotten Christmas edibles out of the way, I thought I'd share with you a few of the material items I'm coveting this christmas. Some of them are even on my real-life Christmas list!

Let the lusting commence:

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I adore this dainty bow necklace from Tiffany's.

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I am SO in love with this trench. Burberry... why must you cost so much?

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These tights are right on the edge of appropriately slutty, which is obviously why I love them.

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I am totally butt crazy in love with josh these boots. Points if you can name that movie.

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I mean, need I even explain?

Are you hoping for any new additions to your closet this holiday season?

#WEverb11 Prompts 1-5

What is #WEverb11?

#WEverb11 is a set of 31 prompts meant to encourage reflection on the past year (2011) and look forward to the coming year (2012).

I'll be answering the prompts in batches of 5, here's the first set!

#1:
Choose one word. Encapsulate the year 2011 in one word. Explain why. Imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2012 for you?

My word for 2011 is Life. I've lived a lot of it this year. I think I finally feel like a real grown up. I've been through the rough- facing some really tough personal demons, adjusting to married life, figuring out what makes me happy and what doesn't, learning how to use the word no. I've also enjoyed some really good parts- marrying my absolute best friend, appreciating the fact that I seriously have the most unbelieveably amazing and supportive parents, getting 100% out of debt, and just generally finding happiness.

For 2012, I'm going to go with Fun. I want to have some fun, damnit. This year has been so busy and it has flown by so quickly that Mike and I literally haven't been able to do much of anything exciting or out of the ordinary. For god's sake, we haven't even been able to leave the city of Tampa for an entire weekend in 12 WHOLE MONTHS. Read that again. Slowly. I need a freaking vacation.

#2:
Listen. What song did you listen to in 2011 to completely change your mood? Think about ways you can you add more music to your life in 2011

Friendly Fires: Kiss of Life.

I don't know what it is about this song, but it just puts me in a good mood.

#3:

Learn. What lesson did you learn in 2011 from “The School of Life” rather than a classroom?

You are responsible for your own happiness. Period. Never depend on anyone else to make you happy, not your friends, family, spouse, anyone. Want flowers? What are you waiting for? Go buy them for yourself. Need pampering? Go get a massage. Don't wait for anyone else to do things to make you happy. Do them for yourself and just consider anything that anyone else does for you as "extra".

#4:

Haiku. Sum up your year, via haiku.

Believed in myself

Took life by it's wildest reigns

Found my happiness

#5:

Befriend. Did you meet any new friends this year? How did they impact your 2011?

Yes, actually, which is rare because M and I are both kind of loners. I got a new job (yay!) and made some fabulously fun and hilarious new work friends. I love the days when we get to work together, because it makes the day fly by! Also, M's best friend started dating a girl soon after our wedding and they just got engaged(!!). She's insane, and it's so fun to have another girl around to talk shit with.

Feel free to join in on #Weverb11 here, and follow them on Twitter!

A Very Foodie Christmas

A few months ago, Serena at Big Apple Nosh was gifted a 3 month Artisanal Cheese of the Month subscription from her sister. And I became extremely jealous. This jealousy prompted me to scour the internet for all sorts of Food of the Month clubs. Great for gifts, even better for me. Little did I know, there are so many options to choose from! Cheese. Bacon. Chocolate. Cookies. Fruit. I haven't commited to any quite yet, but last night while searching for gifts for my family members I stumbled upon this:

{Gilt Taste}

Gilt Groupe

!!!FOR FOOD!!!

They have everything your little food loving heart could possibly desire. Individual items, gift baskets, monthly subscriptions. So... if anyone would like to buy me some food (yes, please!), here are just a few scrumptious items I've been eyeing:

Proof that American cheese means more than radioactive orange food coloring.

Mmmm, now that's my kind of sausage fest.

Finger Limes. No idea what to do with them, but they're freakin adorable.

Black Garlic. It just... looks cool.

Cannot appropriately express in a public forum how badly I want these tarts.

Can't forget the macarons.

Have you ever gotten a Food of the Month subscription? And most importantly, would you like to share? ;)