twenty-something girl

the wishlist

2011-06-05T20:33:00.000-05:00

Hello blogosphere! The last few months have been crazy busy so I've taken an unplanned leave of absence from the blogosphere. A lot of wonderful things have happened in the last few months including turning 26 back in April. I got to spend my BIG day in the windy city with my bestie, Jill, click here to read all about our fun trip! As some of you know my 25th birthday wasn't the best, I think most it had to do with my fear of turning 25. But now that 25 is behind me, 26 ain't nothing but a number. And more importantly my 26th year is proving to be far better than my 25th, maybe aging has some perks. Other benefits of birthdays are presents of course! I got some great gifts from friends and family, including a few items from my wish list (see right). My sweet friend Jill got me my first piece from the Fleur de Lys dinnerware set, I felt like a bride getting her first piece of china (or what I imagine a bride feels like when she gets her first piece of china ;) ), check out my adorable sugar pot.

My sweet friend Mary Grace also took note and got these turquoise latte bowls from my wish list. I absolutely love them and they match the decor of my home perfectly.

Thank you to all my amazing friends and family for making me feel so special on my birthday, I am so blessed to have each of you in my life!

mardi gras madness

2011-03-16T21:00:00.001-05:00

To my my faithful followers, I'm sure most of you have been checking in on my little blog for the last two months wondering where on earth I have gone, I'm happy to report that I'm alive and well! And I'm totally kidding about the checking in on me...I'm sure it will be another month before anyone notices this post ;)!

Anywho, the last two months have been a blur and I really can't believe April is around the corner. For those of you who don't know, Mardi Gras, is considered a holiday along the gulf coast. The weeks leading up to Fat Tuesday are filled with parades and balls. Quite honestly I don't know the history of Mardi Gras so I'm not gonna try to act like I'm completely in the know. What I do know is that contrary to popular belief Mardi Gras started in Mobile, AL, the town (or the next town over) that I'm happy to call home. From what I hear, New Orleans throws the king of all Mardi Gras parties; however, Mobile pulls in a close second as the queen. I've lived in Mobile for the last two years; however, this is the first year I took part in all the Mardi Gras festivities, I can assure you have been missing out and I look forward to next year's revelry.

My cute Mardi Gras wreath handed down from Mama Bear.

I went to my first ball back in January (see post below) and had so much fun. I went to my first parade during a birthday scavenger hunt and had so much fun. I pretty much gave up on the list of items to find and parked it on the corner of a street to catch beads! My Mardi Gras experience culminated with the MOT ball in Mobile and parades throughout the day on Fat Tuesday. I had a wonderful time at the ball and parades and cannot wait to do it all over next year!

Me and my sweet friend, Jill all dolled up for the ball.

Post dancing.

Me with all my Mardi Gras beads!

a jar for the seasons

2011-01-10T19:50:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, it's hard to believe it's already January 10!

Last year I found this great apothecary(ish) jar from my favorite furniture store, White House Antiques. You can only imagine how happy I was when i found out the jar would only set me back $10. Are you kidding me? These things run for $50+ at Pottery Barn. I had initially planned on putting sand and sea shells in the jar, but that never came to fruition, so my sad and empty jar sat on this bench for the better half of the year. Once Christmas rolled around, I found that I had ornaments in excess. I was able to put an assortment of silver, blue, and pink ornaments in the jar. I love the muted colors I was able to find.

Since the colors I selected weren't too Christmasy I thought the ornaments could carry me through January, but I knew by February I would have to come up with something new. I was presented with a brilliant idea this weekend. I went to my first Mardi Gras ball over the weekend and collected my fair share of beads. Here's a picture of me and Marjorie all dolled up.

I digress, once I got home I didn't know what to do with all my beads. I couldn't just toss them, I had earned these beads! And then it hit me, I would put the beads in the jar. I was a long way from filling the jar, so I had to rummage through some of mama bear's decorations (thanks mama!). I'm still short but I imagine I'll be getting more from parades and such. Nonetheless, my jar will be good to go through early March!

Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!

outtakes

2010-12-10T23:30:00.000-06:00

For the last two years I've sent out a picture of my sweet pup, Ellie, with my Christmas cards. I wanted to get my cards out this weekend, so time was of the essence...I needed to get a picture of Ellie, stat! Mind you, I tried to get a picture of us on Thanksgiving and mom was too busy to take the picture. Anywho, I picked up Ellie and attempted to have a quick photo shoot, let's just say things went south quick. Ellie was not having it and was fidgety during the entire shoot. Here's what I had to deal with....

Ellie is hating life

We were able to get a few shots, even though she wasn't looking into the camera for any of them. I think my favorite may be the kissy picture.

The picture below is fairly decent of me and Ellie looks so sweet...looks can be deceiving ;). Since I didn't love any of the pictures, I decided to scrap the idea altogether, so I thought I'd show you some of our outtakes. Here's to hoping things go better next year.

o christmas tree, o christmas tree

2010-12-04T23:32:00.004-06:00

I cannot believe it's already December! My goodness, how this year and last few months have flown by. Christmas is my favorite time of year and I have so much coming up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. For now I wanted to show off my very first Christmas tree. I dragged my sweet parents to Lowe's last night to pick out a tree. The rest of the evening was spent trimming the tree. As a side note, putting lights on a tree is miserable, I don't know that I've ever done it since Mama Bear is so good at it ;) ... but without mom I was left to string the lights myself. And of course the best part was putting on the ornaments. Before moving last year I packed up all the ornaments I had collected over the years (mom gets me a new one every year), it was so much fun unwrapping them -- I love it when ornaments have a story. After a tiring two hours my tree was trimmed, behold my pretty tree...I love it!

Hope you're enjoying the holiday season!

happy blogiversary

2010-10-22T16:22:00.000-05:00

A year ago today I laid in bed and set up my very first blog. I remember the moment quite distinctly. I tried to write an illustrative and comedic little post about my first blogging experience, don't know that I accomplished either, you can make your own assessment by clicking here. My friend, Mary Grace and I had been talking about blogging for a few months, it wasn't until October 22, 2009 that I decided to bite the bullet. Quite honestly, I didn't think I'd ever post again. Shortly after my first post, MG created her own blog. As a way to hold ourselves accountable so as not to give up on our blogging adventures we started "Top 5 Fridays". Each Friday we'd pick a subject and choose our top five songs, movies, websites, etc...you get the idea. Shortly thereafter we started Must Have Mondays. After a few months we started to run out of ideas and Top 5 Fridays and Must Have Mondays became something of the past. But I continued to blog and MG's blog became quite popular.

This time last year I was going through a very difficult time in my life. As I continued to blog I started to notice how therapeutic my blog writing was. It was only when I was blogging that I stopped thinking about all the seemingly unbearable things that were going on in my life. Blogging became an escape for me and I am forever thankful. So, thank you to my faithful followers, all 5 of you ;). Here's to another year in the blogosphere!

a place to rest my feet

2010-10-15T22:26:00.000-05:00

I moved into my first house during my senior year of college (4 years ago, my how the time flies). After years of communal living I was so ready for a "home" life. I was looking forward to decorating and being able to make the place my own, well mine and my roommates ;). I quickly learned how expensive furniture was so my new place became more of hodgepodge of what me and my friends could get from home. For some reason I had the idea of using a chest as a coffee table. In my mind I imagined a red, distressed chest adorned with a full bouquet of sunflowers. Unfortunately I never found the right piece and I have been longing for a chest coffee table for the last four years.

A couple of week ago I made a pit stop at my favorite furniture store and saw a chest. Mind you I've been going to this place for the last year or so and I've gotten a few pieces here and there. I had seen a trunk on the website and asked her to keep an eye out for me and let me know when she found one. One year later I was writing a check for my trunk, yay! She had painted the chest white but since most of my furniture is turquoise, I asked her if she could paint and distress the chest turquoise, turns out for an additional fee of $10 I could have the chest painted any color I wanted.

The chest made it home today and I absolutely love it, it's perfect and it looks like what I've been envisioning for the last four years. Behold my new coffee table...

In honor of the fall season (my favorite mind you) I decided to do an autumnal arrangement in the corner of the chest. Here's an up close picture of the arrangement. The picture is of me and my roommates from our sophomore year of college, we had a full force photo shoot at the pumpkin patch (and don't worry, we also sent out Christmas cards using the picture below). I found this picture a few weeks ago and put it on my fridge, the flowers and pumpkin needed one more touch so I figured this picture would be the perfect finishing touch.

While I was snapping pictures I thought I'd take a picture of the living room for you all to see. Now you can envision where I'm blogging from, feet propped up and all!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

like a kid on christmas

2010-08-29T13:28:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I made a quick trip to Target for the essentials like face wash and cleaning supplies, all in all, a not so fun trip to Target. As always, I ventured to the housewares section, specifically the Giada housewares section. As I mentioned in this post, I absolutely love her new line of cookware and will often times just marvel at all her pretty, yet expensive utensils and cookware. To my surprise and delight her 10 piece stainless steel cookware set was $50 off, for a limited time only, of course. I have been eyeing this set for a few months and have even asked for it for Christmas, that being said I decided to bite the bullet and buy this beautiful set of pots and skillets. I was excited to say the least, so much so I decided have a mini photo shoot with my lovely new Giada cookware!

137 days

2010-08-16T17:14:00.002-05:00

I've been working on my memoir for close to three years now, I know, it's ridiculous. In my defense I have not been working on it for three consecutive years. I more so go through a week where I have so many great ideas and I feel inspired to write and then I leave my little word document in the corner to collect dust. You may even remember this post from last year when I took on the challenge to write 50,000 words in less than a month. Of course November came and went and now we're in the thick of summer and I still have a long way to go. As of today I have 21,585 words which is a whopping 28 pages. I have decided to set another goal for myself. By the end of the year, in exactly 137 days, I hope to have 50,000 words written and a finalized copy of my memoir. I don't really know what I'll do with it once it's finished, ideally I would love to publish it, but who knows what the future will bring. For now I will focus on cramming out some 25,000+ words, gosh that seems daunting.

peanut butter chocolaty goodness

2010-08-10T19:44:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon a fun little blog called the Sweetest Kitchen. Initially I found some fabulous cupcakes that I wanted to try. I had big plans this weekend to test them out but by Sunday I was officially over cooking and baking so I decided I'd put the cupcake project on hold. I was perusing the site the other day and found a recipe for homemade peanut butter cups. I don't know why I felt so compelled to try these but I was obviously compelled enough to make a quick trip to Walmart this afternoon and whip 'em up. Mine didn't turn at as good as the one's from this post, but they taste great. Next time I'm gonna try my best to make sure I cover up the peanut butter completely. Lucky for you I did another illustrative post to walk you through the recipe. My pictures are terrible, perhaps photography will be my next venture...hmmm.

Before getting started, line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.

Chop up 1 1/2 cups of bittersweet chocolate. Add 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter and a pinch of salt.

Melt chocolate, peanut butter and salt. Place 2 teaspoons melted chocolate in each liner. Place muffin tin in freezer and freeze for 20 minutes.

In a bowl, mix 3/4 cups natural peanut butter, 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 2 tablespoons crushed graham crackers and a pinch of salt.

Remove muffin tins from freezer and place 1 heaping tablespoon of peanut butter mix in each liner, freeze for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes place 2 teaspoons of the remaining melted chocolate in each liner, ensure that the peanut butter is completely covered. Place in freezer for up to an hour.

Enjoy

taco night

2010-08-08T19:35:00.003-05:00

Last night I ventured into the kitchen for my first cooking venture. My love for baking started toward the end of last year and since then I've wanted to do some more cooking, it just always seem like a much more daunting task than baking. Last night I had a friend over for a "tacos and margaritas" night. I called upon my mom for my great Aunt Jenny's yummy taco recipe. My family's tacos are a bit different from the norm, we include potatoes and carrots in our taco meat, weird, I know but I promise you it's good and it's what I've grown up with. I've always wanted to do an illustrative cooking post so I tried my best to capture each step of the process, my pictures are amateur at best, but you'll get the idea.

Chop up a handful of baby carrots and cut a couple of white potatoes in cubes. I think I went overboard on the potatoes.

Brown one pound of lean ground beef. Once it's complete, drain in a colander. Please notice my fabulous new Giada skillet from Target. PS, Santa I really want the 10 piece cookware set ;)

While the meat is browning boil the carrots and potatoes until soft.

Once the carrots and potatoes are soft, mix them with the browned meat.

Fry tortillas in a skillet with peanut oil, be cautious of the splatter.

Once the meat and tortillas are complete you can build your own taco with any garnishments you like. I opted to add cheese and lettuce with a side of beans.

bon appetit

cupcake lovin'

2010-08-01T20:43:00.002-05:00

I was scouring the net looking for pictures of cupcakes. As you all know by now I absolutely adore cupcakes and could probably look at pictures for hours, weird, I know. It's always amazing what people can do with these tiny little treats. My favorites are the ones with fondant icing. Check out some fabulous cakes I stumbled upon.

I know you started humming the theme song the minute you saw this.

Lego lovin'

All I can hear is that beeping...

The iPhone replica may be my favorite

After scrolling through pages and pages of of cupcake pictures (my goodness Google images is so much more user friendly) I stumbled upon this gem...

Are you kidding me?!? Quite possibly two of my most favorite things together, cupcakes and jewelry, and Tiffany's jewelry nonetheless. I would be a happy girl if this little concoction was presented to me on my engagement night, just an FYI to all potential suitors ;)

it's bananas

2010-08-01T11:36:00.000-05:00

I woke up bright and early this morning and immediately felt the urge to bake, strange, I know but I decided to go with it. I've had mushy, overripe bananas staring at me from the fruit bowl for a week now so I figured I'd whip up some banana nut bread. Since I had four overripe bananas I figured I'd test out a recipe from my friend Mary Grace -- chocolate chip banana nut cookies, yum.

After tossing and turning for a few minutes I pulled myself out of bed and headed to Walmart, ugh, I know I hate it too but they have cheap food. I got home and was ready to go. If you've read some of my previous posts about baking you'll notice I always have a few stumbling blocks before I can get to work. Today was no different. At the suggestion of my friend Marjorie I placed my bananas in the freezer last night, that way the nasty flys and gnats that keep getting into my house would stop feasting on them. I thought it was so genius. Well as I started to unpack my groceries I pulled open the freezer and found rock hard bananas. I don't know what I was thinking. I imagine I figured they'd be like vodka and just never freeze, no such luck. Also, while unpacking groceries I dropped the eggs on the floor, ugh. Luckily I was able to salvage enough to make my desserts. After a few frustrating minutes I was able to get everything together and start baking. First on the list, chocolate chip banana nut cookies, behold:

To shorten this post I suggest you visit MG's blog to get the ingredients and directions, please note, I substituted walnuts for pecans. You can choose any nut that suits your fancy. Her post is far more illustrative and fun to read. While the cookies baked I worked on whipping up my banana nut bread.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 ripe bananas
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tps. vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 tsp. salt
2 cups flour

The directions are fairly simple. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix all the ingredients in bowl in the order listed. Once everything has been mixed pour the batter into a greased and floured 9x5 inch loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.

A few posts ago I mentioned that I would try to post pictures of my new digs. I happened to snap a picture of my cute kitchen, check it out.

Hope you're having a relaxing Sunday afternoon!

fresh friands

2010-07-26T17:37:00.002-05:00

I came across this delicious recipe a few years ago. As most of you know, back in the day I wasn't quite as baking savvy as I am today. When I first tried this recipe (about four years ago) I forgot to add flour, you can only imagine my disappointment when I opened the oven to find flat friands staring back at me. If memory serves me correct the second batch went terribly wrong as well. I guess third time was the charm. I've made this sweet treat a few times in the past few years, it's a light and refreshing treat, perfect for the summertime. While I was at the grocery store, I figured I'd take a stab at it again, behold my yummy berry topped friands.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks butter, melted
4 egg whites, beaten until stiff
5 strawberries, thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees. Lightly grease muffin pans.
2. In a medium bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, flour, ground almonds and baking powder. Stir in melted butter. Gently fold in egg whites. Spoon batter into prepared muffin pans. Top batter with fruit.
3. Bake 18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from pans immediately.

bon appetit

some of my favorites

2010-07-25T19:16:00.001-05:00

I've lived in my apartment for close to 7 months and still haven't made an official post about my new digs. I had a grand idea of posting pictures of all my previous homes, apartments, and so forth but clearly that never came to fruition. That being the case I've decided to post some pictures of some of my favorite pieces in my apartment, the first being my dresser. As some of you know I made this dresser over last fall and in the months since I have absolutely fallen in love with it. It's directly in front of my bedroom door and it always makes me smile. Not only is it the first piece of furniture that I refurbished but all the pieces, pictures and trinkets on it seem to come together perfectly :)

close up of all my fun trinkets :)

Another piece I absolutely adore is my book shelf. I've wanted a book shelf for a while now. I have a lot of books that have been sitting in boxes and hutches just waiting to be put on display. My sweet parents were kind enough to buy be a cute book shelf for my birthday. I've had fun dressing it up with all my fun knickknacks. The bottom shelves have been a bit sparse for the last few months, I finally decided to do a little rearranging this afternoon and it now looks complete. There are few holes here and there, but for now it will do.

pardon the black cord...

Hopefully one day you'll get to see the entire apartment...stay tuned :)

louie turns one

2010-06-27T13:48:00.000-05:00

As most of you know I have a great memory for dates, I remember birthdays, major events, anniversaries, etc, etc. Well this time last year I bit the bullet and bought myself the monogrammed Louis Vuitton "speedy 30" handbag. A year prior to that I had been looking for the perfect purse to wear with everything. I had grown sick of wearing one purse for a few months until it wore out and I was forced to find another. I had started eyeing the Louis Vuittion purse around Christmas 2008 but there was no way I could make the big purchase, I wasn't even employed full time at that point. After doing my research and saving a few extra bucks, not to mention finding a job I made the big purchase last summer. Had I had the blog at the time I definitely would have blogged about this momentous occasion, lucky for my readers I have one now so I can blog about "his" birthday ;). Even a year later I absolutely love my bag and the money I doled out has been well worth it!

Sporting the new Louie

losing myself in lost

2010-06-12T19:02:00.000-05:00

The day after the epic series finale of Lost, I felt compelled to find out what at happened to the survivors of Oceanic flight 815. Perhaps it was my friend Mary Grace's tweet about the characters being stuck in purgatory or Marjorie's confusion over what I had actually happened, apparently she herself was still "lost" or confused as to what had happened to the survivors. Whatever it was I felt the need to figure it out for myself. During my lunch break I scoured the Internet trying to find out what had happened on that island. Just as Marjorie had said, there was no clear answer. No one could tell me if the survivors were in fact dead or alive. That night I took it upon myself to draw my own conclusions. I decided I would watch the first episode and see if I was hooked...turned out I was. For the past three weeks I've become enraptured with this show. This was a big step for me. During the shows six year run I constantly knocked it and told anyone that told me to watch that I didn't understand the appeal. I insisted that by now, they would have either been rescued or dead, little did I know that there were so many twists and turns on this captivating show. I am nearing the end of season two and look forward to what's to come, hopefully I will feel satisfied with the conclusion and watching the show will have been worth it.

mama knows

2010-06-07T17:43:00.000-05:00

For the last year I've developed a close relationship with three of my female coworkers, Marjorie, Carla and Teresa. When you spend what seems like half your life at work it's easy to become close with people. Marjorie, Carla and Teresa have become like mothers to me, so much so that I refer to them as "mama" from time to time. I'm fairly certain that I would be a mess at work if it weren't for them. Teresa always has utensils and every drug imaginable on hand, while Marjorie provides me with snacks and floss for my post lunch cleaning. And Carla always seems to have just enough change to afford me a Diet Coke or bag of M&M's when I'm starting to lose steam in the afternoon. It's been an interesting and difficult year for me and when you work ten hour days it can be difficult to hide your emotions for the entire time, these sweet women have been through it all with me. I've been able to tell them all my boy, friend issues and all the other drama girls have to go through and they're always there to listen and provide me a Kleenex if need be. Thought I would give a quick shout out to these fabulous women and let them know just how grateful I am for each of them!

My "Mama's" (from left to right): Teresa, Marjorie and Carla

yummy, yummy goodness

2010-06-03T17:42:00.000-05:00

For a little over a year now I've had the perfect work schedule. I work four ten hour days and get every Friday off, yes I've grown accustomed to having a three day weekend. Close to two months ago my company gave me the devastating news that we would be going back to a normal 5x8, Monday through Friday work schedule...heartbreaking. My new work schedule started this week. I'm not gonna lie it's been great getting off at three every day. I'm now able to work out, lounge, read, run errands and the list goes on, but now comes the devastating part. Rather than lounging and relaxing on a Thursday night, I now have to get myself ready for another work day. As a way to err, celebrate or rather help us ease into our schedule my co-workers and I have decided to have a breakfast potluck. I jumped at the opportunity to make yummy Bottle Tree Bakery blueberry muffins, they're to die for. Be sure to check out the recipe here. While baking I even got an opportunity to wear my cute new apron from Claire, check me out modeling the new apron in Cabo. Hope everyone enjoys my muffins as much as I do and I guess if they don't, there will be more left over for me :) Bon appetit!

cabo, cabo, cabo

2010-05-31T13:32:00.002-05:00

I just touched down in Los Ustados Unidos after a fun filled weekend in Cabo San Lucas. My dear friend Claire has a home there and was kind enough to invite me and my friends for a fourth time to enjoy the sunshine and beautiful scenery. Please take a look at my digs from the past four days.

One of the many gorgeous views

The gorgeous kitchen

Most of the weekend was spent lounging by the pool (yes, I got burned on the first day), sleeping, eating amazing food and watching lots of Lost. I had a wonderful time and I look forward to reuniting with my friends in a fabulous locale once again. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Me and my sweet friend Jill catching some rays

Dinner at La Palmilla

The restaurant was beautiful

Me and Dana

The girls

Playing at Casa Turquesa

The Ole Miss crew

Me and Jill

Pretty girls

an affair to remember

2010-05-20T22:47:00.008-05:00

Last Thursday my parents and I headed west for Ali and Greg's wedding. After close to six years of dating Ali and Greg finally made it official at a beautiful wedding in the Santa Barbara wine country.

After what seemed like days of traveling my parents and I finally made it to the sweet dutch town of Solvang. The town is complete with kitschy boutiques and plenty of wind mills, it looked like something out of Shrek. On Thursday night we met up with family and friends for a delicious dinner at Mattei's Tavern. On Friday morning my parents and I woke up bright and early (we were still on central time) and headed to Paula's Pancake house for a fabulous breakfast, complete with omelets and danish pancakes...yum! The rest of the day was spent exploring the small town, getting mani/pedis, and a faux glow for myself. I had tried to get a spray tan on the Wednesday before I left but the tanning salon had closed so I had to get sprayed on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately you can't shower for ten hours after you get sprayed so I looked a bit "dirty" on Friday night...I tried to tame down some of the pictures so I wouldn't look so orange.

Since it was a destination wedding Ali and Greg decided to have a low key picnic in the park for the rehearsal dinner and everyone that was in town was invited to come. And let me tell you, this was no ordinary picnic. The tables were adorned with mason jars, votives and bouquets of beautiful flowers and the chef was famous in the area for his superb barbecue.

On Saturday we ventured off to the wedding via bus. Ali and Greg were married in a small Episcopal church. Everyone looked gorgeous (unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the bride and groom). After the ceremony we were transported to the Sunstone Winery in Santa Ynez. Cocktail hour was followed by a three course sit down meal and topped off by a night of dancing. I wish I had more pictures to show you just how spectacular the wedding was but I will be sure to follow up with a link to their wedding pictures so you can have a glimpse of all the fabulousness. I wish Ali and Greg all the best!

The wedding invitations were beautiful. They were done by a woman in Mississippi...small world!

Mama and Bob in front of Paula's Pancake House

One of the many windmills that lined the streets...this is pre-faux glow

Me and Mama Bear

Bob and Aunt Michelle

Me and Aunt Michelle...you can totally tell I had gone a bit overboard on the spray tan

Me with my mom and her sisters, Aunt Michelle, Aunt Cheri and Mama

The Tomchecks

Bob and I taking a rest from shopping

Me and Mom at the wedding

The Carone sisters

Me, Mom and Bob

The beautiful cake

i'm alive

2010-05-17T19:38:00.000-05:00

To my five faithful followers, I'm alive and well! I can't believe I've gone over a month without blogging. Once I started to get the hang of blogging and found myself making posts every couple of weeks, I never figured I'd be writing a post entitled "I'm Alive", but I guess all bloggers experience writers block, or rather life. All the sudden I blinked and it was May! Anyways, I'm happy to tell you that I am alive and well and that I have plenty of posts yet to come. I've was in California this past weekend and I'll be traveling to Cabo next weekend, so expect lots of pictures. I best be going for now, I'm taking the GMAT this weekend so it's back to studying for me. I'll be back soon!!

mid-twenty something girl

2010-04-07T20:17:00.002-05:00

Last Friday I turned 25. Twenty-five, my goodness, still getting used that dreaded number. I've been dreading this birthday for a few years now and it's finally come and gone. Everyone keeps telling me I'm crazy to think that life is over or that I'm an old woman now that I'm 25, but it's not so much the number so much as my life in general. My 16 year old self expected so much for my 25 year old self. I imagined I would have a fabulous job in a BIG city and a doting boyfriend that would be proposing to me in my 25th year. Sadly, as last Friday rolled around I was 0 for 3. I had anticipated crying on my 25th birthday even years before it came to pass but as I pulled myself out of bed last Friday I vowed to not cry that day. Fast forward ten hours later and I was in tears as I got ready for dinner. I've been a mix of emotions lately so the 25th birthday was just icing on the cake. That night I celebrated with friends and family but quite honestly was so happy when it was over.

Birthdays can be difficult, this certainly wasn't the first birthday I cried on and I'm sure it won't be the last. I think as a general rule we tend to put a lot pressure on birthdays and have high expectations. Birthdays can be a lot like New Years Eve. You expect so much to come out of this grand night and usually you're let down. I think I had already set myself up by being terrified of turning 25, I don't think anything could have pulled me out of my funk on that day.

Now that the day and weekend have passed and 25 just becomes another age, I've been able to realize how incredibly blessed I am. The cards and gifts that poured in in the last week should have been enough to pull any scared 24 year old out of her funk. If anything this birthday showed me how loved I really am and how lucky I am to have such an amazing group of friends and family. Even though it took a few days to realize how loved I am, I want to thank all of you for making me feel so special on my BIG day, ya'll know who you are and I love you more than words can say!

My fabulous birthday cards on display

channeling my inner carrie bradshaw

2010-03-30T21:29:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I was at Forever 21 and I saw the most adorable pink skirt that instantly reminded me of the fabulous skirt Carrie Bradshaw wears in the opening credits of Sex and the City. Sound familiar? Here's Ms. Bradshaw working the white tutu.

{photo credit}

Since Friday I've been thinking about the skirt and how I would be able to pull it off...I've since come to the conclusion that I wouldn't and upon further research I realized the skirt doesn't look quite the same way I had remembered it, you can check it out here. I was doing a little perusing tonight and found this cute little number on Fred Flare. It looks almost identical to the Sex and the City original, perhaps I can channel my inner Carrie and work this fierce little tutu.

in full bloom

2010-03-28T20:43:00.000-05:00

Today my mom and I headed to the Mobile Festival of Flowers. The event is host to hundreds of displays and sponsors. Florist and designers from the all over the southeast come each year to make fabulous vignettes and host seminars. After walking through the vignettes you can navigate through the vendors and there's always a ton of fun finds. It was a perfect day to enjoy all the beautiful arrangements...here are some of the gorgeous displays we came across.

pretty roses...

Pretty flower dresses

My mom and I fell in love with this dress.

My mom bought me this sweet frame as an early birthday gift.

let them eat {cup}cakes

2010-03-23T20:39:00.002-05:00

If you haven't notice from some of my previous baking posts I absolutely adore cupcakes. I'll admit I hopped on the bandwagon when they became uber popular with the opening of bakeries like Sprinkles. There's something so whimsical and child like about cupcakes and I much prefer them to cakes. Sugarland's, Jennifer Nettles, was quoted saying she loved the efficiency of cupcakes and I remember thinking "that's so true", maybe that's why I love them so much. I was browsing the Martha Stewart website this afternoon and I saw this adorable cupcake cake courtesy of Crumbs Bake Shop, I immediately feel in love, how cute is it? My birthday's in a few weeks and I would be a happy girl if this delicacy was presented to me on my big day. Take some time to visit their website and see all the fun concoctions they've come up with.

{photo credit}

because i'm bored on a sunday afternoon

2010-03-21T12:50:00.004-05:00

What better way to kick boredom than to take pictures of yourself? Apple must know that some of its consumers can be a tad bit vain because Mr. Jobs had the genius idea of installing a camera in his computers and a fun little application called Photo Booth. All that to say I was a little bored this morning and thought I would indulge in some Photo Booth fun...

Hope you're having a relaxing Sunday afternoon!

going back home to the west coast

2010-03-18T19:12:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I headed back to the homeland for my cousin, Ali's bridal shower. While I was there I got to visit with my fabulous friends and family. I was most excited about getting to travel back with my mom. We rarely take take mother, daughter trips and I usually have to fly everywhere by myself so it was fun to have a travel buddy. On Friday night I got to see my sweet bestie, Mary Grace. We only got to see each other for a short time but we were able to celebrate her birthday with drinks and a slice of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. While celebrating we saw Simon from the Real Housewives of Orange County, I was excited to say the least! On Saturday afternoon my mom and I headed to the Ali's wedding shower where we were joined by 30 other fabulous guests. My mom comes from a huge Italian family so I got to see extended family. Having my family all together made me realize how incredibly blessed I am. The shower was gorgeous and Ali got a ton of great gifts. The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, eating and visiting with other family friends. Can't wait to go back for the wedding in two months!

Mary Grace eating her yummy cheesecake...make a wish!

The fabulous Mrs. Mary Grace

My mom and Aunt Michelle

Me and Mama Bear

Yummy red velvet cake...so pretty

The bride to be with the hostesses

Mom, Ali, Aunt Cheri and Aunt Michelle

The beautiful bride with her fabulous gifts

Me and Aunt Hope

Ali with her bridesmaids, Rodin and Chrissy

My crazy Italian family...love them!

for your viewing pleasure

2010-03-16T19:28:00.002-05:00

My sweet friend Grace and her husband have become blogger pros in the last few months. Her husband, Jean has read up on all the html codes to make her blog super fabulous. Mary Grace revamped her blog about a month ago and the first thing I noticed (besides the adorable layout) was the jumbo sized pictures she was posting. Well MG and Jean helped me out by widening my blog and updating the settings, thus I can display extra large pictures. I don't really have anything in particular to post right now, so I thought I'd post some of the my favorites from last year.

Me and my bestie Jill being silly in Austin.

Me and the fabulous Mary Grace herself, be sure to check out her blog.

Me and Lauren playing in NOLA.

it's getting hot in here

2010-03-15T19:54:00.003-05:00

I can feel it, summer is almost here. Spring has already sprung and down south we only have a small window of time where we can enjoy warm days and cool nights. I'm savoring every moment by riding with the windows down and sleeping with them open at night. Last night I slept with the fan turned low thinking it would be sufficient, but by one o'clock I had woken up in a hot sweat. I incoherently stumbled to the bathroom to take a cool shower and practically stripped the bed before diving back in. The culprit could perhaps be the fabulous plush blanket I've been sleeping with for the past few months. I spotted the cuddly blanket a few months ago at Target and impulsively bought it. I had no idea how much I would come to love it, I honestly look forward to crawling into bed because I know how comfy and cozy I'll feel wrapped up in the blanket. However, last night the blanket proved to be too much and I think it will be making it's way to the closet for the next few months. I'm gonna miss my cozy blanket, but I look forward to the winter months when I get to curl up in it again. You can grab your own here, I promise it will change your life!

reason #967 why i'm not domestic

2010-03-05T20:58:00.010-06:00

It's no surprise that I'm not the most domestic person. I don't cook, clean, decorate, and the list goes on and on. A few months ago I started to tap into my domestic self and have found that I love baking and I'm hoping it segues into further developing my culinary skills. And now that I've moved out I've taken a bigger interest in decorating the new digs. Today's project involved painting and reupholstering a cute little bench, seems simple enough, right? Well, just like most of my baking misadventures (you can read about a recent one here) the simple renovation project resulted in an injured finger and bloody fabric.

It all began with this simple bench, another hand me down from Mama Bear. You may see a trend here, well at least from the last post. A few years ago my mom went through what I like to call her "goth phase." Essentially every piece of white furniture in our home was painted black, which I was fine with at the time (I wasn't a big fan) but it's now proving to be a bit of a nuisance having to repaint all this furniture knowing it was once white...I guess it's all part of the renovating process, right?

Here's the bench. I didn't snap a picture before...this was taken while sanding.

Here's the upholstered seat...more black.

You can see the white peaking through, why mom, why?!?

The painting went off without a hitch, it was not until I started reupholstering when things started to get ugly. I should probably mention the bar stools I redid a few weeks ago were reupholstered by my mom so the bench was my first upholstering project. I started stapling the cushion and no staples were coming out. I did a few shots in the air and saw staples fly out, but again when I took the stapler to the cushion nothing came out. I fooled with it some more and sure enough I stapled my finger...ouch! I quickly found out that the stapler I was working with was a bit unusual, the staples come out from the back of the stapler, rather than at the head (if that makes any sense). Either way, I was shocked to look down and find a staple sticking out of my finger. Once I removed the staple I went searching for band aids, no luck, I had to wrap my hand in a napkin. After a few minutes it looked like the bleeding had stopped so I removed the napkin, I continued upholstered and then swiped my hand across the fabric, clearly it was still bleeding...

Once I realized I was still bleeding I fashioned a band aid out of a napkin and packing tape..worked like a charm. Once the bandage was on I continued along with upholstering the cushion, luckily I had bought extra fabric. Once the bench was dried it was ready for the cushion. Behold my precious new bench...totally worth the battle wound.

Love the sweet toile!

getting connected...almost

2010-03-05T15:59:00.003-06:00

I have been living without internet for close to a month and a half. The only time I've been able to access the internet is during my 30 minute breaks at work and on the weekends when I visit my parents and I think I may have ventured to Starbucks once. It's actually proved to be a bit of a detox for me. I used to be so dependent on the internet. Each night I would come home from work plop on the couch and pull up the internet. I would visit the same celebrity gossip sites and all my friends blogs. Without daily access to the internet I've gone without celebrity gossip and I've actually been able to enjoy my nights a little more. Rather than packing in my daily dose of Perez Hilton I have been able to read a book (sadly just one), write some letters, work out, etc.

After close to a month of detoxing I broke and visited my local AT&T store to get myself set up. I got my modem and router and was all ready to go when February 23 rolled around and my internet was turned on. After installing all my software and creating passwords I was disappointed to find out my internet didn't work...ugh. A week later I called AT&T to have them troubleshoot the issue...still no luck. They would now have to send an At&T guy out to my apartment to resolve the issue. Well today was the big day. The AT&T guy (I never got a name) came over and after 30 minutes the internet was up and running on his computer, mine, no such luck. The AT&T guy had done his job and left, it was now time to call the Apple store and figure out what was going on with my computer. The Apple CSR (Eric) kindly told me that he couldn't help me because my computer was out of warranty, foiled. So I'm now up and running via ethernet cord...so close, yet so far away. I will keep you posted when I finally am wire free. For now I'll just be happy to have internet access in my apartment :)

table for two

2010-02-21T12:23:00.007-06:00

My new apartment doesn't have a proper dining room so the only place to eat is at the counter. I've been on the lookout for cute bar stools, but I haven't found anything that I absolutely love and I flat out refuse to pay an arm and a leg for bar stools that will rarely be used (I confess, most of my meals are eaten in the living room). My mom suggested that I makeover these bar stools that have been hanging out in our garage for the last few years. I spray painted the chairs white and reupholstered the seat cushions with a pink toile print, behold the before and after.

Before...

and after.

A close up of the toile fabric.

Mix 'n match bar stools. Check out the pretty candlesticks my sweet Grace got as a house warming gift.

On another, note I couldn't resist showing off the new end table I bought yesterday from White House Antiques. White House Antiques is a cute little antique shop that I stumbled upon a few months ago. It's actually the same place I got this mirror and end table. The owner finds fabulous antiques and refurbishes them to give them a shabby chic look and everything is super affordable. This table was only $35!

a gift from mom

2010-02-20T13:27:00.005-06:00

For the 24th year of my life I was my mom's valentine. As a child my mom would always ask me if I would be her valentine and in my early years, when I absolutely adored mama and thought she hung the moon I would say "yes". As I reached my awkward teen years my enthusiasm began to wear off and I would just laugh and roll my eyes when mom asked me to be her valentine. The roles began to reverse as I got older and as valentine's day rolled around each year I would ask mama to be my valentine, to which she would always respond "yes". Even if there wasn't a man in my life I knew mama would always be there and quite honestly she was better at gift giving than any man I knew.

My mom treats every holiday like a mini birthday, meaning I usually get some kind of gift or happy. This year she treated me to this beautiful mirrored jewelry box from Urban Outfitters. I actually blogged about it around Christmas time, but Santa's elves must have forgotten to whip one up for me ;). Earlier this year when my mom and Bob took a trip to NOLA I asked her to look at Urban and see if they had the box, sure enough they didn't. Well my sneaky mom had kept the box well hidden and presented it to me on Valentine's day. I was excited to say the least!

My beautiful jewelry box.

My jewelry box in it's new home.

valentine's sweets

2010-02-14T15:28:00.005-06:00

After a fabulous weekend in San Diego I ventured back into the kitchen at apt 1023 and gave it some more tlc. Baking is proving to be a very expensive venture so I may take the next few weekends off, or at least keep things a bit more simple. Per the request of a co-worker I made yummy carrot cake cookies and in honor of Valentine's Day I made these delicate raspberry-almond financiers, both courtesy of Martha. Hoping you and yours have a fabulous Valentine's Day, xoxo!

sunny san diego

2010-02-12T11:15:00.018-06:00

As a disclaimer I should probably tell you I'm about to bombard you with a ridiculous amount of pictures, but I can't help myself :) Last week I headed to beautiful, sunny San Diego to visit an old high school friend. You can check out my high school years here. I flew out Thursday morning and was greeted by my sweet Mary Grace. She made the hour and half long journey from Fullerton to visit and play with me in SD. We dined, shopped and landed on Coronado Island, famous for the gorgeous Hotel Del Coronado.

Grace and I mustered up the courage to ask someone to take our picture. Here we are in front of the Hotel Del.

That night MG dropped me off to play with Megan. Megan and I hadn't seen each other in six years and it was like nothing had changed. We picked up right from where we left off and immediately got to catch up on each other's lives. Thursday night's activities consisted of In-N-Out for dinner and lots of TV. Friday we ventured into La Jolla and went down to the beach. It was so cold, clearly we weren't dressed properly. I'm thinking the next time I visit will be during the summer so that I can fully enjoy the beautiful San Diego beaches.

Friday night, we kept things low key and went out for sushi at Zen 5...everything was delicious. Meg's fiance, Eric and roommate, Cory joined.

Cory and Eric

The happy couple. Help them win $100,000 toward their wedding by voting here.

Reunited and it feels so good!

Me with the boys

Saturday morning proved to be a bit rough for me :-/ I think I may have had too much fun out in SD. We laid in bed for the better half of the day, but managed to pull it together for a hour to get drinks and appetizers at Firehouse. That night I got to see my dear friend, Alex, another bestie from high school. We went out for sushi again to celebrate my return to the homeland and Alex's promotion!

Me and the girls...we've come a long way

Out at Bar West

What up gansta'

Things started early Sunday morning. We dragged ourselves to the Sneak Joint for champagne brunch, where I got to meet more of Megan and Eric's friends. We went to a few other bars but eventually ended up back at the house to watch the Superbowl, where if you haven't heard the Saints beat the Colts, 31-17...WHO DAT!

Monday morning I bid farewell and headed back to the dirty, dirty. This is me and Meg's sweet dog, Sir.

Looking forward to the next trip to SD, hopefully I can make it out before another six years pass!

more winter

2010-02-02T12:16:00.005-06:00

So sweet little Punxsutawney Phil made his yearly debut today. The little marmot saw his shadow once again, which means six more weeks of winter...no fun. It doesn't really make sense does it? If he sees his shadow doesn't that mean it's sunny out so we should have six additional weeks of spring? I think so, but apparently there's a reason to this little critter's antics. Groundhogs would come out of their burrow toward the end of winter and if they saw their shadow they would retreat back into their burrow. I'm just gonna say that groundhogs aren't the most intelligent creatures but come February 2 we rely on them for our winter forecast. Some quick research informed me that Phil has seen his shadow 99 times and hasn't seen it only 15 times and he's only been accurate 39% of the time, so you may want to take his forecast with a grain of salt.

Once I had the stats down I was intrigued to find out more about this crazy holiday. Every February 2 Phil is pulled from a "ceremonial tree stump" in Gobbler's Knob and the rest of his days are spent in an enclosure in the Punxsutawney Library with his wife Phyllis. Yes, this little guy has found true love with another little marmot. And apparently there's other famous groundhogs around the U.S. There's Staten Island Chuck and General Beauregard Lee of the ATL, just to name a few.

Here's to you Phil on your big day, looking forward to seeing you next year! And next year please bring more spring :)

sweet treats

2010-01-31T18:30:00.006-06:00

I gave my new kitchen a little love this afternoon and whipped up two delicious treats. I broke in the new kitchen last week by making yummy peanut and jelly bars and cheesecake cupcakes. This weekend I kept things a bit simpler and made peanut butter cookies and brownie cupcakes, both courtesy of Martha Stewart. I've been using my parents and coworkers as guinea pigs with all my concoctions. Last week's treats turned out to be a hit so I'm hoping these will go over just as well!

My cute new kitchen. I'm still getting settled so stay tuned for a full post about my new digs...

I couldn't resist taking this picture. I love how some bloggers take pictures of the entire baking/cooking process. Unfortunately I don't have someone there to take pictures and it becomes difficult to take pictures while baking, but this just looked like a heart attack waiting to happen...these are the makings for yummy, yummy goodness :)

Yummy Valentines cupcakes, love the sweet heart on the top.

this chick

2010-01-30T12:10:00.008-06:00

This is me and my friend Megan McAlister. We met in 6th grade and we were instantly inseparable. We remained best friends all throughout high school. Me, Megan and our friend Alex Crotin were the three musketeers throughout junior high and high school. We all went our separate ways for college. During our freshman year we stayed in touch but over time our conversations became less frequent and I had no idea what was going on in either of their lives. It's funny how this person that was a huge part of your life for so long suddenly becomes a mere acquaintance. Last spring Megan called me out of the blue (this was a HUGE deal). For so long I had always been the one that followed up with Megan so to actually get a call from her meant a lot. Over the course of the last nine months we've managed to keep in touch and it's been so great catching up and being a part of her life again. I will be flying to sunny San Diego next week to visit this sweet girl. We haven't seen each in six years, so it's gonna be crazy to finally reunite! The great thing is I feel like we're gonna pick up right from where we left off when we were only 18 (WOW!). Here's some pictures of me and Meg when were just babies.

Our senior year our Homecoming theme was decades. The seniors were 70s so we got wear these fabulous dresses and go-go boots!

Megan and I circa 1997. I don't know what I'm doing with my head in this picture but Megan looks so young that I couldn't resist posting.

Alex and I being goofy at the Rose Parade. Alex is coming down to SD to visit while I'm there...can't wait!

Me, Alex and Meg on the first day of school -- senior year.

Oh, and by the way I'll get to see this chick while I'm there! My sweet Mary Grace will be picking me up from the airport on Thursday and we'll have the whole day to play in SD...can't wait!

overhaul

2010-01-24T13:33:00.009-06:00

My mom got this nightstand close to 15 years ago and it has certainly seen better days. The first version was painted bright pinks and purples and each drawer had a different pattern, like polka dots and flowers. It sounds a bit juvenile but at the time I remember thinking it was so cute. Well some time in the course of 15 years my mom decided to paint it white and mosaic the top. She never really completed the project and I think at one point she must have decided to take the mosaic tiles off. That project must have gone by the wayside and the nightstand ended up spending the better half of the last decade collecting dust in the garage. Well as a new homeowner, rather apartment lessee I am in need of lots a furniture and more specifically a nightstand. Luckily I saw lots of potential in this little guy, otherwise I don't think I couldn't have endured the hours of sanding that were bound to follow. Behold the before, it was covered in dirt and dust and had tape on the front and back, I kept wondering where that tape had come from...

The mosaic rose mom had attempted, thank goodness the whole top wasn't mosaiced.

2+ hours later my arms were so sore, I'm still sore today...goes to show you how out of shape I am.

The finished product in my new apartment. I got cute glass pink hardware from Hobby Lobby.

Full length shot with my cute window pane.

like mother, like daughter

2010-01-22T11:42:00.009-06:00

People have always told me I look just like my mom. I don't see it and think these people are crazy. And I always insist that if you saw my father you'd be singing a different tune. My dad and I share the same nose and large forehead, both of which I hate. Aside from that my coloring is completely different from my mom's. I'm fair skinned with blonde hair and green eyes, while she has olive skin, brunette hair and brown eyes. Clearly I got all recessive genes. Well a few years ago my mom and I stumbled across these two pictures. The one of me is from pre-school and the of mama is from kindergarten. We look almost identical, it's crazy, especially with the awkward kid smile, it's just too much! I swear if you took my hair and put it on mom's you wouldn't know the difference. So clearly we do have some things in common :)

finally...

2010-01-21T20:43:00.010-06:00

A few months ago I wrote about this dresser. This dresser was my mom's growing up and it used to have a terrible green finish, but my sweet Grandpa stained it for my mom and gave it to her as a house warming gift. Well Mama was kind enough to keep the tradition alive and give it to me for my own home. Since everything in my room is white, I figure I would repaint the dresser white and distress it. I consulted my sweet friend Mary Grace and she was kind enough to give me a few tips and even suggested a paint color (Behr, creamy white). I tackled the project over the Thanksgiving break and recruited my step-dad, Bob. Here I am outfitted in my cool gloves and goggles. We had to strip the dresser down so I had to be properly outfitted, but I'm fairly certain I didn't need those goggles (thanks Bob).

I finished painting the dresser over the Thanksgiving break, but it took a bit longer finding the right hardware. I initially wanted to get knobs from Anthropologie, but that proved to be entirely too expensive. I ended up buying hardware from an Etsy shop I stumbled upon, but there was a bit of an ordeal there too. All that to say it took two months to complete the project but I am absolutely in love with my new dresser.

Here's the back of the dresser and the remnants of the hideous green paint. My Grandpa wrote a sweet note to my mom that reads DAD To: Belinda, Finished 10/20/80, with love, Michael J. Carone. My grandfather passed away close to 20 years ago, so it's definitely nice to have a little piece of him with me :)

Here's the before...

And, Ta-dah, behold the finished product. It looks like a completely new piece, I love it!

Here's the full picture with all my fun pictures and keepsakes.

And up close, that sweet pitcher is supposed to be filled with flowers...so just imagine some sunflowers in there. And that adorable print is from sweet friend, Mary Grace's Etsy shop.

Can't wait to get started on my next piece, stay tuned...

inspire me

2010-01-10T13:22:00.005-06:00

I'm excited to say that I have signed a lease and will be renting an apartment! I've been living with my parents for the last year and a half and I am so ready to go. I am currently in the process of moving things but I hope to fully moved in by next weekend (fingers crossed). Right now I'm most excited about decorating. My sweet parents will be bidding me adieu with a good amount a furniture. For the most part my bedroom will be fabulous if I do say so myself. I have been given my entire bedroom set so everything in the bedroom will stay as is. I will be focusing most of my energies on the living room. I am getting a great couch and love seat, but they will definitely need to be reupholstered. Having been raised by a mother that loves shabby chic it has only been natural that I too love shabby chic homes so I was smitten when I found this fabulous mirror and night stand.

I got these adorable candlesticks too for only $8.

I figured that I would repaint the pieces white some time in the future but the turquoise color has grown on me and I've decided to use these pieces/color as an inspiration for my living room. My sweet and talented friend Grace has gotten into creating inspiration boards so I asked her to design one for me so I can envision my apartment's potential. Here's the great board she created for me. You can check out her full post about it here.

When I saw what she had put together I was excited to say the least. It will certainly take some time to acquire everything I want but I'm excited to start searching for pieces and fabrics to make this board a reality. Stay tuned as I get myself moved in and my new digs start to come together.

top sites

2010-01-08T17:24:00.003-06:00

For today's Top 5 the girls and I are listing the Top 5 websites we visit daily. Sadly, the bulk of mine are celebrity gossip websites since I'm pretty much obsessed with celebrity pop culture, it's really quite unhealthy.

1. Twitter: This time last year I was still completely confused about Twitter. I honestly had no idea how it worked and didn't really get the point. Fast forward one year and I've become obsessed. Literally, just about every random thought that comes into mind will be translated into 140 characters. You can check me out here.

2. Perez Hilton: So I can't really stand Perez Hilton but I've got to admit he's the only celebrity blogger that provides the most posts/information every day. I was introduced to this site by my friend Margie a few years ago and I've been obsessed ever since. It's probably the first site I visit everyday when I first open my computer.

3. Texts from Last Night: This is a recent discovery. I first saw them on Twitter and then navigated my way to the site. This site is hilarious and I can't help but to laugh out loud when I read the ridiculous messages some people send. I once tried to send my own crazy texts but I was denied...sad.

4. Evil Beet Gossip: When I started getting sick of Perez about a year ago I started venturing into other celebrity gossip blogs. It's really not great and I can't really stand the administrator buts it's always nice to see new pictures and stories that Perez doesn't always catch up. I'll probably take it off my bookmark bar soon just because I really don't like the administrator, she seems annoying. But it's one of those things that since it's there I can't help but to visit the site, it's become apart of my routine.

5. Dlisted: This is by far my favorite celebrity blog because the writer is hilarious. If anything, I visit because of his funny posts. He has a wonderful way of writing about celebrities ridiculous antics and I can't help but to laugh when I visit his site.

music monday

2010-01-04T19:23:00.003-06:00

Today my girls and I are mixing things up. Must Have Monday is being revamped for today to Music Monday...I guess we could all it Must Have Music. I love music and I love finding new tunes. My current fave is "Song for No One" by Miike Snow. I came across this fun jam while watching the Jersey Shore. Yes, I watch the Jersey shore and I think you should too because it is AMAZING!! Anyways, I was watching it the other day and heard this song...thanks to my handy dandy iPhone and the amazing Shazam app I was able to identify the song. I love it!! Currently listening to it on repeat!

new year, new me

2010-01-01T13:35:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year! Can't believe it's 2010...crazy! For today's Top 5 my friends and I will be blogging about our Top 5 New Year's Resolutions!

1. Cut back on Diet Coke: I'm a Diet Coke addict. I drink one or more cans a day. It's not even for the caffeine so much as I just love the taste of Diet Coke. As everyone knows carbonated drinks are terrible and I would love to quit Diet Coke for good. I was able to cut it out completely a few years ago and actually lasted five months. I would love to test myself again and see if I could actually kick my habit. I've tried to go cold turkey and it never seems to work, so I'm gonna try tapering off and see how it goes.

2. More exercise: I hate exercising, I can never seem to get motivated enough and I just can't seem to get into it. Recently I have started yoga and I feel like I finally have an outlet. Classes definitely work better for me and it's almost as if they hold me accountable. I also took my first spin class earlier this week, so hopefully that is something else I can add to my workout schedule.

3. Cooking: I never had any desire to cook until like last month and all the sudden I'm looking at recipes and browsing through cook books at Barnes and Noble...so strange for me, but I'm going with it. My sweet step-dad noticed that I was starting to cook/bake so he went out on his own and bought me my very first cook book. I've already dog-eared the recipes I want to try...stay tuned.

4. Budget: I am terrible at saving money. I actually have a good bit of money in savings but I still am never able to really cut back. For the most part if I see something I want I will always buy it, sure it makes for a great wardrobe but an empty wallet. I would really love to to just say "no" and not always indulge.

5. Eat Healthier: This one kind of ties in with cutting back on Diet Coke. I'll admit it I'm total junk food and fast food junkie. The last few months I've been trying to cut back on fast food (not so much junk food) and it's something I'd like to stick to. Fast food is so gross and expensive for that matter. As I start to cook more I hope I will be encouraged to eat better as well.

Hoping you have a blessed 2010!

shoes in need of a party

2009-12-28T16:11:00.003-06:00

Since New Years is right around the corner I thought I would write about these beauties for Must Have Monday. Just take a minute to take in their beauty because they are FABULOUS. I've been eyeing these shoes for months now, knowing full well I would never be able to purchase them...they're $625. Well Nordstrom is having their Half-Yearly Sale so you can get them for a steal at $414.90...ha, yeah right. If I had a NYE party to attend and made lots o' money I would be taking these bad boys out on the town, because these shoes deserve a fabulous party. Hey a girl can dream.

Hope everyone can ring in the New Year without breaking the bank!

merry memories

2009-12-25T14:40:00.009-06:00

Merry Christmas! I hope you are all enjoying this lovely holiday with your loved ones. In our final Christmas themed Top 5 Friday my dear friends and I will be listing our top 5 Christmas memories.

1. I have plenty of wonderful Christmas memories. But the one that stands out the most was my 8th or 9th Christmas. It was during that time I was obsessed with Madonna. I was wearing an over sized Madonna tee with a pink fuzzy robe and I had pink curlers in my hair. I remember being so excited that morning and taking in all the presents that were displayed in front of the tree. My parents would always create a beautiful display of Santa's toys and as a child I was always overwhelmed by the number of toys that lay out in front of me. The only toy I remember from that Christmas was my Cabbage Patch doll, Georgette. She had a an adorable purple onesie and a small tuft of blonde hair at the crown of her head. I held on to that doll for the rest of the day. There's even pictures of me at my aunt's house with Georgette in tow.

2. My junior year of college I lived in my sorority house with my dear friend Virginia. That Christmas we went all out in our little room. We strung white lights along the edges of the ceiling. We then cut out dozens of snowflakes and hung them from fishing wire from the ceiling. It was like a peaceful little winter wonderland.

3. My cousin Lauren and I would often put on cute little shows for our family friends. One year we choreographed an entire routine to the song "'Tis Better to Give than Receive," complete with long purple ribbons (think ribbon dancer). We dressed up as little mice in black leggings and black sweatshirts, complete with tails and ears and did a full routine in the living room.

4. During my sophomore year of college my sweet roommates went all out. We hung white lights all over the living room, bought our very own Christmas tree from Home Depot and we even had our own Christmas party. We treated our Christmas party like Christmas Eve and the next day was like a mock Christmas day. We woke up early the next morning and exchanged gifts, Virginia even read the story of Jesus' birth from Luke. It was such a fun way to get us ready for the Christmas season.

5. Each year my family and I did the same thing for Christmas. Our traditions rarely changed so it was extremely difficult when we moved to Daphne and had to spend our first Christmas apart from our extended family, things were completely different, I don't even have any memories from that first Christmas in Daphne. That second Christmas was fabulous. My aunt Cheri and her family came to spend a week with us. As an only child I always wished for a bustling house full of family during the holidays. My dream had come true that Christmas. The house was filled with family, I was sharing a bed with my cousin Ali and Danny was on the floor. This was during the time Napoleon Dynamite came out and I distinctly remember laying in the dark trying to go to sleep as Danny quoted the movie, I was laughing so hard. That week leading up to Christmas was spent shopping, baking, putting puzzles together and even making homemade ice cream. We were having new traditions, but all that mattered was that we were with our loved ones...it made for a most memorable Christmas.

Here's to hoping you can create your own Christmas memories this season and for seasons to come. Hoping you have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!

misadventures of a twenty-something cook

2009-12-22T17:07:00.010-06:00

Yesterday I was rather ambitious. In honor of my mom's birthday I tackled three desserts, a salad, and ravioli. Everything turned out, but of course there were a few missteps along the way. As I'm sure you've gathered, I'm not the best cook and I choose to stay far away from the kitchen, so 5 dishes/desserts in one day is quite an undertaking for little ole me. I even felt out of place at the grocery store, I couldn't find anything...I must have gone up and down those aisles a dozen times. Once I got home I put all the ingredients on the counter (I learned a couple of years ago that ingredients should be at room temp) and suited up in my apron. Things got messy pretty quickly.

First dessert on the list, mini strawberry cheesecakes. I figured, if nothing else we would have mini cakes for my mom's birthday. My dear friends, Jill and Mary Grace gave me a fabulous cupcake cookbook for my 22nd birthday. I've flipped through it a dozen times and admired all the beautiful cupcakes, but haven't been brave enough to try any. These have always sounded delicious, so I thought what the heck. In true undomestic fashion, I didn't read my directions beforehand. Five minutes into my cooking adventure, I realized the cheesecakes have to set and cool overnight, duh, they're cheesecakes! Moving on, I was flipping through Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook and thought the peanut butter whoopie pies looked delicious. Again, they too have to be refrigerated...strike two. Thank goodness I had bought ingredients for some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (courtesy of Margie Lott), that I was gonna make later this week...but I needed some kind of dessert for dinner. I figured I could put a candle in the cookie?!? About thirty minutes into my cooking adventure I had confused baking soda with baking powder and I had forgotten buttermilk, strike three and four. Once I got my bearings I certainly got into the rhythm of things and was well on my way to making a fantastic trio of desserts...yum.

Chocolate cookies ready to be iced with yummy peanut butter filling

Me with my peanut butter filler. It was delicious, I couldn't stop sneaking bites of it.

Yummy whoopie pies (still refrigerating) and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, Margie you came through in the clutch.

Strawberry cheesecake cupcakes. I just tasted one and they are delicious. Can't wait to give mom a proper cake.

After all that baking I had to tackle dinner. On the menu, ravioli with apples and walnuts and a spinach salad with a delicious balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I don't have any pictures of dinner, I was pretty exhausted after all that cooking. Here's to hoping Mama had a wonderful birthday!

"i gasped, i actually gasped"

2009-12-21T09:40:00.006-06:00

Happy Monday! And what a wonderful Monday it is. It is 9:45 and I am currently lounging in bed with Ms. Maddie and Ellie because I have two weeks, yes two weeks off work! Seriously don't know what I'm gonna do with myself...I imagine lots of sleeping. So I completely dropped the ball last Monday. I was getting ready for work Tuesday morning and a little light went off in my head, ding, I had forgotten about Must Have Monday...oh well, that's life. But I'm back this week with another pink item. Did I mention I liked pink? I was baking brownies for Thanksgiving and our handheld mixer kept dying on me, it kept going in and out...I'm thinking it may be on its last leg. So I did some research and found that Kitchenaid makes an adorable handheld pink mixer. So Santa if you're doing any last minute shopping, don't forget me ;). Of course I would love to have the Kitchenaid stand mixer, duh, but it's like $299+ and I can guarantee you I have not been that good this year. But I was flipping through Google images and found this beauty. I gasped, I actually gasped and had to hold my hand against my mouth. A hot pink Kitchenaid mixer, are you kidding me? It's adorable, behold...

Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday. Also wanted to mention that it's my mom's birthday today so I'll be busy in the kitchen all afternoon. Happy Birthday Mama Bear!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

2009-12-20T18:40:00.007-06:00

I've been promising pictures of my Christmas tree for a few weeks now. In all honesty we finished decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving but we still haven't put the star on top. The tree is so tall that the only way to reach the top is to take out the ladder. I've been waiting and waiting for my step-dad to put the star on, but we're four days away from Christmas and he still hasn't put it on, so I figured I would just take some pictures so I could show y'all. Sadly, I don't think the star will ever make...oh well.

The fireplace. We have three nosy little terriers so unfortunately we can't put our presents under the tree. Our fireplace serves as the place for presents during the holidays.

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

This is a beautiful wreath my mom made a few years back. It took a lot of hot glue and a ridiculous amount of ornaments, I don't know how we had any left to decorate our tree.

Not only does our tree not have a star but it also looks totally ghetto. The top and bottom half have different colored lights and it's leaning, I promise it looks better in person.

So my photography skills aren't as up to par as my sweet Cleezie, feel free to ignore the flash in the mirror. This is a fun little project my mom took on.

My own little Christmas corner in my room.

honestly jillian

2009-12-19T11:34:00.006-06:00

My friend, Alison Hogan, who's now Alison Ross (my goodness where does the time go?!?) presented me with the "Honest Scrap" blog award. Alison and I met during our freshman year of college on the 10th floor in Martin Hall...I think our hall will go down in history for the '03-'04 school year, or I'd like to think so. Alison and I haven't spoken in ages but she's such a sweet girl and I've enjoyed keeping up with her via her blog. Alison, thank you for this fun award, I hope you are doing well!!

Rules for the award:

1. Must thank the person who gave you the award and list their blog and link it.

2. Share "10 honest things" about yourself.

3. Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encourage you.

4. Tell those 7 people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines receiving the award.

Honestly, I've tried to dig deep on this one, so here goes it...

1. It's funny how the things we grow up watching our parents do one day become our own quirky habits. My mom has always been a greeting card guru. The woman could spend hours in Papyrus looking for the perfect card and she tends to always get the $5.00+ cards. As I've gotten older I've found that my own visits to Hallmark and Papyrus have become longer. It can be exhausting looking for just the right card, because mark my words I will leave the store if I cannot find just the right card...it's really a sickness.

2. I have a love, hate relationship with Britney Spears. I remember when she first came on the scene in '98ish and I remember thinking she was so pretty and I'm sure I was a bit envious. Every guy in junior high thought she was so hot, us little tweens didn't quite compare. I always insisted that I never really liked her but I owned every CD and knew all the words to every song. And then she went crazy and that's when the hate started to set in. I know she didn't really have childhood, blah, blah, blah, but here was grown woman who couldn't seem to get her act together. And then came the big comeback, I've been a believer ever since! Circus was a hit and our girl is back! I'm so sad I couldn't see her in concert, but I'll be there with bells on when she goes on tour again. Welcome back B. Spears!

3. I've never really liked the Olympics. I remember hating how the games would cut into my soaps, when I used to watch them. I guess since I'm being honest, I should admit I was a Passions fan. Anyways, all that changed during summer '08 when the Summer Olympics went to Beijing. I have never felt so patriotic. I was jumping up and down when Michael Phelps got his 8th gold medal and Nastia Lukin took home the all over medal in gymnastics. Every night I would come home from work and watch the Olympics with my step-dad, I like to joke with him that "We'll always have Beijing."

4. One of my biggest regrets was not trying out for cheer leading. I honestly feel like I missed my calling. During 8th grade I even received an award for "Most Likely to be a Cheerleader," it's almost like this inherent thing in me that I never tapped into. But here's how the story goes. At my high school freshman weren't allowed to be on the squad, so I felt a bit deflated, but I knew I would certainly try out my sophomore year. Well sophomores could only be on the JV team and I thought I would spare my mom all the money that year and just wait 'til junior year when I could actually cheer at the BIG games. Well I think I went to one clinic my junior year and my lack of confidence made me chicken out. It's too bad, I think I could have been great.

5. I'm a cheeseburger girl. So long as a restaurant has cheeseburgers and fries, I'm good. I'm fairly certain I could live off of cheeseburgers, fries and a Diet Coke for the rest of my life.

6. I'm obsessed with Westies, I mean obsessed. I don't really know how the obsession started but I'm just smitten when it comes to those little white dogs with there adorable fluffy faces, I melt. I mean it's so bad, that I will stop in my tracks and just smile and admire them when I see one walking by...and now I sound like a creep. Fortunately, I have two westies of my own, Max and Ellie and Maddie, who's half-westie, half-scottie. I'm really just a big terrier fan in general.

7. I have a great memory when it comes to numbers, like it's really weird. It's more so a memory for dates, like birthdays, major events. For instance I'm fairly certain Alison Ross' birthday is December 17, and I haven't really spoken to the girl in like 6 years...and I'm not Facebook. For all you Facebook people, please verify this for me and let me know if I'm correct, I'm kind of dying to know. And Alison, if I'm correct Happy Belated Birthday!!

8. I cried when I turned 13, yes I cried. I remember thinking I was leaving my entire childhood behind because suddenly the number in my age had the word 'teen' attached to it. This goes hand in hand with the fact that I'm an extremely emotional, dramatic, irrational person at times. I'm turning 25 in four months, so I'm fairly certain I'll be crying then too...I'll keep you posted.

9. My car looks more like my closet. I could probably dress myself with the things in my car. The car is littered with practically every pair of shoes I own, a few pants, tops and a couple of coats. I have the next two weeks off so I'm hoping to clean it out, but it's inevitable that it will be a place for my wardrobe in a few short months.

10. I'm deathly afraid of flying. I mean I've been flying since I was probably five, so it's not because it's new to me, I just hate the lack of control and the turbulence, whew...forget it. The fear has become a lot worse over the last few years. I hope to one day travel to Europe but I know full well I will have to be heavily sedated before I make that trip. I like to think that I would never let my fear of flying get in the way of my travels, I only hope I'll be saying that when I'm 50.

Now that I've revealed a few things about myself, I would like to pass this award on to some of my dear blogging buddies, make me proud ladies...

candles burning low...

2009-12-18T11:12:00.006-06:00

"Lots of Mistletoe..." That little diddy should clue you in to what today's Top 5 Friday will bring. If you haven't guessed, my dear friends and I have decided to list our Top 10 (yes, 10) Favorite Christmas songs. There's so many great Christmas songs out there, we didn't want to cut ourselves short, so we're doing our first expanded edition of Top 5 Fridays.

10. O Holy Night by Celine Dion: My mom was a HUGE Celine Dion fan during the height of her fame. So it was only natural that I too became a Celine Dion fan, even though I'm sure my tween self didn't want to admit it at the time. I love Celine's version of O Holy Night off of her Christmas album.

9. Baby, It's Cold Outside by Dean Martin: The Elf version with Zooey Deschanel is cute too. I don't have much to say about this one, other than the fact that it's an adorable little Christmas tune.

8. The Christmas Waltz (Awayteam Remix) by Nancy Wilson: This is the fun remixed version of the song off the Merry Mixmas album. Mary Grace introduced me to these fun remixed Christmas songs a few years back and they're irresistible, a fun spin on all the old classics. I love the Frank Sinatra version too.

7. (Everybody's Waitin') for the Man with the Bag (Thunderball Mix) by Kay Starr: Another Merry Mixmas remix. This is a fun an upbeat version of an old classic. And don't worry I have my own little dance moves to accompany the song, it's a full force party in my car during the holiday season.

6. Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song) by Amy Grant: I loved this album as a kid. In fact I loved Amy Grant as a kid, how can you not love "Baby, baby"? I don't know why I liked this particular song, but I just remember listening to it on repeat when I was little. And unfortunately Mary Grace had to listen to it on repeat during our sophomore year. MG and I were roommates and our rooms were right by each other. I would blast this album during those two short weeks before we went home for Christmas break, and poor MG had to bear the brunt.

5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland: What a beautiful version of this song. I can't help but to tear up when I hear this song. I honestly feel like Clark Griswold when he watches all the old Christmas movies up in the attic and starts tearing up. Christmas is a bit bittersweet for me. Of course I get to spend time with family and friends, but as you get older traditions change and not everyone can always make it to be the family, so it's a bit emotional when you reminisce about the good ole days.

4. Santa Baby by Calista Flockhart: I know there's a lot of versions of this song, but I particularly like the Ally McBeal version. I know, weird. But at the height of it's fame my mom bought the Ally McBeal Christmas album and to my surprise Calista Flockhart did and adorable rendition of "Santa Baby." It's still my favorite version to this day, and it's pretty hard to track down. And how can you resist this song? It's so cute and sexy, I hope to prance around in a cute Santa outfit for my husband one day while Santa Baby plays in the background...have I revealed too much?

3. Grown Up Christmas List by Amy Grant: Another Amy Grant favorite. This and "Breath of Heaven" were the two most played songs off of that album. Again, I don't know why I was drawn to this song as a child, but I just loved it and still love it to this day.

2. All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey: I think Mariah Carey's Christmas CD came out in '93ish and my eight year old self was obsessed. I remember thinking she looked so pretty in her cute little Santa dress with her Jack Russell in the snow...that's what I wanted to look like when I was grown up. This song is definitely still on repeat during the Christmas season, even 15+ years later.

1. What Christmas Means to Me by Stevie Wonder: I became obsessed with this song during my sophomore year of college. It's a completely infectious tune and you can't help but smile and dance when you hear it. This song makes it on every Christmas mix that I make, it's by far my most favorite Christmas song. And I'm not gonna lie, this occasionally will come on the shuffle during the off season, and I'll definitely still jam to it (not quite the same when it's 90+ degrees out, but still infectious).

And before I sign off, I must mention a little song that I couldn't squeeze onto the list. When I was working at Pottery Barn a few years ago there was one song in particular that seemed to play all the time, "Susie Snowflake" by Rosemary Clooney. It got to the point where I would be at home singing "Here comes Susie Snowflake dressed in snow white gown, tap, tap, tapping on your window pane to tell you she's in town." Oh yes, I remember the lyrics. The song would drive me up the wall, but I can't help but to smile when I think of it today. So here's to hoping you soak up all the goodness that is Christmas music in this last week before the big day!

christmas confections

2009-12-13T20:44:00.003-06:00

I spent the better half of today baking in the kitchen. I was tied up making these fabulous Sprinkles cupcakes for my coworkers. I made two separate batches, red velvet and chocolate peppermint and then wrapped up one of each. I can't wait to pass them out tomorrow!

dear santa

2009-12-11T17:09:00.008-06:00

For today's Top 5 Friday, my buddies and I will be listing the top 5 things on our Christmas wish list. So Santa if you're looking at this, I promise I've been good all year ;)

1. Mirrored glass jewelry box: I love mirrored glass. In fact I have a mirrored glass tray that I put my perfume on and I absolutely love it. I was shopping on Urban Outfitters and came across this beautiful jewelry box. I've been looking for a jewelry box for years, I had to settle for a wood jewelry box from a Target a few years ago just so I could have a place to store all my jewels. This jewelry box would be perfect, it's like a work of art...it would look great on my newly renovated dresser :).

2. Hot pink MacBook case: I'm a totally girly girl when it comes to the color pink. I love the color pink. I love it when common household items or things that shouldn't be pink come in pink, like a pink DVD player or a pink Cuisinart mixer...how could you resist? I'm fairly certain that once I get my own place all my kitchen utensils will be pink. Anyways, I was at the Apple store a few weeks ago and saw this adorable hard shell case for your MacBook...I could finally have a pink computer! It's one of those things that I would never buy for myself, but since Christmas is right around the corner, I thought I might ask Santa.

3. The complete Beverly Hills 90210 DVD series: I've always loved 90210. It's one of those shows I never watched as a kid but watched in syndication as I got older. A few summers ago I became hooked when they would show back to back episodes on the Oxygen network. The greatest thing about this show is that I rarely have seen one episode more than once, it's like an entirely new series for me. This past summer I learned that they are now showing episodes on Soap Net, but sadly I don't get that channel at my house. The next best thing is getting the complete series on DVD so I can watch them whenever I want.

4. Pink phone: Here we go again with the pink accessories. I've always loved old rotary phones and my sweet friend, Grace told me about about this cute phone on Fred Flare. Of course it would be cool to get an authentic rotary phone in pink, but believe me I've done the research and have come up empty handed. The "pink princess phone" will do just fine.

5. Gray suede pumps: I've been looking for a pair of gray suede pumps for a few months now and have come up empty handed. I found this fabulous pair on Piperlime and feel in love, and they're only $50. These shoes would be perfect for the cold winter months ahead.

classic cardigan

2009-12-07T19:06:00.003-06:00

Happy Monday! I only have seven more days of work until I'm a free bird for two whole weeks! I'm excited to say the least. Today's MHM is the Jackie cardigan from J. Crew. In honor of the style icon herself, J. Crew has created a simple yet sophisticated 3/4 length cardigan that is perfect for any occasion. I live in these cardigans and believe that every girl must have at least one in her closet, even if it's just black. The great thing is, you can dress it up or down and it's perfect for the office or running errands. Check out this iconic piece at J. Crew and be sure to snag one because they're currently on sale :).

weekend review

2009-12-06T18:00:00.020-06:00

I love broccoli and cheese dishes. In fact I eat the Smart Ones broccoli and cheddar roasted potatoes TV dinner close to once a week at work, which I really shouldn't admit but grabbing a TV dinner while I walk out the door is a lot easier than having to prepare a lunch the night before. Anyways, while I was on my way to Oxford a few weeks ago I was flipping though a copy of Real Simple. I saw a delicious broccoli and cheese dish that had a quite a fancy name, broccoli and gruyere gratin...yum. All I knew about gruyere was that it was a fancy cheese that my cousin had used on various entrees. There were only 5 ingredients so I thought this was something I could certainly tackle. I took a picture on my phone (see above), without even thinking I could look it up on the website. Anyways, I was doing some grocery shopping this weekend and thought what the heck I'll try the broccoli dish. Luckily I had my phone and was able to get everything I needed (I knew that picture would come in handy). I got home and was ready to tackle the dish. As I started reading the directions I immediately became overwhelmed. I hadn't even thought to read them beforehand (this is something I do often, I have a tendency to breeze through recipes and leave out major details, i.e. flour out of cookies...perhaps this is why I stay far away from the kitchen). All the sudden I'm reading about steaming baskets and whisking, clearly I should have done my research ahead of time. After consulting my step-dad he assured me that I wouldn't need a steam basket, but a colander and large pot would do...whew. Fast forward close to two hours later and voila my very own broccoli and gruyere gratin dish. The magazine version is on the left and mine is on the right...not too bad, right? And believe me if I can do this anyone out there can too, check out the recipe here.

In addition to my fancy broccoli and cheese dish I finished all my Christmas cards and bought the sassy Jessica Simpson shoes I blogged about a few weeks ago. I've been eyeing them for months now but they're so impractical that I couldn't bring myself to spend $80 dollars on a pair of leopard print pumps. About a month ago they went down to $60ish and I still couldn't do it. Well they must have been calling to me this weekend because they were on sale for $40 and they only had one pair in my size, it was meant to be. Can't wait to wear them to work tomorrow!

We're still working on our tree at our house. It's huge and we have a ton of ornaments so I'll be posting pictures later this week. Every year my mom buys me my own ornament and this year she bought this beautiful snowflake globe from Pottery Barn.

I'm still looking for the right hardware for my dresser. I just can't bring myself to pay close to $80 on hardware from Anthropologie so I'm keeping my eyes peeled for the perfect knobs. I'm hoping to find them soon because I really want to show y'all my finished piece! Hoping y'all had a wonderful weekend!

christmas classics

2009-12-04T15:23:00.006-06:00

I can't believe it's December and Christmas is right around the corner...this is by far the most wonderful time of the year! Today is the first of four Christmas themed Top 5 Friday's. Today my buddies and I are listing our Top 5 Christmas movies. I've decided to do a Letterman Top 10 kind of countdown...

5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. And I'm talking about the old school 1960s version with Hermey who wants to be a dentist and the land of misfit toys. The most memorable character has be Sam the snowman (voiced by Burl Ives) who narrates the story. The most comical part is the way Sam moves back and forth through the snow, my mom and I still get a kick out of it to this day; there's even a reference to him in 'Elf.' Honestly I probably couldn't watch this movie in its entirety but it will always have a special place in my heart.

4. Home Alone. How can you resist? This is a Christmas classic. Most memorable part of the movie has to be the very beginning when little Kieran Culkin, who plays cousin Fuller is chugging down on his Pepsi and his mom exclaims "Fuller, go easy on the Pepsi!" Check out the clip here. For some reason my cousins and I have quoted this line for years and it's always one of the things that stand out when I think of this movie. It always make me sad when they show this movie during the summertime and the fact that there's now like five Home Alone movies...nothing can replace the original.

3. Love Actually. I love, love, love this movie. My first time watching it wasn't so great. I watched it with my parents and actually had to pretend to fall asleep during the porn scene, I was dying on that couch. But after watching it on my own, I fell in love. I can't help but to tear up at the beginning with all the real footage of people meeting up with family and friends at the airport. I have family and friends scattered throughout the U.S. so I definitely know the overwhelming feeling you get when you see that person at the airport for the first time in a long time.

2. Elf. "Buddy, the elf, what's your favorite color?" I love Will Ferrell and will forever love this movie. How could you not love naive and innocent little Buddy trying to find his father in big, scary New York? He's such a pure and happy character. I could watch this movie over and over!

1. Christmas Vacation. Hands down the best Christmas movie of all time. From the giant Christmas tree, Uncle Eddie and Sparky losing it once he doesn't get his Christmas bonus. I feel like everyone can relate to this movie. We all have to see our family during the holidays and every one's family is a little crazy and dysfunctional and I'm fairly certain every man has a bit of Clark Griswold in him. Sometimes it just hits all too close to home. I still laugh hysterically to this movie and it's best when seen with a big group.

signature scent

2009-11-30T19:08:00.007-06:00

Coco Chanel once said that "a woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future." I'm a firm believer that every girl must have a signature scent. Scent is one of the strongest senses tied to memory. What better way to be remembered than by your perfume. I still think of my sweet Claire whenever I smell Ralph Lauren, Blue or my Aunt Jenny when I get a whiff of Oscar by Oscar de la Renta. Personally I've been wearing Chanel Coco Mademoiselle for close to six years. Funny thing is at the time I was looking for a Vera Wang scent but couldn't find it, the salesgirl suggested Coco Mademoiselle and I was sold...been wearing it ever since. So for those of you who haven't found your signature scent I encourage you to venture out the nearest department store and go scent shopping.

weekend wind down

2009-11-29T16:39:00.013-06:00

What a weekend. Even after four days off work I wasn't able to get half the stuff I wanted to do done, but I was still super productive and as a result I'm now exhausted and could easily fall asleep for the rest of the night. I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving with your loved ones.

This weekend found me venturing into uncharted territory. I baked, tackled my dresser, and took part in Black Friday with all the other crazy women in Mobile. My mom recruited me to make reese's bars for Thanksgiving. Not gonna lie, I wasn't too happy about it, but made them with a smile on my face so mom wouldn't get mad. If anything I was able to wear my cute Anthropologie apron I bought a few weeks ago. Here I am making my best Martha Stewart impression. And not to toot my own horn, but the reese's bars were pretty good. They didn't even make it 'til the end of the weekend.

The day after Thanksgiving I woke up bright and early with my mom to head to Target. Other than when I worked retail I've only been out shopping on Black Friday once before and I vowed to never do it again. Well mama told me about a $250 TV at Target and I couldn't resist. We woke up at 4:30 and braved the cold. I had no idea the dedication these people had to get a sweet deal, and I'm now a believer. I got my TV and a $25 vacuum...I think I saved close to $300 that day.

The main project of the weekend was tackling my dresser. The drawers need one more coat of paint and I'm still looking for hardware, so stay tuned for the finished project. Here I am painting away, I think this dresser needed close to six coats...ugh. But it looks great, can't wait 'til it's complete.

In between baking and painting I tackled some more of my book. Sadly I will not complete the NaNoWriMo challenge. I only got up to 9,425 words this weekend. Perhaps I can tackle the National December Writing Month Challenge, the NaDecWriMo Challenge, if you will...doesn't have quite the same ring. Regardless, I'm determined to make it to 50,000 words.

We're starting to decorate for Christmas around my house and I couldn't help but to wrap my first gift for mama bear. We'll be decorating our tree tonight so I'll be posting pictures later this week. Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing weekend and that it's not too painful to pull yourself out of bed tomorrow morning.

a plug for the best

2009-11-27T06:53:00.001-06:00

So my amazingly talented blogging bestie, Mary Grace, has decided to open her own etsy shop, be sure to check her out here. All of her prints will make great Christmas gifts!

thursday thanksgivings

2009-11-26T10:41:00.005-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope this day finds you surrounded by friends and family. Today, me and my blogging besties are doing a special edition of our Top 5 Fridays. Today we'll be doing "Thankful Thursday" where we list the top 5 things we're thankful for. Before I dive into the my blessings I want to talk about one of my most memorable Thanksgivings.

Whenever this holiday rolls around I can't help but to think of my dear friend Megan. In junior high we would send out Turkey Grams. It was little program held by the Student Council where you would buy a Turkey Gram and send them to your friends. It was always a treat to hear your name called out during your first period class (think back to that Mean Girls clip). Anyways, the week leading up to Thanksgiving was spent advertising Turkey Grams over the intercom. My dear Megan was tapped to make these announcements and after every plug should would say "Gobble, gobble." I can still hear it my head, and every time someone says gobble, gobble I can't help but to think of Megan.

Ok, so on to the thanksgivings...

1. My parents. I'd like to give a quick shout out to my step-dad, Bob. My parents got married ten years ago and we definitely had a rocky start, I hated Bob and didn't understand why I was not enough for my mom. Well fast forward ten years and I couldn't feel more blessed to have this man in my life. Bob, you have taken me in as your own and never treated me differently than your children, you have been more of father to me than my own and I will be forever grateful. And mama, thank you for a being a terrific, fantastic and fabulous mother. We have gone through some rough times but you were always there for me and I never missed out any of my childhood experiences. Thank you for everything you've given me and your constant support. I love you both very much!

2. My friends. God has blessed with amazing friendships. I am surrounded by people with whom I have deep and meaningful relationships. I feel like nothing is off limits when it comes to my friendships and its comforting to know that whatever I'm going through each of them will be there for me in their own way. Thank you all for your constant love and support, it means the world to me.

3. Max, Maddie and Ellie. For those of you who don't know me, these are my dogs. The unconditional love that a dog gives you has always amazed me. They're always so happy to see me when I get home and they're content with just sitting by my side. A few weeks ago I was sitting on the couch crying and my sweet Max could tell I was in pain and came and sat by me to comfort me. If everyone could have the loyalty and love that dogs have we would be a much better people.

4. My extended family. I come from a huge Italian family so my extended family is big to say the least. I was blessed enough to live within a 50 mile radius to my aunts, uncles, cousins, and the list goes on. I grew up going to the same school with my cousins, Ali and Danny. Weekday afternoons found me at the Tomcheck house where I was treated more like a sister than some distant cousin. I've always been thankful that I was never treated differently, Danny would pound me like I was a little sister and Ali would ignore me like a little sister...it was great! My family's moving to Mobile has put some distance between us but we are still all very close and keep in touch.

5. My job. Look around you, the economy is still in a terrible state of disarray. I know how it feels to be without a job so I feel so blessed to have a job with a company that I hope to grow with. I'm thankful for my short weeks and long three day weekends and my upcoming two week Christmas break :)

Remember to tell your friends and loved ones that you are thankful for them. Now on to the Turkey!

stay tuned

2009-11-24T20:45:00.024-06:00

So I've decided to take a cue out of the White Waxflower handbook and update this dresser.

This was my mom's dresser growing up and it used to have a terrible green finish. My grandpa stained it for her and gave it to her as a house warming gift. I love the wood finish but I'm more of a shabby chic kinda girl so I'm looking to paint it white and distress it. I'm hoping to tackle this project over the long holiday weekend. I've been looking at hardware at Anthropologie and I've narrowed it down to three knobs. Let me know which one you like best. Here's hoping I have an entirely updated piece to present to you next week.

a makeup must

2009-11-23T19:05:00.005-06:00

Every girl must have this in her makeup bag. I was introduced to this product about a year ago and was actually a little skeptical but it was one of those trips when you pretty much buy all the makeup the salesgirl pitches. The eye potion acts as an eyeshadow primer that helps eyeshadow go on darker and prevents it from creasing. It's pretty much amazing. Be sure to grab this little guy at Sephora.

the mac is back

2009-11-22T15:50:00.009-06:00

I've always had problems with computers. I seem to kill every one that comes into my possession. Most computers have close to a two year shelf life once I get a hold of them. And it always ends the same way...the hard drive crashes. I always figured it was because I owned a PC and they're prone to viruses, blah, blah, blah. Well I can no longer use that excuse because I was able to kill a Mac. I received my Mac Book two years ago and just last month I received this error message.

I was heartbroken to say the least. I knew exactly what had happened and the kind Apple folks were able to confirm that the hard drive had crashed. Pictures, music, word documents, all gone. And to make matters worse my warranty had expired a year before and the closest Apple store was four hours away. A few weeks ago I bit the bullet and took the computer in to be repaired and to my delight no charges were incurred! I still don't know how that happened but I refrained from asking any questions. I traveled up to Birmingham this weekend to get my computer and I was happy to say the least.

Now starts the tedious task of uploading all my pictures and music on to my computer. By now I'm an old pro so it shouldn't be too long of a task.

Aside from getting the Mac back I was able to visit with my sweet friend, Jill. We had a fun weekend filled with movies, good food and little 90210. Hoping everyone had a wonderful weekend!

the lighter side of things

2009-11-20T13:03:00.006-06:00

So I've needed a bit of change in my life for a while now. What better for a girl to do than change her hair a bit. In instances like this I would either chop it all off or go to brunette. Seeing as how I've been trying to grow my hair out for the last year and I really like being blonde, I couldn't go down either of those paths. So I asked my stylist to give me a "sexy" 'do. I don't know that I really pull off sexy all that well but my hair has definitely improved. My stylists gave me fun layers, short bangs, and super blonde locks. Behold...

a bucket list of sorts

2009-11-20T07:12:00.003-06:00

Good morning and happy Friday! I want to take a minute to welcome my sweet friend Jill, she's new in town and just got her blog up and running last night. Jill will be joining me Grace on Must Have Monday's and Top 5 Fridays, so be sure to check out her blog. Jill actually came up with today's topic, 5 things we want to do before we die, kind of like a bucket list. I really don't think my list is gonna be all that exciting but its definitely stuff that will make me happy if I accomplish it...

1. Publish my memoir. Btw, I still only have 4,729 words written for my NaMoWriMo challenge, I imagine the bulk of my writing will come during the long holiday weekend next week. If anything I would love to finish writing it and at least take it to a publisher to see what they would say. I feel like I have something good on my hands and I'd love to share it with the world. Not gonna lie, I have dreams of me visiting Oprah and dancing with Ellen while we discuss my fabulous book.

2. Travel. The furthest I've travelled is Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Cabo's great but I want to travel all over Europe. I'm terrified of flying and I don't know how I would ever get myself on a plane to travel for hours on end, but I would never let my fear of flying get in the way of my travelling. For the purposes of this post, I will narrow down my two countries to Italy and Ireland. Of course I would love to go to Paris, London, Sydney and the list goes on, but I'm part Italian and part Irish so I would love to visit the countries of my ancestors.

3. Live in a big city. I'm definitely a city girl. I would love to live in a city like NYC or Chicago for a brief period of time. Honestly, I don't know how I could live there for too long, but I'd love to experience city life for a short period of time. I would love to live out my Carrie Bradshaw fantasies and then get back to the suburbs.

4. Get my MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. My obsession with Austin began about two years ago. I had never been but from what I heard I knew I would just love that town. I was fortunate enough to go this past September and it lived up to all my expectations, I even became a bit of a Longhorns fan. I've been thinking about going to grad school for the last few months, may even take the GMAT soon. If I could go to UT to get my degree I'd be a happy girl.

5. Become a photographer. My freshman year of high school we had to write our obituaries for English, I know super morbid. Anyways, in mine I had been a renowned photographer who had travelled all over the world and made quite a career for herself. I've always loved photography, I even took a class in high school. Sadly, I wasn't all that great. I think one time I didn't load the film into the camera properly. Imagine how I felt when I went to go develop my film and nothing appeared...sad day. Until I become a photographer, I will leave vicariously through my amazing and talented friend, Claire.

meeting Jillian

2009-11-18T16:20:00.008-06:00

Hello! I'm Mary Grace, and I'm a guest blogger visiting from over at my place, White Waxflower. Today Jilly and I thought it would be fun to do a guest-blog for each other. We agonized over what to write about, and finally decided it might be fun to write about our first impressions and earliest memories of each other.

Baby Jilly and Mary Grace, relaxing after being busy hostesses of a Christmas party at our apartment.

I met Jillian in the first semester of our freshman year of college. I kept hearing through mutual friends about this DG named Jillian from California. Being that I had never been to California and was only 18 years old, I immediately pictured her looking like Gidget - a little tan blonde that spent entire summers at the beach, surfing and going to luaus. I remember walking up to her dorm, where a bunch of our mutual friends were hanging out, and meeting her for the first time. She was little and blonde, but definitely didn't fit into my stereotype of the Gidgetesque surfer girl. Some of my earliest impressions were:

She didn't seem impressed by the silliness and boy craziness of half the girls in the room.

I thought she looked very preppy and put-together.

She knew a lot of songs.

Often, when people would make some sort of statement, Jillian would sing it back to them as if it were a song lyric. For example if someone said "I need to do my laundry" she might sing "Oooo that laundry sure needs to get doooOOOooOOone". It was for comedic purposes of course, but for some reason I thought all of these little ditties were actual songs. I thought she must REALLY be into music to know so many songs about so many different situations.

Another very early memory is the time I went up to her dorm room to visit her roommate. I walked in and asked if her roommate was there, and she said that she wasn't. I felt bad just leaving, and for some reason thought it might be less awkward if I acted like I would be just as happy to hang out with her (even though we barely knew each other). She was playing on her desktop computer, so I asked what she was doing. I remember her saying she was downloading music, and I asked her what she used. She told me she used Limewire, and I was excited because I had been looking for a free way to get new music. I asked her if it gave her computer viruses, and she told me it hadn't. I downloaded it that night, and about 2 months later, both our computers crashed.

I think it took about a year for us to finally warm up to each other. We moved into an apartment with 2 other girls our sophomore year (one of them was our dear friend Claire Smith and you can visit her by clicking here), but we still didn't really know each other very well. One night neither of us could sleep, and somehow ended up hanging out. We started talking about TV shows we watched as kids, and the super awesome show Under the Umbrella Tree came up. I LOVED that show as a child, but I'd never met anyone other than my cousin Madison that had ever seen it! But of course, Jillian had. I confessed that I had brought with me to college my Under the Umbrella Tree VHS tape that I had recorded with the help of my dad when I was about 8 years old. Needless to say, we popped it in and watched hours of ridiculous adventures with Jay, Iggy, Gloria and their human friend Holly. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Just think ... if it weren't for these absurd and slightly scary puppets, we may have never become the besties that we are today.

oxford is for lovers

2009-11-16T19:30:00.007-06:00

I always forget what a charming and unique town Oxford is. I was fortunate enough to make it there this past weekend after a year long hiatus. It was a jam packed weekend filled with football, friends, and a little shopping. Saturday we headed down to Oxford and watched the Rebels beat the Vols, 42 to 17, and yes you read that right. I was happy to have Linnae give me a play by play of what was happening. Together we braved the hot weather (yes, I’m sunburned) and watched the Rebels lead us to victory. After the game we were able to do a little shopping, and as always, the Square is filled with new boutiques and restaurants…nothing ever seems to stay the same there. I got some fabulous jewelry and new shoes. That night we ate at Ajax…mmm, so good. It’s weekend’s like this that make me realize how incredibly blessed I am. I’m looking forward to visiting Oxford in the near future.

Me and Linnae in our stunna shades...check out Margie's blog for more pics from the game, I look like a goof but everyone else is super cute.

the pearce sectional

2009-11-16T18:50:00.017-06:00

The Pearce sectional in Oat everyday suede, 'nough said. In the words of Rachel Zoe, "I die." I have coveted this piece for the last three years. I've worked at Pottery Barn on and off since 2006 and immediately fell in love with this sofa. I love the sleek upholstered look of this sofa, but it's also warm and welcoming with its curved armrests and cushy pillows. Whenever I get my own place or start making more moolah this will be my first major investment. I imagine cozy nights watching movies by the fireplace, lazy Sunday's napping with Ellie...I can picture it now.

a little bit about me

2009-11-13T09:05:00.003-06:00

Happy Friday! For today's Top Five, Grace and I have decided to do to the Top Five Things you may not know about me. I've tried to dig deep on this one but sadly I think all of my readers may already know everything I'm about to share with them. Oh well, maybe I'll surprise you with one fun fact...

1. I went to a year round school K-8 grade, meaning I never had a normal three month summer until high school. The school year would start in July and we would get three week vacations in October, December, April, and June...weird, huh? But for nine years its all I ever knew. My first three month vacation was the summer going into high school, to say I was excited was an understatement!

2. I was voted best dressed in 7th grade. I remember they didn't warn us ahead of time when the pictures would be taken so I was wearing my GAP bootcut jeans, a pink and gray 3/4 length baseball tee and braided pigtails...so fashion forward. I could have rocked that picture had I known ahead of time!

3. Ok y'all are gonna think I'm crazy when I tell you this one, but I was a strange kid so whatever. My friend Megan knew how to talk in a chipmunk voice and everyone was always so amazed because it sounded so cute and no one else was able to master it. Well after what I'm sure were months of practicing I was able to nail the voice. Together we were Hue and Shue...so weird. Anyways, we would do little shows for people in these crazy chipmunk voices and people loved it. I'm happy to say I can still do the voice today.

4. The only time I've ever been stung by a bee was at my 2nd birthday party...sad. I was wearing a cute little navy dress with white polka dots. We had had my party at a local park and then everyone came back to my house. Do y'all remember those bushes that have wax leaves and pink little flowers that bees would just hover around? Well I got too close to one of those bushes and got stung. I'm sure it was all very dramatic and there were lots of tears, but fortunately I don't remember all that.

5. My dad wanted to name me Molly and luckily mama bear interfered and chose Jillian. In fact I was named after a soap opera character. I don't know what soap it was, but thankfully y'all don't know me today as Molly Donahue...oh, that looks weird!

Hope y'all were able to learn a few new things about me. Feel free to leave some fun facts about yourself!

the NaNoWriMo challenge

2009-11-12T20:24:00.003-06:00

So today my blogging partner in crime, Mary Grace, told me that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, for short). For the past year or so I've thought about writing a book, a memoir in fact. I felt so inspired to do so that I actually started writing and was rather impressed with what I had. Unfortunately my wave of inspiration quickly dissipated and my five page word document that I kept referring to as "the book" went by the wayside. Well my little buddy Grace and few other people have encouraged me to start writing again and see what I come up with. I am now faced with the challenge of writing 50,000 words (175 pages) in a one month period. I just signed up for NaNoWriMo this afternoon so I'm already two weeks behind, but I feel like I can make up for some lost time, especially since I already have a few pages written. I'm currently at 4,729 words, only 45,271 more to go...yikes. So here's to sleepless nights, strained eyes and perhaps a little carpal tunnel all in pursuit of writing my very own memoir.

the undomestic goddess

2009-11-09T19:08:00.010-06:00

So I'm not the most domestic person, I can't cook or decorate (gosh my future husband is so lucky...haha). But I do enjoy baking, every now and then, especially during the holidays. For the past year or so I've been eyeing the beautiful aprons at Anthropologie like the one to the right. When I was living with my cousin she had a handful of aprons to choose from and whenever she cooked she would always wear one, how cute. I soon realized that wearing an apron instantly made undomestic me feel like Martha Stewart (ok, that may be a stretch). I've visited Anthropologie on a few occasions, but I can never seem to find an apron that I absolutely love, or maybe it's just the fact that I know it won't get used. Anyways, I'm thinking this Christmas I may just indulge a little and buy an apron, I like this one best, but suggestions are welcome. Whenever I bake my first batch of cupcakes I'll be wearing my apron with bells and whistles, and of course I'll be blogging about it.

Here's a picture of me and my cousin, Ali at our family's annual Christmas cookie bake. Aren't we too cute in our aprons?

so obsessed

2009-11-06T15:08:00.006-06:00

It's that time of the week again...Top Five Friday! For today's Top Five, MG and I have chosen to list the top five songs we've been obsessed with in the past and basically played to the ground. I play most songs into the ground, but when I'm obsessed with a song it's all I will listen to. I will download a song and burn that one song on a CD and will literally be content listening to it for the entire day. Just the other day I listened to my new obsession "Heart Skipped a Beat" by XX roughly 20 times. Unfortunately when you play a song back to back 20 times in a row you can never really appreciate it like you did the first time you heard it. Fortunately for me the list of songs below have stood the test of time, and I will still listen to them every once in a while.

1. C'mon C'mon by The Von Bondies
2. Fascination by Alphabeat
3. My Moon My Man by Fiest
4. French Navy by My Maudlin Career
5. Portions for Foxes by Rilo Kiley

just got paid

2009-11-04T17:48:00.006-06:00

Today was a good day. At approximately 8 AM, central time my manager called me into her office and presented me with a TAP award. It's basically a bonus/performance award. I was excited to say the least, it definitely gave me the extra pep in my step and kept me motivated to continue with my hard work. I've had my eye on this fabulous pair of Jessica Simpson leopard print pumps. I may just have to make a visit to Dillards this weekend and indulge a little. Hoping everyone's having a happy hump day!!

monogram me

2009-11-02T19:36:00.003-06:00

So today is the first official Must Have Monday or MHM for short. My first MHM has a little story behind it, I'll do my best to keep it brief. For Christmas last year I asked for this pretty monogrammed necklace from Danielle Stevens Jewelry (the picture doesn't do it justice). I had seen the necklace in Lucky Magazine the summer before and immediately fell in love. The only thing is I kept going back and forth on whether or not I actually wanted the necklace (since I usually don't wear neckalces). My mom took this as sign that I didn't want the piece and that Christmas I ended up with a Juicy Couture gumball machine instead...I was heartbroken. Well mama came through just two months later for Valentine's day. The necklace is gold plated and allows you to personalize it with a beautiful script monogram. If I could I would give this necklace to each of my friends; however, I'm not that rich so I'll just suggest to y'all. Or y'all can wait til I become rich and famous and then I'll get the necklace for you. Check out the Danielle Stevens website to see some of her other gorgeous jewelry.

dress you up in my love

2009-11-01T16:20:00.006-06:00

I'm fairly certain I was born in the wrong time period. Ideally I would have been born in 1970 and would have been in my mid-teens during the mid 1980s (right around the time I was born). I would have been the best 80s teen: big hair, lace gloves, bright fluorescent colors. However, I was born just as Madonna was coming onto the scene. Luckily for me, costume parties and Halloween have allowed to channel my inner Madonna every once in awhile. This Halloween was no different. I was "Lucky Star" Madonna circa 1984. I wore the short lace skirt with tights, star earrings and bright pink head bow. I even had hot pink nails...no detail went unnoticed.

Initially I wasn't going to go all out (I need to save money and Halloween costumes are entirely too expensive). But as the actual day came upon me I couldn't help myself. I went to Birmingham to visit my sweet friend Jill, who I must note is not quite the Halloween enthusiast that I am. We spent Saturday afternoon visiting Target, Claire's, and the costume shop. By the end of the day I had accumulated an entirely new outfit and accessories to match. And Jill who hadn't dressed up for Halloween in six years was too cute as flapper. She was such a trooper. We kept going back and forth on various outfits and like a proud mama I kept insisting we would find just the right costume and in the words of Tim Gunn "Make it work." That night we got all dolled up and went out in downtown Birmingham. We had a great time and Jill was even talking about her costume for next year (I'm so proud). Hoping everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

happy halloween

2009-10-30T06:44:00.009-05:00

My dear friend Mary Grace and I have taken on our blogging adventures together to ensure that we would at least have one reader, you can check her out at http://www.whitewaxflower.blogspot.com/. While she seems to be an old pro I'm still working out the kinks and trying to figure out how to post a picture. As new kids on the block we've decided to have Top Five Fridays and Must Have Mondays. So with Halloween being tomorrow our first Top Five Friday will be our Top Five Halloween memories. Since most of my memories will come from the same Halloween I should probably give you a brief history. My sophmore year of college I lived with 3 girls (Mary Grace, Claire and Virginia) in an apartment complex. Our apartment number was 1312 and to this day we still refer to that number when talking about sophmore year. Anyways that Halloween was chalk full of fun memories, shoot I could probably have all of my top 5 be from that year but I'll try to mix it up a bit.

1. Buring Ghostie. Ghostie was a kitchy little Halloween doll that played the Adams Family theme song and danced when you pressed his hand. He served as fun Halloween decor for a short period of time until one night my roommates and our neighbors decided to set his head on fire (I promise we're not violent people). We all gathered in the breezeway of our apartment and tried to start a fire with lighters. After multiple failed attempts my roommate Virginia announced that she had fluid. Wait, what? Why does Virginia have lighter fluid? I honestly couldn't tell you, but it definitely did the trick. We had a huge flame going once we doused ghostie in lighter fluid. I even think we had Ben Harper's "Burn One Down" playing in the background. And there's footage of this somewhere out there that I would love to get my hands on. For now all I have are the memories

2. David Moser. Where to begin? I'll try to get this right, but some of the details remain fuzzy. David Moser was convicted of raping a girl in Ohio and in October '04 he was being transported from a jail in Ohio to one in Florida. While in transit the people transporting Moser stopped in Oxford, MS, which to this day seems odd. Oxford is 20+ minutes away from any major highways so why they stopped there is still questionable. Anyways, as I remember it the people transporting Moser stopped at Wendys and Moser was able to escape at this time. As the story goes he remained in the trees behind Wendys for 48 hours. However, during that 48 hour block there were rumors and apparent sightings of Moser all over Oxford, including my apartment complex. The night that Moser escaped my friend Jaclyn called to let me know that he had been spotted in Campus Creek Apartments. As she's telling me this someone starts pounding on the door. My heart sank. We rush to the door and look through the peep hole, but our visitor has covered the hole with his hand (OMG). We then hear knocking coming from the balcony. We rush over to the balcony to find that MG's creepy boyfriend (they're not dating anymore), who happens to bear a striking resemblence to Moser is standing on the balcony. REALLY?!? So once we were all able to calm down we decided to all sleep in the living room and watch scary movies...probably not the best idea, but so much fun! And after all that we find out Moser was never roaming around Oxford, he had stayed put behind those trees in Wendys.

3. Tinkerbelle. My first Halloween as Tinkerbelle was when I was six years old. I fit the bill quite well, I was blonde, tiny...I guess that's it. I was in Mrs. Drew's first grade class and that year we had a Halloween fesitval where all the students dressed up and showed off their costumes on the playground. Little did I know 13 years later I would be putting on my fairy wings once again. Sure enough I was Tinkerbelle for 1312 Halloween. I pieced together my own costume and had all the details down even to the white balls on my shoes (I had green heels and used white feather boa clippings to make them a bit sassier). I even bought my own fairy dust that I poured on everyone I came in contact with. I'm sure there were a lot of sparkly sheets that night. As I returned home I poured the remainig "dust" all over the breezeway of my apartment. I think there were still sparkles left spring of the following year.

4. Hizapite Hizolloweeniezie. Say what?!? So my sophomore year I took it upon my self to implement IZMs (as in "fosheezie my neezie") back into our everday vocabulary. Well my sweet friend Virginia couldn't quite get the IZMs down. I woke up Halloween morning to find "Hizapite Hizolloween" written on the white board on our fridge. At first I couldn't make out what she was trying to say, then it clicked, awww, "Happy Halloween." Bless her, five years later we're still laughing about that.

5. I guess my last memory isn't really a specific one, which I know is cheating. But I'm trying to spare you from another 1312 Halloween memory (because believe me I have more). Growing up I always had amazing costumes. I never had to wear the store bought costumes because my creative mother made all my costumes. I wish I could somehow post all the pictures from Halloween's past because I really did have some great costumes, but I guess I'll just have to walk you down memory lane and let you imagine them for yourself. I'm tyring to rack my brain here...I've been a bumble bee, princess, Minnie Mouse, Snow White, a mermaid, statue of liberty and a present...just to name a few.

I hope you've enjoyed walking down memory lane with me. Hoping that you can make some memories of your own this Halloween. Happy Haunting!

it's miley!

2009-10-28T20:58:00.002-05:00

The first time I heard "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus I couldn't believe I had gone through one verse and someone still hadn't changed the station. My friend Emily and I were headed to dinner and she was clearly enjoying the song. Not only was she bobbing her head back and forth but she knew all the lyrics. I demanded that she change the station, but she refused. I suffered through round one. Little did I know that round two would come only hours later. On our way home, sure enough "See You Again" came back on and I found myself enjoying it. Now you must know I couldn't stand Miley Cyrus at this point. Perhaps it was jealousy, perhaps it was my conservative self thinking she acted entirely too old for her age...I honestly saw a Britney Spears trainwreck in the making (I still do). But as I said, I couldn't help but to indulge in the bubble gum pop that was pouring from the speakers. That night I found myself paying $1.07 for a Miley Cyrus song (cringes). As I do with most songs I played "See You Again" to the ground, and it soon lost its newness.

I found myself in the same predicament in August of this year. On my way home from work I heard "Party in the USA" for the first time, and this time I couldn't resist it like I had "See You Again." I turned up the volume and was hooked. Thanks to XM I knew the artist and title. I immediately ran home to download the song but was foiled...the song hadn't been release yet, thanks limewire (maybe that's why my computer crashed...but that's for another post). I think I must of listened to that song 10 times that night and immediately burned a CD so I could listen to my new find on the way to work the next morning. Now I pride myself I liking good music so I often like to keep my pop music indulgences on the DL. Unfortunately, I've been outted both by my own doing and by a co-worker's keen ears.

So just a week ago I'm jamming to Miley on the iPod at work and sure enough my wall cube mate, John sends me an email that said something along the lines of "Is that you that I hear...dj playing my song...yayaya." OMG, I about died, John could hear every word. Not only that but he knew how obsessed I was with this song. Upon receiving the email, the earbuds came out and I asked John "You could hear that," in which he responded "You play it all the time." Suffice it to say all credibility with John has been lost. I'm 24 years old and I'm listening to Miley Cyrus at work...really?!?

So after being called out by John, I called myself out during bible study. I went to a bible study for the first time last week. So in a series of get to know you questions I was asked, "If you were to turn on your iPod right now what song would be playing?" My friend whispered Justin Bieber in my ear (because yes I listen to him too) and I decided to up the anty and say Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA." Again, I've been outted and again all credibility has been lost.

So yes world, I listen to Miley Cyrus and I know you do too. So I ask you to go into your rooms tonight and blast your favorite bubble gum pop song and just dance...it's an instant mood boaster! Happy dancing!

this is me now

2009-10-22T20:16:00.000-05:00

So here it is, I find myself blogging. Hmm...I tend to have negative connotations with blogging. First thought that comes to mind are punk emo kids holed up in their poorly lit rooms pouring out their emotions with every key stroke as dashboard plays in the background. I mean how self centered can you be to think that people in the cyberworld actually want to listen to why your parents are so terrible? You're 16, believe me it's not that bad! But those were the blogs of yore...now blogs are super trendy, perez hilton...hello! Anyways, I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be pouring out my emotions with every key stroke, but here I am. Not only do I find myself on here but I find myself with a super lame blog name "this is me now." So to all those cyber kids out there...suggestions for blog names are welcome.