Oh Christmas Tree...

 

 My Christmas tree is nothing special, but boy do I have fun decorating. I think its a way for me to rebel against my Christmas tree experiences as a child. Don't get me wrong, my mom's trees are BEAUTIFUL...but that's just it...they are perfect. She uses a fake tree (which is just easier, I get it) and she has a color scheme and theme. Any fun (or red, green, or blue) ornaments I wanted to hang  had to go on the back of the tree. I am sure one day I will be the exact same way and want a designer tree, but for now I just like having fun with it and having random, mismatched ornaments.

Have you decorated your tree yet? What is your favorite Christmas tree style?

And the winner is...

This weekend was all about Christmas. Went Christmas shopping, did Christmas baking, bought and decorated a Christmas tree, watched Christmas movies. You get the idea.

Made a version of my mom's famous Death by Chocolate candy. Billy things I should call it Reindeer droppings...but I promise it's delicious! I am addicted to this stuff! I will post the recipe tomorrow.

The first Christmas present has been wrapped.

The weekend wouldn't be complete if I didn't make pancakes. I made gingerbread pancakes this weekend. Delicious.

I finished the tree skirt. I think its missing a little something so I am going to add some gold trim this week.

I made some homemade chicken noodle soup and made B watch a White Christmas with me. He had never seen it before, so I was determined to change that. I think he actually enjoyed it!!

After we finished decorating the tree we had a very fancy dessert. Milk and Oreos!

Then I made B pose for some Christmas card pictures. Here is one we aren't using.


Lastly I am happy to announce the winner of my giveaway!

Rebekah from Living and Learning was one of my very first followers so I am so happy that she is the winner! Like I said on Friday, I wish I could give everyone a TB lunch box, but I only have one. But I have had so much fun with this giveaway, you can definitely expect more from me in the future.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Happy Friday!!

This week has been crazy! So many ups and downs...mostly ups though. B found out some pretty big news yesterday that will have a BIG affect on our lives in the next few months, and going forward. I am not ready to share with the world yet, but I promise I will fill you guys in soon. Don't worry, its good news (depending on how you look at it), not scary news.

Also, I was able to extend my trip home for Christmas so now I will be able to attend the Holiday Bowl and watch my Baylor Bears take on the UCLA Bruins! I am so excited!


And, in case you missed it, I had over 100 entries for my giveaway this week! I am blown away!! I honestly wish I could give each of you a TB lunch bag...but I am not Oprah. I have had so much fun reading your comments about your favorite lunches. In case you were wondering, mine is a PB&J with plain potato chips (some chips put inside the sandwich, trust me...its good), an apple, and cookies. 

Another fun thing that happened this week was that Yesi, over at For Miami and Love nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. I am so touched that she nominated me! She is definitely one of my favorite bloggers, always so positive and thoughtful. She is always leaving sweet comments and I love catching up on her life through her blog. She makes me feel young again, I love it!

Here are the rules of the game:

 

1. Display the award for all to see.

2. Announce your win with a post and include a link to whoever presented you the award.

3. Present 7 awards to deserving bloggers & create a post linking to them and drop them a comment to tip them off.

4. List 7 interesting facts about the girl behind the blog.

My nominations:
Brittany @ This Beautiful Life
Christa @ Significance or Nothing
Tori @ Lil' Mrs Tori  
Rebecca @ Forever After Undecided
Rebekah @ Accidentally Wonderful
Kimberly @ Allons-y Kimberly
Kathleen @ Betwixt & Between

7 random interesting facts about me:

1. I have never broken a bone.
2. I have lived in 4 cities in the last 10 years. 
3. I have over 30 pairs of shoes in my closet.
4. I do not have an iPhone.
5. I ran into Leonardo DiCaprio outside the men's room at Qualcomm Stadium at the 1998 World Series. Yes I was stalking him. He was not as attractive in person.
6. I participated in 2 fantasy football leagues this year. 
7. I can't stand the antlers and Rudolph noses people attach to their cars this time of year. 

I hope you all have a great weekend. I hope to put up a Christmas tree this weekend. And according to the weather man, we might get snow flurries on Sunday!

 

 

Christmas Cards

I have been debating back and forth about what to do for Christmas cards. I like to send out a little something every year, at least to my close friends. Of course, I could always do that again, this year. I think I even bought some Christmas cards on sale at Target last year post-Christmas that I can use this year. But then, of course, B and I just had our engagement pictures taken, so we will have a bunch of new photos we could use. Then to make the decision even more difficult, I keep seeing pictures like the ones below that make me want to take more holiday inspired pictures to use for Christmas cards.

source

source

I am definitely leaning more towards sending out a picture Christmas card. So I need to find a cute design that I can either have printed cheaply or print myself. Here are some of my favorite designs:

Shutterfly

Shutterfly

Shutterfly

TinyPrints

TinyPrints

TinyPrints

Etsy

Etsy

There is one thing that will make both Christmas cards and wedding invitations a little easier: Postable.com. I found it while I was browsing some wedding blogs and I was sold immediately. Basically it creates a private address book for you to store all your friends' and family's contact information. Don't have it? No problem! Send them a personal link which directs them to a form they fill out with their info. Then your address book is automatically updated! I will be definitely be using it to collect addresses for the wedding, but am also using it for Christmas cards! What a time/sanity saver!

Are you sending out Holiday cards this year?

Also, in case you missed it, I have a giveaway going on right now for a Target/Neiman Marcus collection Tory Burch lunch box filled with some of my favorite things (including a $10 gift card to Starbucks). It ends tomorrow, so enter now!!

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Dear Santa...

This week's OHP is all about my Christmas wish list! Thanks to the new secret boards on Pinterest, I have been curating my list in secret for the past couple weeks. But now I will share it with you guys. You know, in case you want to send me something! Just kidding.

Oh...but before I forget...because I am in the gift-giving spirit, I have a giveaway going on right now through Friday for a Tory Burch lunch box and $10 Starbucks gift card (plus some other goodies). Look for the entry at the bottom of the post.

Now on to the fun!

Kate Spade via Pinterest

Sephora via Pinterest

Amazon via Pinterest

Sports Authority via Pinterest

Acute Designs via Pinterest

Target via Pinterest

Zara via Pinterest

Jototes via Pinterest

Target via Pinterest

What are you asking Santa for this year?

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Chai-Spiced Granola

{Before I get into this granola recipe, don't forget to go enter my giveaway for a Tory Burch lunch box and $10 Starbucks gift card!!} 

Ok, back to business.

I really love making homemade granola. It's easy. It's relatively quick. And you can can customize it to suit dietary preferences. I feel like store-bought granola uses a lot more additives and sweeteners. I like to keep mine pretty "natural" and as "clean" as possible. And, when you make your own, you can make it any flavor your want!

The cast of characters I used for this recipe: rolled oats, rice crispy cereal, sliced almonds, almond meal, flax seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, salt, honey, coconut oil, and vanilla.

First, I like to mix up all the dry ingredients and get everything mixed together so I don't have clumps of salt or spices anywhere.

Then I pour all the liquid over top and stir together. The mixture is super sticky, so it's best to use a spatula or spoon.

Then, all I do is dump it on a baking sheet lined with parchment and pack everything down with the back of a spatula. I want it to be kind of compressed to that large granola chunks will form. Those are my favorite.

I baked my granola at 300 for about 15 minutes, then lowered to 250 for another 20 minutes. About every 10 minutes I went in and mixed everything up so that some pieces don't brown more than others. You will know when its getting close to done when you kitchen starts to smell amazing!

I let the granola cool completely before eating or storing away. Ok, I might have nibbled on some while it was still warm. Since I was giving my granola away as a gift, I packed it in a mason jar and tied a festive ribbon around it. I love this stuff. I have to give it away or else I will just eat all of it. It is so additively good!

Recipe after the jump!

Avoiding a Cold AND a Giveaway!

This weekend I have been trying to ignore this one thing. Trying to keep busy and not slow down long enough for it to catch up to me. Unfortunately, I think it finally has.

I have been battling this cold all week, but it was never anything more than an itchy throat or a sneeze here or there. Now its a non-stop runny nose, headache, body aches...the works.

Anyways, here is what I was up to before this cold caught up to me:

1. B and I saw Lincoln on Friday night. It was okay. Not as good as I hoped.
2. I made some more chai spiced granola. It is just so yummy! I will post the recipe later this week.
3. I also made some salt-dough ornaments then painted them in liquid gold leaf. Can't wait to hang them on the tree.

4. Hit up Jo-Ann's for some fabric. I think this Christmas' theme is plaid and burlap.

5. I also did some experimenting in the kitchen and tried to make some sort of Ferrero-Rocher chocolate bar-thing...didn't quite work out how I would have liked.
6. I used some of that plaid fabric to make myself a JCrew knock-off skirt. I have been eyeing this tartan skirt for a while, and instead of paying $100, I paid $15 for fabric and made it myself! I love it!

7. B and I went to a local park where they have wrapped almost every tree in lights. It gave me a chance to work on my night photography skills.

I ended my weekend by finding out that Baylor is playing in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on December 27th! Isn't that great? My alma mater playing in my hometown? Well, it would be except that I booked my flight last week and I leave San Diego 1 hour before kickoff! To add insult to injury, I won't even get to watch the game because I will be in the air the entire time. I already tried to call and change my flight, and it would cost almost $300. I just can't do it. Last year I missed the Bowl game because I was in San Diego. This year I will miss it because I'm leaving too early!


So another thing I did this weekend was stop by Target and pick up one of the Neiman Marcus collaboration pieces. The Tory Burch lunch box! I am giving it away, filled with some of my favorite things (like a $10 gift card Starbucks card) in honor of hitting 100 followers! Granted, I haven't done it as of posting this, but plan on hitting that mark this week!

Winner will be announced next Monday!!


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Linking up for: Weekend Update & the GFC Collective