reading list

Nothing cures the winter blues like a good book...or two! I know e-readers are all the rage and I seriously considered getting one but, I love books-actual, hold-em in your hand, crack the spine, new book smelling books!

What are you reading?

"A home without books is a body without a soul."

Cicero

maxin' and relaxin'

details:blouse&skirt-f21/cardigan-anthro/tights-target/shoes-anthro

Yesterday, I had such a productive day. Today is a different story! I can't seem to get the fog out of my head. I managed a quick workout(the first one in a month) and that felt great but it was pretty much the highlight of the day-because doing three loads of laundry can't be considered a highlight...right?

In an attempt to get rid of this sluggishness, I got dressed. This skirt is so comfy!! I absolutely have to have one in some sort of cotton. It'll be like wearing pajamas but better:) I dressed it up for the pictures but the tights, shoes and belt are gone! 

The kids are gone and it's just me and the husband tonight. I'm trying to convince him to take me out to dinner. If that doesn't work-cereal it is!   

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve...yikes! Any big plans to celebrate? Doug has to work New Year's Eve(boo!) and New Year's Day(bigger boo!) and because we're old it means we will be ringing in the New Year at home and will most likely be in bed by midnight. I know..we live LARGE! I always think New Year's and Valentine's Day are two holidays that never quite live up to their hype. I guess I'll have to live vicariously through those of you that are hittin the town:D

twenty ten

This has been an amazing year for me! I got married, saw my oldest graduate high school and start college and watched my dad celebrate his 80th birthday! 

I also really fell in love with blogging and made some great friends. I'm so excited to see what 2011 has in store for me. Thank you so much for reading, emailing and commenting. i appreciate each and every one of you:) 

Here are a few of my favorites for this year!

Cheers and Happy New Year!!!!  

this christmas

Merry Christmas, Baby! 

Wearing: anthro-dress&bracelet/f21-nylons/express-sweater/steve madden-shoes

"Seriously, Mom!"

Two of my beautiful daughters-Logan and Skylar

My boys:)

Zachary-my handsome and not so little baby boy

Henry enjoying one of his gifts. 

Hey Y'all! I know I'm a little late on the recap but I hope you all had a fantastic holiday. I think because this was our first "married" Christmas I had kind of high expectations. Of course when expectations are high it's easy to be disappointed. Things didn't quite go as planned and there was some drama but I got to spend the day with my darling husband and my kids, and really, it doesn't get any better than that:) 

All week my son was buzzing with excitement for Christmas. Zachary is a happy kid but he had a ton of extra energy that week. It's kind of unusual because at 13 he knows the real deal about Santa;) Anyway, on Christmas morning he left Doug and I near tears because he declared this "The Best Christmas Ever". When Doug asked him why, Zachary answered "because this is the first Christmas I have a Dad!" and that, my friends, was the absolute best moment of any Christmas I've had in a very long time.   

merry christmas

                                                             image from weheartit

Have a merry and joy filled Christmas! Eat, laugh and celebrate with friends and family. I'll see you in a few days:)

i wish i was home

I finished up all of my shopping today, well most of it. I still have to go to the grocery store(blah!) and get something for Doug's grandparents and my dad but I'm expecting to get up bright and early and cross those things off the list.

Today's outfit is nothing to write home about(ha!) but thanks to my in-laws(who we celebrated with last week) and their generous gift I was able to purchase these beauties. I realized that I don't have a pair of red shoes! When I saw these, I knew we were meant to be...a little holiday sparkle and a little "follow the yellow brick red" and a perfect Christmas gift to myself:)

Have a wonderful and sparkly Christmas!

rallying

                          details:dress-f21/tshirt-target/tights-anthro/boots-target/jacket-vintage

Hey all! Today has not been the best of days-there's some family drama that's going on and I had a case of crippling cramps coupled with a migraine:( But look at me rallying to post this-yay me! 

I had a few errands to run today and threw this together on a whim. I've worn this dress a few times but more dressed up. I wanted to wear these super warm and slightly wacky tights. My first instinct was to pair them with something black but I hate wearing solid black. The shimmer in the dress just called out to me and I thought why not?! There's a lot of texture and pattern in this outfit but the neutral palette-black,cream, and metallics-keeps it from going to far over the top. 

Okay, it's off to bed for me and here's hoping for a better day tomorrow:)

blue christmas

details:blouse&skirt-f21/tights-target/cardi-gap/boots-nine west

How was your weekend? Saturday night we had the first(of 3) family Christmas celebrations with my hubby's family. It's a pretty casual gathering with his siblings/step sisters/spouses and kids. The laid back nature is the perfect way to ease into all of family celebrations. I wanted something comfortable but festive to wear. My go to combination for this seems to be sequins and plaid. I was originally going to wear heels but swapped them out for my boots at the last minute favoring practicality over style. Although, I really like the way the boots make it more casual.

Yesterday afternoon we had our neighborhood Christmas party. It was a fantastically festive time! I certainly got my fair share of Christmas cheer this weekend! I can't believe I have so much left to do. I'm not one of those people that has all of their Christmas shopping done by October but I really try hard not leave everything to the last minute and now I remember why. It's too stressful and there isn't any time to actually enjoy the holiday!! 

foodie friday {apple(pie) of my eye}

One of my all time favorite shows was Pushing Daisies. In addition to the wonderful characters, costumes and cinematography every week viewers were teased by these wonderful pies served up at the Pie Holeby the dreamy Ned the pie baker. I nearly licked the television when Chuck made an Apple-Gruyere pie for her aunts.

With lots of holiday celebrating going on I thought I'd share this fantastic pie with you so you can dazzle your friends and family with it at your next holiday dinner:)

Apple-Gruyere Pie

Makes one 9 inch deep dish pie

3lbs Tart red apples-recipe suggests Romes, Empires,Northern Spy but I told the guy at the farmers market I needed tart red apples for a pie and he sold me a mix

1/2 cup Sugar

1 tbsp Lemon Juice

1/8 tsp of Cinnamon

5 tsp Cornstarch

1 Egg- lightly beaten

Pie crust recipe to follow

preheat oven to 400 degrees; remove dough from fridge

peel, core and slice apples into quarters. Slice each quarter thinly. Mix with sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and cornstarch.

Roll out dough into circles about 12 inches in diameter. They need to big enough for the bottom crust to come up the sides to the top of your pie dish and for the top crust to hang over the top of the pie dish a bit.

Pile apples into pie dish, scraping any juices on top of the apples.

Place second crust on top of apples. Seal the two crusts together, brush lightly with beaten eggs and make three parallel slits on the top to allow steam to escape.

Place pie on cookie sheet in center of the oven and reduce temperature to 375 degrees. Bake 50 minutes or until you can see filling bubbling through the slits in the pie crust. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before serving.

For the pie crust I simply followed the amazing recipe from smittenkitchen and added 2 ounces of finely shredded Gruyere cheese.

*I added the cheese at the same time I sprinkled the pieces of butter over the flour mixture.

I am not a skilled baker by any stretch of the imagination. I actually find the precision required in baking to be a little intimidating. This was my first attempt at an apple pie or homemade pie crust. It turned out a thousand times better than I expected. The all butter crust literally melts in your mouth and the Gruyere is the perfect balance to the tart apples.

queen of hearts

           details:turtleneck-target/blouse-anthropologie/cardi-f21/jeans-jcrew/flats-gap

Happy Wednesday! Does anyone else feel like this week is inching by? You'd think that would please me since I still have a bunch of Christmas shopping to do but I'm so ready for it to be the weekend!

I feel like I'm in a rut in terms of getting dressed. The bitterly cold temperatures combined with the fact that I spend most days at home is leaving me completely uninspired. I stand in front of my closet and have no idea what to wear. Maybe once I get used to the cold I'll get my mojo back...I hope. The goal of today was to be comfy and stay warm because honestly I just wanted to stay in my pajamas all day...sigh. This top is a size too big but I was in love with the whimsical print-it's little hearts, diamonds and four leaf clovers- so I bought it anyway. The color is not exactly flattering so I had to layer it over a black turtleneck, which is fine because it's FREEZING! And of course it wouldn't be complete without a sparkly sweater:) My love of sequin is verging on addiction at this point!

Are all of you finished with your holiday shopping/prep? If you say yes, I will be insanely jealous! I'm still figuring out stuff for the kids and I think I'm going to bake cookies and some other treats to give to Doug's siblings(the adults don't exchange gifts) when we go to his Mom and Step-dad's house on Saturday to celebrate.  Have a happy hump day:)

rules are made to be broken

                   details:dress-uo/cardigan-target/tights-old navy/boots-nine west via tj maxx

These days I seem to find most fashion rules ridiculous. I think as long as you feel good in what you're wearing and it fits properly, wear what you want! Most of the time when I'm getting dressed I think" do I like it?" instead of "does it match?". The whole navy shouldn't be worn with black and black shouldn't be worn with brown thing...yeah..out the window with this outfit:D Navy, black, brown, gray and a touch of sparkle on the cardigan for a little attitude.

The hubby is taking me out for a salted caramel hot chocolate so we'll talk tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel! 

pattern play

details:dress-vintage/cardi-target/shoes-kate spade/tights-target/belt-f21

I'm so bummed these pictures didn't turn out better because I'm kind of in love with this outfit. 

I stalked this dress on etsy for about a week and then I bit bullet and bought it. It has a high neckline and collar which can be tricky for me{I feel like it makes my face look fuller. Or maybe that's from all the crap I've been eating lately!}. I may end up taking it to a seamstress and changing the neckline a bit. I love the blues and purples in the plaid. Is it natural to think you can pair leopard print with plaid? No! Did that stop me from doing it? Absolutely not! I added these ivory tights because this outfit so obviously needed another texture/pattern:D

Yesterday we were treated with some snow. It looked like we were living inside of a snow globe! You know what that means for the kids, snow day. Awesome...for them:( Being a parent gives you a totally different perspective on snow days, especially when this is their last week of school before the holiday break.   

I only wore these heels for pictures. The rest of the day I wore my fuggs(which keep my feet toasty!). I also had a full on allergy attack this afternoon. My nose is now red and my eyes are a red, puffy, runny-gross, I know-mess. It ain't pretty people. It's now time for some tea and a benydryl haze. Have a lovely evening:D    

friday

                              details:dress&neckalces-f21/tights-target/shoes-steve madden/cardi-bebe

Friday night I went to a gallery opening and dinner with a dear friend. We had an amazing time drinking wine, eating a yummy meal and talking about everything- from novels, colleges, relationships(of course) and researching family history on ancestry.com. I took my camera(good blogger) but I forgot to take a single picture(bad blogger!). It totally bums me out because I want to get better at documenting some of the things that go on the city. I loved this outfit so much so I decided on this snowy Sunday to get up and recreate it:)

I'm in love with all things blush/ballet pink/nude colored right now. The floaty chiffon tiers are so romantic and perfect for camouflaging the food belly from our dinner{which included a cheese board with three wonderful cheeses and chutneys/jams and an amazing cauliflower soup}The dark tights,shoes and sweater give it and edge and keep it from being too sweet. I loved these tights but talked myself out of them because they were $10...at Target! By the time I'd made my way around the store with my lotion, Izze sodas and magazines I changed my mind:) 

So I put this on to make it's blog debut but I spent most of the day in flannel pj's and Uggs. So glamorous, right? There's a blanket of beautiful, fluffy, fresh snow out and there is something comforting about spending Sunday snowed in flipping channels between sappy Lifetime Christmas movies and episodes of Bridezilla(a guilty pleasure).

I desperately need to figure out the picture taking situation for the cold! What are the rest of you that live in places where it's now freezing and snowing going to do? I feel like I just got the hang of taking my photos outside and really improved on picture quality and now I have to figure out something else:( Or do I just man up and deal with the elements?

Have a happy Sunday evening!