looking to the new year...

[a snapshot taken last nye]

so last year's nye was T and i's first together. our plans were last minute and a little hectic but perfect at the same time. the night finally fell into place as everyone started counting down to midnight; confetti fell, champagne was poured and i got to kiss my favorite to bring in the new year. fast forward to this year and it's a little similar, we are going out of town but haven't made any set plans for nye. whatever we end up doing, fancy or low-key, i'm sure it will be lovely. really i just look forward to having another new years together and seeing what 2012 brings.

*whether it may be with family, friends, that special someone or even a sweet pet, happy new year* 



a glittery accessory

with the festive weekend coming up, i felt my nails needed a little jazzing up...i especially love any nail color that has glitter in it. i'm thinking my new years outfit will have to have some extra glittery accents to it.

a holiday wrap up!

[1. T after christmas eve service...what a goof, 2. T and i cute christmasy pose, 3. the house that loves lights a little too much, 4. helping decorate the mini trees at home with oldie ornaments - the angel is my favorite, 5. notes from santa]

i have to say this has been one of my favorite christmases of all for so many reasons. hoping yours was wonderfully filled with great moments.

a christmas date and twinkly lights

a few days ago, T asked me on a date...and not just any date, a christmas date! i was so excited and couldn't wait to see what he had planned.

so we first started with ice skating, which i have to admit, it was only the second time i had been and am pretty awful. if you have ever been ice skating, there is inevitably someone who is clutching for dear life to anything and squealing like crazy. well...i'm that someone. no joke, i am a huge klutz on the ice. kids skate better than me. but, it is a great excuse for T to show off his great skills as he pulls me behind him! after ice skating, we strolled around the streets nearby listening to christmas music and sipping on hot cocoa. it was perfect and i loved it.

tomorrow we will be heading home and i cannot wait to be with family for all the traditions and fun! hoping your holidays will be lovely too.

pup diaries

hey there, my name is boba. mom said i could write a bit today and she is helping me type the letters! i'm a really cute pup and i love water (i especially love soap). i don't like baths but i sure do like when my mom takes one. it's like she's in a big water bowl!

well that's all for now. i better run before they decide i need to get clean, ick.

bye!

boba

playing holiday hostess

so i have to apologize i have been slacking on blogging the past couple of weeks, i had been crazy busy planning and hosting a little holiday celebration at T and i's house! well it was a little of christmas and a little of celebrating T graduating!! i had decided i wanted to bake all the sweet treats for the party so i made whoopie pies with marshmallow and creme cheese filling, confetti truffles and dark chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream...mmm.

thankfully i finished all the xmas decorations and treats just in time including the snowball wreath i meantioned before!

the party was so much fun and i was so excited we had such a great turn out! (plus playing holiday hostess was a lot of fun)

since then we have been busy little christmas partiers..'tis the season i suppose :)

hoping your holidays have been extra festive so far!





getting crafty

one of my favorite things to do before xmas time is to check out craft ideas martha stewart has for decorating. i love her use of ordinary objects to make such cute and functional knick-knacks! so i made a list for myself of all the crafts i wanted to do and the first on my list, a snowball wreath! it's crazy easy and you only need a few supplies: cardboard, pom pom balls (small and large), a hot glue gun and glue sticks

now some places sell their cardboard pre-cut in a wreath shape, i just used a presentation board and cut out the shape with a box cutter. next i applied the hot glue to the board and started placing pom poms all over (it's best to go in short spurts since the hot glue dries crazy fast)!

first i applied the big pom poms all around and went back after to fill in/fluff up with the little ones! and here is the end result....

ta-da!! i love how fluffy and messy it looks, like small mounds of snow! i am making four right now and will show the rest together once i get more snowballs, haha. T even got in on the crafting and had some fun too...we of course balanced out the girlie craft hour by watching indiana jones :)

can't wait to finish them! 

charlie the christmas tree

so after i told T about my stop at the tree shop, the next day he took a long study break and surprised me with going to get our xmas tree! i was so excited and had no idea it was going to be T and Boba's first live christmas tree! so there we were trying to decide....should we go tall and skinny, shorter and wide, the peanuts tree, the short stack tree....decisions decisions...how could we decide!

eep! i couldn't wait to take our tree home to introduce him to our pup and adorn it with twinkly lights and pretty things. the pup wasn't sure what to think...should he sniff it each time he walked by, drink the new water bowl under the tree, run by it so it scratches his back or mark it as his own (maybe a chance at indoor plumbing)? so much for him to think about! 

 

ta-da! here is charlie all dressed up and yes, i am the kind of girl who names her tree. now that charlie is dolled up, everytime i come home i get a big wiff of fresh pine and have an instant smile on my face! (plus now, the pup has decided he and charlie are playmates so we are on hunt for ornaments knocked off the tree) *sigh* next up, christmas crafts!

it's the holiday season

i am SO excited it is finally december. let the christmas season get in full swing!! i cannot tell you how hard i have tried to not get bitten by the christmas bug too early...starting the holiday decorations was hard enough, let me tell you. now that the streets and shops of norman are fully decorated, twinkly lights adorn every house and tree farms are popping back up, i am in the christmas spirit and then some! honestly, i'm even having a hard time concentrating at work because i keep thinking of all the martha christmas crafts i plan on making. oh and don't worry, i fully intend on posting pics of my projects to come....my lunch break with friends today certainly did not help as one of the tree farm locales is across the way from where we ate. ugh! christmas, i have to go back to work after lunch, so why tempt me with one of my favorite parts of the season!!

so of course i had to check out my upcoming tree-to-be as well as get ideas for garlands and wreaths. fortunately my fellow co-worker and close friend Caroline came with as she loves christmas time too.

i can't say that we weren't both tempted to load up the car, the smells of pine were so seductive! but sigh, back to work we had to go. to help ease our blues of not going christmas crazy, we listened to christmas music the rest of the day in the office while we both daydreamed of decorating. soon, tree farm...i will be back, and next time prepared!

the new girl

tuesdays have kinda of become my favorite day of the week. so much so that i'm not too grumpy on monday morning because i know it's so close to tuesday! and what you may ask gets me so bubbly for tuesdays? the new girl. as a fellow quirky girl, i have loved zooey deschanel for a long time and she & him is one of my favorite bands. (i've seen them in concert and she is even more loveable!) i really cannot pin it down to anything in particular that makes me love her so....maybe it's those big blue peepers, the quirks in her demeanor or even the velvety rasp of her speaking and singing voice.

i don't know if you have seen the new girl but i personally love it (obviously). i don't think i've ever wanted to wear thick, square-framed glasses so badly! her made up songs about daily activities, positive attitude and funny mannerisms make me look forward to the show each week. if you haven't, you really should at least check it out! i always watch it while i have some of my (new found) favorite ice cream...mmm!

get this! i don't even like strawberry cheesecake or any cheesecake for that matter! strange right? but i am bananas for this b&J flavor. maybe it's my kryptonite, as odd as it may seem! before i skedaddle, i have to tell y'all, the pup has started the cutest habit. he sleep barks and runs (or moves his paws really fast)...i always wonder what he dreams about...probably at cats and cute girl pups.

night!

a thankful weekend

typical to tradition, my thanksgiving was filled with giving thanks, yummy food and overindulgence. it was a little different this year because i normally make my way to the windy city with my family, but this year i spent it with T's family! i was so nervous to spend a holiday with his family, but things couldn't have gone better! my brother who had to stay in town came with which made it all the more better. there was lots of laughter, drinks and amazing food (T's mom is a wiz in the kitchen, oh my gatos) the next day i made sweet potato biscuits and we went to friendsgiving. i always love getting together with our friends since we spend most of the time joking around and playing games. jenga is my favorite! food-coma and movie watching ensued with T and our pup. to finish the weekend, T and i decorated the house for xmas (minus tree...that will be saved for another day) and raked the leaves in our yard. this of course leads to my favorite of all things, jumping in leaf piles!

it was the pup's first leaf pile to jump in, so he was a little hesitant. i'm pretty sure he was scared of it, he's a scaredy cat about most things!

but once i jumped in, he felt the need to rescue me....or lick me a bunch...whichever he thought helped most, haha. it's little moments like today, or even the whole weekend, that make me thankful for all the wonderful family and friends i have in my life; for T and i's sweet puppy and all the mischief he makes, for the quirkyness T and i share, the little moments that make me smile, for good health, for positivity, and to have, in tough times like these, a job that makes me feel like i am making a difference. this past year has changed my life quite a bit but has also been amazingly wonderful too. it has made me realize that you should be thankful for the big and small moments in your life.

hope y'all had a great turkey day and enjoyed the weekend!

i made caramel!

today i felt the need to make a yummy dessert pre-turkey day overstuffing, so i decided to make apple crisp. but not any old apple crisp.....CARAMEL apple crisp! so how you may ask did i get the caramel (well other than of course buying it)? i made it! at first i wasn't sure it would actually come together as i was stirring the melting sugar and butter but sure enough it became caramel. who knew! once the platter was popped into the oven, the most delicious scents of vanilla, caramel and apple began wafting through our house...mmmm! and here is the final product, i'm so proud!

i am so excited it came out so well and now i can say i've made caramel from scratch! yes! 



a perfectly grey sunday

today was one of those classically grey fall days and had it not been for the surprise breakfast made by T, i could have easily fallen victim to the blues. but after my yummy stack of french toast and eggs, i felt the urge to take boba out on a walk to explore! the grey skies helped the fall hues pop and i had to take a couple of snapshots...

i love the trees whose leaves pop more than others, i always think that they're probably showing off to the others....red and orange have always been my favorites! i think these walks i've had with lately boba also cross off one of my fall to-do's too! (not to say we won't be going on walks through the neighborhood, but now that i've gotten some great pics i am more than okay with all the trees shaking off their leaves)

by time we got home it started pouring rain so the pup and i vegged out while watching movies. (T was busy with papers and what not) pretty great lazy sunday if i don't say so myself!

hope y'all had a great weekend!

the food experiment

so many of you may not know, but i love to cook. i talk about baking more with friends and family but cooking has really started to become a passion of mine. i love food and love experimenting, half the time with recipes or ingredients i haven't tried! (must be my love for adventure, even on a basic level) the past couple of nights i have loved my new creations and feel the urge to share them.....

the cooler weather gets me excited for fall veggies, and one of my favorites is spaghetti squash! now if you haven't tried this out, you really should, it's so easy to make and so good for you especially if you are a big pasta lover like me :)

the recipe i use is crazy simple (if you want to hear deets about it, let me know, i'm happy to share) and my favorite part is forking the squash until it looks like angel hair pasta. to kick it up i added loads of garlic, scallions and shrimp.  the next night i attemped the yummy noodle bowl, one of my favorite dishes but can easily be over done.

a super easy recipe and great way to end a long week!

mmm, what a yummy way to experiment and i'm so excited T loved them too! hope you find ways to try out news things with food!