Happy Friday (Oh, and Happy New Year)!

This week has been filled with food, food and more food.  In between cooking and eating I've squeezed in a little Christmas cheer and some relaxation, too.

Some recent highlights I want to remember:

• Making this broccoli salad recipe.  Hot sauce and the sweetness of honey and craisons together?  What?  Sounds weird but it works!
• More holiday baking and a small victory: I have not eaten all of the results of my baking projects.
• Mixing up a batch of muesli (from this great cookbook).  It's so nice to have a jar in the cupboard to mix with Greek yogurt for a healthy (hearty) breakfast.
• Completing a jigsaw puzzle.  It may be a little nerdy, but working on a jigsaw puzzle feels like the holidays to me.
• Churning out some pumpkin pie ice cream in my new ice cream maker (a.k.a. the best birthday gift ever).
• Spending an hour next to a fresh Christmas tree.  There are few smells better than this one.  Next year I will have a fresh Christmas tree in my house, so help me. 

This weekend I'm looking forward to ringing in 2012 (and thinking up a resolution or two)!

Happy Friday and happy, happy New Year!

Let's Have a Movie Night

cream pillow / pom pom blanket / love pillow / candles

sweater / pajamas / slippers / earrings / headband

tea & mugs / popcorn & bowl / cookies & plate

This has been a lazy week so far (and blissfully so).  I'm off from work and I've been staying up way too late, eating way too much (and loving it).  Doesn't a movie night seem like a good way to legitimize this gluttony?  Curling under a blanket with some candles burning, tucking into a chick flick with a mustache mug of tea and some sugary treats...who's with me?

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

 

Just a few of the things that are convincing me that Christmas might be right around the corner. 

Baking Gingerbread

With less than a week until Christmas, I've been feeling like I don't quite have the proper amount of Christmas spirit just yet.  I'm not a scrooge, but I haven't done much decorating, shopping or holiday indulging.  This weekend I attempted to make that right by baking up a batch of gingerbread cookies with royal icing (recipe here).  I was feeling very festive--with the She & Him Christmas station blaring on Pandora--when I realized the only cookie cutters I had were appropriate for the holiday of love rather than the holiday of light. 

Oh, well.  Christmas is about love, too.

Winter Green

drummer / garden / room / sketch / blazer / vases / inspiration board

Evergreen is the color of the season (for another week or so at least).  Next it'll be glitter for New Year's eve and then red for Valentine's day.  But for now, let's give green its due

Simple, But Important Lessons

I've learned a couple of lessons lately.  They're simple and in some cases, very obvious.  Lessons that you hear about all the time, but ones I've recently learned on my own through experience. 

But please don't get me wrong--this is not earth shattering material here--one lesson is about my beauty routine, one about working out and one about a TV series you have to start watching immediately.

Herewith, my lessons recently learned:

: : Slough your heels after you get out of the shower.  Does everyone know to do this?   I feel like I've read this advice before but never followed it.  My usual technique is to pumice my heels when they are nice and dry, just before I give myself a pedicure.  I tried sloughing right after bathing the other day just because it was convenient and holy dead skin!  Changed my heel care routine forever.

: : Do the priority items on your weekend list first.  Working out is always my number one priority during the weekend, but something fun, something chore-like or something nap-like always seems to come up to distract me from getting it done.  Last weekend I went to the gym first thing in the morning on Saturday and Sunday.  I think it changed my life.  There were tons of things on my to do list I didn't get to, but I didn't care since I had gotten the most important thing checked off.  So simple and obvious, but a great lesson.

: : Watch Damages.  The show come very highly recommended by certain members of my family.  Still, I never really felt much like renting it.  After finishing all the seasons of Breaking Bad that Netflix had to offer, I knew it was time.  And it's amazing!  I'm five episodes in and, like an addict needing a fix, I am trembling with anticipation as I wait for the next few to come in the mail.

photo

Winter Wish List

It's Christmas shopping season and all I can think about are things that I want to buy for myself.  But, hey, buying myself a few new things will make me look better; looking better will make me feel better; feeling better makes me generous; generosity makes for better Christmas gifts for the people on my list.  See how that works?  Time to go shopping! 

Here are the things on my list for myself this winter:

A flowy blouse.  I hate the word blouse, but there's not really a better term for what these are.  Light, wispy fabric, sometimes with a lady tie, sometimes not.  Sometimes with a print and sometimes not.  I would love to wear a flowy blouse with a pencil skirt, black cropped slacks (slacks...I hate that word too...), or some distressed jeans. 

dark printed / green bow / white bow / light printed

Color blocking.  Basically, it's just a fun excuse to wear crazy color pairings, which I am all for.  Two examples of my favorite ways to wear color block are here and here.

black and yellow / brown and blue / hot pink and orange

Ankle booties.  All of my favorite shoes are peep toed.  In the wintertime I wear snow boots into the office and then my peep toes while I work.  At least once a week someone asks me if my exposed toes are making me cold.  The honest answer is no, but all of the questions get me thinking that it is time for some closed toe footwear.  Ankle booties seem like a good option--covered and allowing for the possibility of wearing tights underneath.  I envision wearing them with black tights and a pencil skirt well into spring.

black leather / tan leather / black suede

A sweater jacket.  It's cold when I get dressed in the morning.  I always want to reach for a sweater.  A sweater jacket is a nice alternative, perfect for layering (a cold weather bonus).  I am imagining a sweater jacket with a silky top underneath (flowy blouse, anyone?) with trousers for work or jeans for the weekend. 

white and black / green / gray /  gray with buttons

Leggings.  I have been racking my brain trying to come up with cuter things to wear to bed (and then for lounging around the house all weekend).  Giant sweatpants are cute only sometimes.  Leggings, though!  They're comfy, body conscious and a little more feminine than the giant sweats.  

pattern / black