year in review

1) I started a new blog!

2) we got some snow (understatement of the year)

3) I got a new toy (this is very important to me)

4) fun mini trips to Harper's Ferry, DC, NYC

5) Big Time trip to Disney World!

6) I got engaged!

7) I left a job that made me miserable (really, take a look at some posts from the beginning of the year. (I'm tired and I'm not posting today are common themes) and started working down the street from this instead of one of the craziest malls around.

8) We went to some fun carnivals and even the State Fair and got tons of amazing photos that make me happy.

9) We looked at wedding venues, but didn't find anything we could really work with, so instead...

10) we bought a house!

All in all I'd call the year a gleaming success, and next year is set to be completely off the charts!

Have a Happy New Year and be safe tonight, ok?

a few of my favorite things

As the year is coming to an end (can you believe it?) I thought it would be appropriate to do a little roundup of some of my favorite posts from this past year.

Out Of A Forest from Tobias Gundorff Boesen on Vimeo.

fun video and great song

amazing treehouses

illustrations from poopingrabbit

best family portrait ever

pretty cherry blossoms

graffiti love

fun with Hipstamatic

 The Like

wise words

my dream office

beautiful watercolors

magic

more wise words

State Fair adventures

pumpkin picking adventures

amazing rug

calligraphy address stamps

seriously want this camera bag

window shopping at Anthropologie

fab four

Hope you have enjoyed this year with me, I know I have. Thanks for reading, your support is much appreciated! (And if you enjoy my blog, please share it with others who would enjoy it. And remember to comment on the blog, not on facebook. It helps, it really does.)

:)

fab frocks

Modcloth

Now that we have a fabulous fifties house, I'm going to need a fabulous fifties dress for the housewarming party, right? Right?

We painted the living room today and I am in love. :)

Cat Rabbit

These little creatures have so much personality! I kind of want a small gang of them to hang out in the corner of my room. Guys like this really shouldn't be forced to live in solitude.

Cat Rabbit via Frankie Magazine

heart

A decade of iconic looks from The Beatles by Max Dalton spotted (quite some time ago, thank goodness for Google Reader or I would lose so many great things!) on Hi-Fi Weddings. Pretty bummed I can't find any for sale anywhere though. Hmph.

Happy Christmas!

From the eggnog pancakes to the Christmas chicken dinner, and all of the home demolition in between, today has been pretty great. Only wish we had more family nearby to spend the holidays with, but pretty excited about planting our roots firmly just where we are. It's been a pretty incredible year and we have much to look forward to in the next one!

Hope your holidays are filled with magic. :)

Happy Christmas Eve

I wish you all a wonderful, fabulous, relaxing holiday weekend. I'm excited about our special Christmas breakfast tomorrow morning (now that's a tradition I can get excited about!) and maybe even doing some work on the house since it's one of those rare days that the mister and I have off together. 

What do you have planned?

freebies for your last minute wrapping needs

Eat Drink Chic

inside a black apple

Those are just a couple of my favorites, but you can find a lot more over here! And don't say I never gave you anything!

too stinkin cute!

A gingerbread man baked into a cupcake and turned into a gingerbread house! I love everything about this (except maybe all that icing in the roof, I'm not much for icing.)

via Bake it in a Cake

We did it!

The papers have been signed, the keys are in our possession, and the mister and I are now officially homeowners! It's been a crazy month and it all came down to this: quite nearly an entire day spent sitting around a table waiting for the paperwork to come through so we could sign our lives away. It's so exciting! And stressful, scary, and crazy, but pretty stinkin' amazing! 

The contract included all furniture and contents of the shed, which ended up including a lot of stuff we did not expect. So we will be spending many days soon going through shelves of National Geographics and encyclopedias, cupboards full of dishes, and even a freezer full of food (three year old Hungry Man meals, oh yeah!) and hopefully making some pleasant discoveries before we are ready to settle in ourselves. Oh and the seller of the house could not have been more adorable. She really wanted to make sure we would love the house as much as she did and she even started crying a little. It made me a little sad, but not too much because we are going to love that little house (and give it the attention it so desperately needs)!

Anyway, expect a whole lot of talk about the house in the near future. Just fair warning.

how about a little randomness to spice things up around here?

This is amazing, enthralling, insane! I don't know how they're not landing on each others heads there. Kudos, synchronized divers.

via Urlesque

weekend off

Yes we have some packing to do and errands to run and things like that, but I'm hoping to do a fair amount of laying around and enjoying what life is these days. Because life is pretty good.

Image borrowed from Anna Grapes via Design Crush

I'm pretty sure I've posted this before

But rumor has it there may be some available for last minute Christmas gifting. In case you were just pulling your hair out wondering what to buy me. You're welcome.

party time!

Isn't this nail polish perfect for party season? Spotted on create*loves

pretty DIY ornaments

Check out the step by step directions on how to craft these lovely (and tasty looking!) ornaments over at Creature Comforts. Genius.

P.S. You're not tired of Christmas stuff yet, are you? Because I still have a good week ahead of me.

Where are you Christmas?

I was on a mission to find this version of this song (not the Faith Hill version, ick) which would allow me to share on my blog, and this is what I came up with. Look, I was desperate. This song is magic, and I just adore it to pieces.

These aren't so bad either, if you're into that sort of thing (and I am, I really am).

 

What's getting you in the holiday spirit?

so what if we didn't get any of that snow

I'm lounging around watching the news this morning, keeping an eye on that ticking list of school delays and closings, amazed that pretty much everywhere around here but not quite here at least has a dusting of snow. We have nothing. We have had temps in the teens, and several days of highs in the 30s, but all we got yesterday was rain.

Which doesn't leave me wanting some yummy hot chocolate on a stick any less. Let's face it, everything is better on a stick. via Hello!Lucky

want

J.Crew calls these slippers. I think I could get away with wearing them to work. Win/win.

Holiday eats

I'm taking a quick break from holiday decorating posts that seem to have taken over the entire blog here. Instead I will be sharing with you some delicious looking holiday treats!

You can get the recipe for this amazing pomegranate poke cake with cream cheese frosting over at Sprinkle Bakes. And I'm contemplating a little cake baking get together instead of the traditional cookie baking. All I know is this cake deserves to be made. And eaten. By me.

ok, i die

This camera bag is perfection. The extra large houndstooth. The little red leather buckles. The pockets. With this bag I will want to carry the camera around with me everywhere, on vacation or at the grocery store. It is just that cute.

Stash

Soooo when can I move in?

Have I mentioned I'm a bit sad (devastated) to not be able to really decorate for Christmas?

Yes, well, I could just curl up on the floor here beneath these candy colored stockings and die of happiness. So pretty!

via Thompson Family-Life