paint, sparkles, and coffee

 [via Wit and Whistle ]

Pretty journals

 [ via Chocolate Therapie ]

[ photo by Simply Seductive ]

[ Edited/text by me ]

[ via Peony Lim ]

Goodbye, 2012. It's been a year of firsts. 

And these pictures makes me happy.

I'll hold you closest to my heart

New sweater

J Crew

Clearance

This is so Stephanie and I

DIY mason jars

This was my inspiration for DIY dipped mason jars for New Years Eve

NAILED IT! 

not. 

here come the excuses; I don't have steady hands, the jars are textured instead of smooth, and Jen is the crafty one of the family, not me! 

They aren't beautiful but we can still drink champagne out of them!

chai spice & scrooge

I have had a blast hanging with my grandma and I'm so happy she is able to spend the holidays with us.

I've enjoyed spending plenty of time with my friends over Christmas break, and I just landed a great job for the summer. First ever KU basketball game Saturday, I guess it's better now than never.

Oh and grey nails by covergirl...fantastic.

I'm surrounded by some amazing people, I have a lot to be thankful for in my life.

My grandma is so stinkin cute.

And most importantly!!! My sister is getting married, and of course, I am her maid of honor!

I am so happy for you both.

miscellaneous sunday

Baking gingerbread, drinking tea, and retiling a fireplace with Rachel Szmed today 

- then I came across this.

It's beyond perfect.

I'm trying to bond with our new puppy. It isn't working very well.

jelly tea cookies

This recipe is easy, fun, and delicious. It's hard to have all three of these aspects when cooking, usually you have to pick two and deal with it! But not this time, thankfully. Because I am also making crockpot meatballs from scratch at the moment - something I've never done before. I'm bringing them to a friends house for a wine night. I figured that if the main dish was a bit complicated, I might as well make a simple dessert.

• Get your favorite sugar cookie recipe
• Roll out your cookie dough like normal
• Cut out in a shape of your choosing (I chose a bell)
• Put a small thumbprint in the middle 
• Once the cookies are cooled, put a dollop of strawberry jam in the center of thumbprint
• Dust with powdered sugar!

Enjoy!

p.s.

ROCK CHALK

oh, and, I want this cat

Conversation between my sister and I:

Jen: "Yep. I'm drinking sparking wine on the bus in San Francisco, all commutes are shaping up to be the same this weekend."

Me: "It's legal to drink alcohol on public transit?"

Jen: "Nope!"

Me: "Atta girl."

Jen: "I have two sips left. I'm carrying with me my laptop, some sausage I got as a gift from work, some eggs, and a bottle of wine."

Me: "You probably should be careful and not get mugged, you sound like someone I'd mug if I was hungry and wanted a drink. Don't get drunk and drop your eggs, that would be tragic. I hope you can get a flight tomorrow and not have an airport experience from hell again."

Jen: "Me too, because I can't afford anymore airport manicure and massages."

Collective laughing. I love my sister.

And, probably the best night I've had in a while with some fun girls!

friendship bread

So, I have to be honest. This bread was a lot of fun to make, but the fact that I have four starter bags to give away stresses me out a little. The idea behind friendship bread is to have four starter ziplock bags with 1 cup of batter in it (milk, cinnamon, vanilla pudding mix, flour, sugar, and eggs). You keep one bag for yourself and give away the ziplock bags, with a recipe attached. I bake my own batch, by adding ingredients to my own starter bag.

See? It can be daunting, but once you get the hang of it, it's the best bread I've ever had.

I wouldn't even call it bread. I would call it dense, sweet, moist cake-like bread.

My friend Linda gave me the starter bag - the recipe is below!

Day 1 - receive the starter (the recipe for the starter is below)

Day 2 - stir

Day 3 - stir

Day 4 - stir

Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.

Day 6 - stir

Day 7 - stir

Day 8 - stir

Day 9 - stir

Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.

After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2/3 cup oil

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 1/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional).

Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour 

p.s. It's almost 6am and I can't sleep. Does this happen to anyone or is it just me?

we know how to get down

fabulously fresh

Today I took myself out for coffee and bought some new body wash

I love this stuff, it's very pepperminty

And I'm really into stripes right now, even though they're not winter scarves.

I definitely don't need anymore scarves, but I like to look : ) 

snuggle time with my lady

DONE!

I just wanted to say that I survived my first semester of grad school, making straight A's, working two jobs, working on a play, working with dirty-boogery middle school kids (and I didn't even get sick!) This is how I celebrate before getting my hair did, and going out for margaritas. Yay coffee! P.s. Grandma Alexander is here for 15 days, so happy to see her : ) 

I suppose this is also how you celebrate the ending of classes

 classy...I know

Four things

And, The hopeless romantic in me wants to do this:

My sister and Griff's cards turned out great last year

Aldo blues, i love these shoes.

Candle Queens is PERFECT for the holidays!

Amazing Christmas-y scents. 

New stationary makes me happy. 

As does, writing to my friends and family, and making those beloved truffles to give to teachers

That moment when you realize you're the only one of your friends who isn't in a relationship,

that's an interesting moment.

into the fold

Christmas in the classroom

We made the tree out of the student's hands!

This weekend is shaping up to be quite exciting.

snowflake flannels. ideal tuesday nigh