Christmas Wishlist

Christmas Wishlist

Oh how I love the holiday season! I love everything about it... Christmas baking, shopping, parties, decorating, new Yankee Candle scents, and time with family and friends. We're hosting our 1st annual Christmas party here at the house and I'm super excited! Pinterest has been my lifesaver with the planning! 

But in the midst of all the yummy cookies, egg nog, and gatherings, my H and our families ask for my wish list. 

It took me a little while to compile this year's wish list:












Bathtub pillow


Essie nail polishes








More of our dishes from Crate & Barrel










What's on your holiday wish list?


Why I Left MAC for Sephora

Why I Left MAC for Sephora

I was a loyal MAC cosmetics customer for almost 10 years, and I still love their products don't get me wrong! But a girl needs some incentives! All MAC ever did for me was give me free shipping codes all.the.time... oh and I love their "bring back to MAC" program of bringing back 6 compacts for them to recycle and they'll give you a free lipstick or eye shadow. Buuuuut... Sephora has the wonderful Beauty Insider and VIB program. Being a Beauty Insider opens up the doors to lots of rewards and offer codes all year plus a free birthday gift during your birthday month. And if you spend a certain amount at Sephora each year, you become a VIB (Very Important Beauty Insider) which opens up a lot more doors! Nevermind all the samples with each order, and the beauty insider bank. I've gotten some awesome 100 and 500 point rewards which makes me a happy VIB :)



Being a VIB, I received 20% off my entire purchase last month, and now they're gifting me $20 off my next purchase. (regular Beauty Insiders get $15 off with the same offer)



If you're a Beauty Insider and/or VIB check your email! Your reward should be in there :)

It's OK Thursday

It's OK Thursday

Happy Friday Eve! Linkin' up with Amber and Neely for It's OK Thursday.


I'm also blog-hopping over at Desirae's blog today:



It's OK that....


~ I'm super excited about the Target and Neiman Marcus partnership debuting this Saturday, but I may be too lazy to get up and be at the store when it opens. Online shopping it is.. hopefully the website doesn't crash!





~ I have H's work Christmas party and our Christmas party here at the house next week and I still haven't gotten a new dress for either. 

~ I'm almost done Christmas shopping for my mom and MIL but haven't even started shopping for my dad or FIL... why are women so easy to buy for but men are impossible? 

~ It's not officially Christmas time until Charlie Brown Christmas is on (was on last night!)



~ No matter what time I go to bed during the week it's like an act of congress to get me out of bed in the morning. Soooo not a morning person!

~ We finally got a king size comforter for our new king size bed. Yep... we've been still using our queen comforter which means lots of tug of war over the blanket and why I haven't posted pics of our new tufted headboard. Once the new blanket arrives, I promise to post pics! 

~ I have zero interest in going to see The Hobbit

~ The quickest way to get me to turn the radio station is to hear Nicki Minaj... like nails on a chalkboard!

~ I never liked country music (I can hear the gasps of horror from all my Texas girls!) ... but I LOOOVE Carrie Underwood and am starting to love Luke Bryan too :-P



What's OK in your life today?

What I'm Loving Wednesday

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Hump Day! Linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday. Hop on over and join the fun, and congratulate her on being a new mommy! Her little boy entered this world over the weekend and is adorable!



~ I'm loving that not only did our Christmas cards arrive on Monday, but I've already mailed them all out. 

~ I'm loving that I won Kristen's awesome giveaway! Hello peppermint mochas and thin mints! :-D

I won 2 boxes of thin mints and a Starbucks gift card, she also included a sweet card. She's the best!

~ I'm loving that my friend Emily has joined the bloggy community! Check out my intro post for her from yesterday and hop on over to her blog and say hi ;)

~ I'm loving that we're getting our Christmas tree this weekend. We have a lot of our decorations up and the lights on the house outside, but I'm waiting for the official "centerpiece". 

~ I'm loving my recent Pinterest finds:



Pattern Mixing


Vanity Table


North Pole cupcakes






~ I'm always loving my wonderful H



What are you loving today?

Meet Emily!

Meet Emily!

I'd love to introduce you all to the lovely Emily from Martinis & Bikinis






You may recognize her from many of my weekend posts (or my post on her wedding weekend ) as she's one of my wonderful new friends here in sunny Florida. She and her husband have been awesome since H and I moved down here. We didn't know anyone when we first moved here, and they started inviting us out and introduced us to their great group of friends. Hence us having a life in FL commenced whoo hoo! We love hanging out with them and listening to her husband sing karaoke and hearing stories of her growing up in Trinidad... yes she's a Caribbean girl (jealous)!

I'm super excited that one of my in-real-life friends has joined our little community and hope you all give her a big bloggy welcome!









She just started her blog which is a lifestyle blog with some fashion & beauty, shopping, travel pics, and recipes mixed in. She is new to this wonderful bloggy community, so head on over and say hello :)


I Love Long Weekends

I Love Long Weekends

Oh how I love long holiday weekends! I knew it would go by fast, but we enjoyed every second of it.

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at the house (I was happy to break out our wedding china) and then we walked down the street and had dessert with some of our neighbors. Mmmmm pumpkin cheesecake!

That night, we decided to join all the crazies and try to snag some deals. It makes me so sad that the sales get more and more out of control and start earlier and earlier each year. Remember when people thought it was crazy that stores opened at 6:00am on Black Friday? Then it was 5:00am.. then 4:00am and then in recent years they started opening at midnight. Well, this year, Walmart opened at 8:00pm Thursday night, and Target opened at 9:00pm. I so didn't want to join the crowds because I feel awful for the workers who have to leave their families to go into work on Thanksgiving night, but we don't have family around here so we weren't leaving any gatherings to go to the store. I still felt guilty and once I saw all the crazy unfold right before my eyes I realized this was probably my first and only time participating in "doorbusters". But seriously how can you call it "Black Friday" when it's still Thursday night? I think I'll be sticking to Cyber Monday from now on... which is today whoo hoo!

My outfit for insanity shopping... so excited I finally fit in these jeans! I got them at Express and left the tags on since they were too small but I was determined to fit into them. Last year, I couldn't even pull them up never mind zip them up. They now fit perfectly and are even a little roomy. Such an awesome feeling! 

We were able to get everything we were looking for... games for cheap, blu ray DVD's for $4 each, and even a fire pit! :)


The next morning we headed back out to Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohls. We stopped at Starbucks for a gingerbread latte, and they were also handing out free pumpkin spiced latte samples YES PLEASE! 

I picked up a bunch of red and gold ornaments and a glass cylinder to bring a Pinterest project to life. 



That night, my college roomie (who is another Connecticut to Florida transplant) arrived with her new boyfriend... love seeing her so happy! We all went to see Cirque du Soleil La Nouba:






Saturday, was nice and relaxing. I did a little shopping, H hung up the lights on the outside of the house, and a new ceiling fan in the family room which he claims was a must have before our Christmas party in a few weeks. Men... 

Sunday, H and I dressed up in our Chiefs jerseys and went to a friend's house to watch them play the Broncos. They're Broncos fans so it got interesting, and as much as the Chiefs suck this year they held on for a while but of course lost... poor H! 



Representing both teams... football dorks!


And of course Roxy is now donning her Christmas bells :-D


I hope everyone had an amazing holiday weekend, now it's time to get back into the grind, but we still have the majority of the holiday season left to look forward to ;)

Sunday Social

Sunday Social

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving weekend with friends and family. These 4 day weekends are always such a blessing... we recharge on sleep, spend more time with loved ones, and can get so much more done. LOVE!

First things first... if you haven't already go check out Desirae's 300 follower giveaway. There's a ton of great prizes up for grabs and I'm one of the giver-away-ers. I'm super excited because this is the first time I'm participating in someone else's giveaway.

Linking up with Ashley and Neely for Sunday Social... come on over and join us :)



1. Name four jobs you've had in your life

~ My first job ever was at Forever 21 my senior year of high school, I also waited tables at both TGIFridays and Chilis in college and my favorite position ever was my college internship at the state legislature working for a state representative. It was amazing to be "hob-nobbing" with state senators, reps, lobbyists, and even the governor! 

2. Name four movies you'd watch over and over

~ Titanic
~ Any Harry Potter movie (OBSESSED)
~ Wedding Crashers
~ Meet the Parents






3. Name four places you have lived

~ Connecticut (born and raised)
~ My college campus... SO.MUCH.FUN
~ Our 1st apartment here in FL
~ Our 1st HOUSE here in Florida... you couldn't pay me enough to move back up north!

4. Name four of your favorite foods

~ Anything Italian.. pasta, pizza, anti paste, bruschetta..... YUM!
~ Homemade baked mac n' cheese
~ My mom's stuffing (still have Thanksgiving on the brain)
~ Buffalo chicken dip... seriously it's like crack!

5. Name four things you always carry with you

~ My iPhone
~ My beautiful new MK bag
~ Hand sanitizer
~ My license.. can't believe I still get carded! I guess I should take that as a compliment :-P

6. Name four places you've been on vacation

~ Cancun (still our favorite vacay!)
~ Fiji (our amazing honeymoon)
~ Key West (where we spent last Thanksgiving and went parasailing!)
~ Honduras (on a cruise stop last summer where we went zip lining... AMAZING!)

Snorkeling the South Pacific


This reminds me that I really need to get around to making those glittery little buttons at the top actually link to something. I've been majorly slacking since the blog re-design overhaul *embarassed* The travel tab is supposed to actually link to well.. our travels! But for the time being... don't forget to grab my button... so excited I finally have one of those :-D

Hope everyone's enjoying what's left of this wonderful long weekend :)