Kate Spade Surprise Sample Sale

Just in time for Christmas shopping! Kate Spade just announced a surprise sample sale (LOVE it when they do that!) If you sign up for their emails or "like" them on Facebook you have already heard, but if not that's what I'm here for ;)

Great for holiday gifts for others or a gift or two for yourself ;)

Happy Shopping!

Kate Spade

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Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for this year and thank God every day for everything and for His blessings. I hope everyone is spending the day with friends and family, eating too much food, drinking ~~too much~~ wine, watching the parade and/or football, and just generally relaxing and enjoying the company of those you love.

Now that Thanksgiving is here, I no longer feel like I'm jumping the gun on Christmas and can officially unveil this year's Christmas card I ordered from Shutterfly. They currently have 20% off Christmas cards and free shipping (use offer code SHIP30).

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Poor Roxy... we got her the cutest little antlers from Target and they wouldn't stay up and kept flopping over so she doesn't exactly look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Doggy, but I hope our friends and family can tell what we were trying to do there :-P

Happy Thanksgiving!

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What I'm Loving Wednesday

Usually I'd be wishing everyone a Happy Hump Day but today is my Friday, and I'm so glad because I'm in need of a nice long weekend. Linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday.

~ I'm loving that tomorrow is Thanksgiving.. Happy Turkey Day Eve!

~ I'm loving that A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is on tonight at 8:00 on ABC

~ I'm loving that we're going to see Cirque du Soleil La Nouba this weekend

~ I'm loving my recent Pinterest finds:

~~Phoebe's maternity pants~~ Joey's Thanksgiving pants!

~ I'm always loving my wonderful H

What are you loving today?

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Sephora VIB Haul

I was super bummed this year that Sephora didn't have their annual Friends & Family sale.. well they did but it was only for friends and family of Sephora employees and not for all us regular peeps. Boooooo! But there was a silver lining.. if you are a VIB (Very Important Beauty Insider) they still offered us a 20% discount plus a free Sephora tote for a few days last week. I decided to place an order for myself and add a few gifts for others as well :)

1. Bumble & Bumble Hair Thickening Spray

2. Pro Bronzer Brush #48

3. Baked Blush Duo

The hair thickening spray is one of my beauty staples since my hair is super fine and lacks oomph *sigh* but the brush and the blush are both new and so far I'm loving both.

The brush is super soft and applies and blends my bronzer better than any brush I've used before

Also loving this blush! I've switched blushes A LOT. I used MAC's blush for years, and eventually switched to Sephora's "colorful blush" and then decided to try NARS Orgasm since everyone raves about it. I was meh about it and hit the pan pretty quickly so needless to say I was not impressed especially not for the price. Most recently, I wanted to try out ELF's baked blush (only sold online), but it was constantly sold out, and when it finally came back in stock I couldn't stomach the thought of paying 3 x's the amount of the product for shipping. So, I decided to try out Sephora's version and I have not been disappointed. It applies much nicer than any of the blushes I mentioned above and gives me warm glowy look which is what I love :)

I also picked up these Philosophy products as gifts. I gave the birthday girl set to my friend this past weekend, and plan on gifting the gingerbread house as part of a Christmas gift to SIL. Who doesn't love yummy smelling bubble bath?

My free VIB tote :)

I could have done A LOT more damage, but with Christmas right around the corner and all the things H and I are trying to get done around the house I decided to behave myself. Be proud!

Sephora

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What's on your Thanksgiving menu?

Last year I didn't have to cook for Thanksgiving since we drove to Key West for the weekend, but the year before last I made my 1st turkey!

It was our 1st Thanksgiving in FL and it was just the 2 of us. I was so proud of myself because the turkey came out awesome! I also made candied yams, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, gravy, and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. We had leftovers for days!

This year, we were invited to a few different friend's homes for the big meal, but we talked about it and decided we wanted to be home all day and make dinner again like we did 2 years ago. We've been so busy lately it'll be so nice to stay home. Our neighbors also invited us over, but I told them we'll come by for dessert. Best of both worlds! We get to lounge around comfortably in our own home most of the day, then walk down the street for dessert which I'll be going to armed with my homemade pumpkin cheesecake. YUM!

I'll be making:

~ Turkey

~ Candied Yams

~ Mashed Potatoes

~ Stuffing

~ Gravy

~ Pumpkin Cheesecake

And of course there will be wine...

I mentioned last week that I'll be making my mom's stuffing recipe with apples and sausage and had a few requests to post the recipe. In my opinion no other stuffing ever compares to this!

Ingredients:

~ 1 package of Pepperidge Farms or Seasons stuffing

~ 1/2 sweet onion

~ 2 stalks of celery

~ Butter or margarine (not oil)

~ 1/2 package of Jimmy Deans sausage

~ 1 egg

~ 1/2 macintosh apple

~ Poultry seasoning

Saute onion and celery in butter with a pinch of salt

Cook stuffing on the stove top according to directions on bag

Mix all ingredients together and pack inside turkey or a greased casserole dish

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour along with whatever else is in the oven ;)

Enjoy!

Recipe

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Weekend Re-cap

Another whirl-wind weekend has come to an end, but fear not! We are headed into a short week and the first big holiday of the season :)

Friday night we went to the fundraiser for H's work. I was excited to get dressed up, but it ended up being chilly that night so I went with pants, a lacy top, and sparkly heels instead of a dress. There were some ladies there in cocktail dresses, but the majority of us were in pants. Boring I know...

Yes.. H is participating in Movember to raise awareness for men's health. Great cause.. but for a month I'm married to someone who looks like he's straight out of a bad 70's movie lol :-P

It was a fun night of great food, open bar, and a black jack tournament. H even won me a corkcicle! It's a great little device you can freeze and stick in a bottle of wine to keep it cold.

It was straight out of an episode of The O.C. but without the Seth Cohen commentary

Such a good time.. but man alive did I pay for it on Saturday.

Saturday was a wash for me... I was pinned to the couch all day until I knew I had to get up and shower for our friend's b-day dinner. Blahhhh...

Check out those hot ~~faux~~ leather leggings! I paired them with a sparkly top and my gold heels. H laughed at me when I bought them but he loved how they looked once I put an outfit together. Men...

Sunday was a busy day making up for Saturday being a complete wash. I ran to Super Target (my happy place!) and picked up the last of my Thanksgiving dinner necessities and some more decor items for our fast approaching Christmas party.

So excited for the upcoming long weekend :)

OOTD

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Sunday Social ~ Thankfulness

I still can't believe Thanksgiving is only days away.. in the spirit of the holiday, I'm linking up with Ashley and Neely for Sunday Social and this week we're talking about what we're thankful for. Hop on over and link up!

I have so much to be thankful for this year and couldn't be happier :)

My wonderful husband

Our beautiful home

Our silly doggy

Our wonderful travels

Our friends we've made in FL

Our friends back in CT

I'm also thankful for...

~ Our wonderful neighborhood and awesome neighbors

~ Our jobs in this tough economy

~ Wine and Skinny Margaritas

~ Our families who are there for us no matter what

~ My weight loss this past year... I'd like to thank my elliptical machine and Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. Looking back at pictures from this time last year, I see a big difference and it feels great! Hard work definitely pays off.

~ My mom who passed down her love of cooking and baking to me.. it comes in handy around the holiday season

~ This bloggy community and the great bloggy friends I've made through it :)

What are you thankful for this year?

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Happy Friday!

TGIF! I'm always happy for the weekend, but knowing that we're going into a short week next week makes it even better!

Tonight, we're going to a benefit hosted by H's work. Last year it was a lot of fun.. open bar, good food, black jack tournaments, what's not to love? Looking forward to dressing up and hob-nobbing with high society tonight. We'll be the regular people at the bar trying to convince the bartender to make us shots (hey it worked last year! lol) *hides in the corner in shame* Last year, I felt like I was at a party from The O.C. being outdoors on the water in late fall at a benefit for a good cause minus the punches being thrown by Ryan Atwood. Awesomeness...

Tomorrow, we have a b-day dinner for one of our friends and a night out downtown. I plan on finally breaking out my ~~faux~~ leather leggings

I also totally plan on taking advantage of Starbucks Buy One Get One holiday drinks this weekend.... of course in the oh so exciting red cups!! That makes me a happy girl!

Don't forget to take advantage of this yummy deal this weekend!

Sunday, I'm looking forward to relaxing and maybe just maybe... I'll finally get around to making those clicky sparkly links up at the top actually connected to something. Wouldn't that be nice? I've been majorly slacking on finishing my page since my the re-design. * embarrassed* You all need to hold me accountable! ;)

Starbucks

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It's OK Thursday

Happy Friday Eve! We're almost to the weekend, and then it's just a short week til Turkey Day! :)

Linkin' up with Amber and Neely for It's OK Thursday

It's OK that....

~ I've been a little bit online-shopping happy lately. Getting ready for Christmas early :)

~ I refuse to shop online without going through ebates or Rapid Rewards Shopping first. Why give up free money?

~ As excited as I am for all the fun stuff going on this weekend, I'm bummed I'll be out on Friday and Saturday night. I'd love one of those to be a sweatpants and movie night date with my couch :-P

~ I'm officially hooked on Disney... looking up tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party... I'll fit right in with all the other kids right?

~ Every time Harry Potter comes on tv I watch it even though I have all the DVD's... just can't resist

~ I was craving something sweet, so I opened up a can of frosting with spoon in hand 0:-)

~ I've committed myself to too many cookie swaps and Secret Santas *oy*

What's OK in your life today?

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What I'm Loving Wednesday

Happy Hump Day! Linkin' up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday.

~ I'm loving that I finally went to Disney World this past weekend!

~ I'm loving the Skinny-mini's from the fabulous Bethenny. Totally smuggle worthy for the movies :)

~ I'm loving that today is pizza day at work! Yummmmy!

~ I'm loving that my RHBH ladies are back!

~ I'm also loving seeing Kyle and Camille as friends! Even nicer than seeing Gretchen and Tamra as friends on RHOC.

~ I'm loving Clinton Kelly from The Chew! He is beyond adorable and needs to be my best friend like NOW!

~ I'm loving Benefit's They're Real mascara... I know I did a mascara post raving about my undying love for Maybelline's Falsies, but I've made room for one more tube of amazingness in my life. Review coming soon I promise!