Merry (Belated) Christmas

Saturday, December 29, 2012

I guess I sort of fell off the face of the bogging earth for a while there. I certainly wasn't intending on taking a long break, but it was worth it! Christmas was fantastic, full of family, friends, food (so. much. food.), and wonderful times. My birthday was fairly uneventful except for the huge snowstorm that stranded us inside our home and knocked out the power for a few hours. But we survived and had a lovely Christmas. I'll freak out about being 27 and officially in my "late" twenties some other post. In the meantime, here are a few festive outfit photos from Las Vegas that I've been meaning to post. Merry belated Christmas everyone, hope you all had a lovely time! 

shirt & pants: Forever 21, shoes: Also, bag: Coach, necklace: Bloomindales, watch: Michael Kors




Viva Las Vegas

Monday, December 10, 2012

So remember that one time two weeks ago when I said we were going to Vegas for Thanksgiving and then never mentioned it again? Well, it was pretty awesome and fun. 




We stayed with Kacey's relatives most of the time and had much fun, cheese, good wine, and an amazing Thanksgiving dinner while catching up with them. We also stayed on the strip for a night at the Venetian, which had the nicest bathroom I've ever seen in my life (see above, isn't it crazy?) We got together with some friends who we haven't seen in a while, saw a show, ate good food, and walked around to take in as much as we could. Neither of us are big gamblers, but we played a tiny bit and lost of course. Although I'm pretty sure we made up for any money lost with all the free drinks we had!






On Thanksgiving we started the morning with brunch and then drove around the red rock area of western Las Vegas with Kacey's family to see the gorgeous dessert mountain landscape. I know most people think it looks barren and dead, but I think it's beautiful. So Vegas, you're pretty cool in my book, but don't take any more of my money, ok?

Under $25 Gift Guide: The Geek

Friday, December 7, 2012


Don't know your Star Trek from your Star Wars but have a friend/boyfriend/coworker who's obsessed? As a huge geek myself, I can assure you that these gifts are right up a fan's alley.

Perfect for: any geek, but find out which fandom they're part of first! (I've labeled the fandoms for those who aren't sure what any of this means.) 

1. Geek Wisdom Book (Barnes and Noble, $11.15)
2. Easy as Pie Pizza Cutter (Modcloth, $19.99)
3. Bazinga T-Shirt (ThinkGeek.com, $18.99)  - Big Bang Theory
4. Han Solo Ice Cube Tray (ThinkGeek.com, $9.99)  - Star Wars
5. 10th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver (ThinkGeek.com, $19.99)  - Dr. Who
6. Enterprise Bottle Opener (ThinkGeek.com, $19.99)  - Star Trek
7. Vader's Dark Side Roast Coffee (ThinkGeek.com, $14.99)  - Star Wars

Under $25 Gift Guide: The General Gift Exchange

Thursday, December 6, 2012


Odds are you probably have some sort of gift exchange going on this year. From friends to acquaintances or coworkers here are some gift ideas beyond the usual box of treats or bottle of wine. 

Perfect for: any stocking suffer gift exchange. 

1.  Valise Journal (Anthropologie, $24.00)
2. Storm of Sparkles Ring Holder (Modcloth, $11.99)
3. Capri Blue Cracked Ice Candle (Anthropologie, $18.00)
4. Take Out Menu Organizer (Modcloth, $21.99)
5. Chevron Sunglasses Case (Ruche, $14.99)
6. Minter Vase (Zara Home $16.90)

Under $25 Gift Guide: The Men

Wednesday, December 5, 2012


What do you get the guy who has everything? Or even worse, the guy who says he doesn't want anything (even though you know he doesn't mean it). 

Perfect for: your new boyfriend, the funny uncle, your nephew who you could swear was only 8 yesterday but is suddenly 17. 

1. The Zombie Survival Guide (Modcloth, $13.99)
2. Omega Shaving Set (Urban Outfitters, $24.00)
3.  Leather Anchor Key Ring (Urban Outfitters $18.00)
4. Bacon Floss (Urban Outfitters, $6.00)
5.  What Happened? Bandages (Urban Outfitters. $7.00)
6. Whiskey Stones (ThinkGeek.com, $19.99)

Under $25 Gift Guide: The Pet Enthusiast

Tuesday, December 4, 2012



Animal lovers are usually pretty easy to shop for - you can always get them something for their pet. But if you want to step up your game a bit, see below for some fun ideas!

Perfect for: your best friend who you've known since you were seven and love dearly but who's a little over attached to her cat, that coworker whose name you drew for the secret santa exchange and all you know about him is that he owns a dog.

1.  I Could Pee on This and Other Poems by Cats (Modcloth, $12.99)
2. All You Need Box Sign (Barnes and Nobel, ($5.95)
3. Feel-ine Thirsty Cups (Modcloth, $14.99)
4. Doggie Diner Pet Bowl (Ruche, $14.99)
5. Klaus & Yves Shaker Set (Modcloth, $6.99)
6. Bulldog Bottle Stopper (Pottery Barn, $16.50)

Under $25 Gift Guides: The Smarty Pants

Monday, December 3, 2012

Every year there are tons of gift guides to help you find the perfect present for everyone in your life. But what about those hard to shop for people? Or the stocking stuffers that you're forced to buy for a coworker you don't really know? Fear not! Over the next week we'll be giving you stocking stuffer guides for some of the more difficult people on your list - and all gifts are under $25! Perfect for that office white elephant exchange or for your friends and family.


Perfect for: Your friend who always has her nose in a book, your cousin in grad school, your coworker whose vocabulary makes you feel like a 5 year old.

1. How to Become an Intellectual (Modcloth, $14.99)
2. Words to Make You Sound Smart Calendar (Urban Outfitters, $14.95)
3. Bombay Tie Journal (Barnes and Nobel, $16.95)
4. Abiding Time Perpetual Calendar (Modcloth, $24.99)
5. French Quill Feather and Ink Set (Barnes and Nobel, $16.95)
6. Invisible Floating Bookshelf (Barnes and Nobel, $12.95)
7. More Badder Grammer (Modcloth, $9.99)

Advent Inspiration - Week 1

Sunday, December 2, 2012


I wanted to kick off December with a little festive cheer.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 22, 2012


Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope your days is filled with loved ones, amazing food, and enjoyable times. I have so much to be thankful for this year. My new amazing husband, friends and family that are scattered across the country, and being able to spend time this weekend with those we don't get to see very often.

I think there need to be more days like Thanksgiving. Times where large groups of our loved ones come together and enjoy a good meal and even better talk.  Also, more excuses for pie.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Wednesday, November 21, 2012


Kacey and I are off to Vegas for the weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family. I've never been to Las Vegas before, so I'm pretty excited to see it for myself. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

November Neutrals

Monday, November 19, 2012




{1, 2, 3, 4}

Now that it's inching closer to winter, I find myself drawn to the neutrals of black, gray, and camel. Or maybe I'm just afraid of wearing color. Either way, I love the classy, sophisticated looks that these ladies are wearing. They definitely make winter neutrals not boring.

5 Things To Do In November To Get Ready For December

Thursday, November 15, 2012


It seems like stores break out the Christmas decorations earlier every year. December can be stressful enough with all the holiday hoopla, and who's ready to start dealing with that before Halloween? Here are a few things that can be done in November to make things easier for Christmas, and none of them involve breaking out the tinsel.

5 things you can do in November to prepare for the holiday season

1.  Deep Clean Your Home - December is full of holiday parties, relatives coming to visit, and friends stopping by. Even if your home isn’t a holiday hotspot this year, there are still decorations to be hung and activities going on at home. You don’t want to spend your precious time in December scrubbing and vacuuming when you could be enjoying yourself, but you also don’t want to hang your garland on a dusty banister (trust me, I did this one year in a fit of laziness– it wasn’t pretty). Do a deep clean now! Scrub the kitchen floors, vacuum all the spots you usually ignore (or is that just me?) and declare war on the dust bunnies. Then once the holidays hit, you’ll just have to touch up here and there and can spend more time stuffing your face with cookies enjoying yourself.

 2.  Plan Where You're Putting the Tree - This may be a no brainer for some, but if you’ve recently moved to a new place or just want to change things up a bit this year, this little detail may save some headaches later. Pick a spot, rearrange furniture, or figure out what you need to move to get the tree inside. The last thing you want is to be maneuvering a giant, shedding conifer over your nice couch because you didn’t realize that it was too big to fit in the corner. (Or that it would eat your living room.)

3.  Plan Out Your Gifting List and Start Looking - If you’re really on top of things you probably already have a list of people to buy gifts for, and have been looking for the perfect present all year. For the rest of us, start thinking about this now so you can score the best deals at all the after Thanksgiving and holiday sales. Create a budget and plan out how much you can spend so you don’t go into debt!

4.  Start Making Those Homemade Gifts - this goes along with the previous point. Once you have your gift list, think about any homemade gifts you plan on making. Then start creating them! If you have a lot to make, or the gifts take a long time, start now and make sure you give yourself plenty of time to finish. Nothing’s worse than missing holiday festivities because you’re stuck in your room working.  So start brewing/carving/crocheting/sewing/whatever early!
*The one exception to this is baking. In that case you should probably wait until it gets a little closer to the holidays, unless your recipe freezes well.

5. Block Off Days on the Calendar - December fills up so fast, so for your own sanity block off a few days and whatever you do, DON’T schedule anything on them. Use these days to relax, make cookies, finish up shopping, get a massage, sleep – do anything that will help you calm down and keep you from getting sick from stress and exhaustion. Days like this make the holiday season even more enjoyable, so do yourself a favor and make sure you schedule at least one!

LPF Magazine Issue #2

Tuesday, November 13, 2012


Issue #2 of La Petite Fashionista Mag is out! This issue is all about Sweater Weather! It's packed with a Farm to Table dinner, beer tasting party, fall fashions, holiday DIY crafts, festive drinks, delicious soups, traveling abroad info, finance tips, and much more. Check out my article about the best boots and coats under $150 as well as all the other fantastic articles! 

Cherry Vanilla Apple Butter

Monday, October 29, 2012


A few weeks ago when Kacey and I went to the apple farm we bought a peck of apples to make, well, something. I've never made apple butter before so I thought, why not? Let's try that. However, this isn't your typical apple butter. I didn't add as much sugar as most recipes called for because I didn't want it too sweet. The cherry cider and hint of vanilla add a new layer without all the extra sugar. (By the way, I didn't realize until I made this that there wasn't any butter in apple butter. Who knew?) This is made in a crock pot, which made everything so much easier. 

Ingredients:
1 peck apples - I used Cortland
1 cup cherry cider
1 tablespoon of vanilla
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon all spice
2 teaspoons cinnamon



Peel, core, and quarter the apples. This is probably the hardest part of the whole ordeal. Dump the apples into the crock pot with the apple cider and the vanilla and set on low for 6 hours. Give it a few stirs now and then. If you can't fit all the apples into the pot, wait until it cooks down a bit and add the rest. See? Super easy so far. 



After 6 hours, add the white and brown sugar as well as the spices and stir well. Supposedly it will cook down to a smooth mixture, but I gave it some help with a handheld mixer. Let it sit for another 5-6 hours. What did I tell you? Still easy. 



I'm not going to go into all the details about canning, that's enough for a whole other post. Instead, here's a good set of instructions for hot water bath canning.  If the apple butter is canned and properly processed in boiling water, it'll last for months. If you don't want to go through the whole canning process, put them into clean jars and either freeze them or put them in the refrigerator and use them within two weeks. It's amazing on pretty much everything and tastes like a velvety smooth spiced apple sauce. Definitely a new favorite!

Wedding Wednesday - Style Me Pretty

Wednesday, October 24, 2012



I meant to post this last week, but life caught up with me. Our wedding was featured on Style Me Pretty! This was a huge "pinch me!" moment. I read Style Me Pretty almost every day when I was engaged, and even found our photographer through their site.

I was so excited when the post went up! But for now, I promise this will be the last wedding post for a while. At least until my sister in law and/or one of my good friends gets married next year,  them I'm sure I'll have more to say on the topic!

Fool and King, Ghoul and Goose

Monday, October 22, 2012


Once again real life seems to have gotten the better of me. Instead of stressing that I'm not posting as regularly as I'd like, I'm just going to say that posts will be a bit sporadic the next few weeks until everything calms down a bit. 

In the mean time, let's talk about costumes since Halloween is right around the corner. Confession time: I've always wanted to either throw or attend a masquerade ball. It just looks so fun! Those 18/19th century folk sure knew how to throw a party. You've got your crazy costumes, loads of food, fun dancing, and according to the sketch above, bears. All the ingredients to a killer night. (Ha, get it?) And just look at some of these costumes:














These 18th and 19th century women knew how to dress. There was none of this "sexy - insert-whatever-here" costumes. - Or perhaps there were? I mean, take a look at those hemlines. Costumes at masquerades seem to have had significantly shorter hemlines than your typical day or evening dresses. Still, look at the creativity behind some of these costumes; one woman is rocking wings that are fully attached to her arms. Another is wearing a ruff, witches hat, plus two animals. As for the bee costume, I actually think that's one of the best I've ever seen.

So here's to creative halloween costumes this year! Now I just have to think of one for myself....

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Monday, October 15, 2012


I love the combination of pumpkin and chocolate. A little weird perhaps, but these chocolate chip pumpkin muffins contain pretty much the perfect mix of the two. I used this recipe from Joy of Baking and they turned out fantastic. It's the perfect taste of fall, and a great morning treat as I'm running out the door to work. They even freeze well, although this time there weren't any left to freeze!






Fall Looks - Warm Sweaters and Preppy Plaid

Monday, October 8, 2012





{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

I love the look of cozy cable knit sweaters with plaid peeking out. There's just something about this tailored yet comfy look that makes me want to spend all autumn in it.
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