snapshots

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying the last weekend of 2012!  My Christmas was great - very low key and peaceful.  I made Russian tea and lots of snacks to nibble on.  We made brunch at our house and had my brother-in-law and his girlfriend over.  After opening a few gifts, lots of phone calls, a movie and a nap, we went over to a friends house for a delicious prime rib dinner.  I am thankful for such good friends who are like family (and who are great cooks!).

Here are a  few snapshots from this week and a couple of recent outfits.  

Kya loves sleeping by the tree:)

Zander was feeling so sweet and cozy on Christmas.  He snuggled up to me and fell asleep on my feet!

On of the best cocktails I've had in a while - made with Chai tea, white chocolate liqueur, rum, whipped cream, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

I am pretty much living in my new AG Stevie cords.  Love!  Also wearing the Field Game cardigan from anthropologie,  Wind-Rippled tee from anthropologie, and Gee WaWa oxfords.

Anthropologie Field Game cardigan again, plaid pants from anthro, J. Crew top, Kate Spade necklace, b. ella socks, and Gee  WaWa oxfords

Nutmeg

Happy Holidays!!!  I hope you are all enjoying the weekend.  I am so happy to have a few days of quite, coziness, and fun.  Last week was super chaotic.  We are in the middle of doing a lot of work to our house and we are also refinancing (yay for super low interest rates!).  We just recently found out that for our refinance to go through, we have to have our house painted.  This has to happen by the end of the year.  I felt really weird calling around to find a painter last week - "yes, I know it's the week before Christmas and I know it's pouring down rain, but can you pleeeeease paint our house ASAP?"  Ugh.  In the middle of all of that, our car broke down.  Ben was driving and it suddenly died in the middle of the street.  It's at the shop now, but of course it can't even be looked at until after Christmas.  Luckily, Portland has great public transportation!

On a brighter note, let's talk about my new AG Stevie cords in nutmeg:)  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these.  They are the softest, most comfortable pants ever.  I love all of my AG jeans and I had a feeling I would love the cords too.  They have been on my wishlist for a while.  Luckily, they went on sale and anthro unveiled  a new promotion right around the same time.  I snagged these right away!  I have been stalking Molly's blog for color inspiration (love this one and I fully intend to steal this color combo!).  

Pants:  AG Stevie Cords via Anthropologie
Tee:  J. Crew
Top:  J. Crew Perfect Shirt in Chambray Polka Dot
Shoes:  Chie Mihara Loti
Necklace:  Betsy and Iya via Adorn

My kind of party!

Last weekend, we attended our friends' annual cookie exchange party.  We had a blast!  We spent the afternoon visiting with good friends, meeting new friends, sipping on cocktails, and eating A LOT of cookies.  I decided to attempt macarons again - this time I went with a mint chocolate flavor.  Although I was feeling a little self-conscious about the cookies not being the perfect shape and the "pied" (the frilly bottoms) not forming just right (silly I know, but I stayed up really late working on them and wanted them to be perfect), they were a huge hit.  They all got eaten and someone even proclaimed them to be the best cookies at the party this year.  Success!

Dress:  Anthropologie Spinning Lace Dress
Cardigan:  J.  Crew Jackie
Tights:  J. Crew
Belt:  J. Crew
Shoes:  Unsure of the brand - I picked these up at a little boutique in London

Oh darling

Ben and I are currently doing a cleanse/detox.  It is a 2 week program and today is day 13.  I just have to make it through 1 more day.  Ahhhhhh, I can not wait until Saturday!!!  The detox is fairly strict  - no caffeine  no alcohol, no sugar (NO SUGAR!), no grains, no dairy, etc.  I have been eating a ton of vegetables, some fruit, and a small amount of "clean" meat - all organic/hormone-free/etc.  We start our day with a paleocleanse smoothie and drink a lot of water and detox tea throughout the day.  At this point,I am feeling pretty fantastic.  I've dropped a few pounds and I feel energetic and happy.  While I am looking forward to having a coffee and some chocolate on Saturday, I am planning on making some of these eating habits permanent.  It feels really good to have a reset of sorts.

I finally got around to wearing the Darling cardigan I bought a few months ago.  It is really nice.  It's super soft and the buttons are beautiful.  You can't tell in these photos, but the edges are scalloped.  Unfortunately, we're stuck with crappy indoor photos for now:(

Happy (almost) Friday!              

Top:  J. crew
Cardigan:  Darling
Skirt:  UO
Tights:  J. Crew
Shoes:  Dansko

Peter Pan

I took my "little sister" (through BBBS) to the mall today.  She was excited to help me do some shopping.  2 hours in the mall was more than enough for me.  I much prefer online shopping:)  I got most of what I was looking for, fortunately.  Afterwards, Ben and I picked out our Christmas tree!  Funny how plopping a tree with some lights on it in the middle of the living room can change the whole feel/ambiance of the house.  I am loving the coziness! 

The J. Crew Peter Pan collar tee I order months ago finally arrived (it was on backorder until last week).  It was worth the wait.  It is a thicker material than I was expecting, but it's perfect for fall/winter.  The collar and cuffs are silk.  The best part of the top, in my opinion, is the exposed zipper in the back (forgot to snap a picture).  This is a nice, comfy, simple-but-polished top.

Top:  J. Crew Peter Pan collar top
Jeans:  AG
Shoes:  Gee  WaWa
Purse:  J. Crew Clearance Store

Memories

Just a quick post to share some photos.  When I was in NC a few weeks ago, I was inspired to capture some images of my Granddaddy's old barn.  I have a lot of good memories of this place.  I remember walking with my Granddaddy to the barn to help him feed/water all of his animals.  As a little girl, I loved getting up in the hay loft searching for kittens (quite a few "barn cats" made a home here).  What a special place this is.

My Granddaddy, who turned 85 this week.  I am so thankful to have him (and my nannie!) in my life.  He is sweet, caring, hard-working, and just an all around good/genuine person.

Gray

I raced home from work today, hoping to catch a little sunlight so that I could get some decent OOTD shots.  Unfortunately, I didn't make it in time.  About half way home, I realized I was missing the last of the good light.  Indoor/kitchen photos it is!  The sun set at 4:30pm.  Crazy, right?  Gotta love PNW winters!

This dress is one of my J. Crew Clearance Store finds (as is the belt).  I think this is my favorite item from my  latest clearance store run.  I will have to take better photos of it soon because these really don't do it justice.  It is beautifully cut and ever so cozy:)

Dress:  J. Crew Clearance Store
Cardigan:  J. Crew Jackie
Belt:  J. Crew Clearance Store
Necklace:  J. Crew
Tights:  J. Crew
Shoes:  Camper

Whirlwind

Phew, what a week!  I was down with a cold for the early part of the week, then I traveled to Indianapolis for work for a few days.  When I arrived back home on Friday evening, Ben and I started working on our house and we just now finished up.  We have had a lot of work done on our house recently (new roof, new heat pump/AC, insulation, new windows, etc.).  All of the 'big stuff' was complete, but we still had a lot of cosmetic stuff that needed to be resolved.  Our house was also in need of a deep cleaning.  Since we have an appraisal scheduled for tomorrow (we are not selling, just refinancing), it all had to be done this weekend.   At least it's done now and I can enjoy a very clean and  cozy house:)

This outfit is from last weekend.  I ordered this Orla Kiely scarf from Uniqulo after reading about the collaboration  over at Consume or Consumed.  Not sure how, but I was totally in the dark about Uniqulo  and this collaboration until Jess posted her reviews (thanks!).  I LOVE this scarf!  I also ordered a dress, but  I will certainly not be wearing it as a dress.  It is inappropriately short on me, but I think I can pull it off as a tunic:)  

Top:  J. Crew Clearance Store
Jeans:  AG
Coat:  Anthropologie Ruffled Trench Coat
Shoes:  Dansko
Scarf:  Orla Kiely via Uniqlo