Happy Holidays!

can you spot me? hah!

I am headed to my hometown to spend time with our families for the holidays, and couldn't be more excited! Minus this rainy weather, I am so in the Christmas spirit. I have Christmas cookie recipes to try out, friends to catch up with and Christmas music to listen to. How about you? On a separate note, I know its been a little quiet this past month or two in this space. I have been planning a change which will start taking place in 2016 that I am excited about, with lots of new and different posts, so stay tuned if you like and thank you so much for being here with me during 2015! Its been a fabulous and life-changing year. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

Weekend Recap : Thanksgiving Part One

Part one of our Thanksgiving weekend pictures : ) We spent Thanksgiving day with my side of the family this year, and it was such a fun time. We played croquet, watched the parade, drank cranberry margaritas, and cooked up a storm. All in all a fun holiday spent at home. Hope yours was the same! Part two coming tomorrow ; )

Thanksgiving-ish Recipes

I have been on a recipe hunt for fun things I can make on and around Thanksgiving this year that are fun and a little different. I love the holiday season and all the baking and cooking that goes along with it. Although I'm a major sucker for all the traditional items, I think its fun to spice it up a little bit and try one or two new things as well. This is a roundup of some fun items I have found in case you are in the holiday spirit as well ; )

1. Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Pie Bars via A Beautiful Mess

2. Cherry Kale Panzanella via Jelly Toast (originally found on BleuBird)

3. Elsie's Orange Cranberry Margarita via A Beautiful Mess

4. Charred Corn Salad with Creamy Tomatillo Dressing via Cooking Channel TV

5. Spinach and Feta Quiche via Cupcakes and Cashmere

6. Everything Tea via OhDearDrea (to keep you healthy all season!)

7. Herb Roasted Turkey via What's Gaby Cooking

8. Spiced Apple Muffins with Streusel Topping via Call Me Cupcake

Weekend Recap : Halloween and Puppies

We had such a great holiday weekend. Owen's sister and her fiance visited, and my sister, her fiance and some other friends came over for a Halloween party Saturday. We were "winter princesses" after a failed attempt at wearing our wetsuits to be scuba divers. Let me just say, wetsuits are not flattering on land, and very hot. We sat on the porch with "Thriller" and "Monster Mash" on replay, drinking sangria and handing out candy to so many cute trick-or-treaters. My favorite costumes have to go to a little girl in a big hat and frilly dress, dressed as a "fancy lady", and another little girl who constructed her own (opening) refrigerator costume out of a cardboard box. She had little hand drawn foods on the inside, which included a bottle of red wine (hah).

Other than that, we took a few walks down to the (very chilly) lake, enjoyed some movie time at home on the couch, made some Halloween candy and then puppy-sat our friend's dog Monkey on Monday. It was hard not to steal her. Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!

2015

I had an awesome holiday season filled with lots of family time, board games, relaxing, wine and visits from friends, and now I am ready to start the new year off with a bang! 2015 will be filled with lots of new blog posts, tons of great vintage and some fresh inspiration coming at you daily, so stay tuned ; )

P.S. I got the Alexa Panama hat for Christmas, and I'm in love with it! Adding some new vintage versions to the shop tomorrow.

Weekend Recap : Winter Wedding

cheesin'

Reception at the Old Lantern in Charlotte, VT

This weekend we attended the wedding of one of Owen's good college friends. The reception was held in a beautiful barn-like building, with white light strung everywhere and pine tree branches decorating much of the room. It was a beautiful, Christmasy wedding, and we danced our butts off. 

*Side note: dancing with a glass of red wine is an extremely difficult thing to do and takes much more skill than I apparently have. Sorry, wooden dance floor, hopefully they mopped you afterwards.

I wore a white cropped faux fur jacket over my dress, and let me tell you, it was the coziest thing I have ever put on. Check out my next inspiration post, because watch out, I am now obsessed with all things faux fur.

Snow Day

My friend Jackie and I made ornaments last month, and thought it would be funny to have one only say "hark". We were right, its hilarious : )

It is snowing like crazy today in Vermont, and the husband had a snow day from school. We are hunkered down in the house working on projects and putting finishing touches on our tree. I love quiet days like this : ) Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy!

Happy Weekend

1 (source unknown) 2

Owen and I got our Christmas tree this afternoon, so we have a big Friday night planned of decorating the tree and watching the new Bill Burr special on Netflix. Hard core party-ers over here, people.

Looking for something fun and Christmas-y to do this weekend? Try out this fun DIY project. I made some a couple weeks ago and they turned out pretty darn close! Hanging those babies up tonight front and center.

Happy Friday everyone!

This and That : Around the House

An outdoor plant brought in for the winter. Crossing my fingers I don't kill it like a few plant friends of his before him. Also some new pictures I finally got around to printing out.

A stained glass lamp I found for 3 dollars at Goodwill. It adds such a cozy light at night time.

Mexican painting I found in Saratoga while thrifting with my mom a few weeks ago (do I thrift too much? Probably)

Clementine season is the best season.

Cherishing any bit of sunlight the Vermont winter will give me. 

Still unpacking from Thanksgiving. I feel like we brought half our belongings with us for three days.

It's been a busy but good week around here. Lots of cleaning, cooking, planning, working, shop-listing, and shipping. I am still slowly getting the house decorated how I want it, it takes a while! I am trying to find things I really, truly like, instead of just filling the space with whatever I have. Also the winter months bring a lot more cookin' for this family of two. I just feel much more inspired to try out new recipes when I am stuck inside out of the cold. Maybe I will share a few of my favorites soon ; )

Ugly-but-Awesome Christmas Sweater

I picked up this JCrew holiday sweater at the thrift shop last month, and I love it. It's got the right amount of Christmas corniness but in a mellow, wearable way. So here are a few pictures of me freezing my booty off on the porch, why is Vermont so COLD?!

Looking for options for your upcoming ugly Christmas sweater party? Check out this, this and this ; )