Winter Break!

I had the most wonderful little break at home! I was in Phoenix for 10 days and loved every second of it. 

The first night was spent at a wonderful little place called Casey Moore's in Tempe. They had great beer, great music, and I was with great friends. 

My Mom, Zack's Mom, and Zack's Aunt went to this AMAZING little vintage shop called Sweet Salvage. They do a new theme and have new merchandise the third Thursday of every month. This month was themed French Flea Market, so obviously I was in heaven. I bought some tea cups to make candles with... you'll see later next month ;)

My friends and I have this tradition of making gingerbread houses every year before Christmas. We've done it for the past 5 years and has been one of my fondest memories. My friend Whitney's parents usually judge the houses, and mine was definitely judged "weirdest". What else could you expect from me, though? 

   

 Zack and I went to Cabela's, which is such a cool place! If you're outdoor-sy in any way, you have to go there. They even have a shooting game, which Zack whooped my butt at!

Zack seared us some AMAZING beef tenderloin for Christmas Eve dinner. It was so good, my mouth is watering just thinking about it! I'm so lucky to have such a great cook, since I don't. 

On one of the last nights, the girls and our Moms and I went to Postino in Phoenix! The Arcadia area, to be exact. That place has the most amazing bruschetta you will EVER taste. We stopped at La Grande Orange after, which is one of my favorite places!

 

My fun time in Phoenix ended with a birthday breakfast (for me!) at NCounter on Mill in Tempe with my girls. They put together a great little Anthropologie gift box for me, which I absolutely adored! Yes, that is a wedding book. No, I'm not engaged. Just weird. 

Whitney also gave us her official "Will You Be My Bridesmaid" gifts! Of course, I said yes! I'm a little obsessed with her wedding... and weddings in general. My poor boyfriend. 

 Last but not least, my parents took me out to dinner at Red Lobster for my birthday! I nommed on 1 and a half pounds of pure crab and finished every bite. Thanks Dad!

xo

Music, Sweet Music

"Without music, life would be a mistake."

Friedrich Nietzsche

xo

I just wanted to take some time today and write about what has made me happy lately. 

This guy. He treats me like a queen and I feel loved every second of every day. Putting up the Christmas tree with his family was so nice because it made me feel like part of the family (which they have made me feel since day one). For example, look at this cute stocking that his Mom got me a few years ago! It goes up every year and makes me so happy :)

Next, and I think that most Flagstaff-ians can agree with me, the weather here is AMAZING. I mean, I'm not crazy about the wind. But everything else has been wonderful this year! For example, this was my walk to work a few weeks ago. 

And this is my walk to work NOW! I love the crisp, chill air, and the snow especially. I'm so grateful for Flagstaff and the wonders of the four seasons :)

Love makes me happy. Also, Macy's. 

I am so happy that I am developing my photography skills further. I feel like I am growing as an artist every day and looking at my past work and how it has evolved. Here is a recent series of shots that I did for my dear friend Kelsey, who graduated last weekend! 

xo

Gluten-free, coffee, and more crafts.

So since the week before Thanksgiving, I've been gluten-free. At first it was medically ordered, and now I'm just doing it because it simply FEELS GOOD! I have way more energy, and just feel lighter and happier in general. I found these amazing GF lemon poppyseed muffins the other day and just HAD to share.

I also wanted to take some time and declare my love for Macy's Coffee in Flagstaff. I have been spending so much time there recently that I wanted to share a picture of what I get to experience every time :) I painted that mug myself, by the way.

Okay, now onto crafts. I got on another crafting kick today and decided to make something original that I thought of before I fell asleep last night. I'm pretty sure that the best ideas come to me before I fall asleep, and I'm pretty lucky I remembered that one. Can anybody relate to that?

Anyways, you'll need:

 -a few sticks (I found them in my backyard)

- paint (I used silver)

- an empty jar (I used an old apple sauce jar)

- elmer's glue

- lots of GLITTER!

- fake snow

So what I did first was draw patterns on the jar with glue. Then I poured glitter all over it! While that was drying, I painted the ends of the sticks with silver paint. Then I used small amounts of glitter to make stripes around the wet paint. Then I poured a ton of fake snow in the jar (it was leftover from the snowglobes I made previously). I put the sticks in the jar, and tied a bit of twine around the neck of the jar. Ta-da! 

xo

Christmas Crafting!

I decided to start this blog shortly after making TONS of holiday crafts! So that's what the first post will be about :)

All of these ideas are from other blogs (via Pinterest), but made my own way! Enjoy!

The first craft was a few Anthro-inspired snowglobes. Here is the original post!

I bought the mason jars and little people from Michaels. The people came from the "Christmas Village" section of the store! The little trees came from JoAnns. 

*Tip: JoAnns accepts Michaels coupons! They also both have iPhone apps with coupons on them!*

My second crafty things were scrappy ornaments! You can find the original blog post here. 

I didn't change anything about this project! I used leftover scraps of fabric that I used for another project. 

 These "ninja-bread men" came from World Market! Honestly, I love that store to pieces. 

 I was running out of magnetic poetry (between moving dorms so many times in college, they got lost. A lot.)! I decided to make my own. 

Supplies needed:

- Magnet sheet from Michaels ($9.99 but cheaper with 40% off coupon)

- Computer with a word processor

- Printer

- Scissors

That's it!

I just started a Word document with 4 columns and started writing words. I tried to make doubles of commonly used words - I, you, are, me, we, do, go, etc. I also did some funny words, such as porcupine, pickle, scrappy, and more. One personal touch was putting mine and my roommates names in there, too. Maybe I'll come home to some messages one day! 

Anyways, then I just printed out the words and stuck them on the sticky side of the magnet sheet. I cut them out with scissors, and voila! 

*Tip: Double stacking magnet sheets will help the magnets to be stronger and stick to the fridge (or whatever) better!*

Now THIS one was easy. As always, here is the original blog post!

Supplies:

- Gold glitter

- Elmer's glue

- Christmas lights

- Artist's tape (white)

- Silver and gold paint pens

For the Merry and Bright canvas, all I did was write on it with the paint pens. Then I taped lights to the back using the artist's tape! For the tall canvas with the circles, I just drew on circles with the gold paint pen, then put dots of glue in the center of a few, then glittered! The reindeer was the same; I just traced on a silhouette of a deer, then painted glue on. Then glitter, glitter, glitter!

 This project was tedious, but turned out great! The original project and templates are here. 

For the backings of the letters, I just used old scrapbook paper I had laying around. I found some cute little clothespins at Michaels as well as some thicker hemp chord. Easy peasy!

That's all for today! xo