Happy New Year!

Happy new year, everyone! Oh, what a year it has been.
I hope you're all bringing in 2012 with people you love and cherish!



Shawn and I have had the whole day off together, so we took a walk down to the liquor store and followed it up with some cocktails and candy. We've also got some friends heading up here tonight for some more celebration... not too much celebration though; we both have work in the morning!

Much love and happiness to all!

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A Very Merry Jolly Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend! We drove to my parents' house late Saturday night and had a delicious breakfast and lunch with my family before heading over to Shawn's mom's place for even more food and family time. The only thing that would have made the weekend better would have been a little bit of snow!

I only took a few pictures; family time takes precedence over immense documentation! Here's a taste of our weekend:

So many presents under the pretty tree! I think we all spoiled each other this year.




It's always a good day when you're greeted by this big fuzzball. I just want to fluff him up and curl up in a ball next to him.




Speaking of Kusko, look at him stealthily checking out the ham action going on. It's not the best photo of the ham, but I totally caught those hungry eyes without even meaning to.




Breakfast was croissants and jam, with freshly squeezed orange juice. Lunch was champagne and wine with a plate full of baked ham, mashed potatoes, spinach and sweet potato salad, and green beans. Dessert consisted of a pear and chocolate tart, key lime pie, and a buttermilk pear pie. We definitely did not go home hungry (especially since Shawn's mom made a whole Thanksgiving dinner too!)




I also wasn't kidding about the gifts; this year's bounty put smiles on our faces. A good mix of things we needed (gloves, wooden spoons, a quality chefs knife), things we wanted (all sorts of books, a video game, old navy gift cards, dinosaur related things), and things we never expected (a roku player, a quality chefs knife, and a mini cast-iron brownie pan) - yay!




My new iPhone cover didn't make it into the group picture. It's too cute not to share though!




We also did a gift exchange at work this year. My co-workers must know me well because I got some cashmere pocket hand warmers (perfect for our walks!), a book by one of my favorite authors, a recipe book for cat treats, a recipe box full of recipe cards, and this gnome statue (it even has a squirrel!!). Unfortunately it arrived with one broken bench leg, so we need to glue it back together before he can hang out with the other gnomies.




I'll leave you with a gratuitous 'stache shot. Shawn says I look like Frank Zappa, ha!

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Fun Finds Friday

I have Five (ok, six) Fun Things for you this Friday! I'd love to make this a staple on the blog, maybe every few Fridays or so, but lets see how long I can keep this up first.

1. Dream Big - a mosaic of Martin Luther King Jr. created entirely out of Rubik's Cubes!
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2. The greatest website ever created! Ok, maybe that's a stretch, but not really.
PrintFriendly.com



3. This custom Guess Who? game board featuring US Presidents is pretty awesome.
(via)



4. Who doesn't love The Count? ...ten apples... eleven apples... hahaha!
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5. I've seen so many different takes on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" posters... this is one of my favorites.
(via)


I thought I'd throw this in too: I've been loving these yoga sequences by Bridget Lyons. I've been doing the 30-minutes sequences and they're just enough to get you heated and revitalized; she also has enough on there for variety throughout the week.

Happy holidays, everyone! Have a wonderful weekend!

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Two Squirrels For Your Sunday

I bought us an advent calendar from Trader Joe's this year, since it was only 99 cents. Every day there's a tiny piece of milk chocolate molded into something winter/holiday related. Of course there was a squirrel.



Last year we had a couple of different squirrel visitors at our sunny kitchen window. This year, we haven't had quite so many, and they're not as eager for close human interaction. Usually they stick to the branches of the tree right outside the window. Shawn caught this guy sunbathing on our windowsill this morning though!

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Eccentric Collections

I have a lot of little collections. I'm not really quite sure how they all started, but I'm pretty sure when other people in your life start buying you things because you "have a few similar ones already", that's considered having a collection...

What do I collect? Clocks, salt & pepper shakers, elephants, and gnomes. That's what I can think of off the top of my head, but I wouldn't be surprised if I'm forgetting something.

Clocks! Lots of clocks. There are also a few small tabletop ones around the apartment, but I just photographed the wall clocks in the kitchen. I think I have 10 clocks in total!


This is my newest clock! I hadn't bought one in years so when I came across this one at Home Goods, it just had to come home with me. Unfortunately, it's too heavy to hang on the hooks we have (since our walls are impenetrable we've resorted to using dual-sided sticky tabs and hooks), so it's camping out on the living room floor until I can figure out what to do with it.


I spotted the frogs and the kissing fish shakers online around the same time - they're both vintage. Then for Christmas two years ago, Shawn got me the kissing hippie shakers. (Well, they're supposed to be kissing; I need to re-glue the magnet onto the hippie guy.) The hugging dog shakers are from my mom; she brought them all the way back from Thailand! I hope to one day have corner cabinet shelves in my kitchen so that I can display all of these properly!


Just like all of my collections, the elephants started randomly too. I have an elephant from Peru, one from Amsterdam, and one from France, the others were all acquired just as randomly. I suppose I like traveling elephants. The tray is from ikea; we put it to use as our 'catch-all' tray by the front door. I couldn't resist the pretty colors and patterns!

And like a jerk, I completely forgot to photograph the gnomes. But they've actually graced the blog with their presence before! Now I don't feel quite as bad.

There you have it! I'm now an eighth of the way to becoming a hoarder ;) What do you collect?

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Here we go again... (Recap!)

I can't believe it's already December... where did the last month go?! November was a blur.
I'll just use these handy Instagram photos to recap!

1. Our Thanksgiving dinner (chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and beers). I also had the good fortune of eating Thanksgiving dinner with my family the day prior... lots to be thankful for this year!
2. An awesome thrifted Anthropologie sweater I found for a whopping $6!
3. Sugar cookies/failed snickerdoodles... I realized halfway through the recipe that I had no cinnamon.
4. Seven! One of our local friend's cat. We've known him since he was a wee little kitten.
5. Luna being a cutie on Thanksgiving at my family's house.
6. Chicken orzo soup we made back when the weather wasn't so unseasonably warm.

Other note-worthy things:


The biggest lemon I have ever seen. (shown with other lemons for comparison)


I twisted apart a Trader Joe's oreo and found a sweet looking Meatwad!


Oh, and I made a bunch of pies. Fourteen pies, to be exact. And six dozen cookies. All for holiday orders at the shop! And the feedback was delicious :)

And that about sums up November!
I have a few more posts up my sleeve for December, don't you worry.

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