i heart it!

It has been forever since I've posted but I felt the need to post these lovely Valentine's Day photos.

1) "I dig you" Valentines--idea from here

2) Instead of kisses..hearts..
















3)
I could never imagine how happy my students make me each day

Christmas..uhh Holiday Decor/Crafting

Over the past two weeks I've been doing a lot of decor/crafting. The sad part is I haven't even started my actual Christmas presents (well the ones that I'm going to make). But, at least I've purchased all the supplies, and have all of my other gifts bought, so maybe in that sense I'm somewhat ahead.

Idea from family circle

I saw these pinecones in felt, but decided to try them out with paper (standard brown construction and glossy silver) and they make excellent ornaments and/or adornments for presents.
















My mom had this awesome idea to make topiaries and I'm loving the holiday cheer of something fresh and the great pine smell it has brought to my studio.

I decorated my classroom with an array of Christmas things. The wooden tree I bought last year at the Art Museum gift shop and the hand-painted Santa was a Goodwill find for only $5. Ahh isn't he so cute?!

I felt bad about not including other holidays so I found this great Martha Stewart template for dreidel place settings and used a Google image for the star of David to create a make-shift garland. Yep definitely had to include Kwanzaa too. So I used construction paper to create a jig-saw flag and put the commemorative stamp on top.

For the good old studio I made a quick little garland with dollar store "foam coasters" a glue gun and twine. I also went a little crazy with the baby glass ornaments that I got from Ikea by hanging them on my regular fake tree plant. My Cross Country Kids are the best ever and they signed a fake mum plant to make up for the ones that I got stolen in the fall. I decided I clearly had to add it to my holiday decor so I inserted some colored lights into the flowers. Pretty excited with my new holiday additions. You might even remember my Zebra Zeby (he has an updated holiday tie if you look closely). Can't wait to use these Trader Joe's bags in wrapping and might even make the garland on the sides!

I am thankful for...

1) Beautiful Places in Philadelphia

2) Being able to see my whole fam on Thanksgiving! Made these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to show my sis and broski-in-law my thanks for having us all again!

Happy early thanksgiving everyone! :]

Sprinkles/Jimmies and Comfort Food

If there is one thing in the world that makes me happy it would have to be sprinkles. Ask my BFF Kathryn, she adores BFFs Kathryn and Abby they adore sprinkles even more than I do. Over the years, I have been conflicted as to what to call them. I suppose on my first introduction, my parents called them sprinkles, but then down the shore, and through a couple of my other friends I started to call them jimmies and sprinkles interchangeably. Regardless of the name, there is something about sprinkles that brings you back to your first ice cream cone. Or more recently, my last Phillies ice cream helmet with sprinkles on top. (Which btw, I'm gonna post one of my Christmas craft projects from last year in order to hopefully inspire me for a new ornament this year--if anyone has any great new ideas please let me know!)

Bedazzled Phillies Ice Cream Helmet

Although we're way past Halloween and I'm just catching up I decided to make a batch of Funfetti Halloween Cookies to give to my kids for Districts and to bring with me for Kelly and her amazing friends in Hoboken.

Cross country girls <3 Funfetti and showing off their decorated nails!

 

My obsession for jimmies continued when I saw this amazing recipe for cake batter and sprinkle bark. I suggest upping the recipe to 3 TABLEspoons of cake batter, and it can definitely be a great idea for the holidays--using red and green sprinkles of course!

And to cap it all off I had a cupcake martini at Hoboken Bar and Grill to complete my sprinkle heaven. I found this recipe on Pinnacle's website that isn't exactly the same, but should taste just as good!
Birthday Cake Martini
1 oz. Pinnacle Cake
1 tsp. dry vanilla cake mix
½ oz. chocolate liqueur
½ oz. half & half
Shake with ice and strain into a
shot glass. Top with whipped
cream and colored sprinkles.

After all that sweetness, I have finally also turned my life around to cooking real meals. (I was sick for about two weeks and all I literally ate was soup. Although I do love myself some soup I was ready for some more heartier meals). Last night I cooked up this Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake and was very delighted with the homey feel, but also with the spinach and tomatoes I at least felt like I was getting my veggies in too! I opted to use rotini instead of rigatoni and sauteed the onions as I was cooking the chicken in olive oil. It made the recipe go a lot quicker and did not take away from the taste at all. I really have to say that it is probably one of my favorite casseroles of all time because the chive and onion cream cheese makes it oh-so-good! Definitely a go-to-quick-comfort meal in the future!

Simple as it should be

I have really liked Tristan Prettyman's song "Simple as it should be" for a while now. This weekend reminded me of the fact that sometimes when you add other factors in life, whether it's worrying about money, worrying about pleasing others, or even worrying about doing the right thing, you actually stray away from what's right. If there is one thing that I have learned in my past 24 years, even as a toddler, it is that if something makes your stomach churn, it is probably the wrong decision. So with that being said, I tried to get back to the basics and have captured some simple things that have pleased me over the past couple of days. 

..Home-made Halloween peanut butter cups..

I saw Emily Schuman's post and it inspired me to make the cups and use these festive wrappers that I had from last year.

..An old necklace hangs my wreath inside..

Instead of risking my wreath getting stolen, thankfully I hung it up on my closet door, and staring at my G-moms golden chain makes me smile.

Muli-colored/flavored champagne at brunch

Golden luck

Caesars brunch at Mia wasn't just lovely, but also delish! And then I later got to walk on the beach and found a golden good luck stone. 

Sunset in Brig

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere.

Everything about pumpkins makes me happy so I've decided to post some of my favorites that me or my friends have carved/created/painted.

My junior year at PSU we decided to have a pumpkin carving contest. Well I decided to do a tribute to the best cat in the world, Lola. Lola (1) received the "crappiest pumpkin" award. Jessie's Joepa (2) won.

When I went back to PSU as a newly alum and the girls ended up winning Big Tens they had these awesome painted PSU pumpkins (3). "Spirit pumpkins," I'll call them. Obviously, good luck. 

Last year in the Yunk we had a little Halloween carving contest and I feel as though I have perfected my craft a little better than my Lola days. My peace sign (4) even has a little golden glitter.

Last week for our senior meet I decided to surprise the kids with a little senior pumpkin loving. I really do feel like "spirit pumpkins" are good luck, as my girls ended up getting their first win in two years! They then carried their momentum into today where they won their second meet. NBD. haha I'm a very happy coach :)

Hold on..anyway.

This past week has reminded me that life brings us a variety of circumstances and events, both big and small, some joyous and some difficult but the most important thing is to hold onto hope anyway.

Originally I was going to write this post about the fact that all of my fall decorations, that I had placed outside of my apartment to bring cheer had been stolen when I returned from the shore last Sunday morning. It really put a damper on my week, because it reminded me of the fact that I am naive in the sense that I always try to believe in the best in people.  It was also a big dose of a reality check when my one neighbor said "you gotta remember where you live." I guess that is true. I do have to remember where I live and to a certain extent not get as upset when things like that happen, but I will choose to hold onto hope anyway.

Along with holding onto hope, I found out some very sad news this evening which I don't feel appropriate in blogging about. It feels quite frivilous to post anything however; I guess sometimes the only way to deal with reality is to remind yourself of the "vanilla heavens" that do make you smile.

1) "hold on" to some of Summer's clothes

The above outfits can be worn in completely different ways that combine and work. The teal dress isn't the exact one that I've worn, mine is an M. Rena surf shop find. The lace shirt is from Charlotte Russe and I realized it would pair differently than it is intended as a shirt but as an actual overlay to the dress. By adding the lace overlay it transforms the summer dress into one of Fall's fads. One day to school I wore this outfit with the Jeffrey Campbell Espadrille's and H&M leopard print belt. This weekend, at my friend Katie's wedding I wore the satin belt that came with the shirt and Mossimo Paisley Platform Pumps.

2) "hold on" by recycling

For Katie's wedding I found something a little rustic and personalized on Etsy that hopefully her and the new hubbie will enjoy. I couldn't quite decide what type of wrapping I wanted but in the past year I have found that brown paper bags used as wrapping paper actually looks the most chic when adorned properly because you have a blank canvas to create on and it always feels good to go green! (I used left-over kunzia from my Autumnal wreath, a pine cone from my parent's yard in Reading, yarn I found in a random drawer, and the floral heart was from a newspaper ad. )


At her wedding, Katie had some of the most creative decorations that I have seen. Everything from her guest book of a tree with fingerprint leaves to an old ladder hanging photos of her and Matt was personalized, well placed, and perfectly thought out. My personal favorite was the adorable table decorations.  By recycling baby white pumpkins she created one of a kind candle holders (shhh I may have 'accidentally' swiped one because I liked it so much) and she also used forks vintage forks in clay as her place holders.

3) "hold on" to child-like innocence.
I attended soon to be three-year-old Kyle's bday party on Sunday and it was so much fun to see his delight at every single present that he opened. Due to his mom and dad's great parenting, he also sweetly replied "thank you so much!" after opening each gift.

Tonight I decided to bring back some of my own childhood innocence and created my own "boo ghost cookies" that I'm going to bring to our cross country pasta party tomorrow night. (It's never too early for Halloween!) The recipe is here, but just to note I used Keebler vienna fingers as well as the NutterButters to accomodate for any peanut allergies.

4) "hold on" to Mother Teresa's words: