“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13
Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all have a WONDERFUL Christmas with family and friends by your side. 
{{Cardigan: JCrew Factory (old, very similar)
{{Flower Tee: JCrew Factory (old)
{{Skirt: H&M (similar)
{{Boots: Urban Outfitters
{{Boot Socks: GroopDealz
{{Necklace: Caroline G. c/o
I love Christmas. I would probably say Christmas is my favorite holiday. As soon as Christmas is over, I’m already yearning for NEXT Christmas.
It’s not about the presents or anything like that, I just love this time of year. I love the JOY in the air. I love the twinkly lights, I love hot chocolate, I love warm fires, I love good meals, I love spending time with family and friends. I love, love, love Christmas.
I was thinking about how this being my first Christmas as a newlywed, I was wondering what traditions husband and I will have. What we’ll start having. Or whathaveyou.
We had a Christmas party with some friends this year. I’d like that to be a tradition.
But, who knows what the future will bring and what other traditions we’ll start.
Some of my favorite traditions when I was a kid – EVERY Christmas Eve, without question, we’d open ONE present and then we’d all get in our jammies with a cup of hot cocoa and we’d hop in the back of my mom’s station wagon and we’d go drive around and look at Christmas lights. I loved that. Some of my favorite memories took place those nights.
I loved waking up at like 3am every Christmas and RUSHING downstairs to see the presents Santa left under the tree and then having to wait to wake up my parents so we could open them.
I remember always having at least like 15 or 20 people over for Christmas dinner – we’d always invite people who didn’t have family or didn’t have a place to go on Christmas – and our house was always full of food and laughter on Christmas day.
I remember wearing really tacky Christmas sweaters with my mom. She always one-upped me though. Hers would make noise and light up and stuff.
I remember being eight years old and totally convinced I heard Santa on our roof.
It’s been an awesome 27 years of Christmas and I can’t wait to see what the next 27+ years bring.
What are some of YOUR favorite Christmas or holiday traditions?
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NOW it is time for the #YOLOmondays LINK-UP with my awesome co-host Carly from Lipgloss & Crayons! We had 109 AMAZING bloggers link up last week and I could not be more excited to “meet” you guys and I LOVE seeing how y’all mingle with each other! If this is your first time here, #YOLOmondays is a chance for us to link up anything we want (as long as it’s a blog post…). You know, cause it’s Monday, and what better way to jazz up your mundane Monday than to link up and meet some new bloggers?
Carly and I love seeing y’all linked up every week!
The Rules for #YOLOMONDAYS Link-Ups:
Changing things up on this lovely November Friday. I did this little project last weekend and I was actually surprised and how much I loved the way it turned out, so I thought I’d share it with y’all!
So, last weekend when I was at my in-laws after Thanksgiving, we did some shopping at a few “resource” type stores. Well, I came across this adorable recipe and wine cork paper wreath:
I LOVED it. But it was $50. WHAT?! $50? I thought, I could make this. Right? Right.
So, here’s a little tutorial for you. Oh, and this project? Cost me $0.75 cents. Yeah, really. (Now, not including the items I already owned).
Supplies Needed:
The only thing I purchased was the book, which I got for $0.75 cents at a used book store. Now, I chose this book because it has colorful, thick pages… AND I have this exact same book and I read it growing up. But I couldn’t bear to tear the pages out of a book I’ve had since childhood.
So, I would say, choose a book that you feel okay tearing the pages out of. Hit up a used book store. Don’t tear up that childhood memory.
Plus, I not only love the colorful pages (which makes a colorful wreath), but I love that it’s a Bible story that I could even use throughout the year. You know, because the Message never changes. Right? Right.
1. Anyway, once I removed some of the pages, I started rolling the pages into a cone shape and then hot gluing the bottom of the cone like so:
2. On the square piece of cardboard, I just started flattening out the glued bottoms of the paper cones and glueing them down in a circular pattern like so:
3. Once I had a good base layer, I just started eye-balling it, filling in the gaps, and adding layers of paper cones to the bottom layer like so:
4. Then, once I got the layers to a level I liked, I needed something to go in the center. So, I took a couple extra doilies I had lying around (which I’d originally bought a long time ago at Michael’s for $1 a piece). So, I made the doilies into a flower and glued it to the center like so:
5. Now, to hang it… really any way will work, but I cut some twine and used a staple gun to staple it to the cardboard. That didn’t work as well so I just got out some trust duct tape and that did the trick… like so:
And voila! You have a complete wreath! You could hang it on your front door like so:
Tangent: this was going on whilst making my wreath. I die of cuteness overload:
In the end, I actually opted to hang the wreath on the wall in our living room. I have a live wreath for our front door, and this one ended up being the perfect touch for our wall!
So, have you done any similar projects lately? What would you love to make a wreath out of?
Happy Friday!
Also, don’t forget the First Annual triFABB and Poppy Magazine Holiday Party is THIS SATURDAY at Clothes Hound in Raleigh, North Carolina! Details below and on the triFABB website! Come on out! It’s going to be a BLAST! Wear your snazziest outfit. Sequins encouraged.
Click the image for more details:
have you entered my “Believes in Love” tee giveaway from Mingo Ink? Check it out!
[Sequin Dress: Express (save | splurge) | Black Blazer: Express | Tights: Express | Shoes: Target (old) similar | Clutch: Vintage Prada | Necklace: Kazuri Beads Kenya]
I. Love. Sequins. I mean, in all honesty and in my humble opinion, you can wear sequins ANY day of the year. However, the HOLIDAYS are the PERFECT time of year for us to bust out those sequins you’ve been saving.
I have gotten a lot of questions from friends and readers in the last few weeks about “What to wear” to those holiday parties this year. Now, there is no shortage of “holiday / Christmas party” ideas out there on the interwebs and especially in fashion blogs. So why would my ideas be any different?
The honest answer? I have no clue. But I’m going to share a few ideas with you over the next few weeks anyhow. That cool with y’all?
So, today’s particular look could be worn to a couple of different types of parties:
Now, I will only ever wear this dress with tights. And I only remove the blazer in extreme heat-indoors situations.
My reasoning for this is three-fold:
Also, I will say this: YES, you can wear tights with open-toed shoes! When done right, it can actually add a bit of fun to the look!
So, what do you think? Are you a sequin lover like myself? Do you wear sequins year round or only during the holidays? What type of party would YOU wear this look to?
SPEAKING OF HOLIDAY PARTIES!!!
The First Annual triFABB and Poppy Magazine Holiday Party is THIS SATURDAY at Clothes Hound in Raleigh, North Carolina! Details below and on the triFABB website! Come on out! It’s going to be a BLAST! Wear your snazziest outfit. Sequins encouraged.
Click the image for more details:
