friday night

Sometimes it is the little things in life that are the most indulgent. After all of the Christmas shopping, traveling, and festivities, I thought it was time for a little R & R on this chilly Friday night.




Using my teriyaki chicken leftovers from yesterday's lunch to make fried rice with edamame.




Finally relaxing to some Friends reruns by candlelight.




The icing on top: spiked hot coco. Mmmmmm.

name change

Quick note: you may have noticed a change in the title of my blog. Sometimes something just doesn't fit. This is one of those times. Sorry for any confusion!

instant gratification

To add a little nourishment to the office day.

instant gratification

Office space.

Christmas "break"

Here are some of my favorite moments of my trip back to Georgia for Christmas:

The puppy that we rescued. He stayed with us for a couple of days before I brought him back to Dallas to live with his new family - some good friends of mine.


Brotherly love :)


I was invited to take part in the annual pre-Christmas Jackson feast this year!


My dear friend, Joanna, works at a winery in California. She saw this wine from the field to the bottle!


A beautiful pastel drawing of the road horse that won my father the World Championship in 1993. This was meant to be his Christmas present 19 years ago. Sadly, he passed away 2 weeks before that Christmas. My mother gifted it to me this year, still in the original shipping tube.


The drawing I did for my brother's Christmas/Graduation present.


Brother attempting to keep the turkey's dry in the rain.


Brother, his beautiful girlfriend, and my lovely neices playing Headbandz (coolest game EVER!)


My sister-in-law and my cuz


Sis and her baby girl


And who wouldn't want to see another picture of this adorable puppy?!

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas!!

Christmas soirée

Our email invitation, courtesy of Cocodot.com, which sadly has gone out of business :(


Preparing for the feast.



Strawberry chocolate chip cookies: 1/2 container of Cool Whip 1/2 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 egg 1 box of strawberry cake mix   Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together ingredients, and bake for 8-10 minutes on parchment paper (these cookies are very sticky)



Baked brie & Holiday Jam



Bacon-wrapped dates (delish!!)



Dijon, ham & asperagus roll-ups



Vintage glass mugs with peppermint spoons: for our spiked pepperming hot coco



Champagne with fozen blackberries



Some of my girls :) LOVE them!!

Christmas nesting

I finally amped myself up enough to fight rush hour traffic across town to Hobby Lobby to pick up a few Christmas decorations. I promised myself I wouldn't spend too much money this year on Christmas. I have plenty of decor packed in 2 Tupperware tubs in a friend's garage in Florida. But I love nesting for Christmas, so I allowed myself a few purchases, and a few craft projects. Here are a few...

Wreath made from scrap linen and a poinsetta from the Dollar Store.

With no Christmas tree, I had to be creative on how I displayed my ornaments.

Copied straight from Pinterest.



Reindeer with jingle bells: Dollar Store. Bust of reineer: idea from Pinterest.

Twinkly lights under the countertop.

In addition to my crafts, here are a few other extra touches:

My Ultimate Christmas List 2012

My Ultimate Christmas List 2012 by jenmarshall featuring v neck tops

everything is gold

On a recent trip to Hobby Lobby, I picked up a can of gold spray paint. I proceeded to go home and scour my apartment for anything that I could turn gold. Here are the results...