Thursday, December 30, 2010

Planning a Progressive Party

For New Years my friends and I decided to have a Progressive Dinner Party.  This is a party where the appetizer is held at one home, then everyone travels to another home for dinner, and a third home for dessert! I am helping to make one of the appetizers.  The other couple making appetizers is going to make a bruschetta, so to continue the Italian theme I am going to make mini calzones.

via
It's a pretty simple recipe, you buy a package of Pillsbury Grands Buttermilk Biscuits, a jar of marinara sauce (I prefer Barilla Sweet Pepper, or Barilla Spicy Marinara), pizza cheese, and whatever pizza toppings you prefer. 

Cut the biscuits in half like a hamburger bun, so that they are twice as thin as they were originally. Then place the sauce and cheese and toppings on like you would if it were a normal pizza, fold in half and bake until golden brown.  They are tasting and unique!! A great progressive party treat! 

Have a fabulous end to 2010! I'll talk to you next year!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

A Glimpse of Christmas

I hope that all of you had a great Christmas! I thought I would start to share some of my amazing gifts with you. Unfortunately, I won't be able to post all of them today because I'm exhausted from a great day of skiing! So here are two for starters. I would highly recommend both of these books, the advice is fashionable and practical and could fit into any budget!

1. Nina Garcia's Look Book
2. The One Hundred, by Nina Garcia

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I'm using the iPad again and the image thing is not cooperating!

Happy Wednesday, go do something spontaneous to celebrate.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Good Cheer Goodies!

One of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season is to make Christmas treats with my mom and share them with our friends and family! Our traditional menu includes sugar cookies, gingerbread houses, and truffles.  This year we added a new treat to the list: Nutter Butter Reindeer. 

via
These were super easy to make.  Just dip the cookie in chocolate, then stick on white chocolate M&Ms for eyes, a red hot for a nose, then dip the end of the pretzel in chocolate and stick them on as antlers!

Here are some pictures of the rest of my holiday favorites (unfortunately these were not made by me, but I hope they provide inspiration to you!).

via
via


via

 Happy baking!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Sparkle and Shine, It's Holiday Time!!

Christmas is coming way too quickly for me! I should be finishing up my Christmas shopping but unfortunately I've spent most of my time catching up with friends and trying to get back into the routine of being home.  I did find some holiday sparkle during one of my recent shopping escapades.  Here they are!



      
Essie and Mini Essies!
Bow Ring!

Monday, December 20, 2010

And We're Back

It's been awhile, but I figured that studying for finals and moving home took top priority over posting. Never fear though, now that I'm back the posts should be more regular, especially with the help of my new favorite toy! This past week my dad acquired a brand new Apple iPad. While I originally had my doubts about the thing, it's actually pretty cool. Here is my personal pro and cons list:

Pros
Great screen quality. The screen might even be better than my computers! It makes it easier to see the real color of products when you are shopping online, which is usually a problem when shopping on a normal computer.

The Internet works really fast, much faster than my Blackberry. I know that the iPad is on wireless and the Blackberry is on the wireless network, but it still cleans my phones clock.

Design, what we you expecting this is a fashion blog, the design looks really sleek and modern. I have to admit I'm not the biggest Mac fan but they rally did a good job with this one, it's sleek and fits welling most of my day purses.


Marc by Marc Jacobs makes an awesome iPad case (seriously who doesn't love a reason to buy ore Marc Jacobs).

Cons
Typing is kind of difficult to get used to. If you're trying to type vertically the keys are just small enough to make it difficult to hit the right letters if you try and type on it like a normal computer, which made me try to type on it like my Blackberry and just use my thumbs. Unfortunately my hands were too small to do this effectively. If you flip it horizontally it's easier to type normally like a computer but it's kind of difficult because you can't rest your fingers on the keyboard without it resulting in something that looks like this afjdfk
Jadaldkjnffaljsnkd... I suppose that you could buy an external keyboard, but at that point you should probably invest in a laptop.

You can't edit the font type or color for your blog posts... Which is the reason that this post is not in my normal arial grey!

A little heavy. It doesn't seem too heavy at first but when you've been rummaging arou d the blogosphere for a couple of hours you're wrists start feeling the weight. Or you could put it on the table and look down all the time, but then you have to answer to your chiropractor when you start looking like a hunched over old lady!!

Overall the iPad is pretty cool, I'm not sure yet whether or not I. Recommend it but I'll get back to you soon! Until the here are some great accessories.

Marc by Marc Jacobs iPad Case
Happy Monday!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Girls Day Out!!

Today was girls day out on the town!! We headed to the big outlet mall by our school enjoyed a day of shopping and dinner at one of my favorite restaurants.  I had two really great finds that I will take pictures of and post tomorrow.  While we were shopping I noticed a ton of cool home decorations that lead me to thinking about how I want to decorate my first place.  Here are some of my inspirations. 

Forever 21 $7.80
H&M 7.99
H&M 9.99
Kohl's 207.99
IKEA $349

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Blackberry Bling

I've recently discovered a new kind of accessory that I had completely overlooked, the cell phone cover.  It makes complete sense, my phone comes everywhere with me why not make it work with my outfits? Well maybe not every outfit, but it should at least look good!
letscrystalit.com $22.46 
crackberry.com
shoponline2011.com

Happy Wednesday!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Going Out With My Boots On

It's finally here, my last official day of college.  After today all I have left is finals and packing. While the day is sure to be completely bittersweet, I thought I'd make it a little bit more pleasant by wearing my favorite shoes.  I love a great pair of heels, adore comfy and stylish flats, and have almost worn out both pairs of my suede boots. However, none of these hold a candle to my signature shoes... Have you guessed it yet? Of course the Urban Cowgirl is talking about her cowgirl boots.  I've had mine for five years now, and they are by far my favorite shoes.  So I figured I'd make my last day memorable and rock the boots! Unfortunately I can't get a picture of my own boots right now but here's a pretty close match.

Durango $93.99

I wish I had one of these dresses to wear with my boots tomorrow.  I love the look of a girly dress paired with worn in cowboy boots. It just screams Urban Cowgirl!!
Forever 21 $19.90
Forever 21 $24.90
Here's to the end. 

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

 

Alexander Graham Bell

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Oh We Need A Little Christmas

After surviving senior comprehensive exams, I have found myself in the middle of Christmas party season (I had two this weekend already!). After the test I was able to relax at our annual drumline Christmas party. It was great being able to spend some fun time with my fellow drummers before I graduate in two weeks. My roommates and I decided to through our party last night.  Everything went off really great.  We had lots of food, friends, games, ugly sweaters, and a new twist on the old white elephant gift exchange. The only thing that could have made it better was if we had some treat bags! Do you remember when you would go to parties in grade school and leave with a treat bag, well I think it'd be fun to do at an adult party too.  Furthermore, it would also double as a Christmas present and cut down on holiday shopping.  Here is what I would put in my treat bags

Fred Flare $12 for set

Fred Flare $10

Target $6.99 Lady Antebellum Christmas Album
Homemade Recipe here

I think these three paired together with some homemade truffles would make awesome treat bags!  Enjoy your party planning, I'm working on a holiday gift guide to post soon!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Still Studying...

Still plowing through to philosophy comps on Saturday.  Here are some funny philosophy comics, well maybe they're only funny if you've been studying philosophy intensely all week.  Whatever the case enjoy your weekend free from philosophy comps you have no idea how lucky you are.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Sick of Sweats

Although I have essentially become a hermit, never leaving the study lounge except for food and classes, I still feel somewhat obligated to look presentable.  I used to attempt to study in my jeans and nice sweaters, but sitting in jeans for hours on end results in two problems 1.) it's incredibly uncomfortable 2.) by the time you stand up your jeans have stretched two sizes bigger and the knees are baggy.  Then I switched to studying in sweats and t-shirts, but that's just embarrassing when people stop by, and if you need to run out to grab something you lose precious time changing into more presentable clothes.  It's taken four years but I think that I have finally found the perfect comfortable yet presentable study outfit. 

H & M
An extra long button up cardigan. It's long enough to be a dress, but comfy enough to spend hours in. 

Target

Leggings, as comfy as sweatpants but much less I just rolled out of bed.  (Make sure that the sweater is long enough to come past your rear to avoid the leggings as pants phenomena.)

colettafazer.com
Layer your favorite cotton v neck underneath, and you are ready to study in style.  Now if only senior comprehensive exams were this easy...

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Study Study

So just to fill you in the rest of the posts this week (and possibly next week) will be pretty short.  I've got to take my comprehension exam (two hours of essays over every topic in my major), an ethics paper, two senior capstone thesi, and three final exams separate me from the "real world".  Well I better get back to studying because I don't want to end up like this guy...





Oh and I thought I'd show you my awesome glasses that are getting me through the all nighters,

Coach
Who said nerdy couldn't be fashionable!!