Superbowl Sunday

So clearly one of my obsessions is football....more like the New England Patriots! And unfortunately we chocked and lost but despite that we had some great food and beers to go along with our superbowl sunday! My roommates and I made a huge spread of appetizers and other foods to eat while watching including artichoke dip, vegetable platter, pigs in a blanket and so much more! What did you make


                                                    

Part one of the meals!

       

Part 2! 

                                                       

So as I am finding more about Pinterest and its glories, I decided to really look through Etsy and not just glance at some of the things people at linked to through Pinterest. And oh my god I am in love. This is not good. I found SO many things I want to buy and have already done so with some things! The best part of this site is that it is awesome and cute jewelry that is handmade and also inexpensive!

For Christmas I got a few Alex and Ani bracelets but fell in love with this feather bracelet which I received. Once I was given that bracelet, I was on the hunt for similar gold bracelets and etsy came to my rescue! Well more like FrostedWillow, an amazing jewelry designer who made bracelets which were exactly what I was looking for! Take a look at some of her designs! These are the two bracelets that I got!

Frosted Willow Bracelets and Cute
Packing Box!

Frosted Willow Bracelets, Alex and Ani Bracelet
Michael Kors Watch

I also saw these really cute necklaces on Sweet Verbana's blog and knew I had to have one! Luckily one of my friend's birthday was coming up so I decided it was a perfect opportunity to get this necklace! Although I haven't received it yet (since I ordered it on Friday), Julie from The Apple Blossom Shoppe is so nice and quick! She had already processed it and shipped it the morning after I placed the order! Can't wait to get them! Here are the pictures of the necklace!

Bora Bora Necklace!

The cute packaging! Perfect for a birthday gift!

DIY Table

I am so excited! For a long time, I have been thinking of making my brother some type of table to take to college with him. Originally I was thinking it would be made out of bottle caps or hockey sticks but as you can see from this post, I didn't get too far on the collecting and decided to just start small and make a stool with bottle caps. But, after briefly mentioning to my brother what my original intentions were, he was pretty excited about it so we decided to try and make a table out of his old hockey sticks! Here is what it "should" look like. I will post pictures/directions once we figure it out ourselves!

Picture taken from this website

Skiing Retreat

After surprising one of my roommates for her birthday back up in Vermont, my family and I headed to our ski house at Loon Mountain. Despite there being barely any snow and the mountain being extremely icy, it was a pretty good day of skiing and nothing can beat hanging out in our house (probably one of my favorite places to just lounge and read a book in front of the fire!) Here are some of the pictures from the weekend. What are some of your favorite places?

One of the trails from the driveway!

Proof that there was barely any snow! Usually the backyard area is piled up enough that we can ski down from the trail! Not this time! We had to slide down (barely!)

Scorpion Bowls for Jenny's Birthday! (After getting margarita's up the street! Whoops!) 

My brother getting creative with the dirt on my car. I was so glad I didn't realize that this was on my car until I got home 2 hours later!

Recent Projects!

After watching hours upon hours of NCIS, CSI, Say Yes to the Dress, Extreme Couponing and so many other TV shows, I decided I needed to do something with my life. Since I am on break and have no actual 'work' to do, I decided to do some more DIY projects and strengthen my cooking and baking skills. Here are some of the things I have done!

1) First can I say that after being introduced to pinterest by my sister, I have becoming obsessed with all the different diy projects, recipes, different art and architecture, etc. One of the biggest things I have done during my break is making my own Hot Chocolate and Peppermint Hot Chocolate. I made one of each and gave them out as extra presents to each family on both sides of my family = 30 containers (can you say woah!). Anyways, although it took a lot of time, it was awesome and everyone loved them! I found these two hot chocolate recipes from this website and used gift bags to hand them out! 

                      

2) I am a big fan of jewelry so whenever I can find a diy project that involves bracelets, necklaces, earrings, etc. I am all for trying it. Through pinterest, I found a bunch of different ideas which then lead me to many different blogs which gave me more ideas and projects to try. Here are some of the bracelets I recently made. 

                                     

3) I have also picked up baking as my new hobby and make my roommates try my concoctions! Thanks pinterest! (Notice a trend here?) I have made so many things from homemade cinnamon rolls (recipe from Cupcakes and Cashmere) to strawberry filled cheesecake bites! Here are some of my most recent baked goods! 

  

Homemade Fruit Roll Ups  

Fruit Roll Up's Stored in a Mason Jar!

          

Pepperoni Rolls from this blog!

 4) I have been saving up bottle caps that I find to originally make a bottle cap table for my brother to bring back to college but then I just kind of forgot and stopped collecting. But then I saw this cool bottle cap stool that looked relatively easy to make so I tried it and it came out better than expected!

All you have to do is buy or make a small stool, spray paint the color you want, figure out the design of the bottle caps and hammer them in! Easy peasy!

 5) Finally, I decided to re-try using my sewing machine as my last time I tried to sew turned out horribly. This time, thanks to the awesome blog Sweet Verbena, I found some great new projects to try and sew and they all looked relatively easy for a beginner. The first thing I decided to try to make was an infinity scarf (seen here) and wow it really was easy! I love it and can't wait to make more for myself and my family and friends! Such an easy and cute project!

Christmas Weekend

 Well now that Christmas is over, it is time to get cracking on basically not being lazy and getting involved with more projects! Despite my laziness, I had a great weekend including getting to go to the patriots game on Christmas eve! Between my two sides, family events are always loud, crazy and entertaining and this year certainly lived up to my expectations. Here are some of the shots from this weekend!

                                                  

                   

         

           

                         Some fun kids grab gifts!           

              

                               The new coats that provided a small game of bouncing off each other!             

I hope everyone got everything that they wanted and more! I certainly had one great christmas with some fun presents but mostly spending time with my family, most of which I do not see that often!

Christmas Wish List

So with Christmas only 6 days away, I'm clearly finding so many different products that I "want and need" for Christmas that I had not yet seen or known about when giving ideas for presents from my family and friends. While I will not necessarily be able to own these items, I can still lust over them. Here are a few items that I recently found. What about you? What is on your christmas wish list?

1) Portolano I-Touch Gloves: How great are these gloves? If you have any sort of touch screen phone, you wouldn't even have to take off your gloves to use your phone. I definitely need a pair!

2) Cuisinart Griddler: So I saw a commercial for this and immediately decided I wanted this. We use our George Forman so much at my house but after grilling chicken then trying to clean it is the biggest pain. This is great because the plates are removable and dishwasher safe AND it opens up to be a griddle so you can make pancakes then later make a panini. Its basically the best invention made for college students. This is a WANT!

3) Starbucks Black and White Mocha: Although this would not be a Christmas gift, any time I get this drink, I think of it as a gift. the White Chocolate Mocha mixed with regular Mocha is a drink sent from heaven. The first time I got it I was pulling an all-nighter studying for exams so I think it was even better at the time. Definitely a must try for anyone not sure what to get when they go to Starbucks!

4) Steve Madden 'Sparkk' Booties: I'm really into glittery and sparkly shoes right now and every since I DIYed my own shoes with gold glitter, I've been looking for other shoes similar or projects I can do. Steve Madden has an especially large amount of shoes with glitter and sparkle on them and these are ones that I love and truly need to have. I don't know how much I would wear them in Vermont but thats okay, you never know! 

5) YSL Silver Clutch: For years I have coveted the YSL Muse bag, but this clutch is just awesome especially because it is in silver. I love that it is so bright and it can be used during the holidays or just a night out on the town.

6) Modalu 'Pippa' Wallet: Modalu has become a huge brand recently because of the one and only Pippa Middleton and her love for their recently renamed 'Pippa' handbag (one which I will be receiving for Christmas! So Excited). However, their wallets I also love. They are just so classic and simple, which as a soon to be graduating college student will be something that I 'need'! The best part about the Modalu brand is that despite their growing success, their prices (while in pounds) are relatively low, which is always a plus!