All I Want For Christmas...

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I sure did! I really feel like I racked up this Christmas! I thought today I would tell all of y'all about some of the presents that were under my tree this year!

Silpada Jewelry

Pandora BeadsAmazon Kindle

Old-World Christmas Ornaments

I also got some clothes, pajamas, money, and other little goodies this year! Not to mention, my new sewing machine! I am so excited by my Christmas gifts this year! What did you get for Christmas this year?

Christmas Cookie Recipes

Y'all asked and I answered! I am going to post a few of the recipes I baked this year for Christmas! Would y'all believe that I spent a few hours today baking cookies with my mom? That makes 3 days in a row that I have baked something! I think I am getting pretty good at it!

Note: I am HIGHLY allergic to chocolate, so many of my recipes (like the cake truffles) can be changed to have some chocolate in them if you so choose. I just can't eat chocolate or even bake with it for others due to my allergy, so I take recipes that might have chocolate in them and alter them for me. :) Cake Truffles (aka Cake Balls) - This recipe has been going around on twitter and many blogs and I decided to try it for the first time sometime this fall. I have altered it from the original recipes for what I have found works best for me.

Ingredients:

1 Box of Cake Mix (any flavor you choose, my favorite is white)

1 Container of Frosting (again any flavor you choose)

Approximately 1/2 of a container of Almond Bark

Directions:

1. Bake cake according to the directions, let cool slightly

2. Once your cake is cool enough to handle without burning yourself, crumble cake into a large mixing bowl. Crumble the cake into the smaller crumbs you can. I find that a potato masher works really well to crumble the harder edge pieces.

3. Add approximately 1/2 of the container of frosting to the crumbs and stir together until it is thoroughly incorporated.

4. Roll cake mixture into balls. Some recipes I have read, say that you must refrigerate the cake mixture before rolling into balls, but I don't find that to be necessary. As you make your balls, put them on a flat surface lines with wax paper. Refrigerate the balls until firm, approximately 30 minutes.

5. Melt almond bark. Remember to thin your bark with Unflavored Crisco Solid Shortening...I made that mistake once and it was a mess!

6. Dip you balls in the bark, transfer to flat surface lined in wax paper and decorate. Transfer to refrigerator until hard. They will harden on the countertop, but it takes a while...so the fridge works for me! Once hard and ready to eat, they can be stored on the countertop.

7. Enjoy!Christmas Butter Cookies - This is a new recipe that I tried this year and it is DELICIOUS! They are the best cookie I have ever eaten, and that includes professional cookies I have eaten as well! They are going to be a family staple from now on!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup REAL unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg yolk

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Cream butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and egg yolk in medium bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, add flour, baking powder, and salt. Lightly stir to mix.

3. A little at a time, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix with a hand mixer (or a standing mixer...whatever you have) until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the bowl and starts to form a ball

4. Form the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

5. Once the dough is ready to be baked, preheat the oven to 350F.

6. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is 1/8 inch thick. Cut out shapes andtransfer to a cookie sheet. Place cookies about 2 inches away from each other.

7. Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool. Once cool, decorate with Cookie Glaze.

Cookie Glaze - This is basically Royal Icing with a different name, so you must work quickly or it will harden! If you are not using the glaze at a certain time, cover with a damp paper towel. If your glaze gets too hard to work with, you can stream in milk a teaspoon at a time until it gets back to the consistency it was at the start of decorating. Also, on another note, if you want rich colors use gel food coloring instead of the liquid. It works so much better and the colors are richer!

Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar

4-6 tablespoons milk

Assorted food coloring gels

Directions:

1. Combine powdered sugar and milk a tablespoon at a time until it comes to a medium-thick pourable glaze. Note: I used a hand mixer and found that it was lumpy at first, but if you keep mixing at a high speed the lumps will work out and the glaze will turn out really nice. For that reason, I suggest using a mixer because otherwise your arm will fall off trying to get all the lumps out!

2. Tint with food coloring and ice!

So, there are a few of the recipes from this year! Let me know if y'all try any of them!

Christmas Baking

I have been hard at work baking over the past week! It is one of my favorite activities during the holidays and one that I look forward to all year! This year I made a big variety of cookies and treats! Thomas' little sister Kelly and myself made Cake Balls (which I renamed Cake Truffles to sound nicer, haha!) and decorated a gingerbread house about a week ago. I made the Cake Balls for my co-workers as their Christmas gift. I think they all turned out really good! I have been getting compliments on them everyday since! Here are a few pictures from that baking day!

Yesterday and today, Ashton and I are baking all the traditional holiday cookies for our families and for gifting. I always give Thomas' grandparents a big tin of homemade cookies for Christmas and poor Ashton has to work on Christmas, but she is bringing a big plate to her workplace for all to enjoy. We have made a variety of cookies and it has been hard to keep ourselves from sampling too many! I have made/mixed dough for Christmas Cut-out Cookies, Jeweled Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, and Spritz Cookies. They are all so good and we have had a great time spending some time together baking! What are your annual traditions?

Giveaway Winners

Thanks to all who entered my giveaway! I have really had a great time reading your comments! I hope all the winners enjoy their prizes! If you are a winner, please email me with your personal information so that I can get your prize out to you as soon as possible! With it being Christmas week and all, I will give you until Monday, December 28 to get back to me with that information. If you don't get back to me, I will have to draw another winner. I'm sorry to have to be that way, but I have had problems on past giveaways with that issue.

Without further ado, let's reveal the winners!

Prize #1 "Pretty & Pampered" - Dawn at Lydia & Pugs
Prize # 2 "Driving Miss Lilly" - Tales From My Empty Nest
Prize # 3 "Sparkle & Shine" - Sally at Everything Is Better Pink

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all who entered and made my giveaway a success!!!

REMEMBER!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! I will draw winners on Monday morning!

Sewing Machine

Oh my goodness y'all! I am so excited right now!!! I just ordered a brand new sewing and embroidery machine! It is a Brother SE350 and it is fully computerized with a touch screen! I have heard so many great things about this machine and I cannot wait to try it out! I have been wanting this machine for about a year, but for one reason or another it just hasn't worked out for me to get it. What with the time school takes up it doesn't leave much time for hobbys and having to be a financially responsible adult (boo, I wish I was a kid again!), I just wasn't sure WHEN or IF I would be getting the machine. Well, I have saved and worked hard to be able to get the machine and Amazon.com smiled at me today by giving me a mucho price drop (YAY!), and I decided to go on and get it! I could not be more excited right now! Even though school does take a lot of my time, we all need our hobbies to keep us sane!!! haha! I am going to make time for me more this semester so that I don't flip out like this past one, and I think getting more into a hobby I have been interested in for a while is just the thing! Don't y'all?

The machine does so many great things! I don't even remember everything it does! Ha! The reviews I have read over the past year say it is a great machine for a beginner/intermediate sewer (not a professional machine, but good for a casual sewer), and that it gives you a lot of bang for your buck (y'all know I love that!). However, the thing I am the most excited about is the monogramming feature! I love how you can sew on it, and then also embroider! I love monogramming (as we all do!), and I am planning to put my monogram on everything! I am also planning to try to learn how to make clothes! Ever since I was a little girl, I loved nothing better than to go to the fabric store with my mother and sit up on the stools and look at all of those books full of patterns! It is truthfully one of my very favorite memories of my mom and I when I was little! There are so many great patterns out there to make beautiful dresses and skirts, and I can't wait to try to learn how to do this! I really know NOTHING other than how to make a straight stitch, so I also bought the Reader's Digest Guide To Sewing after hearing Jessica over at What I Wore rave about it! She went to fashion school and that is the book they used! So stay tuned y'all, I will post all the new stuff I make!

So, are there any sewers out there? What are some good places to get nice fabric for clothes? The only places I know of in our town are Hancock and Jo-Ann, and I am not going for the cheap gingham look. I want to get some good quality fabrics to make good quality clothes from (after I get done with my practicing on cheap gingham, haha!). So does anyone know where I can get something like that? Online or in my area if you know about those?

Lydia & Pugs Custom Stationary

Recently, I asked Dawn over at Lydia & Pugs to create a custom sketch for me with Lucky! If you haven't heard of Lydia & Pugs before, she has a fantastic website and etsy shop where she sells stationary, address labels, calendars, calling cards, tote bags, aprons, and so much more with adorable designs she creates! I just love her work and have been wanting to have her create a design for me! Last week, I finally decided to give her to go ahead to make me some fun note cards, calling cards, and a 2010 desk calendar! Dawn and I came up with the idea to make the design have a super fun party feel to it! I wanted it to have my love of Lilly Pulitzer incorporated and therefore decided to have it drawn with me wearing my favorite and very coveted Kassidy dress! I am also wearing some fun heels with bows on them, a bright green purse, some sparkly bracelets, and of course we needed to include my engagement ring! I also wanted Lucky to wear his party collar! Y'all know how much I love them and Lucky just looks so cute in them! We went with a bright Lilly inspired color scheme and at the bottom of the note cards they read "From Jennifer & Lucky too!" For my calling cards, I decided to get the bottom of my dress and shoes with Lucky sitting beside me! I am looking forward to using these in both my wedding planning and at school! I cannot tell you how many times I have had to rip a piece of paper out of my notebook to scribble my number down for a study group! All of those boys in my major (literally, we only have like 4 girls) already laugh with me because I am so organized and Type A! They always want to come study with my study groups because it is known in my classes that I take the best notes! I assume they will get a chuckle out of it, but boys just don't get the idea of calling cards to begin with! haha! I also got a cute 2010 desk calendar to keep at work! I am looking forward to the new year so that I can hang it up in my cubicle! I am so pleased and excited with my design and look forward to working with Dawn again in the future! If you are interested in getting a design of your own, drop on by Lydia & Pugs! You will not be disappointed!!!

Awards

Brittany over at Sweet, Sassy, and oh so Classy tagged me with this cute award last week! I made a mental not that as soon as I got back into my blogging groove, I would be sure to post it! Thanks Brittany! I just get so tickled when I receive a blog award!So here is what comes along with this award...

The Rules:

1. List 10 things that make you happy.

2. Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.

10 Things Making Me Happy (in no particular order):
1. My family, my friends, and my blog friends!!!
2. It's Christmas y'all!!! How could I not be happy!

3. Thomas! He is always so sweet and supportive! I truly believe that God made him for me and put him in my life at a time when I needed him.4. Staring at my Lilly Pulitzer desktop wallpaper! It always make me feel cheerful

5. Working on my relationship with the Lord!
6. My sweet little puppy Lucky! He is just to sweetest thing! I really want to get another dog to add to the clan when Thomas and I get married, but I don't know if Lucky would be able to adjust to not being the baby! He is spoiled rotten! Y'all already knew that though!

7. I got my yearly appraisal today and I did AWESOME! It is so flattering to hear your boss say you did a good job!

8. I got all of my grades but one today! 3 A's and 1 B! I hope the last one is an A!
9. Thomas and I are going on a lunch date today, and that makes me super duper happy!
10. I'm getting MARRIED! I just can't help but be happy about that!

I also got tagged by one of my very best blog friends SouthernBelleJM over at The Tale of a Southern Belle a few weeks ago with the Sugar Doll Award! I hope she can forgive me for being, oh, about a month late! Sorry!

Rules are to list 10 random facts about yourself and then tag 10 bloggers.

1. I love to eat cheese. When I was little, my family said I was a little mouse! I like nothing better for a snack than a piece of Extra Sharp Cheddar! Yum!
2. I am a very routined person. I have a routine for waking up, showering, getting ready, getting ready to go to sleep, etc. I am very spontaneous, but for the mundane things, I like a routine. If I don't stick to the routine, I feel off!

3. When I was in the 7th grade, I got attacked by a dog and had part of my lip bitten off! I had to have 30-something stitches! Now, you can't even see where it happened unless you count the tiny scar on my lip!

4. I love old music! My top bands of all time are The Beatles, Queen, Simon and Garfunkel, and Fleetwood Mac! I really don't listen to new music at all! I am so clueless when Thomas' sister Kelly starts singing the latest song! It makes me feel like an old lady sometimes!

5. I like to sleep with my covers all the way up to my neck! I can't stand to have anything buy my face outside of the covers when I sleep! It doesn't matter if it summer or winter, I just like to feel bundled up!

6. I have been guilty of texting and driving, and I don't mean at stop lights y'all! It is SO bad! I am working hard to stop doing it! I haven't texted and drove in a while now!

7. I really want a sewing machine! I am saving money everywhere I can to get a specific one that MONOGRAMS! I am planning to buy it soon!

8. In high school, I had a little business where I made place mat purses and ribbon headbands for my friends! They were so cute, and that is what started my love of sewing! When I get the sewing machine, I plan to try to make some of my own clothes! How cute would it be to be able to monogram everything and make my own fun dresses out of cute fabrics I find!

9. I hate to do my own nails, but I think I am really good at it! I think that my polish job looks better than the salons sometimes!

10. My most prized possession is my baby blanket that my mom made for me before I was born. I still have it in my room! If there was a fire, that is the first thing I would grab. It is so beautiful! It is an afghan with cross-stitched animals all over it! It is precious!

10 Bloggers I pass these on to:
Adelaide @ Sweet, Sassy, Southern and Classy

SouthernBelleJM @ The Tale of a Southern Belle

Tales From My Empty Nest

Lauren @ Adventures of a Southern Newlywed

Micah @ Life Is Beautiful

Dawn @ Lydia and Pugs (Just wait for tomorrow to see the BEAUTIFUL stationary she made for me!)

Pink, Green, Precious, and Preppy

Confessions of A Semi-Slacker Mom

Jennifer @ The Pink Chick

Christine @ The Sweet Sea

I wish I could tag all of y'all! If I didn't specifically tag you, but you want to play, feel free to go ahead! I can't to hear y'alls answers!

My 1 Year Blogging Birthday Giveaway!

Now that exams are behind me and I am on Christmas Break, I finally have time to catch up on my blogging! I am so excited to tell y'all so many things! I have posts galore to come in the next few weeks! First, we have to take care of thanking y'all for reading my blog!

When I first started blogging about a year ago, I never imagined how much I would love it! I have never been much of a journal type of person. However, I am a talker! I think that is why I have come to love blogging so much! I can log in and tell all of y'all about my shopping finds, fun activities, a word of wisdom I heard, or even have people there for me when I have a bad day! I never imagined that anyone would want to read my blog! I remember thinking that it would last about a month or so, and then I would probably get sick of writing to no one and then stop. I was scared to comment on the blogs that had 100 or so followers because I thought they were so "big time" and wouldn't what to read my little blog! WOW! I just couldn't believe it when I started getting comments and connecting with so many great ladies! Oh, and all y'all new bloggers that may be scared to comment here, PLEASE comment because I love meeting new people through he Internet! I would love to come over and see your blogs too!

Blogging has become such a wonderful outlet for me! I love to have a record of what I have gone through, both fun and not so fun, so that I can look back and remember how I was feeling about things. I also love to shop, but y'all knew that, and I just love that I can take pictures of all my items and have all of y'all to tell me your opinions! I am sure that Thomas is glad I don't make him look at all of my purchases now! Ha! Well, I am just so glad that I started blogging! It is a fun experience, a great outlet, and a wonderful way to meet new friends that I would never have come to know without all of this! Thanks y'all! Y'all are always there for me when I have a bad day to pick me back up! Y'all are always there for me when I have fun times! Y'all are always there for me when I shop to tell me how fabulous everything is! Y'all are always there for me to tell me how cute my little pooch is! I just can't even tell y'all how much it means to me when I get a comment or email from someone! It is so flattering to know someone out there wants to read what I write, let alone comment on it! I really love all the friendships I have made, and I hope that I will make many more!

Onto the fun stuff!!! What am I giving y'all to say thanks?

Prize 1 - "Pretty & Pampered!"

Persian Peach Body Soak - Y'all know I need to give y'all something peach scented since I am a Georgia Peach! :)

Nicole by OPI Nail Polish in Enchantress - this color is so pretty! It is a pale pick with a pearly sheen to it!

2 Sparkle Nail Files

Prize 2 - "Driving Miss Lilly!"

Pink Leopard Sunglasses Case

Lilly Pulitzer Jubilee Shift Gears Keychain - this highly coveted keychain sold out at the online Lilly sale! It is so cute! I have one as well, and I just love it!

Prize 3 - "Sparkle & Shine!"

A lovely Deep South Designs necklace!

I made this necklace out of Sterling Silver plated chain and Sworovski crystals and Sworovski pearls. It hangs about 20 inches long and closes with a Sterling Silver plated toggle on one side of the necklace. It is what I call a "Cascade Necklace" because the crystals and pearls cascade from the center! It is truly a show stopper necklace!

The Rules: To enter, simply leave a comment below. There will only be 1 entry per person. You will be entered to win all three of these prizes! The giveaway will last one week until Midnight Sunday, December 20. I hope all of y'all like these prizes! I have had so much fun collecting cute little items to say thanks to y'all!

D-O-N-E

This picture always makes me laugh because this could be a snapshot of my classroom at school* I totally stand out! All boys, neutral colors, and then there is me! Pink and Sparkly! I am serious when I tell you that every time we talk about the economics of making items in the color pink, the whole class looks at me! ha!

*only not as pretty since we are a public university! Oh and not as many people, and forget about computers...no one brings them to my school. Try drawing a graph on one of those!

This has been one tough semester! I have shed my fair share of tears, stayed at the library until midnight more than once (for the first time ever), and had more anxiety about school than I have ever had in my life. The closer graduation comes, the harder it gets! But I can do it! I am DONE with school for this semester! Finished up with my last final today! I hope all my grades end up being good! So far, I have 1 A and 1 B, and 3 more to be posted! I could not be more relieved that it is over! This semester was all about keeping my head above water and telling myself, "You can do it! You are smart! You are capable!" and many a time I would sing in my head, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!" This semester has shown me just how strong I am! I really can do anything if I put my mind to it! I think this semester has been a good life lesson! The toughest times in life are always the ones that teach us about ourselves!

Update

Y'all, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I promise! I will be back to normal blogging next week. Exams this week have been intense. I had one on Monday, exempted one of Tuesday (for Intermediate Micro! I finished with a B in that class! I am so happy!), had one last night (super hard!), and have one more to go on Friday. I am ready to be DONE! As soon as I am, I will be back in full force with blogging. I just can't wait to show y'all the giveaway I have planned up! It is full of fun things that I love and I am sure y'all will as well!

On another note, did any of y'all watch the Glee finale last night? OMG! I loved the ending! I cannot wait for next season! Can I just say how much I love Emma Pilsbury! She is just so cute! And Rachel's voice! WOW! That girl can sing! I won't spoil for those of you who might have DVRed it, but it was so good! Those of y'all that watched it, what did y'all think?

Christmas Movies

I was inspired by Hopsy's post the other day about her favorite Christmas movies and decided I wanted to do a post showing y'all my fave Christmas movies as well! What are your favorite movies to watch in the Christmas season?

The Classics

It's A Wonderful Life

Miracle on 34th Street

Meet Me in St. Louis
I plan to watch for the first time this year both Holiday Inn and White Christmas! I can't believe I have never seen them!

The Ones I Remember From Childhood

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Home AloneThe Santa Clause

How The Grinch Stole Christmas - both versions!

Rudolph

Frosty

Mickey's Christmas Carol

A Charlie Brown Christmas

The Modern Ones

The Holiday

Christmas With The Kranks

The Family Stone

Four Christmases

Jingle All The Way

Elf The Polar ExpressThe Nightmare Before Christmas

Aaanndd the BEST Christmas movie of ALL TIME!!!!

A Christmas Story

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out! Merry Christmas!

all images found via google

There Is No One Like You by David Crowder Band

I cannot get enough of this song lately! I have been playing it on repeat in my car for day! It is so good! Please take a minute and listen to it!

Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
Isaiah 46:9

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8