I Love My 2014 Holiday Card

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I did! I think I officially need to detox because I had my fair share of goodies, but I am okay with that. I not only got to meet my sweet niece, Penelope, and visit with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews, but I also enjoyed time with the Barriger side and had a blast just talking and laughing with family. It was much needed!

 

Today, my weekend got even better when I received my 2014 Christmas cards in the mail! I love them! They go with my black, gold and white décor/theme that I blogged about a few days back, and literally as I write this, I am enjoying a chai tea latte and am going to start addressing away. I honestly love writing out Christmas cards. My inner nerd is filled with so much happiness in doing so; I even have a Christmas movie playing in the background. I purchased my cards from Shutterfly this year and received 40% off and had a $10 coupon on top of the sale they were already running, so needless to say they were quite the deal! I hope you all are enjoying your Saturday night. I know I am.

 

Happy addressing!

XOXO

-Andrea

Holiday Decor Love: Christmas 2014

 

 

 

I am so excited to decorate for Christmas this year! Like I said in my previous post, we just installed new floors in our living room and kitchen and I absolutely LOVE them! We definitely need to do some painting in our living room and touch up some baseboards, but otherwise, our living room is well on its way to being done (sigh of relief).

I typically stick with the same look from year-to-year when it comes to decorating for the holidays. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday to decorate for, and I tend to add to my collection of decorations each year. Have you been to Target after the holidays? It’s kind of the best thing ever! Target always offers 75% off after the season is over, and I take full advantage of the sale every year. With that said, I feel like I want to change things up a bit this year. I was all about the bright green bulbs a few years back, and I have been pretty content with those paired with silver, red and gold bulbs. However, I am totally digging the black and white and gold look that I ran across on Pinterest while searching for some holiday décor inspiration. I just love the simplicity of it, and I also love to create different things that I can use from year-to-year, so with that said, I will be doing some creating this weekend, starting with that DIY glitter deer head!

Changes to My Current Décor:

-Swapping out my current ribbon with the black and white ribbon pictured above

-Adding the rustic crate filled with white candles and garland to my kitchen table (or possibly to my entertainment hutch that houses our TV, etc. –I haven’t decided yet)

-Creating that awesome DIY glitter deer head to add to my floating shelf in my living room that typically just houses our stockings

-Spray painting some branches gold to add to my Christmas tree (I may even add some white branches, too, since my tree does not have that snow covered look like the one pictured above)

-Printing off those adorable holiday tags and adding them to all of my gifts

 

Decorating for Christmas is so fun for me! I hope that you enjoy is as much as I do and feel inspired to possible change up your décor or at least add to what you already have. Links to all ideas pictured above can be found on my Pinterest page under my holiday board. Happy decorating!

XOXO

-Andrea



It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like...the Holidays!

Dress & Leggings from Carter's
Moccasins from Minnetonka



Sweater (similar) from Simple Addiction
Jeans (similar) from The Limited
Booties from Sole Society

I cannot believe it is almost Thanksgiving! I also cannot believe I haven’t blogged since May…Well, that’s not entirely true; my family had quite a busy summer. Our summer this year was jammed packed with home improvement projects. We painted our kitchen cabinets and laid new floors in our living room and kitchen. Because my husband and I are both in education, we have to get these fun little projects done over the summer while we’re off, so that leaves little time for me to blog. Side note-I fully plan on blogging about our home improvement projects as soon as I finish some tweaking, or should I say, as soon as my hubby finishes some much overdue tweaking!

Moving on to what’s really important-fashion! My mind works in a very interesting way, as I am always thinking about upcoming occasions, and more importantly, what I, as well as my sweet daughter,  we will be wearing to said occasions. With that in mind, I am happy to say I shopped early this year for our Thanksgiving looks. The vibe of our looks is dreamy to me! I love the sort of Aztec chic look that we both will be rocking to our Thanksgiving feasts this year.

Lola’s Look: Both items are from Carter’s and were super inexpensive. I feel like I want my daughter to have more of a style (yes, I know she is only two)- meaning, more than just a simple Thanksgiving tee with her name and a turkey on it- not that that look is bad, I am just sort of over it at this point, and here’s why. When my daughter was younger and not walking I wasn’t as concerned with shoes and what an entire outfit would sort of look like on her because someone was always holding her, so you could barely see the whole outfit that I had on her anyway. Now, she's running all over the place and is such a little person that I want to enjoy seeing different looks on her, if that makes sense (I’m weird, I get it). The dress definitely has a sort of Aztec look with the embroidery detail at the collar, and I just like the idea of adding stripes for fun to sort of break up the blandness of the navy and add to the fun embroidery detail. Also, the moccasins are my fave! I bought her a pair last year and she has since outgrown them, so this year I had to buy her another pair.

My Look: Keeping with the same vibe, I just recently bought an Aztec cardigan that I have gotten a million compliments on. I knew when they sort of blew up and became this huge fashion trend (I have pinned quite a few), that I wanted one, but knew it was not a sweater I would wear weekly, so I didn’t want to spend a small fortune on one. I purchased mine from an online boutique called Simple Addiction and I love it! It’s long and can be dressed up with a belt if you want to keep it closed. Any pair of dark denim looks great with these cardigans and I have even thought about pairing mine with neutral colored denim, like these, from The Limited. Last, I think the bootie is everything! I am truly obsessed with them! They look amazing with skinny jeans and I think they make my legs look skinnier (win!), so there’s that, too. As far as jewelry goes, these cardigans are super busy, so I normally wear gold studs and a few bracelets and call it a day. I think a simple necklace could work, too, as well as maybe some turquoise jewelry that sort of fits the Aztec vibe.

Hopefully, this helps you plan your Thanksgiving look, or maybe it’s just a fun post that gives you some insight into some pretty fabulous trends that are relevant right now. Either way, have a blessed and fun Thanksgiving!

Happy styling!

XOXO

-Andrea