Opinions please.

It seems almost every year I try to find a decent looking pair of sneakers that I can wear to give my flip flops a break. I haven't been overly successful in the past, but came across these 2 pairs at Nordstrom recently that look promising.

Which one do you like better?

Option 1:

(more photos and details here)

Option 2:

(more photos and details here)

Thanks for your input!

Sarah's House: Master Bedroom.

I have blogged about my love of all things Sarah Richardson before here. Well, Sarah's House didn't disappoint this weekend. I loved the master bedroom she did! It actually reminds me of the direction I am headed with our bedroom, so I was encouraged. Hopefully it is just the last bit of motivation I need to order the fabric and get going! (Too bad that the fabric was I was planning on ordering on etsy sold today!)

(all photos hgtv.ca)

So our master bedroom will not look that good, but I hope to be back in the near future with some pictures.

5 things . . .

Here are 5 of my new favorite beauty products, many of which I received for Christmas!

1. Frederic Fekkai shampoo and conditioner for colored hair

Love the way they smell, and the shampoo really cleans my hair without drying it out. I haven't used it long enough to see what it does with my highlights, but imagine it could only be better than what I was using before (which wasn't specifically for color treated hair). The only negative is the price. I told Justin he better not be using it!

2. Korres Lip Butter

I have both guava and quince and love them both. I am a lip balm junkie (see here) and these korres lip butters are must.

3. Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer

I love using this on the weekends. It moisturizes well and provides nice sheer coverage. Not that my weekday routine is tedious, but it is nice to just apply moisturizer and get a little coverage at the same time. I was surprised that it lasted all day too!

4. Jack Black Lip Balm

I love this lip balm. It is different than most because it is not shiny (because it's made for men). I got it in the lemon and chamomile and went back to Sephora to get some more. My motto is you can never have too many lip balms! As I was walking through Saks to get to Sephora, they had a little 3 pack special of these balms. Score!

5. Lola Marc Jacobs Perfume

So I don't have this yet, but I really want it! I love the bottle -- how great is that flower? And it smells SO good.

Cuteness.

Riley is in major need of a grooming, but I think he's extra cuddly when he is furry. Here he is doing his best to look super cute at the breakfast table. He usually sits for about a minute, then realizes we never feed him from the table, and lays down. I mean, why waste your energy sitting up if it's not going to pay off anyway? If we make any sudden movements in his direction, he hops up into his sitting/begging position.

I was sitting on one of the ottomans in the kitchen with my laptop in my lap one morning, and Riley came up and tried to figure out how he could also squeeze in my lap. After several attempts with no success, he somehow ended up with all 4 paws in a tray we keep on one of the ottomans. He stayed like that for quite a while and tried to figure out why we were laughing at him.

Look at that sweet face.

Breakfast of Champions.

Cup of coffee, banana, and cocoa krispies. Yum.

Proud to Be a Longhorn.

I would be lying if I told you that I wasn't a little disappointed that Texas lost to Alabama in the national championship game. But frankly, I have never been more proud of our team.

(photo: chron.com)

Basically the worst thing that could have happened to our team happened -- Colt McCoy was injured early in the game. This sounds immature, but it's not fair. He deserved more. Colt is an amazing player and a great person, and I was looking forward to seeing him shine during his last game, which also happened to be the biggest game of his college career. I can only imagine the disappointment he felt when he couldn't return to the game.

Here is a great story about him and the new QB, Garrett Gilbert. The imagine of Colt trying to throw the football to his dad again and again to no avail is heartbreaking, and not one I will soon forget. Here is a video clip of Colt's interview after the game. Maybe I am a softy, but I still tear up when watching that. What a class act he is.

(photo: texassports.com)

Our team gave it their all in the face of their worst nightmare and came pretty close to beating Alabama. And Gilbert was impressive considering the fact that he is true freshman and hasn't played more than a few minutes this season. I definitely am looking forward to seeing him play next year. Above all, our team showed great character and strength. While we didn't win the
game, there is a lot our team has to be proud of.

Hook 'em horns!

Happy Birthday, Mom.

I am a couple days late posting this, but happy birthday to my mom! Like Justin, her birthday celebration consisted of watching UT football. (more on the national championship game later.) Thankfully, she was a great sport about it (pun intended!).

Christmas Recap (finally).

Excuse me for not going in chronological order recapping the holidays here. You get the idea.

We had a wonderful Christmas with lots of family. I won't bore you with the details of present opening and lots of over-eating, but here are some pictures from Christmas day showing the crazy amount of presents for only seven people (all of us adults).

and since we ran out of room under the tree, we moved to in front of the fireplace . . .

The day after Christmas, we had a party at our place. It was great to visit with our friends and see people who were in from out of town. I was terrible about taking pictures that evening, but my brother-in-law snapped a few shots of all the food before the shindig began (excuse Justin and me in the background).

I have numbered the food I made and linked to recipes (click picture to enlarge):

1. Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. I cheated and used boxed chocolate cake mix (shhh, don't tell anyone) and then made homemade frosting. The frosting was so delicious and very easy to make.

2. Ginger cookies. Easy to make and very tasty. I would recommend refrigerating them for a bit before rolling them into balls. I used my new silpats Justin gave me for Christmas to bake these and they worked like a charm!

3. Semi-sweet and white chocolate covered Ritz peanut butter sandwiches. I took another shortcut and used the pre-made Ritz peanut butter sandwiches.

4. Pretzel turtles. Rolos work best for these. I could only find the Dove chocolate covered caramels and they seem to be more gooey. I did half with pecans and the other half with M&Ms. These are so easy to make and very addicting.

5. Ham and cheese in puff pastry. We made two of these and they were almost all gone. These may have been one of my favorite items. We used swiss cheese instead of gruyere to save a little money. I will definitely be making these again.

6. Spinach and artichoke dip (not pictured because it was still in the oven). This recipe is supposed to be the same as the one from Houston's. It is not exactly the same, but regardless, it is still very tasty. We copy Houston's and serve it with salsa and sour cream.

7. Bacon wrapped dates stuffed with goat cheese (not pictured because they were still in the oven). These are one of my new favorite appetizers. I love the sweet and salty combo. The recipe called for blue cheese, but I used goat cheese because (1) I like it better and (2) I already had some in the fridge.

All of which lead me back to number 8 on my resolutions list!

J. Crew = Evil Temptress.

I told myself I wasn't going to "need" anything from J. Crew for a while, but then they have to go and get new arrivals. The following are my faves:

The scalloped petal top.

Vintage latticework popover.

My favorite of the bunch: the ruffled gamine jacket.

Seriously, ruffles and pleating in the back? I am pretty sure I could find a way to wear this everyday.

And last but not least, the crosshatch cotton blaine jacket. Love the layered look. And, it's in gray!

I am hoping Gigi will have a review of these items any day now. In the meantime, I am just thankful there are no shoes I can't live without!

New Year's Eve.

I hope everyone had a happy new year! Ours was extremely low key. We went out to eat at the Black Lab with Meagan, Jeremy, and Kevin and then came back to our place to ring in the New Year. (Because Meagan and Jeremy are so popular, they had to leave to attend another party.) I quickly threw together Annie's Eats seven layer bars so we would have something to snack on until midnight. For as easy as the bars were to make, they were pretty tasty.

Along with the seven layer bars, the boys had Chimay (a Belgian beer made by monks). According to the label, we were total rule breakers by thinking about serving it in regular drinking glasses. Instead, Justin and Kevin decided it would be better to serve it in wine glasses since we don't have dedicated Chimay glasses.

Kevin was very excited about his Chimay find at Central Market for a good price. The bottle was huge (1.5 L) -- compare it to the 2 normal-sized sparkling wine bottles.

Justin tried to use the timer on our camera for the first time. As you can see, it took some trial and error to figure out how it worked.

There we go!

Happy New Year!

Sarah's House.

I have caught Sarah Richardson's Room Service on Fine Living before, but now the show Sarah's House is on HGTV. Her style has always appealed to me (both in decorating and her clothes).

I looked through her website trying to find pictures to include here, and it was very difficult to narrow it down to just a handful. Definitely head over to the website and view her portfolio and prepare to be amazed. Why do her and Candice Olson have to be in Canada only?

(all images from Sarah Richardson Design)

I can't wait to watch the remainder of the season to see how the house comes together. Her website and HGTV have pictures of the finished house online, but I am not looking because I want to be surprised!

New Year's Resolutions.

My firm is a big believer in creating S.M.A.R.T. goals and writing them down. What better time to think about what I want to accomplish than at the start of a new year. Hopefully by sharing my goals (not all of them SMART ones), I will be more apt to follow through. In no particular order:

1. Wake up earlier on a more regular basis.

2. Watch the first 3 seasons of 30 Rock.

3. Drink more water every day.

4. Do yoga for my back at least 3 times a week with my new yoga video.

5. Get more involved with the Tahirih Justice Center (and increase awareness around my office).

6. Start eating/cooking more at home.

7. Attempt to be less critical of and more patient with others.

8. Get in better shape. (whose list is this one not on?)

9. Learn how to take better pictures.

10. Get back into painting/drawing/crafting.

House Related Goals / To-Do List:

1. Paint the sitting room by February 1.

2. Paint the master bathroom by February 1.

3. Hang pictures in the entry way.

4. Accessorize our bedroom.

5. Organize the 1st and 3rd floor elevator closets by February 15 (the date the Container Store Elfa sale ends).

6. Clean and organize the study.

7. Change the knobs in the kitchen to drawer pulls.

8. Look around the house frequently and be reminded of all the things we have already accomplished.

Salon Wall.

I love the following pictures for some salon wall inspiration. Now if I could just find the perfect wall in my house to do such a thing . . .







Southern Living has a great article on how to easily hang a salon wall here.

P.S. I'll be back with a Christmas recap soon. Tonight is my first night in over a week without company over or being at the in-laws. I am thoroughly enjoying relaxing and having some quiet time at the house with Justin (and Riley).

Christmas Decor.

For some reason, I was behind schedule this year for decorating and presents (buying and wrapping). I am still trying to figure out where the month of December went. The Christmas decorations this year are not too much different than last year (see last year's pictures here).

Here's our tree (sans presents). Thankfully, I am happy to report that since I took this picture, we have wrapped a bunch of presents, so our tree looks much more complete. I was just too lazy to take an updated picture.


The mantel decorated with Ikea vases, the lumiere candleholders from CB2 (what a bargain those are), and a fun ribbon wreath from Michaels.


This is a bad picture, but you can see my cute twig reindeer on the buffet! There is a bowl (washed out by the sun) full of silver ornaments. I also wrapped thick red damask ribbon around the upholstered chairs and tied it in a bow. Please excuse my coffee cup (it is not part of the Christmas decor).


And my favorite Christmas Target find -- the red sequin tree. Those little blocks (also from Target) say "merry christmas." You can also see our new devon mirror from Z Gallerie. Love it!


There are a few other decorations in the kitchen and entry way, which I will (hopefully) post soon!

Tasty Hot Chocolate.

I recently saw a post over at Annie's Eats* about a hot chocolate mix recipe. It looked delicious, and I needed a little something extra for people at work, so I decided to make it this past weekend.

For quality control purposes, I had to sample a cup to make sure it was tasty enough to give out. It was so rich and delicious. Really, what's not to like? It's vanilla sugar and chopped chocolate bars!

Frankly, it was so good, it was hard to package it up and give away! I love hot chocolate! But I certainly don't need that much of it around the house. I packaged it up the mix along with marshmallows and Williams-Sonoma Peppermint North Poles.


* I have made several different things from recipes I got from Annie's Eats (including peppermint mocha cupcakes this past weekend too). All of them have been wonderful. Definitely check out her recipes!

Hot Chocolate Mix

Ingredients:
2 vanilla beans
4 cups granulated sugar
1½ lbs. good quality semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
9 oz. good quality bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups Dutch process cocoa powder*

Directions:
Split and scrape the vanilla beans and combine in a large bowl or jar with the sugar. Work the vanilla seeds into the sugar with your fingers. Bury the pods under the sugar, cover tightly and let stand overnight (or up to months) at room temperature. Remove the pods when ready to use.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine the sugar, semisweet and bittersweet chocolate, and Dutch process cocoa powder. Process in 4-second pulses until the chocolate is very finely ground and the mixture is well combined. Store the mix in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Serving Instructions:
Combine 2 tablespoons cocoa mix with 8 oz. of very warm milk and stir to combine until well blended.