Let the Festivities Begin

We traveled to Charlotte this weekend for an engagement party for my brother Logan and his sweet fiancee Katie. My in-laws kept Sterling over night so we had a baby free evening and morning. It was super weird to sleep in and not wake up to a baby crying, and by sleep in I mean 7:30. I swear my body is so used to waking up early that I physically can't sleep late anymore.
I decided since it was the Holidays I would glam it up in sequined dress I had bought but had no where to wear it to until now!


The party was filled with delicious food, like this amazing sushi! I swear I gained like 5 lbs this weekend between all the booze and food!

And these super cute "K" and "L" Cookies for Logan and Katie.

Matt and my brother ended up wearing pretty much the exact same outfit, it was pretty hilarious

The boys of the family: Brian, Matt, Joey and Logan

All us girls: Kelly, Me, Katie and my sister Taylor

Our moms decided to join us in this picture

The fabulous koozies we had made for the party because what wedding party doesn't have monogrammed koozies!

Hope you all had as great a weekend as we did! I am so excited this is just the start of all the fun wedding parties and not to mention holiday parties! I am hoping my sparkle dress gets worn again this season:)

Lounge Wear

I will be the first to admit when I found out I was having a boy my first thought was, what in the world am I going to dress him in? It has been my mission ever since to find the cutest boy clothes I can and let me tell you it is not easy. Stores are most certainly biased towards girls clothing. Normally they have like 8 racks of girl stuff and two racks of boy stuff, so not fair! I love to dress my little man in all things smocked, but I am starting to realize he needs some practical, as I like to call them "lounge wear". Outfits he can crawl in and just wear around the house. Enter Baby Gap. For some reason I have never bought Sterling anything from here. I think because everytime I have gone in the store here the selection was poor. Online I found much cuter things. Has anyone bought stuff from baby Gap? Is the quality good? Here are a few precious things I found that I am eyeing for my sweet boy. The best part they are all under $40! Any other suggestions of places to shop for cute boy clothes?





All outfits online at Baby Gap

My Next Diaper Bag

Hold your horses, I am not pregnant! I just like to browse online at purses. You see they are my weakness. As soon as I found out I was pregnant with Sterling I set out on the search for the ultimate diaper bag, enter my gorgeous Gucci Tote. Now I am no where near pregnant again (at least not to my knowledge) but I thought I might do some research on my next diaper bag and this is it. The elusive Goyard Tote. They hardly sell them anywhere and they are way out of my price range. They have no online store so you have to find a store that carries them. Looks like the only flagship store in the US is in San Fransisco. Makes me want one even more. I love the monogram, I would totally do my next baby's initials on the bag, fabulousness! Added plus they are made out of a material that is easy to wipe and clean. All pieces are covered in a signature hand-painted patented Chevron canvas made of cotton, linen, and hemp in various colors. Perfect for a diaper bag! Hopefully I will own one of these totes one day!





Apparently red and black were the first colors Goyard used to create their totes and small accessories. Now they have branched out to other colors and do special orders. How gorgeous are all these bags? I am thinking I would choose the brown or black just so it would go with everything and then do the monogram in a fun color. The third bag is my favorite color combo with the brown and ivory.

Hold The Applause

I got ambitious this weekend and made my own crackers. Yes, that is right I made crackers from scratch. I was pretty darn proud of myself. The crackers were actually pretty easy to make and they turned out very tasty. I would consider these in the cheese straw family. They are a little thicker than a regular cracker and have the same consistency as a cheese straw. They would be perfect for a holiday party. My girl Ina, aka Barefoot Contessa, says she always serves these at parties, so you should too. If you don't like blue cheese she has another great recipe for Parmesan thyme crackers and they are delicious too. I picture serving these crackers with a tall dirty martini- heaven.




What Ina's crackers looked like, I must say mine looked quite similar (pat on the back).

BLUE CHEESE AND WALNUT CRACKERS
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
8 ounces Stilton cheese, crumbled (about 12 ounces with rind), at room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 extra-large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water for egg wash
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts

Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and Stilton together for 1 minute, or until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour, salt and pepper and mix until it's in large crumbles, about 1 minute. Add 1 tablespoon of water and mix until combined.
Dump the dough onto a floured board, press it into a ball, and roll into a 12-inch long log. Brush the log completely with the egg wash. Spread the walnuts in a square on a cutting board and roll the log back and forth in the walnuts, pressing lightly, and distributing them evenly on the outside of the log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or for up to 4 days.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the log 3/8ths-inch thick with a small, sharp knife and place the crackers on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 22 minutes until very lightly browned. Rotate the pan once during baking. Cool and serve at room temperature.
Print Recipe HERE

Book Worm

I love books! I really do consider myself quite the bookworm. I enjoy reading novels, cookbooks, design books, magazines- I don't discriminate! Every year for Christmas my sweet grandfather likes for us to make him a Christmas list to make his shopping easier. He is 85 years old and still gets out with the masses to shop for all of us! Each year I always put alot of books on my list, because I figure it is an easy gift to pick up. I love cookbooks (which ya'll already know) and design books. I always want these books but it is never quite what I want to spend my money on, so I think they are the perfect gift. Currently, the Nate Berkus, Domino, and Rachel Zoe design books are adorning my coffee table. I am ready to switch these out for some new beautiful and inspirational coffee table books. Here are a few of the books on my Christmas list this year. Any other recommendations? Coffee table books that you just love?

DESIGN BOOK WISHLIST:







This Tom Ford book is the mother of all coffee table books. I have been wanting it for years, but at $200+ I don't think I will be recieving it this year:)

COOKBOOK WISHLIST:

Christmas Card Sneak Peek

While I was home before Thanksgiving I got my sister to take some pictures of Sterling for our Christmas Cards. She has the Nikon5000, so no doubt the quality of her pictures would be better than mine and she can always get little man to smile. We got some great pictures, here are a few that I really like. And yes, I did change his outfit 3 times. Had to see which outfit was cuter for the cards! By the last outfit change, he was not a happy baby! I love all these pictures but now I am starting to wonder if I would rather have our Christmas Tree in the background. Keep in mind we probably zoom and crop these pictures before we order. Thoughts? Tree or no Tree? Any favorite picture? Now as I type this, Matt tells me he wants to do a card with all three of us! I really wanted it just to be Sterling this year. Do ya'll prefer cards with the whole family or just the baby? Or does it even matter? I need to make a decision asap! Obviously I am way over thinking this whole thing, but I love a beautiful Christmas card.







At this point we had to call it a day. Sterling had enough camera time!

Yes Please!

Just came across these great pictures of Jessica Alba at the opening for the MUI MUI Store. I want this outfit! I love the nude and yellow color combo and the sequins are just an added plus! Jessica, if you are reading and want to pass this dress along me I would be ever grateful. It would be perfect for a New Years Eve Party. And lets be real we know you won't be wearing this dress again, so pass it on to someone who would treasure it and love it! Oh and I wouldn't mind if you tossed those nude heels in too:)
photos