Happy New Year!

After weeks of frantic activity, Christmas, quickly followed by New Year's, finally came!

I was supposed to do a home tour post last week but I just didn't find the time to sit down at the keyboard and do it! 

So here's a quick tour of our home, all decorated for Christmas (before it all comes down)!

Our live tree

Our tree is always live. This year we did not add all the ornaments we own. I went with a simpler selection. We have quite a few because the kids get one every year from their aunts and uncles. When they move out, they'll take them with them and then our tree will feel bare!

Nativity

Next to our tree is our manger scene We bought this one years ago at a craft fair in Hickory, NC when the kids were young. I liked the rusticness of the simple wooden shapes. Plus I liked that the kids could play with the figures without fear of breaking them. Although we are not Jewish, we have a menorrah. Jesus was Jewish and we are into our Jewish heritage because of Him!

Decked out buffet

Our buffet in the dining room is all dressed up for the holiday with an advent wreath and apothecary jars. I had been wanting these kind of jars for a while and finally found some that I really liked and could afford at Beall's Outlet this summer. I've been having fun decorating for the seasons with them.

Festive apothecary jars

I filled one with red and white ornaments, pinecones and pieces of fresh Christmas tree. The other one has small red and silver balls, peppermints, mini pinecones and fresh Christmas tree branches.

Fireplace mantel

And, finally, here's our mantel. The stockings for the kids were made by my mother. Mine was too, actually, when I was little! Michael's is the one he had as a child. That's why it's different than the others.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus! And here's to a healthy new year!

Style Me Bloggers Christmas gift exchange!

Some of the Style Me Bloggers had the fun idea of having an Elfster gift exchange. If you are not familiar with Elfster, it's like Secret Santa. I was assigned a person to buy a gift for and I had someone assigned to buy me a gift. The idea was to buy a gift that represented our region. My gifter was Deena of Shoes to Shiraz. Deena is from Canada! I was so excited to get a gift from another country! I was out of town when the package arrived so my husband texted me a picture of it. When I got home it was waiting for me!

So excited!

It was pretty heavy and I couldn't imagine what could be in it. Tore into it and found the coolest stuff!

Sweet treats!

I was so surprised to find *four* containers filled with berry flavored yumminess, a note, and a printout explaining what kind of berries they were. 

Jam, salad dressing, syrups

So far I've only had the jam. Oh. My!! It is so good! I've had it on toast and I've swirled a little teaspoonful in my Greek Yogurt. It is sooo good! Next I will try the salad dressing, and durning the twelve days of Christmas (when I have a little time!) I'll make pancakes and we will try the two syrups!

I confess that I was a little confused how to find "something representative of my region" for a gift when we are fashion bloggers! I had figured that since we are Style Me Bloggers the gift would reflect that and be some sort of fashion item! So that's why I was a bit surprised when I opened Deena's gift and found food! I then thought of all the possibilities I could have done to represent Florida.  But, alas, I had gone with fashion instead of food for my gift. Sure hope my recipient likes what I got and can use it. She's from Canada too!

It's been so much fun getting to know (virtually) a group of ladies through the Style Me Challenges, and even more through blogging about it. I have wanted to blog more but something always seems to come up and I just don't do it. Participating in the Style Me Bloggers link up has forced motivated me to blog more. A rousing thank you goes to Alison, the lady behind these fashion challenges. I am participating in my third challenge and am still learning and having fun! You *can* teach an old dog new tricks!

Be sure to check out what the other bloggers received through their Elfter giver below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Bonobos styling match

I am taking part of a Style Challenge to come up with an outfit that would complement some of the looks from the Bonobos Fall Collection of Men's Suits.

If you don't know, Bonobos is a clothing line for men who are not big fans of shopping. They claim to be "the largest clothing brand ever built on the web in the US."

They sent me several photos of their suits and my mission was to pick one and then select an outfit for a woman to wear that would complement it.

Boy this is gonna be fun!

Here's the outfit I picked.

Isn't this suit so very elegant? I could see going to a black tie affair with my hubby in this little number! I sure do like how Michael looks in a suit. This tuxedo is part of the Capstone tuxedo line. There are several different options to choose from ranging from fabric, to color, to jacket collar style, to print.

My husband's work has a fancy party every year. It used to be a Christmas party but this year they changed it to October and called it The Founder's Day Ball. Although a tux was not required, how fun would it be to show up in one? This one in particular?

Here are a few outfit ideas that I'd love to pair with this elegant tuxedo.

Since this particular tuxedo reminds me of a Great Gatsby sort of shin dig, I really like this dress paired with it.

I like how this has a 1920s feel to it. The black lace overlays champagne satin which echoes the colors and honeycomb pattern in the tuxedo's jacket. The bias cut, with its flared, swingy skirt, is flattering for many body types. Since I love pearls, I like the way it's styled in the picture, with a multi-strand pearl necklace. Strappy heels, a beaded clutch and a fur stole would be fabulous to finish up the look.

Or if lace feels like too much, I really like this simple little shift. The silky dupioni weave gives it a level of elegance that elevates the simplicity of the cut. I like the cap sleeves for a little added coverage and warmth. Personally, I like the playful bow belt, but since it is optional another belt can be subbed, maybe with a little glitz or even leopard! The fit-and-flare style is flattering to bottom heavy body styles like me. It comes in several colors but black and quarry (a silvery grey) are my favorites. Rhinestone chandelier earrings and silver sandals complete the outfit.

To get away from black but still have a festive feel, I love this black and red brocaded fit-and-flare dress. The waistline is embellished with black shimmering stones which eliminates the need for adding jewelry, except for maybe small black stone studs. A black wrap, simple black heals and a small black clutch round out the look. And bonus for me, it comes in petite!

Do you have a favorite? Tell me in the comments below!

Full disclosure: I have not received any compensation from Bonobos or any another store and there are no affiliate links in this post. The opinions are all my own.

Homemade Christmas Presents

I like to try to make gifts to give whenever possible. It just feels a little more special to have made something for someone. Is is just me?

Tomorrow is our last day of co-op so I needed to come up with something to make for my children's teachers. I thought about baking something but this is such a rough time of year for trying to keep weight off that I didn't want my gift to end up being a curse rather than a blessing! So I had to come up with something else.

I had bought some cute bags and little wooden scoops from Pick Your Plum. I had pinned several receipes for a salt or sugar scrub but these are all made with oil and I didn't think my little bags would hold up. I wanted something dry, so I hopped on Pinterest and searched for bath salts. I found several different recipes but I based mine on was this one. I made up my own version, however. Here are the ingredients I used:

2 cups epsom salts
1 cup baking soda
lavendar flowers
chamomile tea mix

I mixed the salts with the soda and added a small jar (think McCormick's) of lavendar flowers that I had bought years ago for a project Annie wanted to do but never did. They smell so good! Gave that a good mix. That filled two bags but I needed to make more and didn't have enough of the flowers so I had to come up with something else.

I had seen a recipe for a tea soak and thought about adding some black Chinese tea leaves I had. But then I ran across a jar I had of Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Tea. It's my favorite tea! Tastes great and smells wonderful as well! At my husband's work they have a Keurig with an assortment of teas. No one was drinking the Sleepytime (who wants to be sleepy at work, right?) so my husband brought the K cups home to me. I had opened them up and poured them into a jar (we don't have a Keurig) and was planning on using it as loose tea. However, I sacrificed my tastebuds and added it to my second batch. I just added the Sleepytime tea to the salts/soda mixture and gave it a good stir.

Then I bagged them up in the little bags with a peek-a-boo window, tied on a little wooden scoop (also from Pick Your Plum) with green and red ribbon (that I had bought on clearance last Christmas at JoAnn's). I'm so happy with the way they turned out!

Cute, festive, useful and calorie-free! Merry Christmas teachers! I appreciate what you do for my children!

Seeds of Kindness

I read this blog post this morning and decided this was what we needed to do this year for advent! But rather than plant the seeds, we would gather them so we could have a visual reminder of the good we would collectively do. So I quickly set about to get what we needed ready. First I typed up a short description of this new activity.

Then scoured around looking for something to use as seeds. I debated using popcorn or beans but I happened to have a sizable amount of coriander seeds I had collected from my cilantro plants. I found a diminutive bowl and filled it up.

Next I found a tiny glass receptacle in which to put the round seeds. I put a pink bow on it (one of the colors of advent) because I didn't have purple. And then I arranged it all together.

We used to read the Jotham's Journey books together as a family as an advent activity but my kids have outgrown the books (memorized the stories) so we needed something else to focus on. I decided to put this little activity together with our advent wreath.

I look forward to all the seeds of kindness that will be planted in our hearts this advent season!