Do I have your Address? {Christmas Cards}

{no, these are not my cards}

It's my favorite mailbox time! Cards have already started to arrive and each day, its the first thing i do and that's head straight to the mailbox. And ladies...All i have to say is keep. it. comin!!!! I'm a christmas card nut and I adore getting such beautiful mail. So the question is, will you be getting one from me? Do I have your address? If you would like a card, just let me know!

around here {11:11pm}

oh there's noOooOo place like hommme for the holidays!!!! 

my dining room table. 11:11pm

did some major damage at the target dollar section. i think i cleaned them out in the red/sliver glitter ball area.

decorating the home commences tomorrow!

goodnight.

from my home to yours....{thanksgivng review}

whelp. another thanksgiving has come and gone. and of course this year was not without it's own "excitements" shall i say. first, i truly hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. my home was buzzing with family, cousins, and running children by 12:30 in the afternoon. 

highlights: 

1. tierra burns her arm pretty bad by pulling out the sweet potatoes casserole.

she calls it her "thanksgiving battle scar" LOL

2.  commotion began from outside of children running in to inform that we had a snake in the yard. apparently word got out that the turkey this year was going to be brilliant and the not-so-little thing decided to slither to my house! yikes....{and i live in the city!!!)

3. word also got out that tierra was expecting a guest to come with her to her fathers thanksgiving dinner a little later that day in the form of a guy and her whole family pinned her for details and stole her cell phone. 

a certain someones husband who shall remain anonymous texted the poor fellow and started asking questions.

needless to say, i wont be forgetting this thanksgiving!

I am Thankful {Aunt Carolyn}

 this woman deserves the world. the world. the moon and back again. i love her with everything that i am and would be nothing without her. my aunt carolyn. this year, as the days have been leading up to thanksgiving i thought about what i could share. what are my "thanksfuls" for this year. and truly, these last few days and nights, all my thoughts are completely wrapped up in how utterly blessed i am to have this woman as my aunt. she has provided me with so much love. has given me her time to every event in my life and has had to do without so many things because of me. every cheerleading practice and every game. every basketball game. every primary event. every young women mother daughter campout and activitiy....this beautiful soul has never failed me. when i wanted to go to new york when i was 15, she made it happen. when i wanted that prom dress. when i wanted to go to the movies. when i needed picking up late late at night when i would cry to come home from girls camp. when i wanted anything at all....this. woman. made. it. happen. 

dear heavenly father, thank you for giving her to me. i love her so. amen.

Happy Thanksgiving everyOne!

okay. i'm a royal watcher nerd. go figure!

well i guess you can see that i haven't kept my promise about posting my fall/mantle decor. i sorry. like really sorry. honestly. i blame it on the fact that there is a certain young man in my life that has completely taken over my brain/thoughts/thinking and all things in between sanity. he just might make it on this blog. maybe. will see. that is if he doesn't drive me nuts first! in the mean time, i just couldn't let this news topic go with out my two cents and stamp of approval. like aka prince william phone called a few weeks ago to make sure i was in complete agreement on his decision and i have had to sit with this news for awhile! and as we all know tierra can hardly hold anything in....{gasp!!} so i of course said he must definitely marry kate. i think she is quite lovely and of all the photos i have seen of her on magazine covers and such over the years, when they made their announcement and she walked out looking like that, i thought she hit it dead on! she looked amazing. her hair was just perfect and oh would i kill for her legs! i have always thought kate was an amazing dresser and i loved how the dress made the ring pop! i have heard a few comments on tv and several on facebook who find this news story ridiculous and that the fact that he gave her his mothers ring a "hand me down" {like some sapphire diamond ring is a hand me down? what a joke!}well excuse me people but i for one like to hear something exciting to look forward too and not some celebrity stepping out as gay or a Lindsey lohan disaster 24/7! i know good and well that the world is full of hard things. hard and cruel and dangerous things taking place on this land and over seas....but what in the freakin world is wrong about talking about two people who have been dating for years and announce that they would like to take it one step further? and oh yeah...to the person who put on my facebook page that prince Williams mothers ring is "recycled and probably cursed" ....dont you even dare make a statement like that to me again because my own mother who passed away left me her ring that was given to her by my father. their marriage ended in a divorce and she is gone as well.....but the ring to this day is my most cherished and special piece of jewelry i own. i have ALWAYS planned on wearing it on my wedding day because it represents the love that my parents once had. my parents may not have had the best relationship either dearie but my mother still loved the time and the good memories that she shared with my father. Hence the reason i was born. I was completely and utterly offended that you would make a comment about something that is neither here nor there for the matter. all you did was make yourself look immature. i don't ever recall asking for your opinion on this or anything else. keep your cynical thoughts and opinions to yourself or write it on your own page.

so to william on giving her your mothers ring. GOOD FOR YOU! i will be watching and rooting with bells on. oh how i just love a good wedding!!!

fall craft {coffee filter wreath}

i had seen this idea on several blogs before and just fell in love with it. so with picking up the items above and just twisting a good 20 coffee filters in the center...cut off the ends of each twist and just start gluing the twists around the wreath. I went with brown filters because i wanted that lightly dark look for fall and then placed the final product in a really large wreath i purchased earlier this year from michaels. so simple! 

tomorrow will be my big reveal day of my mantel/fall decor....so stay tuned!

Fall Craft {simple tutorial}

  every year with every hoilday season, the crafting/create zone sweeps over and i must give in. this year, i wanted to do something different. something that was easy and let's face it, cheap. and i know that this super simple craft has been traveling around the blog sphere tons {where do you think i got the idea?} but i at least wanted to show what i did with it.apothecary jars are so inspiring and yet so simple. but also, for the most part not that cheap. I have a few but when i saw this dollar tree craft to make my own .....$2 bucks! i was on board.

I went to michaels and found some orange/dark brown sweet grass and some dry organic wood stings to start the bottom layers. next came three handfuls of nuts {stolen from my aunt's nut jar....DONT tell her!} and then of course free pine cones from my local park. who doesn't love free stuff right? well...TA-DA!!! i love it! i'll reveal later this week just where they went.

a walk with a dear friend...{tennessee fall}

through my hometown's central park really made my weekend. well, along with a few other moments with him but that's another story for another time. my good friend allison was oh so kind as to come with me to our local park and walk & chat (lecture me on my guy problem woes) as i gathered pine cones for a last minute fall craft. we walked, took pictures, allison told me to get with it and ask him on a date chatted and this is what we were looking at. tennessee will soon see a very dark, cold, almost bitter-chill-to-the-bone cold winter but autumn it seems is still hanging on. and i'm ever so thankful. what can i say but i love my hometown.

around here {2:59pm}

my bathroom, getting ready for tonight. 2:59pm. while listening to this (new song obsessed). 

have a lovely weekend.

oooh and so it goes.....

i will bet you $1000 smackeroos THAT your day (yesterday) was not as thrilling (oh so thrilling) as mine.
trust me. no, like REALLY trust me! i thought about not posting this and had planned on posting either my birthday pictures or the biltmore trip i took the day after the birthday.....but isn't life just interesting how each day  takes on it's own....shall we say, sense of humor in a cruel cruel way??? you know...just to keep us on our toes, right? well, dear readers.....yesterday was that day for tierra. exhibit a: tierra leaves her glasses at a store an hour away from home. exhibit b: tierra locks her keys in the car three hours later after arriving late to work. exhibit c: (the kicker) tierras car breaks down smack dab in the middle of a three way stop at 2:20 AM (!!!) in a residential area and leaked transmission fluid  ALL THE WAY DOWN THE ROAD. exhibit d: tierra had the entire neighbor hood lit up like the fourth of july with police, ambulance, firetrucks, the tow truck,  ALL with their lights lighting up the neighbor hood like tierra's own personal block party except that she had NO attention of throwing it!!! {!!!!} exhibit e: it. was. freezing. exhibit f: she was in little flimsy ballet slippers standing on the side of the road for hours. exhibit g: the firemen had to pour & shovel 8 buckets of cat litter to soak up the oil before they would let the tow truck guy tow my car back to my house.

of course i will only mention that my car insurance road side assistance number took 45 minutes to even get through (I HATE COMPUTER/TELEPHONE answering machines} OR that they tried to argue that i had no towing insurance on my policy (which I do and I did) and had to keep me on hold for another 15 minutes to "re-look up" my policy (idiots!!!) before they would even authorize a towing. 


and to close...i did not get home and into my bed until 6ish in the morning. and oh yeah, the neighbors all came out to watch on their porches....Maybe next year I'll just send invites?

around Here {at 10:00pm}

at 10:00pm on the dot, i stood up from my spot and took a picture. 

my nook beside the couch and tv. you see, i lost my glasses... and so in order to see the tv and watch my shows tonight, i bundled my self up in my nook with my comforter, texted, worked on my thanksgiving menu grocery list, and stared at my fall craft that i "should" have been finishing. what does your house, your moment look like at 10:00 pm?

just a this and that {gifts}

this year, for my birthday, all i wanted was just a few new things. let's face it, i am a purse and coat kinda girl 

and when i became aware of the mormon bachelorette....well, let's just say it had tierra written all over it.  i had so much fun watching aubrey go through her dates with 22 guys from all over! and along the way with each date was this gorgeous beauty of a purse. i simply HAD to have it. it's called the "mia" bag by the big buddha collections and you can find it here! already i have had tons of compliments on it! so thank you aubrey from the Mormon bachelorette for your great style and taste in purses!

my closet is filled with coats of every color and every year, oldnavy brings out the very best and brightest pea coats and i die a thousands deaths swooning and itching just to get my hands on one of them. this year though, i had a very hard decision to make on which coat was "singing" to me the most. you see, i love color! i love having that one piece to make a huge fashion statement when you walk into the room and with a great pea-coat, it doesn't matter what you got going on underneath.....you can work it with just that one item. "the" coat. which one do you think i went with? stay tuned to find out! you can find them each here and here.

and finally, for years all i have ever really wanted on my bedroom walls is the movie poster to a film i can watch over and over. both new and old version! and finally, I tracked one down at a great price and it's on it's way and will soon reside on my bedroom walls. you can find your very own pride & prejudice movie poster here.

let them eat cake! {cookie cake that is}

i'm back! and i'm 25. i turned and celebrated my 25th year this past friday on november 5th 2010. my theme was "been alive since 85" ....so of course, the 80's! we had lasagna from scratch that my dear friend amber h. made with fresh tossed salad and breath tasty garlic bread. sealed with of course my annual birthday cookie cake. and then followed by a trip to the Biltmore mansion and Estate the next morning {more on that later}

i'm going to keep comments on for a while....it's so lovely to be back!