Happy New Year!

Hehe, fantastically cheesy, right? I love it! =)

New years has has always been such a sparkly holiday to me. The party clothes, the drinks, the bubbly happy feeling you get staying up until midnight playing games, eating rich tasty food, the feeling of new beginnings and nostalgia (okay let it be duly noted I spelled nostalgia right the first try, booya!) 

Even though I have yet to go to a sequined covered, confetti throwing party, it's definitely on my bucket list.....as is kissing someone at midnight, cheesy and over done as that idea is, it's still something that makes me sigh with jealousy every time I see it in movies!  

These two are so adorable together and this song is fantastic. One of my favorite holiday songs and this is definitely my favorite version!

I will be ringing in the new year in classic Pillsbury clan style by eating Chinese take out (obviously, we are trying a new place, crossing my fingers that its good!) and playing games until midnight, when we will let the neighbors know just what they are getting into with us as neighbors by banging pots and pans and yelling HAPPY NEW YEAR at the top of our lungs! 

Shirt: Kohls, Skirt: made by me

Had to honor this sparkly holiday with sequins somewhere in the outfit!

Scarf: Santa, Earrings: Dress Barn

More on new years and resolutions and such in the next couple days, as I stick my toe into the world of vlogging! =)

Merry Belated Christmas and What I Wore!

Merry belated Christmas!

I may have waited until the 23rd to wrap my presents, but I didn't use one bag this year and I'm kinda sorta may be known as the bag queen..... ;-)

I may have chosen to decorate my gingerbread man with the maximum amount of frosting coverage in mind.....he turned out rather well I thought.....and was pretty tasty!

 .....and I may be lame at remembering to take pictures, so that's it for my camera! My dad took lots, but his memory card doesn't fit in my computer and I am too lazy to retrieve them in a more complicated fashion!

~What I Wore~

 We went into Franklin this afternoon to spend our Barnes and Noble gift cards that Santa gave us and may have stopped at McDonalds for these.....I know, I know, I've received and watched the links hating on them, and yes, I'm still choosing to eat them! 

I got the next two books in William Joyce's Guardians of Childhood series. I love all of his books and highly recommend them! And the Rise of the Guardians movie was pretty fantastic as well, North has got to be my favorite version of Santa ever!

.....and we may have stopped by one more place on the way home.....

I love Buckhead, but I also still miss my good ol' Starbucks! Mmm, Iced caramel macchiato!

Now onto what I wore for this adventure!

Cardigan: JCPenney, Dress: Kohls, Boots: Naturalizer

Belt: Christmas gift

Necklace: Santa!

Osage Oranges

When we first got here we found one of these in our gutter. We discussed at length as to what this strange wrinkly, incredibly hard (I stomped on one and it didn't break!) thing could be. We then saw more at a local park we were exploring,  but couldn't figure out if they came from a tree or bush. We did decide if it was a tree, we did not want to be walking underneath said tree when these suckers are falling off!

We did find one some very determined person manged to smash open and it looks like this.....

and smells like watermelon and cucumbers.

Then on one of the blogs I follow I noticed she had a bowl of them on her coffee table and had what they were written underneath the picture. Some internet searching later, I discovered that placed under your bed they supposedly kept spiders and other bugs at bay! The wood is also good for masts and fence posts as it is almost impervious to rot.

We went back to the park and went on an Osage Orange hunt!

After searching for a few minutes and only finding a few rotten looking ones, we were about to give up when we came upon the mother load!

The plants are also used for natural barbed wire as the smaller branches have rather long sharp thorns!

I can't wait to see this place in the summer, it's so pretty now, I can only imagine what it will all look like in the summer!

A bright green bug with a smiley face on it's back!

A pond with a cool looking water feature.

 The happy hunters!

Here's a link to a Wikipedia page on this strange plant!

Osage Orange

Awkward and Awesome

~AWKWARD~

~You know what warm winters mean besides, no snow, no sweaters and having to shave my legs all winter long, all awkward things in their own right, but the worst news? It means the bugs DON"T DIE, we get to have flies, mosquitoes, and spiders all year round!!!! =(

~Hmm, do I want to work at a truck stop or Lowes, what wonderful choices I have before me.....

~After growing up on the West coast in tourism hot spots, moving to a small, southern town has provided more culture shock then I was prepared for! 

~Found this, watched this, showed it to my siblings and now am still hearing this all day long, three days later! Just a warning, it gets stuck in your head and will not go away!

~AWESOME~

~We've got these little guys flying all around our house! I've always wanted to live in a place with them and now I do!

~Saving up enough money from my last job for my bills for 3 months, has helped keep the panic at bay while looking for a job here! I'm enjoying this time "off" way more and am having an easier time not worrying (okay, I'm still pretty worried, but not tearing my hair worrying!) 

~Break out the hot cocoa and blankets girlies, it's cheesy Christmas movie/book season!!!!!!!!!

~Since funds are tight, and visits to Buckhead are limited, this was a fantastically tasty find!!! 

Look for it at your local Starbucks, or buy it here!

~Kohls contacted me and gave me a special discount to pass along to you, my lovely readers. Just enter TENBLOG at check out and you'll get the discount!

~My sister Becca got a job at JcPenny! Besides it being awesome that she found a job so quickly, it also meant the cutest tiny bottle of OPI nail polish! They were giving out samples at the salon and she snagged the prettiest shade of pink for me!

What are some of your favorite Christmas books and movies?

The Adventures of Tilly

Fort Carson

Garden of the Gods

My sister's house

Chili's.....My old favorite restaurant.....

Panera Bread.....My new favorite restaurant! While the tasty goodness that is Chili's is still a very close second, I went to Panera bread for the first time and was hooked! 

Not my picture, but a computer wallpaper I found and love!

Buckhead Tuesday.....

.....AKA the day formally known as Starbucks Tuesday, but as the nearest Starbucks is 20 minutes away, we discovered a new, and my favorite coffee joint.

Even though on a recent Saturday many good ol' boys were spotted waiting for their pre-hunting coffee (does it seem weird to get a fancy coffee drink before you go and hide in the woods to shoot something or is it just me?)  it's like someone took a coffee joint, hipsters included, and plopped it down in the middle of my small southern town, and for this little bit of northwestern flavor I am extremely grateful, as I may be a wee bit home sick for the cold and familiar sights of Bend, OR!

Like previously stated they have Amaretto (or almond, or orgeat, whatever you call it!) syrup, so that alone bumps them to favorite status! Some of the other combos I've tried are, white chocolate peppermint, white chocolate cinnamon, Mexican mocha, of course amaretto, and today was cherry chocolate! 

Yum!!

This picture isn't from today, but it's a picture first good amaretto latte I'd had in YEARS, and I just like the picture! How could you not like a picture that includes glitter shoes, coffee and a book?

Linking up with Kelli over at Nothing Less Than Bread! Come on over and join us!

Insta-Life

The tri-color cauliflour we had roasted on Thanksgiving, yum!

The yummiest tea, tastes like spiced apple cider!

Red glitter shoes, an amaretto latte and a long book, what more could girl ask for?

While making it was a stressful (running out of ingredients and having to run to the store,  our water getting turned off in the middle of the messiest part of making it kind of stress) this magic flan cake was UH-mazing!

 I found my favorite Amy Grant CD on record (who knew she'd been singing since the early 80's?) my love of the song Tennessee Christmas doesn't seem so odd anymore!

2411.79~Part Two!

We stopped for about a day and a half in Colorado Springs to visit my sister and her family! A much needed break from the endless driving!

~Rest of day 3 and 4~

States visited, Colorado!

My super adorable niece and her crazy uncle.... 

My sisters husband is in the military, so we got a tour of Fort Carson. I was surprised that all the tanks were tan, until I remembered where they are using them right now and realized green might not be the best camouflage color.....

Scary helicopter.....

Look, they match! And are being photo-bombed.....

 The Garden of the Gods is NOT in Utah like previously assumed, so we went to see that too!

They called this formation the kissing camels, I can totally see it!

It was dusk, so not the best light to capture the amazing color of the rocks, but this picture caught the last of the sunset!

The photo ninja, she sneaks up behind unsuspecting prey and snaps a picture before they ever realize whats going on....except your camera decides to take forever to focus so you are left hanging there for oh, about 15 seconds.....

I wish I could have captured the color and scope of the Garden better, but you'll just have to go and see it for yourselves some day!

Climbing guy made a good photo op!

Another picture where the color of the rock shows up better!

Is or isn't this the perfect beginning of an adventure story!?

Neat, right? =)

This is the other side of climbing guy!

Then we ate here!! I finally got my honey chipotle chicken and might I say it was delicious!

My brother in law painted this tree in Buggy's nursery, isn't it fantastic?

~Days 5 and 6~ 

Sates visited, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee!!!!!

Crossing the Mississippi, never quite believed I'd do this!

 The fall color was still pretty amazing when we got here in the 70 degree heat!

Rolling, treed farmland, I can deal with that, beautiful isn't it?

 Home sweet home!

Our town visitor center, how cool is that bell tower?

 Downtown

City Hall in town square!

It was a long, long week, but well worth it to be all together as a family again. =)

It's been tiring, but fun to unpack and find new places to put everything.....Now that I think on it.....maybe more tiring then fun for the most part..... ;-)

The house and town are proving to be pretty fantastic and hopefully a job opportunity will fall into place (fingers crossed and prayed prayed please!)