Thoughts for Thursday

Happy Thursday Lovies!

I've been a horrible blogger this week. I was off Monday for Columbus Day. And out of no where I've been a busy little bee over here at work but no compliants! Being busy makes the days go by so much faster.

It's no secret that I've been Christmas shopping for awhile now. I know I know.. I'm a weirdo! I'm actually down to 3 gifts left to buy.. My FIL, step FIL, and my Dad. The men in our family are soo hard to buy for! I've assigned my Hubs his Dad. His Dad has more hobbies than I can count on my fingers and toes and I have no clue what or how to even go about buying him something. My MIL usually gives me wonderful suggestions for my step FIL. She's out of ideas this year.. dang it! I am hoping he will say something he needs or wants so he doesn't end up with a giftcard but worst case scenario a gift card it will be! My Dad.. my Dad will give me something now and wait literally 2 weeks before Christmas (ya know after I've wrapped everything for almost a month now) and say I would really rather have this.. So I run around trying to find this one off the wall thing he just wants and he ends up with 2 gifts because I'm not unwrapping and taking anything back at this point. I think he does this on purpose! :) So I've decided I'm sand bagging this year until November. Any good gift ideas for men? I'm open.



Has anyone tried acupucture? I'm absolutely terrified of needles but I bit the bullet. It's supposed to help me relax and destress. He even says he can help me loose weight. I'm not holding my breath on the weight loss part but I will have to admit that I was VERY relaxed after my first session. So relaxed that all I wanted to do was go to sleep! I still haven't actually watched him insert the needles. I just close my eyes and listen to the waves. I actually don't really even feel them. He asked that I give him 6 sessions to see my changes. I've had 2 out of 6.. I'll let you know how I feel after treatment 6. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has tried this and their thoughts.



Short and sweet today. I hope everyone is having a good week!



Linking up with Natalie and Annie.

Five on Friday.. Boots

TGIF!! Happy Friday Lovies!

I'm super pumped that we don't have too much on our agenda this weekend and I'm off on Monday- love bank holidays!

Since the fall temperatures are trying to make an appearance I'm dreaming of boots these days! Here are 5 that are on my wish list!

1- Hunter Rain Boots- Thanks to my large calves I need the adjustable back ones but I so hope these are purchased off my Christmas wish list! Hint Hint.. Haha! :)

2- Frye Melissa Riding Boots- I soooo tried to get these babies to fit! I tried the regular ones and extended calf. The regular fit my feet well but were too tight on the calves. The extended calves were fine on my calves but way too loose on my ankles/feet. I would try to walk and my foot would almost come out of the boots. BOOO!!! I wanted these in black and dark brown!! :( Someone please go buy these since I can't!



3- Sam Edelman Penny Boot- The clerk at Nordstrom graciously ordered these for me in hopes they would fit my calves and ankles.. WRONG! These are an awesome deal and so similar to my beloved Frye boots. Nordstrom has these on sale right now if anyone is interested.

4- Tory Burch Claremont Tall Boot- I'm soo in lust with these boots. They are perfection! I haven't tried these on for fear I will fall hopelessly in love! LoL..  Anyone that knows me, knows I'm rough on shoes (much to my dismay and carefulness!) so I really hate to dish out this much for boots but gosh I adore these beauties!



5- And every girl can dream.. Gucci Maud Boot- I love the texture on these. They are a step up from the Tory's. I could never justify spending this much on shoes (a purse maybe.. shhh!!) especially for me but sigh...but I can stare at them! Love!



Have a good weekend Lovies!



Linking up with April, Christina, Natasha, and Darci.

Linking up with Amy and Karli.

Thoughts for Thursday

Happy Thursday Lovies!

The mountains really put me into the fall spirit. I came home and put pumpkins out everywhere! I've even been trying to figure out where I could put a few more.. Ha! I want to apologize in advance for the iphone poor quality pictures.

I made it to a local pumpkin patch and picked up a few real pumpkins and mums!

Our house is a lot of reds and I just don't think orange pumpkins blends with our decor very well. I decided to go with white and gold instead. Love them!

This little polka dotted pumpkin was at Marshalls! $8.. yes please! I thought it was the cutest thing ever!

Does anyone else excited over holiday decor? How do you decorate your house for fall?

Have a fabulous Thursday lovies!



Linking up with Natalie and Annie.

Dinner Failure!

Monday just wasn't my day.. that's the best way to put it. I have been browsing pinterest, blogs, and the internet for some recipes. I was inspired by the fall weather and decided to try my hand at butternut squash soup.. EPIC FAIL! I took one bite and was nearly spit it back out. I had never tried butternut squash at all before and needless to say, I don't like it! The Hubs actually ate one bowl. I haven't decided if that was out of pity or if he was really just that hungry!

Last night I tried Annie's recipe for flank steak found here and thank goodness redeemed myself!

I bought a 1.5 pound piece and we still have plenty leftover to put in salads again. This was definitely a quick, easy, and delicious meal!

I'm over being adventurous this week. The rest of the week will be our usual or things I've made before. I am interested to do some more new meals for next week if anyone has any suggestions.

Have a great Wednesday Lovies!

Mountain Weekend

Happy Tuesday Lovies!

I had planned this post for Monday but Monday was a HECTIC day! Let's just leave it at that.. Monday all around. :) So here's my weekend recap..

Friday we headed to the mountains of NC. Banner Elk to be exact. The leaves and house were just gorgeous! My MIL did an awesome job picking out a house. It was perfect! We especially loved having our own bathrooms and king sized bed.

We had dinner at Stone Walls. Let's just say HORRIBLE service and not that great food. I would NOT recommend this place.

We had several fire places which I loved! We had one in the living room, one outside on the wrap around porch, and a fire pit. We came back Friday night and started up the outside fireplace on the porch. We all sat around emjoying cocktails and chatting until some started to play cards.

Saturday morning my MIL had gotten us tickets to the Oz Festival. I actually had no idea what this was until the last minute.. LOL! It was a cute little park. The characters were awesome, I loved the lion! I will have to say it was FREEZING! I had so many layers on I felt like a snowman and I was still cold!

K decided she wanted her face painted like the Lion. They did an awesome job!

This lion was hilarious! His laugh was adorable!

 After Oz we had planned to cook hotdogs and roast marshmellows. The wind was a bit too much to do this in the fire pit outside. So we improvised and used the inside fireplace. It was perfect! I could have sat by the fireplace with my wine for days!

I will admit this is my very FIRST smore EVER! Not bad.. I would eat it again!

Sunday we got up and headed back home. We stopped at Tipton's BBQ on the way. I was in love with their brisket! So much that I had the leftovers later! Soo good!



And that was our mountain weekend! Sorry for picture overload! I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Five on Friday

TGIF!! I've been swamped at work this week. I'm excited to FINALLY checking some things off my home wish list I posted about awhile back. Here is what's on my mind this Friday..

1- I found this cute little board at Marshall's. I'm loving the fact that I can add some pictures (hopefully I will get motivated soon!), post a little calendar, and knick knacks for us to keep up with. I'm still on the hunt for another one with mail slots and a key holder but hey baby steps.



2- The Hubs finally hung my chalkboard. I don't know why I've been obsessed with having one of these. I found this one at HomeGoods. I have had it sitting on the floor for a month now. Glad to see it hung. Now to figure how some cute sayings and things to write on it!



4- I FINALLY found some barstools. I ordered these from Home Comfort. I was so excited to go pick these up last week! It was nice to have dinner without banging my knees on the counter. I originially had planned to recover these in another fabric but after seeing these in person they actually match my decor quite nicely- score!

4- I'm down to 4 Christmas gifts to buy. I am hoping to get some more knocked out next weekend. I'm off for Columbus Day so hopefully that will be a productive shopping day. I love bank holidays! Only 11 more Fridays left to Christmas shop!  

5- We are headed to Boone, NC for the weekend with the Hub's family. I absolutely love the mountains and I can't wait! We don't get get to visit the mountains frequently so I'm ready to soak it all in! My MIL has purchased tickets to Oz Fest (I have no idea what this is but I'm sure it will be fun!). Hopefully I will have some pictures to share on Monday!

Linking up with Amy and Karli.

Linkin up with April, Christina, Natasha.

Thoughts for Thursday

Happy Thursday Lovies!

Between this cold crap that invaded our house and the fact my office is freezing, I'm dreaming of some new soup recipes!

I will have to say I was pretty proud of myself last Friday. I was home running a low grade fever. I dug out some of my Momma's brunswick stew from the freezer for lunch. I started thinking about what we were going to have for dinner. I knew we wouldn't feel like going out and I hate to just pick some crap take out. I saw we had some chicken that I had cooked the day before in the crockpot with salsa for chicken tacos. I decided to try some chicken tortilla soup. I wait until an hour or so before we were ready to eat because the chicken was already cooked. I turned it on low for about an hour. I'm sure I could have cooked it on the stove top just as well but I wasn't feeling like standing over the stove. I dumped a can of black beans, chicken with salsa, frozen corn, can of green chiles, some chicken stock, cumin, red pepper, and minced onion. I usually always follow a recipe. This day I didn't feel like so I just dumped things in. I will have to say it was one of the best chicken tortilla soups I've made. We served it topped with some cheese and tortilla chips.

Picture Via

Now I'm dreaming of others to make in the next coming weeks. NC is still teetering the 70/80/60 game it likes to play this time of the year but I'm just ready to dive right into fall! We're heading to the mountains this weekend so I'm sure that cooler weather will be just what I need! I've been stockpiling delicious recipes and I hope to try some next week and share my thoughts. I'd love to hear if anyone has any they love. I'm partial to slow cooker ones or anything quick and easy! I'm also hoping I get a dutch oven for Christmas so if you have any of those hopefully I will need those soon!

I'm also dreaming about some apple pie! I've NEVER made one of these from scratch but I'm thinking it's time I tried my hand at this. My old college roomie used to make us the BEST apple pies from complete scratch. She was an awesome cook and I miss having her around! Since we're heading to the mountains, I'm hoping to pick up some apples that will be perfect for this little craving! If anyone has a good recipe, please pass it along. I'm thinking of trying Paula Deen's version below.



Recipe and Picture Via

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thursday!



Linking up with Natalie and Annie.