blessings to you and yours

Here's to joy, laughter, and cheer in twenty-ten.photo source

Happy New Year.

ruffly apron

Boy, the holidays are just flying by! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I've been enjoying some time off of work by baking, shopping and dusting off the sewing machine. I found this tutorial for an apron and after putting my sewing machine into submission a few times, I finally completed it. I'll be sending the apron to a friend with a mix of hot cocoa in the mail today!

birthdays and cookies

Thanks to SplurgeBakery and Jersey Bites, I won a set of personalized cookies and had them sent to my dad for his birthday! They were 12 individually wrapped sugar cookies and tied with a choice of color ribbon. SplurgeBakery was really great to work with, and extremely patient while I had my sis find and scan the photo in for me when my dad wasn't around! These cookies were tasty and looked beautiful! They were a hit with my family and I bet would be great for wedding favors, holiday parties, or even company logo cookies!

This is the picture I sent (circa 85 or 86, so not a very good quality photo):

And this is how the cookie turned out!

Christmas Cards 2009

A while back, I won a set of 50 Vista Print Christmas cards and envelopes from a 2000 Wedding! All of our family and friends have received them, so I thought I'd share the final product! I was so happy with the outcome; they were great quality and had lots of cute designs to pick from! Thanks Sara and Nick!

gonna get me some macarons

I've been wanting to make macarons for quite sometime but since I've never been to France, I really have no idea what they taste like. They just look so cute! I read Starbucks was going to be selling them for a limited time this month, so I figure it's going to be the closest opportunity to see what I'm shooting for when I actually get around to baking them. I thought I'd pass along the information in case you haven't ever had them either! They will be available at select Starbucks Dec. 13-25th.

**EDIT - I couldn't find them anywhere, so this past weekend I asked a manager and she said they are only available at fresh markets - i.e. Seattle, Portland, etc. Sad face for me, but hey if you live in those areas, let me know how they taste!**

image from serious eats

Vegas-Themed Holiday Work Party

I work for a construction company and we are having our work holiday party in a few weeks. I always have the toughest time figuring out what to wear to these shindigs! The invite says:

• Suggested Dress: Whatever you would wear to Vegas Baby! (Jeans to Jewels)

When I think Vegas, I think all things sparkly, glittery and saucy. But this is a work party, so I have to keep it somewhat professional. I think. And all of my coworkers are at least 15-20 years older than me, if that means anything. I'm probably going to go with a pair of dark jeans and black boots; here are few shirts I had in mind:

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(with an cami under, of course) source

So am I way off? Any ideas? What would you wear to a Vegas-themed Holiday work party?