Surviving the Holidays: {NYE Haute-ness}

via the Kate Spade FB page



 Greetings on this lurvely Tuesday sweet readers...hope everyone that went back to work yesterday was able to survive Monday relatively unscathed : )

I was lucky enough to have yesterday off, but you better believe I'm back to the office this morning after having 6 days off work. Let me tell you, after having a fabtabulous extended vacay, never has working from home sounded more appealing, ha!

Anywho, despite returning to the daily grind, I'm SO pumped for NYE! The boy and I are going to a semi-fancy schmancy eatery in Fayetteville for a nice dinner, then maybe to a late showing of Little Fockers....we are wild and crazy, can you tell? : )

No matter what I do on New Year's Eve, I always like to look cute. Besides, it's the perfect excuse to wear obsene amounts of sequins and metallics. My absolute favorite dress of the season I've seen online, has to be this silvery, glitzy number from Aryn K. via Piperlime. Eh?? Thoughts??


via Piperlime


I also quite enjoy this black tiered frock from Forever 21, which is positively adorable AND affordable. It's a win-win, folks.

Sequin Tiered Dress from Forever 21 in black

...not to be outdone by the tiered dress though, this metallic sheath style dress is perfect for anyone with edgier style.

Striped Sequin Dress from Forever 21

Also love the Grecian inspired number from Tinley Road below! And can we just give the perfectly positioned little belt some cred? Presh to the max.

Tinley Road One Shoulder Dress via Piperlime

Do you have your NYE look put together yet? Will you go sparkly, short, metallic, or opt for PJ's at home? (Hey, nothing wrong with that either!)

Tomorrow we'll look at accessories and shoes that are perfecto for NYE...get pumped, y'all!

Be blessed, lovelies-

Whad'ya get?

via CoCo Kelley

Helloooo y'all...

Happy post-Christmas! I hope all of you beauties enjoyed the holiday weekend with your loved ones and friends as much as I did.

Although I'm always a little bummed when Christmas is over, I'm SOOO excited for the New Year!

So today, for lack of a better post-yuletide topic, I thought we'd all tell what Santa brought us. This year, I racked up on:

-A Kindle (my fav present this year!!)
-Gift certificates to Maude from my momma (yayyyyyy!!)
-A brand new Curly Girl painting
-LOTS of Christmas decor for next year
-Yummy smelling candles, bath salts, etc. (for pampering myself, tehehe)
-Some various cute little aprons from the Martha Stewart collection
-A Starbucks gift card from S's sweet Sis (Sarah, girl you did GOOD!)

..and much, much more!

So pray tell, what did you girls get from Mr. Claus this year?

Be blessed, lovelies-

Merry Christmas, lovelies!

via Snipper and Ink

Merry Christmas Eve, Blonde Ambitioners! Hope all of you have a blessed holiday weekend with your friends and family. I'll be back Monday with lots of New Year's Eve-inspired posts, so get excited.

On that note, I'm off to eat something sweet and calorie laden ; )

Be blessed, lovelies-

Co-Co-Co!

via Hostess with the Mostess

Happy Christmas Eve-Eve, guys and dolls! I'm finally almost done with my Christmas shopping and preparations for the weekend. Now I can finally sit back, relax and sip some delicious holiday beverages with my honey tonight! We are heading to his parents' house for Christmas Eve, then to my parents' house for Christmas day, so I'm sure I'll be indulging in LOTS of this festive drink this weekend...

Hot Cocoa...my fav!

I'm not big on egg nog, but I do lurve some hot chocolate. My favorite go-to recipe is this one, from Hershey's. It's practically fool-proof and you can add extra awesomeness, like peppermint sticks, marshmallows and sprinkles to your liking.

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

Dash salt

1/3 cup hot water

4 cups (1 qt.) milk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Miniature marshmallows or sweetened whipped cream (optional)

Directions

Stir together sugar, cocoa and salt in medium saucepan; stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Add milk; stirring constantly, heat to serving temperature. Do not boil.

Beat with rotary beater or whisk until foamy. Serve topped with marshmallows or whipped cream, if desired. Five 8-oz. servings.

Be blessed, lovelies-

Window Wonderland

Window display at Barney's New York

Greetings, gals! I haven't blogged yet this week due to the craziness of trying to get all of my holiday shopping done...yes, I am a Christmas shopping procrastinator (I say this with a shameful look on my face.)

Instead of our usual Trend Watch Wednesday, (which will return next week with some FABULOUS New Year's Eve dresses from Maude), today I wanted to show you some of the most gorgeous holiday window displays from our favorite retailers.

If this doesn't get you in the Christmas spirit...well, drink some more egg nog.

Display at Henri Bendel

The above display from Henri Bendel is probably one of my favs this year. HB partnered with the NYC Ballet to create this literal vision of sugar plums. The result? Oh-so-dreamy.

Window art from Lord & Taylor

Our friends at Lord & Taylor asked customers to help with this year's display by submitting their favorite holiday memories. Designers created this and 11 other amazing animated displays for this holiday season.

Tory Burch's Lite-Brite window display

All children of the 80's will appreciate this display by Burch and artist Timothy Paul-Myers made completely from Lite-Brite pegs. It took more than 2 million pegs to create more than 46 windows!

Display at Gump's

A music box in the shape of a 1960s television set provided the inspiration for Gump’s holiday windows, including this one,  this year.

Neiman Marcus holiday window display

Kiddos in downtown Dallas, TX are in for a real sweet treat this year with the first ever interactive window displays at Neiman Marcus. Kids ages four to ten can enter a crawlspace and explore the store’s holiday displays.

Are you as enamored with these beauteous window creations as I am?

Ok, well I'm off to do more (late) shopping!

Be blessed, lovelies-