Computer Spat

Jacket: BB Dakota via Piperlime...Dress: Target (very, very old)...Tights: Gap...Shoes: Biviel via DSW...Scarf: Target

I'm glad it's a short week (does that make me seem lazy?) since there's so much going on post-holiday. We have to dive, full force, into Gala planning, underwriter packages to be written and sent out, lists to assemble and things to track. Whatever. It's not much to talk about.

My computer and I had a fight yesterday. It used to be My Guy's laptop, lucky turd gets all the good techy stuff, and he had a system for music (60 days worth of music) which included saving the actual files for his iTunes entries on a separate external hardrive. Moral of the story is that I wanted to take some music off of my phone to free up a little extra space and wound up inadvertently deleting everything. My feelings would have been hurt and I would have gotten angry, but the only real loss is Regina Spektor's first album on CD only available through her website. Which I have and I'll just take to my car. The rest of everything I sing to daily has been transferred to a Spotify playlist. And I'll survive the annoyance. So, does that really count as a fight if it was just a "Dang. Shoulder Shrug" type of thing?

Intentions and a Strong Resolve

We don't do New Year's Resolutions. Rob and I, more often than not, have a nice, long snuggled-under-the-covers-and-nose-to-nose conversation on New Years Day called the Game Of Questions. We talk about what we loved about the last year, what sucked, what we feel is working in our relationship, the situations we feel like we knocked being good to one another out of the park, when we fell short. We talk about personal successes, what we want to be more conscious of in the following year, what we're most excited about. A State of the Union kind of thing.

We always agree to be loving to each other, to be the best little bit of humanity we can be. We're decent people, we're intentional about our friendships, we value being involved in the community we've built, but I think being a good human being is a strangely different and more powerful notion.

So, that being said, I don't have resolutions or goals. I have intentions for living as my best Me. I'm going to foster stronger relationships with the people in my life. I'm going to get my arms and thighs stronger before the summertime. I'm going to simplify all the "stuff" in our home. I'm going to throw crap away. I'm going to have adventures. I'm going to travel and I'm not going to shoulder all of the burden of figuring out how to pay for it, because that always makes me stressed. I'm going to do less sitting at home and patting the dog on the head for quiet time. I'll do longer walks around the neighborhood with the dog instead and spend more time listening to the sounds of our weird little corner of Houston. I'm going to seek out more opportunities to eat crazy things, brush up on my Mandarin, host more big dinners for friends.

I'm going to butt into my sisters' lives more. I know I don't get all of the good, juicy, ridiculous stories. I'm going to press my brother to talk more to me about all the big decisions coming up for his first year of college in the fall. I'm going to get more fun stories out of my mom about her kids at school and their cute art projects and let her vent more, because I know she's got some real pills in her homeroom. I'm going to beg my dad to stick up for himself at work and take more of his vacation time. I'm grateful for getting a good dose of your work ethic, Dad, but take real dang vacations.

Welcome, 2013. I'm glad you're here!

Family Visit

Happy New Year! I can't tell you guys all the goodies yet, but 2013 is going to be a really, really good one!

So, these crazies were here for a nice long weekend. And I'm so grateful for all the family time we were able to pack in. We had a fire in the chiminea and said goodbye to the hideously neon orange tee that was My Guy's first swiped article of clothing from my family (big darn deal to have a gifted hand-me-down shirt from my dad when we were dating in high school) and my family got to know our neighbors and their pups. We went to the Menil Collection and my mom got to ogle the amazing collection of artifacts and art. We ate Lucky Burger (our favorite local burger place where the blue cheese burger is heaven on earth and you can order a side of fried rice and the owner knows us on the phone by voice and asks if we want to do a take-out order of "the usual") and Thai Pepper (where the green curry is magically spicy with a deep, slow heat that makes you sniffle like mad). There was a round of tennis ball golf (played on campus with a cooler of beer in tow). My dad was king of the beautiful sailing shot, perfectly in line with the target, only to be gobbled up by a column, a tree, an archway. I kind of couldn't believe how horrible his luck was in beaming light posts and tree limbs. We even hit up Valhalla, the on-campus grad bar that serves $.95 beers, a weekly tradition for us that I'm so glad my dad got to experience with us. My brother and I got lots of snuggling time in, we snacked our way through the weekend, my dad got to experience lots more of our lives here (mom and brother were here a few summers ago). I'm so happy we spent so much and such good connecting time together.

And, to you all- I haven't been active in the blogging community for the last week or so, but I've been reading all of your goodies and have been really enjoying and have been very inspired by the loving family posts, the joyful celebration posts, the insightful resolution posts, the cheerful and hopeful greeting of the New Year. I treasure this community, I so enjoy and appreciate the friendships I've formed with some of you and look forward to what the next year has in store!

XOXO

Merry, Merry!

Okay, okay, I'm a day late. Merriest Christmas to you all and your darling families! Christmas eve, we did my family's make-a-gift exchange via webcam with the whole group- us in Houston, my sister in Hong Kong, and rest of the gang at my aunt and uncles' in New Mexico! The highlight of the exchange was the gift created by my mom for my dad- over 30 years worth of family funnies and quotes assembled with photos from the family archives in a bound book. She and I had a riot talking through all the goodies over the phone. Then Christmas morning rolled around. We had a lovely day- breakfast (waffles and homemade lemon curd!) with our neighbors, complete with coffee with a dash of cinnamon and the Christmas Story on loop. And an afternoon and evening with our friends, along with so much food we nearly exploded. So much love, time well spent with people near and dear.

We also gave a family photo a shot. A little squirrely, a little dog yawn, a little cat eye contact avoidance. Not as bad as our last Christmas on our own back in 2008- my merry little gift to you all!

Holiday Look Link Up

Skirt: Target...Turtleneck: J Crew Factory...Blazer: J Crew via Buffalo Exchange...Belt: Target...Shoes: Steve Madden...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Festive, bright, but not blatant? Huzzah! This blazer may be more versatile than I was expecting it to be.

We had an awesome night with neighbors last evening! We were supposed to do a potluck outside in the courtyard, but the temps are dropping (overnight low of 33!! last night) and we didn't want to freeze our buns, so we aaaalmost cancelled. And that would have been a bummer, so 10 of us and 3 dogs packed into our place, gathered a bunch of tasty food, sipped wine, chatted, and enjoyed each others' company for the evening. What an awesome jumpstart on the holiday weekend! (P.S.- I'm glad the Mayans were wrong.)

So, what have you been wearing or plotting for Holiday Festive Wear? Link it up and meet some new friends! The link's going aaaaaall the way through next week- hook up your day of Christmas look, Saturday party looks, whatever you want.

Here's the rules for the Holiday Look Link Up:
Follow The Perpetual Student's Wife (via Google Friend Connect or BlogLovin')
Link the URL to a specific recent-ish post showing off your favorite holiday themed or holiday party look.
Link back to The Perpetual Student's Wife so your new friends can navigate easily.
Ummm.... that's it! Can't wait to see what you all are rockin' for Holiday Festivities.

Minty Winter White

Pants: Gap Slim Cropped...Sweater: Target...Scarf: Target...Shoes: Cole Haan via DSW...Earrings: Target...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

It's Winter White link up day over at Work Clothes, I Suppose... and I'mma guessin' there's going to be a steady stream of cute stuff going on over there. Check it out! I'm so pumped!

We're doing a Secret Santa kind of exchange at work later today, which I'm really looking forward to. I filled up a really adorable citron/lime-outside-and-white-inside oversized cereal bowl with a little package of homemade cookies for my person. There's a lot of strange senses of humor floating around the office, though, so some odd things might show up.

Speaking of exchanges, we attended a holiday party at a neighbor's place last week and did a Yankee Swap/Nasty Christmas/White Elephant. My guy and I aaalmost ended up with the best gift I've ever seen for this type of game, but lost it at the last turn. It was a box filled with frozen vacuum sealed steaks and potatoes. How great is that?! So creative! What's the most awesome White Elephant gift you've seen? Strangest? Creepiest?

Don't forget to prepare yo'selves for tomorrow- we're donning our favorite Holiday themed look, our best Holiday Party look, our sparkliest snowflake imitation, out most pathetically cozy lounge look and linking them up for the Holiday Look link up. Right here. Tomorrow. Wahoo!

Tales of My Ineptitude

Pants: H&M...Blouse: Target...Cardigan: Target...Scarf: who knows, I've had it for over 8 years...Shoes: Le Sportsac via DSW...Bag: Longchamp knockoff...Earrings: Target

Okay, so baking is decidedly not my thing. We had a video chat with my parents last night while I was baking cookies Round 2 (Hi, Dad!) and I was able to show off my powdered sugar and flour splattered pants, my kitchen in shambles, my inability to stir any of it without slopping all over the place. I tried making a Rolo cookie recipe, which looked right-ish based on all the photos, including the one of a bowl full of glorified batter rather than dough, but the images still showed lumps of cookies on the baking sheet, but mine would not stop spreading. So, I went ahead and made them into fudgey brownies. I even read and followed instructions. This is why I hate baking... Do all the steps right, go through the trouble of properly measuring, and it still fails big time. Forget it! I'll stick with stir fry.

It's also mailing week at the office for the annual giving campaign letters, which has not gone easy at any step (I choose to believe it's my work computer's strange Mail Merge reactions). Getting the letter, the spreadsheet of names, giving form, and additional letterhead and envelopes ready and printed has been a mini nightmare. We thought we had a solid letter drafted, a descriptive and clear giving form finalized and lots of labels for the envelopes, but Mail Merge wouldn't print the photo in the letter, the Director changed her mind about the form (we backtracked to juuuuust about the same thing we finished on Friday), we ran our of labels, but had pleeeeenty of clear,  which takes about 72 hours to dry without smudging. Plus, we're out of stamps! I love my new job, I love my new co-workers, but whew! The hazards of a tiny non-profit staff, I guess.

The good news of early Tuesday: We finally have a theme for our benefit dinner in the Spring: Pop Art Soiree! Lots of awesome art historical references to use there, lots of 60's cultural goodies. I can't wait to see a draft of the invitation late this week!

And don't forget, we're doing a little Holiday Look link up this Friday! Prep your party garb or your cozy best and get in a festive mood. I'm so pumped to see what you all put together. But, today I'm linking up with Pleated Poppy's What I Wore Wednesday and Rolled Up Pretty's Whatever Whenever Wednesday.

Baking Skillz

Skirt: Target...Tee: Target...Blazer: J Crew via Buffalo Exchange...Shoes: Naturalizer...Belt: Target...Tights: Gap...Necklaces: thrifted...Bag: knockoff Longchamp

Day two, what I actually wore to the evening Young Professionals mixer last week. Festive, one of the only red articles of clothing I own, a slim olive weave running through the plaid... Meant for Christmas!  PS- do you notice the plaid lined up perfectly on the pocket? Mmm, I love details.

I baked Russian Tea Cakes/Snowballs/Sand Tarts last night. They turned out better than I thought they would, fortunately (the reason for baking at all is to send them to someone... They had to turn out okay). Here's the scoop: I am NOT a baker. I can cook, I can make up dinners from crap we have on hand, I can saute any number of things like a pro. But, I can't bake my way out of a brownie box. Two part problem: As a cook, I have leeway to play with proportion of veggie and quinoa to garlic. With baking, if I use my normal dash-of-baking-powder-in-my-palm measuring method, cookies fall flat. Shocker. I don't "do" recipes. Part two is that my oven is pretty much an easy bake oven. Tiny apartment sized ovens don't really heat things to a consistant temperature.

Is anyone else buying that blame game? Okay, okay, I suck at baking.

Can't wait to see what you all are planning for Friday's Holiday Look link up. Start plotting- I expect a sequin or two!

Buffalo Plaid

Pants: Gap Really Skinny...Sweater: Target...Shoes: LeSportsac via DSW...Hat: Target Men's...Bag: Longchamp knockoff

Welcome to my week of lead up to the Christmas Holiday! I jump started my moderate excitement with a little over a week to go by way of this silly Buffalo Plaid men's hat on Saturday. 3rd day hair makes a hat Saturday a simple choice, and this funny little number I picked up last year before our holiday trip home to Ohio was the perfect holiday tie in (not to mention the addition of gold shoes helped push it along). I even got motivated enough to put up our two tiny 3-footer trees. One using classy white tones with mini bulbs, icicles and my grandma's starched crochet snowflakes. The other with bright glitter mini bulbs and a blue glitter string art on top. We also put up the Peanuts nativity. Peanuts are a holiday "must" around this house.

BTW, did you catch wind that I'm going to do a Friday Holiday Look link up? I've never hosted a link up before, I didn't really pre-plan, it's just kind of my way to hold myself accountable to getting in the Holiday Spirit by way of fashion... and I know some of you all will join me, so why not get festive together?! (Speaking of fun link ups- Bri Marie at Work Clothes, I Suppose is hosting a Third Thursday  Thread Winter White themed link up this Thursday. And I can't wait!)

Humbug?

Pants: Gap Really Skinny...Sweater: J Crew Outlet...Blazer: Gap...Boots: thrifted...Bag: Longchamp knockoff...Earrings: Banana Republic

I know I've said it, but I'm just not a Holiday Season kind of gal. Thanksgiving came, I enjoyed it thoroughly, and then it went. And my home is still un-decorated, no tree, a minimum of holiday treat-eating, zero holiday treat baking. Anne has had some incredibly adorable holiday decor posts lately, it makes me feel a little bit guilty for being such a Scrooge. Go check her blog out, you'll be so glad you did (her Pin to Present posts are killer!) So, another neutral outfit for me today. And I think I'll force myself next week to post nothing but Kate-style Holiday Looks. Which probably means the holiday-ish aspect of the outfits will be subtle as crap, but at least I'll feel more festive.

(PS, how do you guys feel about the possibility of a Friday Holiday Look link up? I'll host if you're game!)

Happy Friday, you all! Eat something peperminty and send jingle bell vibes my way. I need to get in the spirit!