Easiest Sugar Cookie Cut Outs

It's that time of year ladies: cookie time! I mean, they are the easiest gift to give and instantly make people smile. We have a go to sugar cookie recipe that is fool proof. It works every time and people just love them!

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups flour
3 tablespoons milk

Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until combined. Mix baking powder and flour and gradually add to the dough. After all the dry ingredients are combined, add milk.

Now you're ready to go! Put some flour down on waxed paper and roll out the dough until your favorite thickness. Use your favorite cookie cutters and put on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 400 degrees or until the cookies have cracked a tad at the top.

and bingo, you're ready for holiday cookie season! These today are ready for my little students to decorate. Can't wait to see what they do with their calabazas (pumpkins!)!

Happy Monday!

Ok, so I may not have had 8 shots of tequila this weekend, but it was a great one! On top of having two great nights out with great friends, I worked a little, got some jobs done and yes, even watched some Gilmore Girls. Here is one of my favorite quotes from the show. Something to make you smile on this Monday morning!

I hope that all of those out east are staying safe from Sandy this morning. Seek shelter and lay low til it blows over!

Friday Fancies: 100 Celebration!

This is the 100th week of Friday Fancies! What a big accomplishment to Mrs. Alison who has brought all of us together every week in this big party. Friday Fancies was one of the first posts I ever did and have linked up on *almost* every Friday since I started blogging. It's one of my favorite posts to create and it has connected me with so many awesome bloggers. Keep up the fantastic work, Alison!

Since it's a celebration, party dresses are a necessity! I am smitten with this one that I eyed yesterday at Anthropologie and maybe someday when it goes on sale it can be mine! The color. The ruffle. I die! I spiced it up with some booties, sparkly jewels, and a beautiful white coat and I'm all set for this party! With the temperatures dropping so rapidly, I might have it swap it for my puffer coat. Jeez it's chilly this morning!

Hope you will all have fantastic weekends! I'm excited for this weekend. It's equal halves work and play and I can't wait to enjoy every second. And layer on about five sweaters. Happy last weekend of October! (where did this month go?!)

Enjoy the View

Just a little advice, because it's Thursday! So just have a cup of coffee, look out the window wherever you are and know that today is a good day! You never know: tomorrow might not be as nice as today, so take in the moment. Enjoy the view.

Making Time

Sometimes, I think the easiest thing we say to our friends and family is that we don't have time. We don't have time for a longer phone call, or we don't have time to run out to the grocery store or we don't have time to do...well whatever it is! And then we tell ourselves that we don't have the time to do the things that we enjoy because we use our time with either work or...other uses of our time that are not as productive as they could be (I'm guilty of this!).

Well, when you make time for the things and the people you care about, your time has more meaning. Last night, I sat down and just played the piano. I made time for it, and it was one of the best hours I've had in awhile. While I know that this can't happen every night (sadly), making time for the people and things that really make us the most happy is the best time we can give ourselves. We hear this all the time, I know, but with the holidays coming up (I heard someone say yesterday that Thanksgiving is just a speed bump to Christmas. What?!), we need to enjoy the time as much as we can and make time for the things and people that deserve our time. and we deserve it too! What is it that you ladies make time for?

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Friday Fancies: Costume Prep!

I love dressing up for Halloween! I love having a good costume, but sometimes I feel like I am not the most creative dresser at the party (so I'm glad av picked this theme!). However, last year. I felt I did a pretty good job in the easiest costume that practically every woman can create: Rosie the Riveter. Just add a chambray shirt, boyfriend jeans, a bandana, and some tie up boots (or I used rain boots last year). Really easy, really cute. What has been your favorite costume you've ever created?

Since this has been the longest week ever, I'm so happy that I have nothing to do tonight. Other than that, I'm celebrating one of my best friend's birthdays and enjoying the nice weather headed our way.What are you up to? Make it a good one!

Head on over and check out more Halloween inspiration! {av} did Vanna White. So so cute!

When a week is too long...

Because this has felt like the longest week in history and it's not even over yet, I feel like I need to do something like take a loooonnnggg drive. Or a walk. Or a bike ride. Or something that involves moving on from this long week (not that it has been bad. Just long!). Anyone else feel this way?

Besides, who wouldn't want to get in their comfiest scarf and look cute in an old vintage car?

Happy Thursday! (we're seriously almost there!)

Dress up your Pumpkins!

Yesterday, one of my coworkers showed me this really cute article from the Rachel Ray Magazine about fun, new ways to dress up your pumpkins. I loved what I saw and just had to scour the site for more ideas!

Usually, we're pretty traditional when it comes to the pumpkins around here: just a face carved lit up by tea lights, and sometimes, if we get creative, we'll put holes in it just for fun. Though I love our little traditional ideas, it's always fun to try something new. Don't you just love them? The pumpkins with the tea lights at the top are too pretty aren't they? Have fun gazing and go through all 36 ideas here!

What do you do with your pumpkins? Any traditions to share, or are you out of the box?

Happy Monday!

Hola chicas! Happy Monday to all of you. I had a fantastic weekend at my college homecoming. Though the weather didn't exactly cooperate, it was a great weekend filled with lots of catch-up time with so many fantastic friends.

Got so stay with that lovely lady! We had such a great time, relaxing and doing just about nothing. It was awesome.

I got to crunch some leaves and have a night out on the town too! It really reminded me of all the awesome memories we had shared together and all of the memories we have yet to share. I can't wait to see them all again (hopefully soon!)

How was your weekend?

Weekend

No Friday Fancies today, but I'd love to be wearing this. Look at those fall colors--and so easy to recreate!

Source: fashionsalade.com via Susan on Pinterest

I'm headed down to my college homecoming and I can't wait to see my old friends and classmates! I'm so excited to see how good the campus looks with its beautiful fall colors, cheer on my Titans, and spend some long nights full of laughter with all of the people I have missed a lot. It's going to be great and even though it's a quick little trip, I know it's going to be worth that much more!

What are you up to? I hope its fantastic!

On fall

I feel like the way this year is going, I'll blink and fall will be gone. Literally, every season has just flown this year and I do not want fall to pass me by. I want to savor little moments, like walking and crunching some leaves, and wanting to go down to the lake to see at least one sun rise.

Also on my list this fall:
I want to get a bunch of honey crisp apples. and eat them all
Have pumpkin ravioli. again
Knit all of my Christmas gifts to be prepared before the season starts (let's see if this happens! haha!)
Have pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. The best!
Spend afternoons doing nothing with my sisters
Make my first risotto in months. (I love risotto, so the fact that I haven't had it in so long is whoa! I want some!)
Go on a long run on a pretty trail filled with color!
Catch up on all the new fall tv

Is it bad that half of my list involves food? What's on your list? I'd love to hear!

image originally found here

Room with a View

Yes, I'm talking about my room. It will have a view by the time I'm done! It's started to take some sort of shape and I'm proud of it. I've successfully managed to keep my closet as neat as the day I purged things five months ago and I can now see my beautiful chair. Chairs look really good without clothes or bags on them, don't you think? I think I like it!

My most recent addition is this new book shelf (sorry for the dark photo!) that I added next to my chair. It's so cute and I love the look as if the books and pictures are just floating there.

I've also started to accumulate pictures for my gallery wall. I'm hoping to collect more frames of different shapes and colors, but for now, I was working with what I had: some wallpaper, magazine clippings, and a painting that Ellen painted of the two of us inspired by a photo at the beach so many years ago. Have to show the sisterly love (it's too pretty not to!).


Any new home decor additions in your house/room? With all of the Zara home products available, I might just be able to make my room that much more gorgeous!

The weekend...

This weekend was absolutely fabulous! Though the temperatures turned colder,  I loved having a few more hot drinks and bundling up in sweaters, sweaters, and more sweaters!

Friday and Saturday nights were spent relaxing, knitting, watching Disney movies and just enjoying company with my friends and family. Sunday was my high school reunion. It was an all-class reunion (I went to a really small girls school) and although the turnout from our class wasn't huge, I still had a great time catching up with girls from my grade that I wouldn't have seen otherwise. It was really fun to hear every girl's new path that they're taking and all of the cool things they are wanting to achieve. It left all of us wanting more time with our former classmates, so hopefully in a few weeks we'll be able to get more girls together. We also were able to get one of the oldest nuns into the photo booth with us. What a trooper!

Hope you all had fabulous weekends! I'm so close to being done with my Thank You Hat and I can't wait to wear--and share!

Friday Fancies: Monotone Madness

monotone by susanhager featuring mulberry

Happy Friday ladies! Gosh this week was long. Hooray for the weekend and again Friday Fancies. This week's monotone theme is actually one that I have been doing a lot lately, especially with this navy blue color. Navy is any season color, but I think pairing a whole outfit in navy is very fall and very cozy. An oversized knit, comfy jeans, chic slippers and a pick cozy cowl make this look chic and easy enough for anybody to pull off! By the way, I tried Essie Penny Talk yesterday. It may be my new favorite nail polish :)

Brrr, get out those coats! It's a chilly one out there! Have great weekends, amigas! (Yes I have been speaking so much Spanish at work that I now bring bits of it home. and now bits of it to my blog. Haha, it's fun!)

Go check out the rest of Friday Fancies over at Long Distance Loving!

Don't forget the Love

I think sometimes we, myself included, do tasks or good things for personal gain. We forget the real reasons why we do the good things we do, from our jobs to our hobbies and everything in between: the key doing them for others out of pure love. I want to strive to do more of this and remembering why I help my friends and family. It is all out of my love for them.

So keep this reminder at the forefront. I know I will be from now on.

My knitting to do list

My knitting to do list is always growing. I could knit all day if my hands didn't get sore! But these are a few of the projects topping the list right now:

Top left: a cozy cowl in rib because it's comfy, cozy and so so fall!

Middle: a new knit rug. Who wouldn't want to put their feet on that every morning?

Top right: a cabled cowl, just because. Cables and cowls just go together like cocoa and cookies!

Bottom left: a new baby blanket. I love these colors and the pattern is too simple not to pass up.

Bottom right: the Thank You Hat from purl bee that I'm currently working on. It's looking so good and I can't wait to show you guys the results!

Who else knits? Are you just getting sucked in this time of year? I say it's never too late to start and pick up a few basics. It's too much fun not to know!

It remains true

After months of the warmth and the summer, it finally hit me yesterday that fall is here. (I know, and it started about two weeks ago!) But as we drove out the country roads out of the city, we found the prettiest leaves, a crisp fall breeze, and that hazy fall sunshine where you know that times are about to get a little bit shorter.

(Plus that full moon came in last night. Did you see it? It was gorgeous!)

It's here in all of its glory and I just thought I would bring back this pin to remind me all of the things that I really love about fall. I love the Midwest for its change of seasons and it is such a treat to live here and experience it. I can't wait for all of these fall definitions to come out in full force.