The Best Holiday Cards

With Halloween in the rear view mirror, you know what time it is??!?!  No...not Christmas music quite yet.  But...holiday cards!  The ritual of sending and receiving holiday cards is such a nostalgic and beloved tradition.  With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it's never too early to start checking things off the holiday to-do list!

This year, we're going with Minted for holiday cards. I've always admired Minted's classic style, clean lines, and beautiful paper. My personal favorites are the holiday cards with few colors with a fanciful cursive or statuesque font bearing a holiday phrase to celebrate the season.  After perusing many eligible designs, I have it narrowed down to these favorites....I hope you'll help me choose!

Making Spirits Bright

It's A Wonderful Life

Simple Overlay

So...friends, what's your pick for me?  One, two, or three?  This is just the tip of the iceberg, my friends.   Minted makes it easy, with clickable features to narrow down the plethora of cards available.  Foil-pressed, letterpress, postcard, booklette, or completely custom, each style is categorized accordingly for easy accessibility.  If you prefer to shop by your personal style, scroll down to styles which include 'simple and minimalist,' or 'modern and edgy,' among others...the world is your oyster!

Don't delay in ordering yours!  Visit Minted through November 5th, use promo the code JOY18 for 15% off holiday cards and promo code FS100 for free shipping over $100.  (Offers may be combined).

This post is in collaboration with Minted.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Tis the Season to Get Mail!

Tis the season for holiday cards!  Where collecting the daily mail is such a treat.  Bills schmills, I look forward to receiving and opening the cards of friends and family every year!  I remember as a kid, my mom used to store our pile of cards in a little basket in a hutch in our kitchen.  After school, my sister would pour over them; taking in the festive stamps, the shiny paper, and the candid smiles.  

This year is a unique year for us, in that I wanted to combine birth announcement and holiday card, since our sweet boy joined us on October 23rd, it was close enough that I could've send separate birth announcements, but instead decided to wrap up our shared joy of the season and our babe into one joyful card.

So...I hopped on over to my go-to, Tiny Prints, and got to work narrowing down my favorite winter birth announcement designs {here, here, and here} until I finally found the one! 

This year there are all kinds of options to expedite the process, including their address assistant to address all of our envelopes.  And the option of picking a matching return address wrapper.  Sweet!

If you're looking at the calendar and noticing time is a-ticking - I can't recommend Tiny Prints enough!  So many lovely choices to fit your mood this season.  Don't wait, the current promotion is 40% off site-wide plus free shipping with the code BESTSALE40FS (ends Thursday!).

image1/tinyprints 

In Search of Easter Recipes

We're having a few friends over for an informal Easter brunch spread.  I currently have a plan to make my usual egg casserole we devour on Easter, but I'm always eager to try out new recipes, especially when entertaining.  

Have a favorite Easter recipe you're dying to share?

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Celebrating Pi Day

For all you nerdy types out there - Saturday, 3/14/15 is "Pi-Day."  My husband looks forward to announcing this holiday every year.  Perfect for him, this year his engineering firm is celebrating their own Pi Day by having a pie potluck for lunch.  While I was prepared to bake this pie which has proved itself a unanimous crowd-pleaser, I'm off the hook as enough people already volunteered.  (Insert sigh of relief here) Besides...I'd rather catch up on House of Cards anyway...

However, if I was baking a pie, I might make this little diddy I saw over at Smitten Kitchen today, just for creativity's sake - black bottom oatmeal pie. I have never heard of this type of pie before, and I'm intrigued.

Happy Pi Day!

image/smittenkitchen

Home Alone at the Symphony

Is watching Home Alone one of your holiday traditions?  Even years later, this movie reminds me of Christmas, the music, the cheeky one-liners, "ya filthy animal," and all.  Here's a new way to see a holiday oldie but goodie,  watch Home Alone while the San Francisco symphony performs the accompanying score.  Here's a preview…

A Christmas Book Tradition

One of my Christmas traditions my mom initiated growing up was giving each of us a new holiday book at Christmas time.  Each of my sisters and I received a book, and inside the front cover it lists our name and the year.  As you can imagine, this amounted to quite a collection of Christmas stories.  This year, I'm excited to start this tradition with my daughter!  I realize it will be a couple of years before she can actually read these Christmas stories herself, but by then we'll have a whole shelf to pull from!  It makes me smile to think of us curled up together, reading these stories together with her as she grows up.  Now, all I have to do is find the perfect first book to kick off this tradition.

What are your favorite Christmas story books?

Red, White, and Blue Sweets

In the spirit of 4th of July - and the interest in satisfying sweet, sugar-and-spice-and-everything-nice cravings - I've been digging up some links to delicious red, white, and blue holiday desserts from around the web.

Here's what I got...

+ flag fruit pizza

+ firecracker dipped pretzel rods

+ 4th of July layered flag cake (complete with flag built into the layers)

+ "mini" banana splits

+ berry pavlova

+ red, white, and blue parfaits

+ stained glass jello stars

+ frozen chocolate covered bananas

+ vanilla raspberry sundaes with spoon-shaped cookies

+ patriotic hand pies

+ ideal for kids: rice Krispy treat sparklers

+ red, white, blue, and brownie fruit kebabs

+ fireworks sugar cookies

+ cherry and blueberry pies in a jar

+ mini shortcake stacks

+ red, white, and blue candy bars

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Seasonal Scents

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Lights are already springing up in neighborhoods, red cups are grazing coffee shop countertops, and that holiday warmth is in the air.  

One of my favorite things the approaching Christmas season is the familiar holiday scents.  Evergreen, gingerbread, peppermint, orange + cloves, all of the wonderful, cozy, homey scents that by aroma alone signify Christmas.  This time of year, I always indulge in the ever-fragrant Bath & Body Works candles.  This year, I am loving White Barn No. 2 Chestnut and Clove.  Quite a long name, for a holiday scent I realize, but even so, this candle is worth a burn.

Wishing you a sweet smelling season!  What are your favorite holiday scents?

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Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful Dad!

We love you!!

Nutella Day

Hooray it's national nutella day. If you don't have a jar handy, go out and pick one up so you can make one of these delectable nutella-y treats!

+ french nutella toast

+ nutella and mascarpone grilled cheese on brioche

+ nutella banana muffins

+ nutella pop tarts

+ white chocolate and nutella oatmeal

+ nutella peanut butter bars

+ creamy nutella cheesecake

+ chocolate graham cracker nutella s'mores

+ nutella gelato

*or keep searching for more nutella recipes here!

image/lafujimama

Holiday Beverages

I've just come upon the most amazing recipes for mulled apple cider and rich and creamy hot chocolate, I can't wait to make these recipes and transform my kitchen into a Christmas cafe!

Nothing says *Christmas* to me more than a holiday beverage. Once the red cups pop up at Starbucks and the gingerbread dots the bakery windows, you know Santa is near.

I've never been much of an eggnog fan, and while I can entertain the idea of a hot toddy, it's not my fave. My favorite holiday beverage has to be a soy peppermint latte, with a side of gingerbread cookies.

Mmm... I might just rush out as I type to score myself a piping hot one.

What's your favorite holiday beverage?

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Favorite Christmas Movies

One of my favorite things about the holidays is the nostalgia it inspires. Christmas time always encourages me to seek out things of comfort. I mean take hot cocoa or mulled cider, do you honestly drink these things nearly as often as you do during the Christmas season?

One of my favorite Christmas indulgences is re-watching all of my favorite Christmas movies. This year, I added Little Women to my personal DVD collection. I had forgotten how much I loved this movie until I netflixed it a few months ago.

Some other Christmas favorites include...

* Love Actually

* The Family Man

*Elf

*It's A Wonderful Life

*Serendipity

* The Santa Clause

* Home Alone

What are your favorite Christmas movies?

image via prasantsblogworld

Weekend Baking: Apple Pie Cookies

This weekend in honor of my alma mater's annual rivalry game I made apple pie cookies via smitten kitchen. When it comes to cookies, I'm usually a unanimous fan of cookies containing some form of chocolate, so I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like these. While they were a bit time consuming, the final product was worthwhile. They're like teeny tiny apple pies, filled cinnamon-sugary, apply goodness (plus a pinch of nutmeg and cloves - which I recommend).

Yum!

Holiday Tea

My new favorite before-bedtime beverage - Candy Cane Green Tea a la Trader Joe's. I just picked this up for the first time this week and I can't get enough! It's the perfect hint of mint and a welcome warm up to our recent blast of chilly weather.

Something about this time of year; the dark skies, crackling leaves, and whipping wind - all it makes me want to do is curl up on a cozy couch, toasty under a thick fleecy blanket, sip some holiday tea, and watch my favorite movies. Sounds way better than work, right?

image/thesmartkitchenblog

Happy Friday

Happy Friday! I've been readying my classroom for the first day of school all day, everyday this past week, and phew I'm exhausted already (and the students haven't even arrived yet!).

This weekend, my fiance and I were scheduled to take a trip to the lake with friends, but had to opt out! With the wedding a month and a half to way, we've got a million and a half wedding errands that take precedent - on top of painting our living room! Should be a busy busy weekend! Happy Labor Day weekend y'all!

image via padgetthoke

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, I love you dad!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

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Catch a Leprechaun

I am in love with this leprechaun trap cake! Spotting a leprechaun on St. Patrick's day is the ultimate goal for most of my students, let alone catching one! This cake would be quite a hit on St. Patrick's Day! Note to self for next year...

images/notmartha

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Are you wearing green? You better be wearing green!! Looking forward to St. Patrick's Day at school, everyone will be pinching each other, filling out assignments on green paper, and keeping an eye out for lucky leprechauns that might dart through our classroom. Cheers!

image/iamblessed

Hot Dog of a Valentine's Day

My fiance and I have a tradition of doing a low-key night out for Valentine's Day, which I love! Throughout most of HS and college, I've spent many a Valentine's Day single. Rather than chocolates, roses, and the like, I'd spend my lovey dovey night watching movies or doing takeout with my best girlfriends as opposed to a significant other in years past, I appreciate all the pink and red of the holiday but was never big about going out for a fancy Valentine's night meal.

Therefore, B & I have started our own tradition - a casual dinner and a movie. Two years ago we dined at our favorite burger joint - Red Mill, last year we were in Cabo and enjoyed nachos and fish tacos on the beach, and this year we hit up Po Dog in the University District. (Added bonus: this counts are New Restaurant #4 in my restaurant challenge!)

They have every kind of crazy hot dog you can imagine - mac & cheese, PB & J dog, fajitas dog, even a wasabi-egg roll dog. We tried some unique dogs, but we were not THAT adventurous.

French fries and deep fried pickles to start.

My Dub-T dog; cheese sauce layered with crushed potato chips, ketchup, and mustard. The potato chips gave the dog a satisfying crunch, super yummy!

B in true MidWest form ordered the Chicago dog, topped with peppers, onions, tomatoes, spicy deli mustard, and relish. We capped off the evening with The Kings Speech, very good!

Happy Valentine's Day my love!