Merry Christmas!

As I write this, it's Christmas Eve, and I'm sitting in my kitchen with treats baking in the oven (baked brie!), hot cocoa steaming on the stove (so yummy with peppermint liqueur and Baileys added!), and some sliced cheeses and homemade tapenade in the fridge as I wait for Dan to get home from work. All my Christmas shopping is done, and now I'm just waiting for Dan to walk through to door so we can snuggle up and enjoy all these goodies, unless I devour them all before then.  Ella and Nat are playing on the turntable and I feel so incredibly blessed spending our first Christmas in our very own home.  Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all you lovely souls out there!

le bunny bleu giveaway

Hi everyone! It's the Monday before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was moving, not even a blogger. Okay, well that's not true, but it is Christmas tomorrow!  How did that happen?  It's like it just snuck up on us.  Anyway, I've got a giveaway here for you guys today!  My sponsor Le Bunny Bleu is giving one lucky reader the chance to win their shoe of choice!  I just got the Maya Walkers (outfit post coming later this week!), and they're super comfy and warm.  Perfect for walking the streets of Tacoma this time of year.

You've got three opportunities to enter this giveaway, so just follow the directions below to enter!  The giveaway will be open until 11:59 pm on Saturday, December 29th.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

getting fancy

Last week I met up with local photographer Willow Eskridge to do a fun photo shoot with this pretty dress!  I've been wanting to do some more collaborations with local folks, and it was so much fun shooting with Willow in her studio.  We had originally planned on doing outdoor photos, but the weather suddenly became awful (typical Tacoma), so we opted for the warmth and dryness of the studio instead.  It's definitely funny having a photographer, as I'm pretty used to the tripod/self-timer gig, haha!

Modcloth contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if I'd be interested in styling one of their dresses from their most recent Make the Cut collection.  I think the Make the Cut collaborations that they do are just so fun, and I keep meaning to submit my own design, but then I forget, so I'll have to wait for the next time they a Make the Cut collection to throw my hat in the ring.  If you don't know about the Make the Cut collections, ModCloth asks participants to submit clothing designs based on a given theme and then choose a handful of designs to put on Facebook for voting. All of the items in this most recent Make the Cut: Winter Garden Gala Collection were designed by ModCloth and Teen Vogue community members, and were picked for production by ModCloth's Facebook community.  I think it's a really creative way to put out a special and unique collection, especially since it gets their whole customer community involved!  

The dresses in this last collection are more geared towards fancy event type dresses, so I decided to style this dress more like I would for a fun party, rather than for everyday wear.  It has it's own little petticoat under the skirt, but I added one of my own vintage petticoats to give it a bit more volume.

 
dress/courtesy of modcloth :: shoes/seychelles :: tights/courtesy of asianicandy necklace/courtesy of poppy & fern :: photos by Willow's Photography
Last night I actually did attend some holiday parties, though I didn't wear this outfit.  I didn't get any full outfit photos, mostly because it was already dark by then, but maybe I'll recreate the outfit in the daylight and take some photos, because I really loved the outfit (maybe I'll wear it for NYE)!  I wore these awesome glittery shoes (they're on sale! woo!), so I basically had to go all out with sparkles, and wore my sequined dress and glitter star crown.  I do love getting gussied up for fun events, especially because I rarely have the excuse to get fancy, but damn does it feel good to get home, take off the high heels and dress and slip into comfy sweats and slippers at the end of the night.  Being fancy is fun, but being cozy is so wonderful.

remix archives // white lace

I got this dress quite a while ago from Forever 21.  The lace is just so pretty and it's a great dress to add layers to for styling in the cooler months.  I don't wear it very frequently, but I can never bear to get rid of it because I know I'll want to wear it again eventually.  A white dress is a nice wardrobe staple.  Like black, white is easy to pair with almost everything, and this dress seems to do well with remixing.  It's a nice dress on it's own, but it also does pretty well with lots of layers too.  I don't own too many white pieces, as I'm always afraid I'll spill something on them, or get them dirty, especially riding bikes.

from the bar: diy ginger liqueur

Last Christmas I made some peppermint liqueur, and at the time I wanted to make more fun tinctures, but the time flew by and here we are a year later.  Maybe I'll make it a holiday tradition.  But anyway, I love the flavor of ginger (whisky gingers are one of my favorite drinks!), and I've made some easy homemade ginger beer before to make whisky gingers with.  Ginger liqueur seemed like the perfect holiday spirit to make this year.  Bonus?  It's totally easy to make and only requires a few days to sit and steep!

For my peppermint liqueur recipe I used vodka, but for this one, I wanted a bit more flavor from the alcohol I included, so I used dark rum (I thought spiced rum would add too many other flavors), though you could try brandy too!


What you'll need:
2 oz ginger, peeled & diced
1.5 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
6 cloves
zest of half a lemon
1 1/2 cups dark rum (or brandy)

1. Peel the ginger and dice it into small pieces.

2. Bring the ginger, sugar, cloves, and water to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until ginger is soft—about 20 minutes. Let this syrup cool, and don't strain it yet!

3. While you've got the ginger syrup on the stove, zest the lemon and place the zest in a sealable glass container (I used a mason jar).  Once your syrup is cool, add it (ginger chunks, cloves and all) to the container along with the rum.  Seal and shake, and then let this mixture steep for two days.

4. Strain mixture through a coffee filter or cheesecloth into your bottle or jar for storage. Let it sit for one more day before using to let flavors mellow.

Want an awesome recipe where you can use this tasty tincture?  Head over to Making Nice in the Midwest, where I'm sharing a fun holiday riff on a Cosmopolitan today!