christmas 2011

we had such a wonderful christmas. my sister-in-law and her family were great hosts, we received awesome and generous presents, everyone (seemed) to love theirs, and we had lots of family time. christmas eve we celebrated with a night of appetizers (my fave) and scattergories (another fave). christmas day we started with a great breakfast (courtesy of pinterest), opened the piles of presents and had a delicious dinner which included a monster prime rib made by ryan. once we were back in chicago we had christmas #2 with my family, which included our yearly tradition of ice skating, garrett’s popcorn and going to macy’s to see the tree and get clearance ornaments, a rib dinner, more presents and playing my new game, the game of things. it was so much fun and i can’t wait to do it all again in another 361 days (with a six month old! crazy).

of course i took a ton of photos. here’s a photo dump of the above and more.

{where’s jimmy?}

{no bows were safe}

{a gift from me to ryan, preparing for next season already}

{my new coat!}

{first sleeping bag}

{our hand-knitted gloves}

{the fabulous and yummy dessert}

hope you had a wonderful christmas, and have a fabulous new year!

{justine}

merry christmas

the presents are all wrapped

the stockings are hung (with care)

nails are glittery

and red lipstick is bought

i’m ready for christmas! (and i’m off of work until january 3! )

i hope you have a very merry christmas filled with family, love and fun.

{justine}

weekend recap {88!}

i’m a bit late posting this. i blame it on not getting my second trimester energy yet (hello, where are you??). but i figured better late than never, since i wanted to share my pics from sunday. have i mentioned that one of the biggest benefits of blogging for me is that i actually do something with the photos i take? before my blog, i took so many photos, but i can’t tell you the last time i printed them or even uploaded to facebook. my blog gives me a reason and the pressure to actually edit them and share them (which is why you see so many weekend recaps).

anyway. back to the weekend! it was another three dayer, and friday ryan and i hit up the shedd aquarium after candy making and a lunch out. it was cool, but i have to admit, i pouted a little when we were too late to go to the last dolphin show of the day, since the dolphin show was really all i cared about.

{chilly walk}

{chocolate covered oreos..oh yes i did make another candy}

{this glittery fish is a piranha}

{the most i saw of the dolphins}

saturday was the annual cookie making day with my mom and sisters (though jenna couldn’t make it this year, sad face). we make spritz (with the best sprinkle decorations ever) and pecan crescents.

sunday we celebrated my grandpa’s 88th birthday. 88! what an accomplishment.

hope you had a good one too!

only 4 days till christmas! yikes! i finally finished my buying tonight but still have quite a few to wrap. i’m cutting it a lot closer than usual this year.

{justine}

mirror mirror on the wall

eons ago, or more like a couple months ago (but seems like eons), i made a couple additions to my living room. mirrors!

i had a huge blank wall above my couch and needed to fill it. it’s one of the many blank walls in my house, but it was the one i saw the most often and it drove me nuts every time  i looked at it. one day my dad was over, and i was complaining about how little natural light we get in our place. he said we should get a mirror to bounce light, and the idea was planted in my head.

instead of getting one large mirror though, i got three.

the large white wicker one i’ve had for a couple years. it was a find at a thrift store that i spray painted white. while it probably isn’t my first choice (since the style isn’t quite the same as the others), it is huge (probably three feet across) and free.

the other two are from west elm. the white one is their large convex mirror . the other is their portico mirror, which is unfortunately no longer available. i wish it was, so you too can own this gorgeousness.  it looked good online, but in person, even more so. i was perhaps a bit too giddy when taking it out of the packaging.

the sides are mango wood.

and the inner edge has an antique brass foil finish.

the mirrors are a vast improvement over the expanse of blank wall before it, but the wall still needs something to be complete.

i’m thinking a set of matching lamps and some gorgeous artwork to help fill the wall.

{wish-i-could-buy paintings via michelle armas, lamps via}

though so insanely gorgeous and sophisticated i can hardly stand it, we’ll see if that ever happens. now that we’re having the little bambino, i think other rooms (i.e. nursery) will be my focus.

do you use mirrors in your decorating? i feel like you can never have too many mirrors – at least one in every room (which i’m still working up to, much to ryan’s dismay).

hope you have a great weekend. i’m off to the shedd aquarium!

{justine}