~Memorial Day Weekend!~

Hello all my lovelies out there! I hope you all had a lovely weekend,

and for my American readers out there this post is for you!

Memorial Weekend:

Most people think of this weekend as:

Source: munchkinmunchies.com via Kasi on Pinterest

*3 day weekend (wooo hoooo!)*

*BBQ's*

*Camping trips/road trips*

*Shopping Sales, sweeet!*

What people forget:

The true reason we observe Memorial Day

(full article and info from here)

To remember all of our fallen troops, from the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, etc.

To celebrate the lives and sacrifice of the men who fought and died for our country, and for us.

Why this day hits home for me:

*My brother served 2 tours in Iraq right after September 11th, 2001. I remember watching the news and hearing about the number of troops being killed, and hoping and praying it wasn't my big bro.  He has served his time and is safe home, thank goodness! But some of his close friends didn't make it.

*My grandfather was in the Army during WWII.  He survived the war as well, but as we know so many men were not able to return home.

Not trying to get all serious and gloomy, but I just wanted to remind everyone what today is for.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the fun camping, bbq's, etc and forget.

Something I didn't even know about:

"To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence"

Let's be proud of the men who have fought for our rights and freedoms, and at 3:00 p.m. today stop for a few moments and pay our respects and think about this huge sacrifice.

Ok now that I got that out

enjoy your day off!!!

What did you do on your long weekend?

We:

Went to Emerald Downs (horse races) for my father in laws birthday

Breakfast with my girlies Annie and Melissa to talk flowers for Melissa's upcoming wedding!

Shopping shopping shopping getting some fun clothes with my birthday moolah for our trip, I will do a full post on this later, maybe tomorrow!

Watched movies and chillaxed with the hubby (which we haven't been able to do for a few busy weeks!)

Gym! Yup hit that hard a few days in a row . . . bikini body?!

Far from but that's my goal . . . soon!

Can't wait to hear about your weekend!

Also please remember what our Memorial Day means in America!

(and for all of you worldwide blog buddies have a great Monday!)

~Christmas Extravaganza!~

I hope you all out there in Blogland had an AMAZING Christmas with your friends, loved ones and family!

We sure did!

It was a crazy whirlwind of fun, parties, gatherings, food, treats, coffee meetings, and gifts.

Soooooo fun!

If I went through each event and gift received, etc. it would take toooo long and I'd bore, but here are some highlights:

Gift exchange and coffee with work girlies

Holiday work luncheon

Family Christmas Extravaganza downtown Seattle!

Gingerbread House made out of rice crispies!

Happy Hour and yum drinks at the Georgian

My name's on the good list, yayy!

The fam!

Our 2nd year visiting Curley and Moe and reindeer

Christmas Eve at the In-laws

Friend gift exchange at Editt's (thank girly!)

Christmas at our place . . . Here's my niece Keilani (future Sounder's fan!)

Soooo excited for my scarf!

My cute lil nephew Henry:-)

Keilani likes to climb in boxes, she's so cute!

Lol my sister's gift box for me, silly!

So that's a few of our holiday adventures,

I'll post on all the amazing gifts I scored tomorrow, I got spoiled rotten for sure!!!

How was your Christmas?!

What was your fave gift you received?

Gave?

I can't believe its over, on to a new year sooon!!!

Pssst . . . mid-Jan is my 1 year blog anniversary!

Can't believe it's already been so long!!!

I'm hosting a $40 Memory Bean Designs Giveaway over at Kitchen Belleicious, chk it out!

~Mosaic Monday~

Holiday Style!

I can't believe we only have 12 days until Christmas!

Sooo much to do . . . so little time:-)

Anywho,

Happy Monday!!!

Hope you all had an amazing weekend!

Our weekend:

*Sushi Triple date followed by drinks at Rock Bottom, soooo fun!*

*Christmas celebration at my grandparents*

*Dinner date with the hubby at Toulosse Petit! YUM!

had foie gras, and blackened red snapper.  AMAZING!*

*Finished by busiest week up for my Etsy shop ever!

Phewwww lots of work but sooo exciting!*

*Football Sunday*

*Gym time*

What a great weekend!!!

How was yours?

Here's to a great productive and festive week!

~Mosaic Monday and Girl's Holiday Party~

Happy Monday to you all!

Totally in the girly Christmas spirit.

Tree: Decorated!

Gifts: Wrapped!

House: Lights up and decorated!

Music: Downloaded and on Ipod!

Life: GREAT!

I hope your weekend was full of fun, laughter and good times.

Mine was!

Girl's Christmas Party!

Held my (5th) annual girl's Christmas Party Sat, so much fun!

Outfit inspiration:
Cabin fever/snow angel

Snow Angel by Tamara Nicole featuring grey hats

 

 Silly faces

 Made 3 kinds of fondue, and everybody brought food/treats/drinks to share. 
So much food!!!

 My sister and me, watch out we're crazy!

 Andy snuck in to steal some food, a few times:-)

 How stinkin cute right?!

 Lil adorable Kate

 My new slippers: LOVE!

 We all had a blast and talked for hours . . . yeah like 6 hours:-)

Fun times were had, lots of laughing, house is now decorated and ready for the holidays!

How was your weekend?

Any super fun Christmas plans in the works?



Hope you have a lovely Monday!

Pssst Fabulously Free Giveaway hosted by City of Dionne HERE, don't miss out!

~Our Shutterfly Holiday Card!~

Oh yes, we know that it is officially the holiday season, and everyone is preparing by shopping, decorating, party planning, card sending out . . .

Yup it is that time, to think about holiday cards!

And ladies . . . I am officially jumping on this fabulous

Shutterfly Holiday Card bandwagon!

I have seen this blogger's promo on several of my favorite blogs already, and what a sweet deal!

(any of you already jump on this wagon?!)

Shutterfly's designs are super cute and chic, and there are too many to choose from!

I picked out like 6 and emailed them to my hubby to see what he thought.  His fave was:

Tweet Evergreen Christmas Card

Simple. How cute is that little birdy? :-)

A few of my other favorite cards are:

Hip and Happy Holiday Card

(Loved the colors on this one)

Starlight Ribbon Christmas Card

Bright Blooming Tree Christmas Card

(Cute tree!)

Bright and Merry Christmas Card

(I think this is my 2nd fave)

Oh Joy Joy Christmas Card

What is a girl to do?  I want all of the above! Lol

I'm leaning towards cute and simple this year.

Which one is your fave?

I need to order asap, me being crazy and trying to be organized I was going to have them out by December 1st (2 days away!) So obviously that won't happen, but we still have plenty of time:-)

So help a girl out and vote!

Want to earn 50 free holiday cards?

Find out here

To see some more super cute card and gift ideas:

*Christmas photo cards*
*calendars for 2011*
*holiday photo cards*

Usually for Christmas I hand make all of my Christmas cards, write a year-in-review family letter (this will be our 3rd family Christmas letter!), throw in a photo booth style print of 3 pictures, and buy photo stamps.

Although super cute and personable, it can be super expensive and time consuming. 

And well this year I have many other things going on.

(more on this later)

I will still add a Christmas letter in the mix, but this is saving me so much time. Sometimes I kill myself and stress myself out doing things that are not necessary.  So this year I'm taking a cute easy out:-) And proud of my decision!

So what about you this year?

What is your Christmas Card tradition?

Do you write a letter?

How many do you send out?

Do share, and make sure to let me know which is your favorite so I can order asap!