Best Christmas Ever!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was absolutely amazing. I'm sure that it was my favorite Christmas so far! My mom surprised me with a homemade hand embroidered replica of the blankie I had as a child.

When I was younger I brought "tickly blankie" everywhere, and couldn't sleep without her! I picked at it and cuddled it until it disintegrated into a few shreds of worn down fabric. It was a sad day at age 20 when I packed blankie away into my closet, only to be taken out a few times over the past few years to help me cope with a fight with my boyfriend or a bad basketball game.

Here is a picture of me and my 2 older sisters hanging out on blankie. That's me, hittin the bottle hard! Haha.

So this Christmas we decided to reenact the photo with new blankie!

Thank you mom for the wonderful surprise Christmas gift! It rocks my socks.

Antique Shops in Cornelius, NC

This weekend mom and I went shopping all around Charlotte, NC! She was familiar with a few antique and crafty shops in Cornelius, so we went shopping! Now "shopping" is a term I use loosely.

I follow a few rules when I shop.

1 - The item of desire must be immediately and completely useful and necessary to me, otherwise I'm not going to buy it.
2 - The item of my desire must be dirt cheap, otherwise I'm not going to buy it.
2 - The the item of my desire must be impossible to make or replicate, otherwise, you guessed it, I'm not going to buy it.

So needless to say, we didn't buy anything on this specific shopping trip, but we did do a lot of ooooing and ahhhing. We are that annoying mother-daughter pair you hear yelling across the shop to "Come look at this!" or "Oh my gosh you have to see this!"

So we started our browsing expedition at Oak Street Mill Antique & Collectibles. It was your typical random collection of goodies, but I really shouldn't ever use the word "typical" to describe an antique shop. Alongside your usual antique dishes, outdated how-to books and porcelain doll collections sat the world's most hilarious handmade Christmas ornaments and hand-painted cheetah print vases.

Christmas Jello Shot Stains & Ugly Sweaters

This weekend I held my now famous Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. We made tons of treats for people to nibble on during the party, including my fabulous green and red Christmas colored jello shots!

While making the jello cups on Friday night, I spilled an entire ladle full of boiling hot jello mix across my counter! I quickly tried to soak up the spill, but it was too late... my entire counter top had turned red.

Elly Googled jello stain removal and we found two tips that really worked:

1 - Mr. Clean Magic Eraser pads
2 - Borax

I scrubbed out the stain, leaving behind an unnoticeable red tinted countertop.

Now for pictures!!!! Look at all the hideous sweaters!!

Roommates: Me, Elly & Heather

Curtis didn't have an ugly sweater so I wrote "Hairy Christmas" on his shirt with stocking stickers...

Chris, Mike & Kevin decked out in their creative Christmas gear. Mike & Kevin spent 3+ hours on their sweaters... Chris was an impostor, but ugly just the same.

Thanks everyone for making my party so much fun!

Easy Christmas Treats

At my 3rd Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party on Saturday, we served a few easy treats, including Christmas colored jello shots. One snack that was a huge hit was the Christmas pretzel bites, which we renamed at the party to the inappropriate "Christmas nip bits" ... cuz well, you see.

Janice and I followed this recipe from Disney Family Fun Magazine to make this salty and sweet pretzel-chocolate combos.

Ingredients
Waffle-shaped pretzels - I used Snyder's Of Hanover Butter Snap Pretzels
Hershey's Kisses
Red and Green M&M's

Instructions
Heat the oven to 170F. Set waffle-shaped pretzels in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, then top each pretzel with an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss. Bake for 5 minutes or until the chocolates feel soft when touched with a wooden spoon. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and quickly (and carefully) press an M&M into the center of each Kiss. Allow the treats to cool for a few minutes, then place them in the refrigerator to set, about 10 minutes. Serve to guests while wearing your ugliest Christmas sweater vest.

My Homemade Christmas Wreath

Mike and I cut down our Christmas tree last weekend and set it up in my living room! Pics to come, obviously. But I made a super sweet wreath with the trimmings... check it out!

Thanks for teaching me how to make this Mike!

Gluten Free Chinese Dumplings

http://jeanetteshealthyliving.com/2011/04/gluten-free-recipe-for-chinese-dumplings.html

[via BLOGNAME]

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Thanks to the Lovely Liz Lovely

I just enjoyed the most amazing gluten free, dairy free, vegan chocolate fudge cookie! Thank you Liz Lovely Cookies!

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D.E.A.R.

Does anyone remember D.E.A.R. from grade school and middle school? It stands for "drop everything and read" ... How I wish my English teacher would step into my life and say, "DEAR TIME Theresa!"

In my imagination I am grabbing a good book and sitting in this chair.

And good news Kindle readers! Amazon just announced its Lending Library.

From The New York Times:

The program, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, is open to Kindle users who are also members of Amazon Prime, the $79-a-year fast shipping and video-streaming service. Customers can keep a selection for as long as they want but it will disappear if they choose another book the next month.

Well this doesn't apply to me but I thought I'd share!

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Hot Summer Night

It's getting cold out there! Let's think nice warm thoughts today. I am going to look at beachy warm pics while I listen to my favorite lady singer, Grace Potter baby!

Hot Summer Night - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

Follow Friday

WOOHOO! It's Friday! You know what that means! Time to get your freaky follow on.

First things first, you BETTER be following me on Twitter and Pinterest and Tumblr.

@luxeandlillies

@delightbydesign

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Goodies From Grandma

The other day I sent my Grandma a get well card in which I mentioned how it's getting very cold here in Vermont, but I was staying warm in my nice beach theme room!

So in return she sent me an awesome picture frame to match my bedroom. She knows me too well!

Thanks Grandma! I'm happy you're feeling better :)

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55 and sunny

I'm about to drive back to Vermont now, but it's so beautiful here I don't want to leave!

Embracing a Dairy-Free Lifestyle

I am finally coming to terms with my extreme intolerance to lactose. It's really upsetting because I LOVE CHEESE SO MUCH! But I have come to find that even the slightest bit of dairy in my diet is detrimental.

So I have started bookmarking dairy-free diet blogs to help me embrace this new milk-free lifestyle. Today I plan to head over to the City Market in Burlington and stock up on dairy-free products, such as Tofutti brand treats. I'll be testing them out and to see which brand of fake cheese slices I should carry with me to the next BBQ.

This weekend I completely winter-proofed my garden at Mike's house. I had to rip out all the plants and weeds, before covering the soil with a large tarp. I took apart the fencing and lugged it into the woods. I also threw all the wasted fruits and veggies (mostly rotting tomatoes, weird carrots, yucky swiss chard and damaged apples) into the compost bin Mike and I managed to salvage from the overgrown briar patch in the side yard. Thanks for the help Mike!!

It was a lot of hard yard work, and I'm pretty banged up. Next year I plan to blog a lot more about my gardening, now that I sort of know what I'm doing.

Anyways, before tarping the garden, I pulled out AT LEAST 100 big orange carrots! So of course I got the brilliant idea to make carrot cupcakes for me, Elly and Heather (my roomies), and my lucky duck co-workers at Wyatt Research.

Heather is just starting the nutritionist grad program at UVM, and her program director is putting her and her classmates on a "gluten free" diet. So now I am taking the challenge of making a dairy-free, gluten free carrot cupcake that actually tastes yummy!

Wish me luck :)

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DIY: My Beachy Room

As I've been settling into my new place in Vermont I have been collecting pieces for my New England beach themed bedroom along the way. I have done some major garage saleing, on the weekends that I am actually in the state, of course!

That's my desk chair with an awesome throw blanket I snagged for free at a garage sale. I've been using it in my white wicker rocking chair... oh yes, pics to come.

My bed is super comfy! I got that white queen-sized beachy blanket at Christmas Tree Shop. Sweet!

I still have to decide whether I want to put curtains up in front of my large open closets. I'm waiting for the perfect pieces to strike me.

Cape Cod Tomorrow!

Oh I am so excited! Mike and I are driving down to Cape Cod tomorrow morning to spend the weekend with the Miller family! Can't wait for the beach beach beach! I mostly love the New England beach decor. It's so quaint and charming! AND Mike and I may ferry over to Nantucket on Monday to see his sister! Charging my Canon full up tonight to prepare for a picture perfect weekend.

Pics from last year on the Cape, which was around my 22nd birthday and college graduation weekend! I can't believe it's only been a year, so much has changed since then! All for the awesome :)

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Happy Birthday Lillian!

Today is my lovely little sister Lillian's birthday! Hey Lil, I got theze sikk candles for your cizzake....

JKJK. But for realz you will forever be my favorite roomie ever!

One Christmas Lillian and I dressed up in matching weird outfits

Me and my sisters being goofy with our cousin Hannah!

I've always been very good at embarrassing Lillian

Going out in Bostonia!

Lillian scores 1,000 points!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINNY-PUTION!

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Hump Day: Sweet Songs

[Use Somebody -- Laura Jansen]

[I'll be Waiting -- Adele]

[It's Only Life -- Kate Voegele]

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Hump Day Happiness: Katie's Dream Home

Yesterday I posted a nice countryside Vermont farmhouse listing from Sotheby's Vermont Country Properties, and I said I know I'm not the only person in the world who visits real estate sites in search of their perfect dream home.

Shortly after I posted, my sister Katie emailed me and said: "Your blog post inspired me to do some real estate searching... Low and behold, I found my dream home. Now all I need is 25 million dollars."

She directed me to this 17 room mansion on over 11 acres of waterfront land in Fairfield, Connecticut, priced at $25 million.

Now when I looked through the listing the first thing I thought was, "Oh man I would need a lot of books!" ... Just look at how many built in shelving units there are in this place. AND it's got a huge library!

Well that was fun... anddd here I go, back to reality.

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West River Farm Listing

I KNOW I'm not the only girl, or guy, who likes to go look at real estate sites and daydream about the perfect country home. I found this cutie listed on Sotheby's Vermont Country Properties site.

The home definitely needs some interior design help, and a fireplace makeover, but those are all easy fun fixes! The location and views and layout looks really awesome! Ok, back to reality.

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Lovely Shabby Apple Dress!

Check out this awesome Shabby Apple white Lighthouse dress giveaway at Simple Blueprint.

The nautical dress totally goes with my bedroom decor. I'd love to win it!

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Friday Fabulous Friday

Yes, it is Friday! This week was a tough one. Even though it was short! A few co-workers were up from the DC office so the week was filled with meetings. The thing with meetings is they disrupt the work you need to get done, and then when you come out of the meeting you have 5 more ideas and things you need to do. Wow!

Well Mike asked if we can go tag sale-ing again this weekend. Know what I said? YES YES YES! He's awesome.

Here are a few finds from last weekend's endeavors!

[tag sale finds]

I spent about $35 and I came home with:

cupcake baking tray
living room side table
4 candles
"Made in Vermont" cutting board
cooler with wheels
blue and white throw blanket
light house decor
2 umbrellas
wood crate
wine opener
green lamp

Wait don't peek! I'm still living out of boxes! I have no where to put a bunch of my stuff because my awesome desk didn't fit in my room :(

[pardon the mess]

[clutter!]

This weekend my goal is to find a desk or a vanity that will fit in my tiny bedroom door!

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Mississippi River Rising

My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by the surging Mississippi River. The photos look so devastating, I can't even imagine the hardship.

Mississippi River Crests: Photo Gallery

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Desk Details

In a previous post I featured my desk nook makeover. I have to admit, the space rocks. I think the last thing I need to complete the look is a seat cushion. Also because my butt hurts after sitting in this rickety old chair for 5 minutes.

I found the chair at this junky basement furniture shop in Brighton where all the castaway crap goes to die. I walked in and saw it immediately. I shelled out a mere $10 for the painted piece, so I didn't feel as guilty when I had to take it away from its 3 other lookalikes.

I absolutely treasure my hand-painted lighthouse lamp that I bought from a tag sale for $1. As I plan my move to Vermont I have to decide whether I want to carry this beachy theme to my new apartment in Winooski. There isn't a nearby beach to draw inspiration from, and I am considering transforming the space to take on more of a chic rustic farmhouse look. This decision will come once I lug all my junk up there this Saturday and I see how it looks in my new place!

Rachel's Pompano Patio

[the view]

[click image for full Florida sunrise]

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Rachel & Nathan's Pompano Pad

A few weeks ago I visited my older sister Rachel in Florida. She and her husband Nathan have a lovely apartment on the beach. I admire her thrifty sense of style. I snapped a few pics of her pad while I was down there to share with you. From what I understand, I wish I could have seen some photos of Nathan's not-so-chic apartment before Rachel came in and decorated it!

[living room]

[sleek shelving]

[pompano patio]

More pics to come, I promise!

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Funny Friday

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Kelley in Baltimore

A few weeks ago I went to visit my friend Kelley in Baltimore. We drove to Philly to catch a Grace Potter concert, which rocked! Kelley is very well traveled. Within the past year she has been all over Europe and Africa! I poke fun at the fact that she has gone to 5 colleges in the past 5 years, and she still doesn't have her degree yet! She is graduating from Goucher College this May, I'll believe it when I see it haha, just kidding I know she will get it done with cum laude.

So, here are some pictures from my visit to Baltimore, featuring Kelley's apartment and her eclectic bedroom. I am envious of her wide collection of earrings and books!

[i'll have to ask Kelley for this mango-ginger-aloe smoothie recipe. it's literally the best smoothie ever.]

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