Christmas Snow Globes

Hey all!

This year my roomies and I decided to get each person a small present for Christmas instead of doing a Secret Santa-esque gift giving.  Being the thrifty type, I decided to make the girls' gifts instead of purchasing them.  Now, we didn't really set a price limit (we just mentioned to get stuff under $10), so while the gifts I made most likely cost around $5, the other girls spent a little more than that.  But they ended up loving their gifts so it didn't really matter :)

With the help of my mom's creative brain and a little Pinterest inspiration, I came up with the idea of doing cute snow globes.  I am going to show you what I did in preparing these in hopes that you guys would attempt them too! They were super easy and took maybe 10 minutes to make.







































Ingredients:
-A mason jar
-2 to 3 bottle brush Christmas trees (I found mine at Michael's)
-A figurine for a focal point, I used snow men but it would be very cute with little deer or forest animals
-Fake snow
-Ribbon or string
-Cupcake liner (optional)
-Glue gun
-Tweezers

First off, get all your supplies together and your glue gun heated up.  I found things to prop up the little tree and the snowman because they were a little too short.

I put the large tree in first by putting hot glue on the base and lowering it down into the jar with a pair of tweezers. Make sure the Kerr logo is facing away from you so you can actually see the snowman! Next went the little tree, and lastly the snowman, which I tried to place in the front.

Next is the fun part - add the snow!  (Please excuse my chipped nail polish)

You have to shake the glass around a little bit to get the snow leveled.  Here is what my snow globe looked like once I did this:

Cute, right? :) Now, you can stop there and just place the lid back on, but of course because I am a girly at heart I wanted to add some special touches.  Instead of the metal lid, I used a cupcake liner and screwed the ring on over it.

 

Lastly, I used some red bakers twine to finish the snow globe off.

I absolutely love these little guys! I hope you do too :) Happy Holidays!

The Changing of Seasons

I am absolutely in love with the fall and winter seasons.  It is probably my favorite feeling in the world when I first notice the reds and oranges beginning their task of transforming the beautiful trees in town, or the very first rainstorm of the season. I don't think you understand HOW happy I am right now, so to get you a little closer on the excitement spectrum to me, here are some pictures of inspiration I have been collecting :)

These beautiful pictures represent some of my favorite parts of the holidays.  What are yours?

Blessed

There is SO much to be thankful for.  I could list off thousands of things, including the family I am blessed with, the food I am provided , the shelter covering my warm head, the cell phone in my pocket, and the car in my driveway. 

I know these are usually what we think of when considering what we are thankful for, but there are many other things that often don't come to mind. For example, the fact that we can live peacefully in a country without war or persecution.  Also, our ability to attend high school and college, the immense beauty of the world around us, or even the fact that our hearts are still beating at a healthy pace. 

I challenge you to think this thanksgiving.  I ask you, if you haven't done so yet, to embrace this holiday and realize how incredibly blessed you and I are, not only for food and family and friends, but for everything else that our insanely generous God has brought into our lives.  

I found this poem posted on Darling Magazine's website today in honor of thanksgiving.  

It is really a beautiful piece and I hope you all get the chance to read it.  It spurred some thought in me, and I hope it will do so for you too :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

Fall Love

Find them here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

I love the beginning of the fall season.  There is so much promise in the changing of the leaves, the occasional stormy weather, and the fact that drinking tea daily is becoming acceptable again.  Even though its still around 75 degrees here, I am dreaming about the rain to come and the cozy movie-watching sessions around the corner.  Here are a few of my favorite things that I am loving at the moment, most of which are necessities for the coming season. Happy Fall!  

Weekly Wears

Shirt: RVCA       Pants: Nordstrom's       Shoes: Urban Outfitters

Here is my first official outfit post! I shot this on top of the parking garage behind my apartment at sunset.  As you can tell from the last picture it is a breathtaking sight. I have had nonstop midterms for the past 3 weeks with even more to come so it was nice to get away and just be reminded of how beautiful the world around me is. I went back to my apartment after this and made pancakes for dinner, which was pretty much the icing on the cake :) Hope you had a happy Wednesday! 

Fresh Face

I wear makeup. A lot.  I have been wearing it probably since the end of middle school, and I can count on one hand the number of times I have ventured out in public without first applying a couple dabs of concealer or swipes of mascara. And, as sad as it is, I'm sure most girls my age can probably relate.

We have been raised with magazine covers practically shouting at us that a made-up face is a pretty face and the Target makeup aisle being one of the first things you see. We have been taught by society that the dark circles under our eyes are unsightly and the red splotches on our skin are meant to be covered up.

While this may be true, I believe God created us to be just the way we are. He didn't intend for us to cover up the beautiful faces he blessed us with. If he wanted us to look the way we do with pounds of makeup on he would've given us inch-long lashes, pouty pink lips, and bright red cheeks. He didn't, though, because we don't need them.

We all have issues with what how we look, and I believe there are two paths we can take: we can either cover these insecurities up, or we can embrace them.

I am choosing to embrace them through an idea I came up with: Fresh Face Fridays (cheesy, I know, but it sounded good!). Basically, I am choosing to not wear makeup on Fridays.  No concealer to cover up my zits, no mascara or eyeliner to fix up my eyes.  Just my face, au naturel. I know its may be a scary idea to some, but once you get over the initial fact that you are exposing your bare face to the world it feels awesome!

Now don't get me wrong, I do love makeup, but I think we view it sometimes as a mask to cover things up instead of a tool to enhance our natural beauty. And there is nothing wrong with the latter, but I have been growing closer to the mask idea, and I don't like this.  So, I am choosing to change. Not wearing makeup once a week will, for one, let my sad pores breathe, but also it will show people that I am okay with who I am. And I am okay with who I am :)

So, cheers to embracing our God-given beauty and growing to love how we look without all that makeup on. I hope you'll join me on Fresh Face Fridays!

Brown Butter Cookies

One of my favorite places in the world is San Luis Obispo, California.  I love everything about this town: the quirky downtown, the beautiful rolling hills, and the fact that you are in cow country and still five minutes from the beach.

While visiting this wonderful place I happened to discover a little shop called Brown Butter Cookie Company in Cayucos, a town about 15 miles north of San Luis. This cute business serves some of the greatest cookies I have ever tasted in my life.  They sell many different kinds, but their specialty is - as one could easily guess - the brown butter cookie.  This delicious confection is the perfect blend of salty and sweet, and it literally melts on your tongue.  No joke.

I was so excited to discover this cookie, but slightly put off by the big price. I can understand the struggles of being a small business in a small town and the need to generate an income, but these puppies are about the width of a golfball and they are $12 for a dozen.   Now, being the broke (and resourceful) college student I am, I took it upon myself to find, with the help of trusty Google, a recipe for these cookies. And, as luck would have it, I found one!

This recipe was created by Marina of Yummy Mummy Kitchen, with additional notes from myself.

Brown Butter Cookies 

- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

- 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- Coarse-flake sea salt for sprinkling 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 

In a saucepan over medium heat begin melting the butter, stirring frequently. It will start to brown after about 10 minutes of cooking.  You will know it is done when you can smell a nuttiness and you see brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Be careful not to burn the butter.  

Pour browned butter into a bowl and mix in brown sugar and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl mix together baking powder and flour. Add flour mixture to butter mixture until combined. 

Let cool to room temperature.  Use a tablespoon or a small scoop to form cookies on the cookie sheet. Sprinkle the sea salt lightly over the cookies and press it into the top. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly golden.  

This recipe makes about 18 small cookies.  I know it's not a lot, but they are usually gone within 5 minutes of coming out of the oven so the amount doesn't matter that much :) Enjoy!

Beats

I love discovering new music.  There is something so exhilarating about finding a new artist or band that has created sounds you have never heard before, that inspires and brings about new emotions and feelings.

One of the newest bands I have discovered is one dubbed "Sucre", with singer Stacey King of the band Eisley, drummer Darren King of Mutemath, and talented instrumentalist Jeremy Larson.  This band mixes Stacey's dreamlike vocals with some very whimsical beats to form a completely different type of music than the kind heard on the radio nowadays.  They have one album out, A Minor Bird, that debuted April 10, 2012.

The music this band has created is so unique and impeccably created that my attention was caught right off the bat.  In my opinion, Sucre is similar to the artist Imogen Heap (hopefully some of you know who she is!).  Sucre's music is so different, though, that it's hard to find a correlation between them and other bands out there.  I believe this actually a good thing because it means that they have come out with music that is all their own.

Turning up one of Sucre's songs is the equivalent of crawling under the covers on a particularly cold night - warm, dreamy, and oh-so-sweet. With Stacey's silky voice and fantastic melodies to match, I hope that the minute you listen to this band you fall just as much in love with it as I have.