Charm Design Bags and Totes $50 gift card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I LOVE purses! Ask my husband. Ask him about my birthday in April of this year when he took me shopping at the mall and I begged and bargained like a 5 year old to get a beautiful candy colored Franco Sarto Purse that I couldn't live without. "I won't buy another purse for a year!" I promised him.

And while I have thus far managed to keep that promise (less than five more months to go!), winning a new purse does not break the terms of our agreement!

Therefore, I give you the Charm Design Bags and Totes $50 gift card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!! from Kathleen at Grosgrain!

You MUST check it out - but don't sign up to win because that will only hurt my chances ;-)



p.s. Seth and I leave tonight to go see my family for Thanksgiving! After months and months of looking forward to this week it's finally here!!!

A Family Favorite

One of my favorite meals that we enjoyed growing up was Beef in a Basket.
Not only does it have a catchy name, it falls solidly in the category of "comfort food".
You start by browning a pound of ground beef. When it is fully cooked, drain it and mix it with your favorite barbecue sauce (enough to generously coat the beef). I like to throw in a hand full of shredded cheese as well.
Open a can of refrigerated biscuit dough (the honey butter flavor are fantastic!) and use your fingers to flatten each one and stretch it out so that you can press it into a cupcake tin. Spoon the barbecue beef into the dough and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Bake according to the directions on the biscuit dough, or until the "baskets" are golden brown. They should pop right out of the tin if you're using a non-stick one, though if your muffin tin is not non-stick, you might want to spray the cups lightly with Pam before pressing in the dough. I have also found that if I don't worry about pressing the dough all the way into the bottom of the cups, just enough to make room for the meat, then they come out a lot easier when they're done.

This is a quick, easy, and super yummy dish that pleases the whole family! Enjoy!!!

The things girls do for good hair...

It wasn't pretty...

But when it was through...
I ended up with beautiful curls!!!
After spending 26 years with stick-straight hair, I am thrilled to finally have the curls I've always dreamed of. I'm sure there will come a day when I miss my straight locks and pull out my trusty flat iron, but for now I'm absolutely loving the curls!!!

While it takes a bit longer to wash and dry, I can go longer between washes and have infinitely more options for styling (as my straight hair wouldn't hold anything from a bobby pin to an ironed curl). I've gotten so many compliments and I love how many people have told me that they just thought I had naturally curly hair and always straightened it!!!

The only bad part about getting the perm was when my husband found out how much I spent on it :-o But when I reminded him that I hadn't had so much as a trim for over 18 months and then asked him to add up how much he'd spent on haircuts over the last year and a half, he did calm down quite a bit ;-)

A day in her shoes

Seth and I spent the day up in Denison, IA visiting his family and attending a joint bridal shower for his cousin, Jamie, and her brother's fiance, Kensey. After the shower we came back to my in-laws' house to hang out and relax a bit. Seth's sisters, Liz and Bekah, were also over for the day.

At some point I was called down to the basement to join Liz and Colene (my M-I-L) in their quest to dig through some of mom's old shoes to see if there were any cool "vintage" pairs that Liz might want. After looking through a few boxes, we headed upstairs to mom's bedroom closet where she said she had "a few more pairs"...

At this point I quickly began to realize that my beloved MIL does not throw anything away. Anything. Including just about every pair of shoes she's ever worn (and perhaps even a pair or two that she never did). We were delighted to find a few pairs that were the lucky combination of retro style and not falling apart. Unfortunately, not one pair fit me. :-( But I am happy for my Liz that she found a few super cute pairs that she could definitely get away with wearing out in public.

About halfway through our digging, I could no longer restrain myself and went running for my camera. There were just too many pairs of shoes that I could hardly believe and that I HAD to share with all of you.

I give you... My Mother-in-Law's Shoes.

This was one of the first pairs that Liz found. Still cute after all these years!

These were Mom's wedding shoes.

And these were her "going away" shoes that she wore when they left the reception.

I had some like these when I was about 7 years old.

Mom: "I wore these to the dance clubs in Kansas City."

Me: "What year was that, mom?"

Mom: "Oh, I don't know... probably 1973."

And she didn't have just one pair...

Pastel peep toes with mesh cut-outs. The perfect Easter shoe... in 1986.

Liz walked away with these beauties. And I'm totally jealous.

That's right. Teal lace. You aren't imagining things.

This may be the only time in my life I've ever wished I had bigger feet.

Taking my holiday temperature

I have always prided myself on my ability to wait until after Thanksgiving to turn on my Christmas mood. I would walk by the holiday aisles in Kohl's and Hobby Lobby shaking my head at how crazy it was for people to start decorating for Christmas before Halloween was even past. I had very strict rules about waiting until December 1st to listen to any Christmas music. I love holidays, but I have always taken them one at a time. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. No blending. No mixing. One. at. a. time.

Then I moved to Iowa.

I have written about at least once already, I am working on adjusting to the weather up here, which is a bit of a challenge considering I had finally started to get used to the weather in St. Louis just in time to move away. Don't get me wrong, I love it here in Iowa! I love our new town, our church, my job - all of it. But I'm having a bit of trouble with the weather.

October temperatures in Iowa are too much like December temperatures in St. Louis and it's throwing off my internal Holiday thermostat! Halloween is still 4 days away and I am finding that I am getting a bit itchy for Christmas. What the heck. Seriously.

I was running errands in both Kohl's and Hobby Lobby this evening and I actually caught myself looking longingly at the Christmas aisles, and even - gasp - wandered down a few! And even worse, had to tear myself away from the stocking hanger display (which got me really excited because we actually have a mantle piece now from which to hang stockings!) while chanting to myself "It's not even Halloween yet. It's not even Halloween yet."

I have also noticed that when sitting at my desk at work and scrolling through the playlists on my ipod I've been lingering a little too long on the "Christmas Instrumental" mix. It is far too tempting. I'm even considering removing it temporarily until after Thanksgiving as I'm becoming fairly certain that I won't have the will power to last another month without taking the plunge.

I brought up this whole weather/holiday conundrum to Seth tonight. He said he likes that it gets cold earlier because then Christmas is in the middle of winter instead of the beginning. "You'll get used to it," he says.

Used to a winter that's long enough for Christmas to fall in the MIDDLE?!?!?!?!

I think my Christmas itch might be least of my worries after all...

Shabby Apple Dare to Design Limoncello Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

It's time for another Grosgrain giveaway!!! You have to check out this beautiful yellow dress. I'm usually not a big fan of yellow, but this dress is so delightfully charming I can't let the chance to win it pass me by ;-)

Shabby Apple Dare to Design Limoncello Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

A series of unfortunate events...

I am a preschool teacher.

1st quarter assessments + parent teacher conferences + getting sick = no blogging for a while

My apologies.

By next week conferences will be finished, assessments completed, and (hopefully) all traces of sickness will be gone.

AND I will be back to blogging!