A good year.

It's time for New Year Resolutions. I can't even remember what mine were last year which is a bad sign that I didn't keep them. All week I've been busy with stuff around the apartment and haven't really thought of what mine would be. But after some quick thinking I'm going to have 3 goals that are, I think, pretty attainable and good.

I've made 3 goals for 3 life categories (because I can never decide on one thing and incase I fail at one...):

1. Professional- Get up earlier (aka don't hit snooze 5 times) so I can be more productive in the morning in my classroom before the kids get there. I hate rushing in the morning and stressing out when the kids are coming in the room before I've gotten everything ready for my lessons that day. To do this I'm going to have to move my alarm clock to across the room on my vanity instead of conveniently in arms length on my nightstand.

2. Style- No pants. Well, almost. I've really fallen in love with getting dressed every day in the past year. I've come a lot more adventurous with my clothes and since school has started I've worn pants maybe 6 times. This past week I reorganized my walk in closet (future post coming soon!). After clearing out all of the clothes I don't wear anymore I was left with 2 pairs of pants for work and 2 pairs of jeans. Of the pairs of pants I kept for work, I can't even remember the last time I wore them. So, I've decided (I've been thinking about this for a few months actually) no more pants to work. I know, I know, it'll be cold on the playground for recess but I have plenty of tights, tall boots and long-ish coats. Wearing dresses and skirts is more me and I'm really excited about all the looks I can put together. In the summer I live in skirts and summer dresses anyhow so jeans will only be a winter weekend occasional look. Excited about this!

3. Cooking- Bake a new recipe each week. Well, if you don't know, I bake a lot. Or at least I used to bake a lot. Lately I've slacked off because of school and what not. I received a total of 5 cookbooks for Christmas and plan to put them to good use. Progress with this goal can be documented here: Baking Arts. I definitely need to make more fancy cakes. And macarons (thanks Rachel)!!!

Times Square, New Year's Eve 1955. My friends and I celebrated the New Year in Times Square 50 years after this photo was taken and I would recommend that everyone brave the cold and crowds and do it at least once in your lifetime.

And if you're having trouble making up your mind, this resolution generator may help.

Looking forward to a wonderful new year and decade!

Smiths...Crossstiched

At one time, when I was probably 10 or 11, I knew how to cross stitch. This Etsy listing makes me want to try it again. (And then sale it for $64!!! That's a little crazy.)

a decade!

Our Christmas party tradition started our sophomore year of high school. I have no idea who thought of it but that's the year we had our first Secret Santa party. The invite list has changed slightly over the years but I can happily say that all 5 of us were at the original and have attended every party since. While cleaning my closet and organizing yesterday I found a photo of the original Secret Santa group. Whoa-ah have we changed! Here is to 10 more wonderful years of friendship girls!

Heather, Amy, Rachel, me, and Stephanie

Merry Merry

Lankford grandchildren photo session

(And look it, I got my red tights!)

Is the tree just short or are the presents huge???

Lucky for me, my grandmother and mom read my red tights post

and got me another pair for Christmas!

My grandmother's cat Oreo finally

got her chance to pounce in the paper.

And she wouldn't give it up even when it was all put in the bag.

My favorite Santa.

My brother gets into the headband trend.

Bo meets Santa.

Merry Christmas!

It has been a lovely holiday and I'm overly thankful for wonderful family, friends, food and gifts!

Happy Christmas to you and yours!

Photo: opendoorstudio

All I want for Christmas is red tights

One can never have too many pairs of tights I believe. Especially when I've given up on finding any dressy pants I like and have been wearing skirts/dresses to work everyday for about 2 months now (even in the snow!). I have purple, teal, blue, lots and lots of black and textures and now it's almost Christmas and I want some red tights. Supposedly Target makes a pair but last time I was in there I only found pink. Maybe I'll find some tomorrow with my few last minute gifting.

In the mean time, I'll drool over these photographs of other lucky ladies and their red tights:

Lulu Letty

Anna Karina inspired...

library chic

selective potential

holiday wreath idea

Finally I thought of something to do with the vintage photos I bought several months ago. Until today they were still laying on the tray in my living room but when I walked in this afternoon I decided that my sparkly Martha Stewart wreath + the photos would be a lovely combination.

Snow (half)Day!

Pretty winter porches.

I really want some red tights. And layering them with polka dot tights is too adorable.

Charlie Brown Christmas set to Belle and Sebastian :)

Pretty lights that I could (and will) actually make.

Tonight and Saturday: Staying in, hot chocolate, decorating sugar cookies.

here's an idea...

Design*Sponge

Sparkle!

Here is my cheesy "Christmas Tree Post". It had to be done, it's just too pretty. Tonight I was cleaning up my bedroom and spotted my vintage bird ornaments that I bought a few weeks ago. I had nearly forgotten about them. They are perfect and I feel the tree is complete now. I almost felt inspired to listen to Christmas music while I decorated---almost.

And on a side note, how creepy are some Christmas songs? "Santa Baby" especially. Who thinks of Santa in that way? And "The Christmas Shoes" is sadly creepy. It came on the other day on my grandmother's radio and I nearly knocked people over to run to turn it off. I have a cd of a few Christmas songs I can tolerate to let my students listen to. Jackson 5's "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" is always the crowd favorite.

I had to throw in some cat/tree exploration photos as well...

The Twirl Test

I know that I have a dress obsession. Half of my closet consists of dresses. This summer I wore a dress (or skirt) nearly every day. Dresses have always been more comfortable than pants to me. Plus I like feeling more ladylike when I wear dresses.

First day of kindergarten I believe...

When I was little that is all I would ever want to wear. When my mom would take me shopping and I would try on a dress it had to pass the twirl test. This test consisted of me twirling around the dressing room with my arms outstretched and catching my glimpse in the mirror to see if my dress would twirl out.

probably trying to twirl...

On my 4th birthday I had a pool party at my grandparents. I can remember my grandmother asking me what I wanted to wear to get ready for the party and I insisted on wearing my fanciest (and really good twirling) dress. Everyone else was in shorts and swimsuits, I had on my party dress by the pool.

And if I wasn't wearing a dress, I then had to wear really fancy shoes. Patent leather was my favorite.

Wow, no wonder I turned out this way.

So today when I got back home from Raleigh and shopping with my friends Amy and Heather, I decided to count up my dresses when I was hanging the new one up. 34 were hanging up and I think I counted up 5 sweater dresses folded up in my bedroom. But in my defense I have worn every single one of those dresses in the past year!!! Well, with the exception of the bridesmaid dress from Amy's wedding. I've thought about giving up pants all together. Except that I really like when we have jean Fridays at work. And sometimes pants are easier but dresses are much more fun.

Oh, and my new dress. We were shopping/looking for holiday dresses. I knew that I already had a few options in my closet but then we went in Anthopologie and it was all over. I'd seen this Tracy Reese dress online but it is so much more lovely in person. And it was on sale. I halfway just tried it on for fun but then when all the girls working in the dress room said that no one else had been able to pull it off I knew that it was meant to be. I feel like I need to be attending the Draper's holiday party wearing it (Mad Men reference). Amy and Heather insisted on it too. Heather said that if I ever felt like I needed an occasion to wear it just to call them both up and we'd get dressed up to go out. Such good friends!!!

Oh, and it was on a runway?!?!?!? Not sure if I'll be pairing it with the knee highs though.

Gift Finder

I always love Holiday Gift Finders on websites. It's sorta like a fun Christmas survey. However, I've never actually bought anything recommended by them since I've never had one be that accurate.

Anthropologie's gift finder may be the most fun ever.

My friend's and I have a "Secret Santa" party every year (since 10th grade) and I filled it out with my Secret Santa in mind. Keep in mind that I've already bought half of my Secret Santa's gift from before-mentioned store. And after filling out the fun little questionaire, it actually recommended my gift! Pretty exciting I thought.

So if you have a Anthropologie loving friend on your gift list (me!) or if you want to do it for yourself, which is also very fun, try it out!

Here are my own gift recommendations:

Sally Gloves-$68 Bird in Hand Rolling Pin-$24 (Ahem...I really love this!)

Rainbow Drops Necklace-$48 Wisps and Wings Barrette-$18

The Littlest Coin Purse-$16 Domino: The Book of Decorating-$32 (yes, please)

love this photo

"Elevator — Miami Beach, 1955" from The Americans. Collection by Robert Frank

Expensive (good) taste

My mom and I have a joke that we can be thrown in a room full of clothes and told to pick out anything we want and unknowingly we will pick out the most expensive item. We can't help it! We have expensive taste!

Here is a good example:

The inspiration:

Steve Madden Intyce boots in Cognac- $129

The Much Cheaper Options:

Urban Horseriding Boots $41

Kady Boots-$29 (in cognac, grey, and black!) at Target

The Target boots really seem like a great steal. I might end up getting these in the grey. The Ruche boots are cute too but I'm still really leaning towards the Steve Maddens. I'll put them on my Christmas list, my mom will understand.

it's officially time...

for Christmas decorations!

Although it will be a few more weeks til I get my real tree, I put up my mini-silver tree yesterday morning (much to the excitement of my cat). Last year she was able to crawl up in there but so far this year she only likes sitting next to it while it's lit up...so far...

Since downtown Salisbury has their decorations up now I was really in the festive spirit yesterday morning. Getting out the tree and my Martha Stewart sparkly silver wreath was about as far as I got though. Even though my little tree is in the back bedroom/office, you can still see it from the road (I drove by twice to see it) and you can see it from Ellis Street behind me! My next door neighbors put their tree up today so I don't feel that I'm too early.

Here is some other holiday inspiration:

decor8

DIY Marha Stewart Doily Wreath

Anthropologie window display (of course!)

diy modern paper ornaments

vintage ornaments on a drying rack

pocket watch ornaments

tinsel trees

oh, Martha