:(

No more Christmas tree.

Also, 3:365

Bathroom part deux

Here was my bathroom yesterday morning:

I don't even know where to start with all the things wrong with this bathroom. There are the shower doors, the ugly grey grout between the white tiles, the shower curtain over the window that has rusty blinds, not so attractive sink and vanity, and then you may notice the wall paper.

After living with this for a year and five months I'd finally decided to make some changes.

I'd contemplated this many times but finally HGTV convinced me that taking down shower doors was easy and with the assistance of only a screwdriver it was:

Only one screw to remove for the entire thing to come down!

So then after not knowing what to do next, I decide that while I'm at it I might as well see what's underneath the ugly beige and roses wallpaper. What I found was green wall paper and then real walls!

So with no shower curtain I ventured off to Target but couldn't make a decision there and then decided to go see if the nearest Anthropologie had any of their pretty curtains that were on sale online in the store. And they did! I could barely wait to get home to hang it up (I stopped back by Target and picked up a plastic liner curtain, shower rod, and pretty curtain hangers) and am very pleased with my purchase.

Next weekend hopefully I'll get the walls prepped and maybe even painted! And what to do with that window??

When life closes a shower door, it opens a curtain.

I got a new shower curtain today! And if you have ever seen my tiny bathroom you may be thinking-"don't you have ugly glass shower doors?" Why yes, I did have ugly glass shower doors until I, all by myself, took them down. I took lots of photos of this endeavor and also the project that followed. It actually turned into an entire day project. I'll explain tomorrow...

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.