Blogging In A Winter Wonderland

Hello there! So, it's still extremely snowy. I almost didn't take pictures today, as I'm a little bound to my home at the moment, but after two days of leggings and a big sweater, I kind of needed to get dressed up. And now that I'm not wearing the same stretchy pants I've been wearing forever (too much information? oh well) and am in a dress, I am feeling a bit more rejuvenated! I know today's photos are a bit dark, but my ability to find well lit photo locations is limited at the moment, more because of my lack of desire to travel anywhere by foot in two feet of snow than by the actual snow.


While I have been stuck in the house for three days now, and am getting entirely stir crazy, these snow days have given me a push to get some more reading done. I love reading, but unfortunately I get sucked into a computer screen more often than I open a book. But lately I've been wanting little more than to leave my house snuggle up with some good reading. I so thankfully got two David Sedaris books for Christmas, and I've been reading one of them since I got it - Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim. He is absolutely one of my favorite writers and he is remarkably funny. I think his work is the only literature I've read recently that made me laugh hysterically for a few minutes, and then again at random moments throughout the day. Who are some of your favorite writers? As a writer and literature nerd I would love to know :)

Dress: Salvation Army
Sweater, Belt: Delia's
Boots: Urban Outfitters
Socks: Target
Hat: Forever 21
Necklace: Gift





Seems like the fake penguins in my backyard are finally feeling at home.

Until tomorrow (hopefully with less snow),
Nicole

Let It Snow

So, we seem to have been hit with a bizzard here in New York! It snowed so much (as you can see) all of yesterday and a little this morning. So, of course I ran, read stumbled clumsily, outside to take some unflattering snow pictures. I hope you all had great holidays! Mine were mostly delightful. I took just about no pictures of my outfits or anything else. Luckily, I think my mom and my brother's girlfriend took some pictures on Christmas eve and day, so if I ever get my hands on those I'll post them here as soon as possible. I really liked both of my outfits for those days, so I'll probably recreate them at some point anyway. So, what did you guys get for Christmas? I got mostly clothes (not a bad thing) and some jewelry!

Now, here's a terribly awkward gif of me making and throwing a snowball (at my mom, sorry mom!) and then limping off screen. Enjoy.



Until tomorrow,
Nicole

Merry Christmas To You

I hope you have the best of holidays, you sweeties :)

Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies

So, I'll be doing way more baking today, but yesterday I made some mint chocolate cookie sandwiches! And I think they turned out pretty well.

(By the way, this recipe can be found here, on the Martha Stewart website!)



You need: 1 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 cup flour, 1 stick of butter, one egg, and a half cup of sugar



Whisk together your dry ingredients, and cream together your wet ingredients. Then slowly combine the dry into the wet. Refrigerate the dough for an hour.



Roll out the dough. Then, use a two inch cookie cutter to cut out your little cookies. I didn't have one, so I used a champagne flute, and it worked just fine. Then bake for ten to twelve minutes.



Ganache time!!! Bring 1/4 cup of heavy cream to a boil, then add 6 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate morsels and stir until melty and wonderful. Then add 3/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract.



Fill the cookies and sandwich them!



Then, melt six ounces of chocolate (I used half semi sweet, half milk, mostly because I ran out of semi-sweet) and dunk! Relish in how cute they look.



Eat yummy cookies, take embarrassing pictures doing so (this is THE most important step)


Happy Cookie Eating,
Nicole

She Was A Day Tripper

Hey there! I'm going to keep this post short and sweet, as I have to get back to baking my cookies! If all goes well, I should have a post up for tomorrow with photos and a recipe (I'm currently in stage two of three (ganache!) so we'll see what happens. I've still got to dip them in chocolate. Mmmmm, let's hope I don't eat all the chocolate before I have to melt it! I'm going to spend the day tomorrow baking with my sister, and then it's the big Christmas eve celebration at my uncle's house (I still don't know what I'm wearing yet, eep)! So, I'll have some posts lined up for the next few days I think, and I hope you all have the best holidays :)

Sweater: Thrift
Dress/Skirt: Urban Outfitters
Both pairs of tights: Hue
Belt: Target
Hat: Modcloth





Until Tomorrow,
Nicole

Anatomy of A Cozy Night In

So, yesterday my brother and his girlfriend flew in from California for Christmas! My parents went to go pick him up, so Zak and I decided to have a cozy night in for a few hours together while they were out, and here is my poor photo documentation of what made up our cozy night in

good (not so) fashionable cozy pajamas




good food (a large tub of popcorn!)



good music (a johnny mathis Christmas record!)



and good (the best) company





Until tomorrow,
Nicole

All Dolled Up

Hello there! After a few days of feeling mopey about my body, I decided to get all dolled up today! I think we all need those days where we just put on an outfit that makes us feel particularly pretty and happy (though that really should be every day, ideally, I suppose!) So, I put on one of my favorite dresses, some heels, and curled my hair, and darn it I felt cute. I even edited these photos with a "1960's" effect. That's kind of wishful thinking on my part. When I stepped out of the house today with my tripod, I felt a bit like I had actually stepped out of the 60's, into the future. It was a nice way to feel :)

I'll be spending the rest of my afternoon gift shopping (and returning)! Ahh, it's so close to Christmas and I'm still running out and shopping, though I'm pretty much done. I've been crocheting a few gifts as well, which has been enjoyable. Do you guys still have gifts to buy and make, or are you guys all good gifters? :)

Dress: Salvation Army
Shoes: Madden Girl via DSW
Belt and hat: H&M






Until tomorrow,
Nicole