christmas eve style.

i got this dress from modcloth a few months ago & fell in love. i've been saving it for something special, and christmas eve is certainly that. paired with a few other favorite accessories and some black tights, i'm ready for church & our annual ruth's chris dinner! what will you be wearing on christmas?

christmas eve. by laurafowlkes featuring leather wedge shoes

congrats sis!

on saturday, my sister courtney graduated from her master's program at the university of north carolina at charlotte. before i get to the (awesome) party, i'm going to tell you a little bit about my sister.

{i met courtney when i was 12 years old. we were at our cheer/gymnastics gym, and i can't quite remember the details, but for whatever reason, we decided that we wanted our parents to get married. i have no idea why, seeing as how i'd known this then 13 year old for all of 30 minutes. fast forward to a few months later when our parents actually got married. yes, we are a real life version of the parent trap. or something like it, at least.

it's been 12 years since then. we've been through a lot. she's been through a lot. she hasn't had the easiest life. our parents haven't had the prettiest relationship. her & i have shared a lot of heartache over our friendship/sistership in the past 12 years. she has felt the pain of addiction, seen the grace in recovery, and learned a lot about herself along the way. i'm probably saying more than she'd like me to on the internet, but i love her story, and i'm really proud of her.

on saturday, courtney walked across a stage, wearing a cap of a dear friend that she tragically lost this past fall, and received her master's in counseling as a clinical mental health professional. to say that i am proud of her doesn't really cover it, but i guess sometimes words fail us. so cheers, to my sister & my best friend on planet earth. god put you on this earth to love on people who don't think they deserve it, and that includes me. thanks for what you do & i can't wait to keep watching you change people's lives.}

so back to the party...

about a month ago i sent out these great invites from tiny prints.

you see, our parents love to decorate for christmas. the good news is that they have great taste, so it's a lot of really beautiful christmas decorations, but there wasn't really a way to have much of a theme other than christmas. so we pretty much decided the theme would be gold/glitter, and the only thing courtney REALLY wanted was glitter rimmed champagne glasses. easy enough.

i spent a lot of time researching and even more time crafting. i did some ordering & some cake tasting along the way as well. see below for the results and click the links below the pictures for the directions to the crafts from other various blogs!

{pom pom balls: here; congrats banner: here}

{amazing cake by wow factor cakes}

{garland: here}

{food table; menu was all of court's favorite foods!}

{dipped glasses in water & gold sprinkles from michael's. SO easy & so awesome.}

{please indulge in some of court's fave foods; frame was refinished from a thrift store}

{food/drink labels}

{love our friends!}

{i love you court!}

{special thanks to party reflections for the linens, shot glasses for shrimp shooters, and platters; to our chef from work for making court's favorite crab cakes; to wow factor cakes for the amazing cake; and lastly to my parents for providing their home, all the food and beverage, and for letting me 100% plan this one}

rewind: friendsgiving 2012.

to say "i've been busy," is the understatement of the century. i've been married to my job since, well, july? but the past month has been insane, leaving little room for much of anything, especially blogging! however, this event was too special not to have a post, so rewind with me back to the tuesday before thanksgiving...

roomie amanda texted us few weeks before thanksgiving and told us that her work was giving out free turkeys to all their employees . i know, nice employer, right? so we figured since we'd be going to our parent's houses for actual thanksgiving, that we would throw a "friendsgiving!" we picked a date, sent out the invites via the oh so fabulous paperless post, and started planning.

once in a blue moon, working at an event venue has its perks. this was definitly one of those times. we had about 30 people RSVP for the party, but where the heck were 30 people going to sit? solution: borrow tables & chairs from work. i rented some dinner party essentials and borrowed some as well. we got everything set up on monday night, leaving just the food to be cooked on tuesday. guests arrived around 7:15pm and we sat down for dinner about an hour later. let me just say, i don't know how moms do this every holiday! i'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking...

{pumped about our first turkey!}

{meet henry. yes, we named it.}

{panoramic view... after moving half our furniture into the garage}

{the set up}

{katie's banner}

{i made baked corn...}

{ ...and mashed potatoes}

{me and d were so proud of the turkey}

{momma helping us derrick carve}

{pals!}

it took a lot of work, and a lot of help from a lot of sweet people to pull off this party, but we did it! it was such a fun night spent with so many people that are so important to us.  a special thanks to...

derrick, for letting me borrow his car to run things back and forth from work and also carving the turkey & the ham; to my mom, for also helping transport chairs, helping us with the turkey, letting me borrow her silverware and making dessert for a party she didn't even attend; to my dad & stepmom for answering all my crazy questions about cooking the turkey; to party reflections, for the linens, napkins, plates, and glasses and for honoring my work discount for a personal event; to everyone who brought a casserole or dessert or alcohol; to andy for his awesome toast; to courtney for making everyone go around the room and say what they are thankful for, that was hilarious/awesome; to everyone who stayed to help us clean up; and lastly, thanks to my roomies! we may just have to make this an annual event!

30 days of thanks; the little stuff.

i love the idea of "30 days of thanks." what i don't love is everyone clogging up my mini-feed everyday. so at the beginning of the month, i started this post and have been updating it every few days since. and since i've been missing in action all month, let this serve as a "what i've been up to," post as well. i hope your month has been wonderful!

thursday, november 1st : thankful for new friends to stay out until 2:30am with on a school night.

friday, november 2nd : thankful for fridays, even when you have to work on saturday.

saturday, november 3rd : thankful for lunch with just me and my dad.

sunday, november 4th : thankful for day drinking with best friends on a sunday.

 

{selwyn pub}

monday, november 5th : thankful for a day off. and thankful katie played hookie to hang with me all day.

tuesday, november 6th :

thankful for the right to vote and to live in this beautiful country.

thankful for a great relationship with party reflections and that they delivered me 10 extra chairs, 3 hours before my event because i forgot to do it beforehand.

wednesday, november 7th: thankful to have a best friend that will go see weird movies with me when no one else will.

thursday, november 8th: thankful for hendrick lexus for always taking such good care of my car.

friday, november 9th: thankful for kristin & slumber parties & wine.

saturday, november 10th: thankful for the university of south carolina. thankful for my bonus from 2nd quarter that was the exact amount i needed to buy season tickets. thankful for a season of tailgating with my best friends.

sunday, november 11th: thankful for all those who fight for our country and keep us safe and free.

monday, november 12th: thankful for having a week day off & thankful for my brother in law, derrick.

tuesday, november 13th: thankful for my wonderful mom and the southern christmas show.

wednesday, november 14th: thankful for cheap mexican food.

thursday, november 15th: thankful for unexpected dinners with my family. and the garlic and goat cheese appetizer at dressler's. and selwyn pub. always thankful for selwyn pub.

 

{pumpkin cheesecake from dressler's}

friday, november 16th: thankful for should be awkward situations not actually being so awkward.

saturday, november 17th: thankful for late night dance parties at andrew blair's.

sunday, november 18th: thankful for the most awesome tailgate ever for the panther's game.

{roomies at the tailgate}

monday, november 19th: thankful to work at an event venue that will let me borrow whatever i need to throw a house party.

tuesday, november 20th: thankful for friendsgivng (someday, this will have it's own post) and all our friends who came over to celebrate.  it was an amazing night!

 

{we did it!}

wednesday, november 21st: thankful for the wine bar at whole foods and sleepovers at my mom's house.

 

{wine loft}

thursday, november 22nd: thankful for my wonderful family who always opens our house to everyone who doesn't have anywhere to go for the holidays. thankful for my stepmom who might as well be betty crocker.

friday, november 23rd: thankful for mini-vacations at my parent's house.

 

{post thanksgiving tree picking}

saturday, november 24th: thankful that the gamecocks beat clemson, again.

sunday, november 25th: thankful for homeland. holy moly.

monday, november 26th: thankful for dinner at villa antonio's with my parents & court.

tuesday, november 27th: thankful that my best friend lives across the hall and brought me medicine to my bedside this morning.

wednesday, november 28th: thankful for showtime on demand.

thursday, november 29th: thankful for sushi.

friday, november 30th: thankful for eric church concert in cola with my best friends.

monday funday.

after working all day on sunday, i got to pick another day to take off this week. monday was really the only day i didn't have any big events so that's what i went with. since veteran's day was on a sunday this year, the banks & courts observed it on monday, so some of my friends were off too.

first stop of the day was polished. i've been desperately needing wanting a pedicure for a few weeks, so i was really thankful for the time to do so. i am proud of myself for skipping the free wine... since it was only 10:30am. i got this great color on my toes that i am REALLY loving...

 

{essie headmistress}

 

next up was lunch at pisces with my momma, sister & derrick. we all ordered the exact same meal and derrick & i had a bobcat roll as an app. YUM

 

 

" bobcat - crab tempura, avocado roll topped with crab salad & tobiko, with eel & aori sauce"

 

after lunch, i took derrick on his first trip to sleepy poet. i've blogged about this place before (here), but i feel like you can't understand how awesome it is until you actually go. we spent about an hour there and i scored two awesome purchases for a total of $31.

 

 

 

when talking to derrick earlier that morning, i agreed that if he went with me to sleepy poet, that i would go see skyfall with him and alex. so that's where we headed next. i wasn't too excited about it but it was AWESOME. the pictures below... need i say more?

 

 

 

{photo cred}

 

 

 

{photo cred}

 

after running into jcrew to buy derrick some new pants, i dropped him off for a few hours before trivia. the last stop of the day was jackalope jacks where derrick, alex, kelly & i had beer & dinner &  got our butts beat in trivia. monday was an awesome start to my week!

a slumber party & a football game.

after having some alternative plans fall through for the weekend, i was glad to have sweet cola to "fall back on." i texted kristin earlier in the week & asked if she would be home on friday. you see, i've been in cola a lot this fall, but she has her own games to go to and so we've missed each other every weekend! i was thrilled when she said yes and a sleepover was planned.

after dropping rachel off at nicole's and getting very lost, i finally found myself at kristin's adorable apartment. it is amazingly decorated with all sorts of awesome vintage pieces from her grandma, books, and candles. we drank red wine and talked all night, the best kind of evening with a friend you don't get to see much. in case y'all didn't already know, i really love that girl. i can't imagine life without her in it.

saturday i woke up and headed to nicole's to leave for the game. i have to work this upcoming weekend, making this past weekend my last game of the season. it always blows my mind how quickly football comes and goes, but this year it went even quicker. this was the first year we had our own tailgate spot, and it has been amazingly fun. we had a great time on saturday and stayed at the tailgate way past the sun going down and the lights getting turned off at the stadium. it was a perfect saturday to end another great fall cheering on my alma mater.

i love you, university of south carolina. forever to thee.

happys.

so somehow it's a week into november and i have no idea where the time is going. october is one of the busiest months of the year for me at work and i feel like i blinked and missed it!

a few things that have been making me smile over the past few weeks...

1. my first birchbox! i'm a little bit late to the party on this one, but it took awhile for me to get the invite. in october, i got an email from birchbox asking if i wanted to opt for the special edition "goop" box. i can't turn down anything potentially awesome/weird, so of course i said yes. the goop pick ended up being a normal size essie bottle of an awesome dark grey color called "power clutch."

2.  i got a new tv for my room! prior to this baby, i'd had the same one since my freshman year of college. needless to say, it was time for an upgrade. i got a 32'' vizio "smart tv." until saturday, i had no idea what smart tv was but i now know that it means I CAN WATCH NETFLIX FROM MY TV. how amazing is that? it syncs up to my account and i can just watch whatever right on my tv!

{wee!}

{netflix button}

3. we finally got our bar stocked! 5 bottles of liquor and $100 later, we're ready to entertain all kinds of guests!

4. the perks of being a wallflower, the movie. it's always fun when a book you've read turns into a movie. it's even more awesome when it's one of your all time favorite books and they actually do an awesome job with the movie. every character was casted perfectly, it was really well done. can't wait till it comes out on dvd!

5. my new winter coat! living in the carolinas, there are only a few days out of the year that you actually NEED a winter coat. but i realized a few weeks ago that i need one, a grown up one. so i set out on a search and found this one at loft. today everything was 40% off, so i went after work and picked it up. can't wait to wear it!