I hope you all had a very blessed and wonderful holiday! 

On Friday ( Christmas Eve Eve) we hosted a Christmas Party for our friends AND families which resulted in the most adult party that I have thrown so far. It was rather exciting having some catered food and my family/my friends families milling around. It all felt so...adult. I liked it.

My brother and I (in my purple party shoes) in front of the (hidden) Christmas tree.

My obligatory cute couple picture of Leah and Matt!

Some friends hanging around the fire pit

Our riveting game of White Elephant 

Courtney and Ricky being cute and Christmas-y

After the party, I was very happy that I was able to stay at my parents house over the holiday and soak up all the Christmas wonderment and youthful glee for a few days and not worry about too much. 

We have both some normal and wacky traditions and it just doesn't feel like Christmas until they occur. For example: it's not Christmas until my whole family goes to Christmas Eve Service, followed by driving around looking at Christmas lights and then dinner. Then once we get home my dad gets all dressed up in weird clothes and uses props to read the "Night Before Christmas" story (even though me and my brother are both in our mid twenties..), then after my parents go to sleep my brother and I alwaysalwaysalways watch "Jingle All the Way".  

On the actual Christmas day my whole large extended family hung out, ate food and enjoyed each others company at my cousin's new home. We stopped getting presents for each other a few years back and we all pitch in to get my little cousins/second cousins toys. We decided we don't need anything and it's so heartwarming to see the pure joy and excitement on their faces when they open up their gifts. 

Do any of you have any wacky/interesting holiday traditions?

We have a winner!

 Congrats to Krystal on being our lucky Lush gift card winner!

I want to thank you all who commented and I will be adding all the silly/corny jokes to my arsenal 

because I love the cheese!

In all seriousness, knowing people actually read this silly thing lights up my life like whoaaaaa

So..

FROM,

Sam , her puppy, ...

Vegas Elvis and I- we say a very big...

 "THANK YOU!"

CHRISTMAS LUSH GIFTCARD GIVEAWAY!

Let me start this post by saying...

Today, has been a very exciting day for me because I planned on spending my day off from working for my dad to update my resume and apply for as many jobs as I possibly could before nightfall.

INSTEAD!

I woke up to a wonderful email from a nonprofit organization I interviewed for (but had no real hope of getting because they were interviewing SO many candidates) that started like this..

"Lindsey, we have some great news to end your week.."

and went on to offer me a position within their organization to help plan this HUGE and super fun event in the springtime.

Needless to say, I SPRUNG off the couch, grabbed my phone and called my parents and my closest friends to let them know the good news!

I am reveling in this moment because I have been looking for a job that fits my degree for almost a year now. I am finally breaking into the event planning field ee!!

SO, in the spirit of the holiday season and of todays good fortune I want to do another giveaway!

We will be giving away a : $25 dollar gift card to my favorite store LUSH!

(A little blurb if you're not familiar with their products/store"We specialize in handmade, 100% vegetarian (and over 70% vegan!) products for shower, bath, hair and body that are loaded with fresh, natural ingredients and minimal preservatives. Our products and ingredients are never tested on animals. To learn more visit http://www.lushusa.com/shop/")

So here is the deal the only thing you have to do to enter is:

**Leave a comment with a silly/corny joke

AND

your email address/name.**



**The email address is REALLY important because the giftcard is going to be an E-GIFTCARD which means it will come in an email **

This Giveaway will end SUNDAY 12/18 at 12 MIDNIGHT EST

GOODLUCK! :)

A Very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

We have been quite busy with holiday madness, traveling, work, and the like so this is going to be quite the bomb of pictures and short descriptions of what has been going on in our lives as of late...

First off, let's go back about three weeks to Thanksgiving time. We host an annual Friendsgiving dinner the day after Thanksgiving every year where our second family (our friends) get together to have food, wine, and play silly games. This is honestly one of my favorite "holidays" and one of the only traditions that has kept after 6 years with everyone moving away and on with their lives.

Here are just a few pictures from the night. 

...and then we all went into a food/libation/silly games coma so the pictures stopped..! But we had about 15 people show up all together and it was a very successful "Friends"giving indeed. 

Next up, Samantha and I got contacted through our Etsy, about being in a Fashion Trunk Sale type event on the UNLV campus called Sassy City Chicks. 

Unfortunately, we only had about a week notice and Sam could not get out of her day job so I went alone with my friend to just check it out so that we would be prepared for the one in February in San Diego. 

Plus, how could I pass up a trip to LAS VEGAS??!

We stayed at New York, New York because it had a SMOKIN deal for mid-week. 

**I didn't feel too comfortable taking pictures in the actual event but I'm sure they are online somewhere!**

The event was really cute though!They had a DJ, cocktails, and plenty of great booths and deals on super cute clothes. I skipped the designer deals because getting to Vegas to check out the event took some savings but I did buy some fun shirts from Jac Vanek, a sassy lady with fierce style. 

Plus, another one that is based off the "Keep Calm" series and it says " Keep Calm and Party On" 

I pretty much love it. 

After the event, CC and I went out for our one night in Vegas and spent it at the club Rok and had a little bit too much fun in a way only Vegas can provide

Lastly, as a second year tradition I helped my good friend turn his office into a Christmas/Holiday Explosion. We played Christmas Music, Elf the Movie, Home Alone 2, and pulled an all-nighter decorating his whole office to surprise his co-workers who walked into a winter wonderland the following morning. 

 One of the things we did was make a fireplace out of cardboard boxes to create a "living room" scene

 Next, we set up the Christmas tree, wrapped some miscellaneous things from around the office and created a "window" that looked out into a snow filled valley that included snow capped mountains and a happy snowman.

Things not pictured(but hopefully I will be in possession of soon!):

*A Christmas Wonderland that we created at the front entrance with snowflakes and twinkling lights

*A sleigh set up for photo ops

*An igloo built over an entire desk

*A "candy cane" room where everything was decorated in red and white

Overall, the night was a huge success and from what I hear his co-workers loved it :)

**Vacation Santa approves of this post.**

We are hoping to have another giveaway very soon just in time for Christmas so stay tuned!

New York, New York

Ladies and gentlemen,

If you haven't been to New York, you have not lived.

Well that's not true, but you are seriously, SERIOUSLY missing out. In the same way that Vegas is other-worldly, New York's charm is not like anything else I've ever experienced. Crazy people on subways, pigeons in airports, and memorable celebrity sitings (we had one- Carson Kressly of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy sipping on a martini..I know, not THAT impressive, we did have to look up his name when we got home).

Wednesday night we left on a red eye from Sky Harbor to JFK. We were on our way to the land of honking horns, bright lights and the most breathtaking skyline you will ever see. Seriously, it's not one of those things that you see once and each time after it starts to lose its appeal (*COUGH* Grand Canyon); if I had to choose one thing to look at for the rest of my life (well besides Scott Avett), it would easily be the view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Anyway, once we arrived and made our towards the big city via subway very, very early, we checked in to our hotel on the Upper West Side.

We had easy access to the 1 subway and the cutest darn jazz bar in the city- Smoke. We got to check this out on Saturday-it is truly a nostalgic and romantic place (it has a very 40s feel to it). If you get the chance to go, you definitely should. You will love it.

The first day we were there, we grabbed some delicious breakfast at Cafe Lalo (they filmed a scene from you've got mail here! Tom Hanks would be proud).

Afterwards, loopy from the coffee and full of excitement, we wandered around Central Park pretty much all afternoon. We just couldn't get enough.

We then wandered around through The Plaza, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, etc. Lots got done this first day, including a much needed nap to the lullaby of angry New York drivers holding down their horns (Fun fact: did you know that people get fined for using their horns in NY? I told you, it's like another world!).

The next day we got up and headed straight for the Empire State Building/34th street. Annie and I went by our lonesomes to the top of the Empire (do yourself a favor and don't pay the $15 extra to go to the 102nd floor. It is indoors and the pictures aren't as neat. The first level pretty much gets the job done.)

    
When we got back down, Lindsey and Megan were watching the Veteran's Day Parade.

We took the Staten Island Ferry so we could get a free view of the Statue of Liberty. In New York, free is good, and the view was certainly not terrible! We didn't get as close as I'd hoped we would, but a view on an afternoon like this makes it really, really difficult to complain.

We met up with our friend Lance (he came down from D.C.) and went dancing at a place called Home Sweet Home. The girls were Stylin' and the blue walls in our hotel were great for fun photos beforehand.

Before we went out, we wandered around Chinatown (great for looking at Graffiti, not so great for wandering at night), and ate at a Mexican food restaurant that claimed "we have black beans" several times on their menu...strange, but the quirky kind of stuff you have to love and embrace in New York. 

We went, we dance, we conquered..

(Wow, this post is getting pretty long. I'll speed it up a bit.)

We also were able to check out the 9/11 site, occupy wall street (not very impressed), and OF COURSE the infamous Carrie Bradshaw's stoop (and Lindsey was interviewed by it for some British documentary!)

Overall, it was a very successful trip with some FABULOUS friends. I truly can't imagine a greater city to hang out with your girlfriends (and boy-friends *ahem* Lance) in. So much to do, so little time. I guess that just gives us an excuse to go back...

For now, New York..

We are back from the Big City

Well, we have been out of commission for the last week because of our travels and adventures in the Big Apple. I'm still compiling and editing my pictures and waiting to collect some of Samantha's photographs for a real update on our vacation. Needless to say, I left my heart in NYC and my body is ready to move there and catch up already! 

Here is a lil preview though:

I made it to Carrie Bradshaw's Stoop!

<3

Nostalgia, Art Walk and a Masquerade Party

After spending Friday job hunting and thrift shopping for our Etsy I was really excited to just relax and visit with some family.

 My parents and I drove out to visit my grandma and bring her dinner. We ended up spending the majority of the evening looking at old photographs and listening to her recall stories of her youth. I felt giddy and nostalgic looking at her pictures from the 1930s,40s, and 50s. They included pictures of her friends in high school, their parties, my grandpa's WW2 photographs, and my grandma's old restaurant. 

My favorite ones though were pictures of my grandma and grandpa's journey of love and starting a family. 

I could listen to people's "how we met/fell in love" stories forever. 

Below is a picture of my grandma's dining room table. It just made me smile. 

After my grandmother's house, my friend Andrew and myself decided to make a trek down to First Fridays in Downtown Phoenix hoping to not get caught in the rain before we saw some galleries and visited a few booths. I only got to snap a few pictures before we were making a run for it back to the car. 

This was done out of colored dried frosting..crazy! 

 I love glass blown...anything, really especially if it's colorful and whimsical. I want to someday take a class.Marking that down on the life list.  

 Overheard the artist telling a couple: "If you like Hitler, I'm out of prints right now but I can special order some".

Andrew and I before actually seeing the Hitler painting: ".....?!?!"

First sign of Christmas! eeee!

Saturday was spent getting ready for Andrew's Masquerade party at our house to celebrate his 25th birthday. 

The Birthday Boy, Andrew. Welcome to your Mid-Twenties! 

  

I tried to wear Ricky's hat for the picture but it was just slightly too big for my head. oops!

Taken one second after Anthony pinched Sam's butt. This is why candid pictures are the best!

Matt and Leah looking stylish and adorable per usual

The traditional "boys" picture

The traditional "girls" picture minus quite a few of the girls

Ahh the Santa hat on Grant makes me so happy! 

Bekah and Sammy- you girls keep me young 

We had a full house of people that made for a crazy night of copious amounts of dancing and flip cup tournaments, laughter and new friendships (and a hatchet thrown in our pool?! but that's for another time..but seriously, what?).

Here is just a taste of the night's happenings...

**The awesome backdrop for the pictures was from the brain of/put up by our good friend Tiffany over at Kitten Paws Vintage**

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!

Only five more days until my roomies, our good friend Megan and myself are headed to the Big Apple for some autumn awesomeness in the Big City. I can hardly contain myself! Just thinking about it sets my stomach in to a butterfly mess of excitement. I have been to New York twice before but not since I've turned twenty one and now being in my mid twenties its time to go back and live up the night life of NYC with some of my dearest (see: crazy) friends. Plus, it's a place I have always dreamed of living and hope to get there someday( heres to hopin, wishin, and prayin it's before I turn 30!) and I'd like to see how my dream fits with my personality and spirit in reality.

I've done all the tourist-y/time square stuff with my family back in the day so I'm really ready to venture off and get down with the locals (after having a picnic in central park and seeing Carrie Bradshaw's stoop of course..got to have little tourist-y fun!).

(photo credit: Samantha's photos from her NYC trip in August)

I CANNOT wait to explore, thrift, eat, drink, meet people and give my dance shoes a much needed night out on the town.

Any local recommendations for food, fun,shopping, dancing, drinks?