Merry Christmas Eve!

Can y'all believe tomorrow is Christmas! Crazy! This month just flew by didn't it? Since this will probably be my last post for about a week because I'm heading to Philly to see my Grandmom after Christmas, I figured I'd leave you with a few pictures of the things that I've been up to this month and the last few days.

As I've said recently, I got an ice cream maker for Christmas (thanks to Dt sorta...) and have been experimenting with it so I thought I'd show you what I was working with!

I love it and it comes with two bowls so we don't have to wait to refreeze the main one!

I also bought some of these ingredients to make some of our first flavors

And yes, I bought a basting brush and that has nothing to do with my ice cream but it was part of the purchase so I thought it was rude to leave it out!

 I ended up using the vanilla starter, then mixed in two spoonfuls of the fudge and a couple shakes of the snow and it turned out great! It def gives Baskin Robbins' peppermint ice cream a run for its money. I also made just plain vanilla for Dt out of sugar, milk, cream, and vanilla and it turned out pretty good too. Overall, this gift was a success!

Another exciting thing that has happened this past week is that I got this lovely box in the mail!

I haven't had the chance to try any of the things yet but I'll do a review once I do!

And remember my post about the sugar scrubs I made and decorated for Dt's fam? Well this is how they turned out!

Sorry about the crappy pic, I'm not a photographer...

Pretty cute, eh? I think I made that ugly jar much better! I found the recipe on pinterest and you can find it here!

As I've been shopping for Christmas gifts over the last few days, I've also been picking up stocking stuffers for my brother and sister. Over the last few years, we've started helping my parents (or Santa) stuff our stockings and I really enjoy it because I love finding these fun little things. It also gives me the ability to give more gifts which you know I love. So this is what I've found for Tucker

Clockwise from  top left: I got him a small stuff sack which he can carry in his big bag but packs down so it's easy to carry. Then we got him this fire starter gel which will allow him to start a fire anywhere even if it's been raining. Hopefully he practices fire safety... The next thing is a really cool patagonia belt which is his actual present but accidentally fell into the stocking stuffer pic. Oh well! Then I got him a free sticker from the store where all this gear came from. Next are just some eating utensils, figured the boy could practice some manners out in the woods. Then we have some body warmers and last but definitely not least is a first aid kit, just in case!

I think he is really going to enjoy all of this stuff and worst case scenario, at least he'll be better prepared for his trips into the mountains!

Next we have Miss Amelia Bedelia and her stocking stuffers

We have a hot pink lint roller, you always need one when you don't have one! Some multi colored bobby pins, a chocolate sampler (I also got one for Tucker), two mini candles, a cupcake corer (may or may not have gotten one for me, I tried to be strong...), a new make up brush (you can never have enough), and finally a really cool eye shadow palette from e.l.f. I'm sort of hoping she doesn't want that one because I will totally take it from her!

So I think I found some fun goodies to stuff their stockings with and those kids better return the favor!

And last but not least, I gave Dt his final Christmas present (he still didn't make it until the actual day to open it...) You may or may not remember that our Tigers recently won the ACC championship and I was lucky enough to find a boy who is as obnoxiously obsessed with Clemson as I am so of course I had to buy the kid a t-shirt to document the event.

It says Another clemson championship. 14 times! How many y'all got? 

I thought it was pretty funny and a smidge obnoxious but hey, we have to represent in gamecock country. As you can see, he was pretty excited about it too...

Isn't he cute? SO excited!

So that's my recap and I hope it will keep you entertained until I get back in a week or so. Have a merry Christmas everybody!

Merry Christmas Adam!

(That’s what my manger calls it, corny or what?) I hope everyone has their Christmas shopping done and are not stressing out. If you aren’t done, then good luck with all of the crazies and try to be nice to all of those poor retail employees who have to deal with the mean crazies. Does anyone else want to confront the crazies and ask if they did not know that Christmas is on the 25^th of December every year and that Santa didn’t spring this present thing on them last minute? I think I’m going to make a sign to carry around with me tomorrow…

Well, since I’ve finished my shift at work for the day, I have the rest of the afternoon to wrap all of my presents (my job has made me a pro wrapper, my fam better appreciate it!), drink my size large latte (yummo!), and paint my nails this fancy color

Sally Hansen Cinna Snap

It's super christmassy and looks great on! Let's just hope I don't chip it at work tomorrow before I get to any Christmas parties. I'll high five someone in the face if that happens! And the bf is home from work so we'll be watching lots of movies. Pretty good day if I do say so myself. 

RIP Poor Deer :(

Last night on my way home from work at 11:30 at night, I hit a poor deer with my car. I have never gotten into a real accident, never hit anything, and I consider myself a really good driver so this scared the beejeezus out of me! I was a hundred yards from my turn off and saw the deer, tried to slow down but I still hit it. I had a mild panic attack in the car on the phone with my dad because I was just so shaken up and completely heart broken that I had hurt the deer but I was ok physically. I didn’t get out to check my car because it was the middle of the night on an highway, but it was still driving ok and I was right up the road from my home so I was able to make it back to our apartment in one piece. When I got out I was amazed at how little damage was actually done to the front of my car, only the headlight was cracked and the hood was dented just a little (this gave me hope that maybe I didn’t kill the deer but that’s probably just me being delusional…) In the end, it could have been much worse and Dt had his work cut out for him when I arrived home an emotional wreck but it was not a good ending to my night. And my lovely family has taken to referring to me as the “deer hunter.” Thanks jerks, real sensitive!

Today I had my last day off until Christmas so I had to get all of my shopping done. Luckily I had most of it finished besides the last minute things that I’m buying from my work. I was able to pick up a lot of camping things for Tucker’s stocking as well as a cool belt that I think he will like. That kid hit the jackpot this year. I also picked up a few stocking stuffers for Amy and have figured out what I’m getting dad so I’m pretty much done. Just have to wrap everything, pack for Christmas and our trip to see my Grandmom in Philadelphia after Christmas, and get through the next three days of work.

After all of our errands (did I mention that Dt didn’t go into work today so I got to spend the whole day with him? Yesssss!), we came home and I finally broke out my new ice cream maker. I haven’t used it yet because we don’t normally have half and half or heavy cream in the house but I finally picked some up. So for my first batch I decided to make vanilla ice cream with peppermint fudge and candy cane chunks in it. It is going to be sooo good and I know this because I may or may not have tasted it like 8 times while it was mixing. What do you expect from me? While I’m excited for my holiday ice cream, Dt is absolutely not. Now if you remember, a few posts ago I mentioned that I was not going to take into account what flavor Dt wanted because I was bitter about our lack of gift exchange, but being the big softie that I am, I took pity on the poor guy and decided to make him some plain vanilla. So they are freezing as we speak and hopefully they turn out delicious (or dericious as Dt and I say…)

Hope you’re enjoying these last few days before Christmas and you avoid all of the crazy deer on the side of the road (wouldn’t wish that traumatizing situation on anyone!) Merry Christmas y’all!

Holiday update

I’m starting to realize that I should have started this blog months ago when I was fully unemployed and had lots of free time. Unfortunately, I didn’t (that’s just how my life works sometimes) which means that I now have to find time to blog around my crazy holiday hours. And who knew working in retail would mean crazy holiday hours? I mean, what was I thinking when I signed up for this? I think it had something to do with money and loans kicking in but the pain in my feet and lack of readiness concerning Christmas this year are blocking all of my financial worries so I’m not really sure what my motivation is. I’m exhausted, I’m nowhere near ready for Christmas, I don’t get to hang out with my boyfriend as much as I’d like, and I haven’t cooked any fun holiday treats all month L (insert snooki-style waaaaahhhh).

In between my crazy work schedule I have been able to do one or two things. First of all, I attended Dt’s family Christmas gathering yesterday which was fun, a little dramatic, and resulted in a lot of venting for good reasons afterwards. Doesn’t family just do that to you sometimes? After the really long day of family interaction, Dt and I came home and enjoyed the rest of our evening together, cuddling, watching the Grinch, listening to Christmas music, and driving around looking at Christmas lights which I think was the perfect ending to a bumpy day. I’m so lucky to have that boy with me every day of my life <3.

In order to prepare for Dt’s family get-together I had to think of something to get everyone. His family seems to be very fond of me and his aunts always get me a little gift, which is so nice of them and totally unnecessary but they do it anyway so I think it’s important to do something for them too. Considering the fact that I am on a very small budget and needed to gift 6 people, I knew I’d have to do something homemade but I didn’t want it to be super lame so I went perused Pinterest until I found the perfect idea. And it was this!

http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/05/my-favorite-vanilla-brown-sugar-body.html

It was super easy to make (after two trips to the store because it didn’t make as much as I needed for 6 people) and came out perfectly! I found some great jars at the dollar store (holler holler) and one of the women who I work with whom is super crafty and amazing offered to help me put sunflowers on top of the jars (to mask the ugly top that the dollar store provided). The sunflowers worked perfectly with the brown scrub and I thought it looked great. I’ll post a pic of my version when I have time to upload my camera but until then, you can use your imagination with how it turned out.

In other news, I’m still lacking in the gift department for mom, dad, and Tuck but I have ideas for all three and just need to brave the Christmas crowds that I have to deal with every day at work and really don’t feel like dealing with on my one day off. Ahhhh, such is life sometimes. Wish me luck and I’ll let you know what I find! 

Love, Em

Christmas Gifts!!!

My favorite part of Christmas is the gift giving! Yes, everyone loves presents but I get a real thrill of picking out the perfect gift for someone and I’m a big believer in giving multiple presents. For example, last year I got Dt a north face duffel, a tennis racket, a few movies, yada yada yada. I just go all out, what can I say? I don’t know why, but sometimes I’m just hit with an awesome gift idea (I’m full of awesomeness if you didn’t know…) and I have to make it happen. Now, this is very difficult to do on a small budget so I usually only shower my family and Dt with these presents but I’d love to be able to expand my gift giving circle one day. Anywhooooo, this year I’ve dropped the ball on gifting ideas (as well as my decorating, what is wrong with me?!? I’ll blame it on the fact that this is the first year in the last 20 that I haven’t been going through final exams on my way to Christmas break so I’ve just let all of this creep up on me. Oh the woes of finally being done with school.) Either way, I’ve let it come down to the last minute and I’m not a fan of that because it means that I’ll be forced to give some shitty last minute gift. Not going to happen, so I’ve been putting a lot of brainpower into gifting over the last few days and have come up with some great ideas! Since my entire family has yet to discover my blog (i.e. I haven’t really told anyone about it yet because I’m not sure how I feel about it…) I can share with you what I’m giving them!

One lucky betch will be receiving 6 months of this lovely service!

Birchbox

She may or may not also be getting this from my parents even though I picked it out. I just thought she would love it (and her sorority sisters will love her for sharing it in their kitchen) so I picked it out for her, from them. Make sense?

Williams-Sonoma

Mama G has for some reason fallen for the jeggings craze. It seems that her BFF was sporting a pair at a recent Christmas party and mom told dad on the way home that she just had to get some (now I have to factor in the wine consumption that I’m assuming happened at the Christmas party but I think she really does want a pair. She’s always looking for ways to be stylin' and profilin'!) Dad mentioned this lovely idea to me but he had no idea what they were called or what the concept even was so just imagine the hilarious convo that we had trying to discover that the item he was describing were the lovely jeggings! I will prob end up calling mom’s BFF just to make sure that what she was wearing were actually jeggings but I’m pretty sure those are what she wants. So Mama G may be getting some of these

I mean come on, homegirl needs a pair of 7’s.

Then the little bro has asked for a plethora of movies including but not limited to the following

Pics from IMDB

Can you tell he’s an 18 year old boy? Gotta love ‘em! He’s also been asking for a belt which I might make happen if I can find a good one and if not, I’ll supplement his movies with something from this store because little bro has taken to camping with his friends (read: getting drunk in the woods with no parents around).

To round to the good ole’ fam out is daddy-o, maybe the hardest person to shop for… he’s asked for one of these babies

Williams-Sonoma

Which I will get him but is kinda lame so I still need ideas for this man!

And last but not least, is the lovely boyfrand. But there’s a problem, as I said in my last post, he has already opened his present. The story goes something like this….

You see, my bf is like a four year old in many lovable ways including the fact that he can’t wait to open presents until Christmas, or his birthday, or anyone’s birthday. This means that he tries to get me to open my bday gifts from him early and badgers me for weeks before Christmas to exchange our gifts early. Every other year, I hold strong and put off gift opening until as close to Christmas as I can get his little heart to wait but this year, I got tricked!!! You see, as I’ve mentioned many times on this blog, I work in retail. This means that on black Friday I was forced to work, which for some reason meant Dt wanted to go shopping. We never do black Friday. But I’ve led myself to believe that he did this because he was so lonely without me. Poor guy. Anyway, I’m not sure if he actually bought anything for anyone besides himself. He bought some video game that had just come out and decided that it was going to be my present for him. Did you catch that? He took all of the fun out of my gift giving by picking out and purchasing his video game without consulting me. I think he did this because he couldn’t come to terms with spending that much money on the game himself, but that he would be spending around that much on me so it would all even out. Ummm, except that I didn’t get to pick it out or even pick it up! Yes, sad, but I got over that. Until one day I came home from work and he was hard core gaming with his new game! What?!?!?! It wasn’t even December yet! Heart is crushed. So my favorite part of Christmas with him was savagely ripped from me and I don’t know what to do now (which may be why I have yet to purchase a Christmas tree…) I was also forced to buy my own Christmas present for myself (because I got the discount from my store) which was super lame but I did end up with one of these babies!

Williams-Sonoma

Once I purchase some half and half and freeze one of those bowls, I will have lovely homemade ice cream in whatever flavor I choose (and dt will get zero input in the first batch or two because I’m bitter. Ha!)

I’m sure I will end up getting Dt something small to go along with his dumb video game but I haven’t come up with anything cool yet. So, I think I’m well on my way and at least my family members will be pleasantly surprised on Christmas morning.

What am I asking for you want to know?

Just one of these

Michael Kors

Isn’t it purrrrrty?

As well as one of these

Target

Which is so random but I grew up taking piano lessons (didn’t appreciate it then, hated practicing) and I recently decided that I’d like to take up piano playing again. Of course my apt is way too small for a full sized piano so something like this would fill the void.

And that’s my current gift guide! I think I’m slowly getting excited for Christmas… Also, work was much better today than Monday which was good. My boss' boss and her boss both came to the store today which is why everyone was so freaked out and the attitudes where at an all time high earlier this week but the visit went well and they told my manager that I was doing a great job. Yea! So that was nice and hopefully things will get back to normal after today. 

Love, Em

Weekend recap

Hey, Hey, Hey! It’s been a few days since I blogged because I’ve been working my not so little bootay off! I’m telling you, working in retail is harder than you’d ever believe. An 8-hour workday is what all of my young professional friends who have real jobs (ahem Mary Todd) work on a daily basis so I shouldn’t complain, but this girl is going to complain for a second. Standing for 8 hours at a time is really hard!!! Usually I enjoy my shifts but yesterday left me in a really bad mood and in a lot of pain. People keep saying the pain in my feet and back will go away but I’ve been doing this long-shift thing for a month now and am in just as much pain. Any suggestions??? Hopefully tomorrow will be better (and the head honcho who is visiting our store will be nice, leave, and all of the managers will calm down a bit) and I’ll remember why I like working there.

In other news, this weekend Mr. Dt was nice enough to accompany me to a “stock the bar” engagement party for one of my friends. The friend who the party was for was one of the girls in my cohort in graduate school. Our cohort was very unique in the fact that we took all of the same classes together every day (sometimes for 6 hours a day) for two years straight, then would hang out in a group after class. We got to know each other very well and at times it was a little overbearing but after graduation we weren’t forced to see each other every day so it became harder and harder to stay as close as we were. Luckily, we enjoy a good party now and then and we can get together, catch up, and talk about our favorite subject, COUNSELING! While we enjoy these encounters, they can be a little difficult for our lovely significant others who are forced to come along and listen to all of our ridic counseling stories. Sometimes Dt hangs out with my good friend Jennie’s bf but they weren’t there on Saturday so he was forced to listen to the girls gossip and catch up (sorry honey, but I’m glad you came!) I’m glad I got to stop by even if it was for a short amount of time (I had worked all day and had to work the next morning so getting drunk was not an option despite what my lovely friends tried to convince me of) and I loved getting to see some of the girls I miss hanging out with. I also bought them a cool drink shaker and strainer from good ole’ Williams-Sonoma, holla holla!

And last but not least, has anyone else realized that Christmas is like two weeks away?!? When did that happen? I mean, the store I work at has been thoroughly decked out in xmas stuff for weeks but my house, embarrassingly enough, has really been lacking in decorations. See, I have this thing, where I’m broke… so all of the pretty Christmas decorations that I want for our apt are usually out of my budget. Over the years, I’ve accumulated some decorations but nothing close to what I want to have and I haven’t put any of them out! I know, I know, what is wrong with me? I love the holidays and I’m all about getting into the spirit but I’ve just whiffed this year. One last confession… we don’t even have our tree yet. For shame! I know! But I work late almost every night so when Dt is available to buy it, I’m working and vice versa so we are still tree-less. The problem now is that I can’t decide if we should even get one at this point. I’m currently enjoying my only day off this week and don’t know if I’ll have another one between now and Christmas where I’ll have the energy to decorate the tree. I know this makes me seem like a Grinch but when I think about dancing around our tree in the corner with Christmas lights 62 times (because I like a lot of lights and I want it done my way which means Dt can’t do it much to his dismay) I get overwhelmed. And finally, this year Dt got his way and opened his Christmas present weeks ago (a story I will address in my next post), which means we don’t even have anything to really put under our tree! Sadsies. So, I’m torn. To tree or not to tree? We shall see…

Love, Em