If you have a few minutes, be sure to check out the DIY post I got to do for Sarah from From Dogwoods to Magnolias on how to make these fun little birds (just like the ones we had at our wedding if any of you happen to remember those!) These are completely customizable, so you can make them in any color/pattern you want! Wedding showers, baby showers, Christmas… Whatever! Have fun and be creative! 🙂
Here’s a peek of what you’ll find over there! 🙂
Thanks for visiting!!! Have a good one!
I’m so excited to share a little more about our pre-Christmas long weekend vacay to NYC! In case you missed PART 1 from yesterday, you can peek at it here!
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I think my favorite thing about New York is it’s versatility. I’ve never been at a time of year I didn’t enjoy. I’ve never been at an age where I didn’t enjoy it. I’ve gone on tight budget trips and “spend as much as you want” trips, both of which are MASSIVELY fun, exposing completely different aspects of this city! At sunrise, at sunset, in the sun, in the snow… It doesn’t matter…
Today I wanted to share my favorite scenery shots from our trip. From the park to the top of a skyscraper to the twinkle lights in the dark… Goodness, what a gorgeous place this is!
These are all from the top of the Empire State Building… We went all the way up to the 102nd floor! I DEFINITELY recommend it doing that if you have time! The sun was setting as we were up there so the views were just fabulous!
See the moon floating just over the Chrysler Building?!
To me, the best part about getting to see the Big Apple in the winter was the snow and the Christmas decorations!! I’m betting those of you who have been there during the holidays would agree!!
Here are a few shots of the wintery beauty…
Sorry… had to share a picture of the tree again! I’m obsessed with it! #gorgeousness
Stay tuned for one more installment on the Little Winter Trip to the Big Apple series tomorrow! Hope you enjoyed these winter pics as much as I loved sharing them!
Have a great one!
The week before Christmas, Price and I got to join my brother Jordan, his wife Katie, our longtime friend Lan, and his cute lil lady, also named Katie, for a quick little trip to the Big Apple!
Price and I had never been to New York in the winter, so it was a whole new experience for us!! It was absolutly GORGEOUS all decorated for Christmas and covered in a soft blanket of crisp white snow! We had such a ball in a beautiful city with some of the best people ever!
Me, Price, Lan, the Katies, and Jordan!
We stayed in a GORGEOUS hotel (with the COOLEST lobby) called The Hudson at Colombus Circle….
… got to ice skate in Central Park…
… AND GOT TO SEE THE CHRISTMAS TREE AT ROCKEFELLER PLAZA!!!!!
Seeing this massive tree has been on my bucket list ever since I’ve had a bucket list! It was absolutely gorgeous with literally millions of twinkle lights on it! Of all different colors! Y’all have no idea how excited I am that I got to see this tree… It was everything I’ve dreamed it would be!
I took a ton of pictures, so there will be parts 2 and 3 about this trip later this week! I can’t wait to share more about NYC in the winter with you!!!
Thanks for stopping in today. Until next time… X’s and O’s!
Although Christmas has technically already passed, I’m still set on continuing the celebtration until at least New Years! Because I got a little too busy between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and because my family isn’t done celebrating the occasion yet, and because I never posted any pictures of our Christmas decorations, I’m going ahead with it! I had to get some pictures in before everything goes down come January…
I hope y’all [halfway] agree with me that it’s not too late to post Christmas pics! 🙂
We have one more family Christmas celebration tomorrow in the bustling metropolis of Meadville, Mississippi! Now how many of y’all have heard of that map dot?!
Are y’all still celebrating too? Would love to know what all of you are up to as this Christmas season winds down!
M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S E V E R Y O N E ! !
I hope all of you are having the most wonderful holiday!! I know I am… 🙂 This time of year just makes my heart sing with thankfulness for friends, family, the blessings in my life, and the story of the birth of our savior! I absolutely love Christmas and the joy of the season, so it’s my prayer that I can do what Scrooge from A Christmas Carol promised, and honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year!
I know I’ve completely fallen off the map lately with blogging, but it’s because I’ve been so busy!! And when I’m able to take a break from the busy, I try to make a point to really rest and enjoy Christmas!
I do have a lot to catch y’all up on, though! Namely our recent New York trip and our third annual Christmas With Cousin Eddie party! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for recaps on those! 🙂
Have a fabulous Christmas and remember why we have Christmas to celebrate! Thanks for stopping in. I’ll talk to y’all soon!
Well, y’all heard me talk about it for long enough!!
“The Bird,” a.k.a. On a L.A.R.K., was Saturday and I’m here to tell y’all HOW MUCH FUN it was! I, “The Bee,” seriously had a blast!
It was my first show with The Lovely Bee, so the deadline and the excitement served as great motivators to get things done and in order. It’s a good feeling to have gotten so many things tended to that I’ve been putting off for so long now!
THANKS to everyone who was able to come out! I loved getting to visit with everyone who stopped by! Here’s a quick pictoral recap for y’all, just for fun!
Some of the new items that were shown for the very first time ever are the magnets (shown on the black “The Lovely Bee” board on the white card stand in the pics!), the Happy Birthday cards (above), the Merry & Bright cards (also shown in one of the previous pics!), and various new hand painted stationery designs. I’ll be updating the etsy store this week with most of these new items! 🙂
Hope all of you had a most fabulous weekend!
Since it’s the day before Thanksgiving, I’ve been thinking a lot about things that I’m thankful for this week! There are sooo many things I could list… But there are a few I wanted to share!
For hilarious friends and family. Laughter is my most favorite medicine!
For coffee. Seriously don’t think I’d be alive without it…
For the ability to travel. There are few things that thrill me more than a road trip or a quick weekend jet-set to somewhere different. I LOVE to travel!
For Pinterest. It sounds shallow, but… Ideas, recipes, etc that I’ve seen on Pinterest have saved the day on multiple occassions!
For good in-laws. Boy, and I blessed in this department! Love all my in-laws!
For my sweet husband who literally makes me laugh til it hurts almost every single day!
For great memories of places I’ve been and people I’ve known.
For getting to do what I love for a living. SummerHouse, The Lovely Bee, and freelance writing all allow me to express different parts of my creativity and I’m so thankful that I get to do these things!
For makeup and a hairdryer. For obvious reasons 🙂
For my three darling dogs. I seriously don’t know what I’d do without them… They are our babies!
For a warm fire on a cold night. I know not everyone has the luxury of a roof over their heads. This year I am extra thankful for the things I take for granted on a regular basis.
For Christmas!! I love that my husband loves it almost as much as I do. I love that he lets me decorate early. I love the spirit of Christmas. I love the meaning of Christmas. I love Christmas music and decorations, and unlike most people, I NEVER get tired of any of this! I’m thankful for all aspects of Christmas.
For technology. Keeping up with friends and family could not be easier! In fact, it’s almost too easy… But I’m still thankful for it!
For our wonderful life group at church. We’ve found some of the greatest friends there!
For Y’ALL!! Thanks for reading my blog! 🙂 Sorry to get cheesy, but I seriously do love to share with you, and I REALLY love it when you share with me!
There is so much to be thankful for… This is just the tip of the iceburg for me!!
What are YOU thankful for?!
I know I sound like a broken record talking about how On a L.A.R.K. has got me working really hard to get some inventory produced, but it’s true! I’ve had a great time staying busy getting these babies all ready for the big show on December 7!
{ Find out more and join the event on Facebook here! }
Since I’m such a big Christmas fanatic, I’ve especially enjoyed getting Christmas cards made. And each of these is stamped with my new Merry Christmas (written in my own handwriting!) stamp that you may remember seeing in this post! 🙂 Here’s a little preview of some of the holiday goods that I’ll have at my LARK booth….
Metallic Mosaic Christmas Cards
Starry Birdie Christmas Cards in Acid Green + Persimmon
Starry Birdie Christmas Cards in Champagne + Persimmon
Aaaand that’s all I have to show you right now! 🙂 I hope you’ll be able to stop by and shop On A L.A.R.K. on a couple of weeks! It really should be fun! 😉
Arco Avenue has a really cool thing going on this month that you need to know about!!
Every year during the month of October, Arco Avenue (which sells women’s shoes and accessories in case you aren’t familiar!) pledges to donate one shoebox filled with goodies to Operation Christmas Child for every pair of shoes they sell! So if Arco sells 200 pairs of shoes this month, they’ll wrap and fill 200 boxes to send to children all over the world who might otherwise not get anything for Christmas this year (and who might not know the meaning behind Christmas!)
I love that Arco does this, and plan to participate in a little shoe shopping (for the good of the children, of course! Plus, my wardrobe could use a little pick-me-up!) Here are a few of the lovelies available right now at Arco…
If you’re looking for a good reason to go shopping, this has got to be one of the best reasons ever! To make it even more fun and personal, you can also participate in the PACKING PARTY on November 21 at Arco, where all of the boxes will be put together! (Arco will post more about that as the time gets closer!)
Take some time in the next couple of weeks to venture over to Arco Avenue in The Township in Ridgeland, MS OR visit their brand new online store by clicking the image below!
Every pair you buy equals a Christmas present for a sweet child somewhere in the world. If you ask me, it’s never too early to get in the Christmas spirit (even if it is just October!)
Happy shopping!
H I , H E L L O !
(Imagine me saying this the way Josie Gellar’s Spanish teacher said it on her first day of class. If you haven’t seen Never Been Kissed then this will not make sense…)
I hope everyone is having a great week so far! As busy as mine has been, it has been pretty great! I’ve been up at SummerHouse a lot which is always fun. 🙂 Anyways…
So I was flipping back through all the pictures I’ve taken over the past couple of weeks and wanted to share a few highlights from Christmas and the start of 2013! I’m so thankful for wonderful friends, an amazing family (on all sides), and the health and ability to travel. Sure does make life exciting! Can I get an Amen?
Highlight 1: MISTLETOGA
2012 marked the 5th year of the always exciting Mistletoga celebration! Five years ago, my roommates at the time and I were dying to throw a great Christmas party, but wanted it to be different from the typical tacky Christmas theme. Somehow we came up with the idea to have a toga party and call it Mistletoga! Toga-like attire is strongly encouraged, and the more creative the better! This party has been a blast for all five years, so I look forward to the 6th annual in, oh… 11 months!
At this party, we had some fun beverages like Rudolph Royale, which was champagne and cranberry juice, accented with frozen strawberries. Simple and delish! We also had what we like to call “Sethnog.” See, last year, my friend/old roommate, Avery, whose apartment is still the home of this yearly shin-dig, asked her boyfriend to make eggnog for the occasion. It was so good that since then we’ve referred to the drink as “Sethnog.” This year we lacked a proper pitcher so the nog was served from a coffee pot! It just added to the party vibe 😉
The snack mix, which I like to call “S’more Pretzels, please!” (corny, I know…) was sort of born out of my need to clear out the pantry of random things… I mixed mini marshmallows, pretzels, and MnMs into some melted bakers chocolate and got everything all chocolate coated. Then I poured it into a big ziplock bag, threw some graham cracker crumbs and a little powdered sugar in there, then shook it up! It turned out pretty well, I’d say… I’ve made it twice since this party and it all gets eaten every time, so that says something! 🙂
Overall, Mistletoga 5.0 was a ravishing success! Moving on…
Highlight 2: TEA TIME!
Two of my best friends, both of whom I’ve known basically my entire life, and I got to get together for tea the Sunday before Christmas! See, one of these friends (named Lindsey) lives in Nashville, so my other friend Mandy and I don’t get to see her too often. So we make a point of having a 3-woman pow wow every year around the holiday.
Since Linds and I lived in England together (and became obsessed with tea and scones), I thought it might be fun to have a mini tea party! We were meeting at around 4:00, so it kinda turned out perfectly, since that’s official “tea time” anyway!
I made some scones which turned out… eh… Let’s just say, I’ll probably use a different recipe next time… But the three of us had a great time! And I had fun getting ready for it, which is a plus for me! 🙂
Highlight 3: The getting and giving of gifts!
Okay… I admit… I heart gifts… But let’s be honest. Who doesn’t!?
I got some super great stuff this year, all of which I really love (and most of which was off my list! Yay! No returns!) I’ve had a little too much fun with some of my gifts (insert OPI for Sephora gift set that had like 16 different polishes) and others I’ve been wearing non-stop!! A few faves include Versace Yellow Diamond perfume, Vintage View handmande earrings, nail polish (I also got a gorgeous Butter London color in addition to all the Sephoras!), and the Pantone for Sephora eye shadow palette… I. LOVE. THIS.
I also really enjoy giving gifts because wrapping is uber fun for me… I could spend hours with all sorts of papers and strings! I think we can all agree that gift giving is a very good thing… Yeah?
Highlight 4: The beginning of a NEW YEAR!
My family and my husband’s family all got to travel down to Jacksonville, Florida to celebrate the new year Mississippi State style! We went down for the Gator Bowl, which ended up being maybe the worst football game in history, BUT, other than that, we had a spectacular time! Lots of shopping, eating, and laughing involving the entire MillerHoo clan! (That’s what we call ourselves… Miller + Donahoo = MillerHoo.)
Yay for huge, beautifully decorated trees, fireworks, and an excuse to wear nearly every sequin garment I own! Good times for sure.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday, too!
What was the highlight of YOUR Christmas or New Year?
THE HIVE | The Lovely Bee 