The Most Popular Cookie

Do you ever have certain recipes that are just guaranteed a home run? No matter who you make it for, you're always guaranteed to be the hero of the party. Well, that's how it goes with these pumpkin iced cookies. I joke about how these cookies make me friends, but seriously, they are THAT good.

How insane do these look?

I wish I could take credit for creating this heavenly recipe, but I can't. Get this recipe by Gina from All Recipes after the jump!

Turkey Table

As all of you know, I was incredibly excited for Thanksgiving this year. My entire family joined my boyfriend and I at our house and it was amazing. We don't have a proper dining area in our home, so I decided to rent a table and chairs for the day. I was shocked to find that renting a table and six chairs only cost $23! Why didn't I think of this before?

Here are some shots of my table.

Find the tutorial for the pinecone place cards here

The entire table design cost less than $100 including the rentals and received rave reviews from my entire family...well, they are a little biased.

The day after

Yesterday was filled with tons of laughter, conversation and good food. A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I purchased different bouquets of flowers from Trader Joe's. I also stopped by Michaels and grabbed two round vases for $2 a piece. I knew that I wanted to do an arrangement that was smaller, as I hate not being able to see people across the table. There's nothing worse than staring between petals and stems as you try to make dinner conversation.

I cut down all of the flowers and arranged them in to two vases. I left a couple of the flowers longer to bring a little height into the arrangement. The whole project cost $20 and brought wonderful color to my Thanksgiving table.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing all of you a wonderful thanksgiving! Eat lots of food and take a moment to appreciate all of the little things that make your life spectacular. I feel sooo lucky to have my family in town and I know that this will be a holiday for the books. Enjoy this day and I'll be blogging details from the day starting tomorrow. I can't wait to share all of it with you.

A personal touch during the holidays

Along with all of the grocery shopping, I also have put together a couple of personal touches for our Thanksgiving table. Today, I wanted to share my pinecone nametags. These are incredibly easy to make. I went to Michaels and purchased their glitter paper (which is a heavier cardstock that is covered in glitter on one side and white on the other).

I then took a pair of curvy edged scissors and cut out rectangles. After cutting the rectangles, I flipped over the glitter and wrote each guest's name.

I then folded over each side and cut small slits so that I could fold over the top and bottom of the rectangle.

After getting all of the sides folded inward, I took my nifty glue gun and secured all of the edges. 

I took the finished nametag and inserted each card into little pine cones. This whole project cost under $5!  Quite the bang for your buck if you ask me.

Etsy Holiday Gift Guide

Whenever the holidays approach, I immediately scour Etsy.com for creative and personal gifts. I also love the idea of supporting small businesses. I've put together my first of many to come holiday gift guides.

1. Etsy Custom Hand Stamped Wine Charms $19
2. Etsy Knit Crochet Moccasins $46
3. Etsy Owl Coasters $5
4. Etsy Snowflake Ring $17
5. Etsy Custom Name Mug $34
6. Etsy Paris in Love Clutch $45
7. Etsy Vintage Brooch $23
8. Etsy Mini Eco Journal

Yahoo...

My boyfriend's family is a little more country than city and I felt completely ridiculous the first time I met them decked out in my New York City all black outfit. After eight years of family visits, I've definitely learned from my mistakes and always make a point to where an outfit that has a little bit of the country flair while still adhering to my own sense of style. This is an outfit I've put together for these times.

1. H & M Blazer $30
2. Net-a-porter Raquel Allegra Silk T-Shirt $225
3. Forever 21 Crinkle Plaid Scarf $5.90
4. The Outnet Citizens of Humanity Skinny Jeans $100
5. Anthropologie Horseshoe Bay Ring $128
6. Net-a-porter Sara Berman Leather Bag $500
7. Steve Madden Hoodlum Lace-up Boots $150

Turkey Table

Words cannot describe how excited I am about this Thanksgiving. My boyfriend and I are hosting dinner at our house. My parents are flying in from Kansas City. My little sister is flying in from Dubai and my brother lives here, so he's just going to hop on the freeway. We haven't had dinner together as a family in more than 12 years, so this is EPIC.

Of course, I'm hoping to make this Thanksgiving so memorable that nobody has a choice but to come back every year. I am still in the planning phase for this whole shindig and I'm trying to pull inspiration photos for my table decor. I've reduced it down to these three looks. What do you think?

Better Homes and Garden

Country Living

Martha Stewart

Style Profile: Robyn

Last night, I went to Robyn's concert. She put on an amazing show and jumped around the stage the entire time. I can barely make it through a full hour cardio class, let alone while singing! Insane... Her sense of fashion is completely her own and it seemed only appropriate to feature her in my first style blog. 

1. Guess Dream Cold Shoulder Top $69
2. Amazon 4" Italian Drop Earrings $12
3. Nieman Marcus Leopard Print Leggings $345
4. Net-a-porter Rick Owens Blister Leather Jacket $1,970

Black and White

Black and white cookies always make me nostalgic for New York. For some reason, they have always been incredibly intimidating to me. However, recently my brother had a birthday party with a black and white theme and these cookies seemed oh so appropriate. I learned so much during my first go, specifically that for proper black and white cookies you're supposed to put the icing on the bottom of the cookie. Whoops! Oh well, I'll save that detail for next time.

Get this recipe by Mary Jane from All Recipes after the jump!

The Reveal

I feel a little uneasy about posting the before picture of my pantry.  Deep breath...here it goes. 

Now, I must say that after organizing this cupboard, I feel an overwhelming sense of calmness each time I open it. It's so much easier to find what I'm looking for and I'm sure the food will keep longer in these air tight containers. All in all, the makeover cost under $100 and was well worth its' calming effect.

What's inside your pantry?

As much as I like organization, I struggle to attain a level of organization as blissful as this. On the outside my house appears rather tidy, but upon closer look, you'll find a pantry packed with various bags, containers and boxes...utter chaos.

Emersonmade Home featured on Design Sponge

Pantry featured in Country Living

The beauty of these pantries inspired me over the weekend to head to Ikea and mimic this aesthetic on a tight budget. I purchased the jars on the left in various sizes. I was immediately attracted to these because they seemed a little more elegant than the other options at ikea. 

I also grabbed a bunch of these containers on the right because they seemed perfect for housing all of my nuts and dried fruits. 

I'm going to organize myself silly tonight and I'll post the before and after. 

Fall Flavors

Whenever the weather cools, I immediately find myself craving soups. It's probably a little out of control, but I think I would be content to have soup every night during the winter months. You can imagine my excitement when while shopping at Trader Joes, I came across their Bean and Barley Mix. I grabbed the bag and then stopped in my tracks when I saw that the mix contains the dreaded black eyed peas, which still conjure up bad memories from childhood.

I remember coming home after school and seeing the bag of black eyed peas on the kitchen counter. Immediately, I knew that it wasn't going to be a pleasant dinner. It would result in me sitting alone at the table staring at the beans as my mother said "you're not excused until you eat 5 more beans."

Regardless of the bad association, I grabbed the bag and headed home.

This soup was delicious and I didn't even notice the black eyed peas.  For the recipe, read after the jump.

I can't seem to get enough of these stacked rings!! While some of these combinations are amazing, I love the notion of creating your own custom set of stacked rings. This style is a much more flattering look for my fingers than the oversized chunky rings. My bony fingers can't seem to pull off the oversized look.

1. Net-a-porter 18 Karat stacking ring $390

2. Anthropologie Zodiac stack ring $118

3. Honey in the Rough Store Feather Stack Ring $305

4. Max and Chloe Jeweled Stack Ring $163

5. Pink Mascara House of Harlow Stack Ring $88

Everything in Moderation

I just ran across this cute little idea on Martha Stewart's website. I mean seriously...could this be any more adorable? I'm sure part of me is drawn to this because I've been eating extremely healthy for the past couple of months and the notion of a little doughnut that won't set me back 5 lbs. is highly appealing.

You can find the recipe for these cuties here

Time Flies

This is a do it yourself project that I saw over at Decor8. This is such a great and creative way to infuse your personal style in a functional item. It'd be cute to do this for my grandma with photos of all of her grandchildren.