December? Tomorrow?!

Am I the only one freaking out that tomorrow its DECEMBER?!?! It was just Halloween like 5 seconds ago... I can prove it - my pumpkins are still on my balcony and are not even rotten yet! (At least I don't think they are. Haven't checked on them since before Thanksgiving.) 

I just had a panic attack thinking about the short amount of time I have until Christmas... and how much I need to cram into this hectic next 25ish days! Some things can wait until I finish finals. But some can't! Gifts that need to be ordered, things that require time for shipping and processing, etc. For instance, I really need to get our Christmas cards ordered!!! Like, ASAP. Thanks to sites like Shutterfly.com, I plan to cross a cute, unique holiday card off of my to-do list in the next couple of days :)

They have an amazing selection of Christmas photo cards! I played around with a few *potential* favorites of mine earlier this afternoon.

I'm a sucker for all things monogrammed. This year I'm (attempting) to go for a simple, classy card look - but there is truly something on this site for everyone's taste and style! And since I don't have one picture from this past year that just screams "CHRISTMAS CARD PICTURE," I like that Shutterfly offers so many options with 2, 3 and even more photos! They also offer other winter holiday-themed cards, not just Christmas cards. Last year we sent out flat cards, and I think we will this year as well, but there are also some really cute options in folded cards, too! {Perfect for those of you with enough family members and fun updates throughout the year to include a holiday letter with your cards... we're not at that stage of life yet!}

I'm also in the process of putting together a calendar from Shutterfly as a gift for my grandma! She has 30+ children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to keep track of - that is a lot of birthdays and anniversaries! Shutterfly lets me include important dates throughout the year, cute background themes for each month, and pictures of alllll of my grandparents' kids/grandkids/greatgrandbabies. I'm SO excited to see how it turns out... I'm sure my aunts and cousins will want me to order extra copies for them, too.

**this is not my family... or my creation!**

I can't wait to narrow down my favorite cards (and photos) to just one that suits my little family this holiday season!! I'll post a picture of the card design I decide to order later this week. Don't forget....... December is just a few short hours away - so if you haven't ordered your holiday greeting cards or other seasonal photo gifts yet, head on over to Shutterfly.com and take advantage of the great deals they are offering right now!

***Attention fellow bloggers: Check out Shutterfly's blog promotion!***

Cyber Monday

Ok, I'm admittedly too excited about Cyber Monday to pass up the opportunity to share the highlights of my day-before inbox goodies with you all :) My Thanksgiving post will just have to wait until after finals later this week! I'm excited for two reasons: 1) I finally know what Cyber Monday is this year {don't judge} and 2) I am on final exam lock-down until Dec. 9th so I didn't get to take advantage of the in-store Black Friday sales this year to the full extent {like I did last year... and the year before... and the year before...}. 

I love giving gifts... and I love a good deal even more! And from what I hear, from the most credible sources of course - E! and fellow bloggers, of course - is that this Monday is the day when retailers give their deepest online discounts. I think its so that us tech-savvy (ha, ya right) online shopping lovers don't feel neglected by the Black Friday sales extended to the silly in-store shoppers who fight the crowds, rummage through disastrous piles, and stand in lines that weave in and out of stores at 2 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. Ya, ya I've been one of those - but this year I wanna be a Cyber Monday-er! And here are a few of the Cyber Monday sneak peeks that got me all excited when I checked my email this morning:

Thanks, Kate!

Thank you, too, Ann!

20% at PB? I'll take it!

Buy one, get one half off - woo hoo!

Free shipping always excites me.

25% off?? That's like... a whole 'nother pant leg at J.Crew ;)

I promised myself that I wouldn't abide by my "one for me, one for you" typical holiday shopping mentality this year. Mainly because I'm trying not to be a greedy, wasteful little B... but realistically its just not in the shopping budget for me and the hubbs this year! Maybe next year I will resume my standard practices :)

Here's to wishing that you all wake up to an inbox full of your favorite shopping deals! Have a Happy Cyber Monday!

(Disclaimer: Mom, if you read this... I pinky promise that I quickly wrote this post while I enjoyed a few minutes of peace with my morning cup of coffee. I also promise to only scour the internet for Cyber Monday deals on my *brief* study breaks. No need to call and scold me! xo)


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Favorite Things

Oprah got to have a "favorite things" show... two actually. {The second part is tomorrow - if you want to spend an hour with your jaw on the floor and thinking jealous thoughts, tune in at 4!} So I can have just one post, right? I have lots of favorite things! And most of them aren't really things anyway - not in the sense that you can go out and buy them. But here is a list of my favorite tangible things at the moment. Like you care, I know. But I'm killing a little time between wash/dry cycles before I can go to bed :) In no particular order, my top 10 (first things that come to mind) at the moment are:

1. My cardy Uggs. It isn't cold enough in Atlanta yet to wear my heavy, fleece-lined Ugg boots yet, but its also not socially acceptable to wear flip flops anymore (although I would if I could). So, I've been throwing these little knitted guys on every time I need to run to the store, or school or wherever!

2. My Kate Spade planner. I have an unhealthy obsession with list-making... particularly the crossing things off of my lists aspect of list-making. Its finals time, and holiday season time, and just the time of year where I generally start losing my marbles - so this has been a life saver. I'm a big fan all year, but from now until 2011 I will be especially dependent on my little friend!

3. The Downy ball. I wish I were joking... but this has literally revolutionized laundry day(s) for me! I never feel like dryer sheets give you the full effect of liquid fabric softener, and I don't have the cool little liquid detergent hole in my washing machine. So the Downy ball has quite seriously changed my life - one amazing smelling load of laundry at a time :) The hubbs is a big fan, too. On the rare occasion that he throws in a load of laundry he fills up the entire ball with softener...

4. This should probably be #1... but I said I was going out of order. My Keurig Single Cup Coffee Maker. This has got to be one of the best inventions of our lifetime. I'm the only regular coffee drinker in our house, so the fact that I can brew one perfect cup in under a minute is easily the highlight of my mornings! I am an even bigger fan now that most grocery stores have started selling K-cups in the coffee aisle so I don't have to make a special trip to Target! Ahh, the little things in life.

5. Woodwick candles. I know I have been cheating on my fave brand lately with the Yankee Beeswax candles, but Woodwick candles are still truly my favorite candles. I love that I can leave them around the house with the lids off and still catch a whiff of their yummy scents without even lighting them. And then when I do light them, they give the effect of a real fire - they crackle and have a wide, flickering flame... they're the next best thing to a real wood-burning fireplace.

6. Crest 3D white toothpaste. Again, wish I were joking. But who has time to whiten their teeth these days?! Not I. Literally, my appearance has been the last thing on my mind for the last 2ish months. And with all the coffee I drink, I have found that this toothpaste actually does a really good job of keeping my pearly whites, white ;)

7. This is another one that should probably be higher up on my list if I were ranking my favorite things in order. Shellac Gel Nail Polish. I have honestly not put normal nail polish on my fingers since I discovered this miracle product! It is like OPI nail polish, only wayyy better... it goes on like a polish, then your manicurist "cures" the polish under a UV light, and then you leave the salon with totally dry, indestructible nails that do not chip for - I swear - 2 to three weeks. Don't believe me? Ask all my friends. They would know, because I have harassed peer-pressured every last one of them into trying it and they all love it! I plan to get a fresh pre-Thanksgiving mani tomorrow in a lovely dark purple shade that will, no doubt, last me until my pre-Christmas mani.

8. While I'm being totally vain and admitting that I insist on having manicures that last me a minimum of 2 weeks, I might as well confess that Versa Spa UV-free tanning is another one of my favorite things to ever be invented. I have sworn off tanning beds now that I am a) terrified of skin cancer and b) even more terrified of wrinkles, so I've been spray tanning every couple of weeks to keep me from feeling like a ghost. Sheila got me hooked on Versa - it doesn't have the icky fake tan smell that most spray tans leave you with, and I haven't had any "omg I'm orange" mishaps with it either. Knock on wood.

 

9. Since Andrew doesn't read this, I will admit that our Jack LaLanne juicer has become one of my favorite things. I still have a love-hate relationship with it for the mere fact that it takes up precious counter space, and its 738 pieces always seem to be sitting in our sink for days at a time... but it is a great way to get the nutrients my hubbs and I don't necessarily get by eating fruits and veggies. And it saves me the trouble of having to cook many side dishes. So my reasons are selfish and wimpy - I'm a 23 yr old who still hates her veggies and I am trying to weasel my way out of cooking a well-rounded dinner. Judge away, I have no shame!

10. This is a combo: Netflix + Roku box. They go hand-in-hand, and you can totally have one without the other - but they really are only my favorite thing when they combine forces. We've been using Netflix for the past year or so, and we love it. But now that we have a Roku box (thanks to Andrew's big bro - who, again, will never read this but he deserves this shout-out nonetheless!) we can stream movies and tv shows that normally would only be available instantly online right into our TV! Technology, while normally a giant pain in my booty since I am not tech-savvy, is amazing in this one minuscule instance! We've started watching 30 Rock, and Weeds, and all sorts of other fun stuff thanks to Netflix + Roku - if you have Netflix, but no Roku, you are missing outtt!

Well. That is the first 10 of my {current} favorite things that I could think of at the moment. And while I would so love to give each of my readers one of each of my top 10 faves... I'm not Oprah :) Now that I have successfully killed enough time to let my clothes wash, I can transfer them into the dryer and go enjoy the rest of my Sunday night with a few of my intangible favorite things - my hubby, our sweet kitty girl, and some much needed sleep!

Bella and Hubbs: Old School Edition :)

These days.

This is what my life has looked like for the past week...

Yuck.

Double yuck.

 And it will, no doubt, only get uglier/messier/frazzled-er as the days go on! I'll be spending my weekend studying... then early next week I'll transport myself and my study outlines back to Ohio for Thanksgiving "break." (I think its cruel to even call this a break. Cruel and rude.) I start finals the Monday after Thanksgiving (see? rude, I told ya), and my finals will finally end on December 9th at which time I plan to do nothing but this for the remainder of my real winter break:

How cozy does Miss Bella look?!

 I hope that all of your Thanksgiving holidays look much more like the latter :)

On a slightly brighter note - at 5:15 today I will be 50% done with my law school classes. That is 1/2. Halfway done (aside from passing the final exams of course) with law school! EVER! Woo!!! I'm starting to see the light at the end of this long, dark, agonizing tunnel...