Catch Up (again)

Yeah, life was a bit crazy there for a bit. We've arrived in Michigan to be with my family for Christmas. I'm hoping to have a chance to do more daily posts, but you know...it's Christmas and if I can only do a post every couple of days, that's all I can do!

Day 19- Something that begins with "S".

A snowflake! This is what I was busy at work doing on Thursday morning. Yeah, real productive, I know. ;)

Day 20- Weather

This was on our way up to my parent's. They got 14+ inches of snow because of Draco the snowstorm (I think they should have named it Malfoy). But it made for a very pretty drive yesterday.

Day 21- Tree

We bought this little Christmas tree at Lowe's. I'm not sure what we'll do with it after Christmas, but I think it's super cute!

Day 22- Decoration

My mom has this German carousel. You put candles in the bottom of it and it turns the fan, which also turns the little figurines in the tiers. I haven't seen any like this so I haven't purchased my own. I very vividly remember helping my mom put in the fan blades and candles as a child. I loved that thing! Does Christmas time make anyone else sentimental?

Day 23- Joy is...

Coming home for Christmas. 'Nuff said. :)

Catch up!

So, this weekend was crazy! I was in a wedding for a dear friend of mine. Needless to say, there was much to be done and not enough time left over to do blog posts. I tried to take some pictures, but I did miss some days. Please forgive me. The last pic I have up is from Day 11, but I didn't get a pic for 12 day. I'll start with day 13. :)

Day 13- Lights

I was flying to San Antonio and I thought the city lights were pretty. Seeing houses lined with Christmas lights was fun too. :)

Day 14- Something Green

See the bluer dress? yeah, that's mine. And it didn't match the rest of the dresses. It needed to be a tad greener. I emailed the company (NOTE: Do not use Lightinthebox.com to order bridal party attire) and they're at least giving me 50 bucks back, but still.

Day 15- Outdoors

Of course we had to decorate the car. We kept it pretty tame.

Day 16- Something you made

This one is actually from a while ago and you may have seen it in my instagram feed. But these are the Christmas cards I made this year. I didn't make very many and they went mostly to family, so sorry if you didn't get one!

Day 17- on the Floor

We wrapped Christmas presents last night. I really enjoy wrapping presents, is that weird?

I'll continue with Day 18 later (probably tomorrow).

Day 10 and 11

 Due to some technical glitches with the blog yesterday I didn't get these up. But I did today!

Day 10: Pressure

As in pressure to get my Christmas cards out before Christmas! Thankfully, I did get most of them out. I just have a couple left to collect addresses for.

Day 11- Sweet. Sweet apple pie for our office Christmas party! That ended up being fantastic. I was honestly a bit dubious of how the party would be, but it ended up being a lot of fun. Funny how that happens sometimes!

Day 9- Out and About

Sunday mornings are usually pretty laid back. Leisurely get up and then go grocery shopping. Our church service isn't until 5pm, which leaves our morning to hit the stores sans all the people. It's great! Today we went to Whole Foods and then to Target where we also did some Christmas shopping. How do you normally spend your Sunday mornings?

Day 8-someone I love

I love my wonderful husband more than I can say. I know that's cheesy, but its true! He's supported me through some really tough stuff and had been there for me when I just needed a cry. He also does little things like the dishes and taking the dog out early in the morning. In short he's a rock star!

Day 7- stars

Sorry for the late post! It's been a busy day. Here's my star! :)

Day 6- Something from where you live/your country

I work at a school of Government at a private University. In our lobby we have several large prints of founding documents. Doesn't get much more American than a document signed by John Adams.  My favorite part of this photo is the reflection off the glass of our lobby. I thought it was pretty neat!

Day 5- Looking Up

This one was a bit of a stretch. It's the view out of the third floor of the building I work in. The building  in the photo is the communications building which houses the theatre. It counts as "looking up" because I'm up, right?

:)

Have a great Wednesday. If your week is going anything like mine, just be thankful that Wednesday mean's it's half-way over. The weekend will be here soon!

Day 4- Black and White

I liked my hair and outfit today. I don't usually do fancy stuff with my hair, but today I felt like curling it. Put a little extra oomph into my day, even though I really didn't want to get out of bed this morning.

Day 3 Photo a Day- Something you Held

Here is something I held this morning, as I was hiding it in the tree!

Do you have a Christmas pickle on your tree? Do you even know what a Christmas pickle is? Here's a handy Wikipedia Article if you need more info on it. Despite what Wikipedia says, I'm pretty sure it *is* a German tradition. We like to make a little game of it here in the Boyce household. I imagine when when have Children someday we will have even more fun with it!

December 2nd- Photo a Day- Peace

Peace:

Isaiah 9:6

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁶ For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

I don't like to use my blog to get on a Faith Soapbox, but that's not really what this entry is about. When I think of "Peace", at this time of year I automatically think of the Manger Scene (which, yes, I realize is not 100% accurate. The Bible never specifies 3 wise men, they show up 2 years later, blah blah blah. I like tradition and symbolism.)

I thought this photo was appropriate for the first weekend in the Advent season. I like to take moments at this time of year to slow down and really think about what Christmas is about. It's easy to get caught up in gift giving, holiday parties, and eating. None of those things are bad, but I like to take time out of all of that and concentrate on what Advent is. This is a time where we reflect on the incarnation of Christ, who came here to live a perfect life and then die for our sins. It's also a time of anticipation, not only because we are celebrating the birth of our savior, but we are anticipating when that savior will come again and put the world right.  I would be happy to talk about this more with you if you would like. But I'll close with another passage. I'd like to copy and paste the whole Christmas passage from Luke, but that would take forever so here's my favorite part:

Luke 2:9-14

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁹ And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. ¹⁰ And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

December Photo A Day

So my mom has been doing these "photo a day" things and December's list looked fun. I decided to do it this time around too! With my iPhone and instagram I think I'll be able to manage the commitment to one photo a day. Here is my photo of 8 o'clock:

 

 I didn't even get out of bed before I grabbed my Harry Potter (British English) and read four chapters. It was a glorious way to spend my Saturday (early) morning.

Woah. I'm alive.

I was going to come on here and say that more outfits will be coming blah blah blah, but I don't really want to commit to something I might not follow through on. The thing is I have a lot on my plate right now. A lot. It's mostly mundane things like school, my dog is mysteriously injured and I have to baby her, our hotwater heater flooded our condo (and our neighbor's condos), etc. We do have a few Big Things going on, but nothing that I'm ready to talk about yet (no I am not pregnant and no one is dying, I promise). All that to say... something in my life had to give and I chose blogging over some other things. I hope to be back at it again sometime soon, but life is life and it's unpredictable sometimes!

I did want to share some Link Love though, so you can see what I've been browsing lately.

I'm tweaking this pumpkin chocolate chip muffin recipe and making it this afternoon. Be jealous!

Modcloth has been having a great sale. I've been drooling over this dress and this one and this one.

This dress on pinterest had me drooling for days.

I can't wait to try this soup.

Jen of Jen Loves Kev cracked me up with this story.

I had lots of luck on Black Friday. I am now the proud owner of a dutch oven.

Rockstar Diaries has me wishing we could go back to Rome again.

Charlottesville, VA Style File

The first weekend of October we went apple picking in Charlottesville, VA. Charlottesville was beautiful! These pictures were taken on the Historic Mall, which I had a lot of fun walking around in. And eating.

I bought this dress in Rome. I don't think it's made it into a Style File yet, but I do love this dress. It's a bit on the short side, so I can only really get away with it while it's warm out. 

 I'm embracing the denim jacket with a dress thing I see some bloggers do. I think it's a fun way to stretch warmer weather dresses into the fall a little bit. I picked this jacket up at Goodwill a while ago.

I love polka dots. I don't know what it is, but I usually can't say no to them. At all.

iPhone and Instagrams

Just another day at the Office

Babysitting is hard work.

Being a dog is hard.

See that dent? Yeah, I accidentally put that there. My car was fine.

On our way to the park!

Do you think they could have gotten any closer?

Baby Benjamin again!

A new dress always makes me feel awesome.

A pinterest inspiration. I managed to score all the candle holders on clearance. Everything cost me under 20 bucks.

My new favorite pair of shoes.

Brad rescued this grill from the dumpster and rebuilt it. I was dubious of it's safety at first, but it hasn't blown up yet.

This makes me happy.

Baby Benjamin!

It's boot weather (sort of).

I wish!

Style File 9-10-12

 So. Please excuse my wild hair in these photos. I have yet to master the top knot that doesn't involved a million little fly-aways. Any suggestions for that?

 Do you have an outfit that just makes you feel really BA? This is that outfit for me. I feel very myself in this outfit and very confident. I don't know what it is about it. I suspect its the shoes.

 I also like this outfit because it's easy, but the oomph is in the details.

 Oh, this might also be the first time you've seen my new glasses! I love them. A lot.

 This is my quick attempt at a detail shot. I just picked up this lace shirt from the Limited, off the clearance rack. I like it a lot, it's comfy, girly, and something that I can dress up or down for work. Since I spend most of my time in the office, it's important for me to get pieces that work well in the office AND on the weekend.

Can we talk about these shoes for a minute? They make me swoon. The bow. The lopard print. The low comfy heel. The pointed toe. I basically love everything about them. I'm not usually an animal print type of gal, but these just called to me from the DSW clearance rack. I think my husband was slightly less than thrilled about them. He has some funny "shoe rules" that I generally disregard.

So what have we been up to lately? Our church recently launched a second campus, and Brad is pretty involved with the sound side of that. So he's been busy setting things up, researching, and making recommendations to purchase things. Plus he's been busy with his class. I've started school too and trying to settle into a new routine. I've struggled with the motivation side of things this time around. Oops.

Roman Holiday (Style File 9-01-12)

 Ok, so... I'm way behind on this, but here is one last style file from our vacation. These photos are primarily from the Colosseum.

 It was super HOT in Rome. My strategy was to dress cool, so for me that means dresses. Plus dresses are easy to pack and wear with little thought in the morning. Who wants to spend precious Rome time figuring out what to wear? Not me! You've seen this dress probably multiple times; it's a workhorse in my wardrobe and I wear it a lot.

 I also chose to pack flat sandals. Now, by the end of our time in Rome, my sandals had rubbed some raw spots on my toes...but for the most part they worked for me. I chose sandals because they're fairly comfortable, kept my feet cool, and looked good with my dresses.

  In addition to it being hot, we did a lot of outdoor sightseeing. This made a hat necessary, because I have fine hair and fair skin. Sunburnt head is the worst! I actually bought this hat from a street guy, so it's probably of dubious legality... but it was cheap and kept my head from being burnt. Which is very important to me! Also, this photo is from the Castel de St Angelo

Lastly, my sunglasses were also a must. So sunny all the time! This photo was taken near the Spanish Steps.

So to wrap up my thoughts about vacation, I thought I would give some tips for each place.
London:

• Bring an umbrella and a jacket, no matter the time of year. It was pretty cool and rainy when we were there!
• It takes longer than you might think to travel around, so make sure you have extra time.
• Take a tour first thing!
• I found the food to be kind of so-so. I know good food in London exists, we just didn't have much luck finding it!

Paris:

• Umbrella again!
• Be prepared for some people to be rude about not speaking French. Don't take it personally and don't let it bug you. It's just the way it is there! learn a few phrases, showing you tried will help! 
• Try to stay somewhere centrally. 
• The Metro can be confusing, but using it is way less expensive than the taxis. That said, during rush hour, don't expect to be able to just zip around the city. It takes a lot of time and is very crowded.
• There are pick pocket schemes out there. If anyone wants you to sign a petition (esp. in a tourist area) don't do it. They work in teams, one is distracting you with the petition, the other is picking your pockets. Think about it, why would they want a bunch of tourist signatures anyway? Another scheme is a street vendor coming up to you and braiding a bracelet on your arm, but then not letting you leave until you pay a lot of money.  
• The Paris pass was wonderful if you're going to a lot of the monuments and museums.

Rome:

• Pickpockets are also out in Rome, but if you keep your stuff close to you, you'll be fine.
• Don't be afraid to use the bus system. They don't have an extensive Metro system, so the buses are actually way more accessible. 
• Get the Roma Pass. You can use any of the public transport for free. Plus you can skip lines and get discounted entrances.
• Eat a lot of gelato. Drink Ceasanase wine; it's only grown in Rome.
• The Trevi Fountain is always always busy. Just one of those things!
• Walk around a lot. Explore. That's the point of Rome!

All Three Places:

• Sunblock. Why ruin your vacation with a wicked sunburn?
• Public transportation is the cheapest option, always.
• If you don't want to stick out like a sore thumb (as a tourist), dress nicely. People in Europe don't wear t-shirts and jeans the way we do in the States. Tennis shoes are also not really something they wear. That said, no matter what you do, you're going to look like a tourist. Especially in places where English is not the language.