Christmas Cheer.

I realize that November isn't quite over yet, but December is just around the corner. This weekend, we rang in the holiday season with high spirits and a background of Christmas music!

I decorated a little corner of my room, Charlie-Brown-style. The little Christmas tree is made out of newspaper, clay, a knitting needle, spray adhesive and lots of clear glass glitter. It turned out so cute and is much sparklier in person. Tutorial here. Next craft: fabric holiday wreath.

We took our annual Christmas card photo in our backyard. Outtakes pictured. 

We trimmed our tree! And danced around the living room. Ricky was relegated to the basement, because he was determined to eat the decorations. It might be a long month for that cat.

To top off the cheery day, I made a chocolate salted caramel tart which is currently chilling in the fridge. More about that to come if it turns out the way I want it to. I had to make more than one batch of caramel due to some fatal errors, and nearly gave up - but this family has much love for salted caramel so giving up wasn't an option. Luckily, the final product is looking much better than I thought it would. I have big plans to dedicate an entire day to holiday baking very soon!

The Mountain Condo.

I've never really been one to live for the weekend until lately, thanks to back-to-back stays in our friend's mountain condo. Apparently, I just can't seem to stay away from Appalachian for more than a work week.

One trip was spent in Blowing Rock with the boys. This past weekend, it was just us girls. I've missed my hallmates so much! No shame in saying that we sang along to the Glee Christmas CD all weekend, while sipping on Moscato and catching up until 3 am each morning. We made a big pot of chili and corn bread muffins, which lasted us two nights, and only ventured out of the condo to do a little shopping, visit the cupcake shop, and drive along the parkway. We watched Bridesmaids on Friday night, which was very fitting considering the four of us are part of Kelsey's bridal party!

Laughter keeps you young, so this will be an annual occurance for the rest of our lives.

November.

Our street is looking festive - the leaves are at the peak of their golden lives and they are so beautiful!

My parents have been in Asheville for the past few days, and I've had the house to myself. I have a terrifying fear of being alone at night in a big house, so I made Caroline come home for a sleepover. She just joined the same sorority as I did in college, so we had a craft night (which might have been my main motivator behind joining a sorority in the first place).

I also experimented with the culinary wonder that is a 3 minute mug cake, and it kind of worked! Except next time I'm only going to microwave it for 2 1/2 minutes and take out the egg. It was a little too cakey, and not enough fudgey.

Also, I realized that I make a trip to a craft supply store atleast once a week. Yesterday, Caroline and I found these little rose cabochons at Michael's and went nuts making a million pairs of earrings for Christmas presents!

Oreos.

       

Milk's favorite cookie - the homemade version. They ended up tasting a little different than their pre-packaged cousin, but are equally as addicting. I've been gawking over this recipe for the past year, and finally found the time to make them! Mom thinks I'm crazy for making things like marshmallows and homemade oreos during the fall instead of pumpkin muffins and spice cookies, but let me remind you - I'm allergic and I just don't think spice cookies would taste the same without the spice. Oreos and marshmallows will suffice! Oh, but I did make a blackberry cobbler this weekend, which was a little more traditional.

I love fall for many reasons, but especially for the excuse to turn the oven on.