Sunday Best: Better Shape Up

dress: DownEast, sweater: Buckle, tights: vintage, boots: Old Navy, hat: Bella Me, necklace: Old Navy

You know you better shape up, because tomorrow is the first day of December. That means Santa Claus is coming to town. You don't want to be on the naughty list, do you?

In all reality, I chose my title because I've been on this kick of adding basic geometric shapes to my outfits (although, I'm stoked out of my mind for Saint Nick). So I was super excited when I snagged this necklace along with triangle earrings at the Old Navy Black Friday Sale. That's about all the shopping I could handle on Black Friday . . . and that was at 6 pm. Yep, not much of a Black Friday shopper here because: 

A) I hate big crowds of people crammed in small areas. 

B) I'm basically useless after midnight. A girl needs her beauty sleep. 

C) I shop deals all year long. Why go on the day that everyone else does?

Well, it's time to go decorate our Christmas tree and deck our halls. It's tradition the Sunday after Thanksgiving . . . at least around these parts. I know some of you have had your tree up since Halloween ;). I won't judge you. I'll probably leave mine up past Valentine's Day. I constantly live in denial.   

Sunday Best: The Food Baby Sweater

sweater: Adornit, jeans: Delia's, socks: TJ Maxx, oxfords: Fashion Box

I've been on a sweater buying frenzy. It's a slight problem. Each time I say it's going to be the last time, but deep down I know I'm always lying to myself. I need to go to sweater shopping rehab. But sweaters are just so darn cozy. It's like wearing a blanket to work and no one asks questions. 

I like my sweaters big. Like, if three of me can fit inside then I know it's about the right size. And I like them soft. This one from Adornit is a winner. Plus, those whimsical colors and that big blue pocket just had me at hello. It's a sweater like this one that you want to wear to your Thanksgiving feast. It will hide all evidence of the food baby. This Thursday I'm planning on having food baby triplets, so there's that. 

And this is why I'm not a fashion blogger. I plan my outfits around the amount of food I consume.

Our Thanksgiving Table

I experienced a milestone in my life. Brian and I hosted our first Thanksgiving. When I say "hosted" that really just means that Brian's parents, grandma and aunt came to our house and made all the food in our kitchen. And I set the table (I also made pumpkin roll if that counts for anything).

I took my job of setting the table very seriously. I wanted something that wouldn't be too overwhelming but it still needed to be fun. I also wanted to stick to something very seasonal and festive for the Thanksgiving holiday.

My favorite part, hands-down, were the white pumpkin vases that displayed some fall bouquets of flowers. The flowers smelled heavenly. I used fake pumpkins that I found on super clearance at Hobby Lobby, spray painted them white, then carved the tops off.  

For our name cards, I made, well, name rocks. I wanted to do something different that would still be easy to create. These rocks were winners! The hardest part was the rock gathering. I didn't have any rocks in my yard that would work for this project, so I drove to First Dam to collect my rocks. Let me tell you, I'm sure the other families at the park were very alarmed to see a grown woman scavenging the ground for smooth rocks. I found them as quickly as I could, shoved them in my coat pockets, and left before anyone could have the time to question my sanity. I painted the rocks an orange-gold color. After the paint dried overnight, I mod podged everyone's names on their rock.

I stole the idea for the place mats from . . . several places, really. It's not at all an original idea but perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was fun to jot down things we were grateful for throughout the meal. Before we cleared the table, we went around and read the things off our lists.

Our Thanksgiving was filled with delicious food, laughter, love, puzzle-doing, and resting. I hope yours was too!

Sunday Best: Back in Black

top: Kohl's, skirt: Maurices, tights: TJ Maxx, heels: Kmart 

I have been MIA from the blogging world and it's felt so good.

It's been all future planning, celebrating, turkey eating, Black Friday shopping, and Christmas decorating over here.

Oh, and you may have noticed from these photos that I totally cut my hair off. It's liberating and terrifying at the same time. Every girl should chop all their hair off at least once in their life.

I wore this black ensemble for a day at church. I had to teach the lesson in Relief Society (I was a sub). I, for some reason, got so ridiculously nervous. Not to mention, I forgot to take my wool coat off so I wore it during the whole lesson. Wool coat + nerves + pleather sleeves = really sweaty armpits. TMI?

Have a fab week. Whether you choose to wear real leather or fake leather, you're still awesome.

A Hillbilly Thanksgiving

 That would be my mom on a long board. She has mean skills ;). 

I really don't think I'm a hillbilly. I wouldn't call my family hillbillies either. But the more I think about it, to a lot of people, we probably seem like hillbillies. So I drink a glass of milk with ever meal, I eat more red meat than what is probably healthy for a person, I can shoot a gun, and perhaps we've pulled small children through the snow on an inner tube tied to the back of a truck before. And yes, my hometown blows up pumpkins with dynamite every year after Halloween. There's no shame in any of that. I know every person out there has a little hillbilly locked up somewhere inside their soul that they just wish they had the courage to release. I am hear to tell you to release that hillbilly. 

This Thanksgiving, we spent it at my parents' house. We had a small dinner with just my parents and siblings and had a lot of fun. My uncle and aunt came that morning so we could get our Thanksgiving basketball scrimmage on. We ate that afternoon and my mom did a fabulous job on the meal. I contributed with my pumpkin roll because I don't know how to make pie. Then after letting our food settle, we hauled the guns and a box of clay pigeons out to the field to do some annual Thanksgiving shooting. Believe it or not, I'm not a bad shot. And Brian is really excellent at flinging those clay pigeons through the air for us to blow up with our guns. 

We took Luna with us to celebrate the holiday. She masterfully made her way onto my parents' roof and prowled around up there for a good portion of the day.

As you can see, I have a lot to be thankful for. I'm especially thankful that November is almost over so my lil bro, Jace, can get rid of his molester mustache. I'm also thankful for all you people who read A Little Bird Told Me. Thanks for entertaining this silly blogging hobby of mine! I hope you all had a splendid Thanksgiving! 

Turkey Cookies

You know you're married when you make cookies with your friends on a Friday night instead of hit up the college parties. My little brother asked me on Friday afternoon if Brian and I were coming to the party at his fraternity's house. I gave him a surprised look and said, "Uh. . .probably not."

I just don't go to college dances and such anymore. I am sure they would still be loads of fun, but Brian doesn't like dancing. And I'm just not going to go to a dance party by my lonesome. How awkward would that be? A married woman going to a college dance party by herself. What if I got humped on by some dude? I would have to hunch over in the fetal position and explain that I'm happily married. Now don't fret, we still go to the majority of campus activities. However, Friday night was spent staying in and making cookies with our soon-to-be married friends.

Everyone thought I was crazy when I said I wanted to make turkey cookies. At first they feared that we were making cookies with turkey meat. Not so. They are sugary as can be and resemble little turkeys. So after I conducted a quick tutorial for the others, we had festive Thanksgiving cookies whipped up.

Am I really the only person who has made these treats? Tell me I'm not alone. If you haven't made them and want to, it's really pretty simple.

Here are the supplies:

chocolate covered raisins-head
chocolate covered cherries-body
cookies-platform and half of one for the tail
red hots-gobbler
candy corn-tail feathers
frosting-glue

And there's one rule. . .while creating your turkeys, it is totally necessary to snack on supplies throughout the whole building process.


Happy (almost) Turkey Day!

A Big Fat Thankful Heart

This Thanksgiving was a wonderful, little gem of a day. I have a very thankful heart for so many reasons. Just to name a few things I was thankful for this Thanksgiving day:

-My wonderful husband and best buddy, Brian. Our first Thanksgiving together was a happy one, and we're on our way to having an entirely happy Thanksgiving weekend. 

-That I didn't humiliate myself in front of Brian's parents and his many neighbors on Thanksgiving morning when we shot clay pigeons. I think I only missed once or twice. Good thing I grew up in Idaho, where the majority of people are obsessed with guns and shooting stuff. 

-That Brian and I pulled ourselves out of bed bright and early so we could do a Thanksgiving fun run with Bri's Mom. It was fun indeed and not even as cold as I had imagined. 

-My in-laws' hot tub. Boy, did that warm water feel nice after the fun run and after we finished shooting guns (my toes were a little numb). 

-That I was able to spend the day with the Weller family. They are all so great. We had a beautiful dinner. The food was great. And there were cute turkeys made out of candy which I was a big fan of. 

-I now appreciate pie more than I ever have in years past. I still prefer a slice of cake over pie, but after that slice of chocolate truffle pie, I'm a bit more converted. 

-I finished a 500 piece puzzle. Okay, that sounds like I finished it alone. Me, Brian, and Tami (Brian's mom) finished it. I was excited about it though because I'm good at starting puzzles but then I never help finish them.

-I wore the shirt that I originally bought for my Halloween costume (when I was an old lady) to the Thanksgiving day feast. And I feel like I looked pretty cute. At least I'm pretty sure I didn't look totally ugly. 

-My feather earrings. They make me feel like a diva each time I wear them.

-That the movie Salt was on television on Thanksgiving evening. Love that movie. Angelina Jolie rocks in it. 

-That we changed our minds about waiting in a huge line for Black Friday and losing tons of sleep as a result, and instead we went to bed quite early.

-Cuddling in bed with BWell and playing Scrabble on his phone before falling asleep. 

-Forgetting my cell phone charger so that when my phone eventually died, I was cell phone free. Sometimes I hate communicating with the outside world. 

-That even though we didn't get out of bed at 2 am to go shopping, Brian still scored the tv he wanted. Apparently a truck came in late to K-Mart. BWell's office will now have a rockin' new tv. 

-My new polka-dot tights from Target. 

-I can now openly celebrate Christmas without people getting all offended and ornery about it. 

-Family and friends and having time to spend it with them instead of stress about work or school. Going back to real life on Monday is going to be gnarly.

Everyone enjoy the weekend! I'll enjoy mine by putting up our Christmas tree and decorating it with BWell. Ah, I'm so looking forward to it!