Cookies for Santa

Each year on Christmas Eve kids from one to 92 spend the day making cookies. Whether they be for Santa, family or just your own personal enjoyment, nothing says Christmas like homemade cookies fresh from the oven.

When it comes to cookies one of my favorites has always been Oreos, so when I saw this recipe featured on Cupcakes and Cashmere I had to try it out. You know what they say, once you go homemade you'll never go back.

 As always, I went to start the recipe and forgot to leave out the butter so that it was room temperature. A quick and easy tip I have learned is that if you forget this step, as I do, cut the required amount of butter into small cubes and let it sit out. In about 15mins you'll have room temp butter.

 I easily scooped out uniform cookies using a tablespoon. Leave each tablespoon a little rounded on the top. Once you have a pan full, press each scoop out with your fingers to about the size of a silver dollar.

 MMMMM!

 The finished product. They seemed time consuming at first but they were actually really quick and well worth the little bit of extra effort. They are the perfect blend of sweet and salty. Trust me Santa will thank you! :)

Carrie Underwood- Concert Fashion Review

Earlier this month, I attended the Carrie Underwood concert at Chaifetz Arena. Aside from a few technical glitches, the concert was great... the fashion, not so much. As we all know Carrie is gorgeous, so even though she has had some fashion mishaps in the past (shorts under cut-away ball gown skirts), I expected her wardrobe to be amazing. The fashion overall was underwhelming to say the least. Not that she should have come out looking like Britney Spears circa 2000, but a little wow factor and a tad more style would have helped.

 Cowboy Casanova

Above is the first look she wore. I really didn't get what the tuxedo had to do with anything. Especially, since she kicked the show off with Cowboy Casanova. On top of that, the pants were ill fitting and the shiny material made her tiny legs appear much larger than they are. However, the hair was phenomenal as always.

 This hat was one of the fashion highlights. Love the feathers.

Just a Dream

When she first appeared from the back of the stage this outfit looked awesome. From far away it looked like layers of white eyelet and yellow chiffon. Then she got closer and it got tragic. Up close it looked like Tweety bird had gotten stuck in grandma's crocheted table cloth and left feathers all through it in an attempt to get out. It was a nice idea for a look just poorly executed.

 All-American Girl

This look was the dullest of them all. I get that she was trying to go for the casual all-American look, but when you are major country star headlining a stadium tour that is a pretty large production, dark denim Rich and Skinny skinny jeans and a denim top is just not going to cut it. Total snoozefest.

 So Small

This was the definite showstopper of the night. Again, it was not figure flattering because the top had to maintain a flat look for the screen, but the effect was totally worth looking a little wide up top. This was like Katy Perry's LED gown at the Costume Institute Ball taken to the tenth degree. The entire dress was an LED screen that was synced with the image on the back drop so that she became part of the changing background that included starbursts and skyward flying doves. It was amazing, obviously the best look of the show.

Undo It

This look was decent. In addition to the look above, it was a look that was appropriate for the scale of show she had. It was fun and sassy and went with the upbeat songs she sang with it on. The only issue I had with it  was the large belt of bronze sequins that went through the middle wasn't very flattering. For someone who is always concerned with figure flattery this was the second look she wore that did not flatter. I also didn't like that it was the same outfit she wore in the Undo It video, only she added pants to it since for one song she went floating above the crowd in the back of a pickup truck, so pants were needed. On the bright side, the shoes were to die for: black leather over-the-knee boots with a crystal covered heel. Looooove.

Last Name

This dress started out as a long evening gown with a chiffon skirt that was removed after a few songs. This dress was one of the worst of the show in my opinion. It looked like a cheap prom dress. For someone who tried to stay classy throughout the entire show the tight fit and high unnecessary slit made this look somewhat trampy. Not a fan.

Overall, the performance gets an A-. Wardrobe gets a C-. Looks like Carrie needs to ask Santa for a new stylist this Christmas.

Fireplace Upgrade-From Drab to Fab

 Before

 Candles at Crate and Barrel

After

This year my home makeover project for the fall/winter was fixing up my dull drab fireplace. I have lived in my current apartment for almost a year and not once have I used the fireplace. It just seemed like too much work to go get the logs. Then I wondered how easy they would be to light, would it smell up the house, etc. etc.. So I just left it as an ugly drab hole in the wall. With winter rolling around I decided something had to be done about it.

The fireplace is on the small side so my first idea to put one of those fireplace candelabras in there failed. My second idea was to make a "fire" out of pillar candles. I started by cleaning out all of the soot and cobwebs. Then I added some black river rock that I got from my mom's house, but you should be able to find some at Michael's or maybe even Lowe's. Next up was a trip to Crate and Barrel where pillar candles were surprisingly cheap. I grabbed four white votive pillars to make up the first row, two small wide, one medium wide, and two medium narrow pillars for the second row. For the third row I ran over to World Market for four large narrow pillars. For these I was able to use one of their $10 off $30 coupons that come in the mail, so I basically ended up with a free one. If you don't get the coupons in the mail you can sign up for their rewards program and they will send you one via e-mail.

I arranged them in the fireplace with the river rock around it, lit the candles and viola! My drab ugly hole in the wall became a fab cozy nook for cold winter nights.

Website of the Week

Before

After

I was crushed when I tore a 4 inch hole in my favorite pair of William Rast jeans (note to self do not attempt to do cartwheels in fitted jeans with no stretch, it does not end well). I knew they were ruined but could not force myself to toss them. Thankfully I didn't, because a few week's later I stumbled on this week's website of the week: Denim Therapy.

Denim Therapy is an online site that specializes in denim repair. All you have to do is go to the website fill out the repair form and send in your jeans via trackable UPS. Denim Therapy will send you a repair estimate for you to approve. Once approved your jeans are repaired and sent back to you. The whole process takes less then three weeks.

Instead of just patching over the holes in your jeans, Denim Therapy actually reconstructs the original denim, making the tear almost invisible. The estimated repair cost is $7/inch for holes and tears, repair to back pockets is $10, zipper replacements are around $25, and shipping to and from with tracking will cost around $12 each way.

As you can see my results were great, you can hardly tell the tear was there. The only complaint I have is the backing used to reconstruct the denim is a bit rough at first but softens after a couple of washes.My jeans were about $10 to ship and $41 to repair and send back to me for a total of $51 as opposed to the $120 it would cost to buy a new pair. Now that's what i call a deal!

Black Tie Bedding

Tuxedo Bedding from Anthropologie

Last night I was watching the genius that is David Bromstad make over a couple's bedroom on HGTV. After I got over the heart palpitations I had over a 19th century French dresser that had been painted a pale turquoise, I noticed the bedding. The bedding was from the Tuxedo Bedding line from Anthropologie. I think the great thing about this bedding is that it has a feminine look with the ruffles, but the cream color, brown trim and the resemblance to a men's tuxedo shirt from the 70's give it a masculine look at the same time. On the show they used a few pillows with the standard shams along the back. Next they layered a couple of pillows with euro shams in with a few textured teal pillows. Then finished it off  with a couple cream and brown printed pillows, and it looked amazing. It's a great look that really adds a lot of style to the room. So if you'd like to make every night a black tie night at your house the bedding can be found at Anthropologie for $268 for a queen duvet, and $88 and $58 for the shams.