The Holidays Have Begun

The craziness that is the holidays is here and another great weekend for the books! I had my work holiday party on Friday night so we booked a hotel and had a little staycation for the night at Universal Studios since driving after several hours of free drinks is never a good idea. 

We had cocktail hour, buffet dinner and then the after party was at Universal's City Walk.

On Saturday morning, we checked out of the hotel and picked up our precious wrinkly bundle from her pet sitters.

Saturday night was a wash and we had planned to attend another holiday party but the couch and snuggles with Lola won.

On Sunday, we were feeling refreshed and decided to venture downtown for lunch and to watch football at a couple dog-friendly bars and restaurants. Lola had a blast meeting lots of people and other dogs and crashed hard when she got home giving me time to do some blogging and the usual Sunday cleaning, laundry etc.

Hope you had a great weekend!!

Joining Biana for Weekending and Leeann for Monday Morning Gossip.  

Weekly Roundup & Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! 

I love when the holidays come around because it's my favorite time of year although December is going to be a busy, busy one and now we have a puppy which makes it that more difficult to juggle. 

My work holiday party is tonight and I have several more upcoming parties and events on the agenda:

- 2nd holiday party for the year with friends

- Staycation and birthday trip to Disney

- Friend's wedding on my actual birthday

-  A friend's housewarming party/3rd holiday party

- Christmas long weekend with the in-laws

-  NYE celebrations with friends

After the 4-day weekend for Thanksgiving, it was really tough going back to work and leaving Lola at home for most of the day. I now know how parents feel leaving their babies/kids/pets behind when they head to work. 

A girl friend of mine was in town visiting so our college clan went out for Japanese hibachi and sushi dinner to catch up. 

Joining Amanda for Friday Favorites.

Favorite Purchase:

Bath & Body Works goodies for myself and Christmas gifts.

Favorite DIY/Craft:

Seriously thinking of creating my own advent holiday calendar.

 

Favorite Sips:

Really good seasonal beer ~ Leinenhugel's Cranberry Ginger Shandy.

Favorite Quote:

I ran across some Marilyn Monroe quotes while reading a documentary of her life at the hairdresser a few weeks ago.

Have a great weekend!

Thursty Thursday Dirty Martinis

Hey everyone! Today I'm joining Kristin as the co-host for her Thursty Thursday linkup. 

Of course, my signature drink recipe is my all time favorite...Dirty martinis with blue cheese stuffed olives

Serving size: 2 Martinis

Ingredients:

5 shots vodka

1 shot dry vermouth

1 shot olive juice (for extra dirty)

Blue cheese stuffed olives

 What To Do:

 Shake ingredients in a shaker with ice and serve chilled.

 

1. Follow Hopelessly Ever After and Martinis & Bikinis via GFC or Bloglovin'.
2. Write about your favorite DRANK (alcoholic beverage).
3. Grab a button from below or Kristin's sidebar and put it in your post. 4. Come back here and link up!!!
5. Get some new recipes or drink ideas for the weekend and make a new friend!!

6. Send a tweet with #ThurstyThursday and include @leggs532 and @TriniEmz  so we can see it!!

Anyone interested in co-hosting next week email Kristin at: hopelessly_ever_after@yahoo.com

An InLinkz Link-up

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Urban Decay Naked Eyeshadow Palettes

I used to be a big MAC eyeshadow girl until I bought the original Urban Decay Naked palette. I love shimmery colors and the quality of the brush. I've never seen a brush that's so easy to clean (by wiping with a tissue) which makes it easy to apply multiple colors with the same brush.

I recently bought the Naked 3 palette so here's a comparison of the colors side by side.

Urban Decay's Naked Eyeshadow Palette

As I mentioned the brush is awesome and I love pretty much all of the 12 colors, except the 11th color is a bit too dark for me. I chose this palette over Naked 2 as I think the colors were a good blend to create a neutral daytime look to a more bold nighttime look. I especially love the 12th color, Gunmetal, the more I experiment with it to get a slightly dark blue smokey yet sparkly look for evening or nighttime.

Favorite colors:

1. Sin

2. Sidecar

3. Half baked

4. Toasted

5. Gunmetal

Urban Decay's Naked 3 Eyeshadow Palette

I love the double-sided brush and the neutral yet shimmery colors that come with the Naked 3 palette. The right side of the palette also has a few colors to create a smokey eye look so you can get the best of both worlds.

Favorite colors:

1. Dust

2. Buzz

3. Trick

4. Mugshot

Do you own any of the Naked eyeshadow palettes or something better/comparable?

What colors or color-combinations are your favorite?

Pepper Jack Cheese & Chicken Dip

Thank you to Steph for introducing me to this Pepper Jack Cheese dip recipe. It was rich and tasty with a bit of spice and a big hit at the Holiday party we went to a few weekends ago. 

Ingredients:

16 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ cup cooked and crumbled bacon

1 cup shredded rotisserie chicken

1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

1 tbsp diced jalapeno, seeds removed

What To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Melt cream cheese slightly in microwave for 20 seconds and then beat until smooth.

3. Stir in the rest of the ingredients and pour mixture into a baking dish. Bake for 25 minutes. 

4. Sprinkle with Paprika and serve warm.

Enjoy!

1. Follow Kate and myself via GFC and Bloglovin. 

2. Link up your favorite recipes or food-related posts.

3. Grab our Recipe Swap button and link back to our blogs.

Thanksgiving & Disney Fun

Hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving (for those in the US) and the weekend.  

Thursday: 

Lola went with us on a 2 hour road trip to spend Thanksgiving with my in-laws and extended family.

After Thanksgiving dinner, we went to visit a few friends and introduce everyone to Lola.

Friday:

We headed back home and got some errands and cleaning done. I put up our Christmas tree and started decorating for the holidays. We also watched the UCF game, ordered Chinese food and had an early night since we were pretty tired from all the Thanksgiving traveling and early mornings with Lola.

Saturday:

We headed to Disney with Kate and her hubby. We went to Animal Kingdom first to do the safari ride and walk around the park.

We saw a ton of animals including elephants, hippos, giraffes, rhinos, zebras and more.

We then headed over to Hollywood Studios to do a few rides and check out some Christmas shops.

After Disney, we all headed to my place to cook up some dinner and hang out by the firepit with Lola. Kate and her hubby loved playing with Lola since they also have an English bulldog, Roxy.

Sunday: 

Sunday was a Home Dept and errands kind of day to get some final Christmas decorations. I've already overloaded you with photos so will do a Christmas post when everything is completed.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Joining Biana for Weekending and Leeann for Monday Morning Gossip.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours! I hope everyone enjoys the holiday and gets to spend it with their loved ones.

I'm thankful for the newest addition to our family, Lola Chanel...our baby English Bulldog.  

Lola is 10 weeks old and is adjusting better than I expected. She is a puppy so she keeps up busy with potty clean ups but she is super lovable, easygoing and playful. We are in love and thankful for this blessing that melts our heart.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Black Bean & Corn Chunky Salsa

I made this for a potluck at work last week. It's always tough finding dishes that can be made the night before and still taste good but the flavors of these ingredients get better as they marinate in the fridge over night. This dish was inspired by this recipe I found on Pinterest with just a few changes,

Ingredients: 

1 can sweet kernel corn, drained

1 can black beans, drained & washed

 1/4 red onion, chopped

1/2 jalapeno, chopped finely

1 lime, juiced

1/4 red pepper, chopped

1/4 green pepper, chopped

2 roma tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped finely

2 tbsp virgin olive oil

Black pepper to taste

Avocado, chopped (optional topping)

What To Do:

Wash all fresh vegetables and chop/dice according the ingredients list. Mix all ingredients (except avocado) in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve. I refrigerated over night to get the flavors to blend together but 1-2 hours is sufficient. When ready to serve, add chopped avocado. 

Enjoy!

1. Follow Kate and myself via GFC and Bloglovin. 

2. Link up your favorite recipes or food-related posts.

3. Grab our Recipe Swap button and link back to our blogs.

Puppy Shopping & Holiday Kickoff Party

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm so excited Thanksgiving is almost here. Definitely looking forward to some family time and a few days off of work. 

This weekend we started our search for a baby bulldog. We've had an empty nest since Skyh passed away and think it's time to adopt a new furbaby.

Friday night looked something like this. Well, it looked exactly like this. Chinese takeout, Redbox movies and homemade dirty martinis.

On Saturday, I used the pamper package gift certificate I won at a charity event a few weeks ago. I got a facial, mani & pedi and my hair styled. The package included a few more things but honestly I don't have enough patience to stay more than 4 hours in a spa so that was good enough for me. 

Saturday night, was our first Holiday party for the year with friends and it was a blast!

Sunday: we cooked up some brunch at home and continued our search for a new puppy. We finally found our furbaby and she'll be arriving this week from the breeder!!

 K also thought pineapple mimosas with blueberries were a good idea to celebrate.

How was your weekend?

Joining Biana for Weekending and Leeann for Monday Morning Gossip.