Goals

"Write down your short and long-term GOALs four time's a year. Two personal, two business, and two health goals for the next 1.5 and 10 years."

I read this the other day and found it to be appropriate as we are nearing a New Year, which often provokes thought and reevaluation for goals and resolutions for the coming year. I wouldn't limit the above goals to two but thought it was a good guideline. Its just as important to write down some of your dreams along with those more attainable goals, you never know when they might become a reality.

The cheer of Holiday Decor

The sparkle, the berries, the glitter...my house is so much brighter and cheerier decorated for the holidays, I'm not going to want to take it all down in a couple of weeks! Luckily I've got Pinterest now to help inspire me for bringing some of that sparkle and cheer into our everyday decor.

I liked how this pic of the top of my small silver tree turned out.

The ever so classic, ornaments in a hurricane! You can really fill any glass piece to make a fun decor piece that you can use in any room or as table decor. Grab ornaments on sale the day after for next year, all sizes and colors work.

I just received this little tree as a gift and love it, its so simple yet has a little vintage feel to it. It's also something you could probably recreate with not too much work, perfect for those small spaces that need a little something.

Stocking Stuffer

If you're looking for a good stocking stuffer or needing to hint of one for yourself, this lip scrub by Sara Happ is fab! I just got some a few weeks ago and am loving it. My lips always seem to be chapped this time of year when its so cold and dry out, it helps get all the dead skin off and leave your lips nice and soft. Your lips will thank you! :)

Cookie Time

Peppermint white chocolate chip mocha Cookies

&

White Christmas dream drops!

While the dream drops didn't quite take the shape they were supposed too, both were delicious and worth adding to your list for some holiday baking.

Thank you Sunset Magazine and Sugarcrafter.net for the recipes!

Boutiques

I've turned into more of a online shopper recently, could be that living in a small town thing or that its just soo convenient And maybe a little addicting! Each morning along with checking my email I hop on both Hautelook and Zulily to see what's new. Both are online boutiques that have new sales each day featuring top designers and brands in fashion and lifestyle. They include, women, men, kids, home, and most recently travel.

Here are my cute new flats that arrived today, courtesy of Hautelook :)

Some online Boutiques to look at:

HauteLook

Zulily

Rue Lala

Modcloth

Shopbob

One Kings lane

Vintage Fringe

If you know of a good one, let us know!

We're also HUGE fans of Amazon but that's a story for another day...

Holiday Happenings

One of my favorite things to do during the holiday season is check out the Christmas ships as they travel around Lake Washington for the month. They start this Thursday, click here to see their schedule or where you might be able to cozy up, grab a drink and watch!

Snowflake Lane in Bellevue is in full swing, nightly at 7pm. Make reservations at one of the restaurants along the lane there so you can see the action from inside or pop out right when the drummers begin and the snow starts falling.

Point Defiance Zoo lights is nightly from 5-9pm, cost $7.

Bellevue Botanical Gardens nightly 5-10pm (last entry 9:30). Cost $5, children 10 and under free. You can save a few bucks if you hit one of their free admission nights, sponsored by Keybank.

For more Holiday happenings like Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmont Hotel or The annual Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton, check here!

Enjoy the seasons local festivities!

Friends & Family Discounts

This time of year retail stores are starting to have their friends and family sales! I noticed this weekend Ann Taylor loft has there's -40% off your entire purchase, pretty good!

Restoration Hardware's and The Disney store is currently going on as well at 20% everything.

Keep your eye out!

Ooh just came across this list of sales/deals if you're doing any shopping this weekend, check it out, click here!

Happy shopping :)

Windmill Sunsets

Front Page

I was surprised and excited to see a photo I took on the cover of the November Issue of the Kittitas PUD Ruralite. They did a great spread on Spirit Therapeutic Riding Center.

Look out Cupcake Wars...

Most of the time I just whip up cupcakes from a box, they're easy and delicious but over the weekend I made these champagne cupcakes from scratch. My other favorite from the summer were zucchini cupcakes with caramel frosting, so good! And you felt like you could eat those anytime of the day.

Tomatoes

These lovely guys... the last out of the garden this year=sauce for dinner!

Kiddos

Miss Lucy

Little man Colby

Fashionista Norah

Sweet Betsy

Hiking

In Italy we walked A LOT and did a ton of stairs, I figured I needed to keep it going when I got back. I haven't hit the gym yet but been doing my own thing at home. Between the hill behind our house and jumping rope, my new fav is the Nike Training Club Ap. Its free and has great workouts if you want to do it at home or at the park...that is what we did when we were in CO last weekend. We also did a great hike in Boulder while there, made it almost to the top until we kept seeing signs that said there were recent bear sightings on this particular trail, we thought we'd turn around when the boulders were so big we couldn't see what just might be behind them! And yesterday I did the Climb To Conquer Cancer, which was up to the top of the Manashtash Ridge right outside Ellensburg, definitely a leg burner but fun time!

Downtown Denver, CO


A Win for the Cougs in CO!!

Sniff, Swirl, Sip!

Walla Walla wine tasting! You definitely won't run out of wineries to visit when you head toward Walla Walla, they have 30 tasting rooms in just their downtown area! We stayed at Walla Faces Inns at the Vineyard and it was wonderful, a little bit off the beaten path but beautiful if you want some R&R time and you pretty much have a pool to yourself! There were a handful of wineries that were added into our Brown Heiny wine stash and more we wished we could have visited, we'll be back!

Corn

Fall is in the air and its been A LONG time since I blogged! Our internet at home has been hardly to not working all summer, a bit of an inconvenience. We had cable internet installed and soon should have a strong connection with no hiccups. Then I can do a better job of keeping everyone up to speed on whats been going on including our most recent adventure to Italy!

Yesterday we found a local U-PiCK corn field and picked about 25 ears, cooked it all up, peeled it off with my handy dandy corn peeler and froze it for the winter! Looking forward to fresh sweet corn when the snow is falling.

A shout out to Ziplock...their vacuum bag refills are awesome for freezing things!

M-I-C-K-E-Y ~ M-O-U-S-E!

Farmers Markets

Its that time of year... fresh flowers, fresh produce and Farmers Market fun! I had some time to kill and strolled through Bellevue's Thursday Market (3-7pm) yesterday. They had all sorts of good stuff including a truck of Molly Moon's ice cream (yummy), If you haven't been they have 2 locations in Seattle or you might be able to catch them in Bellevue!

Some of my favorite markets are the Ballard farmers market which is actually year round and Kirkland's Wednesday market. Go here to find a market in your area or one anywhere in WA that you might be visiting this season. Downtown Portland also has a great market that is year round, worth the visit if you're in town. Enjoy!

An Aloha Easter

We spent Easter in Maui with John's parents! Had a great time as usual and can't wait for our next trip to HI. Visited the cowboy town of Makawao, swung through Paia, and paddle boarded among the turtles, so fun!

Cows

Our annual Brown family Branding, always a good time!

Norah's Birthday & MS Walk

We spent the weekend in Post Falls, ID. Celebrated Norah's 4th Birthday and did the Spokane MS Walk on Sunday.