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I love a good holiday themed sweater. When Christian and I were visiting his family in Missouri for a couple weeks I needed a bit of "home" so we ran into Marshalls for a quick walk-through one afternoon. We weren't intending on buying anything but the men's section had some great simple not-ugly Christmas sweaters. Christian got a half-zip one with polar bears and I got this one (the only one that they had in a small, haha!)

 

Funnily enough, the main pieces of this outfit are all from Marshall's. The bag and sunglasses are not. I haven't worn these boots in a while. Partly because I haven't really had an occasion and also because the insole is crumpled up so I feel the wrinkle on my foot, haha! I guess that's why they ended up at Marshalls years ago, a small but annoying glue defect. But I deal with it because they're gorgeous.


Sweater: Aspen reindeer Christmas sweater (Marshalls, men's department)

Jeans: Mother Denim 'The Rascal' c/o Marshalls

Boots: Gianvito Rossi 'Finlay' lace-up boot (Marshalls)

Bag: Emm Kuo 'Calle Bahia' (Roundabout)

Sunglasses: Ray Ban 'Erika' c/o Shopbop    












 

So much baking, so little time! We've got some Thanksgiving themed bakes in here as well as some any-time-of-year treats. We'll see what kind of things I whip up for Christmas in my next baking roundup!


Soft Triple Chocolate Cookies 

I'm still trying to bake my way through Tessa of Handle the Heat's cookie handbook and made her triple chocolate cookies. The website doesn't seem to be on her website but you could try her Double Chocolate Cookies instead! They were sooo soft and delicious!

 

Autumnal Birthday Cake

We visited Christian's family for Thanksgiving and this was our contribution to the table.  Maple cake with a maple meringue frosting coated in pecan pieces. It was pretty good, although sometimes too maple-y for me. Christian loved it.


Apple Cider Cake

This was a fun one! Back in October I bought this adorable NordicWare Autumn Delights Cakelet Pan because it was on sale for about $20 at the King Arthur flagship store. I wasn't sure if I'd find a recipe for it, but I needed it. You know how that is, right? When we visited Christian's Mom for Thanksgiving I decided to try this Apple Cider Cake recipe and bake some of the batter in the pan. The recipe was for a bundt cake so I figured it would work here as well. So we had a pan of cute cakelets and then a larger loaf.


The Easiest Pizza You'll Ever Make (King Arthur Flour)

The day after Thanksgiving (after having leftovers for lunch) we made some pizza dough for dinner. The recipe makes 4 pizzas so we each got our own. I believe this is the first time we've made this particular recipe, but it's fairly similar to all the others out there. Christian and I did pepperoni and bacon but his Mom & her husband used the turkey & ham leftovers to make some fun pizzas! I only took a picture of mine though, haha. We baked them for about 15 minutes at 500 degrees and they were so tasty!


K.I.S.S Brownies

I had some buttermilk in the freezer (from Christian's birthday cake) that I needed to use up so I found this brownie recipe for a bit of it. I tried baking them in one of my Le Creuset baking dishes but I think the shape made them come out a little weird. I baked them 10 minutes longer than the recipe said and they were still very soft and gooey (not a problem for me, but Christian likes brownie edges and very cooked brownies, ha ha.) Probably won't make them again - mostly because I don't keep buttermilk on hand - but they were tasty!


Perfect Buttermilk Biscuits

To use more of the aforementioned buttermilk, I decided to finally try to make "real" biscuits. Normally I do quick drop biscuit recipes but this one required me to do the pat and letter fold method, it was fun, but very messy. I made a few of them look like Christmas trees but it was too annoying to use the cutter so I switched to squares after. I baked a few fresh and the rest were frozen so we could have biscuits on demand whenever we need!


 

Since it's Thursday, I decided to do a throwback to our stay at Disney's Riviera Resort. It is a goal of mine to stay at (almost) all of the Walt Disney World Resort hotels. So far I've stayed at eight of the twenty, not counting Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser or doubles of the same hotel (BoardWalk Inn vs BoardWalk Villas.) There are different levels of resorts - Value, Moderate, Deluxe, Deluxe Villas (DVC) and Campgrounds. My current list, in alphabetical order:

 


Another month gone...this year is going by so fast! This month my extra money was mostly spent on Christmas gifts so not really much for my own purchases. We'll see if I can make it through the rest of the year without buying more clothes. I made it through Black Friday and Cyber Monday without buying any clothes but did splurge on a few Le Creuset pieces using blog income, the easy way for me to spend and not feel bad, haha! 

I bought a Deep Dutch Oven for $200(!!!!) a Classic Enameled Cast Iron Skillet for $120, Mini Pumpkin Cocotte, and a free Holly Mini Cocotte! (Originally, on Black Friday, I also bought a Mini Round Cocotte to get a free Snowflake Platter because I needed to spend $250 for the free gift. Then Cyber Monday came and I liked that gift better so I called to cancel my order and made a new one, I only needed to spend $200 for the free cocotte but still wanted the pumpkin one so I just nixed the plain round cocotte.) I bought the cast iron skillet from Williams Sonoma because I had 10% cash back and the rest from the Le Creuset because they had the colors I wanted and the free gift. So I bought it all for less than the normal price off the dutch oven - WOO! I still really want their round dutch oven (in purple that they don't make anymore,) but for $200 (reg $380) vs $460 or $420 I'll see how I like the slightly smaller size.


I did order some gifted pieces from Aurate for a post coming in January. Always love being able to add more of their pieces to my jewelry collection. They'll be arriving some time in December as they are made to order.


THE (modified) RULES

  1. Be mindful of purchases 
  2. Quality over quantity
  3. Basics are best

 

MY PROGRESS

 

Clothes:

  1. Marc by Marc Jacobs cropped sweater ($12.50, retail $298, used ad money)
  2. J Brand Maria High Rise in Purple Velvet ($7.50, retail $228, used ad money)
  3. Current/Elliott "The Muscle" leopard print tank ($8, retail $75?, used ad money)


Basics:
  1. mīere the label "Frankie" knit sweater in Faded Black ($56.92, $32.15 if we omit shipping)
  2. Madewell Whisper Cotton V-Neck Tee in Spiced Plum ($2, retail $19.50, used ad money)
  3. Madewell Whisper Cotton V-Neck Tee in Sahara Sand  ($2, retail $19.50, used ad money)

 

Shoes:

  1. Ancient Greek Sandals Kore of Berlin ($365, used Shopbop gift cards + ad money + 15% off)


Handbags:

  1. None yet

 

Accessories:
  1. None yet

 
 

Activewear/Swimwear:

  1. Ryka "Belong" Walking Shoe in Plum Red/Burgundy via DSW ($26.58, $79.99 retail)

 

Gifted from Brands:


Spent in November: $0

Spent in 2022: $83.50

Who doesn't love a good festive sweater?! I've had this one from J Crew for quite a few years and always love breaking it out. Usually I wait until after Thanksgiving but I went to the New England Christmas Festival the first weekend of this month and wanted to dress on theme! A lady at the show even commented on my perfect coordination, ha ha. 


Unfortunately, the event was a little lackluster for me overall. Since it's only 1 weekend they don't really decorate the venue all that much. It also was a lot of non-Christmas items and if I'm going to a Christmas Festival I want it to be pretty much all holiday themed and maybe some fun giftable food items. I bought a cute snowman and Christmas tree ornament but not sure if it was really worth the $15 admission fee, but that could just be me. Christkindlmarkt in Bethlehem, PA (my photos) was much more fun, but also a lot further away, ha ha.


Llama Jewel Sweater: J.Crew

Jeans: rag & bone high rise ankle skinny jean in burgundy

Boots: Marc by Marc Jacobs Buckle Boot in burgundy (Coco's on the Green) 

Bag: Dark Purple Chloé Faye (eBay) 











I bought both of these pieces in August and was waiting for the perfect time to wear them together. That ended up being my cousin's baby shower this past weekend. It was a little chillier with random rain sprinkles so I didn't want to wear a dress and, since the sweater has some sparkle in it, I thought it would be a good alternative.


Sweater: Marc by Marc Jacobs cropped sweater (The RealReal)

Pants: J Brand Maria High Rise in Purple/Aubergine Velvet (The RealReal)

Shoes: Nicholas Kirkwood suede Prism pumps (NET-A-PORTER)

Bag: Purple Prada Cahier in Viola (Rebag via Vestiaire Collective)

Topaz Necklace: Grandma's, BubuRuby Gemstone Chain necklace 

Rings: Grandma's opal, Aurate Vintage Emerald Cut Ring - Topaz

Earrings: Mejuri loop earrings 










 

This roundup is full of bakes Christian and I did for our Halloween party. He's been wanting to have one for YEARS but Covid ruined that. So happy he was finally able to do it this year. I have a few things I want to bake next, we'll see how successful they are.

 

King Arthur Baking School - Pizza Perfected Class

Starting off with my King Arthur Baking School bakes - Pizza Dough and Semolina Pizza Dough! I was always afraid to try hand stretched dough but this class made it so easier and now I'm sure it will be our top made pizza. Make sure to check out my recap post on the class and learn how to take one of your own! Unfortunately, the two recipes we used weren't on their website.


Depression Cake - Halloween Style

We have made a depression cake many times over the past couple years and thought it was the perfect choice for our dirt cake. We made the recipe as usual and added crushed Oreos and gummy worms to the top.


 

Healthy Birthday Cake Break - Halloween Style

Another Halloween spin on a treat I've previously made (for Christian's birthday.) For this we just used Halloween sprinkles instead of plain rainbow. Yummy yummy!


 

Halloween Sugar Cookies

Christian 3D printed some Halloween cookie cutters so we could make some spooky cookies for our party. This recipe was super easy to follow and delicious! Will definitely have to make these again for Christmas! 


King Arthur 'Our Favorite Sandwich Bread'

Another recipe I have made multiple times. The first time I made this recipe the bread didn't come out the best but this time the bread shape is much better! It also helped once I bought a slightly smaller loaf pan. Previously I only had a 5x9 but now I have a 4.5x8.5 and it does the job so much better. We love having it with honey (or a mix of honey and butter, yummmm)




Somehow I never got around to posting these few outfit photos I took for a brand partnership with Aetrex on Instagram. Whoops! Only a few photos but the outfit still deserve a post, right?! It's the perfect simple look for early autumn days when it's still warm-ish but there's a chill in the air.

 

Tee: Madewell Whisper Cotton V-Neck Tee in Spiced Plum

Jeans: Everlane high-rise skinny jean in mid-blue

Bag: Madewell Medium Slim Saddle Bag in Croc c/o Shopbop

Shoes: Aetrex Libby Comfort Clog in Tobacco suede

Necklace: Acanthus Jewelry


 


Happy Halloween! It was my birthday month but I behaved and didn't make any purchases. Nothing was really calling out to me in all of my window shopping. Sure I added things to my cart, but in the end they just weren't worth the cost to me. Maybe if they go more on sale, ha ha.

 

THE (modified) RULES

  1. Be mindful of purchases 
  2. Quality over quantity
  3. Basics are best

 

MY PROGRESS

 

Clothes:

  1. Marc by Marc Jacobs cropped sweater ($12.50, retail $298, used ad money)
  2. J Brand Maria High Rise in Purple Velvet ($7.50, retail $228, used ad money)
  3. Current/Elliott "The Muscle" leopard print tank ($8, retail $75?, used ad money)


Basics:
  1. mīere the label "Frankie" knit sweater in Faded Black ($56.92, $32.15 if we omit shipping)
  2. Madewell Whisper Cotton V-Neck Tee in Spiced Plum ($2, retail $19.50, used ad money)
  3. Madewell Whisper Cotton V-Neck Tee in Sahara Sand  ($2, retail $19.50, used ad money)

 

Shoes:

  1. Ancient Greek Sandals Kore of Berlin ($365, used Shopbop gift cards + ad money + 15% off)


Handbags:

  1. None yet

 

Accessories:
  1. None yet

 
 

Activewear/Swimwear:

  1. Ryka "Belong" Walking Shoe in Plum Red/Burgundy via DSW ($26.58, $79.99 retail)

 

Gifted from Brands:

 

Spent in October: $0

Spent in 2022: $83.50

This orange sweater was another perfect piece for my Autumnal trip to Vermont. The trees were mostly yellow, but you can see some peeks of orange that match the sweater. My new Remy Dooney & Bourke bag was the perfect finishing touch. I brought it along since I was taking a baking class at King Arthur Baking School and thought it would be a fun nod.


Sweater: Mīere the Label women's cotton knit sweater in terracotta 

High Waisted Jeans: J Brand 'Maria' High Rise in Supreme

Boots: Eighteen 68 'Megan' (Gilt)

Necklace: Indulgems (Gilt)

Bag: Disney Dooney & Bourke 'Remy's Ratatouille Adventure' 

Sunglasses: Ray Ban 'Erika' c/o Shopbop

 




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