What I'm Loving Wednesday

Come join up at www.littledaisymay.blogspot.com for another edition of What I'm Loving Wednesday....

This week, I'm loving that Christmas is around the corner....

the Allan tree is trimmed...

The Allan cats are in their Christmas collars

Tis the season for spiking your hot chocolate

and it's also the season for baking Christmas cookies! One of my tasks included in this much anticipated chock full packed of activities weekend ahead! Here's a little tray I made for work last year...

Some of my favorites recipes...Rolo Cookies, Espresso Thumbprints, Banana Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies, Cranberry Orange Cookies, White Chocolate Gingerbread Blondies, Peanut Butter Kisses

Enjoy this last weekend rush before Christmas!

A much needed weekend away....

in a lovely little town called Edgartown. Located on the island of Martha's Vineyard...a favorite place of ours to visit each and every single summer. So, we mixed it up and did a wintertime visit to enjoy Christmas in Edgartown....the view from the hotel couldn't have been more beautiful.

There were so many events going on this weekend. From the lighting of the Edgartown Lighthouse to wine and cheese tastings to open houses at all the local inns. But, one of my favorite events...the Holiday Parade. It seemed like everyone on the Island was there..the holiday excitement was absolutely contagious...some highlights...

I just liked the little chicken this guy was holding...

The biggest pie ever...

What's a parade without the Island's alpacas?

  

 the handsome Mr. Allan...being a traitor hanging out in Martha's Vineyard while wearing a Nantucket hat!

Rainbow colored dogs...

what made the weekend really fun....

spiking our hot chocolate whenever we had the chance to!

After this weekend that was filled with holiday festivities...I finally feel like the holiday season has begun!

Old Fashioned Pancakes, a Day off, and weekend away!

I am so ridiculously excited to have a day off today. So excited...it's, well ridiculous! This day off is even sweeter since yesterday was a day from HELL! Sometimes defending juvenile delinquents takes a toll on me...especially when you and your co worker are covering court together and you each have about 17 clients in one day. Maybe the juveniles aren't that bad but add in their very unhappy parents and it's just a treat! Also making this day off even better...Mr. Allan has the day off too.

While I envisioned us sleeping in, snuggled tight under the down comforter as the temperatures finally drop in Rhode Island...our cats had other plans. Starting at 5am, they decided they were hungry. Around 615, I bit the bullet, got up, fed the fur kids, made coffee, and shut the bedroom door to let the Mr. sleep in.

I also thought it'd be nice to make some breakfast for Mr. Allan. During the week I'm usually eating toast with almond butter or steel cut oats...so I decided to make a treat...some pancakes from scratch.

This was a pretty easy and adaptable recipe from www.allrecipes.com for some Old Fashioned Pancakes that don't require too many ingredients!

Even Davie...a lover of fish, chicken, pita chips and ice cream, wanted to hop on the pancake train

Old Fashioned Pancakes

(from allrecipes.com)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour*

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk*
1 egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted
* 1 tsp vanilla

* I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 all purpose flour. I used Almond Milk since that's what was in the fridge and also added 1 tsp of vanilla

Beat egg and milk together just until the egg is slightly beaten. For super fluffy pancakes, leave this mixture out on the counter and allow it to come to room temperature. Melt butter and add butter and vanilla. Sift together dry ingredients. For fluffy pancakes, use a sifter...if you don't care, just sift together with a whisk. Add dry ingredients to wet and voila...you have your batter!

Now that my belly is full of pancakes...it's time to pack up because we have a weekend away! I haven't been this excited for a little getaway in a long time! We're big fans of Martha's Vineyard...we go every single summer...and even though we love the beaches of the Vineyard...I'm excited to check it out during the winter months for Christmas in Edgartown. There's a huge list of activities for the weekend!

Here's the Edgartown Lighthouse with the Harborview Hotel (where we'll be camped out all weekend) in the background. Photo courtesy of www.boston.com

Mr. Allan and our cat Reese...my heart melts when I look at this picture

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Time for another What I'm Loving Wednesday wtih http://www.littledaisymay.blogspot.com/!

First up...I'm loving the coffee specials at Dunkin Donuts. I'm like a little squirrel stocking up on my coffee around this time of year. The sales for Christmas are always great and I find myself buying bag after bag to brew at home for months to come! Right now..buy 3 get a bag free! It's kind of funny when it comes to coffee..if I need a pick me up during the day, I never head to Dunkin, yet it's all I brew at home. Normally, if I'm out, I'm a Starbucks girl, but I hate their actually coffee!

I'm also loving this tinted lip treatment by Fresh! It came as a sample in a Sephora order of mine. Usually lip tints that aren't lipsticks sometimes have a weird colored tint to them. When I saw that this color was named Rose..I thought it probably wouldn't work with my coloring and be too pink. However, this goes on like a luxurious chapstick and there's only a tiny hint of color..enough to make you feel like you have something on, but not caked down with a heavy lip color!

Also...a new shampoo someone suggested to me...Fekkai Gloss Shampoo and Conditioner...I'm in love..it's doing wonders for my thick wavy hair that I straighten everyday. Since I started using it, my hair just doesn't have that beat down stop straightening and drying me every day feeling!



lastly...I'm enjoying all things Christmas! Finally, I feel like the holidays are here. This past weekend we went to a tree lighting at Bowen's Wharf in Newport, RI. Only in Rhode Island are our trees topped with star fishes!

Christmas Traditions

One thing that was so important to me once I got married was to create some traditions..things that Mr. Allan and I love to do and will eventually share with our families and pass down to our kids. Christmas is the perfect time to start some new ones! I feel like my family doesn't have these yearly traditions that I can't wait for. We never got together at Aunt so and so's house for a big Christmas eve get together or did this special thing on Christmas morning. In fact, I can remember my Dad trying to get family together for a Christmas Eve open house once we got a little older and were in college and maybe 1/8 of them showed up. Things like that kind of make me sad and realize that we're lacking a bit in the tradition area. So, the past few years, Mr. Allan and I have set out to create our own. This is one of my favorite ones...the chopping down of the Allan Family Christmas tree. It's something we started once we moved into our house...mostly because there's a Christmas tree farm every 20 feet off the road we live on. It's something I positively love to do. We're pumped with holiday spirit, we sing Christmas carols off the cheesy station that starts playing them way too early the whole ride there, and then we get to the very serious task of picking out the perfect tree.

Mr. Allan plowing through the acres of trees....

Every year we think we find a tree...but we need to look a little more and use the tree we think is it as a comparison. Mr. Allan always whips off a hat or glove to mark it, so if we find a tree we think is better, we can run back to the first..I know..we take our tree hunting a bit serious... 

After searching around for another 20 minutes, the hat tree was deemed to be it!

This is pretty random...besides having to watch where I step so I don't fall in the hole where a tree used to be...you have to watch out for the random animal vertabrae as well...ewww...

Usually we chop ourselves, but there was a very enthusiastic 9 year old kid who followed us around for the first ten minutes and told us about 5 times he could chop it for us..Mr. Allan lending a hand...

 Christmas tree farm was complete with new furry baby cows too

Finally...the tree was home, trimmed, put in the house...and the stand off with our cat, Reese, began.....

 Finally.....our tree. It's funny how everyone has their specifics when it comes to tree decorating. For us...we're not garland or tinsle people..I'm not a fan of it and our cats like to eat it and throw it up. I remember one of my first holidays with Mr. Allan when we actually got a tree...he was so specific that it couldn't be this disaster unstylish tree and that we needed to stick with a theme. So, the Allan tree is red, silver, and gold every year...we like to put as many lights as we can on it and as many ornaments as the poor sucker will hold!

My Sephora Top 10

in no particular order....

1. Urban Decay's NAKED palette (LINK)

Hands down the best eye shadow investment I've ever made. My sister and a couple friends have bought it as well and love it just as much as I do. I'm a brunette with greenish hazel eyes and I use almost every color in this palette. It comes with a tiny bottle of their primer potion, which I love as well, and totally worth the $40 something dollar price tag 

2. Clarisonic Skin Care Brush (LINK)

My friend suggested this to me. She had one that she received as a Christmas gift and really really liked it. I have my fair share of complexion woes and I love this. I use it primarily at night after I take off my make up and wash my face with this before I go to bed. It reminds me of the deep cleaning you get when you go for a facial. I'm one who would wash my face and never get that really clean scrubbed feeling..this does the trick. I also have skin that gets really dry in some places (mostly my nose) during the winter and find that cleansing with this helps cut down on the flakiness. If you don't want to go for the regular sized one, there's also a smaller sized one called the Mia for about $80 less! I also use my normal face wash with this..while the samples from Clarisonic were nice..any facewash will do. I once did try it with my face scrub..no success!

3. Lancome Definicils Mascara (LINK)

This is my go to mascara. I've tried tons of different brands..from Maybelline's Great Lash that everyone calls the best and who can beat it at $4 a tube...sorry didn't give me the length I wanted...to the cult following that Diorshow Mascara has...flaked on me and really bothered my eyes. I always go back to Lancome Definicils. It lengthens and it's not a mushy mascara that I find under my eye in an hour or two. I love the way it stiffens on my lashes..as a contact lens wearer that's important so I'm not constantly feeling like my make up is flaking into my eye. They do have the new Definicils Precious Cells...in my opinion the original is better..the Precious Cells had a clay like feel on my lashes I didn't care for.

4. Guerlain Terracotta Bronzing Powder (LINK)

I've never been a huge bronzer person. In the summers in New England, I'm usually sporting a tan and in the winter I went with the white face and blush look...once I started using this, I quickly found out how the latter look wasn't working for me. I use this as an a quick all over face powder to give me a little color. I went with the light since my skin is fair and I don't believe it looks like that tacky bronzer painted on look that many ladies are sporting and adds that little ooomph I need to get thru the winter pasty white months.

5. Dior Airflash Foundation (LINK)

A couple girls recommended this to me. During the summer months, I typically wear a sheer tinted moisturizer. My goto brand has been Laura Mercier. However, once the tan has faded and I need some more coverage..the tinted moisturizer just doesn't cut it. This foundation is fabulous. I've never used a product with such great coverage. It does take a couple tries to find a way that you're comfortable applying it. Some spray it right on their face, I spray it on a kabuki brush and then apply it to my face. It does have a big price tag, so I don't wear it daily and usually use it once a week and for special nights out. Once in a while I do get some dryness from it and will take a break. I have read reviews with people complaining about breakouts as well since there's a small amount of oil in it. If your skin can handle this, you'll be hooked!

6. Fresh Brown Sugar Face Polish ( LINK)

The most amazing face scrub I've ever used. I love Fresh products and this is my favorite by far. A little bit of this stuff goes a long way. It smells so good and does the job. The tiny sugar crystals exfoliate your face so well. No other face scrub/exfoliater that I've tried comes even close to this one.

7. Make Up Forever HD Finishing Powder (LINK)

I tend to have a shinier face...once I put on concealer and foundation, I need a little something over it to help it set in and last me the day. I was using Bare Minerals Mineral Veil but got frustrated with it. Those stupid little tops would snap off on me and the stuff was everywhere in my make up case. If any got on my clothes..like one tiny speck even...it never comes off for me. I read reviews about this finishing powder and love it. It sets everything in and is a bit lighter than the mineral veil. It is a little powdery..when I swirl my brush in it, I get a little dust..but for what it does..that's a very minor downfall!

8. Clinque City Block Everyday Sunscreen (LINK)

I wear this sunscreen every single day. It doesn't matter if it's 80 and sunny or -10 degrees and a blizzard out. I never leave the house without sunscreen on. This is light enough to put right over my moisturizer, doesn't clog pores, make you greasy or shiny, and protects you against harmful rays. A daily staple for me and if you're not wearing sunscreen and care about wrinkles or think the spf in your foundation is enough..it probably isn't!

9. Smashbox Photo Finish Primer Light (LINK)

I think the same friend that recommended the Dior Airflash led me to this primer as well. You might not think you need a primer, and some may not, but if you find yourself looking in the mirror at lunch time thinking where did my foundation go..one might work for you. I feel like this primer is light enough...I moisturize, suncreen, prime, then comes the make up. the same as the Clinque Cityblock..it doesn't clog pores or make my skin feel heavy and creates a nice blank canvas before I put my make up on.

10. Urban Decay Primer Potion (LINK)

I started using this once I purchases my NAKED palette. The times I haven't used it, I usually get the dreaded eye shadow crease or the colors I so carefully put on are just mushed together and create one. One tube might seem expensive but goes a very long way. I think I'm going on month 5 with my current tube and I use this everyday I wear eyeshadow..which is typically 6 out of the 7 days a week. They also have some tinted primers...I purchased one this summer and loved it..gave a little extra shimmer that I loved for the summer months!



It was quite hard to narrow down my list to just 10 things...maybe I'm a Sephora whore..but I love all things make up and body product related. There were quite a few items that should get an honorable mention..like Nars Blush in Orgasm, Laura Merciers Secret Concealer, Bliss Body Butter, L'occitane hand cream, Clinique Chubby Sticks, Rosebud Salve...ahh the list goes on and on!