Tuesday, December 30, 2014

christmas 2014.


i build up Christmas in my head more than a five year old it seems like. and as it always does, it flies by before my mind can wrap around that it's came and gone. this was our first {and only!} Christmas while being engaged and new homeowners. we were so blessed to spend it with friends and family and a puppy.

no... not a puppy of my own, but i'm still hoping for it! valentine's maybe? maybe.

anyway, lee and i both had to work Christmas eve (i worked from home, thankfully), so at around 3pm on wednesday, we headed down to roxboro to stay with my parents. my family does a traditional Christmas eve present exchange & lee's family does theirs on Christmas day, so it works out pretty much perfectly that we get to celebrate with both. phew. glad we could avoid that awkwardness of where we're going and when. 


my parents made enough food for a whole army and their's kids and their future kids and their future kids too. but that's usually how we roll at the crute household. with more presents than there were space in the living room, we opened up more than we deserved! lee got a weed eater, hedge trimmer, and like 3 other things i can't remember right now. 

my mom knows i'm a coffee freak who has a weird obsession with keurig's so when i opened up that 2.0 keurig with a fancy-shmancy touch screen, i was pumped. i also got a ton other house stuff and was just as pumped about that. you know you're getting old when mixing bowls excite you, but coming from someone who has been mixing & preparing food in old pasta dishes... trust me, you'd be pumped too! 


then it was time for my dad's annual christmas envelope game that he started about three years ago. seven envelopes randomly numbered with anything ranging from $20, $10, $5 to $1's. we play a series of games to determine who picks the envelope first in hopes that the $20 is staring them in the face when they open it. granddaddy won last year. granddaddy won this year. i'm beginning to this one of two things:

1. the game is rigged.
2. granddaddy has some mad money guessing skillz.

yes. meet izzy! my brother rescued this adorable baby pup from the shelter which only aided in my pulling at lee's shirt sleeve uttering the words "we need a puppy" more than usual. she is so sweet!

and on Christmas day, we began our trek back to charlotte. 

{ps: i got these cute sunnies from forever 21 for like $5.80 so just fyi in case anyone cares}

when lee and i got back to our house, we started our tradition of opening our gifts to each other alone. we typically have always done them around family, but being this was our first christmas in the house, both of us wanted to start a little something ourselves. 

we went with just one present for each other this year as the house itself {& furnishing & decorating} was/is/will continue to be a HUGE present to each other. not to mention our new sleigh bed & bedroom set is projected to get here tomorrow!! that was another gift to each other. but since i love surprising him & vice versa, he opened up his smoker from me and i opened up a wifi camera for blogging & future wedding activity capturing! the boy knows i love some pictures.


we headed over to the walker's shortly thereafter for dinner & drinks followed by their annual game of boulder dash & burning some firewood out in lance's garage. 

we opened up even more presents that we are so grateful for and had ourselves a merry little christmas. i hope you did too! 
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Sunday, December 28, 2014

i'm ready for snow.


meanwhile in charlotte, we've been dealing with upper 50's and even weather into the 60's! it was close to 65 degrees on christmas eve! i have all these cute winter clothes and for once, i'm not complaining about how cold the temps can get down to at night. 

usually i'm a hardcore summer girl, and while those 85 degree days by the pool have a special place in my heart, i'm dying to wear my cute winter wear without feeling silly because it's totally lukewarm outside. 

i kid you not, i have gathered... um.... seven vests this season. that's right - seven. is that a problem yet? i love how they can transform a simple sweater and jack up your outfit coolness up a few notches. this white puffer beauty from three eighteen boutique did just that. i love little faux fur insert around the neck & don't get me started on the hood. 

i love hoods.

let's preface this better... i love hoods on outfits. i feel like that could be taken out of context. 

and this purse. you heard about it first here, but in case you're following along on instagram, you've been seeing a lot of it and sorry in advance; but that won't stop. 

well, it's football sunday and the papa john's guy is at the door. would you expect anything else? 


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Monday, December 22, 2014

i'm boycotting concerts.


happy monday to you. don't you wish every morning could begin with pajamas and coffee cups that make you look awake while you pretend to be asleep? yeah. me too. 

actually some of you probably aren't like me who crawls out of bed like 30 minutes before they're supposed to hit the door, but last week on my day off enjoying coffee on the couch was exactly the perfect start. 

work also had a holiday tacky day where i actually got to wear leggings to work. leggings, y'all. aka pajamas. seeing a pajama trend? i am. i stole this home alone sweater of lee's, which is about 3 sizes to big for me, rolled up the sleeves and threw on a festive red striped shirt underneath. hands down the comfiest work outfit to date (with the exception of days i work from home which means.... you guessed it.... pajamas).

i was off thursday and friday so naturally that means shopping. for some reason christmas shopping always turns into amanda shopping because i fell in love with that fuschia bow bag below that kept screaming my name every time i tried to walk away. hey, when it's love, why fight it? then i drove up to concord to visit a house store that has everything you would ever need to decorate and never wanted to leave.


how gorgeous is that bathroom chest? lee and i made a rule to be together when making furniture purchases, so i refrained, but snagged a picture to head on back to buy that beauty. i scored a ton of other decor items for those massive built in bookshelves of ours. 

oh hey, $600 later. 

the way i see it is we have to decorate sooner or later. and as long as my fiance doesn't want to ring my neck, then i'm cool.

friday, we headed up to raleigh! 


we meet up with my college girlfriend, corey, and her husband, adam, to go see yelawolf in concert. 

haven't heard of him? no big. i know like three songs, chorus only. but his music has some awesome beats so i just danced around to that. ....before i almost died.

i have a story for y'all. concerts like this require standing room venues only usually and there were two very large ladies standing in front of us. corey accidently dropped her drink which lead to the large lady turning around and legit shoving me across to land on a staircase. um ow. she then proceeded to try and swing at me, luckily lee didn't let her. (mom, don't read this part & freak out and call me. i'm good; i promise.) security came running and grabbed her; meanwhile she is still swinging at me. i am straight up white girl mode with my hands in the air, tearing up, surrendering, & mouthing i didn't do anything!  so yeah. i may hold off on the concerts for a while. 

and then adam almost got eaten by a bear!


kidding. but that's funny right there. how perfectly placed he is in front of the bear on the wall with his mouth open... i died laughing. so a picture was a must. don't you love finding goodies on your camera roll the next day?

saturday night, back in charlotte, we attended the annual johnson family christmas party that i went to, with lee, for the 2nd year. apparently as a teenager, lee wasn't invited to this party per say, but always showed up anyway. classy. so now we just make it a tradition to go. and we actually got an invite this year! 


ps: this picture makes me smile in a lot of ways, but one being that my hair looks crazy long. you have no idea how long i've wanted my hair to look long considering about two and half years ago, most of it broke off about three inches from my scalp & i had to chop it all off under my chin after a horrifying experience with bleach and a bad hairdresser. 

so yeah, i'm just gonna throw a little hair party here. hope you don't mind.


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linking up with biana  and meghan for weekending
Monday Morning Gossip link up with Leeann and Kimberly
weekend recap with showered with desgin

Thursday, December 18, 2014

stacked.


you remember that week approaching christmas where you started to feel terrible? splitting headaches, i don't even want to get out of my pajamas kinda week? oh yeah. i know that all too well as that's currently been my week. which explains me being mia. and although i never plan on a mini blog break, they just kind of happen. just like life.

however, i am bringing some cheer into your (and my own!) day by showing off these beauts - these cable cord bracelets from stacked accessories. the cool part about them is you can shop without ever having to leave instagram!

that's right. scroll, scroll, double tap on a picture of your best friend, double tap on a picture of a puppy, scroll, double tap on that super hot outfit, scroll, scroll.. boom, there's stacked accessories. could they make it any easier for us? these cable cord bracelets caught my eye and i had to say yes. they are an excellent stocking stuffer idea! 

and today through december 21st, stacked accessories and i are co-hosting a giveaway! check out my blog instagram for more deets on how to win one of these gorg pieces in a color of your choice (between purple, crystal, & teal)! 

and if you do choose to slip the bracelet in your own stocking.... don't worry. we won't tell.

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I'm linking up for Thoughts on Thursday  Natalie and Annie!

Monday, December 15, 2014

tis the season for parties.

as of literally 3 minutes ago i just realized i have been out of college going on 4 years. that thought alone has me in shambles and wanted to crawl back into bed and go back to sleep to forget i ever had that thought. where. does. time. go. 

anyway, since using sleep as a temporary method of forgetting is pretty much stupid, i'll update you on our weekend instead. 

friday night, this pretty girl came to stay with us. 


magan and i have been friends since 9th grade and when i found out she had to be in charlotte for saturday night, i convinced her she must come stay with us friday night and be my wine bff. it didn't take much convincing. i swear, a relaxing night at home with good people is all i like to do anymore! we stayed up way too late and regretted it the next morning when our adult inner-alarm-clocks woke us up. 

then i proceeded to cook for the "favorites" party we hosted saturday night. there were 8 couples - lee & i, jared & hannah, sean & taylor, and jj & amanda. two amanda's under one roof is always fun. we've changed our nicknames to agc for me & gill for her. it works. 

everyone brought a dish and two gifts for us to play a little dirty santa game full of stealing.


the two favorites i brought were essie's bikini so teeny with a nail file & a super cute mug with a bag of coffee. i ended up with a bottle of champage (always a winner) and a pocket knife. 

try and take away my champagne. SEE what happens. i will cut you. because now i can.


next up was party #2 of the night - a tacky christmas where another game of dirty santa was played. at a last minute decision, lee wrapped up two of the leftover ham & cheese baked sandwiches so we could participate. the guy who opened it died laughing and immediately ate them claiming that was the best gift ever. 

yes, i wore a onesie. 


to the bar afterward. 

best. decision. ever. not only was that the most comfy i have ever been while going out, but everyone couldn't believe i was actually in a onesie at the bar. me either. can i wear this every time i go out?

on sunday, i attendee lee's mom's annual cookie party where you make six dozen of one cookie, exchange with the 25 some other women who are there so you end up coming home with way too many cookies that you'll eat for dinner over the next three days.


sugar overload. 

and finally to end the weekend, lee and drew set up our new computer desk in the office! so far we have found all of our furniture from craigslist, with the exception of a our bedroom set, end tables, chest, and dresser. i honestly don't mind getting used furniture as long as it's in good shape and not to mention, extra $$ in our pockets! next on the list is some pretty pattered chairs and a nice table to go to the left of the desk in the corner. 

i can't wait to do a reveal of these rooms, but it will be a while. like a long while. sorry bout it.


so for now, i'll leave you with this picture of lee in his new found bff of a computer desk with his feet propped up for picture taking purposes only because we are not barbarians. 

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linking up with biana  and meghan for weekending
Monday Morning Gossip link up with Leeann and Kimberly

Friday, December 12, 2014

luxe.


are you drooling yet? luxe statements has some amazing designs and i can attest for that. this necklaces reminds me of something straight out of a j. crew magazine. i love the darker stones which stands out from your standard crystal statement necklace. 

i wore this look bowling last weekend with our friends and here lately, charlotte has been freezing! i'm not complaining though. i was well over the 80 degree weather at the beginning of august! i would ideally like to enclose the world in a beach ball and heat the whole thing at a solid 72 degrees, but we all know that's impossible. so when i put together this vest, faux fur boots (let me repeat: faux. fur. boots!!! and for only $40!) & checkered chambray, the suzy statement pretty much slapped me in the face screaming wear me! 

not only do they have statement pieces, but i am dying to have these earrings and this bracelet in my stocking. hey ma! read this!! 

it's friday and one of my bridesmaids is coming to stay with us tonight. we're grilling steaks and making mashed potatoes (my favorite food; seriously) and drinking too much wine in pajamas. sounds like optimal friday night to me.

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