On the Pole, with Ms. Stewart

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of terribly uninteresting drama and recurring sinus infections {lovely}, so until I feel back to "normal", I wanted to pop in and leave you with this little unexpected ray of sunshine.

{Click on the photo... you won't be sorry!}

Flickr Favorites Friday

1. baking corner, 2. Warmth, 3. Dissect, 4. brrrrr, 5. Rocco French Bulldog 1, 6. Hot Cocoa, 7. snow on trees, 8. Untitled, 9. ribbons of chihuly

A New Way to Tie One On

I am a scarf girl. Winter, summer, snow or sunshine, I'm likely to have a scarf on. I love that they instantly transform a hum-drum outfit into something that looks like it took time and thought to put together. A black cardigan, white tee and jeans **poof** becomes an actual stylish outfit.

Generally, I fall into the Parisian/European method of tying my scarf, where you fold it in half, wrap it behind your neck and pull the ends through the loop. Quick, simple and chic. That is until today, when Sarah over at Classy & Fabulous turned me on to a whole new way to get my scarf on.

Take a look at this video by Michelle from Chic Critique:

How fabulous is that?! I can tell you, my scarf tying will never be the same.

A second helping please, Sam I Am...

By most measures, yesterday's In-Law Fest was a rousing success. No fights. Lots of Prosecco and THE most delicious ham a pig has ever given its yummy, yummy life for. So good, in fact, that I had to post about it and make sure that any of you ever have to make a ham, you use this recipe. The meat wasn't at all salty and more moist than you can imagine. And the glaze, oh, the Maple-Orange Glaze is... well... Oh! worthy.

I can't post the actual recipe here, but you can head over to America's Test Kitchen and it is available for free -- you just have to register on their site. While you are there, check out the Best Drop Biscuits recipe, for what can only be described as super quick, idiot-proof buttermilk biscuits. It's all so tasty, it almost makes me want to have my in-laws over more often. Almost.

Family Dinner: Disco Balls and Xanax

Our holiday centerpiece for this year. 

Today is the last of our holiday celebrating. Most of Ed's family is coming over and will somehow cram into our fairly small living room for supper and gift swapping. In addition to setting myself up for a crazy day by making a ham (the one thing I think I have never cooked before) -- there will be mucho tension because of some things that went down over the past few months. Fortunately, we made a run to the liquor store so at least we'll have some adult beverages to dull the pain.

New Year, New Page

One of my favorite things about New Year's Day is the, well, newness of it. It's like your life is opening a blank journal to the first fresh, blank page. A few days ago, I saw the cutest set of Moleskine journals in Real Simple magazine. The twelve color coded, numbered journals are set up like a daily planner, but without all of the bulk of the ones I've carried in years past.

Available at Moleskine.com or on sale at Crate & Barrel retail stores

As luck would have it, I came across the journal set at my local Crate & Barrel store. The best bonus of all -- it was on sale for $15!! I doesn't seem to be available online, but you might be lucky enough to score one in person. Now if only I could find something that could keep me *on* my carefully planned out (and now pretty) schedule...