Christmas 2009...so far :)

Feeling very blessed. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and that your hearts are as content as mine is right now. Presents aren't that important, but making memories with the ones you love is priceless.

Jim n Nick's BBQ
{first stop once I hit the ground in ATL; love me some BBQ}

Mom's Christmas tree!

Me with my puppy love, Ginseng!
{this is my brother's sweet Maltese poodle}

Brother Bill :)
{this was the 15th try of this picture, hence my face}

Gorgeous view of the North Georgia mountains

Nothing beats Waffle House for Christmas lunch!
{we were actually on the road Christmas day so this was the only thing open}

Surprising my darling nephews on Christmas Day!!

The Very Best Christmas Present!

I get to go home!

On my way back to Atlanta as you are reading this, and I couldn't be more excited! I get to surprise my brothers and nephews, and see my parents! I can't wait!!!!

Now it finally feels like Christmas!!

xoxo

the breakup

i don't want to get into details, but the boyfriend and i have decided to end our relationship after 2.5 years together. it's a funny feeling, but not one that i'm scared of. i'm a firm believer in following your heart, and the truth is, my heart was no longer in it. it wouldn't have been fair to either of us to continue on the way we were. trust me, i'm not looking for sympathy, but rather just to share a chapter of my life that is coming to a close and the only chapter that you, my readers, have really been a part of.

i also wanted to take a moment to thank kate and danielle for being such good friends during this time. it's amazing to me to think that i could find two such genuine and kind people admist the entire population of los angeles, just from blogging. i am so grateful for their friendship!

i hope all of you enjoy the holidays with your loved ones!

.i.love.danielle.

Not only is Danielle an awesome friend, she's also an amazing blog designer. She was kind enough to update my blog look with one of her fun winter pre-made templates! I love it! I just read on her website that all pre-mades are on sale for $20!!! Go check out her designs to get a festive look of your own!

Busy week, but I'll be back soon with updates!

ooh macbooks are fun

My work made the mistake of having me use a MacBook Pro to test out one of our software programs. I say mistake because it's been all play and no work! I've never used a Mac before so it was all new to me. The Photo Booth program is so awesome! Here are some pictures from my "very productive" day...

This is what I look like when my boss
finds out I haven't done anything all day...

Isn't this little red hat the cutest?
I got it at Gap today for only $10!!

In Paris!

Swimming with the fishes...hehe!

Brain Swirl!

So fun! But now I seriously have to get to work before I don't have a job at all... :)

Holiday Party!

Happy Wednesday lovelies! This will be a quick post because I have been so busy this week!

Last Friday, my company had our annual holiday party! It was fun, as usual. How could it not be when there is free food and an endless supply of wine, right?! We all had a great time! I even got awarded for being one of the top employees of the year. It was a pleasant surprise and I received gift cards for the movies and a nice restaurant. This is a truly horrible picture that I'm about to share, but it is the only one I have since my camera died pretty early in the day. This one was taken by one of the managers during the awards part of the party.

Me accepting my award!

And some other pictures I was able to take before my camera died...

Sorry some are fuzzy...poor camera is on the fritz! And as a side note, I do have female friends at work, but the majority of my co-workers are male...we are all great friends!

Vegas Pictures!

Las Vegas was so much fun! I was determined to take 100 pictures a day, but I forgot a lot of times to get my camera out! Here are some of the pictures I did take.

Our hotel room at Mandalay Bay

I filled my closet up!
(Thank you Kate for the darling Toss roller bag!)

My winnings from the casino! I was allotted $20 to gamble and I doubled it :)

Seriously, the delicious steak dinner that I dream about.
Served with mashed potatoes, gravy, and garlic green beans.

A REALLY big drink called "The Scorpion" from the Peppermill.

About halfway finished...hehe

All gone :(

Posing with my favorite mascot, the lion, from The Artisan

Loved this ostrich at Anthropologie!

Walking around The Venetian

These pictures make me realize {even more} that I need a new camera!! It's already on the Christmas list. I really want this one because of it's amazing features and reviews!

Have a great weekend lovelies!

My Office is Ready for Christmas!!!

My festive office is making me feel cheery and bright! The VP of our company even came by and said he liked what I'd done, adding that he was happy that the managers chose to put me in the front office because I made a great first impression to new guests! That was so nice to hear!

Wreaths are fairly expensive so I bought this after the Halloween clearance at Target. I then added some silver beaded garland and pink snowflakes to make it more wintery-like!

Shiny tinsel with snowflakes!

My tacky pink tree with silver ornaments!

Silver tinsel and snowflakes on my mirror!

I just love this tinsel hanging from my cabinet!

Thanks for all of your sweet comments on my post yesterday. I am feeling better. I think I was just upset because I had an issue with my car and had to have it towed last Sunday. The bill ended up being close to $600 and I just really missed my parents so much because I didn't really know what to do. My dad is always good about that kind of stuff so it was hard to only be able to talk to him on the phone. Anyway, it's all better and I have my car back!

Feeling Blue...But Trying Not To!!!!

Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you're home.

~Carol Nelson


I didn't really realize it until now...but I'm very bummed to not be going home this year for the holidays.

I have incredible parents that I miss very much. I haven't seen my dad since May and my mom's visit is just a distant memory now.

I have 3 very amazing older brothers. They are scattered throughout the Southeast, but at least when I was in Georgia I saw them much more than now.

And my nephews are all so cute and adorable. They are growing so fast that they probably don't remember their Aunt Angela anymore!

I'm doing my best to continue on my merry way though.


I'm listening to Christmas music at work...I've decorated my office in tacky silver garland and brightly covered snowflakes so I'll have to post pictures soon. And I still need to share the pictures and stories from Las Vegas as well {don't let me forget}!

Stay tuned for a cheery post lovelies :) xoxo

Happy Thanksgiving!

Are you one of the lucky ones getting to be with family this Thanksgiving?! If so, count your blessings that you are able to spend time with your loved ones and please enjoy every second!

Since I will not be going home, I thought it would be fun to take a trip with the boyfriend instead. We are going to Las Vegas this year for a few days and are looking at it as a mini vacation! We booked a room at Mandalay Bay!! YoYo will be staying at the PetsHotel where he will {hopefully} be pampered like a baby and Mo will be on his own, guarding the apartment.

We are most excited about the delicious $6.95 steak dinner {seriously the best deal in LV...so good!}, seeing the famous Cirque de Soleil show, O, at the Bellagio, Midnight Madness at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets, and of course meeting up with Kate for lunch on Friday! I hope I remember to take lots of pictures!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Winner and some other stuff.

Hi all! So sorry to be late posting the winner of the Christmas Giveaway...I completely forgot! Thank you to everyone that entered. I enjoyed reading about what you are most looking forward to this holiday season! Bronco Mom is positively thrilled to see all of her new followers and is looking forward to getting to know all of you!! Without further ado, the winner of the giveaway is:

Congratulations Tille of A Nuttier Life! I do hope you enjoy everything included. I've sent you an email with all the information needed to claim your prize so please email me back at your earliest convenience!

-------------------------------------

I saw The Blind Side on Saturday and it is such a phenomenal movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend going! Every time I saw the previews for it, I would start crying, but when I watched the movie I didn't cry at all. It's really truly more inspirational than sad. I also taught myself how to apply fake eyelashes {YouTube rocks!} and I got a haircut! I don't really know why I'm telling you this, but I'm very excited to have finally found someone I can trust to cut my hair in California!!! I hope you all had great weekends...I am so excited about a short work week! I will share my Thanksgiving plans with you tomorrow!

I have such sweet friends {long post ahead}!!

My blog friends have been too kind! I have recently been awarded with a number of accolades, and I'm so excited about it. I have been meaning to post for quite awhile now, but I just keep getting pulled away from blogging to do other things, like papers and group projects {why, oh why??!}. This is way more fun though! Although my current paper on gender differences in the workplace and the effect it has on promotion rates really is very interesting.

Moving on, thanks to all of these ladies for thinking of me for these awards. It really is very sweet and makes me feel oh so good!

The lovely Ashley from The Ramirez Family gave me the One Lovely Blog Award! Please check out Ashley's blog - she is so darling! Her and her husband just got the most adorable little puppy too! I'm going to give this award to any of my followers that don't have it!! Thanks again Ashley!

One of my very favorite bloggers ever, The Luckiest Mrs., just reached her 101st post and created an award to go along with it! Don't you love it? It's the Happy 101 Award!!! Along with the award I have to list 10 things that make me happy and 10 bloggers that brighten my day, so here goes!

10 things that make me happy: sleeping in, tv, family, my pup, my significant other, good movies, food!, the holidays, friends, and pay day! and 10 bloggers that brighten my day: Kate {you better post this, I know where you live :)}, Jill, Gwen, Jules, Summer, Bronco Mom, Danielle, Britt, Phoenix, and Jenn!

The Luckiest Mrs. has a pretty awesome Mom too - Maria of Personalized Sketches & Sentiments! She awarded me with The Icing on the Cake Award! It's so fun that I want to give it to all of my followers that don't have it yet!! You all deserve it :)

Lastly, Emily, Leigh, Elle and Wendy all gave me the Sugar Doll Award! Thanks ladies! I am supposed to come up with 10 facts about myself, but I'm really not that interesting...sadly! Ha! I've seen this going around the blogworld, so if you haven't gotten it yet, please take it!!

And that's it folks! I've got an assignment to work on now so I'm off! I'm so glad it's almost Friday! I have school two nights a week this term and both of my professors like to keep us there until the clock strikes 10 pm {that's late after a full day of work}! Needless to say, it's a good night for some wine and catching up on my shows!!

Just a Reminder!

Don't forget to enter my Christmas Giveaway by tomorrow {lets say evening-ish time}!

All of this could be yours,
all yours!

monogrammed plate, festive labels, smell-good lotions...

Enter before it's too late!

On another quick note, I am ecstatic to have reached 600 followers this week! Thank you all so much for being my blog friends - I'm so lucky to have all of you! I will be doing a fun follower appreciation post next week (like this one!), so be sure to keep an eye out for your name to appear randomly on one of my posts! xoxo

PS - Don't forget to check out the other giveaways I have listed on my sidebar: Seashells and Sunshine is giving away a Christmas scented Yankee Candle {the deadline has been extended to Saturday so go enter now!!!}, the adorable Headbands & Handbags is doing a holiday giveaway every week until the beginning of December, and Ashley is having a 100 follower surprise giveaway {love these!}...go check them out and make a new friend while doing so!!! Win win!!