2011, you will be hard to beat...

 

In March our family grew and we welcomed baby Avery. 

In May, Jon and I ran in the 100th year of the Bay to Breakers race.  

 Also in May, Jon and I took our engagement photos.

Pete kept us entertained all year long. 

In June, I was thrown the sweetest bridal shower ever. 

In July, I celebrated my birthday and bachelorette party in Las Vegas. 

 In August, we got hitched!

In September we had a really hard time leaving Hawaii. 

The year was filled with birthdays, good food, camping, wine tasting, wedding planning, general craziness, celebrations and so much love. This one will go down in the records for sure. 

Here's hoping 2012 brings us even more happiness.

Holiday Scenes

Christmas Eve breakfast for one. Morning Star veggie patties rule.

The cutest little stocking for my sweet niece. 

Check out her stylish pants!

Let's not forget this stylish dude, too. 

Woah!

Happy babies make Christmas dinner better. 

This crazy house in my parent's development. It's been like this ever since I was a kid, with the last maybe 5 years being more extravagant than ever. And I almost don't want to post the next door neighbor's house because I actually love all these lights, the creativity and the effort, but...

Lame!

What I Wore: Christmas Eve

Dress: Lulu's. Necklace: Vintage. Prescription glasses: Lookmatic.

a little wedding video

 

Here is a little wedding video a dear friend of ours made for us. Rob is super talented and this was only his second wedding, simply amazing. He interviewed us before and wove in the stories of how we met, our first date and the proposal with the wedding. If you have 7 minutes, I hope you will enjoy.

Some thoughts while I was watching:

-this was the first time seeing my maids walk down the aisle. i told them to look happy and seeing every one of their huge smiles brought me to tears. (who am i kidding, i cried throughout most of this)

-i have a huge lopsided bun in the interview

-the sweet face my MIL makes when i reach the top of the aisle

-why am i refering to LAKE MICHIGAN as "a river"?

-you will see i cannot get jon's ring on. we knew this ahead of time but decided to just go with it. well, it didn't go on and after much struggle at 6:36 i announce "its on" haha. love this.

-this was simply the best day of my life

By Robert Batzloff 

robertbatzloff@gmail.com

Merry Holidays

 

Alyssa Nassner 

I have been struggling to blog lately. This week is no exception. Posting will be sparse! 

Weekend Scenes

The holiday parties are coming back to back and on top of each other now and while I love it, coming home and getting cozy is also that much better. Here are some moments from our weekend before Christmas.

 

My handiwork this year. Kraft paper and Japanese masking tape. With a little twine.

Pizza cut up in strips becomes flatbread which becomes a great appie. 

Dinners are always better with your own little pot of cream. 

We cleared out our dining area table in anticipation of our new Crate and Barrel dining room table...which never came. So beyond bummed. Crossing our fingers we get it before Christmas!

Reading is good, can we start the story now...

My current book wish list looks like this. Any you've read? Any I shouldn't waste my time with? 

P.S. Totally not pregnant, totally not trying. Just gotta be prepared, ya know?

Everything is fun to a toddler

 

{ Raking leaves with Uncle Jon.}

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Our most controversial card yet. See, this year we didn't say 

"Happy Holidays" and busted out "Merry Christmas". See that? :)

The only other card we sent out, in 2009. 

Christmas Decorations 2011

Of course everything isn't all set in it's place, but I just couldn't wait. 

I tried to change it up and keep it fresh and different from last year.

Our mantle. Missing two trees and fairy lights, but you get the idea. 

It's a little forest. :)

 

I don't think I will ever tire of bottle brush trees. 

That vintage Santa actually lights up. So this is my first Santa item. 

And we don't have kids. What is wrong with me?!

Fake snow!

Another Santa I picked up at this weekend's Alameda flea market.

I bought it because my mom has the same one. 

The backside is creepily painted- like face paint.

Getting less and less scared of using red to decorate for this holiday. I got this banner on ebay after being inspired by this epic mantle. This was still in it's original packaging from back in they day when it fetched 29 cents. 

Too delicate to hang on a door, I laid it on a coffee table and stuck a candle in the middle.

Lately

Hopped on that bandwagon. I didn't really get it at first. I was super happy

with my first Stylemint shirt. Anyone else have good experiences?

The prettiest little stock pot there ever was. It is called Dijion. 

I kind of want it to live on my stove and not hidden away in a cabinet.

Vintage Japanese ornaments from Ebay that I paid too much for. Tell me they're cute?

Homemade wedding present that I have been dying to display. 

Now I just need to find a spot worthy of it. 

The perfect studs

I was over the moon when Anjolee asked me to review a pair of their beautiful stud earrings. I could have gone with the diamond stud, but already have a pair from Jon. I think diamonds should come from somebody and be a gift. So I decided on the sapphires set in yellow gold. Sapphires always remind me of my mom, so I love them! They are the perfect everyday earrings that go with anything you could put on.

 

Imagine popping open this box!

The website was easy to use and you can customize anything you can dream up. I could have easily got diamond studs in white gold, garnets in yellow gold and in any size to meet my budget. Next time you are thinking about classic diamond stud earrings, head over to Anjolee.


Sponsored post by Anjolee, but all thoughts are my own.

Upcycle those Shiny Brites

Frankly, I was tired of using my Shiny Brite ornaments by putting them in fake snow in glass hurricanes. I think I did it a few years in a row. When I saw Emily Henderson's holiday special and she made a huge peace sign out of round ornaments, I couldn't wait to get started.

Peace on earth! Christmas decor without being obvious. I'm in love.

From the Shiny Brite wiki:

The demand for glass ornaments waned as plastic ornaments became more popular, ultimately bringing the Shiny-Brite company to close its doors in 1962.

 Boo! Boo to plastic.

Keeping it real. In the unstyled built in. It was the perfect decoration to go in the gap. I got a 26" floral wreath wire circle, and hot glued the crap out of those Shiny Brites. There were many causalities in the process. More glue=for the better.