The year I said "no"

This year I promised my husband I wouldn't bake Christmas cookies. And to be honest, I felt pretty good about it. Normally speaking I turned into a little bakerella stressed out, sleep deprived & cranky baker...

So this year I said no. No to baking 10 dozen of 8 different types of cookies. I just wasn't going to do it. And I was ok with it.

Then....

My aunt called, and asked me to bring cookies, how could I say no?

My bosses teased me how my old coworkers bragged about my baking.

My mom volunteered me to bring cookies to another Christmas party.

Shoot. Looks like I'm baking. 

13 dozen Snickers filled peanut butter cookies and 100 oreo truffles later...I am ready for christmas!

I hope you everyone has a Merry Christmas and enjoys lots of Christmas goodies 

Our Christmas tree!!

This is our second christmas married & in our house together! I cannot believe how time is flying by! It still feels like yesterday the walls were bright pink and we were spending all of our time scrubbing our house and planning our wedding!

This tree doesnt have a particular theme, but instead special ornaments and traditional christmas ornaments...some of my favorites are:

                         Honeymoon < 3       1st Anniversary       Angels watching us

                             For this little bakerella herself     How cute is this guy?!

So thats it....I cant believe christmas in in a week. Where has December gone?! Hope everyone's shopping is almost finished and baking too!

Holiday Decor

Happy Sunday Everyone!! I just wanted to stop by and share some of our holiday decor at our house this year.

This is our foyer table. I got the elf print from 

Adrienne at  asyouwishprinting, on Etsy

she was wonderful to work with she created a custom print for me was amazing!

The rest of the christmas decor is from Target, with the exception of the little reindeer guy, my grandpa made him. The apothecary jar is just filled with tulle and ornaments and was very simple to make.

This is our family room, we went with a white, silver and gold theme. Our stocking hangers say Mr & Mrs....I love them! The mantle has white christmas lights with tulle tied around them, I am loving this look this year!

We have a giant 9' tree in our living room, but I will save that for a whole other post...stay tuned!

Follow me on instagram @crawifey for more holiday pictures :)

Ogelbay...or bust

My husband is one of those retail warriors...so as much as I love the holidays and am a self proclaimed Little Miss Christmas...I always cringe a little because I know I wont be seeing much of my hubby. This year...he got 1 (yes, o-n-e) weekend day off the month of November & December (yikes!). So what did we do? Fled the state of course. 

Now I have always heard and seen commercials about Oglebay Festival of Lights. A whole place dedicated to christmas lights?! Sign. Me. Up.  

It is only 2.5 hours from where we live, so we figured we would leave around 3pm. We got some snacks, and packed up some games and headed on the road. 

 We guessed we would arrive around nightfall...perfect.

We got on the exit ramP at 4:20 pm. Annnnnd thats pretty much where we stayed....

for

the

next

SIX

hours

......

At first it was fun, we talked joked and were generally excited to see the lights, being that all these cars were going, it had to be cool right?!

Wrong. We finally arrived at this entrance to the park at 10:22pm (they close at 11pm)after sitting in bumper to bumper traffic (up a mountain), I was so excited picture me in the car with my santa hat rocking out to N*Sync Christmas!! This was one of the top ten destinations for Christmas lights in the county!

And then my husband and I burst into laughter.

The lights were horrible. 

We have better lights in our neighborhood at home.

This is probably the best lights we saw all night:

Brakelights.

Moral of the story: Ogelbay might be a cute place to stay, but the traffic you sit in and in my opinion the quality of the light display is absolutely not worth it. But. I can say that there is no one in the world I could spend 12.5 hours in a car with than my husband...and he was such a good sport about it!

Anyone else get stuck in this traffic?!

I quit....

I absolutely without a doubt quit my blog....for the better part of this year. But i miss it. So in an effort to remember my life & make new friend...here we go! ...errr take two. Last time I blogged...was EASTER...soooo much has happened since then....

Starting with this little guy!

We adopted him from a rescue right after Easter

He was about 4 months old and is the biggest cuddle monster in the world

No joke. All he wants is to love on him. And we love him.

We spend the summer and fall relaxing, working on our house and celebrating some of our best friends weddings!  We took a spur of the moment trip to Niagra Falls and it was such a nice getaway to escape reality.

So that's a glimpse of where I've been. When I look back it has been such a whirlwind year and so much has changed! I am still loving my new job and am SO much happier than I was previously.

 

Easter Treats!

I just wanted to share some things I made for easter....

A Bunny-Butt cake! I used regular cake mix, and a bundt pan for the body. To fill in the middle and shape the tail and feet, I followed the same directions for cake pops, but instead of rolling it into balls, I made a middle, feet, and tail! Covered everything with coconut and this was a huge success!

These little guys were just absolutley adorable, and easy to make!

Have a great weekend everyone!

First outfit post....errrr

In an effort to not turn into a frumpy newlywed....I've made a resolution to myself that I'm going to find a new outfit from my closet every week. To start with....here's my Easter outfit! I know I'm horrible at taking these pictures and I will try to find better ways to take them(take it from me...these are an improvement I used to jump up on the bathtub to take outfit pictures!) so if you have suggestions they are greatly appreciated!!

This dress was snagged recently at old navy for $15.99!

The Happiness Project

I stumbled across this book at target and I thought it looked interesting so I picked it up, and since then I haven't put it down! If your looking for an easy, but mind challenging book, this is it. This books makes you think about your own life an what positive changes you can make!

And breathe!

Is there anyone still out there?

I cant even remember the last time I posted, I think it was like a month ago, life has been a COMPLETE whirlwind. Catchup whats currently happening?

New job! Its been a crazy busy, frustrating, exhausting experience taking on a huge life change, going from customer service in probably the biggest company in our country to a small 5-employee real estate appraisal company and although I'd be lying if I said I wasnt scared or sure it was the right decision, I am sure now. I no longer hate going to work, dread my horrible schedule or getting yelled at constantly, and I'm responsible for making sure the office runs smoothly and am loving it!

Our master bathroom "mini renovation" is still going on..boo. Hopefully it will be fininshed up soon without any more snafu's!

I do not know how all those full time working moms do it.....I can barely manage and its just me & the hubby! I'm hosting easter on Sunday (anyone sense a trend here?) and have to get back to planning that so I hope anyone still reading is doing fantastic and has a great holiday weekend <3

Springing Ahead!

It seems like just last week we were enjoying that extra hour of sleep once a year. But Spring is just around the corner, and I'm ready. After putting in my notice at my current job, one of my coworkers said it best, I'm not leaving just because, its a lifestyle change. She probably doesn't know it, but I'm really trying to embrace that. Because its true! I'm COMPLETELY switching gears, EVERYTHING is going to be different; and I would be lying if i said I wasn't terrified. But change is inevitable, and by taking my life into my own hands, I already feel better about everything, and its only just beginning.

Things I want to change with my new lifestyle change....in no particular order

1. Fashion- I want to be conscious of my outfits, and try to wear something nice every day. I think I can make this happen by pairing different pieces I have and being creative. Something that will help me be accountable would be like and outfit of the day post---or maybe a recap @ the end of each week?
2. Fitness- I want need to get my butt to the gym 4 days a week--no more excuses. The gym we have a membership to is LITERALLY on my way to/from work...and its only a 5 minute ride, so I can no longer use the excuse that my schedule sucks and my commute is to long. A minimum of a half hour workout 4 days a week...and then maybe get back into fitness classes???yes.
3. Chores- I'm terrible at this. My bed is a mess, the clothes are on the floor, and there are dishes in my sink. I need to get better at this. I don't really know how so suggestions are welcome!!

3 Areas of my Life I can change. I just need to remember to change your life you have to take the first step. Just like with my job, I didn't like it, so I changed it. It didn't happen immediately, but I stuck with it and have landed a perfect job for me.

This quote a friend pinned has hit me in so many more ways than I could ever imagine.

Source: Pinterest

Happy Saturday Everyone & Here's to a new tomorrow <3

{[Wedding recap]} The Dresses

Every girl dreams of their wedding dress their whole life, and this was was ONE thing I did not give myself a "set" budget for with our wedding, and my dress was absolutely perfect. It was the perfect blend of princess & romantic. I wore the Maggie Sottero Sabelle gown

My strapless dress had detailed beading around the top with a beautiful sweetheart neckline, pickups with hand appliqued flowers in each one, and lace to die for!

Lets be honest, these shoes are amazing.

My maid of honor's dress, the bridesmaid wore opposite colors

All the bridesmaids wore matching shoes...adorable!

Big news!!!

I've been offered a new job!

I am absolutely thrilled and over the moon about it <3

So things are going to be pretty crazy the next few weeks,

In case I disappear, dont worry I will be back...

Also some updates, I've really been a lot happier the past couple weeks, and this makes me even more happier...yes that was a grammatically correct sentence i know. But my motivational board, my new job, and happier outlook on life has really been helping me hold on to the better moments in life and dismiss the bad ones. I'm embracing the people in my life who are positive people, and realizing those are the relationships that matter the most.

I know life won't always be puppies and rainbows....but right now i'm feeling pretty darn good :)

Catch-up!

While I hope to do a more in-depth post on each of these projects...I'd thought I'd pop in to show you what we have been up to the past month!

Remember this? If not I blogged about it here

This is my parents house, and we've been working so hard!

Here's how it looked a few weeks ago with all the tile! Pretty awesome and this is definitely the biggest project we have tackled in our house, and our parents and we're both really pleased how it turned out!

Then we moved to Grandmas house......

And turned this.....

And these....

into this!!! I LOVE how this turned out and grandma loves it even more. Handy Hubby strikes again.

We've now turned back to our house and we're working on OUR master bathroom...here's some sneak peak pictures:

Hopefully more in depth posts will follow up soon!

Have a good night all!

Fan be gone

We have these really big, gorgeous, HIGH

Motivation Monday!

Here is the newest additions to my bedroom! Well, some of it was there, but most of it is new. This is my message to myself:



credit: Pinterest



Its time to jump start this business. Enough excuses, enough being to tired, or sleeping in too late, the rest of my life starts today.

One. Day. At. A. Time.

      

Here's some closeups of everything, if you have any questions, just ask!

What keeps you motivated? Or what is your best healthy lifestyle change?