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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Holiday Life Lately

Life lately.....
has involved several lazy afternoons spent cooking some cozy winter meals.
A favorite is lemon chicken with homemade croutons!
Which turns into leftover chicken soup the very next day.  
Perfect for those really cold winter days.
Other afternoons have been spent picking up flowers just because, grabbing cups of coffee, christmas shopping earlier than usual, spending hours blogging in the coffee house and putting together christmas packages (in November, what?!?!  what's wrong with me?!?!?! I never get to these things this early!!!).
It was kinda nice though.  Getting things done early for once!
I spent a whole afternoon arranging and packaging parcels.
A sweet friend that I made through blogging had the great idea that we should carry on the fun memory of how we met through a gift exchange by sending each other a Christmas parcel. 
Have I mentioned that it's wonderful being a Mrs. Morrison?!?! =)
Here is all the sweet Christmas cheer that arrived on my doorstep a few weeks ago!
What thoughtful and beautiful gifts for a newlywed couple for their first Christmas together.  We are already enjoying many of these gifts!
Coffee dates with the bro!
Tackling some DIY projects around the house by switching out old chandeliers....
 for new ones!!!
 And as you can see, we've decided to paint the entire first floor, head to toe!
 And lately I've been baking a whole bunch of pecan pumpkin pies!
Two for Thanksgiving alone =)
 Our tradition of Thanksgiving at gramma's house continues on year after year and we LOVE this
family tradition.  So many ridiculous laughs, it hurts your cheeks!!!
 Love this guy!
 Enjoying the day off work the Friday after Thanksgiving by taking a trip into the city.
Now we are off to the cabin for the rest of Thanksgiving break.
 Just the hubby and our dog,Odin!  The boys both love it up there.
So grateful for such a relaxing and full weekend with family and friends.

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time to remember how thankful you are for all the important (and sometimes less important) people in your life.  Remember to go out of your way to tell those around you how much you love them, as a family member or a friend.  This really touches their hearts and lets them know they are loved and appreciated.

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!!!
I'm off to pack for the cabin, whoot, whoot =)
xoxoxo,
Maggie

Sunday, November 17, 2013

The Sunday Currently, vol. 14



Reading:  the british country living magazines in Barnes and Noble!  Gosh I love those magazines. 

Writing:  several blog posts for this week.

Listening:  to music playing in the backround.....Andrea Bocelli I think.

Thinking:  that I can't wait to finish our painting project on the first floor at home.  It will be wonderful being able to put everything back up on the walls where they belong.  So many exciting loose ends to pull together.  

Smelling:  my salted caramel mocha, a new found favorite at Starbucks!!! =)

Wishing:  that the weekend could last forever.  I'm loving this relaxing weekend with my husband.

Hoping:  that our new dining room chandelier comes from Pottery Barn this week.  I'm super excited to put this up and I hope it works in our dining room space.  They accidentally mispriced it in the catalogue for waayyy cheaper than it is supposed to be!  Triple score for us!!! Not a bad misprint at all.

Wearing:  a bright canary yellow J.Crew skirt, a forest green Anthropology sweater and fall boots. Pretty comfy for Sunday best!

Loving:  my dear husband who surprises me with cups of coffee paired with biscotti and accompanied by beautiful Fall and Winter candles!!!!!!!!  I LOVE this guy so freaking much =)  he knows they way to my heart and can totally speak my love language. 

Wanting:  to crank some tunes and get to work painting this afternoon.  Thanks to the hubby and the brother for tackling this project with me.

Needing:  to do laundry!  Nuff said.

Feeling:  grateful for pretty flowers just because and days when I can take the time to set the table a bit more fancy for the hubby and his dinner.

Clicking:  through my favorite blogs this fine Sunday afternoon.  Head over to Tina's Blog and enter her sweet giveaway today!

Grab a cup of coffee and a cozy blanket and enjoy yourself 
a very relaxing Sunday!!!
xoxoxo,
Maggie 
Linking up with Lauren's Sunday Currently

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Work Like Crazy and Dream BIG!!!

It's crazy how some things come to be simply by making connections and talking with people, both friends and strangers alike. 
Just last week, my mom and I were in town picking up a few Christmas gifts in a favorite little local shop.  We were chatting it up with the nice young lady at the counter and she began telling us all about this incredible calligraphy seminar that she had just attended a week prior.
Totally bummed that I had just missed an opportunity, I decided to be optimistic by checking out the teacher this lady studied under and looked into future opportunities.  
For the record, I LOVE all things crafty, creative, and artsy!!!

To express how deep my love for art is..... when I was a child, my mom always kept an entire 7 foot tall dresser fully stocked with all sorts of craft mediums.  Needles, thread, wax, craft paper, glue guns, stencils, pencils, pads of paper, every day I was in my glory!!!!
(thanks mom for saving some of my childhood creations in a cute little hello kitty book)
And ever since then, not much has changed in my love for crafting, other than the realization that I can share my love with the world and make money in the process. 
 Double score, yes?!?! 

And then.... this is where social media comes in!
I love social media and the positive bridges and connections it can build.
I immediately started following the Calligrapher, Molly Jacques on instagram and a few days later a
new and exciting opportunity presented itself.
"Growing your creative career with Molly Jacques"
A few train tickets later and a trip into the city with my mom and sisters and we were IN on a new adventure together.
It was time to get in there and learn more about how to grow a career out of the things that you are passionate about.  In the end, I learned a lot in just a short evening.

Way to kick start things with one of my favorite C.S. Lewis quotes!




 It was great, Molly really took her time with us after her workshop answering our questions and telling us more about her life and career and how she got to be where she is today.  What an inspiring young lady!
Molly talked about how you should engage your audience through social media and that it's not about how many "likes" you get, but really engaging your followers through staying in touch with followers, answering comments and e-mails and responding to people's questions. 
 Her advice to really make sure you connect with your audience was inspiring and personally motivating.  It spurred me on to be better at connecting with people both through blogging and in person.  It's about the simple importance and courtesy of responding to people in a timely fashion.  This can be tough for me sometimes and there are days when I completely drop the ball, but I'm always striving to be better.

 Why not top off the adventure in the city with a trip to a new restaurant?!?!
A lemon pear martini....yes please!
 Ahhh The Burger Bar had the yummiest burgers around.  Just make sure to come really hungry if you want to make a dent in your burger!!!

A few highlights that I walked away with that evening were....
-be nice to people
-write thank you notes
-embrace your love/hate relationship with emails
-meet deadlines
-manage time
-use original content
-use good photos, or videos even, they engage in a new and fresh way
-make it your career
"if you build it, they will come" field of dreams
-figure out exactly what you want to do

My roommate in college always told me this one, "DREAM BIG, DREAM BIG GIRLFRIEND!!!"
and
 I always loved when she would say this cause it would always pump me up!

Check out Molly Jacques and her beautiful work!  This woman truly has a gift and talent and enjoys sharing her love with those around her.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Honeymoon Part I

Having come to our one month anniversary since our big day on October 5th, I thought it would be
nice to reflect back on our honeymoon in Arizona!!!
Oh those very first days as everything starts to soak in....on many occasions it took some pinching to realize that our sheer joy and pure happiness wasn't just a dream.
We don't know who put these decals on our Jeep, but we still love driving around with them on. They have been the reason for many fun conversations with friendly people around town =)

It's a strange feeling leaving your best friend to sleep in your bed at home and not being there with her.
And then we were off!!!
The honeymoon began with starbucks in the taxi, but was followed by this!!!
Time to finally relax :)
Sofritas ~ One of our favorite local places to eat out.
Their sangria was amazing and so was all their authentic mexican food!


Hitting the sunshine and vitamin D every morning!!!
Slowly waking up with our coffee out on the bedroom porch and watching the sun rise!
Then heading downstairs to sit and enjoy the morning sun.
Morning handsome!!!


Cookie monster is our means of transportation in AZ =)  that thing was a beast to drive!
Ahhhhhhhh one of my favorite days was by far our spa day!
If you are ever in the Scottsdale area in AZ you should definitely check out spa Avania at the Hyatt.
They were having a quiet day so they let us stay in our own private suite for much longer than we had scheduled our appointment for. 
The mineral pools and hot tubs were heavenly!
The hubs enjoyed his cold beer in the hot tub =)
After our massage they brought us a delicious complimentary food platter filled with apples, cheese, figs, nuts, prosciutto and chilled glasses of corona!
We spent the entire rest of the day enjoying all of the other amenities at the spa.
It was by far our most relaxing day in AZ!!!
We would go from reading, to swimming, to ordering food, to using the saunas.... it was oh so lovely!

We started the day with a little trip to Barnes and Noble so we could pick up some reading materials.
Knowning we would be by the pool all day, we thought it would be nice to read again, now that we actually had time for it =)
The hubby reading up on Tae Kwon Do forms for his testing which is next week already!!!

And this was the start to our incredible week honeymooning in Arizona!  I was thrilled that we
ended up going to Arizona for our honeymoon because the terrain is so different from everywhere I've ever been and so the visual and the memories are still so vivid in my mind.
Because it was a place SO unique from everywhere else I've ever been, I'll always think of AZ as our honeymoon state!!!

Part II coming next =)
xoxoxo,
Maggie