WILW

Link-Up!

Hump Day is here! And that means it's time to share a few things I'm loving this week...

~SMASH~

Last night was the 2-hour Season 2 premiere of Smash. I adore this show and am soooooo happy that it's finally back! It's so well written and the music is simply amazing. If you aren't already a fan and find yourself with some free time on your hands, go back and watch Season 1. If you love musicals at all, you won't regret it! Or if you are one of those people who actually has important stuff to do and you want to jump right in on Season 2, I found this very brief recap of Season 1. It leaves out a lot of things, but it's thorough enough to provide a foundation for where the show is at when Season 2 kicks off. You can thank me later!

~gelato~

One a whim at Publix the other day, I picked up this coconut gelato by Talenti. Ah-mazing! Each bite is like a sweet little taste of summertime in your mouth. I'm not sure how I've missed out on this for so long. Word is they have a chocolate mint and a pistachio flavor that I'm dying to try as well!

~Signing Day~

Luckily I have two computer monitors at work. One of them will be emblazoned with the above screenshot all day today as the live fax camera notifies the Crimson Tide faithful which lucky guys will be "Built by Bama" next.

~WINTER~

Down here in the South, we don't get too many months of true winter weather. But nonetheless, I still get dry skin this time of year. A couple of months ago, the Miller High life switched from our normal soap/body wash to this Winter Care line from Dove. I love it, and I have not experienced my normal dry skin since!

That's all for this Wednesday! Have a good rest of the week!



favorite things

Last Sunday evening I invited a handful of girls over for a Favorite Things party. I initially got the party idea from a friend but relied on Pinterest for more information. It seems like anytime we have guests over to the Miller High Life house, I'm always so busy running around and talking to people that I never remember to take any pictures. That said, here's the Favorite Things party recap with very limited visual aides.

Invitation draft

 As soon as I decided to go through with the party, my first step was to get busy on an invitation. Candace has never let me down before, so as usual I reached out to her for design expertise. While a Favorite Things party can be held at any time for any reason, I knew mine would be somewhat Christmas-y given the time of year. I wanted an invitation that featured some classic Christmas colors but also had a fun girly touch. Enter a Christmas chevron pattern with some hot pink touches- perfection. I had the invitations printed on brown craft paper card stock and tied each one up with red and white bakers twine - an ode to the famous song lyric "brown paper packages tied up with string".

Invites printed and ready to be mailed

I asked each girl to bring 3 of her favorite things, as well as a favorite dessert or appetizer to share. Technically guests should pick one favorite thing, and then buy 3 of that thing, not spending more than $20 total on all items. We had a little confusion about this, but it worked just fine to have a couple of people bring 3 different things. It just meant we got to learn about even more favorite things!



Food and Favorite Things table


I wish I had more pictures of the food and favorite things - so many delicious treats and fun things. For my 3 favorite things, I made a little bundle of two of my favorite items: colorful cozy socks (because no one likes frosty feet in the winter) and the best Sally Hansen top coat (dries fast and prevents chips).

Favorite Things bags

Keeping with the "brown paper packages" theme, I bought brown craft bags and tied them with a gift tag that read "These are a few of our Favorite Things". I gave the girls these bags to put their gifts in to take home. Also in the bag, I included a small party favor: a bright colored frame with a quote from one of my favorite Christmas movies!

Framed quote

Since the girls were bringing snacks and desserts, I opted to make a hearty soup and cider. Taking another cue from Pinterest, I had some frozen red rasberries for the girls to add a little Christmas cheer to their wine or wine spritzers. I've shared the soup and cider recipes below.

Crockpot Apple Cider

• 1 gallon apple cider
• 4-5 whole cinnamon sticks
• 1 tablespoon whole cloves
• 1 tablespoon whole all spice
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 orange sliced

Add all ingredients to the crockpot and cook on high for at least 2 hours. Reduce heat to warm and let sit 30 minutes. Serve.

Tortellini Sausage Soup

• 3-4 links of Italian sausage
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 15oz. cans of chicken broth
• 1 16oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 8oz. can totmato sauce
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• 2 Tbsp. dried parsley
• 2 medium zucchini, grated
• 10oz. package of cheese tortelli

Remove the link sausage from the casing. Brown sausage in skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is clear. After draining, add this to crockpot. Add all other ingredients except the zucchini, tortellini, and parsley to the crockpot. Cook on high for a half hour.
Add the remaining ingredients and continue to cook on high for another 15 minutes or until tortellini is tender.
Reduce heat to warm and let sit 30 minutes. Serve.

Delicious cider

Serving area for soup, cider, and wine spritzers

After some eating and visiting, we kicked off the game. As girls came in, I had them write down their name three times on seperate pieces of paper and place them in a bowl. As the hostess, I started things off my drawing three names from the bowl and passing out my favorite thing bundles to the 3 girls. As I distributed them, I explained why I chose each of the items as my favorite. From there, the last name that I drew went next and proceeded to draw another 3 names, making sure not to choose her own name or 2 of the same name. Everyone ended up with 3 new favorite things, and I thought it was so fun to hear about everyone's favorite things as the game progressed. Items ranged from shampoo to nail polish to coffee to wine to etc.

Favorite Things Questionnaire Game

After everyone had passed our their favorite things and received 3 new favorite things, we had one more game on the agenda. I passed of the above questionnaires to all the girls and asked them to answer a series of questions about their favorite things. When everyone was done, we read each question out loud and took turns sharing. If anyone had written down the same favorite thing as you, you crossed it off your list (similar to Scattegories). We continued this for each question on the list, and at the end, the person with the most items NOT crossed off won an additional prize. For our winner, the additional prize happened to be more of my favorite things: a large Bath & Body Works "Winter" candle and Reese's Christmas Trees!

The only picture I got with any of the guests

It was such a fun time, and now that I understand how it works, I cannot wait to host another favorite things party!

What item would you take to a Favorite Things Party?

top ten tuesday

The husby and I found ourselves in Home Depot this past weekend, on a mission for screws, nails, and various other items that Mr. M needed. As I wandered the aisles with him, breathing in the scent of freshly cut wood, it dawned on me- there's something very nice about the masculine scent of Home Depot (and all other home improvement stores for that matter). Maybe I'm crazy (I have been living in the dark twisted world of Christian Grey for the past few days), but I'd even go so far as to say the scent is a little sexy (again, blame it on Mr. Grey). I started thinking of other scents that I love, so I decided to try and list my favorite scents (in no particular order) for Top Ten Tuesday.

1. Home Depot - the manly scent of fresh cut wood and building materials.

2. Barnes and Noble - I seriously wonder sometimes if one of the reasons I've been so slow to jump on the Kindle/Nook/iBook bandwagon is a subconcious attempt to ensure the continuation of my frequent trips to B&N. I LOVE the smell of this store. The scent of hundreds of new and crisp books intermingled with the delicious aroma of Starbucks coffee. It is truly one of my favorite scents.

3. Orange Cinnamon Rolls - This scent takes me back to my childhood, to slumber parties at my friend Ashley's house. As we discussed during our recent brunch get-together, I literally cannot smell this breakfast treat without being transported back in time. After staying up late giggling about boys and gossiping about all the lastest small town happenings, we would wake to these orange cinnamon rolls prepared by Ashley's mom. I cannot help but associate the scent with nostaglic memories of good-times gone by.

4. Burberry - I love this classic fragrance. I wear it daily, and I lurrrrve it.

5. Tide - I'm not brand loyal to many household items (except maybe Heinz), but Tide is non-negotiable in my house. I honestly cannot remember ever using anything else. I love the smell of fresh-out-of-the-dryer sheets and towels after having been washed in Tide.

6. Winter candles - Bath & Body Works makes a seasonal candle called "Winter", and I adore it. It just doesn't smell like Christmastime around the house until I have these candles burning. Because I associate this scent with Christmas, I consequently also associate it with family, friends, togetherness, and general good cheer.

7. Sharpee markers - Odd, I know- but this smell reminds me of high school. Making posters for football games and working on class projects. Good times.

8. Freshly cut spring grass - This is a scent lost on me as the brutal heatwave enters the South and hovers for the duration of summer. However, before the heatwave arrives, when the air is still crisp and just starting to warm up, I relish in the scent of a freshly moved lawn. It signals that Spring is finally here and makes me want to pull out all of my summer whites and pastel clothing. It's such a happy scent!

9. Vick's Vapor Rub - There's no doubt that I love this scent even now for its soothing quality when I'm sick, but again- this is another scent I associate with childhood. It reminds me of my parents- before we became "adults", them taking care of both my brother and me when we were sick. And let's be honest, I kind of just like the scent event when I'm not sick. So cool and serene-smelling.

10. L'Homme by Yves St. Laurent - This is Mr. M's signature scent and I love it. It reminds me of his hugs and his cleanly shaven face because these are the times when the scent is most noticable on him. It's a wonderful fragrance no matter who wears it, but of course it's special to me because of him.

While a lot of these scents are nostalgic for me on some level, I also left a lot of others off: the "Grandmother" scent (a blend of peppermint, perfume, hairspray, and her home- don't they all have their own special smell?), the smell of my childhood Sunday school classroom (mostly pine wood and old books), the scent of fresh cut watermelon at backyard summer barbeques after spending all day playing in the yard, the smell of campfire smoke, the aroma of Mom's potroast when you come home from school, etc. I could go on and on... am I the only one who connects scents to memories?

What about y'all- what are your favorite scents?

wednesday love

~what I'm loving this Wednesday~

1. Easter candy

I'm loving that my two favorite Easter candies can be found in abundance right now.

2. Fun stuff

I'm loving my latest iPhone app download. This game is SO addicting!

3. Soap

I'm loving the 5 for $15 handsoap special at Bath & Body Works. I recently stocked up, and my newest favorite scent is Paradise Coconut. Ahhh sweet summertime.

4. Date Night

I'm loving some of these unique (and cheap) date night ideas for me and Mr. M.

5. Good Day

I'm loving this simple reminder. We all need it sometimes.

I'm wishing you all a very happy Wednesday!