Beautiful Boxwood

Christmas decorating is in full swing in my apartment and I'm loving the chicness of boxwood. From wreaths to garland to present wrapping, the round leaves adds a classic but modern look to Christmas. I'm hoping the wreath will last me through spring (just changing out the ribbon to be seasonally appropriate).

Thanksgiving Weekend {a.k.a Christmas Prep}

I chose to spend Thanksgiving in San Francisco again this year. The stress of 2 days of traveling for 2-3 days of Family and Friend chaos has just proven to be exhausting. Especially if I'm returning in a few weeks for Christmas.

Thanksgiving itself was pretty relaxed. The BF and I took a small hike through the Presidio, watched a little of the Cowboy's game {....I napped} and went to his former co-worker's house for the meal. His co-worker is Philipino so it was kind of fun to have some different food mixed in with the usual Thanksgiving fare.

The rest of the weekend was prepping for Christmas. With only 25 days to celebrate this year, I wanted to jump right in!

I got this gorgeous bay leaf wreath at Trader Joe's for only $10!  I 'fake' hung it with red grosgrain ribbon. I didn't trust the ribbon to hold it on it's own so I used a wreath hanger and then pulled the ribbon up from the top! I'm kind of obsessed with how perfectly it goes with our new Red Front Door!

I purchased gifts for my Grandma's a few months ago, and have since been looking for the perfect ribbon to go with my classic brown wrapping paper. I love how simple and elegant it looks! I ventured to Britex in Union Square {braving the crowds of out-of-towners}. I'd never been there before, but for having 3 stories filled with every button, ribbon, fabric, sequin you could ever want I of course found what I was looking for almost instantly. This dark evergreen ribbon, it's grosgrain with a little stretch for fitting around the packages.

Saturday night Emily and I went to Book of Mormon! First time seeing it and it was spectacular! Everything I hoped for and more. I'm going again Thursday with the BF and cannot wait. We tried to get a pic doing the exuberant jumping pose from the banner. Obviously #nailedit.

Bows for your Toes!

 I've been needing a new pair of black flats to replace my 3 year old and dearly loved, but discontinued Ralph Lauren Eliora flats (see left).

They were the perfect shoe quite honestly. They were sturdy and only required 1 re-sole in the 3 years I had them. They're black quilted sides added a fun, but classic texture and their patent toe allowed for them to be dressed up or down.

While I loved the bow, I really didn't think it necessarily 'made the shoe', but as I've begun my reluctant search for replacements I'm kind of thinking it did, because I'm obsessed with flats that have bows!!




 As far as a replacement, everyday shoe, I've narrowed it down to Ivanka Trump's Magnoli flat or Nine West's Cacey flat. I'm a sucker for black patent leather, but there is just something so simple and elegant about Ms. Trump's

Magnoli by Ivanka Trump

Cacey by Nine West

While at Nine West I tried these darling things on and fell. in. love.

Take Note (Exclusive) by Nine West

And, of course, there will always be the classic Ferragamo's and Valentinos! Ugh, a girl can dream right?