A Little Bit of Everything CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I hope this post finds you and yours in the Christmas Spirit. I know I sure am. It's been a few days, ok maybe more than a few, since my last post, so I thought I would share a little bit of everything today. Outfits, baking, crafting, all of the above!

First up, SHOPPING! and more shopping! and YES, more shopping! I enjoy finding the perfect Christmas gift for the special people in my life, which means I spend a lot of time at the mall and local stores this time of year. This was my go-to shopping outfit this year.

The red puffer vest was the MatchiN'spiration piece for this outfit! It's so Christmasy!

Shop the outfit: American Eagle jeans in similar wash here//Shiny puffer down vest in roasted pepper from J. Crew here//Similar tissue-t turtleneck here//Plaid scarf from J. Crew Factory store here//Similar gray cable boot socks from American Eagle here (they are out of the all gray ones, but they have cream and gray which is super cute, but not a match for this outfit) //Similar brown boots here, distressed look here, love these and these, too!

 

Another one of my go-to shopping outfits featured one of my FAVORITE scarves!

The scarf is from one of my Stichfix picks, so it's not available at an online retailer. If you like the scarf, you can join Stitchfix (learn more here), pin my photo to your Pinterest board and they will try to send you the same item, or something similar. 

More from this outfit: Similar navy toggle coat here//Jeans from American Eagle here//Similar brown boots here 

This next outfit just melts my heart! It incorporates two of my favorite things: a scarf and plaid!

I wore this to work last week and got so many compliments! The red plaid tunic was an item I received in one of my Stichfix picks, so once again, it's not available from any major retailer. You can always join Stichfix, pin my photo to your Pinterest board and share it with Stichfix.

 

Also in my outfit: Similar pant leggings in black here//Waffle infinity scarf in dark poppy from J. Crew factory here//Similar boots here//Alex & Ani bracelets here

Next up, Christmas cards! Who doesn't love to get Christmas cards in the mail? Of course in order to get them, you must send them...which can be a bit of a time consuming process. In years past, we've sent out store bought cards, but this year we decided to do a photo card! Talk about time consuming!! I was a little obsessed passionate about having a theme to our card, staging the photo and color coordinating our outfits, so that we could create the perfect card. YES, I love the nerdy cards where the entire family is dressed alike...I just can't help but smile when I see these cards! I surfed Pinterest for ideas and found so many great ones! Well, it was anything but easy! Lesson learned: hire a photographer if you want a perfect Christmas card photo! Here's some of the pics we took a long the way.

 Mike suggested that we wear our Kansas Jayhawks outfits (he's an avid fan and I just thought the matching Kansas sweatpants and sweatshirt from Victoria's Secret was cute!). Once we settled on a theme, we decided to add the candy cane heart idea (thank you Pinterest). Let's just say that Wesley was less than cooperative! He was interested in licking the candy canes, NOT smiling for the camera!

 

Eventually we settled on a not-so-themed or color coordinated card, which was ok with me. I got over sending the perfect Christmas card because truth be told, I was exhausted from trying to capture the perfect picture life isn't perfect! :-) 

 

I've also been tapping into my creative gift giving, cookie baking side! I really wanted to follow the Swedish tradition (Mike and I are both Swedish) and bake 7 different kinds of cookies (spritz cookies, thumbprints, pepperkaka cookies, etc.) but there weren't enough hours in the day! So, I relied on my go-to source for everything, Pinterest, and I found this recipe for Red Velvet Crinkle cookies. Mike LOVES anything red velvet, so I knew these would be a hit with him. They were soooo easy to bake!  

I baked two batches of these cookies and then packaged them up in vintage-style, wide-mouth mason jars. I tied ribbon around the top and voila, they're ready to give as gifts! If you're a baker or a crafter, or both, then you're probably not very impressed, but this MatchiN'ista is neither, so I'm grinning from ear to ear at my craftiness!

 

More Christmas crafting!

Mike and I both had ugly Christmas sweater days at work, so we decided to make one together! All you need is a little tinsel, felt, bows, a hot glue gun and you can make one of your own! We had a blast putting this together, and it was a hit at both of our jobs!

 

In all of the Christmas craziness, I've been enjoying White Christmas coffee from my favorite Starbucks ceramic mug!

 

 

That's all for now! Have a very Merry Christmas!

 

 

Happy matching!

 

Marcie