Happy Thanksgiving!

via

Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy spending this time of thanks with your friends and family!

xxKatie

Giveaway: Capitol Letters Makeup Bag

What's perfect for the girl who has everything? Something to put it all in!

A great choice for a girly gift is a makeup bag!

Capitol Letters on Etsy is giving away a makeup bag to a lucky winner!

Not only is this a great gift, but a good makeup bag is a holiday essential for anyone traveling. Do you spend Thanksgiving with your maternal grandparents and Christmas with your dad's parents? Do you go from coast to coast? Do you fly or drive? 

SO MUCH TRAVELING around this time of the year! That's certainly one major thing I've learned since traveling a lot to and fro college and home!

I love the fun, whimsical details on the bags too!

In order to qualify for this week's Giveaway Monday giveaway just use this Rafflecopter widget:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Giveaway Monday!

Safe travels to anyone heading home or to their Thanksgiving destination if you're leaving today!

xxKatie

Hoppy Easter!

I like to be corny so, yes, HOPPY EASTER! Today I'll be heading to Church early, and then getting the dinner ready for a big potluck I'll be going to later tonight. I am looking forward to celebrating with friends! I'm bringing a chocolate chip pie (recipe here) and a brussel sprouts and bacon dish that my mom made for Thanksgiving (example recipe here...I'm going to add garlic). Check out how good these look:

via Completely Delicious

via Food Network Kitchens (minus the nuts)

My mom sent me and my roommate a HUGE easter package! It was a fabulous box from the Easter Bunny and was so big that my apartment complex asked me to come pick it up because it was taking up too much space in the mailroom--I'm so lucky!! Thanks Momma! This is the first Easter that I haven't been home--yikes! Our little potluck will be a close stand in though!

Hoppy Easter y'all!

Christmas Card Time

So this is the Christmas card we decided on! This is my B-E-A-U-tiful sister and I and the photo we liked the best..."Mom pick 23 NOT 16". We took this out on our back porch with the goofy nautical flags that surround the screened in porch. We actually took this on Thanksgiving day and I wore the fabulous dress that the wonderful ladies at Pink Sorbet helped me pick out! I loved it and can't wait to wear it again! 

I also wore leggings for the first time! They were super comfy, but I'm VERY far away from ever wearing them as just "pants". I wore them more as tights under my dress, but they were super cozy nonetheless. That night we went to go see HP7 which was quite enjoyable. The last time we saw a movie, like all 4 of us was Toy Story 3 so we were a little overdue. We all seemed to like it although now I'm yearning for the next one--which is the goal of the producers and actors and everyone I'm sure.

xxKatie

What I'm Thankful For

There is so much to be thankful for in my life. Here's just a small snippet of my list:

1. My little family (EKS this includes you too but you're not in any of our "traditional" fam photos):

2. My big family (with all of our new additions!):

3. The best readers anyone could ever have:

4. Two crazy roommates who put up with me (one of these things is not like the others...):

5. Big wins that make us one of the best schools to EVER ATTEND:

6. Country music that helps me fall asleep:

7. The best place to work in the world (plus sCe, Miss Skyler obvi):

8. BBM so my I can send HUGE texts to my sister telling her about my big-college-girl-problems:

9. Diet coke to get me through Accounting 225 and Philosophy 110...the banes of my existence:

10. And last but certainly not least a little obsession I call LBP.

xxKatie

Pumpkin Muffin Time

This Pillsbury Pumpkin mix is so good! And I have good news: it's back on the shelves. Just about as elusive as the Pumpkin Spice Latte, this muffin (or quick bread if you prefer) mix is so good!

I'm not big on pumpkin anything (sorry...) but it's not a consistency that I enjoy. The smells are good, but I also have a problem with getting the picture of the goupy insides out of my head. At one point, your pie was stringy goup. Ew. Anyway, my aunt Megan made us pumpkin muffins at her "little house" as it used to be named a few years ago at the urging of her beautiful daughter Trinity-my cousin-and man oh man, we've never gone back! These wonderful, spongy pumpkin muffins remind me of fall so much! Megan stocks up on this mix while it's still sold (I think they stop selling it around Christmas) so that they can have it throughout the year, or that was at least the protocol when we were there a few years ago! I highly recommend this little box of yumminess that you can grab while it's still being sold! They taste spice-y, cinnamony, nutmeggy, all the wonderful smells and tastes that go along with the holidays! Quick, go run to the store and snatch some up for yourselves!

xxKatie

Holiday Treats!

So the T-Giving Holiday break escaped as fast as usual and I can't wait to be back home. This week I have to study my BUTT off for finals so I won't be posting...yikes. I have 2 finals--one Monday and one Tuesday and then I head home ASAP Wednesday since no flights corresponded with when my Tuesday exam ended. I came back today, tears included, even though I'm going back in 9 days. There are always tears involved since I'm so far away, just departing from the fam as usual!

Enough about school (I find that I tell myself a lot when I write posts, haha!) but back onto my holiday treats! We ended up making the M&M Pretzels, Onion dip, and P's in B's, and then I made some Funfetti cookies to round out Gameday. I didn't have too too much time Saturday so I decided not to cook the other goodies, but all the ingredients are still chilling in my refridge.

While we were shopping for all the ingredients, my mom found some cool breast cancer M&M's which were all pink. Some were dark pink and some were light pink so we decided to go with those instead of the traditional M&M's. Here's how they turned out:

The Funfetti cookies also were another hit! I am a HUGE gigantic cupcake fan, but if you're pressed for time, need a lot of cookies/gifts/etc, or just like cookies, these are a wonderful recipe! My mom even said that these were the best thing I ever made. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 1 Box of Funfetti Cake Mix (buy the Pillsbury Funfetti)

2. 1/3 cup of oil (I use canola all the time)

3. 2 eggs

4. Frosting of choice (I use a whipped frosting from Pillsbury with the Vanilla flavor, its super duper light and not too sweet. I dyed 2 frostings, a pink one with 4 drops of neon pink coloring and a green one with 1 drop of green frosting and 5 drops of neon green coloring. You can buy a "neon" pack of food dye from McCormick and that's what I had.)

Preparation:

From the Pillsbury Website, but you can find this recipe on the side of every Funfetti Box

1. Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, combine cake mix, oil and eggs; stir with spoon until thoroughly moistened. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With bottom of glass dipped in flour, flatten to 1/4-inch thickness. For this I recommend using a melon baller, whatever size that is, and forming the dough into that small circle. That way they're all similar in shape and have a good size for decorating.

2. Bake at 375°F. for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets

3. Spread frosting over warm cookies. Immediately sprinkle each with candy bits from frosting. Let frosting set before storing. Store in tightly covered container. I piped my frosting during this step. I made 24 cookies and that was only half of the dough. I had to throw the rest out because it was too late to keep cooking! I probably could have put it in the refridge, but I decided not to.

This is how they turned out:

Here are a few of my favorites zoomed in:

My house was quite the baking haven this weekend because I don't have a kitched readily available in my dorm, so I take advantage of cooking whenever I can!

Sorry about not posting for awhile, but look for a huge update Wednesday! Good luck to my fellow college bloggers taking exams!

xxKatie

Pink Friday

I hope everyone had fabulous PINK FRIDAYS! I did a little shopping today, but nothing major at all! I had to make today's post about how spoiled I am, considering that I had to wear a real winter coat for the first time this season today!! I couldn't believe it, but my Denali North Face fleece wouldn't cut it.

It was super windy today so I needed some protection from that especially. I can't believe how much I've seemingly taken the weather for granted! I know once I get back to school--for all of 9 days--I'll really appreciate how nice it is! Can you get over that, I mean I go back for a week and then I take 2 exams and come home. I also just realized that I'll be home for the Army/Navy game too! It's basically a holiday in my house!

We're BIG HUGE Navy fans in my house since it's my dad's alma mater. Plus, "Go A--Y" (you know what I'm trying to say) just doesn't roll off the tongue like "GO NAVY" does!

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and that you managed to stay safe and sound! Now onto the Christmas music and decorating!

xxKatie

P.S. EVERYONE BETTER BE CHEERING THE COCKS ONTO VICTORY TOMORROW! U-S-C GOOOOO COCKS!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I'm thankful for my family and friends! I'm thankful that I'm home and that I love being home. I'm thankful for all my blog friends and how I feel like I even have blog friends. I'm thankful for all the food that we'll be able to eat and eat and eat. I'm thankful that my parents invested in my education and take it seriously. I'm thankful for everyone and everything in my life, and I hope everyone else is as thankful as we all are today. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

xxKatie

Clemson Game Menu

Hey everyone! Since I'm not the Thanksgiving maker (heck, I'll probably be in charge of desserts! ) I'm going to post all the things I'd like to make for Saturday. I'm gonna change it up and post the goodies that I'll be making for T-Giving tomorrow or so. My mom makes a DEEEEE-lish Turkey soup that I actually like more than the traditional T-Giving dinner, but that's ok. Saturday I was to make a big gameday menu so this is what I'm thinking:

1. Pigs in a Blanket

P's in B's are one of my all time FAVES! I absolutely love them and literally can eat about 20 at a time, I kid you not. My extended family even has served them at wedding receptions since we all like them so much. I love mine dunked in ketchup! I make them with regular refrigerated Cresent Roll dough and the "Lil' Franks" that Hillshire farms makes. I've tried making them with Boar's Head mini franks, but they're gross and don't make a good "roll" with the Cresent Roll dough.

2. Onion Dip and Spicy Nacho Doritos

It may sound gross, but I think its great! This is is a "recipe" that I stole from my aunt Megan. She serves hers with regular nacho Doritos, but I love the spicy nacho ones personally, so this is always a staple at parties. Just give it a try, I promise it's good!

3. M&M Pretzels I found a website called foodgawker.com and it has the most blogged about/most commented on/overall best online recipes and good ideas for cooking. This recipe I think looks so delish and so easy to make! I'll either make this OR a Chex Mix recipe called Muddy Buddies. That will be my sweet tooth fix!

4. Pizza Bites I mean they're even called party food on the website! I can't believe it! These are like those Totino's Pizza Rolls (which I happen to LOVE) but homemade. It doesn't get much better than pulling them apart? Am I right? Yet another recipe from foodgawker. Seriously one night, I just spent awhile adding them to a "FOOD" bookmark tab on my Safari!

5. Fried Mozzarella Balls I think this will be a little difficult, but so yummy! I've never really fried anything, so I'm not sure if I'll do this or just grab the ones from Friday's in the frozen food section. Again, I got this from foodgawker too. If you have time, check it out. There are literally 100's of chocolate chip cookie recipes as well as tons of homemade Chinese food recipes!

I'm sure this will end up being tougher than I imagine, but there are 2 fun games on that day. Carolina/Clemson and Navy/Hawaii! I can't wait to see how my teams do! What are you guys making for the Thanksgiving games? I'll do another post about my Thanksgiving desserts (Mom, I'm taking over dessert, FYI! Haha!)

What are your Gameday staples? Any snack that's specific to your family or has a cute tradition?

xxKatie