Annual Christmas Traditions at the *K's*

(You may be wondering what I put in Billy's drink to get him to pose like this with our sweet Rocky, but I swear, he's 80% sober and I actually caught this at the right time..)

There are certain traditions Billy and I do throughout the year that we really enjoy doing together. In the past year I've been married, I've found that it's really fun celebrating the little moments...so continue celebrating we will! Billy's favorite tradition so far is the one we did this past weekend. Every year I make my Mom's killer (meaning delish) lasagna recipe for the night we put up our Christmas tree and we watch Christmas movies all night long. I only make my mom's lasagne for this ONE night so that it's extra special, and Billy is always so excited to eat it because it's his favorite!

{for those of you who are wondering if I ate the lasagna since I'm a vegetarian, I did eat some. This March I will be a vegetarian for a year now, and I figured since I only make this recipe once a year, that I could just not skip it!}

After we scarfed down the lasagna, Billy gave the sweetest toast {that was completely unexpected} before we got started on putting up our Christmas tree. I won't get into all the mooshy gooshy details that you don't care about, but he thanked me for making the meal and told my Mom how much we miss her and how much we love her lasagna.

It was incredibly sweet.

...and just reminded me just how lucky I am to have him as my husband!

This year we decided to put our tree in our office in the front of our house, instead of in the family room. Our tree was given to us by my best friend Lindsay's parents and is really big. After one last minute trip to Tar-jay because we were ONE box short of white lights, the lights were on our tree and we were ready to start decorating. We stuck with a red, purple, and silver theme this year. You can barely see the purple in these pictures, but I promise it's there! My Dad gave me many ornaments from when I was younger and also some of my Mom's favorite ornaments to put on our tree, so I always have to add those as well.

These pics are taken with my iphone - 'scuse the blurryness..

view from our stairs

...and I love that you can see it in the mirror when standing on the steps :)

I really hope we can continue to decorate our tree together every year.

 Maybe this will change when we have kids and we are super busy, but I hope it stays for at least a couple more years!

Lastly.....

our other Christmas tradition is to exchange Christmas ornaments every year on Christmas morning. Here are the ornaments Billy has got me the past 2 years:

Our first home in 2009

Our 1st Christmas as *Mr and Mrs*

in 2010

After the tree was put up and we realized part of it is falling apart at the bottom, we just sat in the room and enjoyed the tree for a bit. Go on, call us dorks all you want. I know you're thinking it.... ;) 

but it was just so cute to see Rocky sit there & stare at it!

What Christmas traditions do you have?

I would love to hear some others so we can incorporate them next year!

I would typically share my Mom's lasagna recipe for Tasty Tuesdays, but this is one recipe I want to keep within our family aka my lips are sealed. Sorry guys.

Also, yesterday Blogger and I were fighting, and it didn't publish my Bloggers Do It Better post until hours later...so if you didn't see it, go check it out: here.

I talked about what happens when you get 18 bloggers together in one room! ;)



Bloggers Do It Better.



This weekend was one for the books.

Aside from putting up our Christmas tree and putting up all the lights outside of our house, I had the pleasure of co-hosting a blogger meet up here in Columbus on Saturday night. The invites were sent out about a month ago, and before I knew it it was here! Holly and I decided to have it at an Irish restaurant/pub in the Polaris area.

I started following Holly's blog, Running in Stilettos, about 6 months ago and knew we would become good friends. When we became friends on Facebook, we noticed we had many of the same mutual friends and I started to wonder if I had ever run into her or met her before! We had tried meeting up this past Fall during some Ohio State gamedays, but we just kept missing eachother, so I was so excited to finally meet her this past weekend.

{Holly and myself}

I decided to dress up a bit and get in the holiday spirit

and wear a lace dress from H&M.

Here's my O.O.T.N:

{Dress and Shoes: H&M, Belt, Necklace, and Tights: F21}

The blogger meet up started at 6pm and I met Holly at the restaurant at 5:30. Since we were expecting around 20 girls to show up, Holly had name tags that she brought and I made holiday gift bags with assorted candies in them for each of the girls.

I kid you not when I say, our waiter was pretty much SHOCKED when he actually met us. You see, Holly informed him when we made the reservations that we were "a group of bloggers". 

Bloggers...what's a blogger?

Have they ever met eachother before?

Hmmm...this might be odd.

....he probably asked himself once or twicc ten times.

The conversation later on in the evening went like this:

Waiter: Not gonna lie, when I heard you guys were bloggers I pictured you all to be nerdy... like gamers, or something. But you all are extremely attractive!

Us: Laughter.

pure laughter.

I can't tell you how much fun it was to meet so many bloggers who live so close to me! Everyone was so sweet and willing to get to know one another. We spent the evening sippin' back some cocktails {remind me never again go from drinking wine, to Blue Moon, to vodka/soda's} Talk about indecisive. I had so much fun hearing how the other girls started their blogs and we shared many laughs over what we first imagined when we started blogging.

The 1st table

The 2nd table

Before everyone left, we talked about planning another meet up in the near future.

It was too much fun not to!

Oooh and we got one more pic...

After the meet up, Holly, Alicia, and some of the girls who are also my IRL friends {Jessie and Ashley} decided to go out downtown to meet my other friends and Billy. They got to meet my other friends and husband and I was LOVING every minute of it! We all had soo much fun together!!

{my IRL friends Ashley and Jessie}

{Husband and his best friend Rudy}

Cheers to old & new friends!

{the girls with my guy friend Jim}

For all the Columbus girls--

I had a blast getting to know each of you

and thank you for coming! Hope to see you all soon ;)

Have you ever gone to a blogger meet up party?

If you know some other bloggers in your area, I highly suggest setting something up so you can meet eachother! It's wonderful to put a "blog name" with a face :)

This was my 2nd time meeting up with bloggers..

the 1st time was with my bestie Jess who came from KY to see me!

....if you missed it, you can read that here.

HANAair Blow Dryer!! {Review}

If you are in the market for a new hair dryer or flat iron, listen up. :)

Right when I was looking for a new hair dryer a couple weeks ago, Brian from Misikko contacted me offering to send me the HANAair professional hair dryer (their top hair dryer). Talk about AMAZING timing...of course I said YES! I had heard great things about Misikko products in the past, but have never tried any of them.

This hair dryer is valued at $335.00, but is currently on sale for $195.00. I was thrilled when I got the package to see that not only did they send me this amazing hair dryer, but they included Paul Mitchell shampoo and conditioner, a round brush, HANA shine shield (heat protectant and serum), Elf eyelash curler, and other various cute items!

Major score..right?! Right!

In the past, I've used a generatic hot tools hair dryer and it was just taking way too long to dry my hair. My hair is naturally very curly and as you know it's pretty long. After using the HANAair for a few weeks, here are the main things I noticed about how it's worked with my hair:

Benefits:

#1. It takes 50% less time to dry my hair than before. It's way more powerful than any other hair dryer I've used and the less time spent drying my hair makes me a serious happy camper ;)

#2. Frizzzzz control - I can definitely tell that I have less frizzies than before. I use the shine shield before I blow dry and that seems to help it too.

#3. Bring on the shine - my hair has gotten noticeable more shiny than it was. I'm not just saying this. My hair feels and looks healthier than it has.

#4. Va va VOLUME - I'm not southern and I do not know how to create the imfamous "poof" to save my life. This blow dryer helps create volume at my roots so that I don't need to worry about that...it's wonderful.

Billy even told me, "your hair looks way bigger". ha.

Also, if you are anything like myself.. then you multi-task when blow drying and need a really long cord. This one has got that. Let's take a look upclose:

I like that this hair dryer isn't very heavy and it has different levels so you can control the heat and power. My last hair dryer was on the heavy side and I'm not a fan of my arm feeling like it's going to fall off halfway thru... ;)

Cons:

The only cons I can think of for this hair dryer is that it would be nice if it came with something to wrap up the cord or to connect it, just so that it doesn't take up so much room. Also, the price is on the higher side, so it may not be for those who are looking for a budget friendly dryer. However, it's a great investment if you want healthier hair and want to spend less time on it before heading out the door.

Overall..way more positives than negatives.

Moral of the story?

Next time you need a hair dryer, go to Misikko and give this hair dryer a shot. They have other professional hair dryers (and flat irons) as well that have different price ranges to chose from.  In my opinion, investing in a great hair dryer is the way to go to avoid major heat damage. Who wants that?!

...and if you need a good heat protectant, try the shine shield. It's currently on sale for $29.99. It's light and doesn't weigh my hair down at all. Misikko has hair extensions as well if you're interested in trying them!

So, have any of you tried a HANAair blow dryer

or any of the flat irons before?

((just for the record, Misikko just simply provided me with the products...these are truly my own opinions! :))

PS- Happy Friday!

Tonight, me and Billy are doing one of our yearly traditions. I make my mom's special lasagne recipe (that is Billy's favorite dish), we put up our Christmas tree, and watch Christmas movies. We have so much fun making a special night out of it and I can't wait to get our tree up. I'm also really looking forward to the Columbus blogger meet up tomorrow night. I will be sharing about that next week! :)

What are your weekend plans?!

Winter Fashion {Welcoming December}

As I was sitting on my couch last night with my sugar cookie Scentsy burning {you need one if you don't have one} quoting lines from Home Alone 2 {Does anyone mind if I practice my cannonballs?!}, I was thinking about how much I love the month of December.

 Sure...it can be blistering cold here in Ohio, but it's usually packed with fun Christmas events & parties and the snow is beautiful.

Here are my favorite things I love about December:

What better way to welcome December than with a stylish winter fashion post?! I love getting all bundled up in a big warm coat, cute mittens, and a long scarf.

The gorgeous, interior designer & crafter, Sarah, from a Total Basset Case is here to share some awesome winter fashion trends that you don't want to miss out on. Sarah lives here in Ohio like myself, and knows how to dress to handle the winter here!

Hello Keep Calm and Carry On readers!
I am Sarah from Total Basset Case and I am so happy to be here today guest posting for Katie! Let's talk about winter fashion, shall we? I don't know about you, but my urge for shopping has increased 10 fold thanks to Pinterest!  

Here are some of my favorite winter fashion trends...

1.Colorful Coats: the brighter the better!

2. Chunky Scarves: thick and warm!

 

 3. Layers: it gets cooold here in Ohio...

4. Skirts with Tights: just because it's cold, doesn't mean you can't dress cute!

 

There ya have it!
 

What are some of your favorite winter trends?

Thanks again, Katie!
It was an honor to take over for you today.
Feel free to pop over to Total Basset Case and say hi to Floyd and I!

 

ok..first..how stinkin' cute is Sarah's basset, Floyd?!?!

He is darling.

thank you for guest posting, Sarah!

 I love the skirt with tights trend so much and those scarves are fabulous.

{I really enjoy introducing my readers to new awesome blogs to follow, so if you are interested in guest posting for me - leave me a comment or shoot me an email!}