Artistry Light Up Lip Gloss

Last year a friend introduced me to the coolest, smartest lip gloss.

*My Adobe Flashplayer has been acting up, so if yours is too:
Check out my video out over at Youtube: http://youtu.be/boEJ5CcpKOk

As I mention in the video, there's two things built-in components that really set this line of gloss a part from the rest:

Lights:

Mirror:

The glosses come in a few different shades and is perfect for a girl-on-the-go like me.  Restaurants, taxi cabs, or nights out on the town is an ideal time to show off your Artistry.

You can get your own here for $15.30 and are sure to be the beauty tip talk of the night.

I know it was a hit for the girls at my Bachelorette Party. ;)

Naughty or Nice Stockings

Although our first Married Christmas is over, there is still so much I want need to share.  If I didn't elaborate on the presents that appeared in my stocking this year, it would be a shame...because they were out of control.

I'm not really sure if I was on the Naughty or Nice list this year because Santa (or Scott) left me pretty confused.  I'm beginning to think that Santa had nothing to do with this because everything I found had a Japanese label on it.

 Hmmm.  I do remember Scott saying something about a 100 Yen store.

Yup...it's all coming clear now.  I also remember saying something about all the stuff he didn't need to bring home from Japan:

Eh, you win some and you loose some...and I'm not quite sure which category my Stocking Stuffers fit under.  I need your help deciding, so let's start at the beginning...

We decided our new iMac and our new running shoes were our Christmas presents to each other, and I was kind of counting on Santa Claus to help me out with the stocking part...no such luck.

So, I did what anyone would do in this situation and started digging in.  The first thing that made me question Santa's work were these Spicy Choco Sticks.

Since when did spicy + chocolate = yummy?

Next up...exactly what I was hoping for...a Nose Ball Roller.

I mean, you never know when you might need to roll your nose.

We had a good 2-minute laugh at the next one...

Mind you, these are a size Large.  Who fits in those? And WHY are they made of my fuzzy sock material?  Oh, wait...I've been looking for these...Finger Puppets!

I love how there's two happy puppets and two angry ones.  What the heck? I promise you it gets even better...

Who's up for a nice round of the Panty Hose Game?

Or, can I interest you in borrowing my Instant Balloons?

The list of crap stuff goes on and on...but I'll leave you with the best highlight of all: Dried Fish.

Go ahead, dig in to those bad boys...I dare you.  I guess my Nose Ball Roller came in handy, after all.

Oh...my husband.   He found such joy in this that he decided to re-gift some of my presents for my niece and nephew.  Notice how the wrapping is just as awesome as what's inside.

What happened next is best explained in this video:

Whether you were good or bad this year...I hope your Merry Christmas Stockings turned out to be more Nice than Naughty.

Question:
Did anything outrageous end up in your stocking?

Married Christmas

2011 was the first Married Christmas for us, and it was a good one.

Friday Night

We started celebrating with a few friends of ours from the west coast who came home for the Holidays.  Jenny and Cara both live in L.A., are absolute sweethearts and we always make sure to get together when they come home.

We're a special group.

Sleepy? Nope...not Jenny (texting).

Christmas Eve

We kicked Christmas Eve off with our annual 5,000 Candles Candlelight Service.  The entire congregation lights up as we sing Silent Night and it's a beautiful way to praise Jesus Christ.

 
After the service we headed over to our family friends for our annual Christmas Vacation Christmas Eve tradition.  Ever since I can remember, my family has gotten together with the Blackmons and we bring in Christmas the best way we know how...by watching the movie Christmas Vacation
EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.

Stahl and Blackmon Parents, festive as I'll get out:

Stahl Family:

We had a not so nice game of White Elephant Gift Exchange, and enjoyed the night by indulging in chocolate.

YUM: Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, served with a side of Scott's banana/pumpkin bread...

...which ultimately lead to parking in front of the television and watching (not to mention quoting every line possible of) Christmas Vacation.

Scott still doesn't understand how we can watch the same movie every single year.  The best part about it is that for majority of the movie we're walking around the house not even paying attention and out of nowhere someone will hear a part coming up and re-enact the entire scene wherever we are.  True story.

Christmas Day

I woke Scott up on Christmas Morning with these banana pancakes.  Go ahead, say it out loud..."he's  a lucky man."

After opening some presents from Scott's family that was under the tree we spent our first Married Christmas exactly where we got married: our church, First Orlando.  I was excited to get to go to a Sunday Service with him (since I usually work), and Christmas Day was a perfect way to kick off my new availability to attend services on Sundays.

After service, we came home to change and Scott surprised me with some pretty outrageous stocking stuffers.  I know Santa wasn't responsible for this one because everything in them was something funny from Japan.

Yeah, my husband is quite the funny man...or at least he thinks so.

After laughing until we cried at some of the stuff in my stocking (more details and pictures coming soon) we packed up our gifts and headed over to my sister's house.

Once we got there, I realized I forgot my camera and decided to spend more of my time with family over taking pictures anyways.  I loved seeing my niece and nephew and all of their new presents.

I guess you can say they've accepted Scott into our family...

Christmas dinner at my sister's has traditionally been lasagna.  She makes a mean meaty lasagna and cooks a second veggie lasagna, just for my mom.  One of these days I'm going to have to share a picture of it...because it's seriously some of the best lasagna I've ever had.

In lieu of showing you pictures from Christmas Day I didn't take, I'll finish off with a few gift highlights from Scott's family:

Scott's mom had this ornament made for us, and got the idea off of Pinterest.

I LOVE this.  It says HBSH on the front, has a dangling cross just like the ones from our Handfasting Cord, and the inside is filled with shreds of our wedding invitation.

Isn't that cool?!

Scott's dad also gave us something pretty special.  Kirk and Kay live in Powell, Missouri on what you could consider a farm land.  They grow some of their own herbs and this year decided to package them up for Christmas gifts.

We also got a really nice Wusthof Cutting Knife, which we were pretty excited about!

There were several things we really enjoyed, but nothing really beats these:

Baby pink "UGGs" complete with a pregnancy test.  Do you think they're trying to hint towards something?!  I just about died laughing when I saw this duo.  Nevertheless, the boots are adorable and I'm sure they will come in handy in the future.

For now, I'll stick with the slippers Becky gave me.

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a weekend filled with chocolate cupcakes, family, movies and fuzzy slippers also.   

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa and a Happy New Year to you too!

Babies on the Brain

Yesterday I went to my dear friend Kelly's Baby Shower.  From the food & decorations to the games & activities...it was definitely one of the best shower's I've ever been to! :)

You'll get to hear all about it in the next day or so but for now, I HAD to share what I was most excited about: going shopping for Baby.  

I love Bridal Showers, but I have to admit that there's something incredibly exciting for me about shopping for a Baby Shower.  I love pulling up the registry to see what Mom wants and trying my best to get the "gift" she wants and needs the most.

Before I went shopping I asked one of my friends who is a new mom what I should get her.  Her automatic response was "diapers."  Obviously, not the most exciting purchase on the registry, but certainly the most practical.

On my way back to the diaper isle, I found the cutest little pair of newborn baby slippers.

Are they practical? Probably not...but I mean...really...how can you resist those?! The slippers were the first thing to go in my cart and I decided to use them as inspiration for a "fresh & clean bath time routine" themed gift.

I heard that one of the shower hosts made a Diaper Cake (which turned out absolutely adorable) so I figured Kelly would be covered in the diaper department for a while and moved towards the next necessity: baby wipes, or spice wipes...as we like to call them ;)  You can never have too many of those right?

I picked up 2 huge boxes of wipes off of the registry, a Johnson & Johnson bathtime set, and a travel set of wipes.  That gift would have sufficed enough, but since I was going in on it with my friend I decided to take a stroll in the clothing section... 

I know, I know: everyone gets baby clothes for a Baby Shower.  It's just too hard to resist.  I got a good amount of practical stuff, so I decided to keep the "fresh & clean routine" theme going by getting 2 pairs of pajamas (for after bath time, of course).

The one on the left says "Daddy's Little Tough Guy" and the one on the right says "Mommy's Little Champ." "Mommy" was a dancer with me and "Daddy" is a personal trainer, so I thought they were the perfect snuggly pjs for him.

When I got home I was excited to wrap the present and go to the shower the next day.  I got all of my wrapping supplies at Wal-mart and was pretty proud of myself with how it turned out:

*TIP: You can jazz any gift wrap up by adding ribbon from the crafting section.  I like to look for when spools of ribbon go on sale at Wal-mart, JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels and load my cart up when they do!

pictured gift wrap supplies:

1 Sweet Baby Boy gift bag
1 roll of white wrapping paper
a few sheets of white tissue paper
1 spool of 1 1/2" dark brown ribbon
1 spool of 1 1/2" Sahara Stripe ribbon (teal and brownish)

Close-up:

And of course, my favorite gift topper:

Kelly loved the gift and the shower was fun, but all this baby talk and shopping really get's me on the baby train again...

As if I wasn't tortured enough at work by all of the adorable babies that come into the restaurant,  now I can't get babies off the brain at home.  I keep picturing all of the baby girls that come in dressed in tiny leggings, poofy skirts and flower headbands, and the baby boys dressed in tiny polos and golf shorts.  My heart melts at least 5 times a day and any co-worker can vouge that I've had a case for baby fever ever since Scott and I got engaged.

Since Scott just had a birthday (another festivities post coming soon), it's starting to really sink in that we're not getting any younger.  He's got 11 years on me and even though he acts 21 12 years old some times, his age is his age...the "we need to start talking about babies" age.

People keep telling me that when they see my name pop up on their call ID they think it's me calling to tell them I'm pregnant.  Well...this isn't the case, just yet.  Scott and I still have some settling in to do, not to mention the continued job and house search that's going on.

Do I want a baby? Yes.  Sooner than later, at that.  I guess everything happens when it's supposed to and all we can do is trust God's timing for it.

Until then, I'll continue to swoon over the cuite pies that waddle into the restaurant.

Questions:

• What's your favorite present to buy for a baby shower?
• Is there ever a good "time" to start thinking about babies?