our pom-pom christmas wreath

i can't believe christmas is less than 10 days away. wow, this month has been flying by. and finally, just in the nick of time, i think i've finished our christmas decor. i've kept our house simple this year. lights on our tree, a pine cone garland strung on the mantle, and this wreath. i saw similar wreaths on pinterest and thought they were the cutest things ever. so i decided to try it out myself! and i'm pretty happy with the result. i think its the perfect pop of color in our living room. we've needed something over our [tiny] t.v. for a while, so i'm considering leaving it up year 'round. it's still growing on scofield, but i'm confident he'll come around ;).

what has been your favorite christmas craft this year!?

new york city, part 2

on day two, katie took me to an amazing bagel shop in long island.

^and this is the bagel that changed my life. an everything bagel on egg with spinach and scallion cream cheese and a fried egg. it was also the biggest bagel i've ever had. which was perfect, considering we then proceeded to walk around new york enjoying all of the christmas decorations for the rest of the day and night.

^grand central station. for some reason, i thought it would be a good idea to walk 6+ miles in heels. well, i guess they weren't really heels. they were more like ankle boots with a little heel on them. so maybe i'm just a wimp or something. i mean, i was that embarrassing girl that was limping with every step and leaning on her friends. so we got to grand central station, and i looked at the floor and thought, "clean enough." and those shoes were off. i'm sure i then proceeded to look even more embarrassing than before. but hey, sometime's you gotta do what you gotta do. so i did. i took my shoes off. end of story.

^we also went to saint john of the divine cathedral. we missed the evening song, so just walked around and admired the beautiful building...and their really cool swan tree.

^and it snowed...it snowed!!!

 we finished off the weekend by visiting the momfuku milk bar.

snow outside, cookie in hand....it was magical. i've decided there should always be cookies when there's snow. always.

i got the cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookie, and i took a compost cookie home for scofield [butterscotch, chocolate, pretzels, potato chips...that's all in this cookie]. now the milk bar needs to come to greenville...i've decided that too.

welp, that just about wraps it up! now i'm just dreaming of going back, already listing out the places i didn't get to visit. see you again soon, new york!

12 days of christmas cookies: day 01

i've decided to start a little project this holiday season - the 12 days of christmas cookies. i know what you're thinking..."isn't a little late for that? it's already december 12th." yes, yes, i know. i've already confessed i have a bit of an issue with procrastinating. but if julia child's entire cookbook can be cooked through in 365 days, then i think i can get 12 batches of cookies done in less than 12 days...eh? plus, there's nothing better than baking cookies while listening to christmas music.

i decided to kick it off with double chocolate chip gingerbread cookies. white chocolate chips go so well with gingerbread, but i can't help but try to fit chocolate into everything...so why not combine them!?

double chocolate chip gingerbread cookies

ingredients:

• 2 cups wheat flour [or all purpose flour if that's all you have on hand]
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. all spice
• pinch of cloves
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter [2 sticks], softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

add all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl [the first 8 ingredients]. mix well to combine. in a separate mixing bowl, add the butter and brown sugar. blend using a hand mixer. once it has a creamy consistency, add the molasses, honey, vanilla extract and eggs. continue mixing until fully combined. add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine. finally, fold in all the chocolate chips. cover with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 1 hour [can be left overnight or up to 8 hours]. 

after letting the dough sit in the refrigerator, remove it and let it soften a bit. while it's softening, preheat the oven to 350 F. using a cookie scoop, scoop the cookies onto a prepared baking sheet and bake for 9 minutes. let cool for about 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

snack on one with a glass of milk [soy for me!] - beeest combination!

happy baking!

new york city, part 1

on saturday, katie and i made our first stop at the brooklyn bridge. it was cold, but boy was it beautiful. we had lovely views of the city, the sun was shining, and well...i just love walking.

after the bridge we had brunch in brooklyn. we stumbled upon the cutest little restaurant [and other adorable ones along the way]. it was so hard to decide which one we wanted to go to, so we just made a decision - pretty much feeling like we'd hit jackpot at any of them.

^oh, and meet katie. she's adorable. i just want to put her in my pocket and keep her with me always. i'm not kidding...also, she's the bravest person i know. maybe if she's in my pocket that brave will rub off on me...

^and don't get me started on the christmas decorations...everywhere. it was amazing. i'm seriously thinking about making a trip to new york at christmas a tradition.

^i love all the colors of the bikes here. heck, i just love that there were bikes everywhere. my freshman year of college, i begged my dad for a bike. so for my birthday, he got me a cute little light blue one with a basket to ride around campus. i was so so excited...and then i rode it. no one really rode bikes at my school...at least not little blue cruisers with baskets. there were also minimal bike lanes, and because it wasn't a road bike, riding it on the road was kinda dangerous...and really awkward. so it sat there, all year long. then i took it back home and it's been sitting in my parent's garage ever since. i'm still trying to convince my dad i'm going to come get it and paint over the rust [whoops] and start riding it. really, i am....

^a salted caramel chocolate chip cookie from ovenly, but the bakery should be called heavenly...

oh new york, you've stolen my heart...

bits of new york via iphone pictures

and i'm back from visiting my best friend, katie, in new york.  i got to take a nice long weekend to fly up and see her and explore the city. and man, it was a good weekend. now i've got to try to get back into the swing of things here in south carolina...after a full day of traveling and plane delays, i feel a bit like a zombie this morning. so hopefully this dark cup of coffee in hand will do the trick.

i'll share some more pictures from the real camera soon. hope you've had a good weekend / beginning of the week!

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you can follow along on instagram here

at the christmas tree farm

it's the first week of christmas and we already have our christmas tree up! this is a record for us...the queen and king of procrastination [we're working on getting better!]. we recently found a christmas tree farm near by and headed to it with our friends, courtney and turner. turner is the worship leader at the church where we go, and where scofield is also the children and student ministry director. it's really pretty comical because scofield and turner are close to the same height...right around that 5'5 mark... and they have the same build - stocky and strong. courtney's a little taller than me, but put us in our heels and we're both taller than our husbands. a girl in our youth group made the comment to her mom once, "scofield and turner are both really short, but they have these tall, beautiful wives." ha! we couldn't help but laugh about that one. 

now that the tree is in the house, next up, decorating! one thing i didn't think about when we got married were things like christmas decorations. we have virtually no christmas decorations, so i'm trying to get creative by crafting some things...but i know i'm gonna have to break down and just go get some stuff from the store. we've been doing so good....let's hope we don't procrastinate on that.