Deck the Halls...

Well I've been talking about doing this post for a while now, so I kind of feel silly because my Christmas decor isn't that amazing, it's just a touch here and there, but I'm pretty happy with it! Of course one day if I have a fire place and a staircase I would die for garland everywhere and lights outside the house with a pretty Christmas wreath, but until then I'll have to keep dreaming and deck the halls of my little city apartment ;) Hope you enjoy!

I'll start with the kitchen...

Deck the halls with boughs of holly...

Here I just switched out my copper Fall leaf serving plate with another one I had that was conveniently green and adorned with a lovely while reindeer, added some silver garland and silver balls, along with pine cones and a candle and wahlah...Christmas Kitchen!
(This is the ledge above my sink and long counter)

Faa la la la la la la la la...

In one corner I have my very beloved cookbooks, so beloved in fact that I never touch them, in fear of wear and tear.. (ha) In the other corner I have this very cute tea pot and simply switched out my photos and added some cute Christmas cards that I received last year!

Tis the season to be jolly...

I am fully aware that the very vibrant oranges and yellows in my painting clash with my Christmas colors, but what can you do, until I can convince Mr. Jones that I desperately need Christmas wall art, it will just have to "work" ;)

This is the "entry table" it stores DVDs and CD's on top are some cute nutcracker candle holders and monogrammed napkins from my grandparents, Christmas colored flowers from my darling Mr. Jones (love him) , vases with tinsel and ornaments as well as being the home of our Christmas cards... can't wait to fill it up!

Fa la la la la la la la la...

Off to the living room! Here we have some more of that silver garland and I attached red and silver balls to it as well as switching out our center photo with another Christmas card from years past! I love being able to re-use my old cards, I'm always so sad to put them away every year!

Just a touch of Christmas red...

In the living room I just added two red pashmina's to the white chairs, thanks to my dear friend Missy and her lovely bridesmaids gifts from her wedding!

The main event!

And of course our lovely tree! As you can see our colors are red and silver with a touch of green, almost all of our ornaments are thanks to Mrs. Jones, one day I hope to have her decor collection, she has every color and theme imaginable... taking up an entire wall of their garage..I am starting small, and have one box dedicated to holidays and party supplies...

A small but growing collection ;)

Enough to make Mr. Jones cringe... hahaha, I am slowly taking over the storage closet with other odds and ends that do not fit in the box.

Hope you all are having a very merry holiday season! We are headed to the Big Apple again and can't wait to take tons of holiday pictures there and share!

XOXO- Miss V

San Diego...

I have been a bad blogger.. I know, but I have been running on empty since Friday, between traveling and spending the weekend with gf's, getting back into the swing of things on Monday, and running a million errands and starting the never ending pile of Christmas cards tonight, blogging has just been on the back burner. But I'm here now to share a few photos from my trip to San Diego last weekend.

I love San Diego, it holds a very special place in my heart. It's where I went to college and I could not have been luckier, what a beautiful city to call home during that time. I met some of my best friends there and the love of my life Mr. Jones there as well.

I was able to enjoy so much of this city this past weekend, first up Balboa Park!

We were lucky to wander across a Christmas Art Fair while we were there!

Beautiful gourds that had been made into ornaments.

Every color of the rainbow

I couldn't get enough of them as you can see ;)

This has to be one of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen, it's full of gardens, museums, theaters for plays and live music, a grand organ, as well as being home of the San Diego Zoo! I loved coming here when I was living in SD and lounging on the lawns or visiting the museums.

Beautiful architecture

Gardens

Holiday Cheer!

We spent about an hour strolling around here and then another hour walking around the surrounding neighborhood. I took most of my weekend photos here but the weekend was full of fun activities, we visited lots of cute little vintage stores, ate amazing food at some wonderful restaurants and enjoyed a few cocktails all while laughing and catching up with these two lovelies.

Melissa, Tina and myself ;)

Yummy cocktails at the Speakeasy!

This is the second speakeasy I've been two in the last few weeks, once in LA and then again in SD. I love love love the concept, you make a reservation, so it's something to do with a small group and they specialize in custom made and inventive as well as old fashioned cocktails, they really take pride in what they do and are in NO way your typical bar...my new idea of a "grown up" night out ;)

SF girls happy to be back in San Diego!

I was terrible at taking photos but we had a blast visiting Melissa and visiting some of our old stomping grounds while also checking out some of the new shops and restaurants that have popped up since we've left. Also I must say this weekend would not have been possible had it not been for my amazing friends as they paid my ticket as an early graduation present. I love them dearly and can't wait to see Melissa up here in January!

Hope you all had a great weekend and that your work week is flying by! I know my last week of student teaching really is and it is so bittersweet! Love you all for following even when I am a lazy blogger! Promise to get back into it with another post tomorrow for WILW!

XOXO- Miss V

What I'm Loving Wednesday....Almost Frogot!!

Where in the world have I been?? I totally forgot my favorite blogging day WILW!! Seriously between the weird short/half/ holiday weeks, and this one being back to normal, my FINAL FINAL LAST EVER teaching credential project due tomorrow and getting ready for a weekend away yet again I didn't even realize that it was Wednesday until like two seconds ago... so here it is , linking up again with sweet Jamie's blog for What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm LOVING that I am headed to San Diego, my college hometown on Friday with one of my bff's Tina to visit the third member of our little dorm days "Three Musketeers" Melissa!

You'll remember her from my Sweet Melissa post when she was here last! Cannot wait to visit the old college stomping grounds. These girls will always mean the world to me and we have such an amazing friendship and great history together, dorm bff's, sorority sisters, beach lovers, and best friends...LOVING both of them right now!

The three of us the last time we were all in SD together... almost 2 years ago!!

I am LOVING that my final I mean last ever project will be presented and turned in tomorrow for my credential program, I am one weeks of classes and one test away from being a credentialed teacher...a dream that was a long time coming and something I have worked very hard for. This career means the world to me, I only hope that at the end there is a light..like most careers right now there is very limited space for new teachers so keep those fingers crossed for me.

I am LOVING that I will be in NYC again very soon visiting family and friends.

I am LOVING the holiday season

I am LOVING blogging as always!

XOXO- Miss V

Oh Christmas Tree. Oh Christmas Tree...

The tree is up, decorated and glowing giving our home the final touch of Holiday cheer. It looks lovely and I may or may not have crept out of bed to take a million photos of it last night, or turn on the lights and just grin... I am in love with having the house decorated, the scented candles glowing and the cold weather outside with the heaters blasting and the gas bill growing inside.. ;) oops.

I would love to say that it was a lovely experience, that cutting down your own tree is effortless and that dragging it through your lovely buildings reception area leaving a trail of needles all the way up the elevator and through the hallways is no big deal..that it fit seamlessly into the base without the aide of a steak knife to get rid of a few pesky branches, but I can't.. it was kind of a pain. Will I do it all over again next year, you betcha!! It's my favorite family tradition and just because the fam is 3000 miles away this xmas didn't mean that Mr. Jones and I weren't going to follow through!!

After switching days to cut down the tree because Saturday decided to be wet, rainy and stormy, we set out Sunday morning, sun shining, enjoying our Christmas music to none other than Santa's Tree Farm! A family tradition for the last 16 years!

Love it!

So what if the trees here are twice that of those at the lot! Look at all the fun that can be had here I mean an elve's workshop... nothing is cuter.

I totally paparazzi stalked this Santa too... trust me that wasn't as strange as taking photos of him with strangers children...yay for my stealth solo shot!

Christmas tree mecca and this is only one small area of this farm!


We agreed on the Douglas Fir and began searching for our perfect tree!


Is it obvious that I am just pretending to cut down the tree?


Super stoked, to be covered in sap and dirt!

Next up on the agenda was lunch at the traditional seafood restaurant, since the farm is near the ocean! We enjoyed a long lunch overlooking the Pacific and were excited to head home and begin decorating!

So cheesy but I couldn't resist

When all was said and done the tree ended up looking beautiful and sparkling...

Love that holiday glow

City lights and holiday lights the house is complete.

I will share the rest of the tiny details and decor later in the week hope you've all had a great Monday and enjoyed that really long post about my tree hahah...

XOXO- Miss V

Thankful...

We had a wonderful weekend and even though it was a first with my family all the way on the east coast, I felt thankful for all of the amazing family and friends that I was able to spend the holiday with. Mr. Jones and I successfully made our very first "mini" Thanksgiving for my brother and us and I was beaming with pride the entire afternoon! Granted we did not cook an entire turkey, instead it was turkey breast, but I did make most of my mothers famous sides and it was dee.lic.ous. We headed down to the Joneses for a Thanksgiving dinner and spent a few nights over there just enjoying family, relaxation, movies and lots of leftovers just the way I like it! Hope you all had a relaxing and filling Thanksgiving weekend. I'll share a bunch of photos and try to go light on the text so without further ado.. here's my Thanksgiving!

I'm Thankful...

I'm thankful for my family who sent us this beautiful centerpiece for Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful for my brother who will be joining the rest of the family in a few weeks, it was nice to share the holiday with him and we were able to skype with the whole family, so I am also very thankful for technology! haha.

I'm thankful for our mini baby tini tiny itty bitty lil turkey breast on that huge carving board ha!

I'm thankful that my lunch looked and tasted like perfection!

I'm thankful for the Jones family, no one can substitute my own, but sharing the holiday around Mum Jones' beautiful table with family and friends made the day that much easier, I'm thankful that I have them here and am so lucky to feel so loved by them as well.

I'm thankful for all of the adorable Mr. Jones' in my life!

I'm thankful for friends that feel like family.

I'm thankful for brothers who refuse to smile nicely for my blog.... and instead...

make stupid cross eyed faces....ugh. still thankful ... though.

I'm thankful that I wore the "sparkly" shoes... that kept this little one entertained for hours ;)



I'm thankful that I spent not only one night....


But, two relaxing in front of the fireplace with movies and family...

Of course I'm thankful for all of you as well!! Hope everyone is winding down from an eventful weekend! Can't wait to update you all on our xmas decor and the annual "chopping" down of the tree!! But, that will have to wait, I'm tired and trying to savor every last second of this weekend!

XOXO- Miss V

What I'm Loving Wednesday....LA Edition!

Well it's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I'm participating in littledaisymay's What I'm Loving Wednesday's! There is soo much to love right now, Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I am spending today cooking, shopping and getting ready for the long weekend! But I thought I would focus my post today on day 2 of our LA trip, because of course I'm LOVING my bestie, her fiance and Mr. Jones!

So here it is.. I'm LOVING that we had another great day with my bestie and Mark!

We started our morning by heading into Silverlake for brunch, they took us to this cute as can be restaurant Dusty's where we stuffed ourseleves silly and planned out our day.


While these two were deep in conversation,

We were busy modeling for the camera,

Roomie love.

Bromance.

Brunch was awesome, and I am jealous of all the cute places we went to while we were there, we don't go out to eat too often, so it was so fun to try so many new places in just a few short days... I never thought I would be an LA person, but each time I go to visit I love it more and more, Roomie of course is convinced I should find a teaching job down there, Mr. Jones on the other hand.. not so much.. ;)

We had originally planned to do a day hike up to the Hollywood sign on Saturday but the weather had been a little funky in the morning so we switched gears and decided to check out this little home decor shop we spotted on our way in on Friday night. Right up my alley...

This is Not Ikea..aka.. TINI.

Eclectic, vintage, modern, swap meet meets design store... kind of a place ;) We had fun browsing but the prices were kind of ridiculous so there were no purchases made, but you could spend forever in this place perusing for treasures.



We spent the rest of the afternoon, touring around town, we drove into Beverly Hills and browsed Fred Segal, ooohd and ahhhd at some large homes, drove Mulholand drive and stopped for a snack at a cute little place called Lemondae. Once we headed home it was time to get ready for our evening out! Marks parents and Aunt stopped in for a glass of wine and a chat which was a nice surprise and we spent most of the evening chatting, eating and laughing until we cried. It was a perfect ending to day two.

Seriously, I have some adorable friends.

Dinner at Coles.

I did a terrible job of taking photos once we were out, but we headed to this great restuarant Coles in downtown LA for dinner and went to their speakeasy bar in the back for an after dinner drink! We had the most incredible martini's there and I'm almost glad it was just an after dinner drink because they were like water, Bonnie, (my mother.. would be in trouble if she went there she loves a good martini). We laughed and talked until it was time to head home where we all cuddled up and fell asleep watching Saturday Night Live...ahh if only we all lived in the same town, my perfect evening hahah!.

Well that's day two, sorry for the lack of photo documentation but we were too busy chatting to stop and take pictures!

Hope everyone else is having a lovely Turkey day eve, off to do the grocery shopping and spending some time with friends this evening!!

XOXO- Miss V