High Five for Friday

Happy Friday!
This is the one time ever that I'm a little disappointed it's Friday. It means my week off is almost over :( I start the new job on Monday and am a little bit nervous but also very excited. Mixed feelings, for sure.

I've had a great week, and as I wrote about yesterday, I'm thankful for many things.

1. To expand on yesterday's comment about the cheetah print pajamas, I've added a new set of pajamas to my collection (as in "collection" I mean one other set). They're the exact same pajamas, just a different pattern. What can I say, I know what I like.

Kohl's, Simply Vera Vera Wang

Yes, a "fashiony" pajama picture. Stylin'.
Speaking of Kohl's... if you missed it the other day, they are sharing an exclusive coupon code with all you lovely people! Use code "TENBLOG" for 10% off your purchase at Kohls.com now through December 29. It can be used stacked with another coupon code. Enjoy!

2. Down time. To watch tv, movies, and relax. Me and relaxing typically don't go together- I'm always running around trying to get something done. I've made a concerted effort this week to try and be lazy. I'm loving it. Clearly, I'm loving not getting out of my pajamas, either. Last night we made an easy dinner (out of a box. gasp.) and watched "The Campaign". Stupid, yes. Funny, definitely. I recommend and so does Chris! I even got to meet up with Chris for lunch today in Annapolis where he works. It was nice to be able to do that...something that probably won't happen again for a while!

3. Family time. I had lunch with my dad the other day and am seeing my mom today. Plus, Thanksgiving is next week which means even more family time. I definitely don't get to see them enough. I really wish my brother Ben could come in from California, but hopefully he'll come back next month during the second round of holidays ;) I miss you Benji!

4. Birchbox came early this month! I was super excited until I realized one of the items was missing :( I emailed them and was given Birchbox points... I've been saving them up to buy something good, so I'll finally be able to do that. Now to decide what I want!

5. Happy Hour with the girls tonight! Can I call it "Happy Hour" if I'm not working? Should it just be called "early drinking"?? Whatever it is, I'll be required to change out of my pajamas. And that's okay.

Happy weekend, lovelies!!!

Linking up with Lauren

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

This time of year, I just love pumpkin in anything.

These cookies are no exception! They're light, fluffy, and have the perfect amount of pumpkin flavor.

Ingregients (Yields about 5 dozen cookies):
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening (I use Crisco)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
3 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:
Mix butter, shortening, sugars, pumpkin and egg with electric mixer until well incorporated.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and mix well.
Chill dough in fridge for ~30 minutes.
At this time, I would preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Roll dough into tsp size balls (I use a cookie scoop).
Mix about 1/2 cup white sugar with 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (I made my own):
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves or allspice (I prefer cloves, but whatever you have on-hand)
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
Roll dough balls in this mixture, place on cookie sheet.
Bake 8-9 minutes until slightly browned.

Adapted from this recipe

Enjoy!

Weekend Update!

I hope you all had a great weekend.

This weekend was pretty uneventful...

Packing, relaxing, eating, football, and scarves&boots :)

Saturday morning pancakes!

Zoya/Bevin

 Chillin.

 Gorgeous weather this weekend... chilly on Saturday and about 70 on Sunday.

This time of year is so unpredictable here, but it's beautiful.

This pasta was so yum.

So, we're not exactly sure when we're moving but it looks like it's going to be happening, hopefully before the end of the month. I can't wait to be able to sleep through a night! It's going to be amazing.

Most nights I'm up at 1am, 3:30am, 4:30am, and finally at 6:30am because of the upstairs neighbors stomping around.

Yep, that's what we've been dealing with the past 9 months.

Not fun! Needless to say, I'm more than excited to finally move to a different apartment.

How was your weekend? I hope it was great!

Linking up with Sami, Dana, and Leeann for Weekend Update :)

Weekend Update!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! 

We had a fun and eventful one for the most part.

On Friday we went on a Haunted Pub Crawl in Annapolis.

It was a lot of fun! 

We didn't see any ghosts...at least I don't think so!

We visited several bars and a cemetery  We got drinks at each one and our tour guide told us stories about the ghosts that haunt each building.

at the cemetary... see any ghosts? 

(that's our tour guide.. she was awesome)

After a fun night, we took it easy the rest of the weekend.

We watched some movies... including Friends with Kids and Wanderlust. I really liked them both!

Sunday was football day, so we made potato skins for the game and then chili for dinner.

(Yeah Redskins!)

Yum! It was turkey chili, so a little more healthy than regular chili.

If anyone's interested in the recipe, I can figure it out and post it (We kind of just threw it together).

It was a little spicy but sooo good. The best part? Having tons of leftovers to freeze for an easy future dinner.

Win-win!

I also got a Klout perk... Essie Stylenomics nail polish!

It's a dark green, which is currently on my toes. 

I wasn't sure if I'd like it for my fingers (green polish kind of weirds me out) but I love it as a pedi! 

I'm not posting a picture of my toes. So, here's what the polish looks like...

Linking up with Sami, Dana, and Leeann for Weekend Update!

What did you do this weekend?

Loving Lately ~ Jewel Tones

I'm joining Loving Lately this week!

With fall coming, I'm totally loving the jewel tones.

Purple, magenta, green, dark blue, I love it all.
Here are a few of my favorite pieces...

Jewel Tones by alyssalianne featuring ballerina flats

Darker jewel tones aren't too overwhelming so you can wear a couple colors together if you'd like, or pair with black/neutral pieces for a professional look. I'm all about layering (especially during the fall) so I love versatile pieces that I can wear with different outfits depending on the occasion. 

What are you loving lately?

Don't forget to enter my group giveaway if you haven't already! :)

Weekend Update

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Ugh, it's Monday now... let's just not talk about that.

This weekend... hmm I felt like we spent a lot of it in the car running around doing errands, driving to Chris' family's house to sleep, and fun stuff like that. 

Hobby Lobby and Homegoods... I couldn't resist all your fall cuteness. We finally bought pasta bowls, I got a really great smelling candle... It's officially (well, not technically) fall.

Plus, today was the first Redskins game of the season! Yep, feels like fall to me!

And we won. Chris will be in a great mood all week!

Let's talk about the whole "driving somewhere else to sleep" thing. 

We have nightmare neighbors who live above us. They are extremely inconsiderate and rude 24/7. Not only do they walk loudly all the time, they stomp even louder when they know we're home. Sometimes, we are woken up in the middle of the night by them doing...well, you know. Gross. They pretty much never sleep and are up around 4 or 5am every day slamming around. Chris can't even sleep in the master bedroom most of the time because of the noise. I can sleep through some of it, luckily. 
A month ago, things became uncontrollable. We heard them screaming off the balcony at 1:30am, slamming around, etc so we called the police. 3 times. It did nothing. The noise actually got worse and lasted until 5am.

Our leasing office will only offer to move us (at our expense) to a different unit. Several times we have agreed to do this, and then they stop responding to us. Basically, the landlords are doing nothing. It's frustrating and ridiculous. 
Right now we're exploring our options and hopefully will be leaving soon. We've done everything we possibly could in this situation and are just done. So, when the noise started up again Saturday night, we hightailed it out of there. Obviously, calling the police does nothing so leaving was our only option.
It's extremely frustrating to not be able to stay in our apartment which we pay for, especially an apartment that we love and have put so much time into decorating...without the noise problem, we'd probably stay for at least another year. 
So, that was a total sidetrack. Has anyone else had similar experiences? (I hope not. I wouldn't wish this on anyone!) If so...What did you do in this situation?

Besides all that nonsense, it was a good weekend and I think we've both finally gotten rid of colds. And... I worked on my first ever giveaway coming up in a few days! I'm so excited. 

I'm linking up with Sami, Dana, and Leeann as usual for Weekend Update!