Happy Christmas!

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas... Mine was (for the most part) was excellent. I got some amazing gifts and gave some exciting ones. Sad news, my grandpa had to go to the emergency room for breathing problems. I've been in the hospital helping him and my grandmother for most of the day. If you think about it say a little prayer for him!

Anywho... Here are some pictures from my Christmas weekend.

This is my Christmas Eve job. And yes, they smell and taste as good as they look.

This was my mom's cat, Antoinette, Christmas morning. I opened one of my gifts and she decided she wanted to be a gift and get in the wrapping paper. :)

This was hidden in the tree.... :):):)

This is what was in it... from my dad. :):) I'm a lucky girl!

Every princess needs a frog prince!

My dad's famous made-from-scratch (including the cream cheese) cheesecake.

In the emergency room. :(

My new outfit from the parents! I wore it to church... Dress & sweater from Anthropologie, boots from Urban Outfitters. I LOVE them.

And a Miss Sixty jacket.

My cat loves Christmastime and a fire..

Ending the evening with a fire log (genius, by the way) and a glass of Riesling and PS I Love You (I still cry every time).

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

It doesn't feel a lot like Christmas...

Today it got into the 70s temperature wise. Christmas is in 3 days. Sad.

Here's my Christmas tree! It's a real one. :) And most of the ornaments are different shades of purples, lavenders, silver and white. And there's a bow on top. :)

This is on my table. It's kind of random and messy but I like it.

My friend Melody and I got a Santa picture this year! It was at one of our performances. For you non-musical people, we musicians have to wear black. I have soooo much black... Dresses, skirts, pants, tops, dressy jackets, shoes.. The list goes on. A classical musician can't have enough black.

Here's my [extended] family Christmas party outfit.. Velvet jacket from Express, my favorite skinny jeans (also from Express) and the Betsey Johnson shoes. The shirt is from Anthropologie. You can't really tell in the picture, it's purple.. Here's a closeup:

 Please forgive the dirty mirror, tomorrow is cleaning day. :)

And I wore my fun rhinestone bow barrette and earrings. The earrings are from the Biltmore.

Here's a detail picture of the barrette... It's from the Titanic museum in Pigeon Forge. Haha.

Anyways, I hope you are having a cooler Christmas holiday!

Caravel

I'm getting really excited for what's to come for our band, Caravel... We've been practicing and we're looking book some gigs starting in January.

Here are a couple of shots of us:

 If you're so inclined you can follow us on facebook here or on Twitter here.

I edited these pictures using Picnik. If you've never heard of it you should totally check it out.. The majority of the features are free and it's super easy to use.


**Update!**
So, we're kind of recording a 5-song Christmas album TONIGHT (12/21)! Crazy! I'll have more details tomorrow. :)

Chloe..

I'm just gonna say it right now, I'm a cat person. They're easy, you can leave them alone all day, and they don't lick your face.

This is my child, I mean cat, Chloe..

She's 8 years old.

We have a special relationship. I have full on conversations with her, she blesses me when I sneeze, and she greets me at the door 98% of the time.

She allows me to sleep in her bed... She loves sandwich turkey. She is skiddish around strange people. She's prissy. Any time I am sick she is sick with me.

And she's even less of a morning person than I am.

**All these pictures were taken with my new favorite iPhone app: TiltShiftGenerator

Movies From High School...

Recently I've been on a movies from my teenage years kick.. You know, the cheesy high school romantic comedies from the late '90s, early '00s..

In the past few weeks I've watched She's All That, Drive Me Crazy, & Center Stage and boy did they bring back memories from my middle school / high school years (I graduated '05).. There was also Never Been Kissed, 10 Things I Hate About You (Heath!!!), Bring It On, Clueless, Cruel Intentions, the list goes on... It's so funny go watch those movies and be like "She was in that?!" or "we wore that?!". It's amazing to see that some of the "big movie stars" of today got their starts in the high school angst (love that word) movies.

And you can't forget about the awesome soundtracks!!! Ha! Not gonna lie, I listened to some Britney Spears when she first came out (Hit Me Baby One More Time anyone?).. And who can forget the boy band era -- Hanson, Backstreet Boys, NSync, 98 Degrees..

Did I miss any? What were some of your favorites from this list or from your high school years?

Caravel's Radio Debut!

Tonight was so much fun! We ended up just playing 2 songs from our original set, but it was still awesome! Thanks to everyone who listened!
Here we are:

Not gonna lie, we totally rocked it. :)

Here's the outfit:

It was outside so I stuck with a wool jacket.. It was slightly difficult to maneuver in but I pushed up the sleeves and made it work. It's from Forever 21.

 And here are the boots. :) I love these. My mom got them for me a couple of years ago for my birthday. They're Jessica Simpson.
I would have had a full body picture but my room currently had a tornado go through it and won't be home to clean up the mess this week with all the practices.

Anyways, tonight was great! I love when people enjoy hearing my violin. :) And thanks again for anyone who listened!

Pirates of the Caribbean Trailer

They've finally released a trailer! And it's a long one too.. I don't care if the movie franchise is overdone, I can't wait to see it.. I love Johnny Depp, the music, and pirates...

The Nutcracker!

Let me just say, today was awesome...

It started out with a couple of practices. One was for a Christmas program and one was for something really exciting... I'm playing in a band now and we're playing LIVE on the radio on Tuesday night!! I'm pretty sure it will be available online here. Our band is called Caravel and it consists of myself on violin, my friend Melody on violin and vocals, and her brother Chris on guitar and vocals. We'll be playing "Carol of the Bells" (my favorite), "I Wander As I Wander", and "Little Drummer Boy". None of them are the traditional versions but they are great. I'm sooo excited / nervous.

After practices, Melody and I saw "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". We opted for the 2D version because it was cheaper and because I heard the 3D was unnecessary.  It was really good. It didn't follow the book exactly, but it was still really good. And the actor who played Eustace was perfect for the part. He was exactly as I had imagined him when I was a kid, down to the voice.

Lastly, Melody and I went to see the Mobile Ballet perform the Nutcracker! I'm pretty sure I haven't been since I danced in it 14 years ago. It was so fabulous. I think I'm finally in the mood for Christmas.

Here they are!

Melody and myself. :) We decided to go all out and get dressed up.

Here's my outfit!
Dress: Anthropologie
Sweater: Express (years ago)
Shoes: Betsey Johnson (see close up here)
Headband: Target

Thanksgiving Trip To The Smokies

Okay, after about 2 hours of uploading and editing pictures (and watching Castle, which was great by the way...) I am finally done. I seriously need to get an external hard drive. My pictures are taking up too much space.

Anyways... The picture quality doesn't show up as well on the blog but if you click on the pictures to enlarge them or go to my flickr page you can see them better. :) Here is my week in pictures:

So pretty.. We were in the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg, TN area for the most part and we went to Ashville, NC for the weekend.

This is why they are called the Smokies... (view from the cabin)

Sunset.. So pretty.

We went horseback riding on Wednesday. This was my horse, Esperanza. She was perfect. I didn't even have to hold on to the reigns for the most part.

My parents.. It's their 30th anniversary today!

This was on our hike Thanksgiving night.

My brothers and I. Christian looks like such a happy person.

Family picture! It's kind of crooked because I had to set my camera on a log..

These are my new Toms. :) They served as my hiking shoes for the day. I LOVE Toms. If you've never heard of them, they give a pair of shoes to child in need for EVERY pair of shoes that's sold. So awesome.

It's a colorful fall tree!! We don't get those down here.. Here the leaves just turn brown and crunchy.

Orchids in the greenhouse at the Biltmore.. I love taking pictures of flowers.

And the Biltmore! We were there on their busiest day of the year.

Well that's the gist of the trip. It was great fun!