St. Patrick's Day!

I am definitely one of those girls who dresses up and goes all out for random holidays.. St. Patrick's day happens to be one of my favorites. First off, I LOVE Ireland, my mom and I visited in 2008. Secondly, I love green. Thirdly, I'm part Irish..

Anyways, this year I decided to cook an Irish meal for the family.

Here is the recipe for the Steak and Guinness Pie I made.

This is what goes inside the pie (steak, bacon, onions, peas...). The Guinness makes an AMAZING gravy. Let me tell you..

Here I am with the finished product..

Here it is on the table.. I must say, this pie was scrumptiously delicious. It was hearty. It was yummy. It was Irish. I highly suggest you try it out. The only downside was that my family gobbled it all up and there were absolutely no left-overs.

I made Whisky cookie balls for dessert. They were also fantastic. (I'll post the recipe at the bottom of this post.) We had Bailey's Irish Cream with dessert as well.. So I guess we had the three most popular Irish drinks at dinner (Guinness in the pie, Jameson whiskey in the cookies, and Bailey's).

Here's my green for the day:

Shirt: Express
Cardigan: Express
Jeans: Miss Me
Shoes: Anthropologie

I just love these shoes. I bought them on sale last year and have only gotten to wear the once, so I decided St. Patrick's day was the perfect day to air them out.

And here's my whole family decked out in their green. We're nerds together, at least. :) And I kind of forced them to wear it....

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!!


Here is the recipe for the cookies:

Recipe: Irish whiskey balls (no-bake cookies)

Ingredients

• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 2 cups vanilla wafer cookies
• 1/2 cup Irish whiskey (preferably Jameson)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups pistachios
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• Optional: green food coloring

Preparation: Grind together white chocolate chips and vanilla wafers in a food processor. Add powdered sugar and process until combined. Add the whiskey and corn syrup and process until crumbs form a mass. Add pistachios and pulse until nuts are coarsely chopped and throughout mixture. Optional: Add a drop or two of green food coloring to give the balls a St. Patrick's Day holiday color.

Form 1-inch balls. Place sugar in a shallow bowl and roll balls in sugar. Store in wax paper-lined airtight container in a cool dry place. Let balls sit for a few days before eating for best results.

Makes 48 balls

Italia

So I'm incredibly jealous of my mom because she got to go to Italy for 12 days... But the great thing about my mom going on a trip is she brings me amazing things back! She went to Bologna, Milan, and Venice with my aunt to visit my cousin who is studying in Bologna.

Here are my souvenirs:

Apparently there is a "Carnival" in Italy that has been going on for hundreds of years and it is at the same time as our Mardi Gras.. My mom said it's nothing like ours with crazy drunk people and parades, but there are people walking around with capes and masks on. Very cool. She got me a couple of masks..

I may be going to a parade next week (I'd be looking on from a balcony, not on the street) and I may have to wear this mask. I love it!

 This one reminds me of Drew Barrymore in Ever After:

 I love scarves!

 This one has little charms on it.

 I love the bright colors of this one.

 I am obsessed with these shoes. This past Wednesday I went to Evergreen, AL (you could say it's in the boonies) to visit family wearing these shoes.. I was also wearing the grey scarf, a turquoise, black, and white messenger bag, bejeweled pocket capri jeans and my brother's Aviators.. I walked into KFC to get lunch for everybody and I cannot tell you how many people just stopped and stared at me.. I did NOT look like I was "from around here".  It was pretty funny.

 My mom actually bought these for herself but they were too big for her. I'm a half size larger and they fit perfectly.

 This skirt is soooo me.

 This one too. They look Anthropologie-ish, right?

 Apparently socks with pumps are a big trend in Italy. I'm definitely a fan and can't wait to figure out how to style these babies.

 Gotta love some knee socks.

 You can't go somewhere without bringing back a keychain! Italy has their own version of the French fleur-de-lis.

 This is a Venetian glass ring from Venice. I love the colors.

These are actually children's leather bracelets from Florence but they fit my tiny wrists perfectly! (Firenze is the Italian word for Florence)

Can everyone agree that my mom has excellent taste?! She knows me well. :) Thanks mom!

Single Awareness Day...

So "Single Awareness Day", as I am calling it at this point in my life, was not as bad as it could have been. (Or as Zachary Levi put it on Twitter today, "Happy Make Single People Like Myself Feel Awkward Day".) I had a nice lazy morning with a breakfast of french press coffee and some almost-burnt bacon. It was a beautiful day today. Clear skies and about 68 degrees. PERFECT.

Here is my outfit for the day.. I decided to kind of dress up.. I mean why not? Just because I'm a single girl does not mean I can't look pretty!! I'm a big fan of making summer dresses work in the cold(ish) weather, so here it is...

All you have to do is add a thin long-sleeved shirt under it and put on some tights and boots and there you go!

The dress is Free People, shirt is from PacSun, Target tights and Gianni Bini boots. (And please note my cat on my bed, haha.)

Here is the details on the top.. I got it this on sale back in August and I LOVE it. It's too pretty for just one season. :)

The boots were 70% off at Dillard's. Makes them even better!

And the eye makeup.

I met with my dad for frozen yogurt at this new restaurant called "Chill"..

Dark chocolate with cookie dough and M&Ms..

Let me tell you my dad is great.. Instead of flowers he bought me SHOES. Seriously, my dad is amazing.
Behold the awesomeness:

 Jessica Simpson. Not a fan of her, but man, the girl can put out some shoes!!!

Aren't they just loveley??! I love how the colors in the platform extend to the heel.
He also got me this lacy vest thing... (please excuse the sweatpants)

 It's from Buckle. It looks very Anthropologie-ish to me.

 The back has beautiful roses on it.

This what it looks like in the back..
Isn't my dad great?!

Well after yogurt with my dad I went to see Gnomeo & Juliet with one of my dearest friends, Alicia. The movie was soooo stinking cute! James McAvoy and Emily Blunt were the voices of the title characters. It was just great. It's very child-friendly but has enough humor to be enjoyable to adults. There are a couple of pretty funny innuendoes hidden in there as well.
After the movie we came back to my place and I made yummy chili and chocolate chip cookies and we watched Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix (her first time to see it).

Excited!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day! I'm still not going to say the V-word... Teehee....

Photoshoot Take 1

So the band had an amazing photoshoot planned this past Thursday but Christopher (guitar & vocals) got horribly sick. :( But Melody and I still had some fun with the photos.. When it's just us we call ourselves "Romeo & Lassie". I know it sounds weird, but "Romeo" is the name of my violin, and "Lassie" is hers. Yes, I name all of my important inanimate objects...
Here are some of my favorite shots from the day (they look better after you enlarge them):

 Romeo.

My dress and sweater are Anthropologie, socks are Target, shoes are Urban Outfitters. The red jacket is Miss Sixty.