Irina Dress Boutique: December 2010

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas has come and gone once again! 2010 was the year to spend with the holiday with my family. It was a holiday filled with lots of food, fun and laughter...what is better than that? We took Aaron's camera this weekend but I got one of my own, Yay for better pictures! Here are a select few from our holiday (I will spare you some of the very unflattering Christmas morning ones)

I had to take a picture with all of our presents underneath the tree. So sad when they are all gone!

He looked similar to a Sanata Sausage, but he loved it!

Santa and his reindog

We took a break to play in the yard

Waking up Shay on Christmas morning... and he was NOT happy!

This is how the dogs got their gifts on Christmas morning

It was a jacket kind of Christmas

Twins

I am off this whole week, Yay, so this week will be busy with some major organization, shopping and preparing for the New Year. Hope your holiday was just as spectacular.

Love,

Sugar Plum Fairies

As a little girl, I remember going to the Nutcracker Ballet at the Davis Theatre in Montgomery. Well this big girl got an early Christmas gift when Aaron surprised me with tickets to the Atlanta Ballet's Nutcracker performance. I was so excited because told me weeks ago that he would never go!

I made us document this (my camera has not been working good lately; I am going to steal Aaron's for Christmas photos)

We loaded up on unnecessary carbs at Maggiano's for dinner followed by a trek to Midtown for the show.

I snuck a pic at intermission

The Fox Theater was amazing. It is such a beautiful venue for concerts and cultural events. There were kids everyone, so you can imagine the commentary we had during the entire play from a 3 year old behind us. When the cast was bowing, he kept saying "Mom we have already seen this part before. Mom when do I see the Nutcracker again? Mom when is it over?"

The costumes were the best part. They were beautiful and so ornate. The perfect image of the perfect ballerina. Every little ballerina out there wanted to be the Sugar Plum Fairy at some point in their lives.

If you didn't know, I did ballet for SEVERAL years. Now trying to recall I can't pinpoint how many years exactly but at least eight. During the first act, I truly missed pointe/ballet. I loved it and now regret stopping all those years ago. (Maybe I can swing some Pure Barre classes soon)

Here is a video for a few highlights of the show

This will definitely be an Atlanta favorite for years to come!

Outfit of the week - $150 or less!

This week's outfit is perfect for athletic frames. The Many Belles Down tulip dress would compliment slender builds. Throw on a faux fur cropped jacket and oxford wedges and your look is complete.

Many Belles Down dress $68.95
Faux fur jacket $33.95
Oxford wedges $22.95
Necklace $23.95

Grand total: $149.80

These pieces can be found at Current's Alexandria location.

Cookie Time

If you are of the female gender, Christmas probably mean baking, baking and some more last minute baking. Well our Sunday night and my early wake-up this morning consisted of just that.... baking.

My office held their 2nd annual cookie swap and this girl decided to participate. I contributed my favorite holiday cookie recipe and a new one.

Molasses Cookies

These cookies are my favorite of all time. They are super easy and best when extremely chewy. I will pass the recipe along if you want it... just comment and I will send away :)

Best cookies ever

Peanut Butter Candy Bar Cookies

Another recipe from this month's Southern Living (I told you it was good). These were pretty easy to make but you have been warned, the dough is really hard to handle when assembling the cookies. There were no other comments of this problem, so it may just be me, but I had the hardest time at about 6:15 this morning. My kitchen looked like it was attacked by flour bombs and it was still hard to handle the dough, so plan enough time to assemble this babies. They were well work the trouble though.

You can see the Snickers in the middle of the cookies. Yum, Yum!

By the way, this weekend was amazing, amazing friends and an amazing wedding, what is better than that?

Love,

White Trash

Okay so the red velvet brownies did not turn out right. I L-O-V-E Southern Living so I am blaming me, the cook. All the comments said it was great so I will try out the recipe another time, maybe a Sunday afternoon when I am not so tired. Here is some documentation of our product:

Kitchen Helper, aka Space Sucker

I must say it turned out pretty with the white chocolate shavings

But..... last night was our first batch of White Trash. Tonight is the second. We made this annual treat for our co-workers. It is super easy and my hubby was amazing helping me out last night. I didn't feel so hot last night so he helped out majorly!!!!

Ingredients:

Pretzels

Corn Chex Cereal

Wheat Chex Cereal

Rice Chex Cereal

Peanuts

M & M's

Almond Bark

You may add or subtract as you wish (and any brand is fine, we just stick with the cheap ones :) )

You will need a large area for cooling. In our limited space, this meant the kitchen table.

All mixed up waiting on the Almond Bark, which can be heated by your preference (stove or microwave). You will also need a LARGE container to mix it in. We used our double boiler shown here. Not its purpose but worked just fine

An evil teeth-bearing helper is not required but he just adds some excitement, i.e. trying to keep him from eating the contents on top of the table

Spread out on your wax covered surface and let dry!

All packaged up ready to go with a bow and personalized tag!

Just a visual of our really tall paperwhites, and they smell so good!

Love,

Outfit of the week - $150 or less!

This week's outfit is perfect for petite frames. The Arden B dress has a slim fitting bodice and features fringe detailing. The fringe doesn't add a lot of volume which is perfect -- petite frames can easily be overwhelmed with too much detailing. Complete this look with a statement necklace and bracelet. Add a pair of festive satin peep toe heels and you'll be ready to get in the holiday mood.

Arden B dress $36.95
Caparros heels $32.95
Necklace $46.95
Bracelet $28.95

Grand total: $145.80

These pieces can be found at Current's Alexandria location.

Going to the Chapel

I had full intentions to blog about a new recipe we tried, red velvet brownies, but they have to cool for two hours! And this working woman is not staying up to ice those suckers.

But... there is a very exciting event this weekend! Jane Allen's Wedding! The Williams clan is packing up and heading to Mobile for this exciting event! Winter weddings are so pretty and this time of year is awesome because of all the festive decor.

I haven't seen the bride-to-be since my own wedding so it makes the trip even better!

You may think I am weird or you may do it yourself but I love asking people about their lives. I have already had deep life altering conversations with some of my co-workers. I love knowing where people came from and how they came to be where they are now. Instead of my life story, here is the story of Aaron and I.

We grew up together in Alabama, attending the same church since birth. The church we were married in is the same church we were both baptized and confirmed in. Aaron is three years older and went to a different school, so we hung out with different groups of friends as the years went by. About the time I was sixteen, we began to hang out in the same group, going to movies, dinner, etc. Aaron graduated and went off to the University of Alabama.

My senior year of high school we saw each other pretty much every weekend, but yet we were still not an item... just friends. I asked Aaron to be my date to Cotton Cotillion that year. At an afterparty, he told my best friend, Meredith, that he was going to ask me out... and that is exactly what he did! Yes we have had our ups and downs but who hasn't? We have grown up together and know each other more than we know ourselves. I know when he is furious, and says he isn't; I know when he is hurt, and says he isn't; I know when he is completely and utterly happy! As corny as it sounds, he is my best friend and has been there for me throughout the past five years!

Date party in college

Easter at church

Alys Beach

Here is a picture of our engagement. Aaron COMPLETELY surprised me with a picnic, which I had been begging for. The t-shirt and no shower proves I had no idea. Our sweet friends, Laura and Reid, were hiding in the woods taking pictures, which are something I will cherish forever.

The new addition to the family: Winston Beauregard Williams

And now Mr & Mrs

These are my amazing pledge sisters and dear dear friends! I can't wait for our mini-reunion this weekend. Girls if you are reading this... the 2nd annual girls trip in the spring needs a locale :)

Hopefully, those red velvet brownies will delicious and I can share really soon!

Love,

Winston's New Friend

So this is another post about how much we love our dog, and because this week has consisted of stressing over presents left to buy (yet we haven't actually done anything about fixing that). We have also been addressing Christmas cards. I have to tell you a funny story though... my mother in law picked out the SAME exact design. I started dying out laughing when I opened their card up this afternoon. Out of the thousands of Christmas card designs, we picked the same one. I guess great minds think alike :)

But back to Winston... you may hear us refer to him as Bubby, Bubbles or Bubs. Why? I have no idea! One day we just started doing it and have ever since.

Winston eats his friends... today we found the guts of our dear friend, Bear, and last week, Duck was open like a surgery patient in the bedroom floor. Most dogs do this but we decided to scare Winston a little bit with something bigger and better.... Billy the Goat!

Winston was a little taken back by Billy. He is larger than most toys but that is why he was in a special bin in PetSmart. Winston scares small dogs so he was a little confused as to why this thing wasn't running away.

But then they became playmates and now Winston eats his ears and goat horns!

Look at my sweet boys cuddled on the couch. He only cuddles with Aaron and they both know this makes me mad. A least I have him for 30 minutes in the morning while he watches me get ready for work.

Tomorrow night is my company Christmas party! Yay! I love holiday parties, actually the holiday season in general. We have been listening to Christmas music for 3 hours! Until next time :)

Love,

Brrr!

So it is freezing here in Atlanta. Like 37 degrees at five o'clock.... Sitting with the fire going, I begin to think of the most amazing place on Earth. Fiji!!!!

Aaron and I were so blessed to get to go to Fiji for our honeymoon. The resort was absolutely amazing but mostly because of the beautiful location. We WILL return one day!