Tuesdays with Jenbiff

Holiday Decorating Ideas

In my mind fall is officially over. I know according to the calendar winter doesn’t begin until December 21^st, but I’m a New Englander and it’s already freezing out (I mean it was rain/snowing today!). That and people start preparing for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving which is pretty symbolic of the winter season. Since I didn’t really have a lot of time to plan for fall décor before we were even settled into our apartment, I wanted to make sure that I have a better sense of what I wanted to do come winter. Thankfully my boyfriend Ben and my family have given us a lot of decorations so we haven’t had to buy too much so far. So here are a few things that I’ve done so far:

Of course I wish I could be as creative as the person or people behind some of these other pictures I’ve found, but thanks to the internet I can admire their work from the comfort of my couch. They’ve also given me a whole bunch of ideas to try and emulate in this and future homes of mine. Here are the pictures of inspiration I’ve found:

Tree ideas from Marthastewart.com

Chandelier idea from Pinterest

Fireplace idea from Pinterest

Another fireplace idea from Pinterest

Have you tried anything new this year?

Five-Star Fridays with Jenbiff

Kringle Candle

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I certainly did! This year, my boyfriend Ben and I actually had to travel back home to celebrate (no complaints, just a weird thought!) Our Thanksgiving was pretty tradiaitonal, lots of turkey and stuffing between our two families, which was just what we were looking for. We were lucky enough to have a little extra time with our family so on Wednesday we went up to Bernardston, MA to Kringle Candle and their restaurant The Farm Table. At The Farm Table I had a ham and cheese that was absolutely amazing! After our wonderful meals we wandered into the Kringle Candle Christmas store to find all sorts of winter and Christmas smelling candles.

In case you are unaware of this little marvel, Kringle Candle is similar to Yankee Candle in that they sell candles for every season, but particularly winter and Christmas. The variety of scents is amazing, and we had a great time smelling all of them! Here's some highlights from the day:

Outside The Farm Table

My delic lunch!

The entrance. A winter wonderland waiting!

Who wouldn't want to hang out with these critters?

Love the sun setting behind the decorated farmhouse

I just love the "Artificial Snow"

Our Wonderful Thanksgiving dinner thanks to Ben's mom!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Quote of the Week: "Be thankful for what you have and you will end up having more. But if you concentrate on what you don't have, you'll never, ever have enough."
Last Weeks Answer:  Annie Dillard

Tuesdays with Jenbiff

Fall Decor

As I’ve mentioned a time or two before, my boyfriend Ben and I moved in together in August. Living on our own has been a big adventure for us so far and we’re loving the ride. Since high school I’ve looked forward to decorating a home of my own and now I finally have the chance to! Since we moved in towards the end of the summer, fall has been our first real season to decorate for. We don’t really have too much general fall things, so I went a little crazy with the Halloween stuff (hence all my Halloween crafts? I think so…sorry I'm not sorry.)

As the season comes to an end I can’t help but think about what I want to do differently next year. I want to actually be focused in the decorations department. It’s time to grow up in the holiday decorations, and I’m already preparing. Here are a few ideas I’ve found on Pinterest:

And here are a few ideas from other places:

This fall idea is from HGTV's website

This idea is from Martha Stewart's website

Did you try anything new this fall?

Happy Turkey Day!!

Tuesday with Vicki Live

Gobble Gobble


Yesss! One of my absolute favorites weeks has arrived! Only one and half more days of work left to go & I'm home for the Holidays. Can you tell I'm just a little excited?! I love this time of year because it means lots of family & friend time with some of my fave people. 

As of now, I have some pretty exciting plans going on for the week. Night out on the town with friends on Wednesday, and then Turkey Dinner & dessert with the fam on Thursday. Friday & Saturday some Black Friday Shopping,  and then Saturday night it's my 5 year highschool reunion! I can't even believe it's been 5 years! Man, I'm getting old...haha


Here are a few of my fave highschool memories...

Since I'll be seeing all of my "favorite" people on Saturday night at my Highschool Reunion...I need to start thinking of a new outfit to wear that night. Here is an inspiration that I came up with using Polyvore.com:

Class Reunion by vbozek61889 featuring a pink glitter nail polish

Antonio Berardi metallic top
theoutnet.com

Skinny jeans
$310 - montaignemarket.com

Jessica simpson heels
heels.com

Jane norman
$40 - janenorman.co.uk

Gold jewelry
$36,530 - brownsfashion.com

Amrita Singh enamel jewelry
fashion.ebay.com

Pink glitter nail polish
$7.86 - nelly.com

NARS Cosmetics eyeshadow
narscosmetics.com

Beauty product
allyou.com

Arteriors Ecko Natural Iron Wall Sculpture
zincdoor.com

Five-Star Fridays with Jenbiff

Apple Pie

As I mentioned on Tuesday, Ben and I went apple picking at a local Pickit Yourself farm near our apartment. In the car ride home we discussed what to do with all those apples; “We def need to bring at least one apple with us to work until they’re gone” would have gotten old fast. Then I got the brilliant idea: why don’t we make apple pie? How hard can it be? (Coming from the girl who really does cook…like ever).

My boyfriend, Ben, in true fashion, sat down at his computer to start looking for easy apple pie recipes. A short time later he had found one that was easy enough to handle and we got to work. And by we I totally mean he, and I took pictures. Here’s the link to the recipe we used:

http://www.momswhothink.com/easy-recipes/easy-apple-pie-recipe.html

And here are the pics along the process:

Our bag of apple and cut up apple ready for the pie

Almost time to put it together!

Ready for the oven

A little burnt around the edges, but soooo good!

Did you make apple pie this fall?

Quote of the Week: "Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you."
Last Weeks Answer:  Roberto Clemente

KM Explains it All!

Just Call Me Betty Crocker...

As I've mentioned multiple times before, I'm addicted to Pinterest.  I just recently became really into cooking and have a large food board entitled "Nom Nom Nom."  To help me prepare for when I don't have the choice on whether or not I cook, I've been cooking at least one meal every week.  One of my favorites is a casserole ..a loaded baked potato and chicken casserole.  It's so scrumptious and easy to make that I'm actually making it for the second time tonight.  The original pin comes from a fellow blogger Cook Lisa Cook and I must say she's a genius   My dad served leftovers to his friends while watching a football came and they all raved about it.

Here's how mine looked.  I served it with some ranch dressing on the side but it tastes fabulous on it's own.

Have you cooked anything good lately?  Let me know!!!

Tuesdays with Jenbiff

Fall-Time Favorite: Apple Picking

I have been trying for years to get Ben to come apple picking with me. I actually can’t even remember the last time I went, so when we decided to go this year I was very excited! I know that I’m writing about this really late into the fall, but we actually went over a month ago. Even going then, you could tell the trees were very picked over and that apple picking season was almost over. I’m just glad that we were able to find time to go before the season was over. 

CN Smith Farm, the farm we went to

Being new to this area, we did a lot of research to even find a place to go to. We found C.N. Smith Farm in East Bridgewater which is actually only a 10 minute drive from out apartment! We had a lot of fun, despite the lack of apples and sun (it actually started raining right before we left!) And when we saw these awesome apple picking sticks, we felt like we were unstoppable. Now what did we do with all these apples….

Climbing in a tree to get an apple

Ben with the apple picker

 Hope you had a wonderful Veterans Day!

The Gossip Corner with Stine

Hey readers! 

Sorry for being MIA, we've been dealing with the effects of hurricane Sandy here on the east coast. I hope everyone who was in the path of the storm is safe and that you didn't have too much damage. Unfortunately our house at the shore, that the girls and I have posted about, had some significant damage to the first floor but we will rebuild because "we are Jersey strong" as the straight-shootin' Gov. Christie said. I may not always agree with his politics but he sure is fun to listen too! Now on to a lighter topic:

Justin and Selena split!!

Justin & Selena the way they were (Google Images)

It's a sad day in Hollywood as the news of America's sweetheart couple called it quits over the weekend. I know a lot of Bieber fans are super excited to have the teen sensation back on the market but I wouldn't hold your breath because I'm betting (if I was a betting kinda gal) that these two will be back together in no time! They are so incredibly adorable together and are probably just feeling the pressure from the industry forcing them to either get hitched or break up, which is crazy because they're only in their early twenties!

What do you guys think, will or won't they get back together? Let me know!!

Have a great week everyone!