Step Into my Week 12.14

 Today is my first day of “Christmas break,” and I don’t remember the last time I slept so well. I slept like a baby last night and in which felt especially nice and can explain the delay in getting this blog post live. The company I work for has a very generous vacation plan, but with minimal trips scheduled this past year, I didn’t use but one vacation day, meaning that I’m taking it all right now and through the new year. I have a lot of blog work I’m hoping to get accomplished, but if I am being honest lately, I’ve felt a bit burnt out with how much I was trying to get up for y’all before the holidays. Hopefully, I’ll get a second wind now that I can just focus on blogging! 

This past week was especially stressful with a big shoot on Monday and having to last-minute fill in and plan a shoot for a stylist who couldn’t do it on Thursday. I spent most of the week relatively overwhelmed as I overthought every detail of trying to get that done while also getting new blog posts up. Because of that, I don’t think I have a ton of photos from the past week and have already started blocking out some of the past week, but here’s what I can remember from the week. 

I thought Monday was my last shoot of 2020 and was a spring shoot in the studio. I was hanging and taking down a lot of wallpaper and ended up being pleasantly surprised by how everything came together. Directly following the shoot, there were so many boxes to be packed and returns to be made, which took up a large part of my afternoon. I made it home with enough time to walk with a friend and run to the store to get ingredients to make Santa Fe soup. We started making the soup and then had it simmering for two hours, which gave me some time to work on blog posts before we ate. We ate dinner while watching Home Alone, and then I went to bed. 

shop this coat here

Tuesday morning, I had a true40 class scheduled and went to that and showered before going into the office to start unpacking the china for the shoot I had on Thursday. I met with another stylist and the team I would be working with on Thursday to talk through everything for the shoot and then ran some errands for that shoot in the afternoon. That night I made myself dinner before heading to Nell’s apartment to watch The Bachelorette. I hadn’t watched any of the episodes the night they aired, so it was fun to be able to do that.

shop this pullover here

shop my favorite holiday candle and cute scalloped pot here

Most of Wednesday was spent picking up and arranging flowers for the following day’s shoot. I was so glad to have another stylist help me prepare for the shoot since it made prepping everything a bit more manageable. We had everything loaded in my car by 3:30 that afternoon and a game plan for the next day. I came home to the sweetest surprise package from my sweet friend Eleanor who started a new company called Anne Murphy. She makes the prettiest 14k gold plated beaded bracelets, and I pretty much haven’t taken them off since they came in the mail! Wednesday afternoon, I went on a walk with a friend, and we watched Elf before I came home for our virtual bible study that night. 

Thursday was shoot day, and we arrived at the location at 9:00 and began setting up. I didn’t think to get many pictures of the table setting, but I did manage to remember to get one of the floral arrangement. We were there until 5:00, and while it wasn’t my favorite shoot I’ve done, the editor was really pleased. I was exhausted by the end of it and came home to shower and put on my pajamas. I decided to treat myself to Chick-fil-A nuggets and a peppermint milkshake to enjoy while watching Home Alone 2 before going to bed early.

shop these pajamas and my pullover here

I slept in until 7:00 on Friday morning and then got up and got ready to go into the office to finish a few last-minute things before being off until the new year. I had a few packages that needed to be shipped out and some forms to scan before I was officially on vacation. I came home and wrapped a few presents before grabbing lunch with a friend and going to Homewood to get another Christmas present for a family member. In the afternoon, I made what my roommate and I call “Christmas Crack” (here’s the recipe), and we moved the guest bedroom bed (air mattress) into the living room for our movie night that evening. We watched Christmas Vacation with a couple of friends in our pajamas while enjoying holiday treats and spiked punch. It was such a fun, low-key evening.

Saturday was a very lazy day thanks to the pouring rain. I stayed in pajamas for hours, had quite a few cups of coffee, and watched two movies before ever leaving the house at 3:00. Nell and I went to get hot chocolate from Big Spoon Creamery and hung out for a little bit that afternoon. The hot chocolate was similar to the thickness of the hot chocolate we had at Angelina in Paris, which brought back so many funny memories from that trip. I got back home around 6:30 and made myself dinner before my friend came over, and we watched Home Alone 3. Once that movie was over, we started The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I fell asleep during that, and eventually, I moved from the living room to my bed to go to sleep.

On Sunday, I slept in a bit before getting up and getting ready for the day. My friend came over around lunch, and we used this breakfast sandwich maker I gave him to make lunch. There’s definitely a learning curve to getting it right, but after a couple of tries, we successfully made some sandwiches. After that, we went to his parents’ house to decorate gingerbread houses. We built them first, which is something I had never done. I was pretty impressed that we didn’t have any moments where it looked like it would collapse. After that, we decorated it and waited for them to be judged. I have to admit, I didn’t think Hunter would be all that into the decorating of the house, but he had a ton of ideas for what it should look like and was much better at drawing straight lines on the windowpanes that me. I’m pleased to say our house came in first place, and we were able to get a picture with it before our cotton candy snowman melted into himself. We stayed for a little while longer before grabbing dinner and heading home. I watched a couple of episodes of Schitt’s Creek last night before getting in bed early. 

I hope that y’all had a nice week and weekend and have been able to enjoy this holiday season despite how different it may be from year’s past. The last of my gift guides will be going up tomorrow, so be sure to check back for those if you are still shopping!