Chocolate, Coconut, Oatmeal, oh my!

Today, I had a craving for some cookies.  I've been working out lately to get into shape for my trip to Florida in March.  So, after all my hard work, who was I to deny myself some sweet deliciousness?

The other day, I pinned this recipe.  I think that's when my craving began.  It's all my favorites combined!  I finally gave in today and made some chocolate coconut oatmeal cookies.  I didn't have dark chocolate and I didn't want to go to the store, so I went with what I had- semisweet.  And they are delish!  Bonus points, they have coconut in them, so R won't go near them.  Score!

Besides these photos, I also made an awesome Vine video for you, but it somehow deleted itself.  Bummer.  I'll just have to make another and upload it later.

Anyway, if you've got a sweet tooth and you're hankering for a delicious cookie, give these a try.  They are so worth it!

On Being Content

For those of you who don't know, my husband and I moved to Hendersonville right after we got married.  Well, he had already moved, and I was basically just waiting on the wedding before moving my stuff (and self) in.

While this has been an incredibly exciting time during our marriage (hello, first year!), it has also been an incredibly lonely time.  Moving to Hendersonville, where the average age is like 65 (not really, but it feels that way, compared to Boone where the median age is 21), has been a challenge, to say the least.  Since day 1, I've been hoping against hope that we would be able to move to Charlotte, where my family and our friends are.

After a visit to Charlotte for my mom's birthday, I hit the breaking point.  I was miserable at the thought of driving home.  I called R and told him I would do anything to move.  I was tired of being lonely and tired of trying to fit all our fun into the 1 1/2 days every other month that we got to visit friends and family.  After a long talk, we determined that it was just not feasible.  In order to move, R would have to take a huge pay cut and we just weren't in a position to do that.  I was heart broken.

However, after our phone chat, it hit me.  God has GOT this.  Why didn't I see it before?  Since before R and I even began dating, God had a plan.  After R's graduation, he had several job offers, one of which would move him out of Boone.  The one he ended up accepting kept him there.  Then, when he was blessed with a promotion, it was in the same branch.  I found out a few semesters before that I was able to graduate a semester early.  That was perfect timing for us to get married May of 2012.  Richard's next promotion came exactly one month before our wedding.  It gave us just enough time to find a place to live and move our stuff down before the wedding.  Some of that may be confusing, but it comes down to one thing- Perfect timing.

Since the beginning, He had a plan.  I now realize that right now is just not a good time to move.  And I'm okay with that.  I'm learning to appreciate the few friends we've made, along with the time I get to devote to my husband and our marriage.  I'm learning to manage my time in a more constructive way.  I'm learning to really cherish the moments we spend with our friends and family.  Most of all, I'm learning to be content.

J.Crew Clearance Store

So, let's talk about the J.Crew clearance store.  For those of you who don't know, there is a J.Crew clearance store in Arden, NC (about 20 mins from Hendersonville).  The clearance store sells official J.Crew merchandise at ridiculous prices.  I'm not sure of the story on all the merchandise- I do know that some of them are returns, some are last season's items, damages, etc.  Items like these are similarly sold at TJ Maxx and Rugged Warehouse with a black mark through the label.  But, do not let that scare you away.  Let me show you what I scored yesterday.

After 30 minutes in the store, I walked away with a Super 120's black blazer, a pair of grey Cafe Capris, a pair of grey wide leg chinos, a navy blue and grey plaid shirt (for the husband), and a turquoise bubble necklace- for a WHOPPING $133.  The blazer and the necklace alone would have cost me over $300 retail.  I'm telling you, this place is amazing!  They had so many more amazing items- pea coats and trench coats, cashmere sweaters, and so many shoes.  The walls were lined with leather boots galore.  Most of the clothes were sample sizes (0-6), but they had several things that had more size variation.  Also, twice a year, they have insane Warehouse Sales with boxes of J.Crew items all below $30.

It's hard to believe not many more people know about this place.  Next time any of you are in Asheville, hit me up and I will take you to the most magical place on earth.

New Stuff

I have lots of new stuff that I plan to blog about this week.  I haven't posted anything, because I have pictures to go along with each post, and I haven't had a chance to edit them yet.  Hold tight, people!

ipsy Glam Bag Reveal

Today I received my January ipsy Glam Bag!  ipsy is a website where you can fill out a beauty profile and receive customized beauty samples!  For $10 a month, ipsy will send you a fun glam bag (always something different) with 4-5 sample or full sized beauty products.  There are similar companies out there- one being Birchbox.  I used to subscribe to Birchbox, but I found myself getting bored with their products.  Some of their products are outdated (last year's Essie Fall Line) and none of them really seemed customized to me.  I like ipsy's Glam Bag a lot better.  I've gotten a lot more full sized products and they come in a cute little bag.

Take a look at the fun stuff I received in this month's Glam Bag!

Big Sexy Hair's Spray & Play, Pacific's Tuscan Blood Orange Body Butter, Jose Maran Argon Oil Moisturizer, a full sized concealer brush, and a Nailtini nail polish in Frappe (it's a nude pink color)

The Glam Bag is just a fun little surprise every month.  And, it's a great way to try out new products without having to buy a full sized bottle and potentially not liking it.  Take a look at their website and try out a Glam Bag for yourself!

Simplify

Lately, I've really been feeling the urge to simplify.  I want to purge the things in my life that I don't need.  This includes all aspects of my life- what I eat, my closet, our home, and how I spend my time.  After Christmas, I felt like there was so much clutter in my life.  We live in a small house with very limited storage, so there always seems to be too much stuff and not enough room.  R has a "we might need it in the future" mentality, which has rubbed off on me a bit.  I would love to go through every item in our home and only keep the things we need or love.

I also want to clean out my closet.  I am making an effort to dress in a more mature and sophisticated way.  No more jeans and fitted tees!  That will start with a good closet de-clutter.  My drawers are stuffed to the brim with clothes, but I feel like I rotate the same basic pieces every few weeks.  That means I need to git rid of a lot of clothes.  My search for a new wardrobe was inspired by this photo found on Pinterest (I can't find the original source):

When I stumbled across this picture, I was amazed that so many great outfits could be created using just a few simple basics.  So begins my search to build a minimalist wardrobe.  To start with, I bought a super cute pair of leopard print ballet flats.  I need some flats in my life.

There are many areas in my life that need a good cleansing.  I'm hoping 2013 will be there year that I have less and appreciate it more.

On My Bookshelf

Today, I'm starting another series I'd like to include in my blogging time.  On My Bookshelf will list and review books I've recently read.  I love to read, and since it's a new year, hopefully this will help me keep track of the books I've read.  I will start with one I read while I was home sick yesterday.  It was a page turner, so I finished it in one day.  I have a tendency to do that when I find a good book.

The Choice by Robert Whitlow

The Choice was pretty good as far as Christian fiction goes.  I've often found that Christian fiction can be a bit cheesy, but this one kept the cheese factor to a minimum.  Part I is about a young girl who gets pregnant and must decide what to do with her baby after a strange encounter with an older woman.    Part II is about the same girl who is now in her fifties and how she begins helping a young girl in the same situation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy read.

I have this book in paperback and would love to loan it to anyone wanting to read it!  I would especially love to do a book swap, so if you have a book you think I would like, comment below or shoot me an email at campbelltayb [at] gmail [dot] com.  It would make my day!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Campbells!

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration at the Inn where I work.  Because I was working our event, I got to invite R and spend New Year's with him.  We had a fantastic dinner and drank champagne at midnight.  Definitely better than last year which ended in a trip to the hospital after getting sick at the Avett Brother's concert.  But, I digress...

This post is all about resolutions.  I've never been very good at keeping my New Year's resolutions (let's face it, who is?), mostly because I forget what they even are.  This year, I'm hoping that documenting them on this blog will help remind me.  I also feel that these are measurable, while my past resolutions have been pretty vague.  So, without further adeiu...

2013 New Year's Resolutions

1. Sit down for a quiet time with the Lord three times a week.  I was SO bad at this last year.  I'm not sure if it was all the changes, being busy, moving, etc. but it felt like I was never able to catch up.  So I often felt I was "too busy" for a quiet time.  However, I was not too busy to watch all 8 seasons of The Office on Netflix, so that shows you where my priorities are.  I would also love to do a weekly devotion with R, but I feel that I should make it a habit to incorporate the three quiet times on my own first.

2.  Blog three times a week.  I would love to blog more than three times a week, but that just doesn't always happen.  So, three times a week it is!

3. Complete one DIY project a month.  'Nuff said.

4.  Be more productive with my time.  This is primarily in reference to the time spent between getting off of work and R getting home.  I normally use this time to catch up on some Netflix, take a nap, etc.  I would really like to use that time to be productive (clean the house, run errands, make dinner, exercise, etc.) so that I can spend quality time with R while he is home.

5.  Set monthly goals.  The girls over at A Beautiful Mess did a series of 4 monthly goals that they wished to accomplish.  They were sometimes bigger things like completely redo a room in their house, and they were sometimes little like bake a loaf of bread.  I would like to do this as well, mostly to be more productive with my time, but also so that I can look back and see what I've accomplished this year.

So, that is my list of New Year's Resolutions.  I'm looking forward to beginning!  What are your resolutions for 2013?

PS- Here are a couple pictures from the New Year's Eve Murder Mystery party.  Please ignore R's slightly drunken smile in the second pic, he had been awake since 6AM.

Early Christmas

Since the world is apparently ending tomorrow, R and I decided to go ahead and exchange Christmas gifts today.  Just kidding, we did exchange gifts, but only because Richard didn't feel like wrapping his and I was excited to see what he'd gotten me. :)

Gift giving is HUGE in the Bromby family.  My mother makes a big deal about gift giving holidays (birthdays and Christmas) and it has rubbed off on all of us.  We used to have a special routine every Christmas.  We always had 3 gifts under the tree and all of our other gifts were given to us on Christmas Day from "Santa" (or Santa for the believers).  We were each allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve.  Then, Christmas morning my brother and I would wake up early and sneak into my parents room to wake them up.  My dad would always go into the living to "make coffee" while we sat and talked with my mom.  When Dad was ready, we would scurry into the living room only to discover a pile of presents had magically appeared!  We spent the morning taking turns opening presents and Dad made his famous cinnamon scones.  Those are truly some of my favorite memories.

Things are a little different this year.  This is mine and R's first Christmas together as a married couple, so of course things are going to change.  I will admit that this was hard for me.  I even cried the night we decided our final plans for Christmas because we wouldn't be able to continue the traditions I'd grown up with.  But now that I've gotten past the thought that this is a sacrifice, I'm truly excited to share this season with my husband.  It is not a sacrifice, but a blessing to enjoy not one but TWO Christmases this year!  I'm excited to see how his family does Christmas.  I'm excited for him to see how my family does Christmas.

On a whim, we decided to exchange gifts tonight and he did an outstanding job!

These are my Christmas treasures.

He got me a cocktail shaker and a mini cocktail shaker (he knows I love anything miniature), a paisley iPhone case from J.Crew, and two pairs of beautiful earrings (along with a few other things that are not pictured).  I'm super impressed with his Christmas shopping skills.  A few things I got him included The Gentlemen's Guide to Cocktails, a pretty tie, some Old Navy shirts, and a Carhartt jacket for his outdoor adventures.

All in all, this was a great first Christmas.  I am so excited to spend time with both of our families and I can't wait for the many Christmases to come!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was pretty great.  After a few low key weekends and a busy week, R and I were ready to have some fun!  I got lucky and got the entire weekend off.  This never happens, unless I request off for some sort of trip.  So it was nice to spend the whole weekend hanging around Hendo.

Saturday morning, R had to work.  So I spent the morning tidying up the house and baking cookies.  At 12:00, we went to Main Street to wrap Christmas presents with our church.  We recently began attending a church plant that meets on Sunday nights.  It's prefect for me because I normally work Sunday mornings.  A couple that we met in our Financial Peace University class pastors the church and invited us to visit.  They haven't officially launched their services yet, so they are still in the planning mode.  We've had a lot of fun getting to know the couples that attend.

So, anyway, we met up on Main Street and wrapped presents for people who were shopping that day.  We used the opportunity to invite them to our Christmas service.  Hopefully, we will see some of them on the 23rd!

The group of volunteers from Rise Fellowship.  Such great people!

Saturday evening, R and I relaxed around the house.  Pretty standard.

Sunday, we went into Brevard (a nearby town) and spent some time shopping.  We brought Orvis along and he kept us company in the car.  Sunday night, we attended the Rise Fellowship Christmas party.  We played Christmas games and did a White Elephant (Dirty Santa, etc.) Christmas swap.  Richard and I gave away a Glee snuggie.  Thank the Lord that thing is out of our house.

Anyway, it was a great weekend with great people!  We both have a pretty chill week leading up to the holidays.  How was your weekend?

PS- Anyone wanting more information on Rise Fellowship can visit their website here.  Our Christmas service is on December 23rd at The Hendersonville Little Theater.  It starts at 5:00.  We hope to see you there!

Recipe Box: Pumpkin Bread

At the beginning of the fall, I bought a can of pumpkin.  One can.  I planned to scour the internet for THE BEST pumpkin recipe of all time.  I knew I had to make it good since I only had one can of pumpkin to use.  I know, I could always buy another can, but we're on a budget people.  So, I looked and looked.   And I kept coming back to good, old fashioned pumpkin bread.  You really can't beat it.  So, today, I took my one can of pumpkin and put it to the best use I know.  Pumpkin bread deliciousness.  Also, I have now written the work pumpkin so many times, it's starting to look weird.  You how that happens sometimes? Pumpkin.  Pump-kin. Punk-pin.  Pumpkin.

Anywho, I digress.  Here is the delicious pumpkin bread recipe from the Streaming Gourmet blog.  Below is the same recipe with a few alterations.  I made muffins instead of bread so that I could freeze half of them.  I also cut the recipe in half so that's why there are lots of fractioned measurements.

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white APF
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 baking soda
1/4 baking powder
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter (softened to the point of almost melting)
1 large egg
1 egg white
8 oz. pumpkin

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and spray a muffin tin with PAM-a-lam-a-ding-dong.  Mix together the flours, spices, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  Set aside.
Whisk together the butter, sugar, and eggs until fluffy.  Add the pumpkin and stir until well combined.  Slowly add in the dry ingredients until just combined.  Batter should be fluffy and not runny.
Fill 12 muffins cups and bake for 20 minutes of until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Now, settle down with a muffin, some butter, and a big glass of milk.  Enjoy your hard work.  You deserve it.

High Five for Friday!

I'm linking with up with Lauren at the From My Grey Desk blog for this fun "High Five for Friday!" post.  Unfortunately, I don't have any fun pictures to put up.  I'll work on that for next time...   Here are five of the highlights from my week:

1.  I got 75% of my Christmas shopping done this week.  Yay!  Now, I just have wrap them all.  I love wrapping gifts, but I need to set aside a good hour or two to really enjoy it.  Maybe with a little Charlie Brown Christmas...

2.  I took Orvis to the dog park this week and he had a BLAST.  Up until now, he's been terrified every time we take him.  But this week he made some friends and ran circles around the park.  He's kind of the weird loner kid at recess that spends his time sniffing rocks and trying to get other kids to play.  But, that's okay, he's having fun and that's all that matters.

3.  I got to spend all day yesterday at McFarlan Bake Shop in downtown Hendersonville.  We got to make cookies for an event we have at the Inn.  We made 1,000 cookies in two hours.  Not too shabby! I also got to sample about 6, so that was great too.

4.  We sent out our first Campbell family Christmas cards today.  We used TinyPrints (a smaller company belonging to Shutterfly) and they turned out great!  I'm so excited for my family members to receive theirs!

5.  Today, I got to spend the entire day with my fabulous parents in Asheville.  I met up with them at the Grand Bohemian Hotel, where they stayed the night.  We enjoyed a delicious breakfast and I got to see their fantastic room.  I love the way the Grand Bohemian is decorated.  Very clean, but rustic.  Then, we ventured around two different malls in Asheville.  One was superb and one was ghet-to.  Then, Dad fixed my sweet little Scout.  He got banged up a few weeks ago on my way back from Asheville and has been riding around with a busted lip.  Dad got him all fixed up!  We finished up with dinner at Haus Heidelberg, a local German restaurant.  It was delish!

What are your favorite things from this past week?  Link up with the From My Grey Desk blog with your High Five for Friday!

Throwback Thursday

Today, I'm going to participate in a little Throwback Thursday action.  I have this beautiful picture from some class in high school.

I'm thinking it was junior year- Environmental Science.  Lori and I somehow managed to have a class together and sit at the same table.  There are many elements of this picture that I love.  For of all, I actually look like I'm working, even though I remember that this picture was blatantly staged.  In fact, that pen is in my left hand and I am a true righty.  This was also a one of my Myspace profile pictures and the caption was "This is not staged."  I was hilarious.  Last, I love the ferocity with which Lori is writing, so much that her pencil is blurred.  She was always the studious one...

Pinterest Party! Home Edition

Lately, I've seen some pretty beautiful homes on Pinterest.  I think I've got the home bug right now.  Sometimes I wish we owned our house so that we could do more decorating and make some changes.  But, for now I'll just have to admire from afar...

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First of all, I LOVE the color of this front door.  And the wall color.  That is an amazing combo, and such a statement!

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This precious little cottage kitchen is so cozy.  While it's small, it's still very clean.  I love the little shelf in the corner for fun flour and sugar pots.

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As a lover of all things coffee, this would be perfect in my home.  I like the idea of having a coffee bar similar to a liquor cart.  But a liquor cart isn't bad either...

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This rustic bedroom is so neat and clean.  I love all the white and calm colors.  I believe that the bedroom should be decorated in soft blues and greens in order to be soothing and relaxing.  I also love the exposed beams.

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This is definitely a favorite.  I have always wanted to use fairy lights year round.  They are so cozy!  These are great ideas for places to use them.

What are some of your favorite home pins?

Critter Babies

I have decided that when R and I decide to have babies, they will spend the first year of their life in some sort of fleece critter outfit.  Have you seen those?  They are one pieces with a hood and little ears. They are the most adorable things I have ever seen.  I mean look at these...

It's a sherpa bear!  

Baby lamb...

LOOK at that little nugget.  Presh.  I just want to squeeze him!

How could you not love a little munchkin in a bear suit?  I combines my love of animals with my tolerance for children and makes them mildly bearable.  Haha, bear-able.

PS- the first two outfits can be found at Old Navy and the last image is from The DayBook blog.

Monday Sweet Tooth

Normally, on a Monday, I would do a super exciting weekend recap.  However, my weekend was super boring.  Also, I may have had one glass of wine too many and now I'm too sleepy to write anything exciting.

BUT, I will tell you this- I have been hankering for something sweet for the past couple of days.  Normally, I keep sweets around the house (cookies, Christmas tree cakes, pumpkin muffins, etc.) for an after dinner snack.  I always have to have something sweet after dinner.  But, I've been trying to eat healthier lately, so I purposely have not brought any sweets home.  Not an easy task considering I work one block away from an amazing bakery.

ANYWAY, the other day I saw these on Pinterest and knew I needed to make them soon.  Today, I cracked.  And let me tell you, I didn't regret it for a second.

Goodbye November

On the last day of November, I'd like to conclude my attempt at being thankful all month long.  I did a very poor job of writing something everyday.  I have no excuse.  But, I feel that today is a good day to conclude, after I had a serious case of the pity parties last night.  I hope that I will continue to be thankful and recognize how blessed I am beyond this month of gratitude.

Today, I am thankful for our teeny tiny house.  We recently decorated for Christmas and it feels so cozy and warm.  I love all of our little details that I have collected over the years.  I'm grateful that we have a pretty great landlord who allowed us to adopt a six month old puppy.  I'm also grateful for our hardwood floors.  They make for great entertainment when Orvis has his bursts of energy.  I love that we will always remember this house as our first home.  We already have great memories from this place.  We hope to create even more before it's time to move on.

Weekend Recap: 11.26.2012

This past weekend was truly fabulous.  A quick trip to visit family was just what we needed to get into the holiday spirit.  Thanksgiving is normally my cue to kick into holiday gear, but our Thanksgiving this year was a little different than usual.  I worked the whole day and spent the evening eating leftovers from R's family meal.  We spent the majority of our first Thanksgiving apart, so that was a bummer.  But, we made up for it by spending the weekend with family and friends.

R's family invited us to celebrate his grandfather's birthday by taking a trip to Charlotte for the Mannheim Steamroller concert.  We met them at Open Kitchen in uptown Charlotte for a preconcert dinner (side note: four generations of Campbells have dined regularly at the Open Kitchen in Charlotte, kind of cool).  After dinner, we made our way to the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center for the big show.  While the graphics were a little cheesy, the music itself was pretty awesome.  R and his brother enjoyed cutting up and rapping to Christmas carols while I spent the evening shushing them and avoiding tired glances from the ladies sitting next to us.

After the show, we went to the Bromby abode and spent time catching up.  I got to see my parents' sweet pup, Cosmo.  We are bffs.

Saturday was set aside for Christmas decorating.  Mom & I shopped for dinner while Dad and R prepared the Christmas tree for decoration station.  We invited my grandparents over for dinner and Dad made possibly the BEST ribs I've ever tasted.  I don't normally like ribs (too messy), but these were worth the mess.  Finger licking good.

Sunday, we were able to visit my home church.  It's always great to visit and see friends from several years ago.  It's amazing how quickly time goes by.  It's very strange seeing kids you used to babysit driving their cars out of the church parking lot.

After church, we loaded up the dogs and took them to Amie & Daniel's grown up house.  We ate turkey sandwiches and homemade corn chowder while Orvis and Cosmo played quietly and peacefully with their crazy pup, Luna.  Not.

While we did enjoy some fabulous corn chowder, here is a peek at how we actually spent our Sunday afternoon:

We ended our weekend back home in Hendo.  We brought home a Christmas tree and listened to Christmas music while decorating.  My favorite part of the evening was watching R struggle to situate the tree after moving it several times, circle it about eighty times with lights, then promptly declare he hates Christmas while stomping to his office to hide for the rest of the night.  Fun was had by all. :)

Pinterest Party!

Here is a fun post about my latest Pinterest finds.  Pinterest is a website that acts as a virtual bulletin board for you to post fun things that you find.  I am so grateful that Pinterest was invented before my wedding, as I got a lot of my ideas from there!

Anywho, here are some of my favorite pins as of late...

Pink Chalk Fabrics.  I've been getting more interested in sewing lately and this website has such fun fabrics.

DIY Peppermint scrub.  We are trying to save money this year, so a lot of our Christmas presents will be homemade.  This is a great round up of pretty homemade sugar scrubs!

Maya Brenner Mini Letter Necklace.  I want that.

I love the colors this house uses.  I've always loved grey.  It's so peaceful.

This French Script chair from World Market has been my obsession for the past few weeks.  I lurve it!

Do you have any recent pins that you love?  Share them in the comments!

Happy Tanksgibbing!

Today, I am thankful for my husband, my job, an amazing family, beautiful weather, and our tiny home.

What are you thankful for?