december/england bucket list.

Though December is half over, my holiday bucket list contains mostly things that I would like to do when I'm in England with R for Christmas. We have been fortunate enough to spend the holidays with each other every year we've been together even though we sometimes miss other holidays in between, so our traditions have been pretty consistent since our first one back in 2008. This year I'll be with R at his house, and since he lives alone I think this Christmas will finally feel a little bit more like how our future Christmases will feel, which is pretty aweeeeesome. So here's what has made the must-do cut for this two week Christmas holiday:

1// snuggle in front of the fireplace with hot cocoa (extra marshmallows, please).
2// watch love actually + home alone.
3// go out for drinks all dressed up.
4// kiss R under the mistletoe (he's essential for that one).
5// watch the gavin & stacey christmas special.
6// cook and bake for R.
7// wrap presents together and listen to christmas music.
8// go to the christmas market in town.
9// wake up on christmas morning and drink coffee in front of our pressies.
10// watch the queen's speech on Christmas day. Just kidding, can't stand watching that (sorry royal family lovers).

I can't wait until my flight in less than a week, to be in the full-blown christmas spirit, and to be able to cuddle with R and live "our normal" for sixteen days. Yay for December!

project life 2014 // title page.

The time has almost arrived for my first ever week of project life. I seriously cannot wait for the end of this year, not only for Christmas and New Year's, but to start this album that I have been waiting to start for the last eight months or so. When I first heard about project life I found a bunch of bloggers that make project life albums and post their spreads weekly, and I just fell in love with the whole concept. I wanted to start right then and there, but because I'm a little bit anal, I decided I'd push it off until a new year started. I'm glad that I waited because I feel like I really have a grasp on how I want to do things and techniques that I like and don't like, but now that I've waited this long I just want to start already! So this weekend I decided to do my title page and get that finished before my first week starts up.I'm using a midnight cameras album, which is exclusive to Michael's, and so far the only kit I own is the midnight core kit. I asked for the seafoam core kit for Christmas, and because my mom can't keep her mouth shut, I know it's on the way from amazon! With those two kits I think that I'll have more than enough variety in terms of my color and design style, plus I have a ton of other scrapbooking supplies I'm excited to use, I have been making a few of my own journaling cards in photoshop to cater to my specific desires, and I have my new stamps. I have the midnight edition dividers, which I think I will use for the twelve months, and I've decided I'm going to use design A pages consistently, unless I want to add another insert for a particular week.For my title page I decided to fill up the slots mostly with the midnight core kit cards, because even though I am excited for the seafoam kit, I liked all of the cards I chose just fine (the only one I might change is the black and white striped card, because it doesn't bring much to the party, but I do like it there anyway).

I cut a 4x6 card out of the December fireworks page from my Kate Spade 2013 planner. I think it looks good with the color scheme, and it's kind of perfect since fireworks always mark the new year as soon as the clock strikes midnight. I made the "N is for" card on photoshop after seeing something similar on pinterest, and I chose a picture of myself for a 3x4, which I have used as my profile image on the blog and most of my social media for almost half of this year.Another card I created in photoshop is this '14 circle card. I knew that I would want something to journal on, and originally the striped card was my winner, but the stripes are going the wrong way for text, so the writing would look kind of awkward. I am really excited for this upcoming year and have a lot of plans for it, so I decided to start off strong by putting my expectations in writing. For both of my home printed photos and cards I used an EK tools corner rounder, though I'm actually not sure if it's the right size or if I even like how it works, but for now it's fine.The second picture I used of myself was taken this past weekend in some really comfy clothes. I felt like it was an appropriate wintery picture to use, and I just changed a lot of my social media profile images to this one, so it kind of comes full circle with the other photo. I used a sticko brand gold glitter "A" sticker right on the plastic sheet over the polka dot card, and called it a day. I am happy with the page, the only thing I might add is a stamp or some writing on the "hello" card, and again, that striped card may get switched out. Other than that, I'm super pumped to get this project started. I'll be in England for the first week of the new year, so hopefully I'll get some good shots of me and R and his family and our friends to kick off the album. Yay new project!

link love.

In these cozy months, I spend a lot more of my downtime snuggled up to my ipad because it's too cold to be outside. In the past few weeks of hibernation I have found a few things on the internet that I'm a little bit obsessed with.

1// this website full of "texts" between Mittens the cat and her owner.
2// this etsy shop, zana products.
3// sugar scape, a UK based gossip website that focuses on One Direction and somehow went under my radar. I am ashamed.
4// this website, for when you hear a song and you know it's in a movie but you just can't figure out which one (or vice versa. You'd be surprised how often this happens to me).
5// and this website dedicated solely to One Direction GIFS. Magic, pure magic.

Any good links you've been loving lately?

mini pumpkin cheesecakes.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, I really need to cut down on sweets and over-eating until Christmas week, because I'll totally fall off my semi healthy wagon and start the new year as a sad chubby chub. That being said, don't even think for a second that I didn't enjoy Thanksgiving and all the food it had to bring! I did a little bit of baking myself, and to be honest, I'm a bit of a genius (just pat myself on the back there a little bit).Though I followed this recipe, I did alter a million and one things because as per usual, I didn't really read the recipe before I stepped into the kitchen, so I needed to do some tweaking. I made my cheesecakes in sprayed cupcake tins without liners, rather than the mini spring pan, because I don't have one (I've never made cheesecake before so I don't have all of the fancy bakeware for it). The way I did it worked out just fine though, so if you're like me and cupcake tins are all you have, go for it with those.Filling:
// 3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese
// 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
// 3/4 cup granulated sugar
// 3 eggs
// 1/8 cup heavy cream
// 1 tsp. vanilla extract
// 1 tsp. cinnamon
// 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
// 3/4 tsp. nutmeg

Crust:
// 8-10 cinnamon graham crackers
// 1/4 cup melted butter
// pinch of salt

Cream:
// 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
// 2 tbsp. granulated sugar1// Smash graham crackers in a plastic bag into crumbs and combine with the melted butter. Scoop into the sprayed tins and pack crumbs into the bottom with a spoon.
2// Bake crusts on 325*F for about 5 minutes, or until the crumbs begin to turn a bit dark brown.
3// While those bake, mix together the cream cheese at room temperature and the pumpkin until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla, eggs, spices, and heavy cream until well blended.
4// Spoon the filling on top of the baked crusts and bake for another 20-25 minutes until the cheesecake feels firm to the touch and a toothpick comes out basically clean.
5// Let cool for a bit in the tins, then use a spoon to loosen the edges and remove each cheesecake from the pan to continue cooling for another 20 minutes.
6// Whip heavy cream and sugar until soft peaks form and top each cheesecake with a dollop. Let cheesecakes sit in the fridge until ready to serve, at least a couple of hours.
*makes 24 mini cheesecakes.I really enjoyed making these, they were a lot easier than I thought they would be once I got the hang of it. I don't really have all of the necessary mixing equipment, and usually do everything by hand with no problem, but for all of the cream cheese I could have really used a stand mixer. But I did it, and I lived, so it's not too necessary, it would just make life a looooooot easier. If you're like me and you think baking cheesecake seems intimidating, just try these out, they will change the way you feel about the matter. My family devoured these, so I'm sure yours will too!