chevron wrapping paper from a potato

one of my favorite parts of christmas is buying & wrapping gifts. each year I try to do a little somethin' fun to beautify the gift (see last year's wrapping here). not only is it fun to receive a pretty package, but it also looks nice sitting under the tree all month.

this year I decided to stick with simple kraft paper & then stamp some sort of design onto it. I don't know if any of you have ever checked out michael's or joann's craft stores for stamps, but they really suck. they all look like microsoft office clip art from 1999. and I knew I didn't want to wait to order a stamp from etsy, so my next thought was to buy a carving block to make my own, but neither store carried those either.

so I regretfully returned home, feeling defeated, & decided to rid my sorrows over some comfort food in the form of thanksgiving leftovers. and then it hit me- potatoes! duh! why didn't I think of that earlier? I grabbed a small knife (an exacto would work well too) & cut a shape out of the potato (I went with the zig zag pattern). I dapped the "stamp" onto a paper towel to get out some of the moisture & then dipped it in gold ink & then onto the kraft paper, over & over again. it dried all shiny & pretty and looks just as cute as this expensive anthropologie wrapping paper, if I do say so myself. 

it's beginning to look a lot like...

christmas! I know, I know - I just posted about thanksgiving. but I'm one of those annoying people who starts listening to christmas music the second the weather turns chilly (chilly being like 60 degrees here in florida). of course, I don't do it in front of others (in fact, when people make comments like "it's the second week of november & they're already playing christmas music! can you believe that?!?!" I'm all like, "gosh, I know! is nothing scared anymore?" and then I hop into my car & secretly turn on lite 96.1 - "all christmas music, all the time").

so by the weekend after thanksgiving, I am totally antsy to go get the tree & start decorating the house.  we got an awesome tree this year (as well a second little mini tree so we can have one in each of the rooms that we hang out in). I swear the house smells just like one of those pine-scented tree-shaped air-freshners... but better!

{there's something not right about picking out a tree while wearing shorts}

{a bus full 'o trees}

{and it was so hot, we had to stop for ice cream on the way home}

thankful

it was, yet again, a wonderful thanksgiving. it was on the small side this year, as some of the family was traveling. and my sis works in retail, so therefore she couldn't make it into town (thanks, black friday!). but other than that, it was a beautiful day at the lakehouse, with lots of super-delicious food. I am reminded all the time how incredibly grateful I am for the countless blessings in my life. god is good! 

{prepping to smoke the ham}

{grammie is still the world's best thanksgiving cook}

{we are thankful for the lazy susan}

{post-meal walk around the lake -  to help make room for dessert}

{too chilly to swim}

{robert trekking through the weeds}

{the lake at sunset is a beautiful thing}

november cake: sour cream chocolate cake with cream cheese peanut butter frosting & chocolate peanut butter ganache

phew. that was a long title. but I didn't want to leave out any of the goodness. this three-layer november cake was really really good. I mean, what's not to like about the chocolate + peanut butter combination? It sounds a little complicated, but this cake was actually pretty simple to make. you should totally try it (recipe here). the chocolate cake was really moist. and that peanut butter icing was just heavenly (I even saved some to dip my bananas in for breakfast!). and the ganache on to top is really what threw it over the top. a reese's peanut butter cup in cake form. 

boys weekend

last weekend robert had a little male bonding time with all of his vw buddies. they all caravanned over to tampa for the annual vw bus show. they camped out in tents & some in their buses & cooked all their meals over a fire. how cute is that?

marisco's taco truck

before we travel to new places, I love getting on the computer & doing tons of research on the location. what to do, what to see, how to get around & most importantly, what to eat. a bunch of people on several different websites had mentioned marisco's taco truck for the most authentic fish tacos in town. so we headed there for lunch on the first day of our visit. I was not prepared for the all-spanish menu (or the fact that the person at the window didn't speak much english), but we managed & got some really delicious, fresh, hot food in return. I love this food truck rage! 

 {there was quite a line}

{fresh fish tacos}

{this is what we got when we ordered a coke}

{the fanciest thing on the menu}

vintage finds: glass cake plate

I have a wee bit of an obsession with collecting cake plates. I have... well, let's just say... a lot. they are so pretty & delicate & hold cake, which also happens to be one of my favorite thing ever. when I find a cake stand that is different than anything I already own, I feel like I have to have it. robert spotted this one for me at an estate sale we went to a few weeks ago. I like it because it's simple & taller than any of the other cake stands I own. it has a few little scratches on the top, which just means it's been loved with a lot of cake over the years. and it was just $6.