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Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Life Update: Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was Thanksgiving Day! 

Mr. Turkey, pulling a Miley.

For those of you not in the USA, Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday where families and friends get together for a special meal to give thanks for their life. 



 I had a lovely meal with some co-worker friends.


Our beautiful place settings, fancy silverware and all...


 The meal traditionally consists of turkey or ham (depending on regional traditions and personal preferences)...

Our delicious orange-stuffed bird, prepared by Richard.
... mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes (again depending on regional/personal preferences- we had both), bread stuffing, bread rolls and a few other sides!

My friend, Dee made this delicious salad.

I made apple-sage stuffing "cupcakes," of course! Richard re-plated it to a pretty glass tray, but I forgot to take a photo.
Birgit and her husband Richard were wonderful hosts and it was a beautiful, fun and festive occasion!

Birgit, with her husband, Richard (who tells the BEST story line jokes)!
My friend Kristin, matched the pillows and so I took a quick candid photo. Despite what she will tell you, she is very photogenic!
Birgit's beautiful kitty, asking me to brush him...
Time for a quick shameless mirror selfie! We just happened to co-ordinate (on accident). 
"Why aren't you paying attention to me?" he meowed... I finally brushed him and he was a happy kitty, purring so loudly!

Thanksgiving Day is almost at it's end, but I wanted to squeeze in a quick post about what I am thankful for.


I am thankful for a lovely day with friends today. 

Clockwise from top: Me, Birgit, Maria,Dee, The Turkey, Kristin
I am thankful for all the gifts God has given me: my friends, my family- especially my Grandmas and aunts and uncles, my pets, my amazing co-workers, and also my job- which gives me the freedom to do what I love. I am thankful for my imagination and for dreams and for hope and truth. 

All of the things that I am thankful for could not be listed in a single blog post. It would take many many books to list everything for which I am thankful. 

So I will just say this: I am so thankful for my life and I am so blessed. I am also very thankful for you. Those who read my posts give me something to be exited about and I love sharing my ideas and my life with you!

I thought I would share a few photos from my day. I hope you enjoyed them and I hope your day was as lovely as mine. 

A smooch for Mr. Turkey!


Happy Thanksgiving everyone!


What are you thankful for?


Twitter: @selenamarie318  
or LinkedIn Connect with a message: linkedin.com/in/selenamarienorris
Or reply in the comment section below!
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XOXO,

SELENA MARIE

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Life Update: Cupcakes, Butterflies, & Bumble Bees


In the midst of my busy-bee past two weeks, I received a lovely email at work from one of my global counterparts (read: overseas) who announced that she reads my blog! Her very kind words stuck with me this week. It's easy to lose track of how many readers I actually have because I don't get a ton of comments. 

Sometimes the little things like this can pick you up when you are tired after a series of long days.

Thank you- you know who you are. :)




Another pick-me-up is baking. I love it. I like baking more than I like actually eating sweets. This week our team at work did a fundraiser to help an associate in need. We did a hot dog lunch out on the grill -yes in November. This is the South after all, though not the "deep South," and while the weather has been all over the place (winter coats one day, windows open the next), we got decent weather for our event. I noticed there weren't any desserts on the menu so I volunteered to make some! I can never pass up an excuse to make cupcakes!

Forgive my quick photos taken with my phone- this is for inducing hunger- not for photographic artistry. Don't they still look yummy? :)



 They were a big hit! I made a vanilla funfetti cake with blue and red sprinkles and dyed the batter blue. Then I piped on orange colored vanilla frosting! YUM! It sort of matches my company colors but in pastel versions.



 I topped them off with these butterfly and bumble bee toothpicks, my coworker Marie gave me last year. I've been saving them for just the right time. This is perfect!

I used this boxed mix for the cupcakes. Above photo courtesy of  myhighestselfblog.com

I also made Betty Crocker "Hot Chocolate" Cupcakes! It's a box mix that comes with a frosting mix that you have to mix up. I made it once before and the frosting ended up getting renamed as a "glaze". This time I was finally able to whip that frosting into shape.Whapppuchuuu (that's supposed to be the sound of a whip, if you don't know.). Pun intended (whipped frosting- get it?). And yes, the marshmallow whipped frosting stays peaked overnight.




Side note: I used to be a home-made cupcake snob, but then I found out that a lot of cupcake bakeries use the premixed boxes as a base and adjust for their recipes! So now I am open to opening up a box and whipping up a batch of semi-homemade cupcakes. I found out they taste just as good! Besides, the most important ingredient is love and you can't find that in a box. <3




Overall this past week has been a very productive (read: busy) week at work, and I've been spending my down time at home working on some Christmas presents ( 1 down, 6 to go) and craft projects. It's quite therapeutic knitting on my knitting loom. I want to get back to knitting and crocheting. It has been a while and I thought this was the perfect way to pick back up where I left off.

After a long week like that I decided I deserved a break, so Saturday morning I slept in... 


And not a stitch of make-up on either of us. ;)


Do you like baking, sewing, knitting, or any other type of crafting?


Twitter: @selenamarie318  
or LinkedIn Connect with a message: linkedin.com/in/selenamarienorris
Or reply in the comment section below!
And please don't forget to subscribe or follow by email! There's a spot in the side bar! ------->

XOXO,

SELENA MARIE

Sunday, September 8, 2013

I'm back, with updates for this week!

I've been away from my blog for a little while. First it was development week at work- the week where we put together all of the tech packs for the entire fashion line for the season (in case you were wondering, I have been working on infant and toddler boys product for the past year). Friday was the deadline and on top of that, I got sick, so I worked from home one of those days. This weekend, I focused on recuperating and adding some new features to the blog (coming soon). I loaded everything into Pinterest, and I hope you will pin away! Social media seems to be my best source of traffic so far. My Pinterest page is my biggest source of traffic for my other blog, Saving With Selena.

I also got a fabulous new floor rug and pillows for my living room. Maybe I will post a home decor tour soon, when I can find the time. In the mean time, here's a photo of my cat with the new pillows. I tend to wear a lot of black, white, and red but when it comes to my home, I love green- anything that can remind me of plants or the Earth and nature.

This is Ingid. She likes to sit where ever I sit, even when I try to move her. ;)

I have some very exciting new posts coming up this week. I have a new artist spotlight- the very talented Greta Corens, a fashion designer turned water colorist. There will be another collaboration with Raquel Schuler, of Hydria (You can check out her other posts here, here, and here). You can also look forward to an exclusive feature by Brazilian fashion photographer, Edney Suiter, styled by Isabela Cury, with makeup by Miss Emanuelle Souza who also provided a step-by-step how-to recreate the look (in both English and Portuguese)!

So stay tuned, it is a very exciting week, indeed! 

Well, that's all for my personal post. Have a happy Sunday night. :)


Send your fashion questions to be featured in this blog with a personalized style board and get your styling questions answered for free by a professional image consultant! 
Twitter: @selenamarie318  
or LinkedIn Connect with a message: linkedin.com/in/selenamarienorris
Or reply in the comment section below!
And please don't forget to subscribe or follow by email! There's a spot in the side bar! ------->

XOXO,

Selena Marie

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