survey and awards

Here is a little survey I found over at mucho mucho bueno bueno  that I thought was cute!

1. What is your name and what's your blog name if you have one?
Sandy-whimsicalmee.blogspot.com

2. Where do you live? City, State? if you could live anywhere, where would it be?
I live in Dayton, Ohio in a two bedroom apartment with my dog, Monty.
I like my apartment but not my neighbors...my lease is up though so I am looking for a new place to live!! YAY!! 
If I could live anywhere...hmm...I have a few places
. Nantucket-I read a book that took place in Nantucket when I was in third grade and have wanted to live there ever since.
. La Jolla-it is sooo pretty, all the lovely shops, sea lions, palm trees...too bad it is superduper expensive.
. Misawa, Japan-I was born there and would love to go back and live there now so I could experience everything all over again and get to enjoy it as an adult instead of as a baby/toddler. 
Honestly, I think I would like to live just about everywhere-New Symrna Beach, FL. Savannah, GA. Italy. Greece. Anywhere in New England.

3. Where do you work? What's your job title? Do you love your job?
I work at a travel agency in Beavercreek, Ohio as a receptionist. I like my job...but love it? no.

4. If you could work anywhere or do anything what would it be?
If I could work anywhere/do anything it would be to own my own little tea/coffee house. I love tea and coffee and think they are wonderful ways of bringing people together to sit, relax and enjoy each others company. 
I would also love to work for a non-profit, something like one laptop per child, global water etc.

5. What are you reading right now?
Right now I am reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini...I'm not very far into it but so far I am liking it. I loved his first book The Kite Runner and am sure I'll enjoy this one as well. 

A book I recently finished is the book I picked for the book club I am in, it was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer...it was amazing and I highly recommend it as well as Foer's first book Everything is Illuminated.

6. What are you listening to?
At home it is a lot of The Avett Brothers, Bon Iver, Gaslight Anthem, My Morning Jacket and Strangers as Heroes. 
At the gym its Bane, Jay-Z, Janet Jackson and Comeback Kid.

7. Guilty pleasures?
Reality tv shows...I don't have cable so I only get to watch them when I go up to my parents house. I love all the crime tv shows too-law and order SVU and Criminal Minds are my fav. Taylor Swift, Shakira and Ashley Tisdale are my musical guilty pleasures. 
My food guilty pleasures are pie for sure and salt and vinegar potato chips...though I have given them up.

8. Name your TV shows
Flight of the Conchords, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, The OC, The Biggest Loser, Jackass, Friends, Sons of Anarchy, Law and Order SVU, Criminal Minds, The Real Housewives, Beverly Hills 90210 (the original), Gangland, The Big Bang Theory.

9. What are things you do everyday?
Drink tea and coffee, listen to You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon, talk to Stephanie

10. How did you find our blog?
I saw this on mucho mucho bueno bueno and Marisa's blog and thought it was a cute way to get to know one another so I decided to do it as well!!

11. What do you like to do for fun?
I like to get Starbucks with my bff-Stephanie. Play board games with friends. Go to the gym. Read. Shop. Spend time at my parents watching tv. Going to the bark park with Monty.

12. Do you have a twitter?
I do not.

13. What was your favorite item that you received for Christmas?

the wind rippled tee from Anthro and a monogram necklace from etsy.

14. What's on your bedside table.
I have two and since its just me they are both mine. On one I have a lamp, candle, three little vases, and a lotus votive holder. On the other is my alarm clock, a notebook, a lotus votive holder, the book I am currently reading and my cell phone.


And now award time!
The lovely Lex at Cupcake Sniper was kind enough to give me an award!!  
Here it is and it has a few questions that go along with it.

Name an author you love: Jonathan Safran Foer. I recently discovered his books and seriously fell in love. I am looking forward to reading his newest book once I am able to find it as it is about something near and dear to my heart, vegetarianism. 


Name an author you hate-J.D.Robb. A lady at work makes me read them every once in awhile so we can talk about them. Boo.

The book you love- Pride and Prejudice. I am not sure why, but this book and the mini series just mean so much to me.  

What always moves you, or what makes you feel excited? 
the sky when it is pink, when the weather is perfect, animals, certain songs, my friends 

Something I hate: tomatoes.




That was fun! Now I have to make a yummy vegan cake for the book club meeting tonight and make bbq baked tofu...I've never made it before so hopefully it turns out well!!!
I'll post the cake recipe tomorrow and the bbq tofu if it turns out good. 
Have a lovely day!

GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!

YAY!! It is finally time for my very first GIVEAWAY!!!!!
Here it is:

whoohoo!!!

Here is a breakdown of the goods:

a sparkly sparrow brooch!

a sweet little notebook to write down all your thoughts when you can't get on blogger!!

a super cute cupcake jar!

adorable owl key covers!

and

and a cute tote!

Yay, I'm so happy to finally have it all posted and I may add a couple little surprises too!!!

So here is the deal-anyone can enter the giveaway just leave a comment with your name and e-mail. For a second entry be a follower of my blog and finally for a third entry you can blog about it and leave a link to it in my comments!!! You have up to Tuesday, January 5th- 5:30 EST to enter and then I will announce the winner!!!!

xo

COD

Unfortunately it didn't take too long for my feelings to get hurt after letting the guy who broke my heart over the summer back into my life this past week. I could be jumping to conclusions but everything just feels so deja vu. I am trying so hard not to let it bring me down and not to give in and try to talk to him. Phew. Feelings. I wish they would just go away.
On to a better topic....yesterday was a wonderful day that started to go downhill but was quickly brought back to wonderful by friends. I spent my time shopping, thinking too much, getting Starbucks with Stephanie, making potato tacos with her and Ravi, watching 500 Days of Summer and playing Scene It? Senifeld when Matt joined us. Stephanie and I also attempted to play Call of Duty and it was hilarious...it was nothing but screaming and cussing for the whole time we played. Then we played some Guitar Hero and called it a night.
Today is shopping in Cincinnati with the lovely Stephanie and hopefully I will find the final item I am looking for to add to the items I bought yesterday for my giveaway!!! I am so excited to do it so please watch out for when I put it up....it will either this evening or tomorrow!!!
I am going to try to have a lovely lovely day and hope you all have the same!!

Christmas and the day after

We did a low key Christmas this year and it ended up being rather nice. We did a light lunch get together at my parents and it was my parents, myself, my sister and her fiance and my Grammy. We made yummy vegetarian food again since my dad isn't allowed to eat meat and my sister and I are both vegetarian and my mom really enjoys eating vegetarian. We ate lunch and then did gifts, everyone got great gifts and my dad was sooo surprised with his Wii!!!!
I was lucky enough to get a lot of what was on my list and had a few surprises!!

My two favorite things were the wind-rippled tee and a classy little monogram necklace from Robin's Egg Blue

The boys enjoying their gifts!!

mom and dad exchanging gifts.

As much as I enjoy getting gifts, I llllooovvveee giving them and think I am pretty good at picking out gifts-I got my mom Coldstone chocolates, the new Rosanne Cash cd (it is amazing!!) and a plush corgi paperweight/doorstop. I went in with the rest of my family and got my dad a Wii, I got my sister a cute coin purse and a retro looking kitchen timer from Anthro and I got her fiance a PS3 game he had been wanting. Whoohoo!! It was nice seeing everyone open their gifts and really like them.

Yesterday was spent setting up and playing the Wii with my mom-we played all the Wii Sports games. I won bowling and tennis and surprisingly she won BOXING!!!! and golf. It was a lot of fun and it was cute to see my mom laughing so hard. We also braved the Christmas section of Target and returned some stuff for my Grammy at Khols.

Today I am going in search of my giveaway items, sadly returning the shoes I got from F21 that are wwwaaayyyy too big and spending some much needed time at the gym!!!

Christmas Eve pictures!

I don't have a ton of photos, but more than I feel like posting right now...so I will just do Christmas Eve.
I got into a big cleaning mood and started to do a deep clean of my apartment, but stopped to go to Starbucks with Stephanie, we hung out for a bit and then went to Macy's. My mom called as we were leaving and said she and my dad were still at the hospital. My dad had minor surgery in the morning and his levels weren't high enough to go home (he got released at 7:30 that night), so she needed me to go up to their house and hang out with all the animals. Once I got to Troy, I lounged around for a bit and then gathered the dogs up and we went to look at Christmas lights!! Sounded like a good idea...but it was not. Once one dog whines they all start. So by the time we got to the town square I had three dogs having little puppy breakdowns in my car. It was craziness!!! I did manage to get a few pictures of the square though and my favorite place in Troy.

Troy's town square...which is actually a circle.

A few of the little stores downtown.

Troy's Christmas tree...not the best picture but oh wells.

The courthouse-where my dad works.

I saved the best for last-LA FIESTA (or The Party as all the Troy folk call it).

This picture was taken at the height of the puppy breakdowns so I decided to just take it from my car as we drove past instead of pulling into the parking lot, which is why my side mirror is in the picture.

So that was Christmas Eve for me!! My Christmas day went quite well and I will update about it tomorrow!! I hope all you lovely ladies are having a wonderful holiday! I'm off to eat some fruit pizza and watch some tv!!

10 followers!!

I made it past ten followers..sooooo exciting!!!! That means I will soon be doing a giveaway!

I am currently in Troy at my parents house watching all the animals because my dad had minor surgery this morning and his levels aren't where they need to be in order for him to be released from the hospital yet...poor Bruce!! And since there isn't much in Troy as far as shopping goes, once I am back in Dayton I will go on a search for the perfect giveaway items!!

Thank you to all my followers!! I am super excited to do the giveaway, so please stay tuned!!!

update time!!

It has been a few days since my last update!!
Lets see, since then I have had my family Christmas gathering, hung out with my grandparents that are in from Florida, hung out with Ravi and Stephanie, finished my Christmas shopping and I think that is it.
My family Christmas gathering was Sunday and it went ok. I'm single, so I don't get included much in family conversations because my family bases your importance off relationship status. Oh wells. There was good vegetarian food this year though because I made yummy sweet and sour vegetarian meatballs, roasted brussel sprouts and rosemary potatoes and a spicy ziti bake. My mom also made vegetarian food, which was nice of her. I liked having more than a couple things I could eat this year!
Monday I went back up to my parents to hang out with my Grandparents that had just flown in from Florida. I got up there late so I didn't get to hang out long before they were ready for bed. Now they are way up north and I'm not sure they are coming back to southern Ohio before they leave. Perhaps I will take a much needed vacation to Florida before they come back up for the summer.
Tuesday was Christmas shopping, work, the gym and then Starbuck time with Stephanie and dollar burger night at Bar Louie's with her and Ravi. They have veggie burgers so we were all pretty happy about that. I got guacamole, jalapenos, pickles and chipotle mayo on mine...yummy!!!
Today was work...which was sooo slow. None of the bosses were there so we ordered Donato's amazing veggie pizza and listened to silly music all day. I wish every day at work was like that!! While at work I got a random text message from this guy that I dated and broke my heart over the summer. He has gotten a hold of me a few times since the summer and every time it just throws me off. This time ended up being different though and I don't feel upset like I did the other times. I've missed him and have wondered just about every single day how he is doing, so it was nice to really talk to him today.
After work I went to Target to finish up shopping for gifts for the pets in my life and now I am at home enjoying the yum-o potato tacos I made and watching some tv.

Phew, that was a bit of a long post!
OOOHHH by the way, be sure to head over to Marisa's blog and ENTER to win her super cute giveaway!!!

yellow tag!

The other day I was tagged by Casey in her blog Time to Discover and Explore to find YELLOW items around my apartment, post about them and then tag others with a different color.
I love the color yellow but was surprised by how little yellow items I actually have...I'll just have to do some shopping to change that!!
Here are my yellow items!

These are some cute yellow mixing bowls that I got in the dollar section of target-awesome!

A guy I went on a couple dates with left this yellow rose with a silly card he made for me on my 25th birthday this year-it was so sweet of him and for some reason even though we're not seeing each other anymore I don't want to get rid of the rose...plus it is pretty!

I'm a girl so of course I have more than a few of these yellow bags around my apartment!! What girl doesn't?!

This ratty looking blanket is my baby blanket-it has/had yellow patches and the white patches had a little girl kicking a ball stitched on them. I'm not sure who made it but they sent it over to Japan for me and I've had it on my beds ever since!

This little sugar bowl is from one of my favorite stores Anthropologie!  The closest one to me is in Cincinnati so anytime I am down that way I always stop in to buy something-I got this over the summer when we were in the same shopping center as Anthro for my Mom's birthday dinner. It is weird but this silly sugar bowls actually holds a lot of memories for me-happy and sad, ones I hadn't thought about for awhile-I won't bore you with them though!

This is the little dinning area of my apartment! The yellow chairs are from IKEA. I had been wanting them forever and during a trip there this summer they were on sale...so I finally got them!

My Mom got me this in October, it is a type of squash called Crown of Thorns. I don't want to throw it away but I don't know what else to do with it, so it just sits on one of my shelves.

Sadly, this is the only yellow clothing item I have...its nothing special but I got it at Meijer last year for like $3.00!! I am on a mission to find a cute yellow sweater or cardigan...but so far no luck.

This was fun and I wish I had more yellow items to share with everyone!!! Oh wells.

Now time for me tag a few of my followers!!

I tag-

Miss Indie

You're The Only Thing I Wouldn't Change

Cupcake Sniper

Lipstic Pen

The color-RED

So now you girls just find red items around your home, post a little something about them and then tag others with a different color, if you want!!

Also I decided that because I am close to ten followers and so many other bloggers do such cute giveaways I will do one when I get to ten!

whoohoo!!!

tags and giveaways!

It snowed last night and it is still sputtering little flakes right now! At first, I was not happy about this...I hate driving in snow...but once it is on the ground it makes everything so pretty and put a smile on my face this morning when I looked out my window.
Last night was a wonderful way to start the weekend, I hung out with Matt and Stephanie and we got coffee, pie, browsed the bookstore, ate yummy Panera, drove around looking at Christmas lights and sat around and talked...it was a splendid time!
Today I plan on doing some last minute shopping, finishing up the yarn trees and candy I am making as gifts for family members and taking pictures of all the yellow items in my apartment because I was tagged by the adorable Casey over at Time to Discover and Explore to find yellow items in my apartment and post about them and then tag others with a different color! She was tagged with purple-so check out her post with all the purple items in her life! Such a cute idea and I can not wait to share my yellow items!
Also be sure to enter to win the giveaway over at my bff Stephanie's blog-you're the only thing I wouldn't change!
Now it is time to brave the snow and get this shopping done! Have a lovely day!!!

holiday photo shoot

I totally forgot that I took a holiday photo of Monty and I last weekend that I was going to post and now the holidays are almost over!! Oh well, better late than never.
It is not the best photo but he was so distracted because we were sitting by the window and he lllllooooovvvveeeessss staring out of windows...it was all I could get out of him.

I couldn't have a cute sparkly bow and not take pictures of the corgis in it, they are the cutest dogs all by themselves...but with a bow! Oh man...sooo cute!

newbie was too lazy/silly to sit up.

toby just looks so dapper! like he has a little tux on.

Dogs make the best facial expressions! Do you take cute holiday photos of your pets? If so feel free to share! I'd love to see them!

yay etsy!

After seeing Danielle's beautiful print from Silje, I just had to check out her blog and adorable etsy shop. She had a babushka print with a little tea pot that I fell in love with...I have a thing for tea pots. I ordered it last week and received it yesterday!! It is super cute and I am so glad that I can find new art and inspiration through this little blog community! So a big thank you goes out to Danielle for sharing her adorable find and Silje for sharing her art with everyone!

quick weekend recap!

Yesterday I spent the day in Troy hanging out at my parents house until it was time for the special holiday sale at the cute vintage shops in Tipp City...which is the next town south of them. They have super cute stores and I like to browse in them looking at all the little knick knacks and old clothing.
I didn't get to stay long because my mom had a Christmas party to go to not long after the sale started, but I did get to take some pictures and saw a few things I may go back for.

Today was spent doing some holiday shopping with a couple friends at IKEA and Target, eating yummy pizza at Dewey's and getting some much needed Starbucks.

Now it is time to read some for the book club before going to bed. Goodnight!

crafts + friends=light boots

To quote Osker from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (the book club book of the month), I have had "heavy boots" this week and yesterday was just the thing to help lighten them.
In the morning/afternoon I did a bit of shopping at the Limited with my mom because they were passing out chocolate with discounts printed on the inside of the wrapper. She got a pretty good one, so I got a super cute shirt and tights and she got a really cute pencil skirt. After that we got some yummy vegetarian food at Christopher's before heading back to my place to for her to drop me off and pick on Monty for the weekend.
Then it was craft time with Stephanie!!! Once we decided we could afford styrofoam, we headed back to start the fun!! I made two trees from Jamie's tutorial on her super cute blog and Stephanie made the cutest wreath!!! Click on her name to head over to her blog and see her finished wreath and the other cute craft we made!!!

Stephanie and her wreath!

yarn and berries

before I added the berries

trees!!

I love the speckles of color in the yarn!!

the finished project!!

Both the trees and the wreath turned out lovely and were fun to make and I recommend making them...I want to make more!!!

After craft time was over, we waited for Ravi and Matt before heading over to the Cheesecake factory and then back to Ravi and Stephanie's for more craft time!! We all made finger knitted garland...I haven't figured out what to do with mine yet, but once I do I will post a picture. It was fun making the garland and I was surprised at how fast and easy it was.

Because I'm a silly girl, my boots had become a bit heavy again before the end of the night and when I got home I realized how exhausted I was and ended up sleeping in till almost 9:30 this morning!! I am a crazy early riser, I'm up by 7:30 every day no matter what time I went to sleep...so sleeping in that little bit was nice for once.

Today I think I may make an IKEA trip or head up to Troy and get my Mom to go to some of the vintage shops in Tipp City to see if I can find gifts for people. I'm leaning towards the vintage shops.

blog button!

With the help of Stephanie , I made my little blog a blog button!!! 

The code is available over to the right for you to add to your blog if you'd like and I will gladly add yours!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

It is month two of the book club Stephanie and I started and even though we invited twelve people who were all excited to participate...not that many did the first month. Which meant that even though I was suppose to pick the book for February, I ended up picking the book for December. I chose Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I am so excited to start reading it and hope that everyone who choses to participate this month enjoys it!!

YAY!

This morning I had plans of going to the gym and getting in an awesome work out. Instead I'm at home blogging because it SNOWED!!!

The roads are icy and there are lots of accidents and everything is backed up, so no gym for me this morning. I decided to bundle up and get out in the little bit of snow we got with Monty and my camera. He was too excited about the snow to let me get many pictures, but I managed to snap a few.

The snow came just in time for another one of Danielle's lovely giveaways!!! If you love super cute accessories, head over to her adorable blog and ENTER TO WIN !!!

Reindeer

My Reindeer!

My pack was missing some of the pieces, so I had to turn one ear into two and he only has two bells on his collar instead of three. Oh well...it makes it special.

I love how much Elf makes me laugh. I think from now on anytime I need a pick me up I'm going to watch it.