Sayonara 2012, Hello 2013

Happy Monday!! I can say that because I'm off and today is New Year's Eve!! I've never been one to be overly excited for NYE, but I have a good feeling about 2013 and can't wait to welcome it in with my greatest friends by my side. Today I wanted to reflect on all the exciting things that occurred over the course of 2012, I can't believe how quickly the year flew by and I have so many more exciting things happening in 2013, I'll have to learn and really soak those moments in. Here's a look back: {Get ready for an overload of pictures!!}

January

-Celebrated my cousin & baby sisters birthdays at The Drake

-Got to celebrate a friend/coworker's baby shower

-Got my 2nd tattoo with my sister for our grandmother

February

-Celebrated Valentines Day with my lover{s}

-AND...

'nuff said

March

-Celebrated St. Patty's Day as if I was Irish, started off like a fun day, but getting hammered before noon and calling it a night at 7pm is definitely not my cup of tea

-Got my very first Michael Kors bag, swoon

April

-Got to see this little monkey after such a long time

-Went to the Hershey chocolate factory with my cousins

-Celebrated my cousins engagement with all of us being together {rarely happens!}

-Went to the very best Chicago Bulls game to date. Got to sit behind the courtside seats, got John Lucas III's autograph and was an arm distance away from Derrick Rose.

-Got to also meet and get Kevin Love's {Minnesota Timberwolves} autograph

-Unfortunately, this was the month that D.Rose tore his ACL and was out for the rest of the year :/

May

-My blog makeupHER was re-born! I remember those days where I would crank out posts and have 3-4 people viewing my blog, to see where I'm at right now I'm blessed!!  My first real post as makeupHER, HERE!

-My best friends' engagement party!! It was such a blast and cannot wait to celebrate their wedding in 2013!!

June

-Celebrated my niece's 1st birthday party in Michigan

-Met & held the cutest baby on this planet, and he's not even a relative!

-Went to the Brookfield Zoo for the first time since 7th grade!!

July

-Took a Wilton cake decorating class and learned SOOO much!

-Went to my really good friends' Hawaiian themed bridal shower

August

-Went to Vegas for 4 days and celebrated my 24th birthday there!!!

September

-Celebrated a cousins wedding in New Jersey, you can read the full recap HERE!

October

-Went to the Chicago Bulls preseason game with my besties

-Went to my best friends sisters engagement party

Gorgeous Bride-to-be & I

-Also got a new guy, N on the 23rd :)

November

-Voted in the 2012 Presidential election

-Got into my very first car accident :/, recap HERE!

-Celebrated my first Black Wednesday with my bff's

-Had our 1st annual Friendsgiving dinner

December

-Did WAY too much damage on my credit card

-Got to do our 1st annual Friendsmas dinner

Phew, that was quite a lot of stuff that happened in 2012! Thanks so much for sticking around and reading all of that. I truly am blessed to have such amazing blog friends and readers and hope you will continue to stick with me in 2013! 

 Here is a little sneak peek as to what I will be wearing tonight for New Year's Eve.

I'll be pairing this little number with some black tights and my black suede wedges and some simple gold jewelry! 

I hope each and every one of you guys have a fantastic and safe new year's ahead and cheers to another year!!

Sunday Social {Week 30}

Hey friends! I can't believe it's the last Sunday of 2012, this year has quite frankly flown by. I look back on all that happened this year and I think overall it was a great year. I'm linking up with Neely & Ashley for Sunday Social. I want to first off thank them so much for their hard work with this link up, I have such a blast doing it on Sunday's and I hope it continues for a long time! Now onto the questions!



1) What is the best New Year's Eve you've ever had? I love the NYE's that are spent with fun people and great memories, that being said I have had some pretty bad new year's eve's and one of them include running into my ex and him hitting on my sister, gross. I think my favorite one would have to be last year, my good friend from London was home and we all decided we weren't going to go out to a fancy place and spend a lot of money so we chose a low-key bar downtown and played bar games and drank, it was great! 

My friend from London and I

This picture pretty much captures the night, love candid moments!

2) Are you doing anything for NYE this year and if so what?

I am doing something for NYE this year, a bunch of my friends and I are heading downtown and partaking in a party bus all around downtown Chicago for 2 hours and afterwards heading to a house party to toast in the new year. I am really excited because the people I am spending it with are awesome and I know it's gonna be a ton of fun, check back tomorrow to take a look back on 2012 for me and my outfit for the night!

3) Name a book we should all read come January?

I'm not a huge book person, but I plan to change that in 2013, I really want to start reading at least one book a month so any and all recommendations are welcome!

4) What are your new years resolutions?

I honestly don't believe in resolutions, mainly because I don't stick to them. I won't say I'll go to the gym more or eat healthy because if I wanted to do those things, I'd be doing them already. I do however want to be a happier me in 2013 and learn to appreciate all that I have and try to take some time out for some me time. 

How about you, any fun/different resolutions? 

Any exciting plans for NYE?

Huge Christmas Week Recap {Vlogging included!}

Hey lovebirds!! Thank the lord it's Friday!!! Today is an exciting day, I know I've been slightly MIA from the blog world since Christmas, but it has been a hectic week for sure! On Christmas eve I had Secret Santa with my cousins and we watched holiday movies and ate/drank to our hearts content. We also decorated some wooden ornaments and baked some yummy goodies.

Oreo truffles :)

Cake pops with Christmas sprinkles!

Wine and Mike's Hard kind of night

Absolutely love these girls!

Our finished ornaments!! 

Another great thing about Christmas Eve was being able to do a video chat with my cousins and nephew. I wish more of my cousins were available to video chat, but unfortunately all of us working in hospitals doesn't help our schedules to coordinate. I did do some screenshots which were awesome, enjoy!

Christmas day was a very chill day and I opted to stay in my PJ's all flippin' day, it was awesome! We had my extended family over for dinner and called it an early night. I unfortunately had to work the day after Christmas, but it was a slow day and I got to leave early so I did some after Christmas shopping and scored an awesome over-sized sweater from H&M for only $10! {PS if you watch the vlog later in the post you will see the sweater}. 

Yesterday was our first annual Friendsmas and lord oh lord did we eat, like A LOT! We also did a Secret Santa among all of us and I was so pleased with my gifts!! We had a ton of yummy desserts {most of them Pinterest inspired} and awesome homemade pizza for dinner. Here are some pictures.

PS This is the over-sized sweater from H&M

Now onto all my gifts that I've received this past holiday season!! I am soo thrilled with all that I got and am so thankful for all the friends and family that know me so well. 

Gifts:

{} EcoTools makeup brush set & makeup bag

{} Little Miss Princess coffee mug

{} Tribal print scarf 

{} Striped touchscreen gloves

{} Naked2 eye shadow palette

{} Peppermint Mocha via packets

{} Starbucks cold drink tumbler

{Not Pictured}

{} Ulta Giftcard

This is my gift from the boy, N. He saved the baby pictures I had sent to him at the beginning of our relationship and he made a collage of the pictures. The quote at the top is from Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." I am in love with it and it's housed above my makeup vanity in my room. I love the thoughtfulness behind the gift and his attention to details. 

These lovely gifts were from my work Secret Santa and I'm thrilled with all of it. The candle smells heavenly and the water bottle is so convenient along with the Target gift card which I'm sure will be gone by the end of this post! 

This is my gift to myself. I had been wishing for this on my Christmas list, but instead got some awesome others. I cannot stop listening to this CD and as I type Billie Jean is playing. {Fun Fact: Billie Jean was written about a crazy stalker of Michael's who claimed he had fathered her child, talk about psycho stalkers}.

FINALLY-

Here is my vlog that I did for my Secret Santa reveal for the swap hosted by Paige @ Eloping Stethoscope. 

Some notes about the vlog:

{} I realize I move the camera around too much, sorry for any motion sickness that may have occurred. 

{} I say swap funny a few times, but I didn't re-shoot the video because this was my 12th take, I am no editing genius so you get this.

{} At 30 seconds I roll my eyes up, my sister was staring at me from her room watching me film my vlog most likely judging me, sorry I'm not sorry.

{} I say umm WAY too much, sorry.

{} My voice is so weird, I don't think I sound like this, but hey whatever works.

{} When I'm showing off my gifts the camera is all up in my face, sorry for that lol.

{} I know I said rougher, again with the shooting too many times, you know I mean more rough.

So what do you all think of all my goodies?! Pretty awesome Secret Santa right! I cannot thank Jules @ My Mom's A Whack Job for all these awesome gifts, if you haven't checked out her blog, what the heck are you waiting for?! 

Here are pictures of my goodies! 

So so sorry about the overload of Christmas fun and pictures galore!! I hope you enjoyed reading and if you made it all the way down here, I love you for reading it!! What are some of your favorite gifts from this season, leave me your comments in the section below!!