Baking Christmas Cookies & Recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 3 cups of flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• colored sugars for decorating

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract and mix until combined.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Make sure to spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off with a knife to ensure accurate measurements. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
3. Roll the dough between 2 sheets of parchment or wax paper and place on a baking sheet in the refrigerator. Chill for about 20-30 minutes.
4. Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters and transfer to a baking sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugars and bake at 350 degrees for 8-12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a baking rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 40-50 cookies.

Notes

For this recipe, the dough only needs to chill about 20-30 minutes in the refrigerator since it is already rolled out. If you would rather chill the dough first before rolling, you'll want to increase the chill time to about an hour.

Using the parchment paper is a great tip for rolling the dough, because it eliminates the need to add extra flour to keep it from sticking.

My cookies were done baking in 9 minutes, but check yours closely. You want them to be just barely set and not yet browned. They'll seem slightly undercooked right out of the oven, but will firm up nicely once cooled. 9 minutes seemed to be the sweet spot for me!

This recipe comes from Liz at Love Grows Wild and it was PERFECT! I did everything exactly as she wrote it and the cookies rolled out easily, cut out easily and were delicious so please go check out her own post with this recipe!

Happy Baking!

Revlon Just Bitten Lipstains

I had been so curious about the Revlon Just Bitten Lip Stains for the LONGEST time. I finally decided to give them a try because I realized that at work I have a hard time keeping a lip color lasting. I drink water all day, talk to a lot of people, eat, etc, and just don't like to mess with the maintenance of a "lip look." I thought a stain would be a good idea because, obviously, I wouldn't have to worry about any of that. The color may fade, but there would be a hint of something there at least.

The colors I chose were Frenzy and Fate. I always love a nice berry color and I was wanting to branch out to a darker nude/brown shade. 

I'm sure you've all seen by now, but the applicator end is like a marker tip and the other end has a stick of lip balm. I do actually like both ends. I like the marker tip because I feel like you can get enough product to fill in the main part of the lips and you can also be precise enough to get the corners. The lip balm I find is really nice to use before you apply the color to hydrate your lips and also afterwards to finish the look off. I also like that in the caps on the marker end there are the extra plastic pieces which I'm assuming help keep it from drying out.

Now as for swatches and their performance...

Fate:

Frenzy:

I love both colors. I really like the brown as a "fall" nude, not my typical pinky nude and the berry shade is so bright and festive. Overall, Fate is not even wearable for me which is such a bummer! I was really looking forward to this one and the color itself I do like.  But if you look at my lips, you can see some areas, particularly the center, it's patchy and uneven. From far away it isn't that big of a deal, but if anyone is close enough to talk to you, it's going to be noticeable so sadly I haven't got much use for this one. 

Frenzy, on the other hand, is pretty nice. I love the bright color and it goes on less patchy than Fate. It's not as smooth as a lipstick or gloss would be, but this one is wearable. It also passes the kiss on the hand test with no product transferring so that's a win!

After trying these two colors from the range I think that I would try more colors. I wish the more nude shade would have worked out, but they do stain your lips and the balm is really nice. 

Do you guys have any of these or any other lip stains that you would recommend?

Holiday House Tour!

This post is very picture heavy, but I hope you enjoy having a peek around my house and the way I've decorated this holiday season!

I hope you enjoyed my holiday house! I had so much fun decorating this year in our new house and making it feel festive and cozy. I have just been loving sitting around in the sparkly lights, watching Christmas movies and wrapping gifts; nothing beats this time of year for me.

If you're curious about where anything is from just let me know! Quite a bit of what you see is from this year and is probably still available if you're interested :)

My Top 5 Christmas Movie Picks

In no particular order (except number one, obviously) I wanted to share my top 5 favorite Christmas movies with you guys. I've really been in the holiday spirit lately so I'm planning on doing another one of these posts but with my favorite Christmas TV movies, a holiday house tour and of course some holiday treat recipes!

For now, though, let's get into it!

1. A Christmas Story

This is my all time favorite Christmas movie, hands down. I watch it many times every season, including the 24 hours it comes on on Christmas Eve and can recite it in its entirety. Christmas isn't Christmas to me without this movie and it's been part of my family's traditions since I can remember. I can't even tell you why I love this movie so much, it's just so funny, sweet, shows a true family dynamic and the magical feeling at Christmastime.

2. Christmas with the Kranks

I'm already a Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis fan and I love them both so much in this movie. The situations they get into are hilarious and they play their roles SO well. The story is a take on The Grinch or Scrooge so of course, it has a feel good ending when the main character learns the true meaning of Christmas.

3. The Grinch

I don't know how you couldn't love this movie. The sets, the costumes, the script- everything is so whimsical and fun. I just feel so cheerful when I watch this movie and it makes me want to be a Who so badly!!

4. Four Christmases

This is a newer addition to my list, but it obviously made the list for a reason! I absolutely love Vince Vaughn, so it was basically a given that I would love this movie. However, I feel like it's a pretty unique story and is overall hilariously funny and sweet.

5. The Santa Clause

Another great Tim Allen Christmas Movie...The Santa Clause is a staple every holiday season for me. The beginning always makes me teary (if you've seen it you'll know what I'm talking about), but once again, the magic of Christmas and the North Pole comes alive and makes you feel like a kid again.

Of course, there are many other holiday movies that I love, but I wanted to narrow it down for you guys! What are your favorites??

*All images courtesy of Google. Edits made by me.

Fall Favorites!

1. Boots- I love wearing boots in the fall months. It's so nice to have a change from sandals and flats and they're so chic!

2. Comfy/Festive Shirts- I wore this shirt in my last OOTD post. I LOVE plaid shirts, something about them is so festive and gets me in the holiday spirit! I don't tend to wear a lot of color, so I think that's part of what makes it so fun for me :)

3. Dark Nail Polish- The pictured nail polish isn't one of my favorites (I had to throw a lot of mine out because they dried up!) I recently picked up a new dark purple/almost black nail polish that's a dupe of one of my higher end favorites and I've been wearing it constantly. Dark polishes just feel so cool and sleek!

4. Knowing that the Holidays are coming!- I love getting Christmas catalogues in the mail and seeing all of the decorations come out in anticipation of the season!

5. Hot Chocolate- I'm such a hot chocolate person...It gets me in the holiday spirit and I love cuddling up in a blanket with a Christmas movie and a mug of hot chocolate!

6. Bright Eyes & Dark Lips Makeup looks- My favorite look to do in the fall is dark lips with full lashes, light eyeshadow and a bunch of inner corner highlight.

7. Warm fall scents for the home- Nothing's better than warm, earthy scents this time of year!

8. The colors & decor- It's so fun to decorate with oranges, yellows, pumpkins and sunflowers!

What are some of your fall favorites??

Revlon Bold Lacquer Mascara

Yes, I have yet another mascara review for you...I was pretty unhappy with my Miss Manga by Loreal so I decided to grab a different one to try before I even finished that one (something I rarely do). I've had pretty good luck with Revlon mascara in the past so I decided to try their Bold Lacquer one in the Grow Luscious line.

For starters, I'm a big fan of the packaging. The tube itself is really pretty and has a more expensive look to it, which is definitely not a bad thing.

This mascara is a lengthening and volumizing mascara that's lacquer film technology is supposed to coat your lashes with a deep, rich color. I got mine in 001 Blackest Black, which is the color I go for in any mascara that I buy. I don't really know what goes into this "lacquer formula" but I wouldn't say it's any more rich in color than any other Blackest Black mascara. It is a nice dark black, but I wouldn't say that's its selling point.

Revlon mascaras in my experience tend to have large brushes, as does this one. I like the shape of the brush, being slightly tapered toward the end making it easier to get into the corners. The size of the brush also makes it easy to coat almost all of your lashes in each application, which I really like.
Revlon calls this a "lash stretch brush", which again, I don't completely understand, but it's supposed to pull the "lengthening fibers" from root to tip to give a long and full lash. I can definitely tell that there are fibers in the formula that do help to achieve a longer lash, but at the same time, my lashes can tend to get clumpy especially if I'm really trying to get a lot of length.
Overall, I think the mascara does have a nice bold color and provides length & volume, but the downfall of it for me is that it flakes terribly. If I looked at my face 5 times during the day, I'd say that 4 of those times I have little black flakes under my eyes and for that reason I won't repurchase this.
Mascara is one of my favorite items of makeup to try out and to use so I'm considering getting myself one of the mascara collections Sephora brings out at the holidays. Have you guys tried these? What did you think about them if you have?