Why is it that when I see a big pile of sweaters in all different colors that I just want to reach out, grab them all, and purchase every one of them?  I wouldn’t want to wear the purple by itself either. I’d want to find a way to wear all colors at the same time so it looks as pretty as this pile in the picture!

Or why is it that when I look at these images of Hunter wellies, I cannot, for the life of me, decide which color I would get for myself? I want them all!

Or if I see a beautiful package of pens or Sharpies, I want to take them home. Even though I already have multiple packs at home. The colors just speak to me!

And, why, oh why do I think I need to purchase eye shadow palettes like this even though I know I’ll probably only end up wearing the browns and throwing the rest of it away before it expires and gives me some kind of eye funk?

How pretty are those colors?

Is it genius marketing? Or is something the matter with me?

1. My birthday was last Wednesday. I turned 27. It was an ordinary day, as I think most birthdays after 22 or 23 are. My sweet husband brought me an Egg Nog Latte before I even got out of the bed. My baby boy gave me a Snuggie, my sweet doggies gave me these shoes, and my darling husband gave me a Dell net book so I can blog when we travel.  (You may remember that we have a big ole desktop Mac, so it has been difficult to blog on the go.)

My mom found a shop in Dallas that sells my every day china, Juliska, and they were going out of business and having a clearance sale. She was able to get me over 30 pieces for my birthday! We only had one pasta bowl before last week, and now we have all the pasta bowls we’ll ever need!

We celebrated that night with dinner at Terra, the same place we ate the night of our engagement. We rushed home from dinner so I could watch the CMA Awards. I know, thrilling, right? But it was a great day!

2. On November 7, Todd’s mom hosted a Sip ‘n See at her home so her friends could meet Hudson. It was a beautiful party and Hudson got a lot of love. He crashed halfway through, so his sweet grandfather took him on a stroll around their neighborhood until he fell asleep. It’s hard to keep a baby happy for those special events. He just wants his nap!

Here’s a copy of the invitation to the Sip ‘n See that Ashley Brooke Designs did. We thought it was seriously adorable!

3. The new InStyle is here!

The December issue of InStyle magazine is always the best of the year! InStyle has the greatest gift guide and I always find some amazing ideas there! I’ll be doing a post later this week letting you know what some of my favorite gift ideas are for this year!

4. My knee is killing me. I’m sure it’s pretty darn mad at me for forgetting about exercise for a year, gaining 4o pregnancy pounds over the course of 10 months, and then losing 30 pregnancy pounds in 3 weeks. Not sure my weak knee can handle all that trauma and fluctuation. I’ll fill you in more on Wednesday.

5. Annnnd the Project Runway finale is this week. I’m a Carol Hannah fan because she’s a South Carolina girl. I think Irena is good, but I also think she’s not a very nice girl. I like Althea, but I don’t think I’d wear her clothes. So I’m rooting hard for Carol Hannah. Who’s your favorite? This season kind of made me long for the days of Christian Syriano.

I hope your week is off to a great start already!

It’s no secret that I love some Carrie Underwood. I even declared her to be my “girl crush” in a post earlier this year.

So Carrie (we’re best friends, so I can call her by her first name) and Brad Paisley hosted the CMA Awards on November 11 (which was my 27th birthday, by the way). Carrie had quite a few wardrobe changes during the three hour show, so I thought we’d discuss all of her gorgeous outfits here today. (They aren’t necessarily in the correct order.)

1. Her red carpet dress, a hand-embroidered Theia gown

2. Her opening dress

3. Her Cowboy Casanova performance outfit

4. A beautiful, sweet gown

5. Another, more edgy, gown

6. Beautiful orange ruffles

7. Beautiful green ruffles and layers

8. Sequin goodness for the close of the show

A look at some of my favorites.

My personal favorite is the orange, ruffled, one-shoulder dress. Which one is your favorite? (I numbered the dresses for your convenience.)

Get excited! I’m about to talk about lots of pretty stationery that I just happen to love.

Our White Elephant Gift Exchange invitations:

I just ordered these from Tiny Prints. I’m in love with the modern design and bright colors. Ours obviously have our specific party information on them. I’m so excited to mail them out. And if you’re a future recipient of one of these invitations and you’re reading the blog, just act surprised when you receive yours in the mail!

Beautiful Christmas Cards from Minted:

Dearest Nina has already raved about Minted. Their cards, invitations, and stationery are truly wonderful!

And my favorite thing about Minted.com is the Yearline option for the cards. You can choose to have your card fold out and read like a timeline while using various photos from the year. It’s a great way to get the newsletter piece of your Christmas card without having to enclose an insert.

Budget-friendly Christmas cards from Vista Print:

The nice folks at Vista Print contacted me a few weeks ago about sending me 20 complimentary Christmas cards so I could give them a try. I immediately went to their website and the process was so easy! This is what I came up with! This was before we had our family photos taken, but I do love this photo of our precious boy and his monkey friend.

I have to say that while the designs at Vista Print aren’t as great as those at Tiny Prints or Minted, you can’t beat the prices at Vista Print. If you already have a gorgeous photo and it’s ready to go, this is a great option for you! The 20 that I received are glossy and I would trade that out for a matte card.

The turn around time was super fast and the customer service was great!

Our choice for Christmas cards 2009:

We decided to have the wonderfully talented Tracy Turpen design our cards this year using the photos from our session a couple of weeks ago. I love Tracy’s holiday card samples. Ours will be similar, but we’ve requested just a couple of changes. I’m so excited!

*all images from Tracy Turpen’s blog