The winner of last Monday’s $100 credit to One Kings Lane is Samantha Strah! Congratulations!

You should have already been contacted by One Kings Lane, but feel free to get in touch with me if you have any problems.

Alright, y’all know I love One Kings Lane. Here’s the thing. You can get so much beautiful gifty loot without breaking the bank! I purchased two Kate Spade Lenox crystal vases (that were on my wedding registry) that normally retail for $200 a piece for just under $100.

One of the best things you can give someone for Christmas is an e-gift to One Kings Lane. They’ll still have to register and become a member, but that’s easy! The e-gift cards come in amounts from $25 to $1000. And I promise that you can find something great on that site for $25.

Tomorrow (Friday) on One Kings Lane, they’ll be focusing on Holiday Decorating. I cannot even tell you how excited I am about these next two items. It’s a Juliska glass ornament and a Distinctive Designs wreath. Yay for Christmas decorating– at 70% off!

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.)