How to Have the Best NYE Ever!

Source Hey homies!  Getting excited for New Years' Eve, like I am?  I wanted to put together a how-to-guide for those of you braving the elements to celebrate with your friends or your significant other.  Just remember to be safe and have fun! Step One - Assemble Your Team, Set Up Home Base So gather your friends to make a party, don't expect a huge crowd.  NYE is notoriously hard for getting people and especially couples...

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A Look Back - 2013 (Part Two)

Hola muchachos! Welcome back to the real world.  Sadly, now is time to put away the cookies, hot cocoa, mashed potatoes, Christmas ham, and wrapping paper.  We must now go to back to our jobs, messy homes, and hope for a even better year to be on it's way.  Fear not, though.  Let's take a look back on what 2013 has brought us.  Or me, I guess, specifically.  (Sorry, I sound like a jerk) 2013 Books I didn't end up...

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A Look Back - 2013 (Part One)

I hope your holidays are going well!  If you are already back at work or just bored sitting around at Grandma's, now is a good time to look at 2013 in review.  Specifically I'm talking movies.  You ever wait for the People Magazine or Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 Movies/Books/Music/TV Moments/Smoothie Flavors of the year to come out?  I do!  I eat that sh#t right up! Gotta catch up on the stuff I missed out on!  Next...

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The Holiday (Press) Play List

I hope you all will be enjoying time spent with your families, eating decadent meals, and taking long naps in front of the fire.  My family usually does a game night Christmas Day but occasionally we will make it a movie night instead. I have my own holy trinity of Christmas movies that I MUST WATCH every Christmas.  This always includes Batman Returns, Die Hard and A Christmas Story. Blue eyes... More blue eyes... Blue eyes--I'm...

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(W)Reef Update #3

I have been finishing up some last minute Christmas wreaths as homemade presents for my family. I made a Texas themed wreath for my mom using seasonal decorations from Michaels that I got for 70 percent off. I used some decorative succulents, red berry sprays, white pine tree trim, and some star shaped wooden cut outs that I spray painted silver. I added some vintage blue ornaments and a red bow fashioned from a bandana, which I found directions...

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Sad Christmas

http://www.buzzfeed.com/tracyclayton/saddest-christmas-songs-of-all-time Every once in a while, I think the nation needs to has a quiet, contemplative, low-key Christmas and I think it’s happening this year.  Last year was on track to be Merry and Bright and then Sandy Hook Elementary happened.  Shook us, as a nation, to the core.  A quiet burn in our hearts and mind. This tragedy cannot, will not be forgotten.  Its long-reaching...

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12 Days of Christmas Music

I love Christmas music, almost every Christmas song.  It's my favorite part of the holidays.  I'll listen to Christmas music in the car, after Thanksgiving and even few weeks after Christmas. My dad used to sing in the Christmas Choir at church when we were kids and one year I was able to sing with him, even though I have terrible voice, so I have fond memories of the music. I like to compile my own Christmas playlists and have set...

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Let's Decorate!

I live in Texas and occasionally we will have snow days or bad weather days due to ice storms.  I've been at home since last Thursday due to the ice storm that makes much of our roads unsafe.  Last night I decided it was time to decorate for Christmas. I didn't do it the first few days of December because our weather was unbearably warm, topping at 80 degrees for the high.  This weekend I tried to start decorating as I was...

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Christmas Cards - Yay or Nay?

Image Source I still love getting Christmas cards in the mail.  As a kid, my folks would receive cards from family, friends and acquaintances around the country.  My mom would hang a giant, long velvet ribbon from the top of the stairs and staple the cards in descending order.  The closer to Christmas, the more cards would appear. My mom is also a big proponent of the yearly newsletter, which always accompanies her card. ...

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Grapevine, TX - The Christmas Capital of Texas

Umm, yeah.  Hello lovelies.  And dudes too.  I’m not trying to exclude.  I work in an office not far from the Dallas Fort Worth airport in a little town called Grapevine.  Grapevine is known for their charming Main Street area which is bustling full of wine shops, antique stores, boutique shops, restaurants, bakeries, a working train station and even a jewelry store that used to be a bank, which supposedly...

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  Enjoy your family and friends.  Sorry, my Batman looks a little awkward and Superman clearly wears cowboy boots. Love, M...

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DIY Last Minute Thanksgiving Table Setting

I hardly ever act as the host for Thanksgiving dinner, I’m the oldest of three adult children but as yet I’m unmarried.  My mom is still quite young at 50 and LOVES to host.  She is our hub, she is our home base.  She has perfected her turkey skills over years of trial and error.  She makes the turkey with stuffing, gravy made with turkey drippings, cranberry cool-whip salad, strawberry pecan salad, rolls, and bakes pre-made...

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Thank goodness for Thanksgiving!

The essentials. Thanksgiving is not as flashy as Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentine’s Day or Fourth of July.   It stands alone as the least commercialized holiday in the United States.  There is no specific ceremony or opportunity to give gifts.  Of course it is still leaden with tradition, heavy with the expectation to gather with family. Some hate Thanksgiving.  Hate the traveling woes or straight up hate...

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DIY Movember Magnets

 I'm not really sure if No-Shave Movember is still a thing, kinda of like how Fashion Night Out died a quiet death.  But who doesn't love mustaches?  It's one of the many hipster mascots that out there, along with cats, birds, and nerd glasses. Like one my favorite Portlandia skits "Put a Bird On it", you can put a mustache on ANYTHING. Just check Pinterest for "mustache" and you find coffee mugs, t-shirts, stickers,...

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(W) Reef Update #2

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..... no, seriously.  My office building has already put up a giant wreath over the entrance and the Christmas lights up. I get people wanting a head start on Christmas.  To FINALLY be ahead of the curve.  I get it.  I do.  Less than 4 weeks is not enough time for all the decorating, shopping, baking and spending time together that most people want to enjoy in December. So...

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DIY Pretzel Necklaces

In light of North Texas Beer Week, I wanted to provide a simple DIY for pretzel necklaces.  I like to make pretzel necklaces for brewery tours, beer festivals, beer tastings, and Oktoberfest.  Pretzel necklaces really have not caught on here in Dallas-Fort Worth despite our burgeoning craft beer scene. You can simply string pretzels or go for a interlocking design like the one I made below. You will need colored yarn, mini pretzels,...

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B*tch

Image Source I called a co-worker a b*tch the other day.  I muttered it under my breath.  AND was overheard.  AND was confronted the next day by her boss and mine. No big deal, right? But see we don't work at a nail salon, or a restaurant or any other semi-casual setting in which name calling occurs on a regular basis, like it's no big deal.  We work for a privately owned investment company run by a small number of general...

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Office Birthdays

I am the queen of office birthdays.  I really like to decorate my co-workers cubicles and surprise them for their birthdays.  I'll pick a theme or a color scheme and go with it.  There is a certain method to my madness.  I like to use Pinterest to cull ideas based on a theme or color. For one of my co-workers I was inspired by the color yellow and the theme of "Little Miss Sunshine". So I found a cute little wreath on this...

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Index Fest '13 Wrap-Up

Hola Amigos.  Reporting to you live from....actually reporting to you after spending last Saturday night at the Index Music Festival in Deep Ellum neighborhood in Dallas, TX. In the cit-ay! I saw the headliner Girl Talk, bands P.O.S., Warpaint, Sarah Jaffe, Year of the Bear, and Dark Rooms. Girl Talk with onstage antics borrowed from The Flaming Lip...

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(W)Reef Update #1

I've been working on some more wreaths in my spare time and getting ready to open an Etsy shop, hopefully soon.  I just wanted to give you guys a preview. I just finished a Baby Shower wreath for a co-worker for her baby girl.  This one is already out the door but I will provide variations for the Etsy shop in the future. ...

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Cronuts Fo' Sho' nuts

Some days when I'm not even expecting it, I'll have something wonderful and magical happen.  Kind of like when you find a $50 bill in the middle of an empty parking lot at the airport.  That absolutely happened to me once.  I was so upset I woke up almost too late to catch a flight that I was muttering, nearly in tears, with my head down when I spotted it.  It was almost like sign a from God, "cheer up Mags!  I promise...

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DIY Sugar Skull Pumpkins

Winter is coming! Hahaha, but not before fall.  As you can probably assume from the blog name, I LOVE Halloween!  Who doesn't?  My birthday is in late October, so I've always had Halloween-themed birthday parties growing up. I love to carve a little pumpkin, roast the seeds and listen to the Audio Book version of World World Z,  which you can buy here. It features the voices of Henry Rollins, Max Brooks, Mark Hamill,...

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(W)Reef Shop

I'm currently working on some items for an upcoming Esty shop, tentatively titled (W)Reef Shop.  I'm still doing research on the Etsy Do's and Don'ts so I'm not even sure if they will allow a stoner-themed name at all.  I don't smoke but I just thought the name would be funny.  If anyone has Etsy tips or advice, drop a line in the comments below. For now my open concept dining/living room is a mess.  I'm playing around making...

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Pimento Cheese

I have never had real pimento cheese before.  Because the fake pimento cheese was really Cheez Wiz.  In a jar. With pimentos.  Growing up pimentos were short-hand for nasty crap.  Olives had pimentos.  Chicken a la King had pimentos.  Pimento loaf is bologna studded with pimento-stuffed olives.  Nasty crap.  As kids, my siblings and I, weren't exactly knocking back martinis with stuffed olives.  Chicken...

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DIY Fancy Styrofoam Shelves

The one item in my house that gets the most comments from friends are my Styrofoam shelves in the living room.  I was originally inspired by this Apartment Therapy post...

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Hello and Welcome!

Hi!  First post eva!  I don't even know where to start. If you looking to be blown away by a slick, professional, designer blog you may want to look elsewhere.  This blog is going to be awesome but it is still a work in progress.  Like a teenage Wonder Woman in a training bra.  A little gawky, a little dorky-looking, but still kick-ass. I live in the Dallas-Forth Worth area of Texas, so you will probably see me posting...

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