it’s a wonderful life

December 29, 2014Leave a comment

good day, my friends. i don’t know about you, but getting back into the swing of things after a lovely 5 day christmas and family filled weekend is the worst. i hope you had a wonderful holiday week; i had truly the best Christmas ever. though the excitement level slightly decreases as i get older, the amount that i enjoy it only seems to grow. perhaps it’s because i’ve learned that, “maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store; maybe, Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” and it’s more about spending time with the people you love and care about. and making memories. and continuing traditions. and just being so grateful for everything you already have.

that’s what my Christmas was full of. we spent Christmas Eve at my parents and celebrated that night at grandma dahl’s with almost all of the dahl cousins. it’s neat to see how much joy it brings my grandma to sit and just watch the madness that is our family. to have her kids, her grandkids, and her great-grandkids… knowing that she made it all possible. what an incredible feeling. something i hope to experience one day with [b] + #starksthepup – because he is going to be the pup that lives forever.

Christmas day is a day that has remained virtually unchanged for as long as i can remember. we have the same breakfast, the same routine, the same dinner, everything. we dahl’s like our consistency and tradition. as we were taking our annual stocking picture my mom said, alright one with just my kids since it’s emma’s last Christmas as a Dahl. woah, shit just got real. i will always be a Dahl, but when i wake up next year on Christmas morning i will be a Bica. and that’s kind of cray.

[b] + #starksthepup and i headed back that evening to celebrate our first Christmas in the new house and watching my favorite Christmas movie; Santa Claus is Coming to Town. we sipped wine and cuddled with the pup and i couldn’t have imagined a better ending to a more perfect day.

i hope that you all had merry and bright holidays; and i pray that your monday’s be short and your coffee be strong. xo

you may also like:

tales from my {very} merry christmas

merry christmas roundup [tis the season]

((merry)) christmas roundup

stamps & hot chocolate // wknd happenings

December 22, 2014December 22, 20142 Comments

my productivity level was off the charts this weekend (mostly) and that is what i am blaming for my lack of focus. that and the fact that christmas is officially 3 sleeps away. and i’m heading home to albert lea tomorrow. so yes, many distractions. anyways – we checked another big milestone off of the ‘ol wedding checklist this weekend. all of our save the dates are have been sent! sidenote: no wonder the written word is dying… $60 for 120 stamps?! what the what?!

264 days until #happilyeverbica

115 envelopes

61 cities

13 states

3 metallic sharpies

4 cups of coffee

2 engaged people

1 fabulous wedding

something about having the save the dates sent out just makes it all legit. so much excitement. i also can’t get over how amazing our save the dates turned out. my dear friend Alyssa Meier, who is also one of my fearless personal attendants, is doing all of the design for the wedding and seriously… she is nothing short of fantastically talented. i couldn’t imagine anything more perfect and i cannot wait to see everything else come together! [thanks lys!]

other items that were on the agenda this weekend: wrapping presents [with no help at all from #starksthepup], watching it’s a wonderful life, drinking homemade [spiked] hot chocolate, and coffee. lots of coffee.

hope you all had a wonderful weekend! xo

christmas came early // and other fancy things

December 16, 2014December 19, 20142 Comments

well, the good news is that we may actually get a white christmas as the snow and cold have found its way back to MN. the less good news is that it’s cold. but, i really didn’t want a brown christmas, so i’m rooting for you Minnesota and mother nature. also, did you know that there are only 9 sleeps until christmas? if you thought to yourself… aw snaps i need to get my life together, then we’re speaking the same language. it’s not that i’ve been bad at christmas shopping; it’s been that i’ve been bad at christmas shopping… for not me. i blame all the fabulous sales. i’ve had a case of the ‘i want, i need, i buy’ syndrome as of late. oopsies.

i’m overly obsessed with my top 3 recent purchases though. they are practical, fancy and of course, sassy. i recently upgraded from my iPhone 5 to iPhone 6. and yes, i do love it. i sadly had to say goodbye to my beloved case from the everygirl (dear everygirl; please make your cases for 6’s soon, pretty please xo) and so the search began for a new case. i have recently found a lovely site called ban.do and saw a pretty mint colored sassy gem of a case that i couldn’t say no to. i think we make a great pair.

next came my sudden desire for a paper planner. i used to be a die hard franklin covey customer. i wrote everything and i mean everything down. but the times, they were a changing… so i become digital obsessed. i’m all about the google calendars, the wunderlists, the evernotes, etc. but with our wedding coming up in 270 days; i have had a certain urge for a paper planner to write things down. literally. there is something to be said about the written word. unfortunately i drug my feet for too long on katespade.com and missed out on the one i wanted; however – thanks to some google magic i found a lovely place called lulu & georgia and alas, my new 2015 planner. it is lovely and beautiful and if you look carefully, it says emma on the cover.

last on my list, but not at all least is my travel coffee mug also from ban.do. l-o-v-e love it. love everything. i mean, the mug says it all. i can’t say anything more.

yesterday i got an early christmas present for me that wasn’t from me! [b] got me this adorably perfect vanity from my new favorite local shop, mama’s happy… in the city. we got our entry buffet table there a month or so ago and i’m quite certain that we visit the shop every weekend. i’ve had my eyes on this beauty for a while now and thanks to my wonderful fiance she now will live in our home. #starksthepup was quite excited as well because he likes to hide under things like a fort. so it’s really a present for the both of us. (please disregard the horrendous knotty pine walls of our bedroom. renovation coming q1 2015).