This past week the snowstorm that hit a few weeks ago has finally melted away, but I hear we’re in for another 6-14 inches tomorrow ahhh!  Just when you think the snow is done for the season…  People always say to me, “You grew up in Michigan, you should be used to snow”.  Well let me tell you, there is NO getting used to this fluffy stuff!  After months and months of warm weather and wearing dresses and flip flops, the cold just slaps you in the face day after day all winter!  The only two things I MAYBE like about the snow are:

1) Getting to wear cute boots, scarfs, earmuffs, hats, and gloves.
2) I GUESS it is sorta pretty and can make for good pictures?  Although taking pictures of snow ain’t easy as your camera tends to underexpose due to the brightness of it.

So just for you, I braved the cold a few weeks ago and captured some pictures of the snow around my house.  See how much I love y’all?    And of course, Mr. Squirrel decided to make another appearance!

Hey you, Mr. Squirrel, trying to be sneaky…

You can’t see me, but I can see you, HA!

Mr. Squirrel is covered in snow, ain’t he adorable?  Linking this one up to Sweet Shot Tuesdays:

Acorn found!  So thankful he is still relieving of us of our acorn problem even with all that snow!

Mr. Squirrel even cleans up after himself and hangs the eaten acorns on branches!

So much fluffy snow covered everything!

And mini icicles were seen all over.

I’m loving the contrast of the snow against the brick!

How is the winter weather in your neck of the woods?

Tank Top: Forever 21, Cardigan: Forever 21, Skirt: Ann Taylor, Tights: Target, Shoes: Kenneth Cole Outlet, Necklace: Oh, Hello Friend

Whew!  I had quite the busy week last week.  I’m sitting here in the Vegas airport waiting to head home, thankful that there’s free internet as my flight is delayed.  Traveling is fun for me because I get to visit friends and family all over the world, but the ACT of traveling can be super tiring, ya know?  I had an amazing time with my family in California and my nephew is just growing up soo fast!  He knows so many words in English, Chinese, and Korean and really had a fun and cute personality!  We even did a nephew + auntie photo shoot this morning and I can’t wait to share those pictures later!

But for now, it’s been a few weeks since my first Cubicle Chic, so I figured it was about time for another, after all, even though I did travel this week for work, I did end up working in a cubicle for part of the time on the client site, HA!  My favorite thing about this wardrobe is the mustard tank and how it matches the flowers in my cardigan, because in my mind, mustard is totally the color of the year (in blog world).  I bought those shoes a few years ago at an outlet in Vegas (which is kind of ironic because that’s where I’ am blogging from as we speak), and I definitely don’t wear them enough as I should but I think it’s because I don’t have as many brown toned clothing in my wardrobe.  So usually when I pack for business trips, it’s the black/grey toned pants and shoes and tops to go with that!

Do you have more brown tones or black/grey tones in your wardrobe?

In preparation for Valentine’s Day, (yes folks, it’s coming up faster than you think!) Ingredients, Inc. is going to share a fabulous recipe with us!  Want to know what’s even better about it?  It’s dessert and it has strawberries, I’m drooling already.

Alison Lewis is a nationally known Recipe Developer, Food Television and Media Spokesperson and Owner of Ingredients, Inc., a Food Consulting Company in Birmingham for 9 years. She is known for creating healthy, family-friendly recipes that are easy to prepare, and she offers great entertaining ideas on her blog, http://ingredientsinc.net. Her first cookbook, 400 Best Sandwich Recipes: Ideas for Every Meal and Occasion, will be internationally published this spring by Robert Rose Books. Alison’s recipes are frequently featured in well- known magazine publications, food companies, and cookbooks. Her recipes have been published in Southern Living, Cooking Light, Better Homes and Gardens, Birmingham Magazine, Clean Eating, Cuisine at Home, Oxygen, Yum Food and Yum Food for Kids. She has worked on recipes and media with companies such as Coca Cola, General Mills, Wisconsin Milk and Marketing Board, Kraft, Honeysuckle White, Kellogg’s, Whole Foods Market, Nestle and more. Alison is the mother of three children, an avid runner and does yoga in her spare time.

I am so excited to share one of my newest and most favorite recipes for Strawberry Cobbler just in time for Valentine’s Day to “Sandy A La Mode’s” readers. I have been following Sandy’s blog for a while, and I am a big fan. She has been so kind to answer questions from time to time regarding blogging as well as to allow me to “guest post” on her site today. My career is in recipe development and spokesperson work for magazines, food companies and public relation firms. I started my blog Ingredients, Inc. in the fall of 2008 sharing my favorite family-friendly recipes.

I developed this Strawberry Cobbler recipe for Valentine’s Day for a special Valentine’s dessert for my family, but it’s also one of the recipes I will be teaching in my Valentine’s Kids cooking class in early February. This recipe turned out great on the first try with the perfect flavor of strawberries and texture of the oat topping. It’s super easy to prepare, heart warming and bursting with strawberry flavor. When my three children tasted it, they said, “Mom, this is the best thing you have ever made.” I took that as a huge compliment. Serve this to your special Valentine this year, and you will get many hugs in return.

Strawberry Cobbler

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients
4 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dry oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
Vanilla ice cream (optional)

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Spread strawberries evenly in a lightly greased 2-quart baking dish; set aside.
3. Combine flour, sugar, oats and baking powder in a medium bowl, mixing well. Add egg and cinnamon, stirring gently with a fork to combine. Sprinkle flour mixture evenly over strawberries. Drizzle with butter.
4. Bake in preheated oven 40 to 45 minute or until lightly browned and bubbly. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Thanks for this delicious sounding and looking dessert, Alison!  I can’t wait to make this for my hubby!    Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

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Meet Emily.  A super sassy, sweet, string cheese loving, Smolak.  She was one of the very first blogs I followed when I joined this fabulous blogging community a year ago, and she’s been a great friend ever since!  She blogs about her home, her super tall husband, her pets, inspirations, vintage finds, fabulous photos and tunes.  My most common phrase (said in my head of course) when visiting her blog, is “wow, so cool!“  And I tell you, it really is.  Here’s a little flavor of what you’ll see ova there.

Her chalkboard fridge, LOVES IT!!  LOVE LOVE LOVE!  She posts instructions on how to make it here and shares with us the fun photos and words that go up on that chalkboard once in awhile!

If you are in need of some new tunes to listen to, every Tuesday, Smolak has got you covered, y’all!  I see you nodding your head, we could all add some new music to our Ipods (Zune in my case, am I the only one who owns one by the way?).  I actually discovered the band She & Him from her blog, you know you love them too.

Would you just look at these pretties?  Emily and her husband take these amazing amazing photos, they claim that they aren’t professional, but I think they really need to start thinking about becoming a professional couple photographer duo, don’t ya think?  Loving the colorful thread, purple shoes and jelly beans!!  Pass me a tissue so I can wipe the drool off my face, please!

There you have it, isn’t her blog so fun?!  Now go ahead, click on over, I’ve made it super simple for ya, click on the cute banner above!  See ya over there!

Don’t you just love her?

Hi friends!  Sorry if I’ve been MIA lately but it’s been a crazy busy week in sunny California.  Well I can’t complain because I did get to spend part of my day yesterday working outside, that was NICE.  On the first day of my trip out here, I had a blogger meet-up!!  Am I like the queen of blogger meet-ups (and giveaways) or what? The ever sweet Lillian of Unstitched picked me up and we headed to Pasadena to an awesome Thai restaurant called Daisy Mint.  I had my staple Pad Thai and mmm mmmm was it good!  Lillian and I actually have  A LOT in common especially because we’re both Taiwanese!    We reminisced all the fun things to do in Taiwan, she gave me an Alt Summit recap, we talked about our wonderful mutual blogging friends (Piper, Janie, Brandi, Danni, did your ears itch? ), and just talked about how great the blogging community really is!  Thanks so much for taking the time to meet up with me, Lillian!  Next time, we’ll go get some of that bubble tea you raved to me about!   And if you haven’t checked out her blog, you should, it’s full of beautiful inspirations and sprinkles of her life!  Here we are~

On Tuesday, I went out for dinner with some old friends and we had one of my favorite foods, soup dumplings, or xiao long bao or XLB as some call it.  And then, I had an assortment of frozen yogurt at Yogurtland, have I told you how much I love fro-yo?  If you didn’t know, now you know.  Afterwards, we played a few rounds of Dominion and I learned a new card game called Bang (it’s like the game Mafia, but with cards), pretty fun!  On Wednesday night I hung out with my coworkers in Pasadena and spent a good amount of the time driving around the Rose Bowl and gawking at all the huge mansions over there.

Well I still have a few more days here in sunny California where I’ll be hanging out with family and friends.  I’m pretty sure you know how much I ADORE my nephew, I just can’t wait to pinch his cheeks, I’m SUCH a great aunt!    The weirdest thing about being here is that it is literally 60 degrees warmer here than back home, oh can I just move here now?

And last, but not least… I have a few GIVEAWAY WINNERS to announce!  I know, you’ve all been dying to know, so here goes!!

Giveaway – Gracie Bella Butterfly

The winner of your choice of headband, a pair of earrings, and note card set from Gracie Bella Butterfly is Jill of Cornflake Dreams!

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Giveaway – Lemon and Lavender

The winner of 1 “I love you” greeting card folded 3.5×5.0, 10 mini valentines with #1 mini envelopes in strawberry, 25 custom note cards printed on recycled kraft paper with coordinating peacock envelopes from Lemon and Lavender is Somer of Knit-O-Matic!

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Giveaway – Eclectic Whatnot

The winner of $25 shop credit to Eclectic Whatnot’s camera strap shop is Jihee from The Soaktree!

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Giveaway – Ahoy! Graphics

The winner of $30 credit to the Ahoy! Shop good for any one A La Carte custom design or can be placed towards total purchase is Karen from Believe it and Be Satisfied!

Congrats!! Winners, please send me an email at sandyalamode@gmail.com and I’ll get you in touch with the sponsors! And I’d just like to send a huge virtual *bear hug* over to these wonderful sponsors who have offered to give away things for FREE, people, FREE!  They are the best!