It's that time of year again! The weather is getting chilly, it's getting dark at 4:30pm (I hope you turned your clocks back this weekend or you're early today!), and the holidays are right around the corner. I can only think of one way to make that better, and that's with a big cup of hot tea! Today I am brining back my holiday tea swap.


If you aren't familiar with my tea swaps, this is the third annual holiday swap and the fourth total I have offered on my site.  I am a sucker for holiday teas and thought it would be fun to share my love with you all. The swap allows you to be partnered up with another tea loving buddy to swap your favorite teas.

New this year is adding the option of coffee. It is not required, but you will see on the form you can check if you are open to receiving some coffee as well with your swap. You may also sent K-Cups in any form if your swapper indicated they have a Keurig.

Sign ups start today and will close on Monday, November 28th. I will get all buddies emailed no later than November 30th. All packages must me mailed by December 12th. If this will be a problem, PLEASE let me and your swap buddy know.

There are a few rules (Only to make this a fun and fair experience for everyone!):

I am asking that everyone provides at least 4-5 bags of tea for your buddy to sample. You may include more.  You can do this in anyway you choose, but I ask that you include a little blurb about each so your buddy knows what it is they are sampling.

If you are not going to meet the deadline or have any issues, please send me an email ASAP. I want to make this an great experience for everyone involved.

Last year I asked everyone to include a Christmas card with their packages since this will be arriving right around Christmas. This is optional, but a nice touch for your buddy. You may also include anything else that you feel either goes with your tea choices or you just feel like putting a smile on your buddies face.

If you have a blog, I am going to host a link up at the end of this. It would be fun to see what everyone gets! If you post about it, use the hash tag #TLTeaSwap2016

That's it! Have fun with this! Let's get the holiday season started off right! Please fill out the form below to get signed up! Happy sampling!

It's that time again. Talking about my wins of the week. It's such a positive way to identify good things in life rather than focusing on all the bad.

Health

• I have identified a problem with my health, so now I am working hard to get things better. Even though it was a tough week when it came to the foods I chose and the way they made me feel, I have been able to set myself on a better path to what needs to happen this week.

• I attended my 2nd yoga class in the 7 week course I signed up for. I love it more and more each time I go. My body is happier and I am starting to feel less distracted. Such a win for me.

Personal

• This week I posted some photos from my wedding. It was nice to take time out to remember how great the day way, even when things aren't going great in other areas of my life currently. Any little moment or event can pull us out of that bad place we go when we worry, and my wedding photos reminded me of that.

• I kicked ass at work this week. I kept up with everything and was able to leave my desk on Friday afternoon clean and nothing sitting to deal with on Monday. This is an ultimate win for me.

• I am working on a plan for 2017 to keep myself focused and motivated on getting my life back to a place where I am happy. I have identified what things need to change and how to do it, now I just need 2017 to get here so I can implement them!

• I FINALLY caved and bought some new pants and a few other items for the winter. The win here was I got a pair of jeans, a dress, a sweater, a cardigan, a jacket, and a belt for about $17. Gotta love thrifty shopping!

Blogging

• I blogged 4 days during the week plus today, so 5 times! This is probably the win I am most proud of. I have been more consistent lately and my stats are proving it. I am seeing more traffic and more engagement. Now I need to keep it up!

• I have decided to host my 3rd annual holiday tea swap. Last year wasn't the greatest turn out as I got the information out later than anticipated and it fell right in the middle of the holiday swing. I am going to put that announcement out this coming week, so if you love tea, come back and get signed up!

Happy Friday Y'all! I hope it was a great week and an even better weekend. I'm going to leave you with the cutest picture ever. Okay I may be biased, but how happy does this sweet girl look? Grace is one spoiled kitten!

Today is the day.. I get to share with you my most exciting day to date. My wedding day. If you have been following along in this series, you know what's gone on up until this point. If you haven't, I suggest you read my engagement story, and follow right on through until you get back to this post.
I'm going to jump right in... These are just a few of my favorite photos! Maybe I will do another post down the road with more detail..  Non professional photos first.. then the professional :)

Wedding Date: September 24, 2016
Wedding Ceremony: Private lake house on Cayuga Lake
Reception Venue: Knapp Winery
Photographer: Tom Mizzoni Photography and all my friends!

Morning mimosas!

The beautiful bouquets! All done DIY minus mine on top

Creeping on my guests..

The most beautiful background for a wedding ceremony!

We did! We're married!

I was IN LOVE with my centerpieces.

First and foremost, I wanted to say, happy November! We made it. We are in the last month of Fall and with that, it brings Thanksgiving and the beginning of the food season. Lots of yummies coming our way.

Today I wanted to bring my weekly wins because I did not get them up this weekend. I was a little under the weather, and I just didn't get it done. Womp womp.

Health

I had mentioned last week that I wanted to get back into going to the gym. I did get back to the gym one day and it was that day that I realized how sick I was. For the better part of the week I was absolutely miserable and not feeling great.

The silver lining and win in this statement is, because I was so sick I was able to finally get to the bottom of a year long problem I have been experiencing. I was able to be finally diagnosed and I'm on my way to healing. Today is the first day in awhile that I am feeling good. Not great, but good. I'll take it!

Personal 

I continued on the trend of reading. I am finding more joy in reading and noticing myself more and more picking up a book rather than jumping online. This is a major win for me as I really do spend to much time wasting time online.

I went back to yoga. I know this could probably go under health, but I feel like it was also a very personal choice to get back on the mat. It is both physically and mentally rewarding, and with this series I am taking it incorporates meditation within the yoga practice. The series is called 'Come Home to Your Body'. I left feeling more at ease than I have in a long time.

My parents came to visit! I have not seen them since then wedding and we got to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday. This brings so much joy to my life.

Blogging

I am so happy to have found my motivation again with this blog. I have been working outside my comfort zone with my new fashion posts. I am not by any means trying to be a fashion blogger, as I love being a lifestyle blog, but I am finding so much happiness in putting together an outfit each week. I hope you will check out my Halloween inspired outfits and what I dressed as for Halloween posts.

How are you winning?