Whats in my Bag!

I love watching these videos on YouTube and reading blog posts about them. I don't know what it is about it, probably because I am nosy and like to know what other people carry with them. 

The reason for this post is because I am switching up my bags right now. I do this about every two months, I just get sick of using a particular bag after a while and I want to change it out. Up until this point I was using the above bag all the time. I love this bag! Its awesome. Its by Mark New York and I got it at Ross for about $45.00, which was a steal because I know this bag usually is about $200.00. Yay for a good find at Ross. I used this bag for about 3 months so it was worth my money. I figure if I spent $1.00 a day using the bag and I used it for 3 months, that means I surpassed my goal of using it at least 45 times to get my money worth. Anyway lets check it out. 

This is the inside of the above bag, everything fit nicely with extra room left over. 

The first thing in there is obviously my planner: 

It's an Erin Condren Life Planner which I have talked about here on my blog a bunch of times. If you are interested in purchasing one click this link HERE and sign up, once you do you receive a $10.00 off code to your email so that you can get your first order a little cheaper. 

The next thing is this pencil case from Staples. 

I got this last year and it holds my feminine products, you know for that time when Aunt Flow comes to visit. 

Next is this glasses case from Target:

This holds my glasses. I recently had to get some for driving at night and watching movies later during the day. I noticed my eyes were getting worse and worse over time and I am so glad I went into the doctor, these help me see great at night. During the day I don't have to wear them which is good. 

Next up is my wallet:

Its a Kate Spade Wellesley wallet, and I love it. It serves as a finance tracker as well/has extra note pages in the rings so that I can jot down notes without having to pull out my planner. 

Here are all the card slots that it comes with, I just love using it for a wallet. 

Next I have some lip products and a library card and a random Harry Potter charm from Etsy that was on my planner. 

This lip gloss is NYX butter gloss in Tiramisu. It's basically a MLBB (My lips but better) shade and it's perfect for days I forget to put lip products on. And the egg shaped thing is an EOS lip balm in sweet mint, my favorite. In fact I'm going to pause for a minute and put some on. It feels so good on my lips and its important to keep them moisturized during these dry months. 

My library card, also did you know that most libraries offer an online system so you can check out books and read them on your iPad/Kindle etc. Make sure and check out your local library so you can take advantage of that awesome feature. 

Everything that is in my bag on a daily basis:

My new bag. This is from www.markkit.com and it's from Belinda Selene's collection. She is a YouTuber and I love her videos and I love this bag, it was totally worth it. 

Here is the inside, and everything fit nicely, I was actually surprised. I was worried that the glasses case wouldn't fit but it does and it doesn't make it look bulky from the side. In the front pocket I have my phone in there. 

INSIDE VIEW:

SIDE VIEW: 

FRONT VIEW:

There you have it. Hope you liked this post and let me know what you carry in your bag. 

XO 

Caitlin

Merry & Bright > Christmas with the Holladay's

This year was so much fun. It all starts Christmas eve for Zack & I, and I feel like it will continue on into the new year. The partying and family time just keeps getting better.

My mom has claimed Christmas Eve will always be a celebration at my parents house. We went over there around 4:00 Christmas Eve and had a great time chatting with my parents and my 3 sisters. I have one sister who is in El Salvador this year (who we got to talk to-- more on that later) so it was just us four girls and my husband. The evening started out with some potatoes, peas, and white sauce (we have this meal EVERY Christmas eve, since I was little and it is so special because my mom only makes it once a year). We also had rolls, and party punch (a drink my family made up with cranberry sauce and sprite, really good). After dinner we moved onto the next event which was the talent show. Jenna and Rachel (my two youngest sisters) played a piano duet, then Cassidy showed off her self timer skills with the iphone camera for her talent My husband represented our family and juggled some apples he found in the kitchen. Cassidy took this picture of everyone during her "talent"

Next we put on the Natvitiy, there are a lot of boy roles in the Nativity story from the New Testament so we had to improvise:

Jenna played Mary. 

Rachel played the angels.

Cassidy played Joseph

I played the shepard and the sheep

Zack played the wise man

After the nativity my sisters unwrapped their Christmas pajamas and my dad read us the Polar Express (also a tradition we have done every Christmas Eve). 

Zack and I went home around 9:00 pm and opened our own Christmas pajamas up, then we went to bed. 

Christmas day we spent a few hours unwrapping gifts and enjoying our presents. I found this little beauty in my stocking:

It's a Green Amethyst stone accented with diamonds! I feel in love with it. My husband said he had a connection with Santa and knew that I would love it. He was right. 

After presents we went to my in-laws house for Omelets and to spend Christmas morning with them. 

John, Rose and Zack doing the "Sasquatch pose"... I have no idea what brought this on. 

My lovely husband, making me laugh right before the photo is taken. He always knows how to put a smile on my face. 

After breakfast with my in-laws we went to my aunts house to spend Christmas day with my family. 

My Grandma decided she wanted to have a dance party so they showed us all up with their amazing dancing skills. It was so cute to watch, my Grandpa was really a pretty good dancer. 

We played some white elephant bingo! My cousin Blake is wearing her present on her head. 

We talked to Tori on Skype. She is the one in El Salvador on her mission. It was so great, she looked even more beautiful then the day she left and she was so happy. She was just beaming from ear to ear and she couldn't remember how to say some words in English. It was fun to watch and see how much Spanish she knew after only living there for 4 months. 

Overall it was such a fun Christmas day and we were so blessed by everyone who gave us wonderful gifts. 

We are going to St. George tomorrow for a little family vacation with my in-laws, it should be a lot of fun. 

I am excited to get some warm weather and hopefully sunshine as well. Utah December's are not very good, not a lot of sun so the trip will be welcoming. 

Well I hope everyone's Christmas was wonderful. 

XO

Caitlin

Caitlin, Currently

I haven't been up to a whole lot lately except lots of Christmas parties, wrapping of presents, and getting ready for Dec 25. I am loving life right now because I have the entire week off (paid time off even) which means I get to be home when Zack gets home from work. This never happens. I have a whole weeks worth of meals planned and ready to be prepared. I got all my Christmas shopping done today (I know I am a big procrastinator, luckily all the stores still had what I needed) and I got my daily workout in.

Lately though I have been loving the view out our kitchen window:

Mostly I just love the snow on the twiggy branches. Its so magical. 

We went out to my work Christmas party:

(sorry its a little blurry)

It was so much fun introducing my husband to everyone that I work with. It was a little weird watching the guys get completely drunk but kind of funny when we played some innocent pranks on them. They were too drunk to figure out what was happening, maybe in the future we will tell them what happened? Ha ha I doubt it, pretty funny. 

The food was so good, I ordered Salmon:

Zack got steak so he was pretty happy about that. Everything was portioned just right so you didn't feel like you were eating a lot of food, which is good. I loved the Salmon it was so delicious. If you need a really fancy place for date night make sure and eat at Christopher's in Salt Lake City, its good food and a fun environment but really pricey. 

I love our little Christmas tree. Its so beautiful and fits just perfect in our living room. Although the ornaments are a little scattered (I am not a perfectionist when it comes to decorating the tree) it looks great and as a bit of a Holladay touch that you can only get with our family. I love seeing all the presents wrapped up under the tree as well, although our Christmas is small this year its fun giving gifts to others so most of our presents are for other people. 

And our beautiful stockings all hung up. They match which makes it even better. My mom made our Christmas countdown and I love it. I think I need to change it to two days though... Also don't mind the laundry basket in the kitchen. It's all folded I just need to put it away, which is what I will be doing today. 

I just love this time of year and I am so grateful for this time to hang out with my family. I am especially grateful for the true meaning of Christmas. This time of year I always reflect on the Savior and his birth as a little baby. I think about Joseph and Mary and how much joy they must have had at holding that little baby in their arms. I also think that they had a lot of anxiety and fear, knowing and realizing that they were going to be raising the Son of God. I am grateful that I have a Savior and that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am especially grateful that I get to be with Zack for time and all eternity. I love him so much and I am glad I get to be with him Forever. 

Well have a Merry Christmas everyone.

XO 

Caitlin

Christmas parties and a family tradition

Zack and I have so many parties tomorrow and the next week. It is so fun having our family close by so we can go to all of them. Tomorrow we are hanging out with the Sweets, then we have the Keith party then we have my work Christmas party which is at Christopher's in Salt Lake City. I am really excited for the work party because Christopher's is a five star restaurant and I have heard the food is amazing. I ordered Salmon which I am excited to try, I love Salmon.
I am excited to be celebrating Christmas with my husband. We have some fun traditions we have started between us two that I will post about next week. One of the traditions we have is going to see the lights at thanksgiving point. We met at thanksgiving point so it brings back lots of memories of dating, falling in love and getting engaged. The lights are so pretty and its fun to drive through them with my hubby at my side.
Here are some pictures of the lights they have up:

The lights are really fun so if you are looking for a new family tradition I would definitely recommend going to Thanksgiving point. It's $8.00 per car.
Well until next time. Happy Friday
XO
Caitlin

New Years Eve party ideas and a free printable

I know it isn't quite Christmas yet, but Zack and I are hosting a New Years Eve party this year and I am sending out the invitations Monday. I started browsing the www for ideas on design and saw some really cute cards out there. Since I designed my own I wanted to share my ideas for the party and the cards with you all. Etsy had some really great cards but I didn't want to spend $15.00 when I knew I could just design something similar. Here is the front of the invitation

Standard yet functional and cute, I am loving that gold is such a trendy color right now. We are going to decorate our apartment gold and silver for the party so incorporating these colors into the design of the invitation created an easy theme to play off of. Here is the back of the invitation

I added our address in the blank line and my phone number underneath the RSVP section. I thought the invitations turned out pretty cute and I am excited to mail them off Monday. So if you are a friend of ours and find one in your mail box make sure and come, it should be lots of fun. 

My favorite New Years Eve appetizer is Jalapeno Poppers, they are so yummy (found in the frozen food isle) and easy to cook. I am sure we will be cooking some for the party. I also created some fun new years resolution cards to use that night as well. Everyone can write down one goal and take it home. They are the same size as business cards and fit 10 to a page. 

Here is a close up of what it looks like. The above picture is a littler blurry:

(Get your free resolution cards here)

This printable is only going to be free until my etsy shop opens sometime before January 2014

These will be great to use as conversation starters and as a fun way to get to know someone. Zack is inviting some of his friends from high school and I am inviting some of my friends so not everyone in the room will know each other. We are excited to be hosting the party this year and I will post more ideas later as it comes closer to the party.

For now I have to focus back on Christmas and finish up our Christmas shopping. We are having a pretty low key Christmas but it should still be a lot of fun, we also have a few Christmas parties this week and next so it will be busy. I will post some of our Christmas traditions in the next few days as well, we have a few that we have started between the two of us and a few that we have carried on from our childhood. 

Well have a great rest of your Tuesday

XO

Caitlin