ABC's of Resolutions!

Hello, friends! Happy New Year 2012. I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable New Year's Eve this year and have a list of stories to tell over the coming weeks.  Feel free to share, I love a good story from time to time. 

New Years to me this year meant spending time with people I love and care about, plenty of good food from P.F. Chang's and a night out in my hometown.  Prior to the actual celebration I spent time writing down an A to Z list of goals and resolutions for the coming year.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to do a full A to Z but the time spent thinking on each letter really helped me to reflect on the most important aspects of my life!

This past year had brought so many changes, a new school, new friends, new passions and dreams for life.  It's hard to believe 2011 has come to an end but with 2012 just beginning I can hardly wait to see what is in store.

Wishing you all a happy and amazing New Year

Love,

Kylie @ OhsoMiscellanea

Goodbye 2011

What's better on New Years than recapping the past year and setting goals for the next? I have been keeping up with reading my list of blogs that I follow and realized that many of them have been posting a "year in photos" to sort of show their readers what has happened in the past year.  And I thought to myself, what a great idea!

Last New Years Eve Brendan and I went to dinner at Biaggi's and back to a friends house for a party.

I started OhsoMiscellanea on January 10, 2011 with this post. 

And then Brendan went to London and I returned to HWS for spring semester with the full intention of study abroad for Fall 2011.

 I spent spring break in London and Paris with Brendan

 Came home, finished my semester at HWS and decided in the last two weeks to apply to Rochester, got in, and celebrated with Carolyn & Amanda at a Backstreet Boys Concert!

 The next morning we finished our first official road trip with a drive to Niagara Falls

Brendan took me to his house in the Adirondack's for a weekend

 And my friends and I went to a concert at Darien Lake

 After a second trip to the adirondack's I finished the summer with a Kenny Chesney concert right at CMAC

 and headed to Rochester for my first semester where I met and joined the Ballet Performance Group.

 For fall break Brendan brought all of his Colgate friends and me to the adirondack's and we spent 5 days exploring the wilderness.

 In October I also visited my friends from Hobart

 and ran my second 5k!

 I threw a halloween party with friends from home and school

 and performed in my first dance show

 Then our dance group competed in Alpha Traz

 I ran my first 5 mile race and celebrated my 21st birthday with my best friend Amanda.

 Went to my first college formal, twice

 Ran the "Its a Wonderful Run 5k" with my cousin Rachel

 Saw an Amerk's Game and demanded a picture with the Mascot

 and had a holiday party to catch up with friends from high school (minus carolyn, zzzz).

 Emily and Alyssa came to visit for a Christmas Festival

 and on Christmas my Dad and I had a muscle contest

and I took my annual puppy picture with Greta

and Brendan.

Happy New Year's Eve Everyone :)

Santa pt. 2

This year I realized that I didn't actually ask for anything this Christmas.  It really is hard to believe that I couldn't think of anything that I really wanted or needed.  I often find myself going through the mall saying I want I want I want but then not actually putting forth the bill for all those I wants...Christmas usually consists of opening multiple Jcrew classics and this year the only articles of clothing I received were pajamas and a bathrobe, and I was perfectly happy with that!

I did manage to get quite a few comfy camp socks, kitchen wears (Le Creuset anyone?) along with a book of pictures of me an my dog and a new pocket camera!  Santa did a great job.

Amazing Christmas Cookies with Royal Icing

 Santa made his trip to the back door and delivered gifts, even to my dog!

 My cousin Rachel and Grandma.

Annual puppy picture

After a nice recap of Christmas and a late night 3am phone call with Brendan I managed to get up and make my way to the YMCA today.  As busy as it was it was actually really nice to see old friends from High School.  I stayed for a while doing some abs and free weights and ended the morning with a nice stretch.

Later on I went and hunted through the clearance aisles at TJ Maxx and Michaels to be sadly disappointed with the lack of sale selection.  I did find a nice royal blue dolman sweater though and then ended my evening with a hot cup of tea and some online shopping at Jcrew.com, old faithful!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

It's that time of year again. Christmas time.  It is crazy to think that just about this time last year I didn't even have a blog.  I was thinking about the whole blogging world last night as I waited for Santa to make his way to my back door (I don't have a fireplace so he comes to the back)...For a while I was thinking that maybe I would stop since not that many people were reading my blog on a day to day basis but then I realized that I don't only write for my readers, but for myself.  It is a sort of journal and ritualistic release of thoughts and a way to reflect on all the exciting achievements and events in my life.

The exciting event today would of course be Christmas!

Last night we went to Christmas Eve Mass with my grandparents.  They handed out these photocopied "programs" this year with the entire service highlighted and bolded the words that the parishioners were supposed to recite, so modernized for us that only frequent it twice a year.  

We returned home for Surf & Turf accompanied with twice baked potatoes, green beans, a cheese platter and some red wine to sip.  The lobster was Nicaraguan lobster and I demanded my mother make some filet mignon since I am absolutely positively prime ribs biggest opposition.

The evening ended with a viewing of a Nat Geo's special on the Holocaust, family videos and then I made myself stay up all alone for Home Alone 2.  What a Christmas!  My grandma made her famous Cream Puffs, my favorite dessert from her recipe book.  I will try to get the recipe/ try them myself at some point.

This morning I was awoken by my beautiful dog and a mimosa with Challah French Toast, oh and of course some amazing candied bacon.  It is a bit ironic that we paired jewish Challah bread with bacon so I apologize to all my jewish friends.

Of course Santa came while I was fast asleep and brought wonderful gifts for all.  He brought us a U of R blanket, chocolates and movies.  He brought me a new compact camera (since my big one can be TOO BIG at times) and socks along with other things for running and not.  My dad of course got his workout gift from me! Have to keep the family fit!

Nobody can mess with this beast.

We are now off to my Grandma's house and I will be sure to post the rest of the family photos later.

Merry Christmas to all from Kylie @ OhsoMiscellanea

BPG FORMAL!

Juniors :)

Me and Rachel breaking it down

Lovely Juniors Prom Date Pose

More pictures to come potentially but I figured I would keep you entertained with these for now.  I really really should be preparing for my finals today, so at noon I am heading over to trusty Panera and making my way to a booth and really DIGGING into finals studying. Can't wait!  

Santa Race!

This past weekend, Saturday the 10th to be exact, Rachel and I raced in yet another 5k.  This one, It's a Wonderful Run 5k, was situated in the quaint Seneca Falls, NY.  The race was created to commemorate the lovely christmas movie It's A Wonderful Life which was filmed right in Seneca Falls (aka. Bedford Falls). 

We had received numerous emails about the growing size of the race and stressing points that we needed to get there hours in advance to pick up our race packets.  This wasn't the case and it was actually quite enjoyable.  We saw bagpipers and hundreds of people decked in their holiday attire for racing.  I went with my classic red and white stripped union suit and Rachel sported a snowman turtleneck!

Race Recap:

I placed 16th in the 19-24 group out of 73 women in the same grouping!

My mile time: 8:56/m and I finished in 27:42.  A bit later than expected but with a crowd nearing 2000 I have to take what I can.

The race itself wove throughout Seneca Falls in and around historic buildings and the local high school.  We passed carolers, bag pipes, houses with bonfires and children ringing bells.  The one downside was that there was no mile 2 marker so I never knew when I could really put EVERYTHING into it.  Before I knew it we were nearing the 100 meter mark, a downward end which could be potentially devastating with the crowd but we managed to make it through!

Tomorrow starts half -marathon training.  Yes, for real this time...I promise! I hope you will follow me in my journey to the Flower City Half Marathon on April 30th!

Park Ave Holiday Festival

Last night my two lovely friends from William Smith, Emily & Alyssa, came to visit.  Emily had been begging to see me and I thought the perfect time would be during the Park Ave Holiday Festival.  I had never been to the festival before and figured that going with them could be a great time.

The festival itself was quite interesting and rather crowded.  I should have known this since the summer Park Ave Fest is insanely busy but yet again I forgot to plan ahead.  So unlike me.  It took forever to find a parking spot and get reservations but once we did it was great!  I took them through ParkLeigh to look at the holiday gifts and we stopped for free Hot Chocolate outside a cute cafe.  

Dinner was at Magnolias Cafe.  We indulged in soup, salad and sandwiches.  The soup I ordered, Tomato with Artichokes and Crostini Bread was quite tasty for a cold evening.  My sandwich, The Rising Sunflower was piled high with turkey, pesto mayonnaise, roasted red peppers and havarti cheese along with the usual tomato lettuce and onion.  Toasty and warm. It most definitely hit the spot.

We later stopped at Stever's Candy Shoppe, a homemade chocolate shop on Park Ave.  The stop was a must since the last time they visited it was closed.  While I literally wanted everything in the store I chose three items.  Cinnamon dusted chocolate, a peanut butter filled santa (as a gift) and a dark chocolate gingerbread boy (gift).  I immediately dove into the dusted chocolate which was just as delectable as it sounds.  I HIGHLY suggest stopping by if you're ever in the area.

Inside Stever's Candy Shop! Insanely busy with a huge line but so worth it!

Dinner at Magnolias

Outside Stever's prior to meeting some very talkative interesting ladies!

Thanksgiving Post Pt.2

The fun post! If you are just tuning in, please refer to the previous post for the recipes of my contributions for Thanksgiving.

I figured I would keep this short and sweet and post a few pictures from my Thanksgiving day adventures. Sound okay? Good.

I absolutely love my babe, without a doubt, addicted to this ball of fluff.

I started using my tripod for my camera and it has made a HUGE difference.  If you have an SLR, get one. It makes all the difference. 

My mom has thing obsessive problem with thanksgiving day leftovers so she roasted a turkey of her own.  Thank god since the turkey for our thanksgiving really didn't taste up to par this year. It was actually quite dry.

Check this out. My Mom over zapped the jelly for my tart and created some hardened sugary sweet nasty mess.  Not funny Mom!

Bellis Family 2011

Brendan and Me!

Great Thanksgiving with my cousin Rachel, her boyfriend Charlie, Brendan and me.

We really tried to keep our portions small so we had room for two thanksgivings but it was way more difficult than we ever anticipated. Fullest day of my life.