The day after Thanksgiving, I immediately bounced into Christmas mode (seriously, I baked Christmas cookies…which reminds me, anybody know any good Christmas spritz cookie recipes?) We also went to Blowing Rock to check out the cute boutiques and Christmas lights that were going to be put up that night.

During the drive there I was armed with DSLR in hand, determined to get the absolute cutest and spirited “Christmas” pictures. Blowing Rock has a spectacular set-up of Christmas lights especially at the Rotary Gazebo which you can see as a backdrop in the pictures below

My outfit: (Black tights, black heels, and a black dress with a scarf, I’ll link similar outfit details at the bottom of this post!)

Little did I know how difficult it would be to get perfect pictures with only the Christmas lights as a backdrop. We got some great laughs out of horrible focus of the pictures. Not to mention, my boyfriend will never take a “perfect” picture with me and is an absolute dork 24/7 but that’s why I love him!

The shops/boutiques along downtown Blowing Rock 

We stepped into quite a number of adorable shops and boutiques that were displaying amazing Christmas items. Definitely worth taking a look. I highly recommend stopping by Kilwins and getting some peppermint fudge, it is divine!

This particular picture-taking experience really opened up my eyes to what I wanted for my blog.

I want this blog to inspire you to take part in the experiences I am introducing in each post. 

That leaves some pressure on my end to make sure that each experience is richly explained in both wording and with great photography. However, I never want any post to reek of perfection to the point that it doesn’t seem real.