No holiday party is complete without delicious bites to eat. In anticipation of the season, my Facebook feed has been filled with videos of festive punches and appetizers. One particular appetizer featuring brie has appeared time and time again. Delicious as it is, why should brie get all the cheese love? If you're a cheeseaholic like me, take a good look at the cheese section of your local grocer and get creative! One cheesy appetizer is never enough.

My local Harris Teeter is full of Stella chesses. They are easy to use and have an Italian history of traditional cheesemaking almost as rich as it's flavors. I grabbed some organic shredded parmesean and explored pairings to find the best gourmet bite.


I love how it tastes in these puff pastry bites combined with the sweetness of pear and hint of cinnamon. It's easy to make, easy to eat, and looks super fancy. They're the perfect addition to your party hors d'oeuvre lineup!

Because of my style pass and need for more cooler-weather pieces, I've increased the frequency of my Stitch Fix shipments recently. For my 11th fix, I opted not to request anything of my stylist. It's weird, but I've noticed the fixes seem to be a better fit when I don't ask for anything specific. I was also given a different stylist from the last fix, so it's always interesting to see a new person's take on what I might like. 

If you're new to this blog or to Stitch Fix, it's a handy styling service where a stylist picks 5 items for you based on preferences you've noted in a style quiz. You try them on at home, keeping what you love and sending back what you don't. a $20 styling fee gets this started, and it's applied to any items you keep (or you can use my referral link for $25 off your first fix meaning your fee is waived and you get another $5 towards whatever you like!).

Here's what was chosen for me this time (I checked out before I remembered to grab all the prices, but pretty much everything was in my preferred range this time):

Papermoon | Arin Button Front Top

The cardigan is comfortable and a nice olive green. Styling it with the other items from my fix here didn't do it justice.I would have liked a little more coverage in the front, but otherwise have no complaints about this. It just didn't wow me enough to keep it. Returned.

This one had me scratching my head. The sheath style, the loud print, nothing about this says "me". The photo doesn't look so bad, but I see a stranger. It was an odd choice and far out of my comfort zone. Returned.

Violet & Red | Vail Suede Flat

Yes! I asked for shoes my last two fixes and got zilch, so these were a nice surprise. While I suspect I will never get some cute booties in a Fix, I was thrilled to see some flats. These were adorable and comfortable. I exchanged them for a size up (exchanging is a super easy process) which means I kept these!

Like shoes, I also asked for work-appropriate pants the past few fixes. I gave up and these showed up this fix. Navy is my jam but corduroy is not (and the waistline was a little low). Returned.

Overall, I'm happy that this new stylist took the time to pay attention to things I had previously requested. The shirt, shoes, and cardigan were all my style even though I only kept one of the items. While the other two items were out there, I can appreciate a stylist that makes bolder choices - some of my favorite items in my first fixes were ones I didn't think I'd like. I asked that this stylist stick around for my next fix, so stay tuned!

Get $25 off your first Stitch Fix box!

If you missed it, I decided to get more adventurous in my game of fashion subscription roulette, so I signed up for Dia & Co., a subscription specifically for us curvier ladies. Thanks to a promotion combined with the use of Ebates, not only did I try my first box for free, I was paid $10! Not bad.

Get your first Dia box!

You can read about my first Dia box here, or TL;DR: I sent everything back.

Of course, the point of subscriptions is they are supposed to improve based on your feedback, so I filled out all my likes and dislikes and awaited the second shipment (which I did, in fact pay the $20 styling fee for). Here's what they chose for me:

Molly & Isladora Candy Stripe Cardigan, $65

Cameo Stephy Mix Blouse, $65

This is the most perplexing accessory I've ever received in a subscription box. The stone is "real": it's heavy, it's nice, it's not plastic. The metal setting and chain, however, looked and felt like something out of a gumball machine. Usually accessories are one or the other. It was odd to have one that was both. Returned.

Here we go again with the sleeves. WHY!? I shared this on insta live and a lot of people seemed to love it, but Sean said I looked like I was going to go perform at a rodeo, so....returned. Also, the fabric was an icky poly-ish blend.

Thoughts