-DIY: You + Me

In an earlier post, I talked about my crafting fever and all my Hobby Lobby steals! Today, I'm showing you all a little bit of what I've done so far and what I plan to do to finish it.

This is what I started with. I found these puzzle pieces at Hobby Lobby for $4.99, quite a steal considering there were two of them in each package. Each piece is designed to fit perfectly with the other piece in the package, making the perfect addition to my (link: Christmas Basket) for B.

My first large decision on these was what to do with them color wise. I had a few idea floating around in my head. Whether to make them blue, his favorite, or do some sort of pattern.

Ultimately, I decided on painting each puzzle piece solid black.

This gave me the ability to take these puzzle pieces on step further and add some personalization on each individual piece!

I decided to make the theme of these pieces, You + Me. How creative, right? I decided that instead of doing a typical you + me theme, I would instead doodle different things that represent us onto each piece.

This is the puzzle piece that represents him:

Mine's a work in progress!

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to tie them both together, I'm thinking about a common word/ doodle across the place where they fit together.

Who knows.

Has anyone else attempted a puzzle piece creation before? If so, how did it turn out?!

-Confessions

I'll be the first to admit that I'm horrible at keeping up with this blog! It's not for lack of caring, I promise. It's just...

I'm a procrastinator.

Okay, it's out! I'm a procrastinator and I'm (almost) proud. You see, usually, I am fantastic about waiting until the last minute and still getting stuff done: i.e. school, work, presents, birthdays, going somewhere, etc. Although I'm notoriously late to everything, I do work and I do it well. 

But this, well this is a whole other battle. 

I'm not sure why it's so hard for me to plan out my writing, but I just can't. Hard as I try, I prefer to write on the fly posts versus q' them and have them set out weeks in advance.

I'd rather tell you on the dime what my life is like, than pretend like it's organized and perfect every.single.second.

Because, guys, my life is not perfect. I'm insanely busy. I know, I know, we all are. But I have horrible time management skills because I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. I'd rather leave somewhere late and get somewhere late than leave something half-done. 

It's a little bit of a problem.

So, on that note, I have to run and finish a speech before class!

Anyone else out there a recovering procrastinator? (;

-Penguins and Tupperware

Guys. I have a problem and I'm ready to admit it.

I.Love.Penguins. When I say that, I don't mean: " Oh, they're cute to look at" I mean if anything, anything, I see in a store has a penguin on it, it's immediately on my must purchase list.

As I talked about here and here as soon as Christmas hits, I have crafting fever. Honestly, it might be more accurate to call it the crafting plague, because nothing exists until I've had my fill of it. 

Needless to say, when I was in Wal-Mart the other night wandering aimlessly through aisles and aisles of Christmas heaven, I happened upon these beauties:

 

I was in love! Immediately I began thinking of all the different and delicious treats I could stuff into these containers. Including, Buckeyes, Reindeer Cookies, Chocolate Covered Gold Pretzels and Peppermint Truffles! 

Although I have to wait a bit before I can start on those projects (I don't plan on giving out these gifts until closer to Christmas) I have started several DIY crafts in the meantime for B and for my family! 

**all photos picture are personal unless otherwise stated!**

-James Bond and Christmas

As I'm sure I've talked about before, in addition to Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones, B is obsessed with James Bond.

Image via: www.google.com

After much debate, I finally just decided that he needed this now. So, although it is part of his christmas present, it's already in his possession! I know, I know, I'm a sucker. 

In all seriousness, he's been debating purchasing this set since it came out about two months ago,which meant I'd either have to convince him to not purchase it ( a dead giveaway) or come up with another idea. After much, much debate I decided the easiest way for both of us was to start Christmas a little early and let him have it.

To say he loved it would be an understatement. I'm pretty sure he sleeps with it under his pillow. (Only joking....maybe). 

However, after this change in plans, I've now added some DIY crafts to give when we actually do a gift exchange. 

As I've briefly(or not so briefly) mentioned in other posts, our birthdays happen to fall within a month of each other. For his birthday this year, I had made a Jurassic Park Card:

While I am obviously NOT a supremely talented artist, I'd like to think I did fairly well on the front! The T-Rex was more or less just for fun (; 

Part of a tradition I've had for a long time is hand-making cards for people. I love knowing that each card they get will be unique to them. For me, it's always been a way to show someone how much they mean to me. So it's not secret that his Christmas card will be made, not bought. 

Has anyone else started Christmas shopping early? Have you had to change your original plans?

**all photos in this post are personal unless otherwise stated**

-It's that time of year again...

Crafting season! 

You guys, I am seriously guilty of splurging in Hobby Lobby/Michaels/Jo'ann. Pretty much any craft store that's within reach is not safe from my crafting desires. So when Kat came home from IU and said, let's craft, I jumped on board as quickly as possible.

You see, earlier this week I won the best girlfriend, ever, award by gifting B with his early christmas present: The 50th Anniversary/Complete Collection of James Bond. He was elated, but also proclaimed that I was banned from purchasing any new christmas gifts for him. He said it was simply not fair for me to continue my purchasing when he still has no clue what to get me. Fair enough. I decided that crafting was a great way to have a handful of gifts for him and still play by his rules!

So off we headed to find our crafting needs. We first hit Wal-Mart for some of the simpler items, such as an adorable Penguin Tin I found to put delicious goodies in and some adorable take-out christmas baskets for friends/family.

We even managed to get distracted by cute hats and picture opportunities.

After finding the completely necessary items, we decided to head out to Hobby Lobby to continue our craft hunt. 

You see, Kat had an idea. Over the summer she had bedazzled, yes bedazzled, some felt signage for her cabin. This set off about a million bells in my head for potential gift ideas! 

The downside? You need hundreds of little jewels to complete this project, something that simply cannot be found in Wal-Mart. 

An example of our "craft-hunt" giddiness. 

We eventually found our jewels in Hobby Lobby......after several pitstops in just about every aisle in the building. Have you guys ever felt complete happiness. The term "tears of joy" was SO applicable today when I entered Hobby Lobby. Christmas Heaven. 

Anyways, now we're back and in our own little crafting world! But don't worry, I'll be sharing my first big craft adventure in another post so you guys can see how it's coming along!

For those who enjoy crafting, what are your favorite crafts to make? Does anyone prefer delicious food goodies over crafting?

-Black Friday: and the reasons I am not looking forward to it. 

Oh you guys, it's that time of year again, holiday season. You know what that means? Retail Hell. Quite literally. 

You see, a while back, some crazy person invented this thing called Black Friday. For normal people, this means awesome savings, horrible crowds, and the ability to suffocate in otherwise large spaces. 

For us retailers, it means a slow, painful, smelly death.

What you experience as a heavy rush of adrenaline and deal making awesome, we experience as BO, pissy people, and piss poor responses to finding out a product isn't in stock.

"I'm sorry, that was a door buster and was gone as soon as we opened."

"So let me get this straight, something that is IN YOUR AD is out of stock? well that just seems stupid. I expect some sort of reimbursement for that product otherwise that's just poor customer service."

Like.....what? Really? 

Another personal favorite quote from last year:

"What do you mean you don't price match Black Friday prices? What do you mean you won't order it?"

Again, seriously? 

"So & So has it cheaper. "

'I would encourage you to purchase it there then, because we cannot price match BF deals.'

"Well, they don't have it in stock and they can't order it"

'Why can't they order it?'

"It's a BF deal."

OBVIOUSLY. or else you wouldn't be here.

Ugh. People.

Honestly. Sheesh. 

-happy thoughts; happy people

Happy Sunday!

Today I'm sharing a few of the things that make me happy and some random things I've seen over the course of the past week!

         

(image via: www.google.com)

Here I am, openly confessing my love, Taylor Swift is perfect. I love her hair. I love her makeup. I love her music. I just love her. Girl crush, no questions asked. 

(image via: www.google.com)

Blurry, but a love like Nancy and Ronald Reagan. How could you NOT admire them and their relationship. So much love. 

(personal image)

STL! We may not have won the World Series this year, but I could not be prouder to be a fan. 

(personal image)

SAY WHAT?! Driving home after work and what do I see, a plane! Well, a car dressed up like a plane. So random and so so so awesome!

-playlist: kittens and winter

This is pretty much my anthem for my car right now. Plus, how can you not love it with that kitten as the cover?!

-It's November


This is a PSA alerting all those who were not aware that it is, in fact, November. For some, this means no shaving. For others, no kissing as a result of the no shaving. I happen to love beards, so B is participating with a big *thumbs up* from me. 



In not so common news, this month is also known as NANO November. For those not familiar with it: National Novel Writing Month. Essentially the challenge is to write a novel of 50,000 words (or more!) in a month. 


So that's my challenge. Along with school, work, and my boyfriend,  I am currently writing bits and pieces of a novel. 


Which, by design, means you all will be the lucky pre-readers of my soon-to-be novel. I can't guarantee that any part of this will be in order, or that I'll write in the order it will officially be posted in. BUT, that's not the point. It's a book! It's an outlet! It's a creative energy!


But most important?


It's fun.

-it's okay: Thursday

For those of you who are new to the blog scene(or at least new to mine!) Thursday's are a time to reflect on things "it's okay" to do, to think, or to be pissed about. Enjoy (:

It's okay.....

 to lose friendships because one person is acting like a four year old. It just is. Regardless of how much is sucks monkey butt right now, I just have to remember that it will all be okay in the end.

to still not know what I want to major in. College is a time of exploration and that's exactly what I'm doing.

that the Dem's won again in this election. It's a headache, sure, but it'll be okay. 

that not everyone appreciates the value of respecting other people's opinions. Namely those people in my speech class who are disrespectful of my political opinion. My values are not your values, and I don't try to pretend like they are.

to be so in love with my boyfriend that nothing else matters. He's the one person who keeps me sane and for that I'm always thankful. 

to be sarcastic. Nobody appreciates sarcasm as they should anymore and frankly, I'm over people acting obnoxious because they don't get it. Not.My.Fault.

Welp! That about wraps it up for this week...I'm sure I've got a few more things I could add to that list, but we'll keep it short and sweet. 

X&A

-birds of a feather

Have you ever had one of those days where everything seems, well, perfect? For the first time in nearly a year it seems as though everything is finally getting back to where it's supposed to be. 


I have an amazing boyfriend and every single day with him I become more profoundly aware of this fact. B is my best friend, which is so important in a relationship. We spend hours talking about everything in our lives, ranging from complaining about work to our future plans. We've even been known to spend entire days just laying in bed watching our favorite t.v. shows or doing our own things(me doing homework and B playing video games). Recently, we've started looking forward to getting our apartment and starting our life together.  I can honestly say that I want to spend the rest of my life with this man and I cannot wait to start our lives together!

"what we have is uncommon and I've never been happier"

As if that isn't reason enough to be happy,

School is finally starting to get back on track and sort itself out! After an awful semester taking classes through Ivy Tech, I've finally decided to attend another University with better credentials and is closer to home. I'm excited to take this leap in continuing my college education and hopefully finally decide on a major. Do you know how frustrating it is to know that you want to go to law school, but not to know what you want to do in the mean time? It's not like money falls from trees and law school is ridiculously expensive, in case you wondered. 


And even more reasons to be happy,

I recently moved up in my position in my job. As I've written here before, I was incredibly frustrated in my job and I was just about ready to move on. As I began the quest for a new job, that involved several fantastic interviews, before luck and the perfect timing combined to give me the opportunity to move into a new position with more responsibility. I'm thankful for this chance to continue growing in a company I love and admire. 



All in all, I guess you could say that despite the onset of dear ol' mister winter so early in the season, things have never been sunnier in Indiana! 


X&A

-30 days of thanks

November is a time for giving thanks, a time for reminding ourselves thoat in the middle of all this crazy holiday scrambling, we all have things to be thankful for!


So, I'll begin and update this post as each new day comes:


Day 1- I'm thankful for a warm home to come back to every day, there are others not so lucky.
Day 2- I'm thankful for my father. The first man I ever loved and the one man I know will always be there for me! I am a daddy's girl and I love my daddy more than anything.
Day 3- I'm thankful for my mom! Her and I have always had a combative relationship, but as I get older I realize we're more alike than I'd like to admit. Love you momma!
Day 4- I'm thankful for my brothers. They're silly,crazy, and stupid. But they're mine, and I love them.
Day 5- I'm thankful for my crazy, wonderful, super awesome boyfriend. He's the love of my life and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him!
Day 6- I'm thankful for my right to vote! There is nothing better than exercising my right as an American that allows me to remain free!
Day 7- I'm thankful for my job and the ability to work. I may dislike the long hours, but it's worth it in the end.
Day 8- I'm thankful for my grandparents. After recent events, I'm realizing more and more how lucky I am to have my grandparents and my great grandma by my side. They're always there for me and for that, I am thankful.
Day 9- I'm thankful for my cousins. Being one of two girls in the family(at least out of the cousins) has always been challenging, but the boys have always made it clear that they're always on our side. This knowledge is reassuring and comforting. I love you all. 
Day 10- As always, I am thankful to be a child of The Lord. For those who know me, I'm very internalized about my faith, but it's there and it's stronger than ever. I put ALL my trust in the hands of The Lord about eight months ago now and I have never been happier. Always there. Always faithful.
Day 11- I'm thankful for my pups. While other girls my age are married, having kids, or both, I'm content to have my puppies as my babies. I love them and their unrelenting love and adoration. 
Day 12- I'm thankful for my best friends. More and more I'm realizing just how lucky I am to have found my best friends at such a young age. Many people go their whole lives without knowing the kind of friendship I found at age 6. 
Day 13- I'm thankful for coffee. Days that test my patience can always be made better with a cup of holiday cheer! 
Day 14- I'm thankful for the lasting friendship and support I've found through work. I couldn't ask for a more supporting, loving group of people to be around every day. 
Day 15- I'm thankful for the opportunity to continue my education in a place that best suits me. I'm blessed by the chance to attend a university that is so focused on the students.
Day 16- I'm thankful for music! So many individuals will never know the pure joy playing, listening, and writing music can send throughout your being. I encourage everyone to take the time to immerse themselves in this wonderful art.
Day 17- I'm thankful for my ability to write. I would not be the person I am without this outlet and I'm thankful God blessed me with the ability to portray my feelings through words. 
Day 18- I'm thankful f

-new blog design, y'all ! 


I'm not southern, I just like to say y'all sometimes, okay?

I'm going to simply hang my head in shame because I've kind of fallen off the blog market for a little bit due to a few different factors: school, work, and life. Life being the most prominent reason for my lack of posting. However, I'm going to try and be more diligent about posting and make sure I make this a priority of mine! 


On a different note, I can hardly believe it's already November.

-friendships




And what to do when they end.


It's always a sad day when a friendship ends, but what about one that's hardly begun? At the beginning of the summer I met the love of my life, who consequently introduced me to some of his best friends. His best friend and his fiancé quickly became our "go-to" couple. We went to movies, dinner, shopping, etc. Needless to say, we all developed a quick group bond, that also spread into individual friendships. The fiancé, we'll just call her M, and I bonded considerably in a short amount of time.


This is where it gets tricky.


You see, M & I got along great. (and when I say great, I mean instant bffs) We had a ton of stuff in common, loved all the same shows, fan-girled over the same men from the same movies. It was a match made in "making our SO's life miserable" heaven. We even found a common love of photoshoots!


However, all good things must come to an end.

For whatever reason, M took to the idea that I was sending out "bad vibes" towards her or her SO. Obviously, this is not true for many reasons, the main of which being: I adore them both! I don't waste my time pretending to like people if I don't, call me crazy, but I have better things to do.

Needless to say, this has taken quite a toll on me emotionally, as I hold extreme value in my friends. Not only that, but it's also affecting B & I. (don't worry! We're still just as happy and in love as we were the day we met) But, this trial has definitely resulted in some tearful/emotional conversations, mostly from me, about how I/we feel.


So, for those of you who have lost a new found friend, how did you deal with the drama?

Or better yet, how do you not let it get to you?!

-new obsessions

Revenge & Once Upon a Time!

Now, I'm not one who typically latches to television shows as obsessively as I have with these two shows. For whatever reason I am completed enthralled with Revenge and Once Upon a Time. By far, these two shows are so fantastically written and completely different from anything else on television right now.

Once Upon a Time takes the old storybook characters and develops them into new lights in this fantastic show. It follows the main character Emma, as she gets sucked into the lives of ten year old Henry and his crazy mother. The show jumps between fairy tale story and real time to create a suspenseful yet entrancing show. 

Revenge, on the other hand, is the complete opposite type of show. It follows main character Emily as she seeks, yes you guessed it, revenge for wrongdoings against her family. Although that sounds like every television drama, this is show takes it to a new level by creating a character everyone loves to hate. The show quite literally "kills"! ( pun intended-lol) 

Other than marathoning these two shows, I'm still watching Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries on repeat, anxiously waiting season 6 and season 4 respectively. 

Keep posted for more posts from me this week, finally came across some free time and some food for thoughts!

-the $50 lesson

I'm normally not one to post specific affiliations, but this was too hilarious to pass up .

-update2.0: i suck

guys!!! I totally realize that it's been forever since my last post, which was just an update and not even a real post! I'm SO sorry for the lack of attention y'all have been receiving, it has been so crazy busy on my end that i haven't even had time to do the things I'm supposed to be doing, much less something I enjoy!


Hopefully by the end of this week I'll be back on track and have some posts q'd up for you to enjoy.


xoxo!

-update!

Hello again! I'm sorry I've been MIA for the past week, vacation was a blast and it was a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of my everyday life.


Our vacation started off not so pleasantly on Thursday afternoon when my mom came home to find out that for whatever reason, water was not flowing into our house. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, our house was double struck in the same weekend, lightning on a Saturday and a tree falling on it on Sunday. Needless to say, the combination of those two things have had lasting effects on our home, including but not limited to, the broken water softener led to the broken valve that led to having to replace a few pipes because water would no longer flow through them.

Unfortunately for us, none of that was discovered until this past Tuesday. Thursday we bailed ship and decided that because there was no forseeable end to our water issue, we might as well go on vacation as planned!

We arrived at the lake around 1am EST which is midnight CST! The next morning we hit the lake early, when I say early I'm talking 7am, for some skiing and wake-boarding before the other boats hit the lake. Although it was freezing in comparison to when we went in July, it was amazing to be out on the water and get some more ski time in. Lucky for us, Hurricane Issac gave us a break and skipped that part of the Tennessee valley and blessed us with sunshine.

The next three days were spent skiing, wake-boarding, and swimming in the sunshine. Sunday night was a bit of a rain storm, but after a few days of sunshine, who could complain?!

Monday we explored Mammoth Cave for a bit before heading back home. I was SO excited to be back and more importantly, to be back with my love.


Here are a few outtakes from the trip, what happens when I try to convince my brothers to partake in pictures.

" I can't wait until I never have to wake up without you again."


i love you, B. 

-Vayyyy-Cayyyyy


But really, y'all, I'm going on a vacation. It's much needed and I will be completely enjoying it the entire time!



Unfortunately, I haven't had time to have some blogs on the get go, so you'll be without me for a few days! 


I promise to update as soon as I get home 


xoxo

-the wonderful world of 20th birthdays and a new iPhone 

 

As I posted earlier this weekend, Sunday was my 20th birthday! It's pretty much a fact that to me, birthday's are a HUGE deal to me, and when I say huge deal, I mean tears could be shed if something goes wrong. And it's not even my birthday, it's everyones. I love planning things for people and making sure they have the best day ever. 


Anyways, normally my birthday seems to slip through the cracks. I've never really had anyone, aside from my two best friends, make a huge deal out of it. So when B decided to take it upon himself to try and make it great, I wasn't complaining!

Needless to say, it was a fantastic day, starting at midnight and ending at midnight. B and I rang in my birthday the same way we love to spend our days, laying in bed watching movies and talking about whatever comes into our heads. Midnight hit and he proceeded to serenade me with Happy Birthday. SO cute. 

Unfortunately, B had to work at 7am so our "late night" ended when we fell asleep shortly after midnight. I had lunch with my parents later during the day while I was waiting for him to get off work and after hours of waiting and waiting, he finally finished work and we were able to go enjoy a dinner at my favorite restaurant, Olive Garden! 

To put it in B's words " we feasted like the King and Queen we are!" We even managed to save a little room for cake and ice cream afterwards!! 

Of course after all that food, we were both exhausted. Our remedy? The Hunger Games and the Newsroom and sleep. 


I promise, we're only in our twenties! (I'm 20 and he's 22, turning 23 on September 18th!) 


To sum up the day, it was amazing and perfect, just like him. 

reason number 123492091248 why I love you, B. 

-guess who's a proud owner of an iPhone!!!!

This girl!!!!! Needless to say, this work of art has quickly become my baby. I'm already completely in love with it and am completely enthralled by all of the cool stuff you can do!


Oh, and you can play Jurassic Park Builder on it. Favorite app? I think so (:

-Social Sunday v.1

This is my first week participating in Social Sunday and the questions are all about the Internet! How fitting (; Also, check out the two amazing blogs who started this whole thing!  

1. What is the first website you log on to each day?

I actually have perpetual tabs open on my computer so I never really open one, but right now it's Amazon Instant Video, Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter. 

2. Give us some funny websites you visit that we need to know about

My boyfriend got me hooked on this one and I've always been a large fan of stumbleupon. 

3. Pinterest or Facebook? Why?

Both! I use them both for different reasons. obviously, seeing as one is a social network and one is a picture blog. But if I had to pick one, Facebook! All of my friends are gone across the country for school and it helps me keep in touch with them. 

4. Twitter or Instagram? Why?

Twitter. I don't have a cool enough phone to use Instagram ):

5. Favorite youtube video...post it!

Mishka, self explanatory. 

I also found this one on Pinterest the other day....SO cute!!!!

6. Biggest online pet peeve?

When people start online wars with people they don't know. We're not in high school anymore, kiddos. (Even if you are, online is not the place to call someone out for the things they do).