Verstile Blogger Award

That's right! I won my first award! Jenn from Passenger Seat Perspectives passed it along to me, which just about made my day. Thanks so much Jenn!

With this award I'm supposed to nominate 15 bloggers. That's like a third of my followers, so I'm gonna take a hint from Jenn and only nominate five:

Alexis from Alexis Laughs.

Amy from One Artsy Mama.

Cait Emma from Linen and Leaves.

Hollie from Hollie Takes Notes.

Mae from Two Hoots and a Holler.

And now I get to write seven random things about myself:

1. I redesign my blog about 8 times a month. I'm never ever satisfied.

2. I have a fake tooth.

3. I still have a secret obsession with the Twilight series. I was doing fine until about 2 days ago when I watched Breaking Dawn.

4. Jodi Picoult and Nicholas Sparks are my very favorite authors.

5. I get nose bleeds all the time. My record is 4 in 36 hours. Ick!

6. I'm saving up to hopefully go on a cruise in September.

7. I think adoption is the best thing a person can ever do. I only hope to be that lucky one day!

So there you have it bloggers! If I tagged you, go ahead and do the same!

Remember that today is the very last day to follow me for a free gift! I have something very special in store for my new followers in March though. Stay tuned!

Tickle Me Tuesdays

It's been a few weeks since I've gotten to link up with Sarah for Tickle Me Tuesdays. So excited to be back!

If you'd like to participate (and you know you do!!), here are the rules:

1. Write a short post with anywhere from one to five items that have been tickling your fancy recently. Please include pictures and links :)

2. Make sure to link back to the party in your blog post (you can grab the button or include a text link)

3. Come back here and link up your blog post!

4. Visit some other links and HAVE FUN!

1. My favorite pillow! I'll be attempting this soon.

2. Date night ideas! Totally want to try this!

3. Almost every time I get on Pinterest, I'm reminded of how much I wish I could pick up crocheting again. Does anyone have any good links for me?

Come link up with us!

PS Remember that tomorrow is the last day to follow for a free gift! I have 11 gifts so far and I'd love to make a few more!

Happy Monday!

I feel like this is something I should post every Monday. The weekends are definitely just for Pinterest. Sorry that I neglect all your beautiful blogs over the weekend!

Speaking of Monday, people are still doing Music Monday, right?

Well my favorite band just released their newest album this past Tuesday. Enjoy!

PS Remember that until the 29th I am giving all my new followers a new gift, so follow before then!

Etsy: More Like Stresstsy

Yeah, I really just went that cheesy with the title, but we'll be okay!

My shop is still very much in progress, and after this crazy week, I don't even know if I'll have the reopening I was planning.

On Valentine's Day, an order came in for an item I hadn't made in awhile for Amanda. Apparently, Etsy doesn't contact you when orders are made. So I didn't see the order until 2 days later. Stressful enough as it is, that's just the first problem.

Amanda tells me that I can be as creative as I want on the order and that she's really easy to please. I go to WalMart for my supplies and they're all out. I have to go the more expensive route and end up losing money. Problem 2.

This is the product that I came up with. I was really excited that it turned out so cute and I absolutely loved it! So much so, that I wanted to keep it for myself! I didn't mind losing the few extra dollars for it to end up so fun.

Believe it or not, it's incredibly hard to find a box that holds such a large frame. This process included another trip to WalMart and 2 trips to the post office. Problem 3.

I end up finding a box, and go to the Post Office for shipping. On President's Day. After already confirming shipment. I felt awful that I lied to my customer and had to send it yet another day later.

I wake up bright and early on Fat Tuesday (so many holidays in such a short amount of time!) and rush to the Post Office. I try my hardest to fit the frame in the box and it barely fits in right along the sides. Therefore leaving no room for bubble wrap. Problem 4.

Also, at the post office, in an attempt to just get it out there, I had to pay $13 dollars in shipping! When all Amanda paid me was $13.50 (including shipping). So this is a major loss in profits for me.

At this point I'm so stressed, and I just tell the post office woman to ship it and that I'm just really really done with it. I could tell that she felt bad for me, which just made me a little more stressed out.

It's off on probably a 14 or 15 hour drive. But I suppose they fly these types of items. I don't know how it works. I just know that somewhere in the process, the glass ended up breaking. Problem 5.

In hindsight, I can see what a ridiculously dumb idea it was to not to somehow find a way to add bubble wrap. But do you ever get to those points of stress where if just one more thing happens, you're going to break down in tears? That's where I was at in the post office, and in all honesty, I was just ready to get it out of my sight.

Thankfully Amanda was a really sweet customer. Yes, she was disappointed, but she didn't yell or anything. I was so happy with her business, even if I failed majorly. She sent me this picture:

And that is when my heart just broke. I, of course, issued her the full refund, and ended up losing myself about $30. Problem 6.

Needless to say, this is an item that will never ever be sold again on my shop, if it ever reopens after this experience. Thanks for listening to my rant. Anyone else have an awful Etsy experience they'd like to cheer me up with?

PS. Remember that until the 29th I am giving all of my new followers a free gift (without glass) so follow before then!

Why I Hate the Dentist

Mary recently posted on going to the dentist and why she hates it so much. So of course, I had to comment and tell her why I hated them too. I realized how long my comment was going and decided it had to be made into a blog post. So without further ado, Why I Hate the Dentist:

Growing up, we had the coolest house. More like backyard. It had a ginormous pool, a huge barbeque pit, and a parking lot. No lie. Maybe the parking lot was only big enough for 3 or 4 cars, but it was the coolest thing to a kid.

So with having such an awesome backyard, we were known to throw some pretty awesome parties. Children parties of course. We have SO many videos of us at birthday parties, sleepovers, the works.

Anyways one night I had one of my "annual" (like 2 years in a row, I had just learned the word annual in school) winter sleepovers. I had crafts planned out such as making our own pizzas (a party favorite), making individual gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, and yes, pin the nose on the snowman. I was kind of a dorky kid.

As we're waiting for the last girl to get there, the other girls and I went into my room to wait. We found an old perfume bottle and were messing around, squirting each other, and just being 8 year olds. I absolutely hated the smell of this perfume and refused to have it sprayed on me. This led to me avoiding it the entire night, which also led to all the girls throwing it at me!

Can you guess where this story is going? One girl threw it directly at my mouth and chipped off a huge piece of my tooth! My parents immediately rushed me to the emergency dentist (do those things exist?) where I had to spend most of the night. I kept getting calls from my friends telling me how much fun they were having while I was stuck sitting in an uncomfortable dentist's chair watching reruns of Rugrats. I also had calls from my mom who stayed home asking to hear me talk in my novocaine-numbed mouth just to make fun of me. I have no idea how long I was really there but it felt like hours!

When I was finally ready to go home, it was pretty late and we had to go to sleep almost immediately. It was a pretty sad night all in all, and I now secretly blame all dentists for making me miss my party.

Remember that until the 29th I'm giving all my new followers a free gift! Make sure you follow before then!

My First Giveaway!

Hello followers (and new followers)!

I'm having my very first giveaway being featured at Yes Teacher!

Not only that, but I've decided to take a little lesson from Artsy Anthropology.

Any new followers between February 20-29 will receive a free gift!

Can't wait to hear from you all!

Our First Valentine's Day

Jonathon and I celebrated our first Valentine's Day together this year, and man, was itstressful! We both get off work about 4 and went home to get ready. I had a very specific schedule of when everything was supposed to get done, for him to pick me up at 5:45 for our 6:30 reservation.

Planned Schedule:

4:00-4:15: Wrap Present.

4:15-4:45: Make card and write something romantic.

4:45-5:00: Pick a movie to watch and put it in purse.

5:00-5:40: Get ready.

5:45: Meet my date, a quick gift exchange then head out.

Actual Schedule:

4:00-4:10: Discover part of his present doesn't work and try my butt off to fix it, to no avail.

4:10-4:30: Try on multiple outfits that didn't show off my huge, ugly bruise, didn't require me to wear my ugly baggy dressy pants. Super. Stressful. (I suppose it was my fault for getting off schedule.)

4:20: Jonathon leaves his apartment, for the 15 minute drive to mine.

4:30: Lose my paper cutter and my number one choice of movie. Add a little more stress.

4:30-5:15: Spend forever looking for paper cutter and movie. Add a lot more stress.

5:15-5:45: Give up and straighten my unruly hair. Add a little bit more.

5:45-6:00: Find paper cutter and make card while finding out Jonathon is nowhere near close in Valentine's Day traffic. Add 2 more tons of stress.

6:00-6:05: Cry my heart out a little.

6:05-6:30: Make a Valentine to kick every other Valentine's butt.

6:30(the time of our reservation): Jonathon finally arrives. We exchanged unwrapped presents, and had to refuse a picture from my Mom so we could get on our way! Thankfully the restaurant holds the reservation for 30 minutes and we had no problem getting in.

I must say, after all the stress and craziness of getting there, the restaurant was perfect. It had a gorgeous view over the river, I was with the man I love, and we had a great time. We talked a lot about the future and just had an amazing relaxing time. After the restaurant, we went back to his new apartment (that now has couches!) and ended up watching Lion King 1 1/2. Not super romantic? We know, but I kinda liked it that way.

Was it stressful? Oh yeah. Did I miss my photo ops on our first Valentine's Day? Sadly, yes. Will we be doing something much more low key next year? You bet. But was it absolutely worth it to spend an amazing time with my boy? You know it!

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

I found the recipe here! It was crazy crazy easy, but I had to modify it a little and will definitely change a little bit more the next time around.

I made it according to the recipe this time around (with a store bought crust, shhh). It was amazing and crazy crazy good, but so rich. Here's the awful and crappy photo skills of my phone's camera.

Here's the less rich recipe I'll be trying next time:

1 package of cream cheese

1/2 cup of Nutella (instead of 2/3)

1 package of cool whip

Oreo pie crust

1. Blend the cream cheese and Nutella together. I strongly suggest using a hand mixer. We had to microwave and melt them quite a few times to get it the right consistency.

2. Once completely blended, add the entire container of Cool Whip.

3. Spread evenly into pie crust.

4. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Ways to improve:

Adding chocolate chips or crushed oreos to the recipe

Not adding Cool Whip on top (takes away the Nutella flavor)

Adding chocolate shavings or hazelnuts

Drizzle chocolate syrup on top

Take it away bloggers! Can you think of any other ways it can be improved? I'd love to hear opinions and suggestions for my next go round!

The Story of Us

Our story starts with a wedding. Not just any wedding, my sister, Amanda, and his brother, Jeffrey. This is the first time we met.

As Best Man and Maid of Honor, we talked a few times. A short conversation about walking down the aisle together. An agreement for him to keep a tissue in his pocket for me (which he gave to his mom and made me look like a fool. ;)

On my super emotional day, I could not figure out how to properly link his arm, hence the death grip.

However, through all this, we were both in separate relationships and lived about 12 hours away from each other. Other than the "Wow, they're cute" thoughts, nothing happened on this trip.

Except the most beautiful, God touched marriage of the century (love you, sister!)

This was January 2, 2010 and feels like such a long time ago!

Things happened that year, both of our relationships were not built to last and 364 days later, we met again.

I was vacationing in Ohio with my family for the holidays and it was going how any other vacation could go. Slow, relaxing, a little boring, but fun times with family.

My sister really wanted to be with us for a few days, so she, my new brother in law, and Jonathon hopped in the car and drove 14 hours.

Throughout the first day, Amanda kept dropping hints about how we'd make a cute couple and kept trying to hook us up.

I thought the girl was crazy. Sure, I still found him very attractive, but he still lived 12 hours away. Seeing as my last long distance relationship failed, I didn't want to take that risk. I watched him play video games, we all went ice skating, and just spent a little time getting to know each other.

Yeah, we're dorks.

Then we both went home again and went our separate ways. We didn't talk through most of it, a couple of texts back and forth, not a whole lot. Apparently during all of this time, he had a huge crush on me. I was still in the place where I couldn't see a long distance relationship working, but thought he was mega cute.

So then comes another vacation. (Apparently I take them more often than I realized.) This time I came down to Louisiana to hang out with them all again. He was with us almost the entire time, but we barely talked. I knew he had a crush on me, but I didn't want to lead him on, because, as you can guess, long distance relationships just don't work for me.

I went back home, and was feeling very unhappy with where I was in life. I was bored at my school, I didn't like my job, I was having a tough time getting over my ex. So what did I do?

I moved to Louisiana.

Within the first few weeks of my being there, we had our first date. He took me to see Bridesmaids, which was hilarious. We had the awkward getting to know each other conversations and a really fun time.

On our way home, I was wondering how the night would end. Would he want to kiss me on the first date? I wasn't quite sure. I told myself that if he got out of the car when he dropped me off, then he probably wanted to.

We pull into the driveway and I had an awkward moment of should I get out now, or wait til he wants to get out. In that small moment, he lets me know, "I have to pee." So blunt, and so cute. He comes inside, we talk with my sister for a few minutes, we hug goodbye, then he's on his way home.

Within that week, we went on maybe 2 more dates. We got sushi, and I honestly cannot remember the third date! That Sunday though, May 29, 2011, we went to get Subway. We brought it back home, and he waits until I take the biggest bite out of my sandwich. He blurts out really fast (which he doesn't remember!), "I really like you!" I take a full 30 seconds to finish chewing my food as he patiently waits. I tell him that I like him too, and he asks for our first kiss.

We started off in the regular relationship ways. Going out, staying in cuddling, being regular goofballs, the usual.

The thing is, we were both really hurt in the past. We were really scared for the "I love you's" to come out. I felt it for a long time before I told him. One night, we walked down to our park, and under the stars I blurted it out in the same way he did. It took me a long time to say it, and he actually said it first, but I was so scared to say it. Turns out, it was the best choice of my life.

We've had our rough times since then of course. We wouldn't be a real relationship without them. It's been ups and downs, but mostly ups. He's a nut for sticking by my side this long, but it only makes me love him all the more.

Dancing on train tracks, not a good idea.

Happy Valentine's Day, Jonathon.

I love you to the moon and back.

Boyfriend's New Aparment

This weekend boyfriend got his very own apartment. You know what that means?

Target shopping trips (No, he did not buy this.)

Snuggling on the floor until the new couches come in

Playing Jenga by candlelight

Not having to share Nutella Cheesecake. Don't you worry, that recipe will be up later this week!

And so so so much more! It was a fantastic weekend. :)

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately! I promise I have 6 (now 5) posts planned for this week that'll hopefully make up for it.

Exciting Update

This week has been insanely busy! I've been working on new things for my shop, helping the boyfriend move into his new apartment, actual working, trying to find a roommate, and a whole lot of everything! On that note, I'm so sorry I haven't had a real blog post soon and have been lacking on the comments. I hope you all know how much I love your blogs and being a part of this. I can't wait until everything I have for this week can be posted. I have a new recipe or two for yall, and hopefully I'll be able to post about the new updates to my shop!

So what's the exciting update? I won two giveaways this week! (Here and here.) Seeing how these are my first two giveaways, I'm mega ecstatic! Obviously I'm crazy excited for the Target gift card, but I have no words to describe the excitement of My Memories. I was so sad with Picnik shutting down, and let's face it, my graphics are kinda boring. My blog needs a whole makeover and I'll be able to do it now!

So stay tuned over the next few weeks. It should be amazing!!

Thursday

This is how I feel every Thursday. Sure, the comic isn't very funny, a little on the depressing side, but I just can't stand Thursdays. So ready for the weekend! Do any of you lovely ladies have crazy plans for the weekend?

10 minute later update: I just found out I'm the winner of my very first giveaway, making this Thursday a little more bearable!

Tickle Me Tuesdays

This week my obsession is hoop art. I am determined to learn it as soon as possible. Here are some of my inspirations pushing me along!

12 3

Who knows if this is even close to a possibility for me? I don't even know where to get the hoops or the burlap (if that's even burlap). If anyone has tips for new beginners, let me know!

Intervention!

I have been the exact same weight for as long as I can remember. I'll fluctuate within one or two pounds, but 97% of the time it shows up the same. I have very fast metabolism and eat whatever I want whenever I want. Everyone in my family was the same way, but they kept warning me about when I reach my 20's, it's going to change. Well Grandma, I stepped on the scale tonight for the first time since Christmas, and I've gained 6 pounds to the number I'm used to! This is no mere pound or two. This is kind of a big deal. People say that haven't noticed, but the scale doesn't lie.

It's time for a crazy change. Fast food only once a month, small (but effective) workouts every day, don't eat chocolate every other day, yogurt your heart out, fruit, eat lean pockets instead of hot pockets, small simple changes that will work.

I've given myself a million excuses lately to not do this, from a new jar of nutella, to being hungry at work and being "forced" to eat fast food. No more. Starting Monday (after the SuperBowl of course), it's going to be fruits, veggies, non-fried meats, wheat breads, and yogurt. Think I can do it? Neither do I. But I'm going to give it my all!

What about you bloggers? How do you get the motivation to stay fit? I'm so new to this!

Find Some Love Fest!

In honor of

I have a special Pinterest inspiration for today! Everything Valentine's Day. Sound like the most exciting challenge ever? I certainly thought so! Here goes:

Am I the only one obsessed with vintage valentines? They are just so precious and I would totally use still use this.

Modern valentines are pretty cute too.

I think I originally found this pillow through Caroline's blog, and I'm still so much in love with it.

Doesn't this make you wish you could go back to elementary school?

One day, when my sewing doesn't suck, I'm going to make this. I am in love with baby clothes!

I hope yall enjoyed my special Valentine's Day post. Make sure you check out some other links today.