Resolutions

Happy New Year from the windy city! Well...almost new year. I get to see my best friend tonight, so I'm pretty excited!

Looking back, 2010 has been a pretty good year for husband and I. Here are top 5 favorite things (in no particular order)about 2010.

1. We moved to a new apartment
2. The birth of Raelin Deann 
3. Our trip to St. Louis
4. Tigers vs. White Sox game with the fam
5. I finally feel at home in Chicago

It's been a long time since I've set a new year's resolution. So long, that I don't even remember ever setting one, though I'm sure I probably have. This year is going to be different, I have 2 new year's resolutions. I will stick to them...hopefully.

Resolution #1
Have a quiet time with God everyday. This is something that I've always known I should be doing, but haven't ever done.

Resolution #2
Send birthday cards to family and friends. Who doesn't love to get real mail? I know I do. And I got a new table top letterpress kit for Christmas, so I'm going to need to show off my cards. The hardest part of keeping this resolution will be collecting birth dates and addresses. 

I'm Back

I'm home from a short, but wonderful weekend in Michigan. We had such a great time visiting all of our family and gorging ourselves on delicious treats. 

I'm so thankful for all of the wonderful gifts I received. But one that I am extra excited about is a book I won in a mystery gift game at one our family gatherings (thanks Mal!). What book? SoulPancake by Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office)

Front and back cover of SoulPancake

I've been skimming all morning, it's full of fun creative challenges and tasks that really get you thinking. I plan on bringing you along for the ride by blogging about each challenge I complete. Hopefully by doing so, you'll chew on life's big questions with me!

I'm starting today with :: Pen Pal on the D.L. I have a person in mind, hopefully they'll write back. I can't say more than that, because it's secret.

"A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one"  —Heraclitus of Ephesus

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Jamie & Tim! Like the sweaters? We went to an ugly Christmas sweater party last weekend. SO MUCH FUN! We had a really great time! I should have made cards with this pic and sent them to family and friends,, that would have been funny. Maybe I'll send out new years cards...

I'm so excited to hug my mom and dad tonight! It feels like forever since I've seen them. I'll be signing off for a few days, as we travel all over the mitten to visit family for Christmas.

NICE Assignment: Let's Say Thanks

Another NICE Assignment already? Yes! This one is so easy and nice that it didn't take me until the end of the week to do it (assignments are usually posted on Operation NICE on Monday or Tuesday).

Let's Say Thanks is a campaign sponsored by Xerox. Their mission is to provide people across the country with the opportunity to send a personal message to troops overseas. It's easy, it's free, it's quick and last but not least it's a great way to show your appreciation for our service men and women!

All of the postcards are so cute! They were all drawn my elementary aged children. Tim and I chose to send this one...

After you select your card you can either use one of their pre written messages or write your own. Some of the testimonials from troops who have received at card via this campaign, brought a tear to my eye.

"I just wanted to return the gratitude and appreciation on a personal level  to all the men and women that put together "Let's Say Thanks".  Sometimes it's difficult to get up in the morning and put on the uniform, but receiving things like this reminds us why we serve.  I appreciate those taking the time to send strangers a reminder of not only what we're fighting for, but also who we're fighting for.  THANK YOU!"

An Air Force Senior Sergeant

---------------

"I want to thank Dominic for the solider postcard. It made my day. I have it on my desk to uplift my spirits when I'm feeling down. I even noted that he wrote the card on my son's birthday so it was blessing. "

An Air Force sergeant

 ---------------

"Thank you for thinking of the soldiers so far away. Mail call is the highlight of the day and brings up moral. The picture on the front of the card even has a female soldier with red hair, like it was meant just for me. Thank you again for the prayers and gratitude that is being sent to us over here."

An Army Sergeant

10 minutes of your time can make a stranger's day. Isn't that an awesome feeling?

Generally Speaking

Pumpkyns - Nine West

Seriously, just purchases these about five minutes ago. Can't wait for them to arrive! After slipping, sliding and actually falling on my butt once, Tim and I both agreed I need some suitable winter boots. These fit all the criteria, rubber sole with grip, waterproof, and stylish.

This is way off topic, but I had an epiphany tonight...first here's the background story, so my epiphany will make sense to you.

Generally, anything having to with living "greener," Global Warming (I mean Climate Change) or obesity being a problem our government needs to solve, really annoys me. I never really knew why until tonight. It's not that I'm against taking better care of the Earth, in fact I think we should be good stewards of what God has given us. This was all top of mind tonight as I was cooking dinner, because of something I read on Facebook in response to this video.

And the reasons stuff like that video annoys me, hit me as I flipping the bacon (hahaha)...

• I already don't and never have ate a lot of processed meats. Growing up and even now, because my mom gives it me, I have always ate beef, pork and chicken that was home grown, if not by our family then by someone we know.  In general I feel like I live a pretty "green" life without even trying
• Often times (and maybe I'm being a little sensitive) I feel like farmers are made out to be villains, because they use pesticides or plant genetically modified crops. Just like everyone else in the world, they want their professions to advance and be competitive.
• Personally, what I think the cause of these diseases are more than what we eat, is what we do. Kids are in-active and so are they're parents, they sit in front of the TV or computer and play video games, surf Facebook and watch YouTube videos, instead of being outside, having imaginary friends, playing the sandbox, pretending to be Pocahontas and that the pine tree is Grandmother Willow or racing their bikes as if they were horses...(I may or may not have done all that as a kid ;)

I guess I should conclude with—I am by NO MEANS that educated on this topic, I've read a few articles but that's about it. These are just my personal feelings which probably don't make a whole lotta sense to you. But I had to share because venting to my hubby just wasn't enough..

Our Christmas Tree

So, last year Tim and I didn't have enough room for a big Christmas tree (we lived in a tiny tiny studio apartment) , so we bought a little 15 incher from Urban Outfitters. Even though we have room for a bigger tree this year, we've decided to stick with our little one for one more year.

Wrapping gifts is favorite part of getting ready Christmas. I love planning and coordinating wrapping paper. Weird...maybe. This year I went with white, silver, gold, and accented with this super cool deer tissue paper.

You may have noticed, none of them have tags. That's because, for some reason, I don't really like putting sticker gift tags on the gifts I give. I put sticky notes on the backs of each gift until it's time to pack them up and then I write on the front with marker.

I'm really liking  the arrangement and the combination of wrapping papers and colors this year!

Need a Good Book?

Cold gloomy weather tends to make me want to curl up on the couch with a good book. I'm one of those people who can get lost in a book, it doesn't matter what's going on around me, I can tune it out. My husband can attest to this.

This week I read Little Bee. It's a pretty easy read, I read it in 2 days. But it is so so so so good. One of the best books I've read in awhile.

I don't want to tell you much about the book, because the way the story unfolds is breath taking. I will warn you that it's a little "heavy" and will make you sad, but mostly it's a story of hope. I'll leave ya with the blurb on the back.

"This is a story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again—the story starts there..."

December Love List

And so another month begins...I didn't do very much blogging last month, my November Love List is still on the homepage of my blog. **I must be better this month** So what am I loving this month?

I think it would be lovely if my Christmas tree looked like this

•  Oodles of family time - this year we're packing 5 Christmases into 3 days! 
• Decorating for Christmas, we don't have that many decorations to put up, but I'm really looking forward to it this year. 
• Snow, if it's going to be cold, you might as well have snow and lot's of it
• Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" (listen to it here)
• Wrapping gifts - I'm taking special care with each one this year. 
• Criminal Minds, I stinking love this show. I've been watching it like crazy lately.

We Finally Have a Chair!

 The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we got a special delivery—our new Parlour Tangerine Chair from CB2! It's been on my furniture wish list since the first time I set eyes on it in CB2 about a year ago. Tim wasn't sold on it, and at the time it was a little bit out of our budget, so we kept looking. And I kept coming back to it. Now it's in our living room and I sit in it and drink my coffee every morning.

Thanksgiving for Two

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours didn't go exactly like I was hoping it would (, but it all turned out fine in the end.

Thanksgiving morning, we went and watch the beginning of the McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade here in Chicago. It was really neat to go down and be a part of it, even though we got too cold and ended up not staying for the whole thing. Lesson learned for next year though - wear warmer socks and make a pit stop at Starbucks before hand! It was interesting to watch them get the turkey and other inflatables under the El tracks. Garfield had a little trouble...

After the we left the parade, we went home and Tim napped while I did all the cooking. My very first turkey turned out perfectly golden brown and delish! I used Bobby Flay's Apple-Sage Glazed Grilled Whole Turkey recipe. Except I roasted it in the oven rather than grilling it, and by suggestion of a few of the reviews I did not use 3 cups of apple cider vinegar (general consensus was that it was a type-o and should have been 3/4 cups). We also enjoyed sides of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and stuffing and chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert. Needless to say with a 11.5 lb turkey and two people, there are tons of leftovers!

Table for two

After we lazed around for the remainder of the afternoon, we went and saw Harry Potter! That pretty much made my day.

NICE Assignment: Give Thanks

This week's NICE Assignment, is a pretty obvious one with it being Thanksgiving and all, but I think especially in today's culture it's so easy to take things/people for granted and never express our gratitude.

This Thanksgiving I'm thankful for many many things. 2010 has been an amazing year. But I want to give a special shot out to some special people in my life...

• Tim - Thanks for just being you, I cherish every day that we have together. I'm so blessed to have been able to marry my best friend, the one who makes me laugh, wipes my tears and tells me everything will be alright. Today and always, I'm thankful for the love we share.
• My parents - Two of the most understanding, wise and open hearted people I will ever know. I'm thankful for the childhood you gave me, the lessons you taught me and the continued love and support you show Tim and I.
• My sibs - All three of you, I'm so lucky to have been blessed with not only sisters and a brother but "3 best friends that anyone could have" I'm thankful for the time we spend together and I admire the strength and perseverance you all have in embracing the obstacles in your life. 
• My in-laws - I'm thankful for the man you raised, your welcoming me into your family as a daughter and your continued love and support you show us.
• MKL - I'm so thankful I went to lunch with you that one day in Taggart. Honestly not sure how I would have made through college without you. You're an amazing woman, friend, advisor and designer. Please move to Chicago so we can be together forever and always :) 
• Andi Jo, Raelin and baby -  I'm thankful for laughs, smiles and joys you bring everyone in our family. I love you all so much! Thanks for being there so Nanner doesn't beg me and Uncle Timmy to have a baby. I promise I'll give a little cousin to pick on someday.

Top 25

Welp, I can cross another thing off my 25 Before Twenty-Five list! I officially listened to every song in my iTunes that had a zero play count. I deleted from my "play count zero" list after I had listened to them, so I don't know the exact number, but it was over 600!!

Why so many? Well about 2 years ago + or - a few months, I had to complete reboot my laptop, like a save everything to an external hard drive and then load it all back on kind of reboot. And when I did that my iTunes reset all plays back to zero.

iTunes keeps track of your top 25 plays, so I thought it'd be neat to share what mine were these past two years. I don't really listen to a whole lot of music (I'm more of a TV girl) so my play counts are actually really low. Let me tell you, #1 and #2 have me boggled...I don't remember listening them except for maybe like once or twice.

Let the top 25 count down begin!

25. Womanizer (Britney Spears) 30

24. Can't Fight This Feeling (Finn, Glee Soundtrack) 30

23. How Lucky We Are (Meiko) 32

22. Body Language (Jesse McCartney) 32

21. Magic (Colbie Caillat) 33

20. When I Look At You (Miley Cyrus) 34

19. Blah Blah Blah (Ke$ha) 35

18. The Call (Regina Spektor) 36

17. Replay (Lyaz) 37

16. If I Were a Boy (Beyonce) 37

15. Obsessed (Mariah Carey) 38

14. Cosmic Love (Florence and the Machine) 38

13. Party in the U.S.A. (Miley Cyrus) 40

12. Ego (Beyonce) 40

11. Can I Have This Dance (Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens, HSM) 42

10. Circus (Britney Spears) 45

09. Young Forever (Jay-X feat. Mr. Hudson) 46

08. Johnny & June (Heidi Newfield) 49

07. Jump Then Fall (Taylor Swift) 50

06. Down (Jay Sean feat. Lil' Wayne) 51

05. Good Morning (Chamillionare) 52

04. I'd Rather Be With You (Joshua Radin) 53

03. Today (Joshua Radin) 56

02. Butterfly (Mariah Carey) 57

01. Honey (Mariah Carey) 58

Like I said, I'm so confused how #1 and #2 happened...the rest don't surprise me one bit! I remember being hooked on each one of these songs for various reasons during the past 2 years.

Pinterest

Like a week ago, I put myself on the waiting list for Pinterest. The other day I got my invite, signed up and started pinning! I love it so far. It's a fun way to bookmark some of your favorite images and to collect inspiration. It's beats saving everything to your computer, that's for sure.

Right now I have 9 Boards set up.

• Typography and Design - I'll use this one to log examples of great design/typography/illustration and other design inspiration
• Shoes. Shoes. Shoes. - self explanitory
• Pretty Things - images of pretty things will be pinned here
• Places and Spaces - I'll use this board to keep pics of places and interiors that I like 
• For Our Apartment - Things I'm currently loving/wanting/needing for our home (that chair? yeah we're getting that! more on that later.)
• Pin It Forward - The cool thing about Pinterest you can see waht everyone else is pinning and you can follow people, repin or like their posts or leave a comment. My Pin It Forward will be all repins
• Merry Christmas - self explanitory
• Style - Clothes, bags and accessories that I love, want to buy, will buy, or will can only dream of buying
• If I Could Do It Again - It's no secret, I love weddings. If I could have mine all over this is what would be inspiring me.

When you become a member, you get 5 invites to give out. I've only given one out, that means I have 4 left to give. If you want one let me know, I'd be happy to share.

New Shoes!

I'm so in love with these new shoes! I just had to share.

IACOVONE from Aldo

I bought them to wear to Tim's cousin's wedding. They're going to look super cute with my dress and some black tights!  They're originally $120 but I got them for about $50. I love a good deal!

On a different note...November 13th is World Kindness Day. This week's NICE Assignment is take part in celebrating this little known day! She even has made up some cute little cards you can hand out or leave some where for an unsuspecting person. Or if you're feeling creative, or don't have a printer you can make your own! After Saturday, I'll be sharing what I did to celebrate!

November Love List

We're 9 days into November already, and I haven't shared my November Love List. I've been trying to come up with something new for these monthly posts. I started out just posting one liners of things coming up that month. But from now on, there are no rules. Love Lists will be a combination of events/milestones/material objects/blogs etc. that I'm currently loving.

• I already know what I'm getting my nieces for Christmas! I'm that lame auntie who buys books instead of toys. For niece #1 Scribbles: A Really Giant Drawing and Coloring Book and niece #2 is going to get Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types. 
• I really really really want the Clara Chair from Crate & Barrel - hubby says it's too much moola
• Thanksgiving really isn't that big of deal to me, but I am looking forward to Christmas this year. Which is a little strange for me, as I'm not usually a Christmas person
• I'm loving this extended warmer weather. I didn't even wear a coat today!
• After 2 months I'm finally going to get to see my little cuties

Brittany+Kyle

My mom is hosting a couples shower for my cousin Kyle and his bride to be Brittany. I got to design the invitation! Since designing wedding and other occasional invitations is like me dream job...I was super excited to get to do this. I was going to set up a fancy photo shoot and take pictures of the final product, but I'm too lazy. So you get screen shots instead.

Front of the invite. I LOVE this blue and green together!

The inside. The typeface I used was Gill Sans (if you were wondering)

My mom also came up with the idea to include a recipe card, so that each person invited could share a family recipe. If you're ever planning a bridal/couples shower, this is a fantastic idea! Who wouldn't
want a bunch of good ol' family recipes? I know I wish I had more of them!

Front. Since they're a young couple, I wanted to keep the wording playful

The back has a blank for the giver to fill in whose kitchen it's from

And of course they'll have lot's of thank you's to write. So why not have one that matches?

Hope you enjoyed seeing these. Remember if you or anyone you know needs an invitation (or anything else really) designed...I'm your girl ;)

NICE Assignment x2

No, I haven't been slacking off on completing NICE Assignments, I just haven't blogged about it :) The last two have been pretty simple, and there hasn't been much to say.

1. Vote for Operation NICE in the Amway Positivity Project - I've voted lot's of times, you should too. Both the Positivity Project and Operation NICE are great causes!!

2. Get to the Polls - Duh I did this, I think it's important for everyone to vote. It's your right responsibility as an American.

Short and sweet tonight, since I have tons of stuff to do to get ready for the girl's weekend I'm hosting this weekend!!

Hoo Are You?

Two posts in one night, lucky you! Mama Bear, shared this link party on her blog tonight. I couldn't help but join in the fun! Read below for my answers and the join the party by clicking the owl button at the bottom of this post. I just hope I remember to keep participating.

What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you? This is a tough question...I have no idea. I've been lucky when it comes to physical pain I guess.

What would you name your next child or if you don't have any your first child? No children yet, but hopefully we'll have a girl first because it's the only name was can agree on. We'd name her Stella Rosalie (After our great grandmas)

If you could add one feature to your car, what would you choose? I barely ever drive (I live in Chicago, and only drive when I travel to see family) but one of those rear view cameras would be super sweet! I hate parallel parking.

If you named your house (or car or computer) what would you name it? Our car's name is Granny, the iPod is Betsy and our spider plant is Marvin

What is your dream occupation? I'd love to work at a small design boutique that designs mostly wedding and other occasional invitations. But, it'd also be cool to be a wedding planner...I love weddings!

Architecture Tour & The Former Sears Tower

My in-laws were in town over the weekend. We took an architecture boat tour of the city, which was educational and cool. Now that we've been in Chicago for a little over a year and are now living downtown, sometimes I take the beautiful architecture and the breath taking skylines for granted. Hubby was in charge of the camera during the tour, so we have like 65 pics of buildings now, I'm only going to share a few though.

We also went to the Sky Deck of the Willis Tower (the former Sears Tower). Which means, I get to cross #04 off my 25 Before Twenty-Five list! We went at night, and my camera sucks at taking night photos, so I only have a couple of crappy pics to share, but it's still proof that I've completed #04.

Broken Glass

For being a designer, I'm really not very crafty. We had beautiful blown glass bowl that was a wedding gift, but it got knocked off of the table it was on and it broke :(

I wanted to break it into smaller pieces and glue the pieces to the frames of these little square mirrors I have, but that FAILED miserably! I still wanted to do something with it, because the gift meant/means a lot to us and it's really pretty glass. So instead I put the bits in a jar. It actually goes perfectly with our unity sand and the cardboard 'K' that I still need to glitter!

Currently Lovin'

If I could buy any three things right this instant, I'd be dropping cash on these things...

1. Savannah Story Bust, Giraffe (Anthropologie) I'm in love with this handmade papier mache animal head. It's made of recycled materials to boot. Right now, I'd probably hang it in our living room, but in like 2.5 years, wouldn't it be adorable in a nursery?

2. Slot Coffee Table (CB2) Our living room still isn't complete. We need a coffee table, preferably this one, and we still don't have an arm chair. Don't ask me what's taking us so long to get them...I don't have the answer. I wish I could furnish our whole apartment with CB2. I love everything in that dang store!

3. QuickKutz Letterpress Machine (Paper Source) Um, if this actually works well, it's be sweet to have. Who wouldn't want to be able to make their very own letterpress greeting cards?!

NICE Assignment: Sharing is Caring

This weeks NICE Assignment reminded me how important it is to share. It seems like an obvious thing to do, since you're taught it at an early age. But I think as adults, sometimes we forget that even though we're not playing with toys in the sandbox anymore, there are still things we need to share!

For me, it's the TV. I hog the remote and hog the TV. Pretty much the only time my hubby gets control, is when I'm not home or I'm asleep. Otherwise, I'm either watching it or I'm stopping him from watching it. So, in an effort to share...I tried to give him some more control, of course I couldn't miss Project Runway on Thursday, but I did miss "On the Road with Santino and Austin" just so he could watch something or play his video games. I'm going to play nice and share the TV more often. I think Tim will appreciate it :)

Oh! I finally got my hair cut and colored today!! I love it!!

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My Style | Tall Boots

By no means, do I consider myself a fashionista. More often than not, I stare blankly into my closet wondering what to wear. And then asking Tim a million times, "Do I look alright" "Are you sure? You're not just saying that to shut me up, are you?!"

I think this is partly because, now that I live in Chicago, there is this imaginary pressure in my life to dress more "city". But despite those feelings, occasionally I pull together a cute outfit. And it seems like every blogger out there does a style post. So I've decided to try taking a crack at writing a style post every now and then.

The topic of my first "My Style" post...how I style my tall boots, inspired by Mama Bear's comment on my Boot Scoot and Boogie post. You'll have to forgive my hurried Photoshop techniques and my face. I  was planning on cropping my head out, but it just looked weird...

Look 1: For this first look I paired my new brown boots with skinny black jeans and a menswear inspired button down (I bought mine at Forever 21, but if you and your man are close to the same size, just borrow one of his!). To make it look a little more polished, I added the blazer. Some people don't think you can/should wear black and brown together, personally I like it. They're both neutrals, so they go with anything, even each other!

Look 2: This look, I was most self conscious about wearing, I always feel that way in leggings...I don't know why though. It was really comfy! I cinched the wrap sweater at the waist with a belt, it doesn't really show up in the picture though. This type of outfit is perfect for a warm Fall day.


Look 3: Dress + tights + boots = cute. That's my general rule of thumb. You may not be a fan of my bright pink stripped tights with the blue and black plaid dress. But I think it works, and I'm the one wearing it right?! And just so you all know, the plaid is very very small.

I guess that's about it...let me know what you think of me doing style posts...I don't want to do them if everyone thinks I dress horribly!! Wait...on second thought, maybe I don't want to know if you think that...

Catch-22

I'm one tenth of the way to completing #25 on my 25 Before Twenty-Five list. I read the last few pages of Catch-22 this evening. I had tried to read it a couple times before, but could never get into. But I didn't have any trouble this time. I really enjoyed it!

So what's the catch?

"...hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved."

It's a satirical historical novel, set during the later part of WWII. It's actually pretty funny. It can be a little hard to follow sometimes, but that could have been that I read the majority of it while on the crowded train and bus. The wife of one of the characters moves to Lansing, MI. I thought that was pretty random/cool since I grew up close to Lansing.

Hmm.. which one of the All TIME 100 Novels should I read next?

Rocky Horror Show

Hope everyone had a fun weekend. We sure did! Saturday night some friends came into town and we had a delish dinner at Villians and then went to see the Rocky Horror Show at Stage 773. It was a great performance, and we all had tons of fun. If it's your first time seeing the show, you're a "virgin" and they put a V on your forehead with red lipstick. Here we are after getting our V's

Sunday, hubby and I had a nice relaxing day. I took a 3 hour nap while he watched Da Bears lose. Then we went for a walk in the park to enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having. We of course had to stop and get an annual Bean picture. The we checked out Art Loop in the 37 Block shops.  Sometimes it's fun being touristy in your own city!

Boot Scoot & Boogie!

If you're reading this, you probably read my blog often. So you would know that I've wanting or more like lusting after the Boker Boot from Aldo. Sad news my friends, I will not be getting them. I tried on over the knee boots at DSW the other day, let's just say they don't do anything for me. This makes me a little sad, but I've found a good alternative.

Enter these BDG leather boots from Urban Outfitters. The best thing about them? They're already in my closet! I bought them Thursday night on my way home from work. I wore them to work on Friday and I'm in love.

Glass Half Fuller

Poster via @HOWbrand | check it out on their blog

I love everything about this poster. The illustration style, the type and the nod to optimism and   Buckminster Fuller.

NICE Assignment: I Miss You

For the first time, since I've started doing NICE Assignments, I skipped one! Last week's or maybe it was posted the week before, not sure...I could go look it up, bu I'm not going to. The assignment was to tell a stranger, who was a woman, that she was beautiful. I was way to chicken, and didn't go through with it. I'm a little disappointed in myself.


This week's assignment was to:

"tell someone that you care about (who maybe you can't be with) just how much you miss them. Even though in your head, absence is making your heart grow fonder, that person might assume that since they are out of your sight, they are out of your mind."

I plan on sending a card to go along with this, but I haven't got around to it...I've had kind of a weird week.

I have a friend, Ashley, who has always been like family to me and well my real family. She's my "I miss you" it's no secret that I'm really bad at talking on the phone, I don't really call many people, combine that with Ashely being in medical school in Michigan (I'm in Illinois), you get two friends who don't get to see or hear from each other very often.


Ashley and I have one of those friendships, where it doesn't matter how much time has passed, things just pick right back up where they left off each time we see each other. Well, at least I feel that way. I hope she does too.

Ashley, if you're reading this, I miss you. I know I'm not the best at keeping in touch. I should get better. You're one of the smartest, most beautiful people I know. I'm so blessed to have a friend like you!

Florence and the Machine

If you're not, you should be listening to Florence and the Machine. Love, love, love the entire album!

October Love List

Yep, another month has come and gone. I'm excited for fall, mostly because I'm finally going to buy the boots I've been lusting after, hubs just doesn't know it yet. On to my list of things I'm loving about this month...

• Fall has officially arrived and I'm loving these metallic pumpkins I found on RealSimple.com
• My niece Raelin is being dedicated on the 10th
• Watching the hubs try to be a Bears fan
• Modern Family—funniest show on television. Watch it!
• Soup, especially the hub's chilli
• I'm getting my hair cut and colored this month
• Wearing cardigans 

Lately

Lately I've had a hard time coming up with ideas of what to blog about...writer's block I guess, though I'm calling mine creative block, because I've been lacking creativity in general.

I happy with the progress I've been making on my 25 before twenty-five list. I haven't completed any of them yet, but I'm on the right track

• I had over 600 songs with a 0 play count. Thanks to remembering my headphones when I go to work, I'm now down to 246.
• I started reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, which is on the All Time 100 Novels list. This actually like my 3rd time trying to read it, but you know what they say "third times a charm"
• I've decide that instead of reading the Bible straight through, I'm going to read it in chronological order, and have read the first 8 chapters of Genesis. 

Growing up in a Christian home, I was/am no stranger to the two stories, The Creation and Noah's Ark, told in the first 8 chapters of Genesis. But this was really the first time I've really considered these stories as an adult. A few of my observations.

• Child birth would have still been painful, even if Eve had not eaten the forbidden fruit. Genesis 3:16 God says to Eve, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing" Beyond physical pain, some interpret this pain to mean having to suffer the sorrow of raising your child in a sin filled world.
• My take away verse 4:7 "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
• I have a study Bible, which I love because has little excerpts that answer questions that may come up from the reading. I didn't realize this, but there is debate on how wide spread the flood was (7:19-20) Some believe the whole world was flooded, while others feel there is a stronger case in favor of only a region of the world flooding. Personally, I think only a region of the world was flooded. Here's why...
• The original Hebrew doesn't use the common word for world, instead is uses the word for earth, which can also be translated as land or country.
• The ark landed on Mount Ararat (8:4) which was only a few miles from where it started

Kaiser Update

Some of you may be wondering, "where's that dog she was so excited about? I haven't heard about him in awhile."

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Kaiser will be coming to live with us. A few days after our visit, which went really well and had us really excited about bringing him home, we got an email that said, one of the other foster dogs in the home had unexpectedly died. Test showed that he had died distemper. A very nasty virus, which can lay dormant in dogs for up to three months. Therefore, Kaiser can't be adopted out until they are 100% sure he doesn't have it too. So we're suppose to check-in on him in a few months, if we don't find another dog before then. We know we won't, because we're both smitten with that little pooch.

HELP! I'm Bored with My Hair

Lately, I've been really bored with my hair, but I can't decided what I want to do with it.

Right now, my hair is as long as it's ever been and is dark brown, with gray starting show at the roots (Yes, I have gray hair. I have since high school, and have been dying my hair ever since!) What's even more depressing is that the gray is starting to creep into my bangs, which are pretty much grown out, I mean they can be pulled back into a pony tail now. I always feel childish when call it a pony tail...I don't know why.

I've been needing to recolor and get my haircut for awhile. But I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on it, and sorry Hair Cuttery on S. State St. I don't trust any of your stylists to anything other than trim my ends. Well today's YouSwoop solved that problem, $25 for a haircut that's normally $65 at Marianne Strokirk, plus half off color or highlights. Yep, I'll take that!

I've pulled a few pics from Google to share some ideas...what do you think I should do

I've had blunt/straight across bangs before. I really them, they make me feel edgier.

 I've also had side swept bangs before, but never quiet this heavy. I think I'm leaning towards bangs like these the most right now. I love Nicole Richie by the way. And I'm way jealous of any girl who can pull off blonde/brown/red hair. My thick dark brows make that pretty much impossible.

 This is how long I wish my hair was. I don't think mine will ever get this long (I know these are probably extensions) but I don't think my hair can grow any longer. Is that possible? Also, I don't care what people say, I love Ashlee Simpson's orange hair...I totally wish I could rock it.

I've also toyed with the idea of chopping it all off. But won't for two reasons, 1. I'm not quiet brave enough yet 2. I promised the hubs that I'd wait until we have a kid. I don't know if you know this, but when you become a momma, you have to cut your hair short ;)

Saturday we went to my Uncle Darrell's wedding, we drank too much and had a great time! Both hubs and I were rocking pretty stylish outfits.

It's no secret that I love all things weddings, and since last weekend was a wedding weekend, I thought I'd share some of my favorite invitations that I've came across on the internet. Some of these photos came from here, some from here, and others I've had for so long time I don't know where they came from.