Saturday, June 29, 2013

This Is Me | Precious Moments


Today's little tidbit is pretty small...but still something about me. When I was little my mom started collecting Precious Moment's Figurines for me. She has a collection of specific things for each of us girls and these were mine. Ever since then I've really loved PM figurines. My most favorite though is this one below:

{photo via Pinterest}

I have a ton of ornaments and quite a few figurines now as an adult. Some years around Christmas I have a themed tree if I don't do my famous Nutcracker Tree then I will usually do a Precious Moments tree. I hope to have room to do both trees one year since they are both special to me.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Stafford Rehearsal Photos


Finally *some* of the photos from our wedding are ready to go up on the blog! I can't believe it's taken me almost 5 months to get this up. Time has gone by so fast! Anyway, I'm going to start with photos from the rehearsal, then go to the dinner, the night before, and a few morning of. Day of photos will have to be in a separate post since I don't have very many of those re-sized to go up on the blog (re-sizing and adding the BEBBlog logo sticker is what takes so long!).


Matthew, the preacher of our wedding, and I going over the order of events before the rehearsal.


The pretty menu telling everything we had for dinner. The roses in the background were waiting to be made into a bouquet. In the very far back you can see the layers of the cake sitting, ready to be decorated.


Autry & I, Matthew, the preacher, and my best friends little brother.


I made matching "hubby" and "wifey" shirts for us. Well, his is a shirt, mine's a sweatshirt. I get a lot colder than he does! We wore these after the wedding on our honeymoon.


We had a beautiful build-your-own salad bar. You can see all the lovely topping options there including boiled eggs, raisins, bell pepper, croutons, spinach and more!


This is me sneaking a bite of the Tiramisu I made for the wedding. I hadn't tried it and wanted to make sure it  tasted alright. This was my first time to make it all by myself. Back when I worked at the family run Italian restaurant in Oklahoma I watched it being made several times and even was aloud to sprinkle the dark chocolate on top a few times too!


Here is the Tiramisu in all it's glory! I want so badly to make another one!!


These are the Mini Cheesecakes which I'm sure you saw me post about awhile back. They were DELICIOUS as well!


If you haven't noticed, the theme for our rehearsal dinner was Italian foods. We served spaghetti noodles with the choice of red sauce or Alfredo sauce. There were homemade meatballs, buttered toast and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.


Autry & I fixing our plates of food.


Here was my first plate. Of course I had to go back for more!


Later on, after the rehearsal crowd (not that there were a lot of people there lol, just some family and the wedding party) had dispersed I tried on the wedding dress. This dress was found at the local thrift store and I only paid $40 for it! Of course the neckline was MUCH lower than I was comfortable with so I ended up using fabric from the now somewhat famous 0.25 cent wedding dress to fill in the gaps and make it more comfortable.


My dearest best friend Kora working away to get the rest of the wedding dress top finished before the Big Day! She worked so hard to help get our wedding as perfect as could be.


Kora again! This time she is wrapping together the stems of the roses to make my bouquet. I still have it hanging in my bathroom where I left it to dry after the wedding was over. See it here.


The morning of the Big Day. Kora is putting the finishing touches on our beautiful wedding cake! It was an almond cake with tiny bits of almonds in it and was finished off with a butter cream icing!


As I said, Kora did a LOT to help with our wedding. Here she is fixing my hair. I wish I could figure out how to do it up like she did that day. It was so gorgeous!!


Kora & I on the Big Day getting ready to head out to the river!

Well that is what I have together for now! I'll continue working on the Big Day photos, but there are MANY more of those so it will take a bit to finish them up. Hopefully this will help all of you who have asked for photos since now I at least have a few up! :)
 
Related Posts to the Wedding Topic
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Homemaking 101 | Apartment Living Collaboration


I thought I might should make one great post to share all the other posts I've written about living in an apartment...PLUS sharing some new tips that I haven't yet blogged about. Until we no longer live in an apartment I'm sure I'll be adding things to this list...


Tips on Surviving Apartment Living

1. Be nice to your neighbors. In our apartment they come four apartments to a section. I've met the neighbors directly across from me, and directly above me. We chat a little most of the times we see each other. The neighbors across and above I've said "hi" to, but I don't really know them...

2. Check your mail often. If you don't get much mail you may forget to check the mailbox...I have no excuse for forgetting to check the mail, it just happens. And if you get mail that's from someone else, make sure to put 'not at this address' and stick it at the back of the box so the mail person will take it back the next time they come.

3. Pay your rent on time! For our apartments we have to pay a 'late fee' of $5 for each day that our rent is turned in late. That can get quite pricey!

4. Let the landlord know as soon as something goes wrong. For example, our counter in the kitchen is coming up (I've told them about this twice and they haven't fixed it yet). Or another example, our garbage disposal quit working. Usually they should be able to come fix those things within a day or so.


Post on Apartment Living


Projects for Apartment Living


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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Keep Informed!


So it seems most blogs this week have written a post about how to stay connected outside of GFC because the Google Reader is leaving us Monday! :( Here's my following options. Make sure you don't lose me in the madness!


If you like my blog make sure to find another way to follow so you'll stay updated! Thanks!!

Bucket Listed | An Introduction Post


Last year I put together a LOT of posts on things to do with my bucket list. A few days ago I ran across one of those old posts and thought maybe it was time to start a series to share the accomplishments I've made towards reaching some of my personal goals. I've completed quite a few things over the past year and many of them without even thinking about trying to check off another item on the list. I'll share with you the original post links and then I'll share one thing I've completed. I may make this a regular post for Thursday's since it doesn't have anything assigned to it yet. We'll see how it goes.

Bucket List/Goal Posts from 2012

Bucket List/Goal Posts from 2013

From 55 Achieved Thus Far
I thought I'd share a few photos from the first post I wrote:  55 Life Goals Achieved Thus Far. Except this time, instead of just sharing the photo and putting a few sentences after it, I thought I would add a few links to the actual completed projects I've posted on BEBBlog or share a photo of my own relating to the goal.


Number One on this list: Bake A Cake.
You all know I've baked a LOT of cakes!!
Here are the links to my favorite cakes on BEBBlog:


Apple Pecan Cake. Heaven in your mouth! I already can't wait for apple season this year so I can make this at least two more times!!


Iced Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake. A recipe I created earlier this spring when I was craving cake & blueberries. It is quite tasty if I do say so myself!


Mini Cheesecakes. One of the desserts we served at our wedding. A family favorite recipe for many years.



Number Twenty-Three: Have A Black Cat.
I've actually owned two black cats now.


This is Mocha. He was a long-haired, outdoor cat. He was gorgeous when he was clean, but he never kept his fur very clean lol. I miss him. I had to leave him in Oklahoma when I moved.


This is Boots. He was the apartment neighborhood cat. I was VERY allergic to him. He would sneak into the apartment anytime I left the door open long enough for him to get past me. He no longer lives around here. I'm not really sure what happened to him.


Emerald is my second black cat. Autry gave her to me in April. She has been great company ever since. Read her more about her on the label Emerald.



Number Thirty-One: Learn how to play guitar.
This is something that I worked on for about four years. After the car wreck I tried working on learning new songs, but no luck. Now I have two acoustic guitars sitting in their cases in the corner of my spare room. It's probably been about 2 years since I've played anything.


This is one of my High School Graduation photos (2009). That is my second acoustic guitar. It's a Jasmine Talkamine. I love it. It sounds beautiful and plays beautiful.


Another High School Graduation photo (2009). I played a little on the electric guitar too. I think it was a little more fun than plain acoustic, but in the end I now prefer acoustic to electric.


Well, this concludes the first post for the Bucket Listed Series. A lot of things I'll have to go back through REALLY old photos to find so that may take awhile, but there sure are plenty of things to work on until then.

Snacking Healthy | Chocolate Trail Mix


Before hubby & left for our Mississippi trip in May I was busy making all kinds of snacks to bring with us. This recipe was one of those snacks...the funny thing? I never ate more than a few piece of it! I didn't know it at that time, but I was pregnant and that's why the mixture of food pieces was not at all appealing to me. Hubby and lil sis ate the remainder of the trail mix though so apparently it was pretty tasty.


Ingredients
1 cup date pieces w/oat flour
1 cup banana chips
1 cup carob or dark chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped & roasted nuts (I used almonds)

Directions
1. In a large bowl mix all the above ingredients together.
2. Store in an air tight container.

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Wednesday Weekly Review #29


On today's post I am going to share with you five of the current sponsors of Blue Eyed Beauty Blog and my favorite things by them! I love swapping buttons with other bloggers because it gives you a chance to meet new people, and of course new exposure for the blog as well! Here are the latest swap buddies:


Marigolds' Loft. Natalie is the lovely blogger behind this crafty & creative blog. She used to be a yoga teacher. She's also a vibrational therapist. She has lived in South Africa & Switzerland! Knitting and crochet are two of her many hobbies. She loves a good cup of tea! Natalie writes Book Reviews, runs a Social Media Blog Hop, and she shares many crafts on the series Tutorial Thursday.


Just Simply Live. An Apostolic Pentecostal blog written by the lovely Rachel. Rachel and her husband are working on fostering to adopt within the USA. There are many posts about the process they have gone through during this process to adopt. She also homeschool's her children and has shared many posts on that topic as well. She has a wonderful blog.


Growing In God's Image. Sara-Jayne is a wonderful Christian girl from Australia. She loves a lot of the same things I do such as cooking/baking, taking photos, writing, being creative and so much more! One of my favorite series from her blog is the Random Wednesday posts. Another fun series is her Monthly Favourites where she shares her favorite things from that month.


A Kitchen Hoor. A food blog written by Christie. She has been cooking since she was little. She's also been on a weight loss journey using Weight Watchers. Almost everything she writes about is food, food, food! She has many wonderful & exotic looking recipes. You just have to scroll through a bit and I'm sure you'll find something you want to try! She has over 20 recipes with chocolate in them, 80+ posts on Italian foods (one of my personal favorites), and several posts on Greek foods including her experience in making Whole Wheat Pitas (I know my mom would like these!).


Sunshine & Rain. Formerly known as Keeping Plus in a Minus World (Keeping Plus). This is a lovely blog written by Krys, a blogger friend of mine. Krys & I connected back when she first started blogging and had less than 20 followers. Her blog has grown so much in the past few months (now almost 230 followers!) as she has written posts on life in general, shared crafts and hosted giveaways. She does all her own blog design and I must say it's quite beautiful!


Well, there you have 5 of my current 10 button swap buddies! Tune in next time to view the remaining 5 and what I have to share from their blogs! :)

Featured? Grab a Button!
On the left sidebar click the "grab a button" tab (or click the link) and scroll down to the "I was featured @ Blue Eyed Beauty Blog" button to share on your blog!!!

Interested In Seeing More Blogs?
If you loved these blogs, you may enjoy the other's I've featured since the birth of The Wednesday Weekly Review. How can you find them without going through each post? Easy! Just view all the buttons on my Pinterest board: Blogs I've Featured!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Spring Style | Lifeguard Trainer


This outfit is one I wore earlier this Spring but was unable to share then because of the laptop issues I had going on at that time. It's still one of my favorites and of course it could easily be a summer outfit too so that's why I've decided to go ahead and share it!

Life guard shirt: Old Navy.
White long sleeve burnout: Maurices.
Black knit skirt: Maurices. (Thrifted)
Black flats: Rue21.

Hairstyle: I pulled my hair up into a ponytail,
rolled the ends around my hand and pinned it in place with bobby pins.

Top view.


Side view.

 I have a few more photo posts leftover from this past spring, but I'm not sure if I'll be sharing them or not seeing as it's now summer. We'll see. Maybe a few of them can be multi-seasonal. :)