We've Come A Long Way

Earlier this year I wrote a post about myself. It was all about me, and everything I thought you should know if we were gonna be bloggy friends. You can catch up {HERE} if you missed it. I figured almost a year has gone by {we have officially lest 20's welcomed 30's} and a few things have changed so I might need to update all of you.

I currently have 4 emails, yet I answer them all from 1 so what is the point?
I gave up cokes, with the exception {like 1 a month} root beer.
I have palpitations, everyday, and its annoying
I'm becoming a better business women
I'm working on my {elevator speech}
I'm traveling to my first business conference in 2013
I miss Red Bull and Diet Coke
I can't justify buying a new iPhone just because its new
There are days I want to give up capital letters & punctuation

It took me a year and a half to decide how to decorate my living room.
I'm giving up craft shows...completely
I still read a book a day, most days anyways
I miss blogging regularly
I always take on more than I should and then stress
I saw my family more when we lived halfway across the country than I do now that I live 5 hours away

I can't handle it when people doodle on my desk calendar
I LOVE sweets
I've been married for 3 years last month

I STILL love Jesus with all of me
I feel better about 30 and feel I have a goal in life
I am planning to attend 3 amazing business/blog conferences in 2013
I'm going on my first grown-up women's retreat next year

I have new goals for this year, 20 of them! I would love to be able to cross them all off by mid year and know that its done and I can relax. The reality is that I'd just make a new list to drive myself crazy with. 

Would love to know more about you! Share something fun in the comments. 


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Make a wish

I recently stumbled across this 20 Wishes post from Truly Lovely inspiring their readers to create a list of 20 things they want to do in the next twelve months. I love this idea. I love that it's not about things you should do or things that need to get done.

The way I see it, if I could create a blueprint for this next year made of only the things I want to do, this is what it would look like...

1. Meet a blog friend.{Planning to meet several}
2. Attend a business conference.
3. Lose 10 lbs and ton up{this is on everyone's list}
4. Jog 3 5Ks
5. Reach 1000 sales on Etsy
6. Get new sewing studio completed
7. Keep blogging throughout the year
8. Do one Celebrity gifting with Elle Dee Designs
9. Host a awesome swap
10. Attend a blog conference
11. Read 40 books (ten more than this year)
12. Go on a trip with Hubs
13. Ride my bike more
14. Keep in touch with my brothers and Sister in laws
15. Update business website to contain all items and keep it updated.
16. Get Family Pictures made, just me and hubs.
17. Furnish guest room
18. Build amazing friendships, whether new or current
19.Become an LLC
20. Meet my newest nephew

Fun year, right?

If you make a list too, I'd love to see it.

Recap of 2012...


So here they are...12 in 12!
1. Read at least 30 books (exact list is in the works)  Read over 100 books this year!
2. Lose 10 lbs (this is an ongoing goal that I'm not very motivated to work on) {lost and then re-gained 10 lbs!}
3. Continue to Pray and read the Bible daily.
4. Continue to stay away from Red Bull (going on 4 months{NO REDBULL:(})
5. Grow my business and reach 2000 facebook fans and 400 sales on Etsy.{2400 facebook followers and 631 Etsy sales to date 12/21/2012}
6. Stay involved in our Missional Community & actively volunteer with them.{Just too many things to juggle}
7. Exercise at least 5 days a week...and change it up sometimes.{yes!!}
8. Continue to faithfully tithe.{yes!!}
9. Purchase Living room furniture.  {arrived this week!}
10. Cook dinner once a week.
11. Update business website to contain all items and keep it updated.
12. Get Family Pictures made, just me and hubs.

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1LW #7

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I keep telling myself this because it is important. Life is good, I am blessed. I see this line all over the place, we live in Austin Texas which is a fairly "Hippie Dippy" town as my chiropractor calls it. Lots of outdoorsy types and "adventure" stores. You see this brand in all of them: hats, shirts, water bottles, stickers, you name it. They display cute stick figures "adventuring" with catchy phrases.

As I sit tonight writing this post, I think about all of the different "life is good" shirts I've seen. I agree, life is good, but not because I am riding my bike, kayaking,sitting next to a camp fire. Life is good because... I am a child of God!

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I am a Child of God! However I am not perfect...This is a little bit harder for my to wrap my brain around. This week was a challenge. The weekend, while really fun, I didn't get even half of the things on my to do list accomplished. Major downer moment, not POSITIVE thinking. Monday was, well a MONDAY. I had bad news at work, that frustrated me to no end. The had 2 parents get very frustrated me over the phone, 1 of them yelled, the other yelled and cursed. Not easy to stay positive through. I can home from work, hubs asked how my day was and I had to admit, it wasn't good. He was great, supportive and encouraging.

I decided that I went about the entire day wrong. Not an easy thing to admit to yourself. I realized that I had to make a change in me in order to see a change in others {duh!}.

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Today I was determined to do better, be Positive no matter what. This morning I ask God to help me do a few things: Only speak kindness, no gossip, don't get frustrated, don't talk about ANYTHING negative. I knew that one pray wasn't going to be all I needed. I ended up praying for these things several times through out the day. Once I had to stop my self mid-sentence when I realized what i was about to say, and a few times I caught myself before I spoke at all. Amazing is the power of prayer.

It was a wonderful day, all happy patients at work, happy employees, happy me and happy hubs. I think that the entire point of this awesome weekly link up is to help keep us accountable. It easy to write a post at the beginning of the new year and talk big. Then you can fade away as the weeks pass on and most likely no one will ever post you a comment ask how you are doing with that 1 Little Word you talked about back in January. I feel that God has put an amazing group of women in my life at just this time for a special purpose. I started blogging when I met them and can't truly tell you how therapeutic an experience it has been for me. I'm going to continue to pray my prayer each morning and through out the day, I have a few other things I through in there too that I am working on giving over to God.  I just have to rememeber...

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...and by the life that is waiting for us, I know that is the life that God planned for us.

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1LW #6

I feel that I have been very blessed this year. Now I know its only 5 weeks into this year, but I have had an amazing year so far. I have been blessed with time with my family, time with hubs, an incredible group of couples from church, a new circle of friends of which are all Christian women, encouragement at work. So many things that it is really hard to list them all. 

{source}

I started blogging regularly this year and an proud to say I have actually had something to say each day! I have embraced this blog to be not only an outlet for me, but it needed to be fun. I really enjoy reading other's postings and linking up with "Linky Parties." I think my favorite linky party takes place each Wednesday over at It's a Long Story, it's called 1 Little Word Wednesdays. 

When I first read about this post, I really had to think about what my word would be. 

I choose POSITIVE...I want to choose to be more POSITIVE.

It really is a conscious effort. 

{source}

This week I had my challenges and my successes like every week. 

With My Husband: He's tired and a little stressed. He works so hard for us and is going to school to prepare for the future. I tried to be a positive encouragement to him, calm and helpful when he needed it and sometimes it was as easy as going shopping so he had a quite house to study in. 

With My Work: This ones challenging, work has its Mondays, the it has it's Tuesday's that feel like Mondays. This past week I think work was my biggest struggle. We had a lot of people call in sick and have several new employees starting. Moral is.... stretched. I'm trying to keep my chin high and be positive with every interaction I have. I'm praying hard on this one.  

With My Friends: Don't gossip! Be encouraging!

With My Self: Don't get discouraged, keep praying, keep smiling.

{source}

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A few of my favorite things...

Fridays are the day that I have reserved for sharing a recipe and pics of my cooking for the week. I do this mainly to keep me accountable to cook dinner at least 1 night a week which was on the goals list for this year. So far so good, except that this weeks meal was not healthy, was not fancy and I forgot to take pics. We had whole wheat pasta shells, with ground turkey and creamy vodka sauce {I of course sprinkled a little sharp cheddar on mine}.

The thing I'm even more proud of than cooking this week... I did all of the grocery shopping alone and got kuddos! Since hubs does, ohhh 99% of the cooking at home he usually wants in on the shopping too. This week was a little crazy with coming home from vacation and heading straight back to work {you can only survive on cereal for so long}. So I headed to Central Market, picked up all of the usual goods and didn't forget anything that I can think of. Hubs has told me several times, thank you and how much he appreciated me taking care of it. Maybe this Proverbs 31 wife thing might be okay (see previous post).

With that being said I decided that I would do something a little more fun, My favorite 5. I have done this type of post in the past with 5 things I'm loving right now and I had fun, so here is a current version. Enjoy!

#1 The Lucky Elephant - The Mega Wrap... Rainbow Sundance GOOD LUCK ELEPHANT Leather Wrap Bracelet. Need I saw more? It's so fun and totally on my wish list.

#2 Barnowl Primatives - Wash Your Hands and Say Your Prayers Typography Word Art Sign Horizontal. I saw a similar sign years ago and loved it. I looked everyone for one and could never find it. I think I need this in my office at work:)

#3 Tisa's Creations - Shut the Front Door Card. Now you can purchase the cards individually if you have someone specific in mind to send it to, or like me you can buy a pack with 1 of each color and send them to everyone!

 

 #4 Cut the Cake Designs - Address Card File Rolodex Green Bird on a Branch. I love this open concept, I have the most boring Rolodex and my address book is cute, but this is awesome!! On the wish list for sure!

#5 Designs by Taylor2U - Custom Map Necklace: HAVE IT!! I have a beautiful custom crystal map necklace with Italy on it {its on the list of must visit places} I also gave my mom one last year with Scotland {she loves tracing her genealogy}. It is a great gift for a bride or anyone special.

So there it is, My Fav 5 for this week. What is on your love list right now? Did you check out any of the shops on my Fav 5?

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Monday starts the Weight Challenge at my job and I am totally in! Everyone participating throws $20 in the pot. Challenge last 1 month and who ever looses the most percentage WINS the entire pot, which is currently $160! A few of our docs even added to the pot but are going to sit on the sidelines {so nice of them}. So here we go....starting weight will be posted on Monday...I can't believe I'm going to tell ya'll how much I weight! This might just help me knock out that goal of loosing 10 lbs!

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1LW #3

This past week has been a true challenge in keeping up with...well the challenge. We did some traveling out of town, which means new towns, new people and lots of thing out of my usual comfort zone. Boy did I ever get to put this into practice this week.

Challenge #1  Our travels started off with flight attendants that were extremely inpatient and rude. Must have been all the positive energy that I had from reading everyone else's posts that morning because I told hubs to calm down and let it go {that's me trying to be positive}. 

I managed to read an entire book on the flight, and it was one that I needed to read. My So called life as a Proverbs 31 Wife. Great inspiration though another women's struggle to be what she thinks we are called to as Christian women.

We had a great week of vacation and met tons of wonderful people in Seattle, hubs even commented on how nice everyone was. I have to agree, everyone was wonderful and friendly, it's a beautiful city and I totally recommend it as a vacation spot.

Challenge #2  It was COLD in Seattle! I'm a fair weather person all the time. This is why I have lived my entire life in either Texas or California...I like it warm. I wasn't as prepared as I should have been, but no worries a new hat and glove set later I am ready. After almost the entire trip sporting my TOMS, which I wear with no socks of course. Hubs made my day and bought me my first pair of UGGs, now I have toasty toes too!

Traveling across time zones can really mess with a persons sleep pattern, this time it worked to my advantage {that's me trying to be positive again}.  Since I'm an early morning girl normally for work, I was waking up at 4:30 Seattle time... in the morning...on vacation! While Hubs is sound asleep I got to take advantage of this awesome personal quite time and pray. I prayed for my family, for friends (new and old), for knowledge, strength and most importantly God's will and not my own. Wow, let me tell you how great it makes a personal feel to spend the morning praying! Try it, you will be amazed at how the rest of your day goes and how amazing you feel just being.

Now yesterday was another story...

Challenge #3 Trip home...maybe that should be all I right. Here it is, rude flight attendants, long flights, rude food service reps. I think that's all I need to say in order to continue being positive.

Now I have to say I am a little proud of myself, today I typed an entire facebook post and then deleted it because it wasn't positive. I can't tell you how encouraging it is to me to read fellow bloggers posts about their challenges with their One Little Word.

Read other posts @ It's A long Story






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SNAP...THE Premiere Craft & DIY Social Media Conference

As many of you know I am new the blogging world. I've been following and reading various blogs for years, but just this year decided that I would jump in and start writing my own. It has only been 2 weeks and I can't believe the commitment that this has been. I am thinking non-stop about topics and projects. My husband laughs every time I pull out my notebook from my purse and start writing. It's never a 1 line idea, it usually ends up being a page of bullet points. I have more ideas than days in the week and have a list of back ups in case I ever run out of ideas.

I decided that I needed structure to my blog, something that my readers...okay hopefully future readers will enjoy and come to count on. So while I sit at my desk from 8-5 I make lists and write and daydream. Oh! Did I mention that in addition to a full time job as a Pediatric Nurse I have my own handmade business? I love sewing and have been making Children's clothing for 2 years now! Elle Dee Designs has grown beyond my wildest dreams, but I know I can still make it even better.

The Queen Bee Market has been something I have followed since they started and I think it looks amazing! I keep trying to decide which event I should make my way out to So Cal to attend...then I read this awesome announcement from SNAP!, THE Premiere Craft & DIY Social Media Conference in my opinion, that they are teaming up with Queen Bee Market and hosting the Mother of all awesome events. Even better they are giving away a few tickets. This got me thinking, I totally need to enter this giveaway, I would love to attend, could learn so much, meet some awesome fellow crafters and bloggers and hubs would be so happy if we could save on some of the expenses.

So there it is the reason I really want to win the tickets to SNAP! So please vote for me starting January 21st - January 27th!! I promise to learn as much as possible and hopefully my readers will benefit as much as I do.

Thank you!


You can check out SNAP! @ http://snaptheconference.com


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1LW #2

Last week I pledge to have year focused on being Positive. Easier said than done. I never thought about being a "Debbie Downer" as my husband calls it.

I spent time praying about it and talking with my mom and husband about it. Since they are the two people I talk to most I figured I should let them in on my personal challenge. Hubs and I traveled to my parents house this past weekend, and mom was their to be encouraging as well as accountable. When she heard me talking and thought it might be about to take a turn she would smile and remind me to be positive. It was AWESOME, I loved it...and yet so hard. It made me acutely aware of how often my month says something negative. A few times I was able to change the direction on the conversation while a few others just had to be ended because their was no good to come out of them.

Thank you God for a mother that holds me accountable and encourages me!

Their were several other areas of my life that I want to work on too.

My marriage for instance. Hubs and I are still newlyweds (two years) but have been together for 8 and still find things that really get at each others nerves. I imagine that this never completely goes away. Several times I wanted to complain about a disagreement we had or he didn't do what I wanted him to do and then realized that nothing positive comes from that conversation.
I recently purchased the Bible on CD for him to have in the car. I thought this was an odd request, but he kept mentioning it. We got it in the mail just a few days before we started on our 11 hour round trip drive to visit family. We chose a book to listen to and little did I know the amazing discussions that would stem from these CDs. We listened to all but the last 2 chapters of the book of Matthew. We stopped and rewound, paused and discussed, asked questions and thought of questions to discuss with my family when we arrived. It was wonderful!

I felt so blessed to have a husband that has the same beliefs as me, yet so suprised to see how we inturpret things differently sometimes. I continued to read my bible and pray almost daily, I missed 1 day of reading because of the traveling. I feel that God is working in me to be a better wife, a stronger child of God and a Godly women to influence others. 

I ordered a book this past week called, My So-called Life As a Proverbs 31 Wife: A One-year Experiment...and Its Surprising Results. I had hoped it would be here in time for our trip but didn't arrive in time. Fingers are crossed that it comes in todays mail so I can read it on the plane tomorrow as we head on a little trip just me and hubs.

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Monday Mashup - Structure and Photo A Day Week 1 Review

Structure! I think I have found structure, for the blog anyways:) I have spent the past week reading different link up parties and trying to decide what kind of structure to give to the blog myself. There are so  many fun link up parties out there on the blogs that I love that it seems that it would be a shame not to participate.  

Monday: Monday Mash up - this is a post just to post, it'll be anything and everything. Right now it will feature the week in review from the Instagram Photo A Day Challenge.

Tuesday: Time for Crafting Tuesday - Have to have a place to write about all of the Pinterest ideas  I have to make.

Wednesday: One Little Word Wednesday - Link up with It's A Long Story

Thursday: Thankful Thursday - Link up with The Fontenot Four

Friday: Foodie Friday - Try and keep up with the goal of cooking once a week:)

Of course I'll throw a few random weekend posts in along the way.

January Photo A Day Challenge with Instagram- Week 1

1.Me - Starting 2012 2.Breakfast - Starbuck's Peppermint Coco

3.Something I Adore- My Hubs Baby Blues

4.Letterbox 5.Something I wore (yes, my shirt says "I will cut you" 6.Makes Me Smile - everytime I look at my wedding ring

7.Favorite - My Sock Monkey collection

I am loving this challenge and can't wait to link up over at JessicaNdesigns and Fat Mum Slim and see everyone else's photos.

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One Little Word

I am really excited about all of the blogging I have done in 1 week. I can't believe that I have spent the time to have a post every day this week. I would love to have a pattern, i.e. What I Wore Wednesdays and so on, but for now I will go with the flow.  This week I am linking up with It's a Long Story and participating in their One Little Word posts.
Now I read this post several times as I tried to think about one little word, the more I thought about it I realized that the words weren't little at all. Maybe they are only a few letters long, but meaning, not just definition but what I interpret it to mean is HUGE!

So my One Little Word for this year is going to be...

Positive

I am going to apply it many different areas of my life. I'm glad that this will be a weekly link up for It's a Long Story, because I will need a weekly reminder to keep at it.

I want to be Positive about my relationship with Christ. Knowing that He is in control, all things happen for a reason.. His reason and that I am suppose to keep following Him and positive things will happen.

I want to be Positive about my marriage. I have a wonderful husband. He love me and he love Christ, he works hard and is a good leader. What more can a girl ask for? I want to be positive even when I'm frustrated. I want to take frustrations to my God and not my friends.

I want to be Positive at work. SO many changes and being in change can be hard. I want to keep a positive attitude and communicate in a positive way.


I want to be Positive about my business. Not to let myself get discouraged when sales are slow, or frustrated when they are pouring in. Positive in the way I deal with my customers.

In general I just want to be a more positive person and that make that One Little Word feel HUGE!

What is your One Little Word? How are you going to improve yourself this year?
Join me over at It's Long Story for this exciting journey.



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January Photo A Day Challenge and a few other things...

It's January 2nd, which means Christmas is over the New Year has started. It's time for some goals, challenges and changes. I have a list... and what better way to stay accountable than to post it on a blog where people can read it and then check in on the progress.

So here they are...12 in 12!
1. Read at least 30 books (exact list is in the works)
2. Lose 10 lbs (this is an ongoing goal that I'm not very motivated to work on)
3. Continue to Pray and read the Bible daily.
4. Continue to stay away from Red Bull (going on 4 months)
5. Grow my business and reach 2000 facebook fans and 400 sales on Etsy.
6. Stay involved in our Missional Community & actively volunteer with them.
7. Exercise at least 5 days a week...and change it up sometimes.
8. Continue to faithfully tithe.
9. Purchase Living room furniture.
10. Cook dinner once a week.
11. Update business website to contain all items and keep it updated.
12. Get Family Pictures made, just me and hubs.


You may not think they are so bad, but let me tell you. I don't cook, I love caffeine, I dread working out and the living room really doesn't have any furniture in it.

I'm still working on the list of books, I have had some great suggestions from friends and family and am continuing to add them and will post when I get it composed under the 2012 Book list tab.

The one thing that I didn't add to the goals was school. I want to decide if I'm going to go back to school, but feel that the pressure of making myself choose this year might be the wrong kind of pressure.

On to the fun stuff....
I was reading on Facebook this morning and two awesome blogs that I love: Nest of Posies and JessicaNdesigns are committing to a Photo a Day Challenge for the Month of January. I figured I would join them and maybe this would jump start me to blog more regularly.

So here it is the January Photo A Day Challenge using Instagram. Make sure and check back at the end of each week to see an update and at the month to see all of the pics together and join JessicaNdesigns linky party!



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