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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Proper Recognition

GUYS! I missed my 2 year Blogiversary and didn't even realize it. I knew a few weeks ago that it was coming up, but then it just slipped on by without the Proper Recognition it deserved. So here it is...

I have officially been blogging for 2 years now! 

(plus 18 days). My first little post was on August 11, 2010, after the convincing of some of my best friends during our epic road trip that summer.

At first I was so afraid that I wasn't going to know what to write, or have anything interesting to say. I was always worried that no one would read my posts. But you know what? I finally came to the point where I decided I wasn't going to write something just because others might want to read it, but because it was something I would want to remember in my future.

Most of my posts don't stem from me thinking, "Hey! My followers are going to want to know this stuff." Yeah right. Almost all of my posts are simply whatever I feel like writing, rambling, remembering, and capturing for my own sake. Because you know what's going to be so super fun one day? To look back at all these posts and get to reminisce on this time in my life. I'm so glad I've been blessed and fortunate enough to not only have a camera, phone and laptop to document these things for myself - but more importantly the people in my life who share in these moments.

So this blog is for me.And only me. I write what I want, when I want, and I'm not trying to fit some status-quo of all the other "popular blogger" ladies out there. Don't get me wrong though - I love knowing that people actually read my blog too! It's so fun for someone to mention my blog in casual conversation, or already know a story I'm telling because they read it on my blog already. It makes me feel loved and important and it's a great feeling! So please, keep reading! And let me know what you think from time-to-time, because I love getting feedback and comments on here as well.

Thank you to those who are regular readers and to those who just stop in occasionally :) And thank you to my close friends and family who constantly put up with me doing things because, "it's going on the blog guys!" I am grateful for all my readers and my regular "cast members" and I look forward to another year up ahead of blogging and fun!

So, Happy 2 Year Blogiversary to ME!!


(Even though this picture is a year old, and super random, I still love it. And I love editing pictures in PicMonkey. And yes, I guess I'm going to tell you that every time I do it for a while until the novelty wears off some...)

P.S. - I updated my resume yesterday! So that is my first official crossing-off of something on my 25 Before 25 list! Yay for me! And you know what? It wasn't as difficult and scary as I was afraid it might be. I even applied for two new jobs :) They're both real long shot, but I figured it couldn't hurt, right?!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Polka Dot Perfume

Do y'all remember my little post about the things I "collect" and some of my obsessions? Well, one of them is most assuredly perfume. And yesterday I ran across a new one I think I need for my collection. My aunt and I were just walking through Dillards (because we are like those elderly people who walk laps in the mall during our lunch break), when she spotted this cute little gem, and pointed it out to me, knowing how much I would like it!


Dot by Marc Jacobs. This stuff smells quite delicious, and just look how cute that little bottle is! Marc Jacobs actually does a great job making all of his perfumes not only smell amazing, but look extremely cute too. And this one has polka dots on it! Which let's be honest, just always makes things a little bit better in my opinion. My sister has Daisy, and it smells sooo nice. And it's so cute too! And she's nice and let's me borrow a spritz or too every now and then :)


I haven't actually bought or received any new perfume in quite some time, so that's why I'm thinking the time has come again. And really I don't have as many as I used to, because I've either used up the entire bottle, or I've had them just a smidge too long, and so the fragrance isn't as nice as it used to be. Either way, one more bottle of smell good stuff never hurt anyone did it?!

Family/Boyfriend - Christmas is only a few months away, so take note. It can be found at fine retailers like Dillards, Sephora & Amazon. Just in case you were wondering... ;)

Monday, August 27, 2012

Pictionary, Publix & Polish

Do I say often enough how much fun the weekends are? It's not that I don't do fun things during the week, because usually I do. It's just something about those weekend hours that seem more special, more fun, more relaxing, more exciting, and so many other things. 

During the week, I usually have a million things to do, and not enough time to do it all in. But on the weekend, there's some extra time laying around, and I have a bit more motivation and oomph to actually get those things done. Cleaning my room on a Tuesday night sounds like a way bigger task than simply straightening it up Sunday afternoon while waiting on the boy to pick me up. Does that make sense? Does anyone else have a similar (silly) thought process?! 

Friday night was spent at my friend Lacey's house. We made the most delicious homemade pizza. The "recipe" is Lacey's creation, and here's what that entails: Publix pizza dough, 3-cheese pink pasta sauce, sauteed spinach, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, with cheese and pepperoni on top. Whoa it's so good. We also baked some yummy cookies, and played Pictionary, Apples to Apples and Catch Phrase. I looove games, and we had so much fun playing so many all in one night!



Saturday morning was the youth car wash. Jeff swung by my house to pick me up, and we grabbed some breakfast on the way out to my church. We made a good amount of money, and enjoyed our time while out there! The girls were the sign-holders out at the road, while the boys did the washing. And we actually had fun jumping around and waving at all the random cars. I wouldn't mind doing that every now and then as a repeat fundraiser! :)

After the car wash, Jeff and I went to a nearby neighborhood for a bike ride. We only rode a little over 6 miles that day, but it was over a LOT of hills, so we still had a decent workout, even though it was a shorter ride. So that's 6 miles down from my total of 200 before my 25th birthday! It's a small start, but at least it's a start nonetheless!


Oh, and I got some new tennis shoes! A couple of months ago I bought a Groupon for Reebok, and finally ordered my shoes last Sunday afternoon. They came in super fast, and were here only 3 days later that Wednesday! They fit great, are super light, and way comfy. And hello! Look how awesome they look! I'm loving the gray/hot pink combo. And how cute is this collage? I love PicMonkey :)


Saturday afternoon we ran some errands, did some book-thrifting, and then headed to my friend Sara's house for dinner and a movie with some friends from church! We made some yummy spaghetti with Texas cheese toast, and we also had broccoli slaw and pretzel crisps. So good! We started watching a movie on Netflix, but didn't really like it. We stopped it and tried to find another, but then just didn't feel like it. So instead we just chatted and laughed and had a good time together!

While we were there, I also painted my nails! This is officially nail art attempt #2 of my 10 before my 25th birthday, and it turned out awesome. I ordered these awesome nail tip guides on eBay a few weeks ago, and used them for the first time for this.
Step 1 - apply two base coats in color of your choice.
Step 2 - stick on tip guides where you want them.
Step 3 - using different color, paint two coats on the upper half of the tip guide.
Step 4 - patiently let dry for a while.
Step 5 - carefully peel off guides and admire the awesomeness!
Step 6 - apply two coats of speed dry top coat to seal!




This was actually quite easy, and I'm quite obsessed with how they turned out! I got a pack of 10 different shapes, and each one has 110 guides, so I get to do this a LOT more with a ton of color combinations and fun patterns! Can't wait to try out another shape and tip guide! I'm thinking garnet and gold combo next in honor of football season starting up this weekend!

And this is my second time linking up with Heather and the ladies at Glitter and Gloss for Mani Monday! So if you would like to see a ton of other pretty nails, click the picture below :)


(And now back to my weekend for a bit longer...) 

Sunday morning was of course church, which was really good. I sang with the praise band, and enjoyed that as always. And since I sang, that means that Jeff came out to my church for the day :) Then after Sunday school, a group of us all went to lunch together at Coosh's. I did some cleaning in my room right after lunch, and then Jeff and I had some movie rest time while we watched The Dark Knight. (I haven't seen the Dark Knight Rises, so we're getting ready to go to that soon.) 

We then ran out to meet a random guy Jeff found on Facebook so he could buy a new belt. But it's not just any belt - it's a belt made out of a recycled bicycle tire! This guy hand-makes a ton of them, and then sells them, of course. And they are pretty awesome. I haven't seen Jeff yet today, but I'm quite sure (if I know him like I think I do) he wore it to work today! It's pretty cool indeed. 

Then last night we spent the night at my house with my parents. We stopped by Publix for some lunch meat, then made some sandwiches and got all snuggly in the living room, and we watched The Hunger Games! My parents hadn't seen it before, but they both liked it. Not anywhere NEAR as much as I like it, but still. And once again, I was still so emotional and into it during those super intense parts. I wonder if that feeling will happen every time I watch parts like The Reaping? I hope so! Already wanting to watch it again in fact, but I'm really ready for another movie to come out! Wish it was sooner...

OH! And one more quick thing... One of my goals from my Pledge was to complete a couch to 5k program. I didn't actually intend on registering and running an actual race, but the goal was to simply be able to run that distance. Well, that changed this weekend, and some friends and myself are going to run the Turkey Trot here in town on Thanksgiving morning! That gives me right under three months to train, so I should make it, but it's scary and nerve-wracking and exciting! "Training" starts tonight with the boyfriend for our first "run."    Send a prayer my way or wish me luck or something, because it will be anything but easy for me I'm sure...

So that's that. A lot of catching up and news to share, but I'm OK with longer posts every now and then! Are yall OK with reading longer ones?! Hope so :)

Hope you're all having a decent Monday, and happy first day of school to those college kids! But here's special shout-out to my little sister who is starting her senior year at FSU today!! Yay! Love you Little!

Friday, August 24, 2012

Pinstagram Lately

Made cupcakes & toppers for family dinner night,
in honor of Sister's senior year of college!

Loving the Salon Professional nail polish brand. I got 3 new ones :)

Grandmother made 4 pies for our big, birthday family dinner night

Trying to get the hang of the "arm party" trend...

Publix Deli makes some amazing Boar's Head subs for lunch.

Some editing in Camera + and a cute filter makes me look better ;)

Signed up, added promo code, and got all three shipped for $0.01!!

I was in need of a coffee one afternoon...

#2 of the Salon Professional brand I got from Walmart.

Love washing all my dresses. So many options the next day!

This cute pup was distracting me while reading Harry Potter.

Fancy date night for our 1 year anniversary!

(You can follow/find me on Instagram HERE if you like, or my username is HalieRenee88)

It's almost the weekend! And even though this week has been pretty slow and relatively easy, I'm still patiently awaiting 5 o'clock to roll around and for the weekend to begin. Here's some highlights of the upcoming few days...
  • Dinner and game night tonight with friends and boyfriend
  • Youth fundraiser car wash at the church in the morning
  • Bike ride after the car wash with my sweet boy
  • Dinner and a movie night with our little "college & career" group from church tomorrow night
  • I'm singing in church on Sunday morning, so that means the boyfriend comes with me instead of his own church :)
  • Down time and relaxing (hopefully) on Sunday afternoon!
I hope you all have made it through your week, and I'm sure most of you are all anxious and ready for the weekend as well! Love to all ♥

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Playing with Paint

Extreme Paint Night #4 was a success!! This happened last Wednesday, and was sooo much fun, just like it always is. If you'd like, you can check out another post from Paint Night 2010 HERE. And I thought I did a post from last year's event too, but now I can't find it, so I guess maybe not... :(

Anyways, this is the fourth or fifth time we've done this now (I actually can't remember anymore...), and it's absolutely one of my favorite events! Sure, it takes a LOT of set-up, and even more clean-up, but the couple of hours in between are a blast! Even if my fingers still hurt the next day from filling up over 150+ water paint balloons...

We played games like: slip-n-slide kickball, painty twister, marshmallow splat ball, the noodle game, water paint balloon squash, a couple more I can remember, and then just had an all-out paint war with a ton of water paint balloons, squishy balls, sponges and buckets of watery paint. Holy moly it's tons of fun!

I had a whole slew of pictures, and it was far too many to choose from for the blog. So I made one collage of all the kids and activities, and one for the set-up, so you get a little bit of an idea of some of what's involved :) Later on tonight I'll be posting all the pictures on my Facebook, so check those out later!



I sure do love our youth summer events. I sometimes stress out too much during the planning of them, but I am always both sad and relived once school starts and things get back to "normal" again. Our one last "summer" event is Rock the Universe in a few weeks, and I'm sooo stinking pumped for that!! I'll definitely write a post and include a TON of pictures from that weekend I'm quite sure.

Happy times and fun with paint, and much love to all :)