Sweets and Shutterclicks

A little Monday Inspiration

2012-02-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Oscars Review for 2012....Otherwise known as ZZZZZ lol

2012-02-27T11:47:00.002-08:00

When I sat down last night to watch the Oscars last night I had high hopes. One of my favorite things is to watch movies and even though I hadn't seen all of the nominees I had heard of almost all of them (what is The Artist?). I was really excited that Billy Crystal was hosting once again I am a big Billy Crystal fan and I thought it was gonna be so much better then last year. Mind you, I like James Franco I just think that last years Oscars was...off.

So anyway I curled up on the sofa with my sprite and my snack and watched the red carpet event to look at alot of what the Oscars is about sad to say the fashion. Hey I get caught up into it too, I mean I love my t-shirt and jeans but every once in a while I get my girl girl on and dress up pretty.

It was a pretty good red carpet show, what does it say when the red carpet show is better then the actual show lol. None of the ladies made to much of a fashion dive in this girls opinion anyway. There were a few.... seriously? But all in all I think all the ladies did... ok. :)

My best dressed list from last night,

Meryl Streep, she just glowed I love this dress and the color on her is perfect, her hair and makeup just icing on the cake. She won last night for Best Actress too.. Love her!

Tina Fey, I was crazy about this dress when I first saw it because I could see myself picking something out like that if I had her body type. The color is one of my favorites and all in all its a A+ dress!

But my favorite has to be Milla Jovovich, first of all I <3 her she is a butt kicking chick :D she is gorgeous anyway but for her first time at the Oscars she hit it out of the park, she did so well presenting too :)

Honorable mention to Melissa McCarthy now shes on lots of worst dressed lists I can see today but for me I loved this dress, as a thicker chick I would totally wear it, I loved the color and the collar on it was so pretty.

The big shocking event for the red carpet was Sasha Baron Cohen spilling something on Ryan Seacrest, mind you I'm not the best person to say anything on this because I'm not a Ryan Seacrest fan Lol. But my opinion on it? From what I know of Sasha Baron Cohen he was just being.... Sasha Baron Cohen. Do i think it went a bit far, yeah but that's just him. He was promoting his upcoming movie and he is crazy silly like that lol.

Ok so the red carpet over and the big show about to start I was ready to go! The opening montage was funny, he did his best picture song.

It was off to a good start, then it just went downhill for me lol. The thing where they were showing actors talking about how watching movies in theaters for the first time came off as stupid to me. To me it seemed like they were saying hey movies are cool we want you to spend more money go to the theater, but in a off putting way. I mean I love movies, and I love going to the theater but don't shove it down my throat that i need to do it more often.

The awards seemed to drag out foreverrr and that's situation typical for the Oscars but it was amplified this year for me lol. I think Emma Stone was funny, the bridesmaid girls rocked socks, Angelina Jolie got a bit too big for her britches, ugh I just don't like her I don't know what it is.

No big surprises for the winners, I was cheering on Harry Potter for the technical awards but they all went to Hugo,which I didn't see, and I was kinda hoping the Melissa McCarthy was gonna win Best Supporting Actress but I was ok with Octavia Spencer winning, oh I loved her speech she was just so real and down to earth I loved it. Woody Allen won for Midnight in Paris, which I did see and liked it alot. It was a good movie and a good script but I was kinda cheering for Bridesmaids to win lol.

The acrobat thing was about the point where I started losing interest lol but I kept going. Thank god for my sister on Skype keeping me entertained we were making jokes during it, for sure kept me from falling asleep.

Last awards were again no shock with the exception of Meryl Streep winning Best Actress. I think everyone was going thinking Viola Davis was gonna win. My opinion I was happy if either won. Meryl was so gracious and her going over to Viola before she went up on stage was just so sweet I loved her speech it was just wonderful.

I cant say much about the Best Actor winner because again I don't even know what The Artist is LOL.

Same for the Best Picture winner, I was cheering on The Help but The Artist won. Congrats to them, guess I need to see that movie when it comes out on DVD lol.

The end of the show, I woke myself up haha and put it all in perspective. I love movies I do but the whole awards show thing is funny to me, the show this year was better then in the past few years it was but truthfully they need to make even more changes next year to make it better. But really dont they say that every year?

So thats my Oscars review, it was fun-ish but mainly I give it a C+ grade. It had its high points and it had its low points and then it had its bargain basement points lol But it made for a interesting sunday night thats for sure.

Sunday Funny

2012-02-26T08:43:00.002-08:00

Oh its so true!

Playing Catchup

2012-02-25T12:45:00.001-08:00

Catching up on emails and other things since I have been sick the past 2 days, I started feeling better yesterday, feeling a bit better today. Hoping by Monday I will feel back to 100 percent. In the meantime I am playing catch-up including housework. In the past few days Kevin decided to trash my living room and kitchen. Remind me to poke my husband when he gets home today lol.

So that's my weekend, recovering. The sun is out today and i'm relaxing on the couch watching tv. Getting ready for a new week, the week is looking busy but not overwhelming so I welcome it.
How is your weekend going? Are you going to watch the Oscars tommorow evening? I am with my sister on Skype so look for a review of that on Monday. :)

I thought since I missed Insta-Friday yesterday I would put up some pictures today instead. One of my yummy breakfast last week (IHOP ROCKS) and my nephew and myself (how cute is this kid) which I thought would be perfect to embrace the camera, and my adorable kitty.

Oh also wanted to mention a few upcoming changes to my blog. I want to start up my follow Friday feature again so if you would like to be featured on my blog please contact me! :) You can email me at jodihall2011@gmail.com Also I think im going to do a weekly linkup again. Something to do with my addiction pinterest. Gonna have to do some more thinking about that :P

If you would like to button swap let me know, my monthly sponsor feature is coming up, can you believe its almost march??

I hope everyone's weekend is going very well. Have a wonderful day :)

Caught a stomach bug...

2012-02-24T13:11:00.001-08:00

So yea ive been bed surfing the past few days because wednesday night i caught a stomach bug, which is the worst. But i guess its going around. I dislike being sick lol. Thank goodness for the blogger app! Not exactly the way i wanted to start my weekend but at least im catching up on my rest. Will catch up on blog/email stuffs tommorow. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Adorable Wordless Wednesday...

2012-02-22T11:35:00.000-08:00

Marcy wants you to be hers.. :) I took this yesterday and shared it in the storyboard but it was too cute not to share the full picture, because it cropped out the be mine.. Too cute, she can be adorable when shes not being a little brat.

Happy mid-week everyone! Semi-busy day here, I am heading out in a bit to run to the store and our church's first choir practice for Easter is tonight. Our church doesn't have a choir but they get one together for Easter and Christmas. I love music, I love to sing so off I go! After that things should be a bit quieter. The weekend is almost here!

Linking up with these lovely blogs..

Poetic Passion...

2012-02-21T13:21:00.000-08:00

Its Tuesday, after a wonderful Monday I woke up to again grey rainy weather. Blah bring on spring now please!

Yesterday was so unbelievably great I watched my sister get baptized and it was wonderful. I sat there with my family including my grandparents and watched my sister rededicate her life to her faith and it was a beautiful thing. Afterwards we went back to my parents house and my dad cooked chicken and omg was it soo good.

My dad is like the best cook ever! After hanging out with the family for a bit longer and rocking out to XM radio I took off for my best friends house. When I walked in the house her littlest one who I call my monkey man starts hollering "JODI MY JODI MY JODI" and runs over to me for the biggest hug. I love all my kiddos but that one has me wrapped around his little finger and he knows it LOL.

It was a wonderful day, I needed a good day. Today has been grey and yuck weather which is keeping me inside. Like I said before, I am so ready for spring. Or at least some warmer weather, its supposed to get 50 degrees later this week. That's a start! :)

The only good thing about the tail end of winter is the Poetic photo challenge im involved in, at least it helps me find the beauty in this grey weather.

This weeks theme is passion and the main thing i'm passionate about is... photography. I got my first camera when I was little and I have always found myself taking snapshots. But nothing really clicked (get that clicked? camera joke) until I received my first big fancy camera 2 years ago.

I got my hands on it and realized, I love photography! I've been snapping ever since. :) My long range plans are to try to make money with my passion, but if that doesnt come together I am perfectly happy just snapping pictures for myself :)

Here are some shots I have taken over the past few days.

My mama!

My mama and sister.

Mom and Dads front porch swing, I love that swing..

This was in the window of the church, I thought it would look good in black and white.

My favorite of the week, I took some pictures of the stained glass inside the church, the colors are amazing..

The tutorial this week was taught by my mentor Faith :) She taught how to use storyboards. This was my first time trying this out, I hope I did well. I think I will have to play around further with storyboards. They are fun!

I am having too much fun in this photo challenge.

The agenda for the rest of the day is laundry, monday is usually my laundry day but I was gone so I put it off till today. I hope everyone's week is off to a wonderful start.

I am starting the week off on a high note..

2012-02-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

With cookies...

I mean seriously can you get any better starting your day off with cookies? I think not! :P

Here's the recipe for those yummy cookies in the picture by the way.

Hot Chocolate Cookies

You'll have to forgive me for my cookie interlude, I have been on a pinterest kick the past 2 days. (or as my sister calls it Pin-interest) not exactly pinning stuff more scanning for recipes and other goodness. I have decided that weather I bake them or find the yum recipes the sweets part of this blog needs to be featured more! :D

So happy Monday, I hope your weekend was relaxing. Mine was fun! Friday night was spent being lazy, Saturday I spent the day with friends until late and had a blast! Yesterday we did church and then afterwards met my mother-in-law at IHOP for pancakes. Did you know that IHOP had the cinna-stack pancakes. OMG they are sooo yummy and so worth fighting the crowds there. It was a fun-filled weekend that's for sure.

The week is looking busy, its the last week that Scentsy is on sale getting ready for the new catalog at the beginning of March. Let me know if you would like to place an order! I need to finish a special order for the shop too. Things are going good with my little businesses :) I am looking forward to growing them both further. Not to mention my blog, I announced on twitter some big plans for my blog and I'm sending out emails tomorrow to get those plans started! :)

Today is a short and sweet post because I'm heading out shortly, gotta go to counseling and then I'm dropping kev off at work and heading to Paris to see my parents and my sister. Shes getting baptized this evening, isn't that the coolest? I'm so proud of her.

So lets get this week started off right. :D I hope everyone has a good one, I don't know about you but I'm ready for the weekend already.

Happy Monday Yall. :)

When all else fails...

2012-02-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

I love pinterest LOL

Sunday Thoughts..

2012-02-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday everyone!

Sad Song Saturday...

2012-02-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

Today my heart is heavy as one of my favorite singers is laid to rest. Whitney Houston. This week I have read so many stories about how she fell from grace and her real life issues. But today as she gets called home, I am choosing to remember her voice.. My sympathy goes with her daughter and her mother and family.

This is my favorite song, you can hear her daughter in the beginning and end of the song.. Breaks my heart for her.

I hope you all have a blessed weekend. See ya monday...

Thank goodness its friday!!

2012-02-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

Oh happy weekend!! I am so glad the weekend is here, it has been a interesting week. I mean nothing out of the ordinary happened but I learned a few things. I like to call myself a student of life, always learning. Well this week was no exception, I learned that I was able to make it through a difficult day with not only joy but thankfulness as well.

I learned that life isnt perfect sometimes, and I also learned that Valentines day candy is more awesome the day after Valentines day! :D Life is pretty good right now, and I for one am enjoying it. I also learned how blessed I am to have this blog to look forward to each day, thank you all you lovely readers/followers!

I am looking forward to this weekend, Its kinda up in the air whats going on. There's plans to see the new Ryan Reynolds movie.. yummmmm Ryan Reynolds. Then church and my husband is treating me to IHOP on Sunday... Yummmm IHOP.. Well now that i'm in a sugar and Ryan Reynolds trance lets continue. lol

What exciting things do you have planned for the weekend?

I took lots of cellphone pictures this week just because of Insta-Friday. I find myself taking more pictures with my cell lately then with my cameras, its just because its so easy. :) It doesn't take the same quality pictures but it captures the moment! :D

Yes these are as yummy as they look....

My company most evenings..

What? lol

I've had a thing for pickles lately..

What I got Kev for Valentines Day

What kev got me for Valentines Day

It begins... Bring it on!!!

Well im off to enjoy my Friday evening. I hope everyone has a wonderful, relaxing weekend! :)

Marcy Says.....

2012-02-16T12:25:00.000-08:00

"You should totally swap blog buttons with me!"

lol I am accepting blog button swap sponsors again. I would love to swap buttons with your blog! Just email me with a 150x150 button and a bit of info about your blog. You can email jodihall2011@gmail.com with all the information.

I hope everyone's Thursday is going well! :)

Wordless Wednesday....Dreaming of Spring

2012-02-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

On this cold, grey, blustery day in central illinois, I find myself dreaming/wishing for spring. So for today's wordless wednesday I decided to reach into my photo stash and re-post one of my favorite flower pictures.. So you can dream about spring too :)

Dear Spring,
I miss you so, the grey days of winter are giving me the blues. Come back quickly :P
Best Wishes
Jodi

Hope this gave you a giggle today. Busy day today, have bible study in a little bit. But for now I am blogging and enjoying my lunch. Culvers chicken cranberry blue salad wayyy yum!

Happy Wednesday everyone!!!

Linking up with these lovely blogs.

Valentines Day Full of Warmth

2012-02-14T12:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day! On this day of love and flowers and chocolate I wanted to share a little bit about what this day means to me. 9 years ago on this day I lost my baby girl, :( Since then this day wasn't about love for me, it was about loss. I wasn't happy on this day for a very long time. We would celebrate Valentines Day like the weekend after or 2 weeks after.

But something has changed this year, I am choosing to be happy, but never forgetting that I am a mama to a little angel. I am choosing to celebrate this day. I think enough time has passed I am ready to not only celebrate the love that kev and I have but remember my baby girl. Today I woke up to a rose and a box of chocolates from my love, and today and tonight I am lighting a candle for my little angel. I am enjoying the happiness of the day while still being at peace and remembering her.

I thought that it would be perfect for this weeks Poetic Winter Photography Challenge.. The theme is warmth.. I have warmth in my heart this year. I am in love, and I have the sweetest guardian angel ever :) I am blessed..

For this weeks challenge I was giving two wonderful black and white actions to play around with.

SOOC:

Heres with the B&W action:

Isn't is pretty? I love how it cast the shadow behind the candle. I just love actions....

Here's another shot with a soft faded action.

and here's the same picture with the 2nd b&w action..

Here's a few others that I played around with..

And finally here's something else that warms my heart...

Thank you for reading how special this day is to me. I hope that everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day. If you don't have a valentine, don't be down, love yourself! Be your own Valentine, and ill share my chocolate with you :)

Happy Valentines Day Everyone..

Grammy Wrap-up

2012-02-13T13:55:00.000-08:00

Had a very relaxing weekend, just took the opportunity to recharge my batteries after the oral surgery I had last wednesday. Feeling better, ready to take on this new week. Today consisted of counseling, and a quick run to the store, catching up on blog writing and reading, and finally going to watch the voice and smash with my sister on skype :D We have been doing that alot lately and its occupied my evening to where I dont feel like Im alone for a few hours at night. (kev has been working alot of nights lately) We watched the Grammy's last night.

Speaking of the Grammy's being that I am a music hound and addict it was a big night for me last night and I thought I would write up a blog post about it.

Overall the night had high points and low points..

In the way of fashion.
The winner of the night for me is hands down....

Adele was gorgeous in her sparkly black dress.. Girl just rocked that night..

The big loser for me?? Well there were a few, I wasn't digging on Fergies orange lace bathing suit cover-up lol. Thats what it looked like to me.. Nikki Minaj, yeah lets not even go there. People were saying they didnt like Katy Perry's outfit, but I kinda dug it. I wasn't liking the hair too much but I liked the dress. There were a few people I was like.. Why are they at the Grammy's? Rebecca Black, Paris Hilton, and Snookie? Uhhh alright lol

Once we got inside, LL cool J led the top of the show with a prayer for Whitney Houston. That was heartfelt, and to me the rest of his opening monologue felt a bit like he was trying too hard, but that's just my opinion.

Adele swept all of her categories, and I was so happy for her. My favorite performances were Bruce Springsteen's, Deadmau5's and of course Adele's was my hands on favorite above the rest. It was amazing to see that girl come back from almost career ending throat surgery to rocking that performance. I was just enthralled, and enjoyed every second of it. Jennifer Hudson's tribute to Whitney was a-mazing too.

There were no real surprise winners to me at least.. Loved that Lady Antebellum won. Would like to have seen Blake Shelton win over Taylor Swift, but that's just because im kinda over Taylor. Bon Iver's win in best new artist was kinda out of nowhere but hey he seemed appreciative and was having fun so yeah. Rock on.

All in all it was a wonderful night for music. I enjoyed every minute of it, I was on skype with my sister and we just had a blast. It was a good night.

Tommorow is Valentines Day, and I have a good post planned and my submission to the Poetic Winter photo challenge as well I cant wait to share. I hope everyone has a lovely start to their week!

Mellow Kind of Song Saturday

2012-02-11T12:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Weekend! Since today is a easy going rest up, recharge your batteries day. I thought what better then a mellow slow song to feature today.

This is Allison Krauss, she is a bluegrass/country artist that is one of my favorites. She is originally from my city too which i think is cool :P Her voice is just so soft and mellow and perfect for a take it easy kind of day.

I found one of her latest songs from last year just by a random you tube search this week and it has been in heavy rotation in my playlist since.

This is "Paper Airplane"

Mouth is feeling better, should be back to 100 percent by monday. I hope everyone has a lovely relaxing weekend :)

Insta-Friday the feeling yucky version

2012-02-10T12:52:00.000-08:00

Today im feeling like i got my face slammed into a frying pan, lol sorry for the description but thats how I feel right now. Today is a snowy day too and for some reason I was happy about it. Usually when its grey and snowy out my mood is low but today with the exception of feeling blah cuz of my tooth my mood is...ok So im going with it!!

The weekend looks fun, hanging out at home this weekend so I dont scare people with my swollen face lol. I think my mom and sister are coming up on sunday and im looking forward to that. Church on sunday too. I am really glad I found a nice church, I have enjoyed looking forward to sundays :)

Here are a few shots from my camera this past week.. I need to not use the flash so much I get red eye bad when I do.

Other then that Im taking it easy, I need to finish these two hats for giveaways we have a winner on my 150 follower giveaway. I really can't thank you all enough for following my daily life, and as always stay tuned theres lots more exciting happening :D

Oh and if you have a giveaway I highly recommend rafflecopter it made this so easy! I will be using it for future giveaways.

So without further ado.. the winner of the scentsy plug in warmer and bar is....

Chelsea T. from Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles!!

Congrats Chelsea!

There will be future scentsy giveaways so if you didnt win this time.. No worries there will be another one soonest! :)

I hope everyone has a lovely, relaxing weekend! :)

Emergency!

2012-02-09T15:02:00.001-08:00

So yeah I had this lovely blog post written out today, was halfway through it while eating lunch and I cracked a filling. Off to the dentist I went, they had to pull the rest of the tooth out so i'm in a bit of pain so no blog post from me today. No worries I should be back tommorow.

I hope everyones day went great :)

A Surprising Kinda Wordy Wordless Wednesday!

2012-02-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

Hello once again!

I sometimes like to start my blog posts as I am writing a letter to my readers :D How are you? How is your week treating you? Yesterday for me was a total lazy day I did little to nothing and LOVED IT.. Sometimes you just gotta have those days ya know?

Today is a less lazy day, did some housework, took kev to work and am heading out to my bible study shortly. Yes I signed up for a bible story and loving it! :) We are studying the book/story of James which is great because I really dont know much about it.

The picture I wanted to share today is of my lunch.. Why did I want to share it? Well because doesnt it look like I took this with a DSLR and ran a soft action on it? Nope this was taken with my cellphone. I was so amazing I had to share! While I am a iphone chick since im stuck with my droid for right now I am learning to love it :D. Especially if it keeps taking pictures like this!

Well I am off to enjoy the rest of my day, I hope this day finds you well! The weekend is almost here again and Im looking forward to it :)

Linking up with these lovely blogs..

Such a Lazy day..

2012-02-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

It started out sunny but then it got cloudy booo!

Today is a lazy day but I had a few thoughts so I thought I would blog them down.

I am featured over at a little piece of me blog today. I get really honest about how I celebrate Valentines day!

I plan on doing as little as possible, its just one of those type of days :P

I hope you are having a lovely day! Hoping wednesday is a little more productive lol

Poetic Winter Photography Challenge: Week 1 Solitude

2012-02-06T14:57:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday Everyone!

The weekend was lovely, I spent yesterday and went to visit my mother and sister and my friend.. Lots of food was eaten, and lots of fun was had. There was crazy fog on the way home, made for interesting driving :) But all in all a good day.

Today begins another photo challenge, I struggled finding inspiration and I think it was mainly because the weather has been so grey and gross the past 3 days. But we had to go to the grocery store on the way home this afternoon and we drove by this wooded area the local college uses to take samples for.. I dunno kev explained it to me but I was kinda lost in the beauty of it.

This photo challenge is hosted by 4 of my photography idols. These ladies inspire me so much and I love that I am going to participate in this weekly.

Todays tutorial I learned from Kristi over at Live and Love out Loud she gave a great tutorial about textures. I just learned actions so the next thing on my list to learn was textures so this was perfect. She gave us a beautiful texture and showed us how to incorperate it into your photo.

Heres SOOC:

And heres with the texture:

I love it, totally brightened it up and softened it. I think I will be doing some playing around with textures in the future. Here is some other shots I took. Perfect for the theme.

I love the stillness of the wood, I love the music of the rill,I love to couch in pensive mood
Upon some silent hill.
Lewis Carroll-Solitude

I cant wait for next week. I hope to make my photo idols proud :D

I hope your weekend was lovely. Im ready to attack the week!

Things to look forward to this week.
-Scentsy's Spring line is starting next month!
-Working on a few things for the shop as well as 2 giveaway winners items as well
-The Voice started last night, as a music fanatic I love this show because its about the voice first.
-Peace and quiet! :)
-Getting back into reading blogs again, I have gotten behind recently I need to get back on track :)

Don't forget im giving away a plug-in warmer and bar in less the a week.
Click here!

It has been a wonderful Monday, here's to a great week! :)

New Years Blogging Party!

2012-02-04T14:04:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity to participate in Casey Wiegand's 2012 New Year's blog linkup swap. I love Casey's blog its not only fun to read but very inspiring. In the past few months reading her blog (along with many others) has helped me get through this low point with depression to life spirits!
I was so happy to hear she is pregnant again! Congrats Casey :)

I was matched up with a very lovely women named Kristina. Her blog is called Hitherto & Henceforth it was so lovely to meet someone new and make a new friend. We got to know each other through email and she added me to Facebook. Yesterday I received her package, I have been drinking more hot tea recently and she sent me the coolest thing, a filter you can place loose tea in over any mug. She also sent me 3 packages of tea I cant wait to try. One of them is Chocolate Chai tea! Chocolate tea sounds so yum. :)

She made me a little case too out of the cutest fabric, so not only is she good picking out gifts she is really talented! :)

I had so much fun participating in this swap, I made a new friend got some cool stuff and helped support one of my favorite (its a long list) blogs lol.

Its a quiet weekend and im enjoying it. Tommorow is going to be a busy one, there's church in the morning and then heading to not one but 2 Superbowl parties! Of course I am taking my camera, who knows what shots I will be able to get. The weather is going to be pretty tommorow so Im hoping to be able to shoot something for my challenge entry for Monday.

Well Star Trek Insurrection is on and this trek nerd is going to go curl up on the sofa and relax. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. :)

Super Bowl Weekend Song Saturday Edition!

2012-02-04T13:37:00.000-08:00

So today's song Saturday is inspired by the super bowl. Madonna is going to be performing at the halftime show so I decided what better artist to feature today.

I dig Madonna, more her earlier stuff then the stuff she put out in recent years, but she is a guilty pleasure that's for sure.. When vogue comes on in the car stereo its time to turn it up and rock out!

So as you snack on food and watch the game, lets rock out a bit.

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Yay for Friday!!

2012-02-03T12:30:00.000-08:00

Finally the weekend, and not only is it the weekend but its February where did January go! Its just 11 days till Valentines Day. This year Kev and I are actually going to do something on valentines day! :D It hasn't been my favorite day for years but this year I just decided to enjoy my husband and remember what the day is about.. Love!

This weekend is looking fun, Im thinking im going to go to a super bowl thing on Sunday. Gonna try to stop by my moms first but we will have to see how the day goes. I plan on eating too much and watching the game.. Of course the packers arent playing in the game so I really dont care who wins but it will be fun nonetheless.

So what are your big plans this weekend, any superbowl party plans?

Its Insta-Friday and I had some pictures from the game convention on my phone so I thought it would be good to share them! :)

Oh before I forget, I'm starting another photo challenge this week, hosted by 4 of my photo idols! I'm linking to their blogs below, you should for sure go check them out. My entry for this week will be up Monday :D

Project Alicia
Sweet Violet
Live out Loud
Bumbles and Light

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

An actual wordless wednesday!

2012-02-01T13:42:00.000-08:00

Busy afternoon but this picture is just too good not to share. My husband visited a gaming convention this past weekend and a tradition of his is to buy a dice every year.This was this years purchase.. Its a dice but to me it looks like weapon. This is courtesy of The Armored Gopher in Urbana. Good friends of ours run it and its a good store! (shameless plug :P)

I finally got my new backdrop set up and I cant resist taking pictures of everything in front of it lol.

Happy Wednesday everyone! :)

Linking up with these lovely blogs...

A self portrait challenge

2012-01-31T12:49:00.000-08:00

Another bloggy friend Chelsey over at The Paper Mama is hosting such a fun link-up challenge I had to participte. She wrote a great post about thinking before commenting and self portraits. I showed off this picture this past friday of my new haircut and thought it would be perfect for this challenge so.. Im going for it :)

What am I obsessing over: Change! Changing my bad habits, changing my life in general. I love change. Its good for you sometimes

What am I working on: Another headband for a special order, getting scentsy catalogs out, keeping up on housework, and taking pictures of course.

What am I thinking about: Whats on TV tonight.. lol un-original i know but meh its true! :)

What am I anticipating: Getting better. So many things have gone wrong the past few months, I just want to focus on getting healthy and getting ahold on my depression.

What am I listing to...Aural Psynapse by Deadmau5 I love electronic dance music

What am I eating: Just had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich

What Do I wish for: For my normal to come back. I have taken for granted just the little things in life. I enjoy just sitting with my husband, taking a long ride in the car, visiting with my friends and family, things have gotten so messed up the past few months since I let this depression get the best of me and I just want things to get back to normal. I realize that things can never be perfect in life. It took me a long time to realize that no one is perfect and I should stop trying to achieve that level of perfection that is un realistic. I am learning to be happy with normal. :)

Linking up with Chelsey and her self-portrait challenge at The Paper Mama

There ya go, a little more about me.. Tommorow is wednesday, the weekend will be here before you know it! :)

Playing around with Photoshop

2012-01-31T12:13:00.000-08:00

First of all let me say it is a beautiful day today! In Janurary in Illinois its near 60 degrees.. The blinds are open and I am enjoying the sunshine.

Its a gorgeous day and my mood is ok, hey that rhymed. lol

I hope everyone else's week is getting off to just as peachy of a start. :) Hows the weather where you are?

So today since I was caught up on other things I decided to play around a bit in photoshop, a bloggy friend Ashley over at Ramblings and Photos had a great tutorial up today and I decided to try it out. I took two older pictures that were taken a bit ago and gave them new light.

Marcy SOOC:

and after the edit:

I like it.. It makes it look like a painting.. But the next photo looks even more like a oil painting.

SOOC:

and the edit:

This was fun, I forgot that it can be fun editing pictures :P

Well I am off to enjoy my day, Kevin isn't working until this evening so we are spending the afternoon together. :)

Have a lovely tuesday everyone!

Crafty Monday!

2012-01-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post.. The weekend was good, I hope yours was as well. I thought I would share a few things I created this weekend to put up in the etsy shop. :)

I am making a big push for orders in the next few months I am wanting to expand. Stay tuned :D

I hope everyone's week will be good, I don't know about you but im ready for the weekend.

Dont forget im giving away a great prize for hitting 150 followers :)Click here :)

My wonderful button swap sponsors for Janurary

2012-01-30T14:35:00.000-08:00

I finally got a chance to catch up with some of my button swap sponsors... :) I thought I would get a few opinions about what has happened in Janurary!

What are your resolutions for 2012:
What is your favorite desert
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life what would it be..
Where is one place you would love to visit
Who do you hope makes the super bowl?

1.I blogged about my resolutions: http://holdingontothelittlethings.typepad.com/blog/2012/01/2012-my-new-years-resolutions-and-goals.html.
2.My favorite dessert would probably be cookie dough or cheese cake or chocolate.
3.If I had to listen to one song for the rest of my life, it would be sung by Scarlett, and probably Cranberry Red Balloon by Tab Laven.
4.I would love to go over seas.. I'm not even picky, but probably somewhere pretty and breathtaking.
5.I don't mind, but hopefully a team that deserves it. <3
1: to keep up 2011's resolution of blogging every day.
2: CAKE
3: would have to be California Dreamin' by the Mama's & the Papa's. (reminds me of home)
4: England
5: my beloved 49ers. I am so pleased they have come so far this year- what an improvement & accomplishment. Hoping it's a Harbaugh brother's Super Bowl & I am hoping it turns out better for us than it did on Thanksgiving.

1. I didn't really have resolutions this year.... Just a bunch of goals that I wanted to achieve.
2. I think my favorite desert is my sister Lea's homemade cheesecake. So yummy!
3. One song huh... that is a tough one. I like so much different music that I think it would be hard to chose
4. I would love to go back to Texas and see the stockyards where I grew up. Either that or visit Nashville, TN because I am such a country girl.
5. I don't really watch football this year due to being in Afghanistan and our times are so off. I don't even know who has played who and who is in the running.

1: Try to get the house cleaned out and fully organized!
2: I love chocolate for dessert in any way shape or form! A special treat is homemade chocolate chip cookies.
3: Hmm, tough one. I would say one that Josh and I recorded ourselves, or maybe "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (our first dance song at our wedding)
4: Aw, just one place?! Well, I'll say Europe then.
5: I hope the Patriots, for my husband's sake.

1: I didn’t precisely make any, because I didn’t want to feel trapped by any certain expectations, that just makes me want to rebel against them.....however, I am on a major health kick and have been running 5 times a week. My goal is to feel more fit!
2: I’m more of a savory girl, but anything in the dark chocolate family will make me happy.
3: That’s a big commitment...hmmmm. If I could name a band, it would be the Indigo Girls.
4: I want to go to Bali to watch traditional balinese metalsmiths make that beautiful silver balinese jewelry!
5: I don’t watch football ever. :)

I plan on expanding more in the sponsor area of my blog next month. If you would love to button swap on each others blogs just email me at jodihall2011@gmail.com :)

Song Saturday for 1/28/12

2012-01-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Weekend everyone, I was up wayy earlier then I have been in a long time to take Kevin to the game convention so I could have the car and while I was sitting at the computer reading emails there was a re-run of Grey's Anatomy on with a song by The Fray on and I remember how much I love this band.

Their are actually alot of songs and bands that I have gotten addicted to just by watching that show. Ingrid Michelson is another one. But I think the front runner is The Fray for sure. I think my favorite song by them is "You found me" when im in a certain mood I know that music like this will lift spirits. I don't know what it is about this band, especially their new song "Heartbeat" it just moves me.

So that being said, here is today's feature.. "Heartbeat" by The Fray

I am off to enjoy this lovely weekend, Its a bit chilly but the sun is shining and it is defiantly picking up my spirits. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. See ya Monday!

150 follower Give-Away!!!

2012-01-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

We are now over 150 followers! I feel so blessed so many of you have welcomed me into the blogging community I never thought I would be at 150 followers!

So I decided to giveaway a fun plug-in warmer and bar! Scentsy is a wonderful product and I am so glad to be selling it once again. There are so many wonderful scents, colorful warmers and lots of fun products coming up as well!

Feel free to go check out my website, there's a online catalog there and so many great things :)

https://jodihall.scentsy.us/Home

I am trying out something new with my giveaways the Rafflecopter Widget. Hoping it makes things easier :) On the advice of my blog BFF Chelly she used it and worked great for her.

So just complete tasks below and you are entered into the great contest!

The contest closes 2 weeks from today on 12:00pm Feburary 8, 2012

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much for continuing this blogging journey with me! Theres so many fun things coming up.. Stay tuned! :) Have a wonderful weekend.

~~I purchased this warmer on my own this wasnt given to me by Scentsy, nor is it sponsored by them I just wanted to share a bit of the goodness that is scentsy with my wonderful readers :)~~

Embracing alot of things this friday!

2012-01-27T11:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided to embrace some of the critiques in my blog critique and take the day off of blogging. I was lazy yesterday :) Loved it.

Happy Friday everyone! I do hope that your week was lovely. The weekend is upon us and I am happy! Kevin is going to a gaming convention this weekend so im homeward bound this weekend.

There's talk of me going with him tommorow but we will see how that plays out lol. But for tonight at least there is housecleaning, scentsy work and blogging in my future :)

I promised pictures of my haircut and here it is.. It was all shiny and pretty in the pictures but today its a bit bed head like lol. I am also including a few other pictures from my camera for Insta-Friday :)

Its getting easier to share pictures of myself on my blog. This is a good thing, I am actually enjoying embracing the camera :) Hopefully that means I can post more picutres of myself without issue.

I love this new haircut, its so easy to take care of. I am going in march to get it colored again. Right now I know its hard to tell from the photo but I have dark red hair, the plan is Im going back to brunette in March. :)

This is my im a serious person face.. Really I just look sad panda in this picture lol

Hey look I can smile! :D

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Any exciting plans? Or is it a relaxing weekend for you too :)

A Blog Critiquing Wordless Wednesday...only with word..type..things

2012-01-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful week. The first part of the week is over and we are onto the upcoming weekend! I love the weekend.

Today is a typical January Wednesday. Its cold, its snowing, and now its freezing raining.

The sky is grey too *sadface* but it made for a lovely light coming into the dining room so I took advantage.

Linking up with these lovely blogs..

The photo above is my new belated Christmas gift from my aunt, she got both Kev and me one. I'm going to start drinking tea so can anyone recommend any good brands? My aunt is the coolest, she lives near Chicago and she has the greatest style. I took this with just my paper background and while there are a few flaws I like how this shot turned out.

A new photo challenge is starting next week, 4 of my Photography idols are hosting it and I want
to impress lol I cant wait!

So one of my bloggy BFF's hosted a blog critique link-up and I signed up to not only support her but to get another's opinion on my blog. I was given 2 names and reviewed their blog and then 2 others reviewed my blog, I wanted to share a few things that I learned. I want to not only have this blog be about me but I want it to look professional so I can share about product reviews and giveaways so this critique is a wonderful thing.

1. I dont have the best grammar and need to pay attention to spellcheck more often-Sometimes I rush and just pour out onto my blog what im thinking or feeling or something new I want to share and I overlook those things. Something I will work on, I think im gonna have kev start reading my blogs the day I post them and if he sees anything I overlooked I will go back and fix it.
2. More pictures, this is called sweets and shutterclicks-Recent events have kept me from taking more pictures and sharing them. I have plans to share and then I never do.. again something I need to change. Must take time to take more photos!
3. More baking pictures-again that is just because recent events I haven't had time.
4. Less posts so I dont get burnt out-I am working on this as well, I only blog what I feel. Some-days I blog and some-days I don't.

That's the main points that I will fix. Both critiques had mainly nice things to say about my blog which made me feel like I was on the right track. I will take the critiques and only make this blog better :) I love that one of the critiques was that I have a wonderful voice and when she was reading it I felt like her friend. That is my main goal with this blog, so it brought a smile to my face.

I am off to enjoy my Wednesday, there are good things on television tonight and I plan on taking advantage. I hope this week is treating you wonderfully, are you ready for the weekend?

Tuesday Tag!!

2012-01-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

For today's post I have been mentioned in Polka-dot Notebooks tag game and I decided to run with it. :) So here we go!

Ok so 11 facts about myself....
1. I love to sing. In the car, in the shower, while I'm on the Internet.
2. I can pick things up with my feet.
3. I love snuggling with my kitty
4. I'm a comic book nerd girl.. but only like marvel (sorry DC) lol
5. I am a Trekkie
6. I love poetry
7. I don't know how to swim.
8. My mom is one of my best-est friends
9. I'm smart but math still gets me even in my mid-thirties, and spell check is my friend lol
10. I am afraid of heights.

I'm borrowing her questions too because well they are great questions.. So... 11 questions for my lovely 11!!

1. If you could meet ONE bloggy BFF, who would it be..?
2.What's your favorite recipe to create?
3. What's your ideal date night?
4. If you could travel anywhere in the world TODAY, where will it be?
5. What's the one thing you LOVE most about yourself?
6. If you could ask your reader's ONE thing about
your blog, what would it be? (Good, bad, ugly, you pick)
7. What's your favorite season?
8. What's the first thing on your bucket list today?
9. Biggest goal for 2012 (or change?)
10. What's your favorite past time?
11. First word that comes to mind NOW - GO!

My answers...
1. Oh this one is really hard.. There are so many. Its a 4 way tie between Kassi over at Truly Lovely, Deanna over at Delirious Rhapsody, Chelly over at Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles, and Olivia at Soul Singing Liv
2. Fruit Pizza.. Sugar Cookie Crust with whipped topping and yummy fruit on top.
3. Going to Apple bees for dinner and seeing a movie. Then maybe a nice drive :)
4. Somewhere south where its warm!! lol For real id love to see England, or Ireland.
5. I'm learning to love everything about myself :D

6. I would probably pick bad because, if there is something bad about my blog and they tell me, I can fix it and then make it the best!
7. I love spring, but my favorite holiday is Christmas lol
8. To spend more time with family and friends.
9. Stop drinking soda!! So far I'm failing lol
10. Blogging! and crafting :D
11. Cookie

Ok so the 11 lovely ladies I tag for this game are!
June and Bear
Sunny With a Chance of Sprinkles
Soul Singing Liv
Delirious Rhapsody
The Good Life
The Crosbie Crew
Crunchy VT Mommy
Kathrine's Corner
Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice
Truly Lovely
Hannah Holmes

There ya go! This was fun, I love little blog games like this. I am off to enjoy the day, I received my scentsy catalogs today, if you would like one you can email me your address at jodihall2011@gmail.com :)

Have a wonderful Tuesday friends!

A good Monday after all!

2012-01-23T15:37:00.000-08:00

Oh Monday Monday why do I dislike you so. The weekend was actually so great I was not looking forward to today at all. But then you came and I actually had a lovely Monday, just busy. Which is what I prefer so, its a good day after all.

I got my haircut today, I will post a picture later this week for embrace the camera so you can all check it out. I basically got a bob haircut just styled. My hairdresser rocks, my old hairdresser rocks too but she lives over an hour away from me so I cant get down there enough to take care of my hair so I had to find someone in the city I live in. Megan is awesome, if you live near Champaign,Illinois go into Rod Sickler Salon. She cuts some good hair!

I hit 150 followers and my Facebook fans are going through the roof! I am overjoyed and just so blessed to have all you lovely readers. :) Stay tuned for a giveaway announcement this week! I cant wait to share with all of you what I have to giveaway.

I signed up for a blog critique at my friend (and scentsy boss) Kassi's blog and I received the report today.

She had an overall liking of my blog there were just a few things that needed changing that I wasn't ever aware needed changing! Its a good thing to have something like that done because you can get another bloggers opinion and improve your little space on the internet.

Yesterday was my friend Jessica's daughters birthday and I took along my camera....

It was bright enough in the place to not use the flash but I just didnt want to mess with anything so I went full auto without flash because I wanted to get pictures like the last one. She is one of my kiddos, I call her by her nickname Fifi, she had a great birthday :)

So im ready to attack the week! How is your week looking? Busy with plans or just another relaxing normal week. I love normal :D Im hoping for more of that this week!

Happy Monday Everyone....

Song Saturday Youtube version part 2

2012-01-21T01:08:00.000-08:00

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope today finds you either relaxing or having fun.. But if your stuck at work or not having fun that's what this post is about.. Bringing a little lovely music into your weekend.

This Saturday I wanted to feature another artist I found on you tube. I came across her video on just another YouTube wander, just shuffling from video to video and I came across her video called angel. I went through her videos and her voice just blew me away.. Its amazing, she is very talented and I have talked a few times with her through her comments and she is not only very talented but she is down to earth and just as sweet as can be.

This is Lisa Lavie..

Enjoy! I hope you have a wonderful weekend. See ya Monday :D

Grateful Friday!

2012-01-20T12:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday!! The weekend is here and im happy! :) Today will consist of crafting! I will post pictures later I will be putting the finishing touches on my kiddos birthday present :) Plus scepters and swords for the princess/prince party.. After that its lazy time, oh and its Pizza Friday! :D

I got word today that the bills before congress SOPA and PIPA that would have censored the internet have been shelved.. YAY! :D I am hoping that now since they have shelved those bills they will come together and come up with a better plan that would solve both problems.

The weekend! Tommorow is baking and relaxing day, Sunday is my busy day I am going to a birthday party and then im hoping I can sweet talk my mom and dad to meet me for Mexican food :D After that go visit my friend. Heres hoping! :D

This week was a good week, I have had a few of those recently and I am just enjoying them. Im enjoying my "normal" :D what used to be boring is now "normal" to me :D

Not many pictures to show today, I guess I could show off the other pictures I took last weekend when my mom and sister visited..

my mama.. Yes im in my mid-thirties and I still call my mother mama.. She likes it.. My mom has been calling me every night for the past few weeks and It has been lovely time to just chat. It gives me something to look forward to. My sister and I joking around on facebook has been fun too :D

I guess im just grateful today.. Grateful for the peaceful times, grateful for my family and friends, grateful for my husband, and grateful for so much more. :) I hope this feeling continues. I just keep praying, I just need peace.. Need my normal :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Stay tuned for Song Saturday tommorow. Oh and yes I have decided to do a mini-giveaway when I hit 150 followers and ill give you a hint..

It involves scentsy :D So stay tuned!

Happy weekend everyone

Inspriation

2012-01-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

I have returned! I know that staying away from blogging for one day is only a small part. But I cant imagine this bill passing and me not being able to share my daily happenings, my photos, not being able to watch silly cat videos on YouTube, or talking with friends and family long-distance. I have met so many lovely people through this blog that I keep in contact with through comments Facebook and twitter and I couldn't imagine not doing that. Not to mention 2 of my businesses are run through the internet. So yeah I have a big stake in if these bills pass or not.

But anyway on to a new day, The past few days have been kinda calm. Nothing to exciting happening. Its that time of year ya know, you are in the house because its cold outside and its just kinda quiet :) I really prefer that right now with all the chaos in my life recently. I am enjoying this peace.

I ran to the craft store today to get supplies for making scepters and swords for my friends prince/princess party this weekend! I cant wait to get started. Have to go to the store this evening because its supposed to ice out tommorow so I will not be driving. Say a prayer for the Kevin because hes a bus driver and driving in a car alone is crazy let alone a bus lol.

I actually found time to take a few pictures today :P There haven't been alot of Marcy pictures recently so I decided to make up for that. My friend Faith's photo challenge this week is inspiration. I have to say I get alot of inspriation from my kitty cat. When im stuck in the house and she is snuggled up on the couch the first thing I do is grab my camera..

I love this one because shes like opening a eye up and saying "are you done yet?" lol

I love my little furbaby kitty :P what can I say. Im playing catchup since I took the day off from blogging. I need to catch up on reading blogs over the weekend. I feel bad when I get behind.

I hope your week is going very well. Another weekend is upon us. Any big plans? I am going to the birthday party on sunday and hopefully heading to see a friend on saturday maybe. Other then that gonna stay inside and stay warm! :D

Happy Thursday everyone :)

No Wordless Wednesday for me tommorow!

2012-01-17T22:06:00.000-08:00

I don't know how much you know about the 2 bills that are about to go through congress called SOPA/PIPA. It is supposed to end internet piracy, which I am for.. But everything I have read about it is basically censorship.. So, I will be limiting my internet access tommorow and will not be blogging for 24 hours!

Here is the information about SOPA/PIPA contact your congressman and say you want a free internet..

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/18/sopa-blackout-internet-censorship_n_1211905.html?&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Have a wonderful wednesday everyone.. See ya on Thursday :)

Crafty Tuesday!

2012-01-17T13:37:00.000-08:00

So today I am a woman on a mission.. My good friend is having a birthday party for her little one on sunday and she is needed some help with craft/costume ideas for the kiddos. Its a prince/princess party and all she has is tiaras for the girls and crowns for the boys. I dont want to go overboard but im looking for just a few simple ideas that would be great.

Searching pinterest.. That is like my favorite place to get ideas!

Im gonna see if i can bake up something like this ^ because these are just too adorable. Its a prince/princess party so im going to make some in pink and some in blue :)

Im thinking about making some scepters and swords. But the swords would have to be out of foam or something. Gonna play around with that idea a bit.

Finally Im thinking like capes.. but that would be too superhero.. I dunno, my crafting side is not functioning lol.

If you have any ideas to leave in the comments below i would be ever so grateful!

Oh and Im 1 person away from 150 followers.. Im thinking mini-giveaway?? Stay tuned :D

I hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday, I am off to try and find more princess ideas!

Unseasonably Warm Monday!

2012-01-16T14:37:00.000-08:00

It is crazy warm here today about snowing a couple of inches on friday. I just looked at the weather and its gonna be back to 20 degrees by the weekend again and snowing! I wish it would make up its mind! lol

Happy Monday everyone! I trust that you all had a wonderful weekend? Mine was busy and relaxing at the same time lol. Saturday we went to a work thing for a co-worker of kev's he was retiring so we had some cake and listened to some music it was quite fun!

Yesterday my mother and sister came to visit, now this is the first time my sister and I would be spending extended time together since christmas and even then it was somewhat strained. I wont go into much detail here out of respect for privacy but lets just say my siblings and I have had a strained relationship the past few years, and finally I just realized its not worth it so I am working on rebuilding with my sister. I figured it was a good first step especially with everything that has happened recently.

So, they came in and we had a picnic! They stopped at walmart and got like chips and cheese and other yummy snack type stuff. And oreos! So we sat and talked, she cleaned out my extra crocheted stuff lol Which is fine, and she looks uber cute in my hat that I made. It was just nice we talked, joked, and just had fun. I showed her my blog.. They even indulged me and sat for pictures lol..

It was a good first visit. First of many im hoping..

Today has just been another lazy day, had counseling we stopped by the store and now im just a blogging away while kev plays on the xbox. Im ready to attack the week. Its looking exciting more twords the end of the week, im hoping a visit down south is in my future we will have to see.. Work on some more stuff for the shop. I hurt my hand before christmas and its still bothering me so the work has been slow going ive been more working on the scentsy stuff. I got my business cards from moo this week. They are so cute! I highly recommend them :)

Oh for those who dont know, Scentsy is flameless candles. They warm cubes of wax in a plate above a warmer with a light bulb in it, Its super safe and the scent is amazing. I have mine downstairs and you can smell it from upstairs. I am proud to be a rep from a good product and such a lovely company too. :)

If you want to order or book a catalog party you can email me at JodiHall2011@gmail.com and check out my website

https://jodihall.scentsy.us/Home

I hope everyones monday is going great and that your week turns out just peachy :)

Song Saturday Adele Version!

2012-01-13T23:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Saturday..Went through a bunch of videos on the youtube trying to pick out a good song for this saturday and I just decided to stick with my addiction right now... which is Adele. Her album 21 is a-mazing. I know that there are rumors out there that she is overplayed.. Hmm not for me, I love every song on the album. She recently released another single for this crazy good album and its my favorite one.. I love this song, there's just something about her voice and the words.. I love this song!!

Enjoy! And have a wonderful weekend.. See ya Monday! :D

Snow Snow Snow Friday, and forgiveness>all

2012-01-13T17:01:00.000-08:00

Its friday!! It snowed a few inches and its still snowing.. Going to make for a snowed in weekend which makes me happy!

How was your week? Mine was pretty normal, which I loved!! Tried out something new for dinner yesterday, im on the hunt for more recipes to make with chicken its getting a bit boring and theres only so much you can do with chicken ya know. So I will be searching for that, if you have one to share in the comments that would be really cool.

My sisters and my relationship is on the mend, I re-added her to facebook. Even though my brother and mine relationship is still strained its good to mend fences with her. She is supposed to come by this weekend with mom and im sure we will talk more :) Its just enough time passes and you realize that its just pointless to hold onto anger and pain.. All it does is keep you sick (emotionally) So I decided enough is enough. Forgiveness is a powerful thing :D

Ok enough deep thought lol, the plans for friday evening? Well its pizza friday and Kevs friend Karl is coming by tonight and they are taking the television over to play xbox so I plan on searching the internets for recipes and maybe finding something to watch all in all im ready for a relaxing weekend.

Insta-Friday is here and its time to share what pictures I took with my phone this weekend. I wish I had instagram :P But I tend to call mine Vignette Friday because I have the droid version of instagram lol.

I took this last one to prove that Kendrick never stops moving Lol I tried to take this shot 3 times.. Typical 3 year old lol but aint he adorable!

Do you have any plans for the weekend? Like I said after the last few weekends being so busy I am looking forward to sitting at home and being snowed in :P

I hope you have a relaxing wonderful weekend :)

Showing off my Thursday day in the life of edit!

2012-01-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

Ok now thats a title!

Weekends almost here, and I woke up to snow!! We are supposed to get a couple of inches of snow, being that kevin is a bus driver im hoping he gets home safe. Its just enough snow to be a pain in the arse for drivers.

So.. ok now down to business. Got a few pictures to post for today. Edit me challenge this week is fricking adorable. I didnt have to do much to the photo to make it cute.

SOOC:

My edit:

I think it just called for a color pop. I love the little teddy bear next to the adorable little baby so I thought it would be great to do a cute color pop on the bear :D

My friend faith is having a weekly photo challenge on her website and the theme this week is a day in the life.. My life consists of cleaning the house, working on the computer and crocheting my rear off :D so I thought this picture was perfect :P

Now that this post has been overloaded with photos I shall close for now. More work on the shop stuff and cuddling with the marcy kitty are in my future. I am so ready for the weekend. I plan on being at home with the husband and doing NOTHING! :P

If you are in the middle of this snowstorm in the midwest, be careful. I hope everyone has a wonderful thursday :)

Yuck Weather Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

Its midweek!! After 4 beautiful sunny days I woke up to grey yuckness outside.. Its making me want to crawl back into bed and sleep.. :P

Its a lazy day, more of that normal that im craving recently :D Kevin is working until 8 and im just going to work on shop stuff until then. Makes for a easy going Wednesday :)

How is your week going?

I hope the rest of the week goes by super fast because im ready for the weekend arent you? lol

Linking up with these lovely blogs...

Starting the Week on Monday.

2012-01-10T11:11:00.000-08:00

Well I usually start my week on Monday but I decided to go to a friends house last night instead. She is struggling right now, I don't want to go into too much details because of her privacy but she is just struggling right now. The funny thing is even though shes having issues she keeps going. She is my idol, this girl and I have known each other since 8th grade and we are still the closest of friends. We survived distance, fights, ex-relationships, my depression, miscarriages, divorces, and her son having heart surgery at 1 week old together. And for her to be going through yet another problem just breaks my heart for her but! She keeps on trekking. I hope to be like her when i grow up :P

So yesterday she texted me and I could tell that she was having troubles so after counseling I decided to head to her house just so she could have someone to chat with. After a bit we took off to get something from her moms house and I just let her talk, I just wanted to be there to listen. I could tell she was a bit better after that. I just hope things get better for her.

So since im getting a late start this week, I am once again in catch-up mode. But its nothing that I am getting overwhelmed with. I talked with my counselor yesterday and I told her that all I crave right now is more normal. Lately what I used to find boring I want more of.. Just no drama, no bad news.. Just quiet.

The weekend was a blast. Saturday we celebrated my monkey man's 3rd birthday. Everyone loved the twix brownies (twix bars baked into brownies) and Kendrick loved his little mini cake. I covered the top in red icing cuz he loves Elmo :) I love the picture I captured before we lit the candle.. Its like "hey you can take my picture but im keeping my eyes on this cake here" lol Mom couldn't make it on Sunday though because the car was acting up. So the photoshoot had to be postponed but at least they are safe thats whats most important.

So all in all it was a busy yet fun weekend, capped off with a trip and some chinese food yesterday.

The week is looking good, because theres nothing planned!! :P Got some work to catch up on in the etsy shop as well as scentsy stuff!! Yes I got my scentsy website set up.. you should totally go check it out.. and maybe order?? :P

https://jodihall.scentsy.us/Home

I hope your weekend was peachy! How is your week looking?

Song Saturday.. The facebook challenge!

2012-01-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Weekend!

I hope your weekend is going great.. Todays Song Saturday is all about the recent facebook challenge of posting the song that was number 1 on the charts the week you were born..

Heres mine

Lookin good Mr. Kotter!! LOL

So.. what is the number 1 song the week you were born? :)

Hope the rest of your weekend is relaxing and fun!

See ya monday!

Fill in the blank Friday

2012-01-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

I totally saw this on my good friend Chelsea over at Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles blog :P

1. One of my favorite things to do in my free time is: Surf the blog-o-sphere/internet, listen to music, watch tv, and crochet/craft

2. When I have free time I tend to: My lazy button gets switched on

3. If I had an entire day completely to myself I would: lay in bed and watch tv, eat nothing but macaroni and cheese and cupcakes all day.. :D

4. I prefer to spend my free time (alone or with others...): Its mostly alone because kevin works, but id like to spend it with others lol

5. Most of my free time happens: After I get all my work done, housework is done, emails are answered, blogging is done, and errands are all run.

6. The best thing about free time: I call it unplugging. Sometimes you even have to unplug the mind! Things get stressful you dont want to get overwhelemd so free time and relaxing keeps that from happening.

7. The next time I have free time I should probably: mmmm in about a hour after i finish visiting/commenting on some blogs! :D

Happy Weekend! Insta-friday the marcy edition...

2012-01-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

First of all how cute is this cat?? I had a few pictures (some i might have posted before but enjoy them again lol because I basically cleared alot of pictures off my phone) she has been extra snugly lately, so ive been taking advantage by snapping photos with the phone lol.

Its Friday! Things to look forward to today..

1. I am now a scentsy consultant once again (would you like to place an order?) lol I am taking a few days to get my email/facebook/webpage set up so I should have more information about it next week.

2. Its pizza Friday! Even though the husband and I are trying to eat better we decided to keep our qweekly thing because if you don't indulge (not over-indulge) you crave it more and then you over indulge. So we are getting pizza tonight! I love pizza Friday its like a little tradition with me and Kevin that makes the week that much better!

This week has been like a restarting week. I have been deep in thought about where I want to go for 2012, and I have figured out a few things.

No more negativity, no more fear
Positive outlook when things get stressful
Even though I have a full plate.. Dont get overwhelmed
Blog what I feel!

Plus so much more. Im just ready to attack this year and get better emotionally and physically.

The weekend looks exciting! Tommorow I get to see my friend and my kiddos! Sunday is his birthday celebration but since i cant be there im getting a little cake and gonna go see him tommorow evening! Sunday my mom is coming to visit me, im gonna try to see if she will let me take a few pictures of her, I have a blog post planned about her :D

What is the first weekend of 2012 looking like for you??

I hope this week was just peachy for you, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! :)

First Edit Me Challenge of 2012

2012-01-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

Well I thought today was going to be busy busy, but instead I spent most of the day in front of my laptop working with photoshop cuz it was just failing me lol. I did have a stressful moment while figuring up the bills for this month, but I decided I need to try not to let everyday stresses like that overwhelm me anymore. It worked right away and I spent the rest of the day editing photos.. (which I love doing!)

Anywho, things are well. The weekend is almost here.. All in all a calm day.. I love that!

Its the first photo editing challenge of the new year and I just worked on it. Once photoshop cooperated things turned out well. The picture is adorable, my blog friend sarah from naptimetog.com 's little boy.. How cute is he?

I just decided to go for a chocolate truffle action and I tried to clone out some of the sunspots (to no avail lol) but I tried. Oh and tweaked the contrast a bit.

Heres SOOC:

heres my edit:

I think it turned out pretty good, it gives it a vintage look.

It was a good day, im looking forward to picking up Kevin in a bit and spending the evening hanging out with him.

I hope your week is going great, are you ready for the weekend?

Kinda Wordy Wordless Wednesday..

2012-01-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

The first wordless wednesday of the year! Today I chose the chrismtas tree as my subject because ....its still up! lol Kev is taking it down tonight when he gets off work though. But I thought it would make a great subject because its so sad now.. Bare tree no christmas decorations :( sadface! lol

Plus I love the light I caught on it as well. Its a beautiful sunny afternoon, just a little COLD!

Bonus picture.. Had to capture the kitty snoring because, well I havent put a picture up of the kitty yet this year haha.

How cute is this cat!

I hope everyone is having a wonderfully blessed week.

Linking up with these wonderful blogs!

Hope

2012-01-03T17:37:00.000-08:00

Its tuesday! I am super tired, its been a busy catchup day and I got about 75 percent of what I had on my list done. The rest can be done tommorow. The christmas decorations are down except for the tree (kev is doing that tommorow) and my house looks so bare now. its always so tough after christmas when you get the decorations down. But before you know it they will have to get put up again lol

So im continuing with my gettng back on track week! Feeling quite accomplished today. :P I emailed about rejoining scentsy today as well i was a consultant last year and had to stop but I want to start selling again! I love scentsy I have my warmer lit right now.. My house smells yummy :P

Thats pretty much the news today. There's really not much else to report. I am now switching on my lazy button and Ive been hanging out on pinterest. I love pinterest, I recently got back into pinning and now I cant stop!

I even found this on there..

I love that bible verse, its my favorite. It has helped me through some pretty tough times because he does have a plan :D Im not a big bible reader but there are a few passages that are my favorite and this one has special meaning to me. It gives me hope especially recently because of everything that has happened.

Counseling went wonderful yesterday, we talked about how im starting over and how its a little scared. She told me some things about how I have to stop being afraid about what others think about me. Because people are going to think what they think and there's nothing that you can do to change that. All i can do is be the best me that I can be! That goes for in real life and my blog. I want to just blog whats on my heart and head and try to not follow too many rules.. (there are a few of course lol) But yeah yesterday went great.

The week is going.. well. lol I told my mom last night that I feel normal.. I hope it lasts! lol

I hope your Tuesday is wonderful!

My motto for this year....

2012-01-02T17:53:00.000-08:00

No fear!

With this depression come fear.. Fear of not getting better fear of stresses overwhelming me. So many things to be afraid of.

Well no more.. I am taking on the motto of No Fear!

Are there things your afraid of?

Getting back on Track..

2012-01-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

So! This is what I woke up to this morning.....

Snow!! Such a surprise to wake up to especially because the weather channel online says its not suppose to be snowing! lol not only that but I checked the 10 day forcast and its supposed to be 50 degrees in 2 days.. Well as they say about living in illinois, if you dont like the weather wait 10 seconds it will change/

So its January 2nd. New Years Eve was so fun, kevin and I spent the evening with our good friends and ate lots of good food and I really havent laughed like that in a really long time. It was a wonderful way to ring out 2011, and of course I smooched the kevin at midnight.

Well christmas has come and gone, the tree is finally coming down tommorow. I am lighting it one more time this evening and then it comes down. The new year is here and its time to get back on track. With the break and the holidays I got really lazy and while I think its ok, its just time to take the reigns back and get back on track!

I have therapy today, yes I go to counseling. My counsler is the best she is so supportive and such a great person to talk to!

Gotta run by the store and pick up a few things.. Other then that I am enjoying the kevin on his day off :) His overtime is pretty much non-existent right now because the college kids are home on break. So hes on day shift, which means hes home at night which I love. I cant wait till he can do that all the time.

The shop is coming back online this week too. I finally got the paper for my light box so im hoping to get some shots of the pumpkin hats so I can get them in the shop. I got something big im working on too.

Other then that its business as usual. Im trying my hardest to get back on track and so far succeeding :D

How was your new years? Did you make any resolutions?

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Song Saturday... Happy 2012

2011-12-31T08:55:00.000-08:00

Have a wonderful, safe, happy new year everyone!

A New Year begins.

2011-12-30T11:55:00.000-08:00

Tommorow is the last day of 2011. So much has happened in the past year and I feel that I have changed so much, for the better. I turned 35 I restarted this blog, my husband and I are closer then ever, and I finally decided to get help with my depression. I have come so far and even though there was quite a few bumps in the road and a few valleys along this path, I keep moving forward with this positive outlook.

I love new years, its a fresh start a chance to begin again. Not only personally, but professionally and pretty much everyway.

I am never good at keeping new years resolutions. I mean like last year i made one to learn a new language.. lol So I decided this year to make basic resolutions that I know that I can stick with. These resolutions both effect my personal and professional life! And I wanted to share them here today! What a lovely way to ring out 2011 and bring in the new year!

1. I promise to get healthy, physically (not diet cuz they never work)
2. I promise to get healthy, emotionally Continue with seeing my counslor and taking my medication
3. I promise to step outside my comfort zone and try something new every once in a while
4. I promise to be happy!
5. I promise to stop drinking coke lol
6. I promise to make a date night with kevin and stick to it.
7. I promise to update my blog at least 3 times a week (but more then likely 5)
8. I promise to take pictures weekly!
9. I promise to grow my businesses.
10.I promise to visit and comment to blogs every other day, (so i dont get burnt out :D)
11. I promise to stop taking things so seriously, and to not get overwhelmed.

These are simple resolutions that I know I can keep. I cant wait to see what 2012 brings for me, my family, my friends, and you my lovely readers :)

I hope this new year is happy, healthy, and just fun.

What are your new years plans? Kev is working until like 6 and then we are heading to my friends house where we will watch movies and eat and just have fun! I cant think of a better way to ring in 2012!

Tommorow will be another special Song Saturday, but other then that, I am unplugging and spending the weekend with my husband and will return to the internet ready to attack this new year!

Happy New Year everyone!

All my lovely ad-swap sponsors for December!

2011-12-29T14:34:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do a feature with everyone that is doing a ad-swap sponsorship with me for each month but with everything that happened I just didnt have time to put everything together. There will be a more detailed feature next month thought. But! I wanted to share about it because they are all wonderful shops/blogs and you should totally go check them out :)

If you would like to add your button to my blog and do an ad swap just email me at jodihall2011@gmail.com and we can get started :)

Christmas roundup!

2011-12-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Thursday! This week is flying by but the weekend is here. Not only is the weekend here but its the start of a new year. I'm ready for 2012, i'm ready for a new start not only personally but professionally! Im excited to see what the new year brings.

I thought I would go ahead and put up how our christmas went last weekend. It was really nice, spending time with family eating lots of yummy food.

Saturday night kevin got off of work and we heading over to his sisters house. We all sat around and watched a movie and ate sandwhich stuff, then opened presents. I got the cutest outdoor snowmen lanterns from my neices. Some cash, a best buy gift card (which i used to get the coolest headphones for my laptop) and... a brownie and cupcake maker! :D They are too cute and I cant wait to use them.

Sunday we slept in and it was time for mine and kevins christmas tradition. We go to IHOP (its open till 3 on christmas day) it was soo fun! And i ate probably the yummiest pancakes ever.. lol. It was off to my friend kama's house so I could see kendrick open his present we got him. How cute is this kiddo! He loved his puzzles we got him. My friend loved her drawing I had done of kendrick too (gonna do a feature on the girl who did it soon).

We buzzed over to my mom and dads in the afternoon and I snapped a few pictures of my moms tree. I love her tree it has all the ornaments from us kids growing up on it :)

After all the presents were unwrapped (I got like 3 boxes of chocolate covered cherries, a set of snowman bowls, and a cute purse) we were on our way home, but first we had to take a drive around the lake because at christmas time the city sets up all the christmas lights..

It was a wonderful weekend, after everything that has happened. To spend time with family and friends and just relax. Was exactly what i needed.

And now its on to a new year! Lets see what 2012 brings. I plan on posting a review and plans for 2012 this weekend so stay tuned :P

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thursday!

A extremely cute Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-28T13:15:00.000-08:00

The Dr's appointment went ok, I got my medication and I continue on this path. I go back in 3 weeks and now I start the search for a psych doctor! :) But im staying positive..

Now to add a little cuteness to your week. Heres Kendrick on christmas morning. Kevin and I bought him that t-shirt and he loved it :)

Look at that smile.. Its his birthday this week! I cant wait to see him blow out the candles on his cake :)

That little man alone with all my other kiddos help me so much pick up my spirits when im feeling low.

How can you resist this face!~ :)

I hope everyones week is going wonderfully!

Linking up with these lovely blogs.

The reason for my break last week...

2011-12-27T11:56:00.000-08:00

And we are back!! Yes I have returned! It has been a relaxing week, and I needed it. I was going to start posting again yesterday but Kevin had the day off and I wanted to spend it with him and it was quite lovely. We spent some of our christmas money and got chinese food :D
Christmas was wonderful, I have a few pictures to share that I will post sometime later this week.

I thought for today though I would get really honest and share a bit more why I felt that I needed a break. Something that I havent shared much with my friends and family or even on this blog and I figured I should stop doing that. I mean not share everything of course, but open up a bit more about something that has been an issue in my life for the past few months at least.

For the past 8 years on and off I have suffered with a mild depression. But I always thought it would just go away, that if enough time passed that I would be back to my normal self. But this was not so, the more time passed I believe it got worse. So a few months ago I decided to go get some help and see a counselor, and it did help but I think it was a band-aid on a big wound.

Last Saturday I just had a breakdown and winded up in the ER. I had just ignored everything for just too long and I was taking on too much trying to set up 3 businesses and it just finally got me down, I knew I needed more help so I am now taking medication and trying to get back on track after this derailment. I knew that I needed to just take a week and do nothing and enjoy this Christmas season. That's exactly what I did. My husband and I reconnected even further and we just enjoyed eating lots of food, and spending time with family.

The plans now? I see the Dr. tommorow to get on a regular prescription and I will continue to see my counselor twice a week for a bit and then go back to once a week, and I'm focusing on the new year. I need to re-prioritize and plan better so I don't get overwhelmed like that again, and I need to focus on getting a handle on my depression better and just get well completely. I want to share a bit more of this journey because I know there are many more out there that have depression. Depression is a real issue and it does hurt. And I just want to get better.

I know that this will pass, I have a better plan this time and I am trying to get back to feeling at least normal again :)

So yeah, we are back to blogging once again. I hope everyone had a wonderful christmas, are you ready for new years? Its almost 2012 can you believe it??

The final Song Saturday of the Season!

2011-12-24T20:52:00.001-08:00

Its been a up and down week, but Christmas is here! And i plan on making it a great one :)

I want to thank you all my lovely readers for sticking by me as I run with this blog thing. I cant wait to see what 2012 brings! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! And a happy new year!

See ya Monday!

Late night Christmas Shopping!

2011-12-24T20:48:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Walgreens for underwriting this post. I was paid as a member of the Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all mine. Visit http://www.walgreens.com/beauty.

The last few days before christmas can be hectic lots of last minute baking and wrapping presents but if you are like me its crazy hectic for last minute christmas shoppers. Im a last minute procrastinating shopper myself so one night last week I headed to Walgreens to see what kind of gifts I can check out after kevin got off of work. And what I found out is that it is a great place to find great gifts.. Even managed to pick up a thing or two for me :D

Now I will be the first to admit when I began my Christmas shopping I always thought of other places first, but actually I think Walgreens is a great place to go Christmas shopping, or gift shopping in general! There is lots of great stuff, and I would have to say that you can pick up something for everyone in your family. My favorite thing I picked out was a beanbag chair, it was in the shape of a football! They had a few of those at the shop too cute!

Lots of other stuff as well like for the kiddos, they have cute toys. For the ladies in the household perfume, or a hair dryer and of course lots of makeup and other fun stuff that's perfect for a spa day at home,I saw several cute makeup kits at my local store alone. For the older kiddos, electronics, a Nintendo Wii, digital cameras and accessories for ipad or ipods and cellphones. For the husband/boyfriend in your life, you can pick up gps's or a tv. Yes a tv!

They even have stuff you can pick up for your home or the chef in the family like a crock-pot or a blender. And don't forget lots of candy and goodies for stocking stuffers as well. After the holidays they are a great place to take your photos to be printed out as well (I go there to get my pictures printed out :) Dont forget batteries for all those electronics and toys so they can be used right out of the wrapping paper : )

Have you seen the television commercial for Walgreens lately about how its a great place to shop because its less busy? First of all I totally giggled at that commercial because well I think that I have ran into a few of those people shopping. On the other hand Id have to agree, I mean of course it didn't help when i went it was 11pm at night haha, but still. Its a great place to start of finish out getting gifts for your naughty and nice list :)

Oh and the gift I picked up for myself? :P One of my favorite movies is A Christmas Story and they had the leg lamp there from the movie.. I totally had to have it. I know its kooky but I just love that movie, its a christmas classic :P LOL Its like a little nightlight (but they do carry bigger sized of it) and It is just too cute. I actually saw one in a window when we went Christmas light watching a few weeks back and when kev told me they had it at Walgreen's I had to have it lol. It makes the perfect addition to my decorations.

So as you are rushing about these last few moments, don't forget to stop by your local Walgreens

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year.. And you get everything you want for christmas!

Hitting the Pause Button....

2011-12-19T14:51:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday everyone!

This weekend was a difficult one for me and with that and next weekend being the holidays, I decided that I was going to hit the pause button when it came to blogging and making stuff for the shop over the next week. Just take a break, take a breather and come back to it on the 26th fresh and ready to share once again..

Few people know this about me but I wanted to share. I suffer from depression and in the past few weeks I have been in a epic battle with it! I thought I was beating it, guess I was wrong. I do plan on going into more of my story at a later date, once i get the courage up to sharing a bit more.

But hey as my counsler says, everyone has problems it just makes you not perfect but human.. Which isn't a bad thing.

So with my mind not in the right place I decided to stop and smell the pine trees. Just get lost in the fun of the holiday season this week.

Dont unfollow! I plan on coming back and sharing more exciting things in the new year. My weight loss journey, more photos as I continue in life as a eternal photography student :) and so much more.

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, and a great new year :)

Thank you everyone.

Song Saturday, the weekend before christmas!

2011-12-17T10:16:00.000-08:00

Its the weekend before christmas! :) So heres another song to put you in the christmas spirit. Another classic that I love.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! See ya monday!

Friday Friday insert the rest of the friday song here

2011-12-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

The weekend is here and im jumping for joy! :P

Its 9 days until christmas! And im double jumping for joy! lol

My hand is feeling better, decided to wear the brace a bit longer and start wearing it at night when I sleep too.

Ok first of all lets choose a winner for the starbucks ornament, if you didnt win no worries I will be having another giveaway right at the new year something starbucks again im sure haha..

The winner is....

Sarah!! You win :D Sarah is a fellow blogger and another starbucks addict LOL.. She blogs over at naptimemomtog and she rocks!! :P

So there ya go! Another giveaway down, like I said if you didn't win don't worry I LOVE giving stuff away on here :D many more to come.

So big plans for the Friday evening? Mine will consist of hanging out on social networking while lounging in front of the tv :D exciting aint it?? I think so :P

Oh I changed my profile picture on here to an acutal picture of me :P So I thought id link it for embracing the camera. I got all arty with it too lol

I hope you have a lovely last weekend before christmas! :) Marcy is already getting her weekend lazy on.. :P

be sure to come back tommorow for song saturday another christmas song to get you in the spirit :)

Happy Friday everyone!

Blogging while injured!

2011-12-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

So yeah I was speed crocheting the past few days and my hand finally gave out. As im typing this the right side of my right hand is hurting bad. I have been fighting carpel tunnel the past few years and I think with all the stuff I have had to do with my store and orders recently. My hand has had enough. I picked up a hand brace and hopefully that will help. I need to take a few days off crocheting too.

Not exactly the way I wanted to start out my Thursday! But what can you do :) Can you believe next week is Christmas? Next week will be busy with last minute shopping. (Don't ya hate when ya gotta wait for payday?) And cookie/cake baking. I will be taking the carrot cake I made in a previous blog post to take to our family gathering and lots of cookies as well. (that's why my hand needs to heal.. NOW) lol

I edited my picture for the contest.. I added some extra brokeh with the clone tool! My first time trying it, also messed with the contrast a bit. What do you think?

SOOC: (straight out of the camera)

Edit:

SOOC stats
ISO 400
f 5.6
shutter speed 1/40

Edit stats
Contrast tweaked
more brokeh added with clone tool
edge burn action.

Well I hope everyone has a happy Thursday. Are you ready for the weekend? I am! :)
Dont forget todays the last day to enter my epic Starbucks ornament giveaway :)

A starbucks kinda wordless wednesday! :)

2011-12-13T21:32:00.000-08:00

3 posts in 1 day! I have been a busy bee, im at the tail end of finishing another order tommorow so I decided to get wordless Wednesday up early!

I got the 2 Starbucks ornaments in the mail today! Its huge! I love it. Dont forget im giving another one away, the contest ends Friday :) Ill include the link below.

I hope everyone's week is going swimmingly! :)

http://sweetsandshutterclicks.blogspot.com/2011/12/epic-friday-giveaway.html

Linking up with these lovely blogs!

SOOC and Edit Week 49!

2011-12-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today is a busy day, my first sponsored post went live! Feeling quite bloggy today :P And it was for Duncan Hines, uhm can you say perfect for the cupcake queen??

I made a carrot cake with cream cheese glaze.. Oh my god it was yum-tastic.

I wanted to make sure and get my SOOC (or Straight out of the Camera) and Edit up today too, I got in on the tail end of this photo challenge and I must say it is quite fun :)

This weeks theme is Brokeh or Blurry! I wanted to shoot something quick so I grabbed my tripod an went to the tree and just started shooting. I got a few cute shots.

I cant wait to try my hand at editing these. :)

Hope everyones week is going just great!

Holiday Baking and Entertaining!

2011-12-13T14:21:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There's no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

Its finally the last 2 weeks before Christmas, this is such a busy time of year for everyone im sure lots of decorating, shopping, and of course baking! I love to bake cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pretty much anything. and when it comes to holiday get togethers, or family get togethers in general I am the one that is known for bringing the cupcakes. If not cupcakes, dessert! I am the sugar queen what can I say.

This holiday season is no different. Now I must say sometimes I just run out of time to plan something to bake from scratch and that is where a really good mix comes into play. And I must say that Duncan Hines makes holiday baking and entertaining so much easier.

Now I have blogged before about my love of using cake mixes, now don't get me wrong I do bake from scratch as well, but I must say that using a dressed up or cake mix as is makes for a wonderful, delicious desert. There is so many yummy recipes that you can make with a great cake mix. Especially Duncan Hines, their decadent line of desert mixes are just that! I decided to take the carrot cake mix to our family holiday party this year.

I added a few dates chopped finely to the mix to dress it up a bit other then that I just decided to keep it simple, the carrot cake mix comes ready to go with the shredded carrots and raisins makes it so yummy and quite easy. and I used egg beaters instead of eggs and canola oil instead of vegetable oil (I have to bake heart smart now because of Kevin) now I know that the last thing that I myself am worried about is the calorie count haha but I have had to make a few changes in the way that I bake even with dessert mixes so Kevin doesn't have to go without the dessert especially at special occasions.

Now the wonderful thing about the not only the decadent line but all of Duncan Hines cake mixes are they are trans-fat free so my wonderful husband doesn't have to miss out on the dessert this holiday season :P Of course I am allowing a little bit of a pass because I covered the carrot cake with the cream cheese glaze lol but it equals out right??

Lets talk about this glaze shall we, there is so many things you can do! Dip chocolate chip cookies in the chocolate glaze. Or my favorite glaze cupcakes with them. When I noticed they had cream cheese flavored glaze I had to go for it! The possibilities are endless.

This cake turned out so moist and delicious, and with the glaze over the top of it made it really yummy, it sure to be loved by anyone at your next holiday gathering its perfect to go with a large glass of egg-nog, milk, coffee.

So enjoy this season with some yummy dessert from Duncan Hines! What are some of your favorite desserts?

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Remember to check out Duncan Hines' website www.duncanhines.com to find some great recipes for your holiday get-together! I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective.

Manic Monday, I wish it was sunday..

2011-12-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

Oh monday we meet again haha. My lazy button was switched on when I got up, its one of those days where you wanna lay around and do nothing, but can't do that! Too much to do :P

Anywho, It was a wonderful weekend, I spent time with Kevin, got some baking in, the green bay packers won! I even got some photo practice in :D

I followed the advice of a blog I <3 to read Rachel and "and then she snapped" and this was the final result. I think it turned out lovely. I even made it the wallpaper on my phone :)Its less then two weeks before Christmas can you believe it? I'm almost ready with the majority of what I have to get done will be finished around the 22nd (gotta wait till payday lol) I have a few more orders to get out this week.The week is looking steady but not busy, which I like. Shipping out the last few orders and tonight is date night with the husband. We don't get a chance to do this often so when we do we take advantage. We are heading out to dinner, and grocery shopping lol (romantic I know) :P How is your week looking? Are you ready for Christmas? I really wanna go out driving and looking at lights this evening too, I haven't gotten a chance to do that this year yet. Maybe I can convince Kevin this tonight :P Dont forget just 5 more days to enter my ornament giveaway. I have gotten such wonderful response! Thank you :) http://sweetsandshutterclicks.blogspot.com/2011/12/epic-friday-giveaway.htmlI hope everyone has a lovely start to the week. Happy Monday!

Song Saturday! One of my favorite christmas movies is on next week! :)

2011-12-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

The christmas song countdown continues!!

AMC is playing one of my favorite christmas movies next week. "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby. So what better pick for song saturday then white Christmas! :)

Happy Weekend! See ya Monday!

Dont forget to check out my cute Christmas ornament giveaway here :)

http://sweetsandshutterclicks.blogspot.com/2011/12/epic-friday-giveaway.html

Christmas Cookie Countdown!

2011-12-10T05:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Saturday! As the days continue to fly by on our way to christmas one of the things I look forward to every year is christmas cookies! Both baking and eating of course :D

I am honored to co-host one of my blog friends Branson at My Reflection of Something's Christmas Cookie Countdown link-up!

But this year I wanted to try something different because we have had to cut out eggs from Kev's diet due to his heart condition. So I was stuck because I could use egg beaters but I knew I wouldnt get that thin and crispy cookie that I love. Yes when it comes to homemade cookies I love the thin and crispy over the cakey type cookie. So I went surfing on the internet and found.. Eggless Sugar Cookies!

I was skeptical, how can you make cookies without eggs? But I just went for it and am I quite pleased with her they turned out.

Heres the recipe

Eggless Peppermint Sugar Cookies
1/2 lb. butter
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. water
1 tsp baking soda or powder
1/2 bag of Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Then add vanilla, flour, soda, and water mix until blended.

Add chips and stir in by hand until it comes together. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Then roll into balls and place 6 at a time on a greased cookie sheet. (or use parchment paper like I have) Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.

Now this wasnt the orginal recipe. I upped the sugar and vanilla and added the baking powder or soda. But thats the wonderful thing about this recipe you can add lemon juice and zest in place of the water. Or add cocoa power and make them chocolate.

When it comes to baking them it doesnt give a time on the recipe to bake for just says until golden brown. I tried a batch at 11 minutes, but they still came out a bit doughy so I tried 13 minutes and they came out too toasty, so I tried 12 minutes and they came out just right! :)

They are really yummy thin and crispy cookies. Very pepperminty and just yummm. You can't even tell theres no eggs in the dough.

I want to thank Branson for having me as a co-host. You should totally go check out her blog :) It is wonderful. And so many recipes! If you have one link up! :D Have a lovely weekend! :)

Epic Friday Giveaway! ~CLOSED~

2011-12-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday Everyone! :D The weekend is here, and we are that closer to christmas :) Are you ready?

Its been a good week, but im ready for the weekend :P This weekend will consist of baking cookies.

Im looking forward to the making cookies, I love making cookies, and and even more eating cookies.. But i've been more addicted to these lately..

Can you say mmm chocolate covered pretzelsss.. Mainly I just love the cookie/candy season! lol Enjoying it while it lasts because I have made the decision to get healthy in the new year.. And actually stick to it! I'm going to be blogging about it so im thinking that will make the difference.

Anyway im losing my train of thought lol. So I promised a pretty epic giveaway so here it is!

As you all know I love Starbucks, if i'm not going there i'm drinking from my cereal bowl mug collection at home haha. So I decided to share my addiction again and giveaway

A Starbucks mug Christmas ornament!

I just ordered one of these for me :p and another just for the specific reason of giving it away to one of you lovely blog reading friends :P

Since they are still on the way being shipped ill link to what it looks like...This is what they look like..

http://www.starbucksstore.com/Starbucks%C2%AE-Logo-Mug-Ornament/011015683,default,pd.html?start=11&cgid=gifts-and-extras

Are they not the cutest! And you can have one too if ya enter :P

Manditory Entry: you gotta follow my blog through GFC

Optional extra entries: Follow my facebook page (the link is in the upper right corner) and leave a comment saying you have done so :)
Share about the contest in someway! leave a tweet about it (make sure im linked in the tweet im @__Jodi)

Thats it! :) The contest will be open until next friday December 16th at noon. Then I will priority mail you the ornament so it can be hanging on your tree by christmas eve :)

I hope you have a lovely weekend. Any big plans?

~~This giveaway is not sponsored by starbucks, I just bought a extra ornament and wanted to give it away one of my blog readers :) I purchased the ornament myself :)~~

SOOC and Edit.... The Editing Part :P

2011-12-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

I'm finally catching up this week! And its just in time for the weekend :) Finally got another order finished and ready to ship out, and i'm going to send out Christmas cards this weekend!

I haven't gotten much of a chance to take many pictures this week. But I cant resist the SOOC and Edit challenge so I picked up my camera and shot my Christmas tree. :) I am hoping to get more shots this weekend! I have been neglecting my camera lately lol. I miss it :D

Its supposed to snow today! Ack! Im not ready for snow, especially because i'm supposed to go run errands in it lol.

Im so ready for the weekend.. I am getting some baking in this weekend finally! One of my blog friends Branson is hosting a cookie exchange! And i am honored to be a part of it! :P Here is her link you can go check it out!

I should have another giveaway up by Friday, lets just say what i'm giving away is.... It goes well with an addiction of mine LOL.. I love giving stuff away!! lol

Oh! I rambled and totally forgot to link my pictures for the challenge..

SOOC:

Edit:

SOOC stats:
ISO 640
f 5.6
shutterspeed 1/20

Edit stats:
messed with the levels a bit
then used a action called creamy toffee latte.. :) I love that lol

Well, I hope everyone is having a lovely week! Im ready for the weekend are you? :)

Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday evening..

2011-12-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

Was playing around with shooting the Christmas tree and remembered that I had this on my tables cape so I took a few pictures and messed around with it. Love this :) I have had this for a few years but I always forget to light it. So I decided to tonight :D

I dont know about you but im ready for the weekend :P

How is your week going?

Linking up with these lovely blogs...

Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday evening..

2011-12-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

Was playing around with shooting the Christmas tree and remembered that I had this on my tables cape so I took a few pictures and messed around with it. Love this :)

I hope your week is going great :)

Linking up with these lovely blogs...

Snowy Tuesday!

2011-12-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

First of all I want to thank everyone for the response to my last post. It was just I was awake at midnight and had some thoughts on my mind so I just decided to be brave and share! :)
I am going to just slowwww down and not get overwhelmed when it comes to this blogging thing :D I promise I will visit everyone's blog that I can, I just can't let myself get overwhelmed again. Something else I need to work on is not be my own worst critic!

Its Tuesday! and its grey outside, im thinking the sun flew south for the winter lol. I think I saw a few snowflakes outside! Im ok with snow as long as its just a few inches, when it gets into feet. Then I dislike it lol. Of course id rather have snow then ice.

Kevin finished my lightbox (well 3/4 of the way finished I still need a longer cardboard.) gonna hit up Hobby Lobby later this week and get that taken care of. It was so funny I showed kevin the tutorial and he was like "can I put it together?" lol So I emailed him the link and off he went. He had entirely too much fun putting this together it was too cute..

See the seam in the cardboard? I bought a box that was a little too big.

I think he got the sides a little off but I can work with it..

I can't wait to get that cardboard and start shooting in it!

Well I am off to crochet and enjoy this evening. I hope you do too! I think there's some more Christmas shows on tonight. I love TV this time of year :D

Oh sneak peek! All week my friend Chelsea at Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles is hosting giveaways. Well tommorow shes giving away 2 of my flower hair clips! I snapped a few shots for her and had an extra and thought it was perfect for touch up tuesday :D

SOOC:

Edit:

Just a warmer and edge burn action on this one. Oh and I cropped it a bit.

How cute is my candle holder :P I got that for christmas last year and thought it was just too cute!

So yeah go check out Chelsea. I forgot my feature last friday :P So Im making it a Tuesday follow feature instead! Go follow Chelsea! :P

http://sunnywithchancesprinkles.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone has a wonderful tuesday. :)

Latenight midnight thoughts..

2011-12-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

I was inspired to blog again this late at night for a few reasons.

1. I think I try to read too many blogs in one day. Its just I want to leave tons of little happy notes on everyone who visits me and I also want to connect with others through my blog so but I realized today that I think I try to visit too many in one day.. I left a comment about a friends photo thinking it was her tree was such a pretty picture so I left a comment that I loved her tree.. Only until I went back to read the paragraph under the picture that it was someone else's tree. (slaps forehead) It may seem small but I felt so stupid lol I was just looking at the picture when I don't want to do that. I just need to come up with a system to read everyone's blog without rushing so I can spread as much joy as possible. I mean I love everyone's comments they bring a smile to my face, I want to do the same for others.. I dunno I guess ill figure it out..

2. I watched Charlie Brown Christmas earlier tonight. and this is my favorite part.

I have loved this part ever since I was a child. Its so simple.. Christmas means so much to me... the family, the food, the cookies, the tree, giving gifts, that sometimes I forget what its really about. And Charles Schultz summed it up in one little moment in a Christmas special. Its one of my favorite bible stories.

As you are rushing around, putting up the lights and getting the cookie baking, and wrapping the presents. Even if you aren't religious, just take a moment and remember the magic of this time of year. It is a special time for me, and I hope it is for you too :)

A very quiet weekend and enjoyed every second of it..

2011-12-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

Its so true! More people have been putting up lights over the weekend. This is my favorite time of year and I love it!

Not much happened this weekend and i enjoyed it. It was so quiet, so peaceful, no rushing. Just quiet time to think. I finished up 2 hat and scarf sets for a charity auction my friend is having next weekend. I think they turned out really really cute.

The week is shaping up to be a semi-busy one. I have my appointment tommorow and a few more orders to get shipped this week. As well as one more swap package! With finishing this week with a little bit more Christmas shopping. :)

Kev got my light box done. Gonna snap some pictures with it sometime this week. I am going to have to get a bigger piece of cardboard because I made the mistake of getting a bigger box, but I think it turned out really good, and will come in handy with the relaunch of my shop in January! :)

I only have 1 photo challenge in the beginning of the week now with SOOC and edit. The theme this week is the holidays! I snapped a photo of my tree and I love the SOOC :D not sure what im going to do for the edit yet.. Might have to play around with it. This is no flash whatsoever just with the living room light on and the Christmas tree lights on.

I think that's all for today. Stay tuned this week because I have not one but 2 giveaways. One on my blog and my good friend Chelsea from Sunny with a Chance of sprinkles is giving away something from my shop this week too!

Its gonna be a good week! :)

How was your weekend? How is your week shaping up?

Have a lovely monday!

Song Saturday... The Christmas Season Continues...

2011-12-03T07:29:00.000-08:00

Heard this one on the radio this week, reminded me how much I LOVE this song :D

Happy Weekend Everyone, see ya Monday! :)

oh! I put up what im swapping in the epic swap :D (just some hats and flower hair clips :)

http://sweetsandshutterclicks.blogspot.com/2011/12/epic-holiday-swap.html

Friday is here!! About time!

2011-12-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

Its finally Friday! I am looking forward to the weekend, today is a busy day I have 2 orders going out as well as finishing a hat and scarf set for a charity auction all while watching Christmas movies.I love this time of year when they play all my favorites, the night before last I watched Scrooged (love Bill Murray) and last night was The Santa Clause. Monday Charlie Brown Christmas is on! Love it..

The rest of the weekend is looking open so im going to take advantage to recharge, unplug and relax and enjoy the quiet :)

So.. How was your week? Mine was kinda blah, was sick for most of the week. But im doing a bit better today finally. What are your weekend plans looking like? Going out Christmas shopping? Yuck I just realized I still need to finish that Im almost done though, just a few more items to pick up. lol.

Tommorow I'm going to post what im putting in the epic holiday swap with Bartering Blogger so stay tuned :D.. Haven't heard about that yet? You should go check it out! :P There's some great stuff up already.

http://barteringblogger.blogspot.com/2011/11/pre-holiday-swap.html

I think a trip to Starbucks is in order sometime this weekend. If Starbucks ever sponsors me i'm in trouble LOL

I got my haircut earlier this week.. I thought it would make the perfect embrace the camera this weekend..

Im off to get this weekend started :D I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Epic Holiday Swap!!!

2011-12-01T11:37:00.000-08:00

Its Christmas time finally! This is my favorite time of year, we have put up our tree and lights there is searching for the recipes for baking, planning get togethers with family and finishing up some last minute shopping or in my case crocheting. But I always love trying to find new ways to spread a little holiday fun! Thats why I wanted to help out my friend faith with her holiday swap! I am proud to co-host! Who knows maybe ill find a last minute gift :D I will be preparing my swap selection this weekend so stay tuned, I already know of a few things that I would love to swap :D

This is what im swapping :D The smaller hat on the left (the larger one is taken) its child size :)

This is teen/adult sized hat is in a color of yarn called cherry cola! How epic is that :D

Then im swapping 2 flower clips (only in different colors :D) But i wanted to post this picture of them to show the size :)

What can you swap? Pretty much anything! Clothes, books, movies, decorations. You can also swap things like photo editing, ad space, blog design, hosting a giveaway or a guest post on your blog. Your creativity is the only limit! If you've got an online shop and are looking to get some more exposure this is a great place to swap items for ad space or items you are good at making for items you're not so good at making. You can swap things you don't need or want anymore for something that you do! For more details on what can and can not be swapped and answers to any questions you might have about the swap please click here for my "details" post.

How do you post your swap? Option 1: Just snap a photo with your smart phone of the thing you want to swap and tweet it mentioning @BarteringBloggr and I'll both re-tweet it and add your tweet to the swap linky. It's that quick and easy!

Option 2: Write a post on your blog with a photo of the item(s) you'd like to swap and link it up here with the linky I'll be posting December1. The link-up code that is on this blog will automatically re-post your link on the other hosts blogs (so you won't need to link-up on multiple sites) If you write a blog post for this swap please include the button/grab badge from this post so that you can easily recognize each other's posts for this swap. I'd recommend you list a few things you have to swap and also several things you'd be interested in swapping for. Be as specific as possible!

What next? Feel free to contact the other swappers to arrange your trade, make an offer come to an agreement, swap addresses then carefully package your little piece of happiness and ship it off to your sweet new friend ASAP!

The linky will close on Tuesday December 6 at 11pm EST

Everyone who participates in the swap will receive a $10 gift card to Easy Canvas Prints and one random participant will receive a gift card to Bath & Body Works

get your linky code

Showing off the cutest shot ever! :D

2011-12-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Thursday! Are you ready for the weekend? I am :)

I was playing around with the aperture priority setting last night on my camera and captured this.. It was too good not to share :D I like how the focus hit Marcy..

Happy Thursday Everyone! :)

2 Picture Sorta Wordy Wordless Wednesday!!

2011-11-30T13:03:00.000-08:00

So its Wednesday! How is your week going? Mine is going alright, still feeling ehh lol but better. The think i'm most happy about today is the sun is out!! :D That is why i'm sneaking in 2 photos today because I had to capture outside, even though its cold out the sun is shining so it makes it a bit more tolerable :P

The other picture I want to share is a very important one, we put the Christmas tree up and I placed the special ornaments on the tree.. The ornaments I get each year for our daughter, this year I went a different way, we get an ornament every year engraved but when I saw a ornament at hobby lobby that was her initial only a cookie! Perfect :D but I was standing by the sliding glass door and saw how this ornament caught the light and had to take a capture of it. Isn't it pretty.

I hope everyones having a wonderful week.. Its only 2 days till the weekend woo! :) Dont forget im looking to swap buttons. Email me at Jodihall2011@gmail.com for more info :D

Linking up with these wonderful blogs!

Would you Like to swap blog buttons??

2011-11-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

Oh I almost forgot.. I wanted have wanted to post this for a while just finally getting around to it..

Since I am just getting into a groove with blogging, I don't think im ready to ask for paid sponsors but I would love a way to feature your blog! So what i'm gonna do is a button-type swap sponsor program.

I would do a once a month post featuring your blog, and your button would be predominantly placed here on my blog :)

If you would like to sponsor sweets and shutterclicks, and the blog continues to grow just shoot me a email jodihall2011@gmail.com and we can get started.

Touch up pictures on a under the weather Tuesday! :)

2011-11-29T14:02:00.000-08:00

Well a weird sinus/allergy attack has been chasing me for a few days, I thought I would be able to down some vitamin C and fight it off but no go.. So im feeling quite yucky today, but I still managed to get the housework done today so I feel somewhat accomplished lol.

Picked up a few more presents for Black Friday on Think Geek yesterday. I love that website well, because im a geek! LOL Did you pick up anything good yesterday? I'm down to just finishing making a few gifts and then picking up a few more and i'm done! I changed my mind of a few presents..

Thank you all for the comments yesterday, I am just going to continue blogging what I <3 and that's the most important thing.Im looking through Pinterest for Christmas baking ideas. Its that time of year!! :D I know I want to make some cookies, but i'm thinking fudge as well. And of course, cupcakes!! The cupcake queen doesn't let a holiday go by without making cupcakes lol.. Do you have any favorite baking recipes you are making this season?Finally the photo challenge of the day is Touch up Tuesday.. Usually I do SOOC and edit on Tuesday but I didn't take my camera along on turkey day so I didn't really have anything to edit.. Next week! :P So for today I chose to show how just a simple edit can make a picture stand out even more.I snapped a few pictures of my tree when I first put it up and I love this one. All i did was mess with the color balance a bit and ran a sharpness action.. Here is what i mean.SOOC:

And after:

Like i said its really slight but I think it just warmed it up.. :)

Ok I am off to curl up and get rid of this yuckiness lol I hope everyone is having a wonderful Tuesday :)

Monday's Thoughts.....

2011-11-28T14:50:00.000-08:00

Its the Monday after the holiday weekend, and I can finally take a breather! Its been a busy weekend of family, food, shopping and friends. But it was fun, cant deny that :)

So starts a new week! Got a few things I wanted to share with you today. I have been thinking alot about my blog this weekend, and I want to consistently change so keep things exciting while still keep blogging for myself. I always feel like I need to put something up everyday to keep interest but I don't want to just rush to put something up on my blog to just have a post where my heart isn't in it. If I miss a day it will not only keep things fresh but it will give me a chance to visit all the new blogs i follow. I love blog hopping and sharing comments because if someone has taken the time to come read about my life I want to take a little time out of my day and do the same :) So stay tuned for this wild ride of me blogging! :D Just wanted to share a big thats on my heart recently.

To switch up gears.. One of my favorite photo challenges recently has been Shades of Autumn.. Now I didnt get a chance to participate in last weeks, but they are having one more! Your favorite photos you shared for the challenge :) So of course I am going to share mine :)

Green...

Yellow...

Red...

Purple...

and brown...

You can learn more about it here :D http://liveandloveoutloud.com/2011/11/25/shades-of-autumn-photo-challenge-finale/

I have learned so much from that challenge :) I love photo challenges cuz they... well they challenge ya! :D

Hmm lets see what else.. Oh yea the Christmas tree is up! We had to buy a new tree this year and i think we did pretty good :) I am going to be trying my hand at some Christmas lite style photos over the coming weeks.. Its a place to practice my low light shots :D

So much information in this post. But im trying to catch up lol.. I think ill stop right there for now.

How was your weekend? Did you get some rest or did you do something fun? Are you taking advantage of cybermonday sales today?

Have a lovely monday

Song Saturday...The holiday season begins!!

2011-11-26T12:27:00.000-08:00

Happy Weekend everyone, I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend! With Thanksgiving finished, the holiday season begin! For the next 4 song Saturdays I decided to share my favorite Christmas carols.

This is my first one. I love God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and one of my favorite youtubers did a cover of it this weekend with her sister. I think its very pretty..

I plan to share lots of holiday stuff in the coming weeks. This is my favorite time of year, I love just after thanksgiving when we decorate the tree and the house. The baking and so much more. I love christmas and I want to share all of that with you wonderful readers :) Going to share a few recipes that are my holiday favorites.. among other surprises :)

Well I am off to enjoy the rest of this weekend. How is your holiday weekend going? Are you supporting small business today on small business Saturday? :)

Im Blank Because......

2011-11-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

Posting this as for Casey Wiegand's FollowFest.. She is my follow friday feature for this week as well. Hey blog is inspiring, sweet, and a true blessing.

You can find her here..

I was going to post about my etsy shop but its in the middle of relaunching lol im mainly doing special orders so if you need a hat or scarf, or pretty much anything crochet you can check out craftycakegirl.etsy.com

But in the meantime I decided to jump on the bandwagon and post the Im blank blog meme! :D It was originally started here HERE But I thought it would be perfect not only for the follow fest but for everyone! :)

Im weird because....
I sing very loud to the stereo in my car even if people are staring
I dislike being to hot or too cold.. In the middle please
I have to rush around and clean my house before company comes over
I am quiet when I talk on the phone, but I rock at talking with someone in person
Im a dog person, but have a cat
I can pick things up off the ground with my feet
The type of music I listen to often has people confused.. house music anyone? LOL
I have a tendency to put things off till the last minute yet plan other things.
I am scared to ride amusement park rides (ill stay on the ground thank you)
Even though I dislike being cold, in the middle of winter im wearing t-shirt and shorts in the house.

I'm a bad friend because :(....
I have trouble committing to lunches or get togethers.
I use Facebook to remember birthdays too lol
Because I get quiet on the phone I tend to text more often then I call people

I'm a good friend :)....
I am always willing to listen always weather through email, text, or phone call or in person.
If you need anything, I am always willing to help as much as I possibly can
I love my friends kids like they were mine too (I call them my kiddos) :) I mean how cute is this face!

I love to laugh and have a great time.
I consider my friends extended family :)
When my friends succeed I cheer right along with them. :)

I'm sad because....
I live just far enough away from my family and my best friend I cant see them often
I set goals and when I don't succeed I am sometimes too hard on myself
My husband has to work all the time
My health isn't where its supposed to be.
I'm trying to contribute to the household the best I can but I always think I can do more.
Its my fault we are having infertility issues right now.. (because of my health)

I'm happy because....
I have a husband who is supportive of my building my business and my blog and lets me chase my dreams.
I have wonderful in-laws who are just as supportive of that.
I am finally able to put something I love doing to good use for work

Its the Christmas season!
I have learned so much in the past few months about letting things go, and not letting others peoples judgement's effect me so much. I have changed, and only for the better :)
There's a chance that Kevin will go to day shift next board (fingers crossed)

I'm excited for....
Christmas baking
My shop relaunch
My friend faith's photo styling class (trying to get the money together for it :P)
Everyone I get a sale the feeling when i send it off :)
The christian station is starting 24/7 christmas music until new years today
A new year, a new start!

Well there ya go :) more about me.. Some good, some sad.. :( but its just me.. Any new visitors that stop from from the followfest leave your blog in the comments and I will return the follow and visit! :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend :)

Recovery Insta-Friday....

2011-11-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

The day after turkey day! I hope everyone had a blessed holiday and ate tons of food. My day was pretty good, there was lots of food, family, and great conversation.

Lunch with 2nd mom and dad went over great, I made just the right amount of food for lunch for 4. We still have turkey left! Dad really enjoyed himself, mom too. Then I took a hour long nap on the couch.. Turkey is dangerous let me tell you lol. But we woke up in time to pile in the car and head to my mom and dads. Their house was busting at the seams, but the food was insane and I got a chance to spend time with my grandparents for a while. Good times were had.

Its the busiest shopping day of the season and I have decided to skip it, the only thing I really need is a christmas tree. So that doesn't really mean i need to get out in the cold. Kevin is working early so my plans for the day are to be as lazy as possible. I plan on finishing up a few orders this weekend so really I will be deep in recovery mode.. With leftover turkey and fix-ins for dinner to top it off..

Turkey Lunch...

Almost done..

Even Marcy had a turkey dinner.. :)

Lunch is ready! :)

Captured this beautiful sunset on the way to mom and dads..

How was your thanksgiving? Did you eat a lot of food? Did you head out and shop today?

Happy Weekend Everyone! ;)

A holiday version of SOOC and Edit :P

2011-11-24T07:45:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday.

See ya friday! :)

SOOC stats:
ISO 400
f7
1/75 shutter speed

Edit stats:
Velvet truffle action from coffeeshop blog
messed with the opacity..

SOOC:

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A turkey, kinda wordy wordless wednesday!

2011-11-23T08:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday! Tommorow is the big day!

I hope everyone has a wonderful turkey day and eat lots of food! :)

Marcy is all ready for turkey day :) Does she look relaxed enough? lol

Linking up with these wonderful blogs..

Grateful...SOOC shoot and edit

2011-11-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

Tuesday! Today is a much better day, the weather could be a little less grey but other then that compared to yesterday its a much better day. I did manage to get about 75 percent of my list done yesterday which i am extremely happy about! Today I have a lot less to do and I am not quite so overwhelmed.

I was inspired when I woke up for a photo challenge today. The theme is grateful, and of course in my life I am grateful for so many things. Of course im grateful for my husband...and my kitty. :) and my family,my friends and my kiddos!

But there are smaller things as well.. such as

Yes sometimes I am grateful for rainy days...

Quiet times where I can relax with starbucks :P

and most of all I am grateful for the courage to try new things this year. I have always been afraid to step out and try something new. I was scared that I wont be successful.. But something changed about me this year I found this new courage to say ok I may not always succeed but I will learn from my mistakes and continue on..

So many new things, I set up my etsy shop this year, I am taking my photography hobby even a step further, and restarting my blog. Lessons learned from success and from failures both only make you a stronger person :)

Today will consist of housecleaning and blog hopping :) and some more crocheting of course.. Tommorow I have to go grocery shopping for turkey day, going shopping the day before turkey day yeah thats gonna be fun lol, im gonna go later in the evening I hope that will make a difference. Im ready for some good food I dont know about you :P

I hope everyone has a wonderful tuesday :)

Even the best laid plans.....

2011-11-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

Today has been a interesting day lol.....

First of all im sure you noticed the new header. Jess from IROCKSOWHAT redid my blog header and a button too for winter. She is so talented. What do you think of it?

Ok back to my story lol. I woke up after oversleeping, yesterday Kevin stayed home because he wasn't feeling well and it kind of caught on to me I was very sleepy and didn't get anything done lol. It was ok though it was a nice recharge for the turkey day week, and I got to spend some time with kev. :)

So today I had everything planned out including finishing up photos for the last in the shades of autumn challenge, 2 trips to the store and about 3 other things as well as my dr's appointment. One by one every plan fell by the wayside, but hey at least i'm laughing about it right? lol But I just realized today that I put too much pressure on myself to get so much done and all I end up doing is stressing myself out. I need to learn to space things out lol.

We are having turkey day lunch for kev's mom and dad here Thursday so i'm trying to get the stuff for that, plus thanks to a blog friend's direction I am building the light-box because I think it will help me not only with my macro photography but with my product photography! (enclosing the link below to see :)

http://www.ashleysisk.com/2011/11/shoot-and-edit-week-43edit-guest.html

Also I have 4 orders going out this week that i need to finish. My shop has been so booming the past few weeks, I am really excited about that. I have big ideas for after the first of the year with my etsy shop, like maybe a relaunch! I got a new etsy header done for Christmas I will be putting up this week.

So realizing I have so much on my plate this week some things are going by the wayside like the photo challenge I do plan on participating in the last one which is next week :) I just need to stop being so hard on myself when things I have on my list don't get done. But, one of my new years resolutions is to plan my time better lol

I got our Christmas card photo done im editing it tonight or tommorow and that will be ordered this week! I cant wait to share with all of you :) I am signed up for a few Christmas card swaps if you are having one just leave a comment below i will participate :)

This week is challenging but I am ready to tackle it head on.. 2 of my orders have to be shipped this week, as well as getting ready for turkey day. Turkey day itself is going to be tricky because after lunch we are going to my parents house. My side of the family is in dysfunction and I would explain but it would take 4 blog posts lol Needless to say my siblings and I aren't speaking. So turkey day will be interesting...But I am focusing on the joy of the holidays including the foood. My dad is cooking and he is an AMAZING cook. I plan on getting his grit recipe and of course sharing :P

Now tonight will consist of putting the finishing touches on a scarf and the card photo and trying to take a breather and not take on so much anymore!

What are you plans for the week, are you swamped like myself? What are you traditions? Do you travel or are family coming to your house?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

Feeling thankful....

2011-11-19T12:52:00.000-08:00

Its thanksgiving week and while I shared little bits and pieces of what im thankful for I wanted to participate in a blog hop where everyone shares what their thankful for :)

1. my husband-he is my rock,my cheerleader, my soul-mate, and my best friend.
2. my mom- my relationship with my mother has only gotten stronger as I got older and I am really thankful for that.
3. my friends- they accepted me for the person I am and are just another means of support for me as I walk along this path.
4. my dad- I'm a daddies girl, and I love this time of year because my dad is a amazing cook and he really loves getting everyone together and eating a big dinner.
5. Starbucks-without caffeine I would be a mess LOL
6. cupcakes-I know cupcakes go in and out of style but to me they will always be fun.. I mean whats better then your own little cake with a big glob of icing ontop.
7. my etsy shop- I love using my creativity to make things to for other people! :)
8. my blog- When i came back to the world of blogging i had no idea I would be having this much fun. I have done so much in the past few months and I look forward to growing not only as a writer but growing my blog!
9. all you lovely readers/followers-thank you for making me feel so welcome as i returned to the wonderful world of blogging. I have made so many friends, met so many nice people thank you so much.
10. my kiddos- That would be my best friends kids and my nieces and nephew. I lovingly call them my kiddos! :) And this is my favorite time of year to spoil them rotten.
11. photography
12. crafting in general! I love getting crafty especially this time of year, and giving it away!
13. The holiday season and everything that goes along with it! :)

Happy weekend and thanksgiving week everyone :)

Song Saturday, youtube version...

2011-11-19T07:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Saturday! I hope everyone is having a great one. Its time to rock out :) One of my favorite things is to surf youtube for music! One of my favorites is Meghan tonjes, she is amazing and I wanted to share a few of my favorite songs that she has done. She is a true inspiration to me.. :) And its her birthday today! Happy Birthday Meghan!

She does both covers and her own songs. Her stuff is on itunes too :)

This is her most recent video a cover of Taylor Swifts "Sparks Fly"

I love this one because it made me laugh lol she filmed the whole video out of focus without knowing it.. But the song rocks..

And she has recently been out with a back injury so what she did with her channel is feature other independent artists these two are my favs..

Ok rock out everyone! :) See ya monday!

Insta-Friday Happiness :)

2011-11-18T13:17:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday everyone! Im so happy the weekends here can you believe next week is thanksgiving? The next week will be filled with baking and getting ready for the turkey to get here. :) Going to cook a thanksgiving lunch at my house then go visit my mother and father in the evening, finally stopping by my best friends house :)

The weekend plans include catchup on craft projects and a visit to my friends house on sunday. Looking forward to that! :) Other then that nothing too exciting happening but given that next week is the big turkey day It will be nice to recharge batteries.

What are your weekend plans? Are you ready for turkey day?

Its insta-gram friday! I managed to get a few pictures with the cellphone this week unlike last week :)

My cat is weird....

Snuggly..

I love catching Kevin off guard :)

We went to applebees and had their potato twirl things.. YUM!

Ice cream in November, yeah im like that :D at least i put fall sprinkles on it :)

It has been a fun week! Im ready for the weekend though :) Any big plans for you this weekend?

I hope everyone had a lovely week and a wonderful weekend!

Follow Friday Feature Guestpost!

2011-11-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks for asking me here to guest blog today, Jodi! I love when I find new bloggers from Chambana,and Jodi has a beautiful space here.

Hello, I’m chambanachik. Like many of you, I have a thing for dessert. We get along well. And this time of year gives me lots of excuses to bake more than usual.

This week, I discovered a new recipe that will probably be added to our family Christmas traditions! I found them the way I've found most of my recipes of late: through the wonder of Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/pin/127648970657872648/ ). I love all things lemon, so I had to give these a try. After their debut at our house, I can tell you that they received rave reviews!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
(makes 2-3 dozen)

Ingredients:
½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoons baking powder
⅛ teaspoons baking soda
1-½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar.

Scrape sides of bowl and mix again very briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large
plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

I would recommend doubling this recipe, because they go fast!

Thank you Erika for guest posting today! You all should really check out her blog, she is this weeks follow friday feature! :)

Happy weekend!

The latest christmas meme!

2011-11-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

Ok so I copied this from Jess from IROCKSOWHAT this is gonna be fun :P

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Depends on my mood, I like hot chocolate and when it gets closer to christmas I love egg nog.. but before or after noo.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He has elves for that :P .

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Last year we had blue lights. I think we will go with that again.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No but maybe this year? :)

5. When do you put your decorations up? Is yesterday to early?? in all seriousness i am really wanting to put up the decorations now but kevin likes to wait till the first weekend in December.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? My dad makes these killer grits every thanksgiving and christmas.. omg they are so insane. My dad is the best cook in the world!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? When we lived in Peoria, Illinois my grandparents just lived right up the road from us we would go to their house for christmas and it was the best. Christmas eve they laid out all these snack foods and we would hang out and open one gift. It was too much fun :)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What truth? ;)

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not anymore but i did when i was a kid :)

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Mainly just lights and a few ornaments that are special to me, and candy canes of course..

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love snow.. as long is it doesnt make travel horrible. I dont like to be snowed in.. Just a dusting or a few inches of snow though I LOVE.

12. Can you ice skate? Nope

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Yes when I was in my tween years I got a diary with a teddy bear on it.. I lost it eventually in moving from place to place but that was probably one of my favorite gifts. Now one gift that really blew me away was the Christmas before last I really wanted a sewing machine but I knew there was no way I was going to get it because we were all a bit cash poor, so I wasn't expecting it, Well Christmas eve rolls around (we do Christmas eve with kev's parents and day with my mom and dad) and out walks kevins sister with my sewing machine. I busted into tears.. I felt so silly afterwards but it just made me feel like the kid in the christmas story lol i got my red ryder sewing machine instead LOL

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Food, like i said my dad is the best cook ever!! and spending time with both of my sets of parents and seeing my 4 nieces and 3 nephews

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Pie all the way

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas music! The local christian station here in town starts the day after thanksgiving and goes through the new year.. We just keep it on that station all the time then :P

17. What tops your tree? An angel

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? I loveee giving gifts..

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? The lifesaver or starbursts ones... so much win lol

20. Favorite Christmas show? Charlie brown of course :P

21. Saddest Christmas Song? Christmas shoes.. i cant even listen to that song anymore

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? I love mannheim steamroller's carol of the bells.. but i think really my favorite song is O holy night.. All different versions.. but there is one that stands out its by a metal band but the band consists of 4 cellists.. They are called Apocalyptica...and this is just by far my favorite version of this song..

This was too much fun! I hope everyone has a lovely thursday :)

Sweets and Shutterclicks

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Oscars Review for 2012....Otherwise known as ZZZZZ lol

Sunday Funny

Playing Catchup

Caught a stomach bug...

Adorable Wordless Wednesday...

Poetic Passion...

I am starting the week off on a high note..

When all else fails...

Sunday Thoughts..

Sad Song Saturday...

Thank goodness its friday!!

Marcy Says.....

Wordless Wednesday....Dreaming of Spring

Valentines Day Full of Warmth

Grammy Wrap-up

Mellow Kind of Song Saturday

Insta-Friday the feeling yucky version

Emergency!

A Surprising Kinda Wordy Wordless Wednesday!

Such a Lazy day..

Poetic Winter Photography Challenge: Week 1 Solitude

New Years Blogging Party!

Super Bowl Weekend Song Saturday Edition!

Yay for Friday!!

An actual wordless wednesday!

A self portrait challenge

Playing around with Photoshop

Crafty Monday!

My wonderful button swap sponsors for Janurary

Song Saturday for 1/28/12

150 follower Give-Away!!!

Embracing alot of things this friday!

A Blog Critiquing Wordless Wednesday...only with word..type..things

Tuesday Tag!!

A good Monday after all!

Song Saturday Youtube version part 2

Grateful Friday!

Inspriation

No Wordless Wednesday for me tommorow!

Crafty Tuesday!

Unseasonably Warm Monday!

Song Saturday Adele Version!

Snow Snow Snow Friday, and forgiveness>all

Showing off my Thursday day in the life of edit!

Yuck Weather Wordless Wednesday

Starting the Week on Monday.

Song Saturday.. The facebook challenge!

Fill in the blank Friday

Happy Weekend! Insta-friday the marcy edition...

First Edit Me Challenge of 2012

Kinda Wordy Wordless Wednesday..

Hope

My motto for this year....

Getting back on Track..

Song Saturday... Happy 2012

A New Year begins.

All my lovely ad-swap sponsors for December!

Christmas roundup!

A extremely cute Wordless Wednesday

The reason for my break last week...

The final Song Saturday of the Season!

Late night Christmas Shopping!

Hitting the Pause Button....

Song Saturday, the weekend before christmas!

Friday Friday *insert the rest of the friday song here*

Blogging while injured!

A starbucks kinda wordless wednesday! :)

SOOC and Edit Week 49!

Holiday Baking and Entertaining!

Manic Monday, I wish it was sunday..

Song Saturday! One of my favorite christmas movies is on next week! :)

Christmas Cookie Countdown!

Epic Friday Giveaway! ~*CLOSED*~

SOOC and Edit.... The Editing Part :P

Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday evening..

Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday evening..

Snowy Tuesday!

Latenight midnight thoughts..

Friday Friday insert the rest of the friday song here

Epic Friday Giveaway! ~CLOSED~