lookin' for sun

You guys, it's the LAST day to enter the awesome giveaway to Studio Eleven! You can get wonderful prints like this! Not just one, but a few!! :D

Not only is it kind of maybe starting to warm up here, but Taylor and I are going to be headed towards sun! We didn't get a honeymoon...I mean, we had work off., but we just relaxed at home :)

It was really nice to take a break, but now we're ready for a real getaway! Maybe a weekend getaway? Maybe a weekend getaway to sun? Maybe...the city of lights!!

I'm so excited for my future with Taylor! A half year down and eternity to go!

Anyway, I have some adventures and stories to share, but for now, I just really wanna remind you to enter this incredibly awesome and generous giveaway!!!!

GIVEAWAY 

...do it.

shopping

 Don't forget to enter the giveaway to Studio Eleven! It closes March 1st, and use the promo-code STUBBORN20 to get 20% off those awesome prints!
 :)

I'm not the best shopper. I don't ever really have money, and when I do, I never want to spend it on some "high-quality" outfit when I can just get a cheap cute one. It's not that I don't love to dress up and look cute (believe me, I do!) I just don't have the energy, dedication, time or money to buy something I don't need and think about how to make it work. Even if I really want something, I usually put it back on the rack and forget about it. Although, sometimes I tell my adorable husband about it and he goes out and gets it for me!

Anyway, because of these bad shopping skills, I usually get pretty bored/exhausted/bummed when I go shopping with most girls! But I love shopping with a couple of lifelong friends. These girls have been my main shopping buddies for YEARS, and I will never get bored of our shopping games!

Because all three of us seem to suffer from the same lack of skills, we make shopping fun for each other! The other day we hit up the mall and we played our favorite shopping game. We've been doing it for years and years, and it will never get old! Basically, we each pick out an outfit for someone, then we all meet up at the dressing rooms and have a little fashion show. The results?

We obviously don't go for actual attractive outfits.

But boy, we have so much fun!!!

I love that I have my girls that totally get me. Even if it makes us look silly.

Giveaway: $20 to Studio Eleven!

Studio Eleven is only the best print shop around! The mastermind behind it, Brielle, is an awesome designer! Her blogs, buttons, banners, and PRINTS are all really cute! And her prints are really affordable! She's teaming up with me today to bring you (drum roll please...)

$20 to Studio Eleven

Nothing at Studio Eleven is over $20, which means if you win, you can get anything you want for FREE!

My husband and I recently received a personalized print from Brielle, and we just love it! It's our favorite colors and our favorite dates all combined into one! She's so easy to work with and let us pick out and approve everything before giving us the final print!

You guys do NOT want to miss out on these wonderful works of art!



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crisco

Have you ever come home after a long day and remembered something amazing, like...I don't work tomorrow, or I've got a double date tomorrow with awesome people, or My house is kind of clean, or My husband is the best and he's making me so ridiculously happy and proud every day, and you suddenly melt with happiness?

 I am definitely crisco in a fryer right now.

Taylor surprised me with the cutest bear and a beautiful rose bouquet at work yesterday. Why? Cause he loves me! :) And then he bought me workout clothes today! I've never had real workout clothes....I just workout in whatever. But now that Taylor and I are supporting each other with a healthier lifestyle, he decided I needed new workout clothes! He picked them out and got them for me. They're really nice!! I feel very spoiled!

Also, look at my outfit today!! (I added the cupcake 'cause I want one)

I felt so springy and fun! I love the length of this skirt and the pockets!

You guys. I'm excited for the future, I'm happy with the now, and I'm learning from the past! What more can one ask for?

Make sure you guys are around for a sweet giveaway tomorrow!

3 things

Firstly, will you all PLEASE check out this blog from a dear friend? It's called borrowed + blue and is awesome! Awesome, I tell you! My friend Brielle is basically informing us all on how to host a big event (like a wedding) without drowning in expenses or debt!

Today I'm featured on her blog for keeping my wedding costs under $1,500. Yes. $1,500. Dress, photography, rings, everything! Wanna know how I did it? Click on that pretty box below!

And look, she even made a little custom banner of Taylor and I and our wedding date! I had no idea she was doing this, isn't it beautiful??

Stay tuned, because I've got a giveaway coming from this amazing gal, featuring her awesome design skills :)

Secondly, I make a lot of typos. It's embarrassing! I write a post and then I go back to read it (after plenty of y'all already have) and I see a typo. Then, that little typo burns into my brain and I'm sad. For forever. Not forever, actually...a relatively short amount of time, but still! I think it's because I blog at work during my little fifteen minute break. Not much time for proof reading. And sure, my grammar is sub-par at best and even my spelling is a little awful, but it's the typos that get to me. I feel like I must apologize for them. So..

I'm sorry.

Thirdly/Lastly, it's Monday. Does anyone else have the Monday blues?

let's do this thing!

Taylor and I are ready for a change. We want to do things. We've been married for almost six months and the "we're adjusting to married life" is no longer a good enough excuse to go out to eat, laze around, and do practically nothing. So, we're making the change.

We took "senior pictures" on our walk  around town

Body.
We have kind of...well...we're really unhealthy. I hardly cook and we hardly move! But for the past week we've been trying to make a difference! We've been going on walks.At first I was thought, What is a walk gonna do? Really?? But when it comes down to it, no matter how slow you go, you already lapped the people sitting on the couch. We're also taking a close look at our diet. Our diet is AWFUL. So, we're keeping ourselves and each other accountable with every single morsel we put in our bodies.

Mind.
We've been getting up a little earlier and READING. Taylor's already read like 2 books this week, and I've been reading too! We've also switched out some of our tv time with some talking! Just deep conversations about life and whatnot. We've also finished school applications, so that means real mind nourishment is on the way!

Spirit.
This is the most important part of our lives. We don't ever skip our evening prayers, and we've been reading talks and Gospel books. We still need to make sure scripture study doesn't take ever a back burner, but it's nice to know that we both hold this aspect of our lives in such high regard. We're always on the same page when it comes to what's really important.

The hardest part now is to stick to it, and, for me, not to compare myself to other people. Every time I do that, I get really discouraged. And we can't keep this up if I'm getting discouraged every day :(

What do you guys do to stay encouraged?

be a better wife

Love is in the air. You can smell it, you can see it, you can feel the sticky love all over! And seeing how it's the big Valentine's Day tomorrow AND it's national marriage week, I've got something marriage and love related to share.

 

I'm obviously not a pro on marriage, but I've been reading a lot about marriage from much more experienced wives, and talking to a lot of 'em too. They all say kind of the same things, and almost all of them agree that to have a happy marriage, you have to be a smart wife. You can't rely on your husband changing the things that annoy you. No matter how much you nag and whine and complain, he's not going to become better unless you make an effort to become better. Make sense?

So, I compiled a very short list of just a few things that help us women become better, and happier wives.

1.) He's Gotta Come First

I mean this in a material sense, but it is also very applicable with people as well. Your husband has to be of the utmost importance. We have to be willing to give things up for our husbands. Shopping, clothes, our dream car, even our dream homes. If our husbands can't fulfill our wants right now, then we have to stop constantly talking about all the things we want or "need." It makes him feel like a loser. And if you have to have all your nice things, just remember what you need to give up to have them. Family time? Maybe something your family wants or needs? Independence from other family members? A debt-free life?

2.) Don't cheat.

Yes! Of course! Don't cheat! But I don't mean just physically/intimately cheating, I mean emotionally cheating. You married your husband, and now he's your confidant, and your his. He has to be your number one emotional companion! Not your friends, not your mother, not even your sister. And, don't ever talk badly about him. Sometimes when we're really upset with our husbands, we want to call our mom or friends and dish. Not good. Not healthy. If you tell whoever all the things that your husband does to upset you it's 1.a betrayal of trust, and 2.dangerous. When you fight with your spouse, you forgive them and move on, but your confidant maybe hasn't. That's negative feelings that your husband is receiving, from you (directly/indirectly) long after the argument or fight has ended.

3.) Honesty.

It's scary to not know what's going on with your husband. He's your number one love! Having a completely open and honest relationship  with him is important. Not only does it build your trust for one another, but it builds your love. It's so nice knowing that I can tell Taylor absolutely anything! Even if it's something bad that I have done, and he has my back. Secrets, secrets are no fun. And if you love each other, like you do, then what is there to worry about? :)

Again, I'm not claiming to be any sort of expert on marriage. But this is what I think, and I wanted to share my thoughts with you :)

blast of color: canvas project

I read two blogs today with cute glitter canvases in them (both done by Eryka at abcde), and ya know what?

It makes me wanna do another canvas art project. I've done two already, and it's so nice to have these huge displays of art that are so cheap and easy to make!

This is my first canvas art project, it's my adaption of the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It's a little..abstract, but we like it ;)

The second one I did was so easy and so fun! These crayon canvases have blown up Pinterest for a while now, and if you haven't seen them and don't know how to them, well...here ya go!

All you need is:

~canvas (o'course!)

~crayons (about 60)

~hot glue gun

~hair dryer

Step 1: Hot glue the crayons onto the top of the canvas in any order you'd like (in this one, I just did them straight across, but in the one above it I tried to make a little crayon heart in the middle....wasn't my best idea haha)

Step 2: Blow dry the tops of the crayons from straight above (Note: the crayon wax can easily be splattered everywhere so you might wanna lay down some newspaper...and tape some to the wall. I clearly didn't.)

And there ya have it. So easy! And only 2 steps. You really don't need a D.I.Y. post for it, but I've never done one and wanted to try it out. ;)

why i almost quit blogging

For the last few days, I've been contemplating my blog and why I blog. I've also been thinking about huge blogs with tons of followers and what they have that I don't.

Quite frankly, I don't care about what brand my clothes are, where I got them, or if they're even in style. I just wear what I like and what Taylor loves. Haha, I really only care what he thinks anyway. And although I like to look at outfits of some bloggers and see what I think is cute, I don't really care where they got them, what brand they are, or how much they're in style either. So, obviously, I am not a fashion blogger. 

I love my followers, I love gaining followers and learning about them, but I don't really strive to have thousands of followers. It takes a lot of work, and really....I have enough to do. I still do button swaps, and giveaways, and use social networks, but I don't really care to have lots and lots of followers just to see the big number. 

You see that? That shimmer of light? It's called the sun! I'm so happy with this! Tangent over.

Anyway, I recently met a lot of bloggers, and I just didn't fit in. I really didn't care to. There were a few girls that were really nice and I would love to get to know them better, but I couldn't even talk to the rest. A little bit because I'm ridiculously awkward and shy, and a little bit because I could care less about anything they had to say. I didn't really care where they got their cute outfit. I didn't really care about the somewhat interesting story they had once. 

It's not like they did anything wrong! It just wasn't my scene. Because of that, I thought "I don't fit in with bloggers, which means I shouldn't be one"

I told Taylor, and I

QUIT.

Except, I kinda clearly didn't.

 But anyway there's no blogging rules! If you like it, read it! If you wanna write it, do it! So, maybe I don't fit in with 20 random bloggers, there's only about a zillion  more.

I'm gonna go ahead and be me....and just keep doin what imma doin :)

identifier

So, here I am once again, sitting on the floor with the keyboard in front of me, ignoring my to-do list for a little while, watching the 80's movie Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun, and thinking. 

80's movies always remind me of Easy A, my number one all time favorite movie. And you know what's in Easy A? Identifiers. They talk about how everyone has an identifier. The thing that everyone thinks about when they think of you.

I can't help but think, what's my identifier?

I thought of a lot of possibilities:

Newlywed,

Shy,

Ditzy,

The girl that likes Ke$ha,

I was once called "the girl with purple hair"

I thought of a lot of im-possibilities: 

Single,

Loud,

Sad,

Rich,

the girl that hates "Katy Perry"

And I thought of some of the identifiers I really do not wish to have:

Rude,

Snotty,

the girl that thinks she's entitled to everything,

Selfish,

Prideful,

Mean,

Insensitive.

I want to strive for positive identifiers! Not because I want everyone to love me and be popular, but because I want to be the positive identifier. I want to be nice and kind and loving and good, because people need that.

I also wouldn't mind being funny.

Funny is awesome.

I'll work on it.