11 months later...

A lot has changed in a year.

3 things you need to know:
I'm just nine days away from graduation. NINE days. Still don't know what I'm going to do with myself.
I'm now a resident of Memphis, Tennessee. Moved cross-country at the end of March to start an internship which I've loved and will be continuing through the summer!
My hair is purple.

Just kidding about that last one.

I lost my grip on the blog last summer for all kinds of reasons, and I've been meaning to come back to it for ages now. I seriously considered starting fresh with something brand new, but I just couldn't let this go for good. Now that I'm finishing up school I'd like to have an outlet where I can write and work on my own style and voice while I share things I'm interested in. I doubt this will end up being a work-out/food/lifestyle/fashion/diy/home/fill in the trendy blank blog, but who knows where life will take me!

I'll be back with more.

Lions, and tigers, and shoes, oh my!

I'm still around! I just haven't been by my computer 24/7 like I usually am. :)

Sounds like everyone's been suffering in the heat this week, yuck! Our temperatures are back down to the 80s now though, which is just about perfect. And not a cloud in sight for once!

So what have I been doing?

I did find these gorgeous shoes on sale. 

And this dress...

with pockets. POCKETS. So excited. 

Aaaand this gorgeous dress that I am in love with even though apparently I don't know how to hang it properly on the hanger.

Aside from shopping and working out and taking pictures, there hasn't been too much going on around here. And that's just the way I like it during the summer! Lots of time for reading (and tv marathons), and hanging out with the fam in general. 

Also:
The best smoothie you will ever have:
3/4 cup of flavored carbonated water
1 cup frozen pineapple
1/2 cup frozen cherries
4 ice cubes
Blend & enjoy. Seriously.


There are a few things in the works in my life right now that I wish I could share with everyone here, but I can't...yet! I can promise that they're exciting (and a little scary for me), and maybe even educational, too.

Dots of Summer

Yesterday and today has been seriously SO. HOT. 

As much as I want to complain about it for real, I just can't! I know that by next week we'll be back to wearing sweatshirts and jeans.

So for right now I'm all about the polka-dots.

And, like, jorts. Totally. All about the jorts. 

(Crappy picture thanks to Lily-Mae, my obviously not a 4G iPhone)

Okay, no. But that is my 4th of July outfit and I think jean shorts (and gold cowboy boots AND a gold cowboy boot necklace) are totally acceptable on that one day of the year. Right??!

Anyone else melting? I know the East coast has been getting some hot weather lately, and I know y'all down South are always hot and super humid!

PS: Anybody interested in nail-related youtube videos? Anything you'd like to see a video on? Just something that's rolling around in my (semi-empty?) head these days. :)

Workin' it Out - Monday & Wednesday

Contrary to popular belief, I have been working out this week! On Monday I ventured over to the gym - along with everyone else in our town. The place was packed. Lots of guys with tiny heads and biceps as big as my thigh, and lots of gym bunnies on the ellipticals. The weights section of this gym is tiny but really crowded...the machines and benches are about 18 inches apart and I almost died multiple times. Party because I'm an idiot and partly because of the lack of space. Soooo that was not a fun workout. I didn't know where anything was and the big boys kept sassing me. But I was back again today and kicked some major booty.

Anyway, I won't bore y'all with what exercises I did on Monday or this morning, but I will say that I can't walk. And I'm pretty sure I can't lift my arms over my head. Laughing would be a terrible (painful) idea right now. Mission accomplished.


This gym doesn't have too many classes, but once it cools down again I'm going to give Zumba and Turbo-Kick a try. So much of it depends on the instructor!

Here are the playlists!
Monday's music (weights):

• Your Love is My Drug - Ke$ha - I'm officially sick of this song.
• Touch - Natasha Bedingfield
• Dynamite - Taio Cruz
• I Never Told You - Colbie Caillat
• Savior - Lights
• Rose Colored Glasses - Kelly Rowland
• Kissin' U - Miranda Cosgrove
• So Big - Iyaz
• Something More - Secondhand Serenade
• Raindrop - Carmen Reece

Wednesday's music (weights + 15 mins cardio):

• Spending All My Time - Aaron Fresh
• Misery - Maroon 5
• Dynamite - Taio Cruz
• I Run To You - Lady Antebellum 
• Got Your Back - T.I. ft. Keri Hilson
• Mockingbird - Rob Thomas
• Dancin' Around The Truth - The Stunners ft. New Boyz
• Lay Me Down - The Dirty Heads ft. Rome
• Gettin' Over You - David Guetta & Chris Willis ft. Fergie & LMFAO - I can't stand this song, so why do I keep listening to it? One of life's little mysteries.
• Ghost - Fefe Dobson
• Magic - Emii
• September - Daughtry
• 143 - Bobby Brackins ft. Ray J - This song = my jam. And probably the reason the boys were staring this morning. Sometimes I forget I'm supposed to be doing lunges and I dance instead. 

Does anyone else hate 'cardio' as much as I do? I get bored out of my mind on the elliptical, bike, treadmill, etc etc. How do you stand doing 45 minutes? 

Me, speechless?

Apparently I am this week. I don't know why, but I've lost my blogging mojo. I know it'll come back though, so all I have to do is wait it out. ANYWAY.

Finally it's feeling more like summer here! Tomorrow's supposed to be in the 90s and on Thursday we might be hitting 100. That's more like it! I'm so ready for it to FEEL like SUMMER.

My apron is finished! Here's a few pictures...

The reverse side.

A little hard to see because the pattern lined up so well, but this is one of the pockets. There are 4 in all (2 on each side), and each one has a few rhinestones.

Also, today's nails!

If you're on Twitter, I'd love for you to follow me! I'm always looking for new tweeps.

How was your 4th of July?

2 Things to Love Today (in pictures!)

Pretty fabric & sewing my very own (reversible!!) apron.

4 of (blobby) July nails!  

I couldn't find my dotter tool, so I decided to embrace the blobbiness of my shaky hand dots.

Does anyone else sew? I'm not the best, but I'm learning! My next project will be a quilt! I made one last summer, and it's almost finished and I'd like to try again now that I have a liiiiiittle bit more experience with the sewing machine.

What do you like making?

Summer Reads: Mermaids in the Basement (+ Raindrops on Roses!)

Mermaids in the Basement by Michael Lee West

Book number five for the month of June is finished! And just in time, right? I was doing so well for the first part of the month, and then this last book took me forever and a day to read. I really wanted to like it, but things just moved so. slowly. and looking back, I'm not sure if anything actually happened. I enjoyed the characters, and they were quirky in the way Southern lit characters usually are. I loved the descriptions and the little details that made the environment and the atmosphere come alive. That was fantastic. But really the main character, Renata, wasn't my favorite, and I got a little tired of hearing about the various short-comings of her parents relationship. The point of view changes chapter by chapter, so make sure you check the chapter titles before you begin, or else you might get a little bit confused. (Guilty! I kept getting lost.) So this book was okay, but not my favorite. I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads but when I looked at the reviews from other people most of them gave it 4 or 5 stars. Who knows!

Books for July:

This is the tentative list for July (depending on library availability!)

1. Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett 
2. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
3. Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott
4. Letters from New Orleans by Rob Walker

Have you read any of these books? What are you reading right now? I'm always looking for more books to add to my pile!

Also, thank you so much for the sweet comments on the post about my 5k! There are a few more races (closer to home) coming up soon, so hopefully I'll be able to do one or two of those in the coming month or so. And I think it's about time I get back into lifting weights at the gym, so I'm really looking forward to that.

And finally...I mentioned a few posts ago that I won a giveaway! I wanted to share this with you all because I'm a really big fan of the collection and the meaning behind the pieces, and I think some of them might resonate with you guys too.

Jess from Makeunder My Life and Jess LC Jewelry hosted a 9 piece giveaway a few weeks ago on 9 different blogs (including her own). The necklaces were from the Soc Chic collection, which is really unique! Each necklace has a different meaning behind it, and they're all linked to different non-profits. So if you buy one of the necklaces a piece of the profit is donated to the attached organization! I love anything like this - I get something cute, and someone else gets help with a cause. 

And here it is, the raindrops on roses necklace!

This benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

And I absolutely love it! Sometimes it really is the simplest pleasures that make life beautiful! I put this on when I received it last Friday and I haven't taken it off since. 

If you haven't visited Makeunder My Life I definitely recommend it, I love reading about the ins and outs of running a business and she has some awesome posts about living a life full of intention so you can do what you love. And all of her jewelry is gorgeous.

I think that's it! I had my 2nd photography class this morning and even though I've been doing a lot of reading and research on my own this past week, it was great to have someone explain the same concepts in person so we could all ask questions. I took all of the above pictures in manual mode! (Which could explain why they look a little funky.) I'm loving what I've learned so far.