Friday Five!

Thank goodness its Friday.  This week went by fast.  But I think that's only because there was SOOOO much to do.  I had to keep a list of stuff to get done and as I checked stuff off, before I knew it, another day was gone....

I'm linking up for Friday Five again this week.  Check out everyone else who links up over at Carolina Charm or one of the other girls' sites!!

1.  I've seen on Pinterest and several blogs about doing your own gel nails.  I'll be the first to tell you that I refuse to pay $15 for a bottle of nail polish.  Or $50 for some LED light to do my nails.  So right when gel nails were getting popular, I saw on a site to use Sally Hansen Hard as Wraps acrylic nail gel under your polish and it does the same thing.  I've been searching high and low.  And for some reason never checked my normal grocery store..... boom.  There it was.  And its done great so far!  Mind you, I've only had my nails painted for 2 days... I'll give an update later to let you know how it lasts!!  And only $5!!!  I also used another Pinterest trick to put a bandaid on your nail to paint the white tips!  Genius.

2. A year ago today.  I was sitting on the beach.  On my honeymoon.  Thanks Timehop.

3. We have a Halloween party this weekend!!!  Me and the girls are being Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs.  I'm currently trying to figure out what the hubs will be.... Its last minute, so it has to be quick and cheap!!

4. Currently... I have ONE. MORE. PAPER. to finish before I'm done with my degree... ONE.  This is what my life is like right now.  However, I'm baffled that its already the 24th.  October... where did you go????

5.  Speaking of countdowns.  I bought my first Christmas gift yesterday.  I'll sign off with this:

Happy Friday yall!!!

Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday...

This has just been a weird week.  The past two days specifically.  Like nothing has made sense and its like I’m watching my life movie from outside my body.  (I SWEAR I don’t need to be medicated.)

Anyways.  There’s a lot to be thankful for this week!!!

My pop’s birthday was this week.  I’m thankful to have him for another year!!  My parents are incredible people.  I was surely blessed when I was put with them.  After my dad’s awful motorcycle wreck last year, I’m more thankful than ever to have him still.  

I’m thankful that I like to sew.  Or crochet.  Or that I have hobbies in general.  Because the Walking Dead came back on this week and that’s a guaranteed hour of me not being in front of the TV.  Last season, I was watching through my fingers covering my eyes.  And I kinda enjoyed it… But it gives me insane anxiety.  Sewing keeps my heart rate at a manageable level.

Some days… when we can afford a few extras and things we want, but don’t NEED, I’m thankful.  It doesn’t happen often.  But this past week or so, things haven’t been as tight as they’ve been in the past.  And that eases my mind.  I’m nowhere near loaded, but I have ENOUGH.  And enough is all I need. (photo below from Etsy.)

My husband.  How, in God’s name, has it been a year of marriage already?  Our anniversary is Sunday.  One. Whole. Year.  With the same last name.  As a husband and wife.  Contractually tied together by law.  And its been successful.  Like the best year of my life.  And that’s no exaggeration.  I’m thankful for this man God gave me.  He’s more than I deserve.  I hope this next year is even better. 

Friday Five!! I'm back!

oh. Hi!

I’ve neglected my blog for the past while.  And a crap load has happened in that amount of time!  I’m now in my LAST graduate class and will get my Master’s degree in December.  I’m also married and about to celebrate my first anniversary!!  Crazy how time flies.  

I’ve wanted to start my blog back up for a couple of weeks now.  I’ve been toying with banners and fonts and changing everything from the name to the layout.  I thought the Hallways was appropriate.  Now that my last name is Hall and all.  

Anyways… I’ve been struggling with what to write about!!!  I’ve seen several blogs do a certain thing for each day of the week.  I thought that maybe that would give me the jump start to get back into this.  I may not won’t post every day.  So you won’t get all of these every week.  BUT.  It’s a place for me to start.  And its breaking my writers block! 

Monday: Manic Mondays.  A place to give the weekend roundup and plan for the week ahead.  Highlights if you will. 

Tuesday: To-Do List Tuesday.  I’ll share my to-do list.  And the things that keep repeating on my to-do list because I haven’t done them.  Maybe it’ll hold me accountable.  Or not.  Who knows?  Goal sharing.  That’s what we’ll call that.

Wednesday:  Work in Progress Wednesday.  I’ll show my current crochet/sewing/craft/reading/whateverI’mworkingon.

Thursday: Thankful Thursday.  Basically what I’m thankful for.  Because there’s so much I’m blessed with.

Friday: The Friday Five.  I’ll link up with some other blog ladies and talk about 5 things.    Who knows what they may be.  Events from the week.  Products I like.  Things I’m thinking about/looking forward to.  Anything.  

Friday is as good as any day to start.  

I’m linking up with these ladies: 

the good life - Hello! Happiness - A. Liz Adventures - Carolina Charm

1.        I’ve recently become obsessed with Polyvore.  Its amazing.  How many times have I been looking at my closet, thinking, “I have nothing to wear.”  When it actually turns out that I have a ton of crap to wear, I just need to THINK about what goes together.  Top that off with my newly insane love for scarves, and Polyvore saves the day.  You can put together outfits.  What I create may not be the *specific* item that I own, but you can bet its dang close.  AND they have an app… so when I’m having a clothes dilemma, I can pull up the outfits I’ve created on my phone and figure something out!  I’ve been dreaming of this outfit here for a while.  Can’t wait to wear it!

 
2.       We’re going on a date tonite!!!  We seriously have a giftcard from Olive Garden that was given to us AT. OUR. WEDDING. (356 days ago…)  Gonna use that up tonite, and then go see Gone Girl.  I’m jacked to see Gone Girl.  I’ve heard its amazeballs (p.s. my computer didn’t underline amazeballs as misspelled.  Weird.).  I read Gone Girl while we were on vacation this summer and have been counting down the days til it came out. 

3.       I taught myself a new crochet stitch this week.  It’s a little hard.  And I need to get some fat knitting needles to do it correctly.  But its so pretty!!  This is going to be a sweet scarf!

4.       I’ve been experimenting with deer meat this week.  Since hunting season is coming up, and we still have some deer meat to eat, I thought I’d find some new recipes.  I made shredded deer bbq last night in the crock pot.  AH-mazing.  Hubs loved it, so I’ll def be making it again!

5.       My puppy turned 3 on Wednesday.  He’s awesome.  That’s all.

ITS OFFICIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woooo Hooo!!!!!!!  Its official yall!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am up and running with www.mysewcalledlife.com!!!!!!  So excited that its finally working!  GoDaddy.com is amazing.  They are fast and efficient!  Highly recommended if you are going to purchase a domain name!

I've been gone for a while!!!  I've been crocheting my behind off.  Only my behind didn't go anywhere.  Plus I had finals for school.  (4.0 in my master's program so far!! whoop whoop!!!!)  And then Christmas began.  But now that my bloggy is so official, I'll be posting more often. 

I have some new years resolutions that I'll share in a post after Christmas.  I'll probably only make one more post this year to share Christmas news and then the overhaul for the new year!  I'm going to be changing a lot in the next year. 

Which brings me to my next point....  Does anybody have any recommendations on blog makeovers?  I'm ready to move on from the cookie cutter Blogger layouts and sort of embrace my own "brand" if you will.  Just another part of the new year overhaul!  :)

I'll bring you up to speed on some things that have happened since I last posted....

• My dog has broken two wire crates now.....The second one being a "heavy duty" crate..... The vet says he has severe separation anxiety.  They put him on Prozac and he wears a Thundershirt and doesn't even have to be in the crate!!!!!  Its amazing.  Its like somebody swapped dogs.  He's so good now.  Still playful, not drugged up, but behaves!!!!!  I love it.  Going on two weeks now that he hasn't been crated and its a glorious thing.
• I'm going back to my natural hair color tomorrow.  I've been red for a long bit.  
• I'm going for this:
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• I'll post pics with the Christmas update as to how it turns out :)  
• My crocheting has taken off!  So many friends with little ones have gotten hats!!!  And I thank you all dearly for it!  I love doing something that I love to do and other people love it as well.  Still no sales from Etsy.  But maybe with adding some more stuff to my store, I'll get some.  I'm going to crochet all year next year and try to do a craft sale at one of the high schools around here.  
• HUNTING SEASON IS FINALLY OVER!!!!!!  Happy to have my hunter back home now.  :)

That's all for now.  I'll be back in a week or so with my end of the year Christmas update and then the New Year/New Me post!!!!  Keep an eye and ear out for bloggy designers for me!  I'd love some suggestions!!!

Things I {don't} love Thursday!

I've returned from the dead!!!!!  I once was lost, but now I'm found!! 

No joke.  My life has been at 100mph for the past few weeks.  I work in a college advising office.  The kids just got to register before Thanksgiving, so my work life was insane for about 2 weeks.  Then I took the whole week of Thanksgiving off.  Came back to stacked up homework due for my master's class.  And now I've finally caught up.

When I opened up my reading pane of the blogs I follow, I saw that Melissa has started this new gem of Things I don't love Thursday.

Love the idea.  I get to blast all the crap that's annoyed me for a bit.  Here goes nothing!!!!!

1.  Christmas Music.
I'm straight up dreading going into a store and hearing that crap.  Its the same 10 songs over and over.  It doesn't make me cheery people.  Its just annoying....  I hate hearing 795 different versions of We Wish You A Merry Christmas.  Don't get me wrong.  I have a couple of Christmas songs I do like.  O Holy Night gets me every time.  Love it.  But I don't need the Garth Brooks version, the Backstreet Boys version, Mariah Carey version, and Barry Manilow to all sing me the same song over and over for the next month until Christmas.  Bah Humbug.

2.  My Dog's Separation Anxiety. 
I do, in fact, HATE this crazy syndrome he has.  He is fine while we're at home.  But the MINUTE we leave, he goes ape shit.  He has literally snapped the wires on his wire crate and pulled on them until he has a hole he can get out of.  We've zip tied that puppy so much that its irreparable.  So we decided to leave him out of it and see how he does.  Days 1-3 were amazing.  He didn't tear anything up!  Day 4, all hell broke loose.  He got crap off the mantle. He broke mini blinds at MY EYE LEVEL.  He destroyed everything on the fridge that he could reach.... magnets, invitations, coupons, the whole shebang.  Back to the crate.  But now its so broken, there's no point.  Monday, he ate 3 Christmas tree ornaments.  I'm at my wits end.  So we ordered a freakin jail cell for him.  No way to escape this:

At least I don't think so.....  I'm also looking into getting him a ThunderShirt.  Apparently the pressure they put on the pup will calm him down.  They relate it to swaddling a baby.  Its $40 and has a 45 day money back guarantee.  If it doesn't work for your dog within the 45 days after purchase, you can return it.  Its worth a try.....

3.  No One likes my Etsy Store
I haven't had a single hit on the stuff I've put on Etsy yet!!!  Its been about 2 weeks, and nothing.  I've had lots of orders from friends on Facebook for baby beanies and stuff!  Its kept me busy!!!  And I love having the extra $$ around Christmas time!  But I'd make more stuff to put on there if I knew people were going to buy it!!!!!  Poop.

4.  Hostess is out of business.....
This is pure bologna.  And these Walgreens brand Twinkies are not the same. 

Go link up with Melissa today!!!!

Oh HAPPY Day!!!!

I'm beyond ecstatic today!!!!!  I left work early on Friday to go on our roadtip this weekend.  When I came into work this morning, this was waiting on me....

I got officially got accepted into my Master's program!!!!  Before, they had admitted me conditionally because I hadn't taken the GRE yet.  I got my application in last Tuesday and had this little baby waiting on me when I got to work this morning.  Lovely.  I'm 100% official now.  Feels freakin good!!!!

I'm super pumped to have tomorrow off for the election.  And super pumped that I won't have to see that nonsense for a long while.  I hate poliltical commercials.  And I hate even more that I live just across the river from Indiana and we get their political ads on TV too!  And half the time they don't even tell you what state they're running in.  There's nothing pretty about politics.

On a sad note.  I'm 99% sure my pup is allergic to the food we've been feeding him.  My vet friend, Kacy, recommended we switch to a Lamb and Rice formula dog food to get away from the chicken/corn mixture.  I'm so hoping it works..  Poor guy is scratching himself raw.  Anybody have any tips???  Some websites say it could take 4-6 wks for the symptonms to go away, if they go away.  It could be a many week trial and error thing if the lamb and rice doesn't work for him.  I feel terrible.  Like I'm a bad dog mommy. 

My friends and I went to Red River Gorge this past weekend for a road trip get away.  We had a blast.  There were 12 of us.  I don't think people understand how nuts my friends are.  We kept saying we wished there was a video camera taping us all the time.  You all wouldn't believe the funny stuff that goes on.  Love them to pieces. 

Hope you had a good weekend and got good news today too!!!

Whew..... So What!

Little hiatus there.  Work is a nut house right now.  I work in the advising office and the University of Louisville.  All these little college kiddies are about to register for spring classes and are making their appointments to see what classes they'll need.  40,000 students.  I think its more like 4 million though.  That's what it feels like some day. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! I can't wait to get off work and see the kiddies coming around to trick or treat.  I love seeing what some creative parents have come up with. 

I love So What Wednesday so much here lately.  I think about stuff during the week to write about.  I'll find myself doing something and thinking "you shouldn't have done that."  But then I think... "SO WHAT!!!!  Oh!!  I'll put that on the list for Wednesday!!"  You should seriously go over to Shannon's page and see what all these other hilarious ladies say so what to on Wednesdays. 

  Here goes nothing....  So What If......

• I haven't posted in a while.  I finally got my grad school application in!!!  And my grad class homework for the week done.  First things first.  Priorities.
• I give people advice I don't take myself.  Do as I say, not as I do.  
• I dressed up as a bank robber for work today.  All black everything.  Black toboggan.  Black mask.  And a bag with a dollar sign on it.  I made it last nite at 9:30 in about 15 minutes just so I could wear this toboggan to work.  Ha!
• I spread myself too thin this week.  We're going on a road trip this weekend and I have to get everything packed for us, get the dog packed up and to my parents' house, trick or treating, laundry, and somewhere in there, I thought it'd be smart to volunteer to make some prizes for my mom's bunco party on Monday.  Somehow, I've gotten 2 of the 3 prizes I committed to done!  Placemats and two hand towels!
• I have a pumpkin.  It was only $1.99.  But I've run out of time to carve it before the trick or treaters come tonite!!!  Wahh! 
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• Hope yall have a happy Halloween :)