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 :)

So What Wednesday!

Oh.... So What Wednesday.

Tons of people do this thing...  Go see Shannon's page to check them all out!

This week, I say So What ......

• oh, to the fact that I took the GRE --TWO WEEKS AGO-- today.  And STILL haven't gotten my freakin graduate application submitted yet.  I officially finished the last piece today, and hopefully will get that puppy in by Friday.  Hopefully.
• if I want to buy 500 bags of Halloween candy for the little punks in our neighborhood.  I want to throw candy off my front porch in slow motion while the little kiddies pick it up like its fallin from a damn pinata.  Boyfriend doesn't agree.  That shit is expensive. 
• if I've been cranking out baby beanies like its my day job.... while I'm at my day job....  Oh, the college kids can wait... I've got 5 more stitches to finish this row.... (wink, wink.  I kid, I kid.)
•  Exhibit A:
• if I don't think knitting is the thing for me.  I've knitted a section of like 15 rows.  Then effed it up and undid the whole dang thing.  I need to stick with crocheting.  I get that stuff.  I can do it fast.  I can do a million different things with it.  And quite frankly.... I don't care to learn to knit.  
• now I have 4 pair of knitting needles, and don't wanna do it anymore. oops.
• if I didn't do jack crap this weekend to clean our house.  We've had two dogs for the past 2 weeks.  I wanted to wait til the visitor left.  That was my excuse reasoning. And I've yet to take myself back up on that idea.  Seems like every night this week, there's been something come up....  Frozen yogurt on sale, dinner with my parents, babies being born.... hey, those things don't happen often.  Carpe freakin diem.  I'll do the dumb ish later.
• if I'm counting down the days til Christmas.  Its my perogative.  Bobby Brown told me so.  (61 days in case you were wondering!)
• if I'm also counting down the days til Thanksgiving, which means I can officially start Christmas decorating.  (28 days there....)
• if I used to wonder why the hell people went all out decorating for holidays.  I always thought nobody would ever care about that crap.  Now I have my own house and it all makes freakin sense.  Iwannputbowsandcraponeverything!!!!!!  Like... seriously.  You just wait til Christmas.  Santa will puke on my house.  Promise.
• if you judge me for this crap.  I.  Don't.  Care. :)

Hope you're having a happy hump day!!!!!

Pinsperation Project!

Howdy folks.  Happy Tuesday.  As happy as Tuesday can be.  Nothing really to look forward to on Tuesdays.  Blah.  (**Warning.... Picture overload...**)

Well, surprise, surprise.  I got all crafty and Pinteresty again this weekend.  BUT, I had some help this time.  Boyfriend went hunting.  And you remember my sleeping alone phobia.  So my niece came over to keep me company.  We had tons of fun.

First, we got inspired from this pin:

Basically, you make pizza dough from TWO things!!!  So freakin easy.  Greek yogurt and self rising flour.  Boom.  Pizza dough.  Here's our pizzas after cooking!

YUM.  Not your typical round pizza, but hey, we're beginners here.  I don't sling dough for a living.  Don't judge me.  After pizza we went to grab some froyo at our new OrangeLeaf by my house.  Here's Cam eating her coffee froyo.

That ish is DELICIOUS.  Then we went to Target and played in the Halloween costumes.  Homegirl thought she was an Angry Bird.

Awesome.  This is what cool aunts do.  They let you do all the crap your parents would yell at you for.  Play away little birdie.  Just don't break anything I'd have to buy :)  The next day, we decided to make what we saw on this pin:

(The link has been deleted.... or else I'd have linked back.  Apparently Pinterest thought this link was "dangerous.") You basically make the cake as normal and put it in the cupcake holder and then put a couple drops of food coloring in each one and swirl with a toothpick!  Super easy and cool looking. Here's Our cuppy cakes before baking.

And after icing!  More deliciousness.

I sent the majority of these bad boys home with her for the brothers.  The last thing I need in my house is freakin sweets. We also did nails inspired by this pin.

Paint your nails, let them dry, make a design with a silver sharpie, and clear coat them!  Again, super easy.  Here's her final product!

And mine!

After that, we were all pinterested out.  ha.  I also gave my cousin the little beanies from this post.  

No bueno.  Turns out, little Ty has a larger than normal dome.  No worries.  We will make new ones :)  That's what I'll be working on this week!!!

You should go over to LuLu and Sweet Pea and join up with their Pinsperation Project!!!!!