The best is yet to come...

2011 in Bullet Points

• Rang in the new year with the love of my life

• Lost a best friend of 15 years, but gained a valuable lesson. 

• Met the Pioneer Woman

•  Made some amazing memories with 2 of my very best friends!

•  I've learned that true friends are valuable, and I am so thankful for the ones I have! So many people will come into your life just to teach you lessons and leave just as quickly as they came in, so I can gladly say...thanks for those lessons, and thanks for leaving!

• I spent a good portion of my spring on the back of a bass boat, and I loved every minute of it.

•  I jokingly sent my two best friends about going to NYC for the Holidays and 4 days later 2 of us booked a trip, and had an amazing time in The Big Apple.

• I celebrated my 25th Birthday in a big way! To start it off a "Surprise" party, and ended with a weekend away and a gorgeous ring on my left hand!

• I started a new part time job at Sephora, and I never thought I would enjoy a "job" so much!

• Wedding planning and buying a house has consumed my life for the last couple of months, but it all seems to be coming together!

• Nathan and I spent the Holidays with our families. We started some new traditions that I will definitely look forward to every year!

 I honestly can't wait to see what 2012 has to offer! I can't wait to marry the love of my life, and buy our first home together! I can't wait to see my friend Amber get married in March. I look forward to the memories I will make with my 2 best friends, and spending time with my amazing family.

Here's to a happy, healthy, productive 2012! I wish you all the very best!

The Broads are Back!!

Hey y'all...Check out this link to my friend Kyndall's blog. My girlfriends and I do some crafting on the side and we have a blog/Facebook where we list and sell our items. If you are interested in anything please let us know, we would be happy make something especially for you!  




Also, don't forget my giveaway ends tomorrow! It's super easy to enter, just click here, leave me a little comment, and you're entered to win! 

It's ok, we're with the band!

Hey y'all the weekend is winding down, and Monday is just around the corner but I thought I would take a few minutes to pop in, say hello, and announce a giveaway for my fabulous readers, YOU! 
This past week was good, my friend Kyndall and I went to a concert on Wednesday for this great group Carter's Chord, if you don't know them check them out, they are really awesome! 

They are just as good live as they are on your radio, which is rare! We had a great time, there wasn't a great turnout; the band is fairly new, and it was a Wednesday night so after the concert Kyn and I got the meet the girls and get autographs, they were super nice! Afterwards we went to another club, lets just say about 5 too many vodka and redbulls and you hate yourself on Thursday morning! 

Seriously, the unedited version of this pic is ridiculous! This was 2am (ish) Thursday morning! Hot.Ass.Mess!

Nate and I had a relaxing weekend, didn't really do anything super exciting, last night he went fishing with the guys so Hannah (Hey Hannah, I know you're reading this ;)...Hahah)..., Darrah, and I went shopping, then home for craft night. On my 30 before 30 list I said I want to start painting, not pieces of art, just cutesy stuff, and by no means am I great at it but I am definitely going to keep working on it!

I made this for Hannah, It turned out really cute! I was stressin', I don't do well under pressure! Haha

Go Hogs! I got this idea from Pinterest, I love the way it turned out.

And last, but not least...I promised when I reached 50 followers I would host a little giveaway, and now that I'm nearing 60 I guess I better follow through! I was doing some shopping Friday and the beauty supply had OPI's new fall collection. I picked up a couple colors, then noticed they had a mini collection with 4 gorgeous colors...so....I snagged one for one lucky reader! I was also in Sephora and they had these adorable makeup bags, so I picked up some for Christmas presents...and...one for the same lucky reader! So here's the deal...you'll get this...

Who knows, there may even be some surprises packed in that cute little bag ;)

So...here's the scoop on how to enter...I was going to do this trivia style...but I think I'm going to stick with an easier entry method...I'm not the best at keeping up with Twitter, so all you have to do is follow my blog! Optional: Mention this giveaway in a blog post and get 5 additional entries! So comment below to enter, 1 comment to let me know you're a follower, and another if you mention it in a blog post! I'll close the giveaway on Wednesday evening (6 pm central time) and announce the winner on Thursday!
You guys are the best, I never imagined that blogging would be so important to me! I have "met" some really amazing girls and I look forward to continuing this journey, and documenting all the important parts of my life to share with you all!

I hope y'all had a great weekend! I'll talk to y'all soon!

Girls Night In!

Last night myself, and my 2 best friends Kyndall and JA had a girls night in! Major thanks to Kyndall's flavor of the month for loaning out his condo for the night, and for having a pretty legit wine & cheese selection in the fridge ;) 

Terrible iPhone pic., not even Picnik could help this one...

I seriously think we need to have these bi-weekly, I might actually learn how to cook! We decided to break out the Pioneer Woman cookbook (& Website) and each picked a dish to cook! Up first would be JA's Artichoke Dip...Yummo! Definitely going to try to make this myself! 

Before it was baked, and topped with yummy parmesan !

Or  bust a move to the randomness on Kyn's iTunes! (Love you JA!)

Kyndall was in charge of the main course...Penne pasta with Shrimp and a red cream sauce...delicious!

 

And lastly, I was in charge of dessert...we're going to call them "Not so Molten Cakes"...seriously...I'm a failure at cooking even with a recipe and adult supervision! Haha...I think we decided to blame it on the oven being too hot from the dip and the bread....yea, we will go with that! None the less, they didn't taste terrible, and they looked fabulous!

 

We had soo much fun, as usual...it was nice to be able to carry on inappropriate conversation and not have to keep your volume down...Lol!! I don't know what I'd do without these 2 girls...were all so different, but also so alike in so many ways! A night with them is definitely the best therapy!  

I've started working on the itinerary for NYC...I asked JA last night what she wanted to see...she insisted on Ellis Island, The Statue of Liberty, and The Eiffel Tower (she totally meant Empire State Bldg)...We'll see how that works out...haha ;) I seriously thought Kyndall was going to pee her pants (If I am being honest, I have to say I made the same mistake talking to someone last week, they should really look into getting that moved to the Big Apple! Haha)

I hope you all are having a great week so far!

Happy Birthday!

Happy 50th Birthday to the best Mom a girl could ask for! You've always been my biggest fan, and loved me the most when I deserved it the least. I love you, and look up to you  more than you'll ever know!

I had a really busy, but fun weekend! We celebrated all weekend long, you only turn 50 once, right? Friday night I finalized all the reservations for her party on Saturday (I thought), finished all the party favors, and got all her gifts wrapped.

I thought her favors turned out really cute.

Saturday I had to do all the last minute running around, flower shop, pick up the cake, and find a present from Nate...lol...boys will be boys! We had her party at a steakhouse in a small town in Southern Arkansas. They have a "village", very similar I guess to an Amish type community? They have everything you need, toy store, jewelry store, bakery, garage, furniture store, a few different restaurants, and I think that most all of the employees live in the village as well. It was my first time there, but Mom picked where she wanted to go. It was really neat, we looked around at the shops before dinner, and then met up with the group. There was a little trouble with our reservation, needless to say our party of 34 was already seated with drinks, then moved to a private room...which we were supposed to have initially had. It turned out fine, the food was phenomenal, everyone had a great time, and most of all Mom loved it. I was stumped on what to get her, so I ended up with a Brighton necklace, then Dad and I got her the red Kitchen Aid stand mixer she has wanted for a couple years! 

Nate and I at The Village taxidermy.

Sunday night her best friends threw her a surprise party at a local Mexican restaurant. There were 82 people there, they had a funny slideshow, a cowboy popping out of a cake, and a few other tricks up their sleeves! It was a lot of fun, but I am birthday partied out! Lol! I know she really enjoyed all of it, and 50 will definitely be a birthday she will remember!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Tonight myself and my favorite girls [Say No To Recycling, and Just a Simple Life] are having a Girls Night In! We're cooking recipes from our favorite ladies cookbook! Should be a great way to end a Monday! :)