July Whirlwind: Monsoons and Drawing on Walls

Holy July, Batman!

I'm not sure what happened but July was a whirlwind! Work, fun, travel, sickness, more work - here's a brief tour of all the excitement!

Penguins. Baby penguins. 

Lots of Arbonne meetings and parties with some amazing gals! I have the best team ever! :)

Florida trip with daily monsoons! 

Shopping with the bestie. 

DISNEY!!! 

Re-vamped and even-more-my-favorite Star Wars ride at Disney! (This was not the ride, just a prop. But an actual speeder ride would be super cool - take note, people!)

Disney monsoon! The trash cans were blowing down the street and the castle got struck by lightening! We were waiting out the worst in a gift shop.

Rainy Disney afternoon after the lightening subsided - fun!

It's even magical in the rain!

One hour of sun at the beach on the morning I flew home!

Drawing a Paris scene on a friend's wall for her little girl's new Paris-themed room!

La Tour Effiel! 

I finally watched Despicable Me 1 & 2 and now I'm obsessed with these guys. 

I mean, how can you not be? SoDangCute.

Lots MORE Arbonne means packaging more orders - if you're in the Arbonne world watch for this gal's story in your orders - she's my Arbonne kindred spirit and dear friend!

Add to all that doctors visits with my Grandma (we appreciate your prayers - lots of surgeries ahead), helping a friend go through a rough spot, and dog sitting for friends for a week, it's been a crazy July for sure! 

I've also been reading through John Wooden's Leadership Gameplan for Success again - it's such a great book! Here's something encouraging for you to think on today:

"Little things make big things happen. Success is built from the ground up. I showed players how to put on their sweat socks correctly. Small things - laughable to some - are connected to big things such as a national championship. The particulars may differ you and your team, but success is built from the bottom up." - John Wooden

Don't neglect the little things in life - when you focus on doing them correctly, the big things often take care of themselves!

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 13

"A good habit"

I'm going to do a little switching around in my theme for today, because I have fresh blueberries! From my yard! When we moved here, there were two dinky blueberry bushes in my back yard, but they didn't yield more than a couple stray berries for the first couple of years. Then, last year they exploded with fruit! I picked this years' first crop earlier this morning. 

I LOVE fruit! I keep my freezer stocked with frozen organic berries and mango year round, along with lots of fresh bananas and apples. Most of it I blend up in my daily protein shakes/smoothies, and I love it! It's a really easy way to sneak in a ton of nutrients and get several servings of your daily fruit and veg requirements in one go. If you need a good protein shake try this one - it's amazing! I like the vanilla because it goes with every mix in (I like to get creative - coffee, pumpkin, whatever I have on hand!), but the chocolate is stellar, too. 

Speaking of fresh fruit and veg...

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 12

"Sunset"

I really should be calling this "post 12" instead of "day 12" since I'm spreading this out over June and July now. You get the idea though. 

Yesterday we boated and played until sundown as we conducted some very important Arbonne "business" on our upline's boat - SO fun! It was a great day to be out on the water, and such a fun way to plan and strategize for the coming weeks! I'm thinking we might need to make those "meetings" a regular occurrence. Love it!

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 11

"Something Blue" 

As much as I love my Arbonne, I try not to brag about products too much on here. ;) That said, this is the perfect "something blue" summertime post! I used to think I was just doomed to an oily, shiny face all day during our sweltering southern summers. This little blue bottle has totally changed that! It's oil-absorbing lotion with SPF 20, so it keeps me from looking shiny all day while protecting my albino-like skin from sunburn. 

I'm sure we all have products we swear by over the summer - what are your favorites? Do you slather down with sunscreen in the summer or do you go au natural?

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 10

"Childhood memory"

Funny story. I went to America's Thrift the other day to look for a skirt, and left with a skirt, eight Barbies, and a Barbie car, for a grand total of $13. (I can't tell you how excited I got when I realized I could buy really nice Barbies dirt cheap there - have you seen how much they want for them these days?) I'm not exactly sure what came over me, but I'm building a small collection of toys for all my friends' kids to play with when they come over, and let's be honest - Barbies have always been my favorite toys. 

Since the dolls came in their birthday suits, I pulled out my box of childhood Barbie supplies so they could go shopping to scrounge up some clothing. 

It's amazing how it's been 20 years but I can still look at each doll even now and remember their name, who gave them to me, and the lives I had made up for them. I got rid of a bunch of Barbies when I decided I was old enough to pack them all away, but I kept several of my favorites. 

This was "Polly Darton" (yep). She has a button in her stomach and if you push it she says "nice outfit" "you look great" and "see you later" (these phrases are now deeply entrenched in my family's lexicon). You can still hear it faintly - impressive batteries! Polly owned a boutique in my Barbie neighborhood filled with tiny plastic shoes and purses. The outfit she's wearing was given to me by my cousin Jennie. She gave me my first Barbie house and accessories; I still remember playing Barbies with Jennie on a blanket under the tree in front of my grandmothers' apartment building. Her hand-me-down Barbie house was an amazingly large 70s model with orange and yellow molded plastic rooms, and I thought it was the Taj Mahal. 

What were your favorite childhood toys? Did you save any of them? 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 9

"Someone you love"

It's a little ridiculous, but it's taken me over a week to get a picture of my husband (and I hate to say it, but you guys probably don't want to see another picture of my dog). He's a hard-working man (everyone go check out his cloth diaper service!), so he leaves before the sun is up and if I have a busy week of parties some nights I don't get home until he's fast asleep. That said, we've settled into a routine and the entrepreneurship lifestyle has become a lot easier! You learn to schedule time with each other in advance, and I wouldn't trade what we get to do for anything.

I also wouldn't trade him for anything! I love him even more than I did when we got married 5 years ago, and we are so very blessed! 

(And the funny faces are nothing new...this was us when we first started dating 6-ish years ago.)

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 8

"Routine"

This is pretty much what my "working from home" looks like. Me, at the dining room table, with the iPad, scribbling notes and math all over scrap paper while entering orders. Usually with Scout curled up at my feet.

Have I mentioned I love my job? I love the flexibility of working an hour or two at home during the day, and spending a few evenings a week out doing spa parties. Everything I do is portable, which means I can pack up and head to a coffee shop for the day (or bring it all to Florida to visit my dear friend Jessica for a week, which I'm doing next month! woo hoo!). 

Here's to doing a job you love! What has been your favorite job - and what has been your least favorite? (My least favorite was putting pieces of paper into file folders for eight. hours. a. day. At least it was a temp job!)

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 7

"Changes to come."

I could go really deep with this blog, but I won't. We never really know what changes are around the corner. So I'm going to keep it superficial. 

Really superficial. 

I need a haircut. And probably a root touch up. 

I change my hair a lot. For the first 20+ years of my life, it was varying shades of blond, but then it started to get darker. Most of my life my hair has been well past my shoulders, and because my body seems to like playing tricks on me, anywhere from slightly wavy to kinky curls. 

Just this past year, it's changed pretty drastically. 

Started out long and in it's natural color. 

Chopped to the chin. 

Went asymmetrical. 

Pixie cut. 

Then, growing out the pixie and back to my "native" blond. 

I'm not sure I'll ever be ready to go back to long hair, but I still like playing with different styles!

Have you had the same haircut your whole life or do you change it up? Why or why not?

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 6

"Obsession."

This one is easy. I have been in love with science fiction since I saw Return at the Jedi somewhere around age five. I must have watched Jedi dozens of times, then mom or dad found me the other two Star Wars films and I devoured those (let's just keep pretending there are only three, mmmkay?). It was my gateway drug, and from there I moved onto Star Trek (mostly The Next Generation) and such glorious 80s programming as Quantum Leap. I was hooked. 

I had toy lightsabers, blasters, tiny Star Wars playsets and figurines, even a Star Trek phaser (oh, to have that again!). I had posters and books. I was a nerd. 

Nerdiness in college and early adulthood was mostly confined to big movie releases and classic literature (LOTR binge reading sessions, anyone?), until the advent of Netflix. Oh, Netflix. You have brought me such great joys! It was then I discovered Firefly, Farscape, Doctor Who, Warehouse 13, Fringe, Once Upon a Time, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Horrible. . . the list goes on. 

But the greatest of these is Stargate. 

I'd seen the movie years ago and loved it, but somehow never knew there was a TV show until maybe four fateful years ago. And I fell in love. It's everything a sci-fi show should be - action, gadgets, aliens, humor, and some fantastic interpersonal dynamics. It's humans being humans, both evil and heroic, in the face of impossible odds, and living. 

SG-1, the first incarnation, has 10 seasons; it resulted in a spin off, Stargate Atlantis, which is almost equally as good. And thus begins the pile you see in the picture - I own seven seasons of SG-1 so far and am slowly working my way through as I find them. I've purchased and read just about every Stargate book for Kindle (some are better than others), and the dog tags are the beginning of my SG-1-themed costume for Dragon*Con (that's another post entirely). 

So yeah. Maybe a little obsessed. 

(Now that the cat's out of the bag, you really should go find it and watch it. Start with the movie with Kurt Russell and James Spader, but don't expect to fall in love until Richard Dean Anderson comes on the scene in SG-1. I mean, really, who can resist MacGyver?)

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 5

"After Dark."

I realize most of these posts are going to be a love letter to Chattanooga and to my dog. 

I'm overly attached to both, and I'm ok with it. 

On Day 5 it got super dark around 3pm. I was about to head out to run errands, noticed the black clouds, and decided errands could wait. The power went out for a while, the thunder was loud, and Scout was terrified. She did her best vulture impression*, and proceeded to velcro herself to my leg for the remainder of the day. Good thing I work from home and can sit on the couch with her during storms! Poor baby. 

*Does anyone remember Snoopy's vulture impression? This is what Scout does when she's nervous. The ears go back, she hunches over, and looks much more fearful than fear-inspiring.

 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day Four

"Something green."

Mom was in town today and I used my new Tennessee Aquarium membership to take her to see the penguins (my favorite). Along the way we found the butterfly sanctuary (her favorite), and she was desperately trying to get a butterfly to land on her (I was squinting and hoping the shifty little things wouldn't land near my face). 

A nice aquarium employee finally assisted mom in her quest and gave her a tiny butterfly to hold for a few seconds before he flew off. 

The funniest part of the day: When we turned to leave I noticed a giant butterfly (moth maybe?) that had been hitching a ride for some time...on her pants. All that work and there was one hanging out all along! Good thing she didn't try to sit down...

I've had my aquarium membership for three days and have already been twice. I think I'm going to love it! 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 3

So I don't always have a chance to upload photos every day, so you guys may end up getting two or three days worth of posts at a time. Two for the price of one!

Day 3's challenge was "clouds," and wouldn't you know it was a mostly cloudless sky! But my blue tie die maxi dress looks a lot like clouds, right?

One of the wonderful things about Chattanooga is it still feels a lot like a small town. I ran into my dear friend Lexi at my new favorite coffee and gelato shop, which let to a spontaneous lunch date at Taco Mamacita and a grocery run at Greenlife. Holy linkage, batman! I just love my city!

As for the cloud dress, I saw it in this post on my favorite fashion blog Penny Chic. You can't see it in my picture, but I love how the dress drapes, it's really flattering. I could live in maxi dresses every. single. day. Go over to Penny Chic and give Shauna some blogger love. She started it as a simple blog years ago and I was hooked right away - now she's got an amazing web site plus her own line of Little Black Dresses (I own one and love it). 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 2

Today was supposed to be "What I wore" day, but by the time I remembered I was wearing yoga pants and didn't feel like changing.

So, let's call it "What I did" instead.

This picture pretty much explains our whole day: laundry, paranoid dog, and a Star Wars marathon. The laundry is self-explanatory. The dog was stuck to my leg like glue all day after a smoke-alarm battery change resulted in some apparently terrifying beeping. If you've never seen a German Shepherd quake with fear, just come over with any beeping electronic device. That's my dog, fearless in the face of danger. 

The Star Wars marathon was made possible by my dear friend Lexi loaning us their VCR. I recently reclaimed my original Star Wars trilogy from my parents' house, but haven't had the requisite VHS player needed to view them in years. Return of the Jedi was one of the very first movies I have memories of watching (the other was The Little Mermaid), and the trilogy still remains my favorite "movie" of all time (it's really so hard to pick between the first two for that top slot). I've tried for years to find the original, unmolested versions on DVD, but George Lucas is like DaVinci with the Mona Lisa - if DaVinci were aging backwards like Benjamin Buttons and ended up scribbling over Mona with a magic marker. 

Bonus nerd points to whoever who knows which scene is on the screen in the picture. 

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day 1

I saw a few cute 30 day photo challenges on Pinterest the other day, and I thought it might be just the thing to add a little summer fun to my blog. And low and behold, June has 30 days in it, and it starts today!

I haven't decided if I'm going to stick with the theme every day, but the pin below gives me a place to start at least. I plan on using the photograph as a writing prompt, per say, and giving a little backstory for each one.

(http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181877312 - You guys I try to embed these things, I really do. Pinterest's widget generator and Blogger don't mix, apparently)

So today's photo: 

A self-portrait. 

This is actually from last night. It was the last day of the month, which in Arbonne-land means close night, lots of coffee, and entering orders until the wee hours. We may groan about the process a little bit, but don't let us fool you - it's all rather fun. I'd situated myself and the computer at the dining room table and was setting in for the evening, though I couldn't bring myself to take off my newest, shiniest accessory. Apparently all you need to win my heart is a really good 50% off sale from J. Crew, and my sweet husband insisted I get the stunning, albiet impractical, baubles. He knows and loves me well. 

Also, it is amazing how much better you can see when you update your 3-year-old glasses prescription. Hello, world! 

Make It So: Yarn and ribbon-wrapped bracelets

Yesterday my friend Jennie and I broke out the glue guns, some old plastic bracelets, and an enormous pile of yarn and got to work! First, I made a ribbon-wrapped version because I wanted to use up a particularly cute piece of Kate Spade ribbon I'd been holding onto. 

With ribbon, you have to wrap it around just right so you don't get wrinkles, but it goes way quicker than the yarn! Add a drop of glue to the back to start, then you're ok just adding a drop every two or three times around. 

Next up was the yarn-wrapped bracelet. I decided to do some red, white, and blue, and added a few sailor buttons Jennie had on hand to lessen the Fourth-of-July vibe. 

The inside is less-than-perfect, but the outside turned out pretty good! Don't worry about getting thin yarn - the standard stuff works fine, once you stretch it over the bracelet it looks much thinner anyway. 

It's a good craft to do with a friend so you have someone to chat with while you wind and wind and wind all that yarn! I want to track down a few more plastic bracelets and do some other colors  too. I'm thinking an armful of colorful yarn bangles would look good!

Maybe I need to do a few more ribbon-bracelets too? Loving these from Pinterest. 

http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181838327

http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181838331

Loving Right Now: Chambray

This really shouldn't be a "Loving Right Now" post. It should be a "Loving for All Time" post.

I love chambray. It's soft, comfortable, and matches just about everything in my closet. It manages to be both chic and casual at the same time. I've been doing a major closet purge over the past few weeks, and taking a ton of stuff to the consignment shop, and I'm realizing my entire wardrobe could be paired down to a few chambray shirts and colored pants and I'd be super happy! 

Stay tuned for a DIY chambray lace shirt post over the next few days, but for today, here's some chambray inspiration to get you started!

BTW, I tried to do the proper Embed-pin thing but I couldn't get it to work in HTML or otherwise, so if someone knows the trick to doing this properly, please let me know! I would be much obliged. I pasted the embed code like it said but just kept getting an error message. Oh, well, old school post and link it is! 

In case you had any doubts on the versatility of this humble fabric...

(http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181567064)

Casual with skinnies. 

(http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181570024)

Add a touch of lace. 

(http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181567062)

Work-worthy proper.

(http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181567059)

And weekend-worthy casual. 

(http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181578624)

Under a floral shift. 

(http://pinterest.com/pin/51861833181585798)

And with a shocking pop of neon!

There will be a post dedicated just to the glories of neon in the future. For now, what's your favorite way to wear chambray, or do you tend to stay away?