7 Quick Takes {16}

Linking up with Conversion Diary. 

1. I bought my first blogging ebook this week, How to Blog for Profit (Without selling your soul) by Ruth Soukup. (Ruth blogs over at Living Well Spending Less.) I've read a little over half of it and have highlighted a bunch of information I hope to go back and use on my blog sooner rather than later. Hopefully by next week I'll be making millions from this little blogging space. Kidding!

(Ruth, if you read this, know that I really am going to take some of your advice:)

2. Pretty sure I'm the only person who still hasn't downloaded the ios7 update. I've heard it's pretty nifty though so I should probably get on that asap. Any one want to share how they feel about it? Love it? Hate it?

3. The parentals house is getting super close to being finished! Thank goodness because I think they have both had enough of the whole building process. They finally got their cabinets in this week and now it's just the flooring, countertops and touch up painting type stuff. 

Hello house!

LOVE these bookcases that are built in to either side of the fireplace.

The kitchen is huge with tons of counter space.

This picture does zero justice to the fireplace. 

After watching them stress, Seth said we're never building a house because I'm too indecisive, and he's right, but I still really want to at some point. We'll see who wins that one. 

4. It's almost been a whole month that Seth and I have been living together and we don't hate each other. Yay, go us! I will say upgrading to a king size bed definitely wouldn't hurt the relationship though. Queen beds are kinda a joke. #iwantakingbed

5. I'm really in the mood to go Christmas shopping and get a few presents scratched off of my non-existent lists. I love love love shopping for other people but when I do it all in a one month time period it really kills the ole budget. Thinking I need to start my lists now so I can start shopping next month which is only a few days away. Do people do this? Does it help you stick to a budget or do you end up buying more because you shop now AND later? That's what I'm a little worried about. 

6. Day 5 of not drinking pop and I haven't died yet. I tried this a little while back and was doing okay until I went on vacation and fell off the wagon harder than an alcoholic at a beer convention. As of right now, so far so good. My goal is to drink only one a week and the rest of the time stick to water or tea (not sweet cause that's disgusting). If you want to encourage this good habit it will be greatly appreciated because sometimes I just want to throw a tantrum and have a Pepsi, ya know?! Plus I wouldn't mind dropping 10 15 pounds. Just saying.

7. Since it was Seth's birthday yesterday we had a little birthday dinner at home last night. Grilled BBQ chicken with over the top unhealthy twice baked poh-taw-tohs and fresh garden tow-mah-toes. Seth grilled the chicken while I sliced the toms and tried to kill us with fat in the potatoes. Maybe I should post the non-recipe here sometime....anybody feel like having a heart attack?

Act like you don't want to lick those potatoes right off your screen!

Gosh I just read this and it's a little d-d-dull. Do you wanna slap me for wasting your time? Maybe I'll ride a unicorn through a waterfall or something this weekend so I can bring you a little more excitement next week. 

Peace out girl scout. 

7 Quick Takes {7} and Wedding Photos!

(If you just want to see the Wedding Photos, scroll to #7)

1. I had a heart attack thirty minutes ago when I went to wash my apple and realized only my wedding band was on my finger. No engagement ring. You know the expensive one with the big diamond?! Never has this happened to me and I freaked. (I have been wearing my rings on my pinky finger for the last week or so, because with the humidity my fingers swell up first thing in the morning and I can't put my rings on my ring finger.) I now understand the saying of "my knees were weak" because they were. They were shaking and my heart was racing and I was praying that I would find it. I dropped my apple on the counter, looked in my lunch bag that I had just set in the fridge, and then raced back to my desk where my ring was sitting right inside of my work bag where it had fallen off probably 3 minutes before. Thank you Jesus! 

You can see why I was freaking out. Gorgeousness.  

2. Seth is getting closer to being done working out of state and I can't wait for him to move home. After being in a relationship for almost 12 1/2 years this will be the first time we live together for more than a weekend at a time. Things might get interesting:)

3. I finished Season 3 of Downton Abbey so I will probably shut up about it for a while but holy bananas! They definitely ended Season 3 with a cliffhanger and I googled and Season 4 doesn't even air until January 2014! Is that a joke?!!! Why so long??? Okay, I'm done now. 

4. I don't know what Google Reader is but apparently it's going away because every blog I read is freaking out about it. Apparently BlogLovin is the new cool thing to have though so I guess that's where you can find me. Or using the reader that's in blogger since it's so conveniently located. 

5. I'm considering switching from Blogger to Wordpress but I don't know if I want to go for it or not. I have noticed that a lot of blogs I read are using Wordpress but then I stumble on a bigger blog and they are still using Blogger. Ugh. I don't know what to do. Feel free to argue your case for either in the comments section because I'm sick of researching. 

6. Yesterday morning I wake up this adorable innocence outside my window.

Precious, I know. 

I arrive home to this lovely un-innocent-ness in my mail box. Face palm. 

This isn't the first time we have had a note from a neighbor in our mailbox. 

Lucky for us our neighbors are all great and this little old lady just wanted to tell me that, there has been more traffic on our road lately, and, she is worried about our dog crossing the road and getting hit by a car. She was sweet as could be and didn't care about the old muddy boot or shoe and I think she just wants a friend. After talking to her on the phone for over 30 minutes I have promised to come visit her at some point. And Gunnar was locked in his pen today:(

7. Apparently people enjoyed my engagement photos last week because they have been pinned quite a few times. Because of the enthusiasm I decided to give you some wedding photos for your viewing pleasure this week! (and because I just love to look at them:)

The guys.

My gals.  

The most gorgeous flowers ever. 

My groom. 

LOVE our smiles in this picture. 

:)

Same church my Grandparents got married in over 60 years ago. 

The farm my mom grew up on.

All wedding photos taken by Leigh Miller Photography. She is amazing talented and so sweet:)

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary.

How to be more productive

I've figured out how to make your life more productive and I'm sharing the secret!

Start a blog. 

Yep, that's all you have to do. (Well you have to write in it too, obviously.)

Seriously, since I have started blogging, my life has gotten way more productive. Everytime I see, do, or think something, I think to myself, "hmm, I wonder if this would make a good blog post?" or "wow, this would make a good blog post." 

Is that pathetic? Is that what all bloggers do? As I've said, I'm new to the blog world, but I can't help but think that I'm not the only one thinking these thoughts. 

I also don't think I'm the only one that does things around my house or in my life so that I have good blogging material. Honestly, if I wasn't productive my life blog would look something like this. 

Woke up.

Went to work.

Came home.

Watched tv Downton Abbey.

Went to bed. 

As wonderful a blog as that would make, I like to think that my 3 readers deserve a little more. 

So now that blogging has entered my life... 

I craft.

Here

I bake. 

Here

Sometimes decorate or DIY some type of upcycled randomness. 

Here

I look for bargains. 

Here

I garden. 

Here

I clean. 

This room is in the process of being cleaned/organized. Here

I organize. (See above)

And, I document. (See above)

That's right, I take pictures of anything and everything that I'm doing, eating, visiting. Then, when I'm inspired to post, I have some lovely little photos to go right around with the writings. 

I would like to point out that I did (and still do) all the things listed above before blogging. And, I don't just do those things because I have a blog. However, I do some of the items more frequently than I use to. I don't procrastinate nearly as much and I get excited about doing some of the items that I might otherwise dread. Overall, blogging has, so far, been a positive influence in my life and I hope the productiveness continues. 

Since my husband benefits from some of the items above, I would say that he enjoys my productive blog life as well:) 

xoxo,

Julie

7 Quick Takes {6} (and a few past engagement photos!)

1. It's the weekend. Ohhh YEAH! Let's just say I'm super pumped for the weekend. I really have no idea why I'm this excited because I have no big plans but I'm just excited. Oh, and Downton Abbey Season 3 came in, sooooo... it's safe to say this will most likely be an unproductive weekend:)

No, I don't live in Ottawa, inter-library loan is a lovely thing:)

2. How cute is my littlest (age, not size) brother? I mean seriously I just love that boy (even when he's a butt head). 

He's in the army and currently stationed at Ft. Hood right now so I don't get to see him much. 

Super old, really bad photo of both of us from the day before his bootcamp graduation in 2009.
It's hard to take updated photos when I never get to see him:(

3. There are approximately 7, give or take 12, craft projects cluttering up my house and garage right now. I should be ashamed, but I'm not. 

4. I recently introduced my mom to blogs (and the copy/paste feature) and obviously she hasn't read many because she thinks I'm just HILARIOUS. To prove that my hilarious-ness is a figment of her imagination I sent her over to read Grace's blog Camp Patton. That women is truly hilarious. Oh, and Hi Mom!! 

5. Does anyone else ever get overwhelmed by all the things they want/need to do that they end up doing none of them? Yep, I have that problem and I have it bad. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that my list of favorite tv shoes is longer than my list of to-do's, right? That's what I thought. 

6. This Pinterest chicken recipe is so good that I have made it twice this week. Twice in the past 3 days really. Go. Make it. Enjoy. You're welcome. (p.s. use less vinegar)

Who needs a side dish when you have chicken this good?

7. It's so hard to think up a #7 and I have no idea why since I have a million ideas but they all seem lame. So, I leave you with this...avoid poison ivy. It sucks and is itchy:( If you insist on getting poison ivy, I advise this: Scrub with a loofah or something similar to open up the little bubbles of poison and wash it with Dawn dish soap to get the oils out of your skin. While I'm not a doctor I was given this information from a pharmacist once, so I trust it, but you don't have to. It will save you from clawing the skin of your arms and legs though. Fortunately I have only gotten it twice but the first time was during engagement photos (2nd time right now hence the reason for this #7) so it was totally worth it:)

Most likely poison ivy culprit right here. 

See? Totally worth it! (Photographer here)

Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease!

Linking up with Jen at Conversion Diary. 

The Blog Life

Yesterday as I was getting ready for bed I decided I felt like I had a blogger kind of day. 

I worked my normal 8-5 job and emailed a bloggy friend, read some blogs, and perused Pinterest during downtime. 

After work, I stopped at a hardware store and picked up some paint, a gunny sack and a few pieces of bamboo. Might sound random, but it's not. 

Stopped in at Hobby Lobby to discover that even though it's 97° outside and June, that won't stop them from putting out the fall decorations. Instagramed that obviously. 

seriously??

Texted my cousin about the cute 4th of July outfit she should totally get her daughter. 

Couldn't decide what shoes...

Stumbled upon several aisles of 80% off home decor and went a little crazy. Okay, not too crazy but crazy enough that when the husband called I said, "Sure honey, you should totally buy that new golf bag!" I also managed to find the two items that I went in for in the first place. Winning. 

Swung by the Dollar Tree to pick up a couple crafting items that were needed and found a couple additional bargains. No big deal.

Made it home in time to do a little spray painting, burlapping and other crafting (that will be seen here tomorrow) before it got dark. 

Played with the puppy and watered my rapidly growing garden.

Came inside and made up a quick Pinterest chicken recipe that was super yummy. 

Watched some reality tv, Pretty Wicked Moms. Followed it up with an episode of Call the Midwife and fell asleep. 

If that's not the blog life, I don't know what is.