Tagged!!

So I got tagged by Melissa to answer eleven questions... and I think I am to come up questions for others to answer. Let's go with that...

1. What has been your most favorite vacation to date? 

I would say it was the road trip to California to visit my Little Ones' birth grandparents. It was a bit painful to drive cross country and back with a car full of kids and gear, and the summer prior driving to the other coast to visit my mom was really cool too, but we totally loved the adventure and newness of the trip to Cali. The south has better beaches, beignets, boudin and Cuban sandwiches, and my mom of course, but the California trip had more meaningful new experiences and opportunities to cross things off my Living List. 

2. Do you prefer big city life, suburban life, or a life in the country? 

I prefer healthy personal space so country life for this Stress Monkey. I like what big cities have to offer, but I'd hate to be trapped living in a big city. I'm good with just visiting. Truth be told, I think I belong on a coconut plantation near the ocean. 

3. What is your favorite type/genre of food? 

I have to say "Asian" although you know me well enough to know that I love all types of food. And I may be genetically obligated to say "Asian" though, huh? Not necessarily Filipino food although I do LOVE flip food, but I salivate thinking of Thai food. I am making a chicken stir fry as soon as I finish this survey, in fact. But a close second is Mediterranean food.

4. How would you typically dress yourself for a weekend night out? 

Let's see. Weekend night out. I don't get out much but when I do, I am super casual. Last time I went out I was wearing longer baggy jean cutoffs, a plain white pocket tee and my strappy Ugg wedges. If it had been cooler, I'd probably have swapped out the cutoffs for broken in khakis (Gap has some really comfy ones) or my dark wash mom jeans.

5. Do you like to wear accessories? If yes, what are your go-to accessories? 

Yes. I have some silver ball earrings that I wear all of the time, but my go-to accessories are a cheap shiny necklace and earring set I got at Dillards a couple of years ago for a Casino Royale fundraiser and an even cheaper set I got at a boutique in Medicine Park. Sometimes, I wear Emi's turquoise earring and necklace set too.

6. How do you typically fix your hair? (Blow dry and straighten/curl? Air dry? Wash and go?) 

I put some gel and Shine Shake (smells so yummy) in my hair and blow dry the roots a little if I have time, then I air dry.  I don't straighten or curl but I do try to scrunch my hair as it's drying because I love messy natural hair. I don't color or process my hair. Not that I'm against it but I am happy with my natural color (not necessarily the texture though). Also, I can't keep up with hair maintenance...

7. What make up do you wear on a daily basis? Do you have a preferred brand of cosmetics? 

I have very sensitive oily skin that will break out with almost all products. Good times!!  

My daily products include:

• Moisturizers: SkinCeuticals Ultimate UV Defense or Clinique's Dramatically Different moisturizing gel
• Foundations/Powders/Blush: Bare Minerals powder foundation &"Lovely" blush & sometimes the bronzer; Clinique's 'even better' makeup
• Lips:  yummy lip balm from my dentist and NARS Pigalle lipstick 
• Eyes: Bare Minerals "Hottie" or "Intuition" shadow,  Korres Obsidian Black mascara
• Nighttime Moisture: Andalou Naturals Purple Carrot +C Luminous Night Cream (from Natural Grocers)

My preferred brand must be Bare Escentuals but I am open to what makes me look and feel good...within reason...

8. What is your preferred workout? (Gym? Outdoor running? Yoga? Group classes? None? Etc...?)

I prefer yoga and walking but most days I don't get a chance to get in a real workout.  I also prefer to exercise alone or with Scott in the privacy of our home. We have a variety of videos with the Thirty Day Shred being a favorite. I want to get back into running again too. I get the occasional yardworkout in and that must count for something. I loved my yoga and zumba classes at work (when I worked with the NWS) but not at the gym. I also have a rebounder that I like to jump on to 80's music in the basement...it's covered with clothes at the moment though...

9. Where is your favorite place to shop online? 

Lately it seems to be Gap.com. Work clothes shopping...

10. Do you enjoy entertaining guests in your home or would you prefer to be a guest and leave the hostessing to someone else? 

I totally enjoy entertaining guests in my home (or backyard) and I also love to help others who are hosting a party. 

11. What quality do you really value in your significant other?

The thing I value most in Scott is his patience but a very close second is his sense of humor.

Now I'm tagging the 4 people to answer 4 questions.

What say you Jackie, Melissa, Kim,  and Carla?

1. Do you play a musical instrument? If so, what instrument?
2. What is the last thing you cooked that you loved?
3. What is your favorite (alcoholic or no) beverage and why?
4. Is there anything new you plan to do or tackle this summer?

Be sure to comment if you participate so we can share answers.

Bestow, My Heart

A couple of my favorite bloggers have awarded me with some awards. And I feel bad that I haven't addressed the one from Annie (of Dough, Dirt & Dye) yet because it's been more than week, but I was packing to go to California when I found out. Thank you again, Annie!

Receiving the Versatile Blogger award obligates me to divulge 7 factoids about me - I am going to cheat and point you to my About Me page which has at least 7 things about me listed. I hope that doesn't result in bad juju for me...

And I also need to nominate 15 blogs to receive that VBA. I'm going to edit it down to 3 because I am short on time for blogs these days...once again, please no bad juju. And the nominees are:

1) A Little Lunch
2) Yours Truly, Melissa
3) Jill of All Trades


And this morning my lake-living (or is that lake-loving?) writer/blogger/chef friend (of A Little Lunch) let me know that she bestowed me with The Liebser Blog award. Thanks, Kim!

According to my research, liebster is German for dearest, beloved, or favorite.  I feel so honored! The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.  That is certainly me! ;.) I have been reading A Little Lunch for some time now and Kim always seems to inspire me to cook...and listen to Elvis. I appreciate the inspiration, kind words (go ahead and comment on her blog and see what I mean) and shared love of food and music and life in general. I like to surround myself with positive people IRL and also in the blog world and Kim is a keeper!

And the nominees for the Liebster Blog award are:

1) Dough, Dirt and Dye
2) Blessed with a Boy
3) Sally's Daily Diary

Congratulations, ladies and Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh Yeah!



True dat!

I don't have a twitter account anymore but I follow Sundry's tweets via her awesome blog, All & Sundry. This is one blog I can't live without! I was cleaning my tiny kitchen the other day intensely mopping when I noticed how dirty the floor boards were and I started feeling a wee bit of what she posted above...

Feeling Chatty

This last month I've had renewed interest in my blog and I decided to challenge myself to post every day. Not exactly NaBloPoMo but something self-directed. While it's been a busy month with the family, work, yard, etc, I was able to:

• Post every day (sometimes twice)
• Edit photos using PSE (thanks to Heather for the motivation/inspiration and Ree for the tutorials)
• Create my first banner (also using PSE)
• Archive my blog for the first time (I know!)

Thank you for reading my blog and my thoughts. Sometimes I am like an idiot savant letting the posts just come out through my fingertips without any prompting so I hope you will stick around for more. I welcome any feedback on my posts.

Looking forward to what July brings! Stay cool, friends!

Welcomed Comments

I've noticed that traffic has been up on my blog yet comments have been lacking. ;.( So I decided to test the commenting on my blog and was sent into a loop of trying to log in to Google to leave a comment, to verify and then no comment... So no wonder I am not getting any feedback! I checked Blogger Help and saw that a user fixed this problem by setting the comment form up as either a pop-up window or full page vice the default of embedded below. Soooooo, please let me hear your comments if you have any. Happy Friday!

PSE Success

Ok, so after HEAB posted her successful results learning more about Photoshop Elements by checking out the tutorials on The Pioneer Woman's website from the link I sent her, I was finally motivated to finally check out the tutorials myself. I don't edit a lot of my photos (obvs) because I only know how to do a few things in PSE. PW's actions make it easy to make good photos look great.

Observe:

Original Unedited Photo

Colorized

Black and White

Sunshine

Vintage

Love the results and the tutorials at Texas Chicks Blogs and Pics were very helpful. I was able to download and install the actions and edit this photo all within 30 min. I would not have been able to easily figure this process out on my own. Good thing there are so many helpful and resourceful women bloggers out there!