Thursday, January 28, 2016

My Blog Makeover by ALB Designs

You might notice my blog looks a little different these days, thanks to my friend Amanda at ALB Designs!  I connected with Amanda several months ago when I stumbled across her blog, diary of a (semi) health nut, and we instantly became email friends!  Amanda has been a great support and resource to me as I started my blogging journey.  When she recently started her design business, I jumped at the chance to work with her to give my blog a make over.


I had started out using one of the basic themes on Blogger, but I never thought it looked as professional as some of the other blogs I follow.  There were not many font choices by default, so I would use different ones each time, as I tried to find one I liked, so the look of my posts were not consistent.  I also had the generic social media buttons in my side bar, and had been wanting to find custom ones that all matched.
Before and After

Amanda offered to help me create a header and style sheet for my blog to give it a cohesive look, as well as, set my email list up on Mailchimp.  After filling out a short questionnaire on her website, Amanda emailed me a color scheme and some sample headers and fonts to choose from.  I picked turquoise  and yellow because those are two of my favorite colors that I choose frequently in my outfits and for my home.  After selecting one of the styles, she then gave me some additional options for my header, based on the style and font.  Once I decided on a header that I liked, Amanda updated the theme of my blog.
My color scheme
Amanda also updated my social media buttons to match and moved around some of my widgets to make the page flow better.  She also suggested adding page breaks to my posts so more posts would display on a page, which makes the pages look a lot cleaner.  I am so happy with the way my blog looks now!  It is a true reflection of my personality and something I can be proud of.

Head on over to Amanda's page to read more about my blog make over and see how she can help you!  What do you think of my new look?

Monday, January 25, 2016

Bible Journaling - Getting Started

If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen pictures of my bible with doodles in it.  I have gotten quite a few questions about it, so I thought I would write a post about my Bible Journaling experience.  I first learned about Bible Journaling about six months ago, when I saw it on Pitter& Glink's Instagram feed.  I thought her illustrations were beautiful and was a creative way of studying the Word.  One thing I struggle with is sitting down and reading the Bible; I do not know where to start and sometimes I find it boring.  I thought that having a way to illustrate what I was reading would make me want to spend more time in the Bible and also help me focus on the meaning of the passage.



Thursday, January 21, 2016

Our Basement Renovation Story - Demo time!

Once we finalized our basement layout plans, we had to decide how we wanted to get rid of our construction materials.  A dumpster was not really cost efficient, since we knew it would take months and months to complete the renovation.  We seriously considered the Bagster, since it was $30 and it could be picked up by waste management.  The main issue we saw with this is we would have to either a) fill it up at the basement and drag it through the front yard to the street or b) put the Bagster at the street and carry the demo materials across the yard.  Honestly, neither of these ideas sounded good or efficient to us.  My husband had the idea to find a trailer on Craigslist, so we could fill it at the basement, then hook it up to our vehicle and drive it to the city dump as needed.  At first, I thought this idea was crazy, but it was honestly the BEST option ever! It made demo so convenient and an added bonus is having a way to buy our construction materials all at once, instead of trying to fit a few studs at a time in the back of our Explorer.

Monday, January 18, 2016

What I am Wearing - Styling a Blanket Scarf

I love scarves; they can give a pop of color to any outfit.  When I saw the newest trend with the blanket scarf, I knew I would have to try it.  I found mine at Walmart for around $10; you can find a similar one HERE.  Walmart actually had a huge selection of all kinds of scarves this season at affordable prices.  Once I bought it, I had to play around with wrapping it, because it is a lot of fabric, y'all!

Saturday, January 16, 2016

#GarnierSkinActive Party and Micellar Water and Daily Moisturizer Review

Everyone needs a girl's night once in a while, especially when you live in a house full of boys!  I was excited to be chosen to host a Garnier SkinActive Party, where some of my girlfriends and I had the chance to try Garnier's new skinicare products.  I have previously tried products from Garnier's hair care line, but I had yet to try any of their skincare.   I received a kit that contained the following:

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Updating A Guest Bedroom On A Budget

I do not know about you, but the guest bedroom in our house is one of the last rooms I thought about decorating, because we rarely have overnight guests.  It was a mishmash of our "extra" furniture, and none of it matched.  Early last year, my teenage son was complaining he was outgrowing his twin bed (How did he get to be almost 6' tall???)  It was not really in the budget to buy a new bed and mattress set, so I decided we would just move the queen sized bed from our guest room into his bedroom. This left me with a blank canvas to work with in the guest bedroom.  Since I had a minimal budget, I decided to shop my house.




Monday, January 11, 2016

What I am Wearing - 3 Ways to Style a Cocktail Dress

I am always looking for ways to get more wear out of special occasion pieces.  I bought this dress several years ago to wear to a formal wedding.  Luckily, I got it on clearance at New York and Company, but I still like to get my money's worth out of my clothing.  I have only worn it a few times for special occasions, but lately I have been looking for ways to wear it in a casual way.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Our Basement Renovation Story - And so it begins...

I am starting what will be a series of posts chronicling our basement renovation, which we have been working on mostly by ourselves, in our free time.  I hope that you will be inspired to tackle your own renovation projects around your own house after reading this.  Here are a couple of the "Before" pictures of our basement.  I am embarrassed to even show them, as most people who have been in our house have not even seen the basement (Sorry, it's not a stop on the house tour!)  But, I think seeing the before pictures will make the "After" pictures so much more satisfying!

Monday, January 4, 2016

Blogging With Intention - Setting Goals

A new year always comes with New Year's resolutions and a list of goals to achieve in the upcoming year.  I am joining my blogger friend, Kirsten, from Sweet Tea, LLC in her monthly goal-setting and accountability link up.  Being a new blogger, I struggle with many things, including coming up with quality posts, finding time to write posts, and promoting my blog, just to start.  I feel that setting small monthly goals for myself will help me focus on one area at a time, so I will not feel so overwhelmed.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Birchbox Review December 2015

It is month three of my BirchBox subscription and I will have to say that this is not my favorite.  The theme for this month was All Wrapped Up, so the items were supposed to be beauty gifts.  The box itself was very pretty; it was a pretty silver and white pattern with a neon yellow bottom.   Although these are all sample sizes, the full size versions of these products come to about $128.