Project Closet

Hellllo! It's time for a new project! I was on facebook the other day and saw a status mentioning some type of closet challenge-- you turn all of your hangers around, set a time frame (mine being 1 year) and then wear your clothes. When you wear something, hang it back up with the hanger facing the right way so you know you've worn it. Whatever hangers are left facing the opposite way at the end of the year-- those go to goodwill.

I spent Sunday going through my closet. If you know me at all then you know I have way too many clothes, most of which still have tags on them. I'm looking forward to this project, I've been referring to it as a game... I think if I think of it that way I will do better.. try to see how many outfits I can make without repeating. Some things I took out to give Lauren, the rest I turned around (as seen below). Now I'm ready to play!

Anyone want to join me? I'll probably need some help in a year when it's time to throw out clothes.. I can already see myself trying to justify why each piece hasn't been worn. I'll be sure to keep y'all updated on the journey.



office art...

Hello! Real quick- I wanted to share with you a cute little canvas I painted for my office. I needed a pop of color and something cheerful to look at-- I love it!

3 new pins....

Helllloooo! I've got a few new pins to share! I made another burlap football door hanger- this time for Brian's parents-- Wynne Yellow jackets edition... love it! Mrs. Susan even added a cute blue bow at the top and it looks fab on their door!

A little while back I blogged about the amazing homemade pizza I made.. it's back but this time I topped it with spinach and chicken.. it was sooooo good! I'm still amazed that using only greek yogurt and flour you can make sure a delish crust!  

And last but not least... chocolate chip cookies stuffed with chocolate chip cookie dough! These were sooooo, so rich that I could hardly eat a full one. (good thing!) And something went kind of wrong when I was stuffing them, it's like the dough part got too soft that it all separated?? I'm not a master chef, yet.. so I'm not quite sure. Anyway, Brian & Clark gave them two thumbs up!



Pinning!

HELLLLLO! So glad we are already halfway to Friday. And tomorrow... I will finally have cable and internet. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally addicted to Mad Men on DVD right now but I'm dying to watch the news every morning/night.

I'm loving living in Little Rock! It's been a great week and a half. I can't wait until I have everything unpacked and in it's place, I can't stand seeing boxes and empty walls much longer. In all the chaos of moving I have found some time to work on some pinterest projects....

These DIY curtains I found at the link here --> curtain tutorial. I was so excited about these because I wanted a pop of color in my living room but couldn't find any curtains that would work. So I bought cheap white curtains (maybe too cheap and thin) and taped off a grid, then connected the dots and removed the grid tape. Painted them and finish! I don't love them and I will replace them when I find something I like better... but they work for now. The curtain is almost too thin, I need to sew a liner behind-- the sun makes the paint look like it needs like 5 more coats of paint. But for now, they are fun and bright! Mission accoumplished.

Apple Pie Breakfast- So delish! This one says you can throw it all in the slow cooker, go to bed and wake up to a hot breakfast... but after reading the instructions, you really can't. I cooked mine on high the night before for about 3 hours, stuck it in the fridge and then I heated up just enough for breakfast on the stove. It was soooo delish! So simple.. just oats, apple juice, water, cinnamon, apples, and brown sugar. Try it! 

You probably know by now that I started a new job last week. My office had lots of papers just stuck in the wall with thumb tacks so I decided to go back to middle school and get a bullitin board. But in true crafters fashion.. I had to make it cute! So I bought a cheap board from Hobby Lobby, covered it with fabric (used modge podge to secure the fabric to the board) and I wanted to use decorative nail heads around the edges, could not find them so I settled on silver push pins. Beware... my thumbs are still numb!

Hope you love the new projects. Have a fabulous week and weekend :) xoxo.



Woo Pig Sooie!

Okay.. so we lost. To Louisiana-Monroe. That's all the comment I will make on the game. I'm almost certain we will beat Alabama this week :)

Totally forgot to post this cute picture from the weekend. We had a fabulous weekend.. did I mention I love living in central Arkansas?!

so many projects, so much fun :)

I tried a new pinterest project a couple weeks ago! I tried over and over and over again to make this work but COULD NOT make it happen. Finally I was very patient and it paid off. If you can't tell that's a block of wood that I transferred a picture on to. I LOVE the final product! I'd really like to try it in sepia also.. FAB!!! 

We celebrated Tara's 26th birthday over the weekend!! WOO HOO!! We went to eat at Sushi Cafe, delicious as always, and then had ding dong cake from two sisters. I think of gross when I think of ding dongs so I wasn't prepared to like this cake... but It. was. amazing.  

So I left the birthday celebration Friday night and drove to the lake to meet Brian, Daniel and Wendy. Then went down earlier in the day while I stayed to birthday celebrate! We spent the whole weekend, relaxing, eating good, spending time on the lake, and loving life! Saturday morning Brian and I went to the fruit stand next door and got tons of veggies and such for dinner. I made my favorite kind of salad (the sweetest Mr. Keeney of Keeney's in Malvern gave me his awesome recipe) and let it marinate all day... it was AMAZING!! We added some more cucumbers and tomatoes and took the rest home for the week. I LOVE!!!   

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! Tomorrow is my last day of work at the Senators office. I'm so excited to move but it's exhausting thinking and doing all the things I have to get done! But it will be worth it and I will love my new home. Until next time... XOXO 

Updates!

Sooo.. lots has been going on! With trying to finish up my current job to trying to find a place to live in Little Rock.. I feel like i need a vacation!! :) 

This past weekend I finally found a place to live! I'm so excited, I think I will enjoy the complex and I already know I love the area of town I'll be living in. AND... my closet is HUGE! So I know this is going to be the beginning of something beautiful. 

Anyway, a little life update... 2 weekends ago our friends Stephen and Laura got married. Beautiful service, super fun reception! Here's Brian and I at the reception. I have a very handsome boyfriend! 

OH and I just found these pictures on my camera I wanted to share. About a month or so ago, Brian and Stephen decided they were going to try to smoke ribs on a grill. You see, you have to have a special grill, with the flip up on the side.. you put the wood chips on one side and the ribs on the other. The whole thing was like a 7 hour process but they were good!! They were tender and had good flavor! Here's the grilling team and the final product! Yuummm... 

On to another project... SUSHI!!! I made this a while back and I'm so proud of the outcome! One day while in Barnes and Noble, I decided I wanted to become a sushi chef. Brian I buy sushi all the time from Kroger (LOVE IT) and I figured it couldn't be that hard to make, right? Well... wrong. I've watched countless youtube videos on how to make it, the right technique, all the options to fill your sushi with, etc. I bought the starter kit- it came with my rice spoon, bamboo rolling board, chopsticks, cookbook and dvd. So I bought the seaweed and rice from Kroger, some rice vinegar and then I went with imitation crab. Not my favorite but Kroger didn't have sushi grade fish, so we learn to compromise :) Add avocado and cucumber to the mix and I was ready to roll. Does anyone know how sticky sushi rice is.. OMG! My first attempt wasn't bad but wasn't really good either. Here is the final product on my second... and it didn't taste half bad. That makes it sound like it wasn't good.. it was good but it didn't look as pretty as the pros. 

TA DA!!! I need a good sushi knife to cut and I think I'll be in business :) I'll be back later with this past weekends happenings

XOXO, ARH

New city, new job... so much excitement!!

Sooo.. I fell off the blog bandwagon for a short period of time. I even forgot my 2nd installment of "Things I love Thursdays." But I have good reason... I've been so busy and I have HUGE news to share!! 

I'M MOVING TO LITTLE ROCK!!! I'm so, so, so excited!! (If you couldn't tell by the million exclamation points I just used!) I've been wanting to move for nearly 4 years! But I've been blessed beyond measure with amazing jobs so I can't complain. These past four years have prepared me so much. I have experienced things in the last few years I couldn't imagine, I've learned a lot and I've come to know so many great people that I'm forever thankful for. 

It's funny, you go off to college to study for 4 years.. you pick a major, pick a career path and assume you will graduate, get a job, and love it forever. In my life, that wasn't the case. I went to UCA as a business major.. marketing to be exact. My dad owns his own Marketing/Advertising/PR firm and my mom owned her own small business .. I've always been great with people and totally obsessed over office supplies from a very young age.. it just made sense. I was totally ready to skip the classes required of you as a freshman so I jumped in to my business classes as soon as possible, and now I am so glad that I did! I HATED accounting, seriously hated it. I was horrible at it, I tried so hard but I couldn't make sense of it. Finally my mom told me to stop trying to figure out the why behind it and just memorize how to do it... I dropped the class the next day and decided business was not the path I wanted to take. 

So I did some research... enter Communications. I had a sorority sister at the time, Mallory Hardin, who was in the field and more or less hooked me. Finally, I LOVED my major, I was good at my classes. I graduated with a 3.9 in my field. Problem is, I graduated in 2008 and the economy was a huge mess. I sent out resume tape after resume tape to stations all over America! My first job offer was in nowhere, Texas with a whopping salary of $15,500. Pretty sure my mom said she'd pay me more to not take it. About 10 months later I took my first job as a television reporter at KTVE, my local station out of Monroe, LA. I was always embarrassed that I was working in El Dorado, like it wasn't a real TV job, like I wasn't a real reporter. I was always working for myself, it was tough, covering bank robberies, house fires, etc. I went to bed at night and had nightmares. It became too much and took over my life. Don't get me wrong, there were amazing parts and I tried to make myself love it, tried to make myself want to stay in the field but at the end of the day my heart wasn't in it. I felt like a failure. Did I really go to school all this time to spend a year and a half at the station to quit and have no clue what to do with my life?! 

I took an amazing job that I loved next at the local hospital. Still, great job but I was unhappy with the location. I loved the people I worked with, loved there was always something going on, my boss was like the perfect hip cousin or whatever you never had. We got along great and I loved working for her... until newly elected Senator John Boozman's state director called me one day. I'll never forget.. I was in the elevator at work and my phone rang.. I was like are you kidding. I've been here 4 months, I love this, I would never leave. But I did leave... for an amazing job! Seriously... not many people can say they worked for a UNITED STATES SENATOR. That's awesome. There are 100. period. Who does that? Who has 3 back to back amazing jobs in a terrible economy?! 

ENTER... today. I've accepted a job with the Arkansas Department of Rural Services in Little Rock as a grants coordinator. I'm sooo excited. I'm thrilled really. I know this job will be the perfect fit and something that I can stay at for a while and make a career. I feel great to go to work and know that I'll be helping people. And I get to do some other cool, fun things that I'm good at. I've always been an outgoing person, I'll talk to a stranger more than they probably want me to, I'd probably talk to a brick wall if they were the only one around.. so I'm excited to work with so many great communities around Arkansas. 

I'm so thankful. I'm so blessed and I'm extremely fortunate. I don't want to sound like for a minute that I haven't appreciated all of my past jobs. They have taught me SO much and I'm the most thankful for all the people along the way. The coworkers, judges, mayors, chambers.. people who aren't just my colleagues but more my friends. 

And lastly, I'm soooooo excited to be back in central Arkansas near my friends. I'll miss my family in El Dorado and be sad to not have lunch with my mom everyday but I know she's so extremely happy for me and I'm sure she wanted this for me far worse than I wanted it for myself. Now, if I could just find a place to live.. everything would be more than peachy :) 

So now.... on a completely different note... I tried a new pinterest recipe tonight.. Pizza dough!! Made from greek yogurt and flour and it was delish!! I topped my pizza with light marina sauce, ham and pineapple, and a sprinkle of cheese. SO GOOD. 

Hope you have a good evening.. I'll be back soon. I've got to update you on my weekend and another amazing thing I tried to make.. SUSHI!! (I actually did it!!) xoxo, love. 

Happy Birthday Hayden!!

I can't believe I forgot to post a special happy birthday blog to my favorite 1 month old, Hayden!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY (on the 17th) to my favorite girl!! Don't you love her sweet birthday outfit? Present from auntie Alex :):) xoxo

Things I LOVE Thursdays :)

Hello!! And HELLLOOOO Thursday!! I feel like I've been waiting forever for Thursday this week. This might be my favorite day, reason being.. I get to see Brian on Fridays!!! :) Call me corny, I don't mind. 

Anyway, now that my pinterest project is over I figured it was time for a new idea for the blog. Enter "Things I Love Thursdays," a list of 10 things I'm loving right now... Enjoy!

TEN.

Have you had Honey Bunches of Oats lately?! I bought some last week (with strawberries) and I don't think they have ever been so delicious! I'm addicted now! 

NINE.

Who played this growing up?! Please tell me I wasn't the only one. I still play to this day. I LOVE this game. (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about- it's a game you play in the car- you have to find every letter of the alphabet on a billboard, road sign, etc.) These are always the reason for the game to stop. I hope this sign really exists. This is hilarious! 

EIGHT. 

How cute are my new shoes?! LOVE!! You can buy them --> HERE.

SEVEN. 

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/gymnastics/highlights-aly-raismans-gold-medal-floor-exercise-routine.html

OLYMPIC time! OMG, how amazing is Aly Raisman?? I've always loved gymnastics and you better believe I signed up to take gym after watching the Magnificent 7 take gold in Atlanta in 96. When I watched this video of her floor routine the other night, I was amazed! Just watch it... after that first pass you KNEW she was taking home the gold! 

SIX.

Sophia Grace & Roise. I love these two!! SO GOOD! I can't wait til they come back to the Ellen show.. that way I can have tons more videos to watch :) If you are bored sometime, watch them all. I love when Ellen sends them shopping or to a red carpet, precious! 

FIVE. 

I'm totally loving this look for fall. Over sized sweater/shirt and skinny jeans. Add some boots and that's what I call perfection! 

FOUR. 

Monograms! Everything monogrammed! I got a new phone cover, guess what.. the back is monogrammed! I'd buy the necklace if I wasn't being so cheap, I'd prob get one of those adorable rings also. PS. I'm totally going to make this for my bedroom. 

THREE. 

Have you heard of Katie Ledecky? Y'all... she is 15 years old and killed the competition in the 800 meter freestyle. I actually watched this race and she finished nearly 2 body lengths ahead of the 2nd place finisher. Second fastest time in all of history.. and get this, the record holder was in the race with her.. finished 3rd! This is what the olympics is about... awesome race, total domination! 

TWO. 

The number of hits my blog reached from Tuesday night at 9PM til 10AM the next morning. I don't think that many people read my blog in the first year I had it. Honestly, I don't know why I started a blog, I never imagined people would read it, much less.. compliment me on it. THANK YOU! 

ONE. 

Amen. Remember this. 

Hope you enjoyed my first Thursday. I'll be thinking of my top 10 all week and I'll share it with you next Thursday. Hope you all have a fab weekend! Brian moves to Little Rock this weekend so I'll spend the majority moving (YAY)

XOXO, ARH