Hepburn and Houndstooth

To the left side of the screen?  I have two new sponsors!  These “sponsors” happen to be hand-picked by me and I couldn’t be prouder to tell you about them!  I love them so much, I’ve provided ads to them at no cost.

Pretty Fun is an Etsy shop by cool-gal Sara.  She creates jewelry and purses that are to die for and there truly is something for everyone!  Check her out here and here.

The Gifting Spot features personalized gifts for everyone in the family and should certainly be your first stop for any monogramming.  The prices are good and the prints available on the products are right on trend.  Check it out here.

Be sure to stay tuned and add us to your Google Reader.  Mid-August is bringing a week of fabulous giveaways, including The Gifting Spot and Pretty Fun!

My friend Hanna’s daughter Abigail just turned the big ONE and her birthday party was amazing!  She allowed me to share the details with you.  You’re going to love it!

Little Miss July?!  Are you kidding me?  How cute is that? LOVE!

Hanna made all these precious decorations herself!

The outfit she wore home was displayed.  How sweet!

Sundae bar? Sign me up!

So loving this chandelier!

Ok, now here’s for the main attraction, Little Miss July’s birthday gift…

OH yes, the Cupcake Express is just for Abigail!  This is no rental folks.  Hannah says she rides it every day and loves it!  She’ll have this for years to come!

1. I am incredibly sleepy today.  I can’t shake it no matter what I try.  I slept 6 hours, so I should be fine.  Instead, I have to keep changing what I’m doing to keep from falling asleep.

2. I finally designed the business cards for my crafting biz.  I am NOT good with graphic design, but I’m so proud of how they turned out.

3. I really think I want to go to school soon.  I really wanted to go this fall before I can change my mind, but I just can’t get things lined up before then.  Shooting for January!

4. Harper is such a big guy now!  He can climb onto the couch by himself, after learning to dismount last week sometime.

5. I feel like I am drowning in crafts.  I’m surrounded by felt, paint, fabric, rings, and glue!  The problem is, I have trouble finishing one project before moving on to another.  I’m working on a schedule to try next week.

6. My husband has the worst luck with tires.  In the last 3 weeks, he has had 4 blowouts.  We finally bought two new tires last week and this weekend, we’ll get two more.  Hopefully, he can drive to work safely then!

7. I made cupcakes Sunday and am so thankful they are almost gone.  I ate 5 Sunday night, 5 Monday, and 2 today.  Seriously?!  I ate a dozen cupcakes in 2 days!  Total weight gain: 2 pounds.

8. I have a blog-reading problem.  As in, I read too many.  I start out most mornings with ~250 in my Google Reader… after getting it down to 0 before bed.  I read through my reader all day and am always actively searching for new blogs to add!

9. Everyone goes to nursing school… except me.  I can count 7 friends and family right offhand who are either in school now or starting soon.  I mean, why nursing?  Is everyone doing it for the money?  I can’t imagine that many people are passionate about taking care of patients.

10. I’m glad Nick has an active imagination, but wow…. the boy thinks he actually is Bob the Builder.  You know, when he’s not a dog or pretending baby wipes are birthday cake.

I am slightly obsessed with offices.  Always have been.  All I want out of a future job is a desk in my own office.  Dustin has a desk (though shared with another shift) and has been begging me to print pictures to put in his cubicle.  I kept forgetting until a couple of days ago.  I started going through our pictures, couldn’t narrow them down, and finally threw this together.  Now he can hang one picture up rather than take over the space.

It’s printed to fill a sheet of letter 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  It’s not perfect, but I had a 4-year-old sitting in my lap while I made it.  Dustin loves it and that’s all that matters!

This was totally a “note” I was tagged in on Facebook.  It’s a lame blog post, but hey, at least it’s something!

Three names I go by:
1. Rhonda
2. Rhonda Gail
3. Mama

Three Jobs I have had in my life:
1. Eddie Bauer Assistant Manager
2. White House | Black Market Assistant Manager
3. CATO Assistant Manager

(I’d like to add that this totally reads like a resume.  Those are my last 3 jobs.)

Three places I have lived:
1. Orlando, FL
2. Lucedale, MS
3. Hattiesburg, MS

Three Favorite Drinks:
1. Coke
2. Wine
3. Grey Goose

Three TV shows I watch:
1. Big Love
2. Grey’s Anatomy
3. General Hospital

Three places I have been:
1. Washington, D.C.
2. Chicago, IL
3. Memphis, TN

People that text me regularly:
1. my husband
2. my mama
3. my Nicole

Three of my favorite foods:
1. homemade chicken taquitos
2. spaghetti
3. lobster ravioli

I saw this picture of Liv Tyler in a $1500 Givenchy blazer in my Google Reader and immediately clicked over to Tiffany’s blog, I Am Style-ish, because I just knew I had seen this look recently!

Now, Tiffany is not wearing a $1500 blazer.  She is wearing Anthropologie’s $98 version and doing it so much better!  She looks amazing in her slim black pants and pumps, as opposed to coochie-crawling shorts over tights.  LOVE!

1. I am making all-new stock for my Etsy shop and I am so in love with these rings, it’s going to be difficult to list them!

2. I am 6 months into my 30/30.  Look for a progress video soon.

3. Sometimes I take on too many projects.  Currently, I’m starting a crafts business, doing a lot of reading, running two blogs, writing a book, looking for a job, and being a wife and mom.  Whew.

4. Nick has decided that his name is Bob the Builder.  Also?  He actually is Bob.  If you need a sink fixed or a house built, he’s your man.

5. Dustin mentioned this morning that when he got into the truck after work last night, it was pretty smelly.  Well, turns out when we went grocery shopping Sunday, we left the pork chops in the truck to rot.  Ew.

6. Both of my kids have been particularly clingy lately and I must admit, I’m not loving it.

7. I signed Nick up for a social networking site for kids called Togetherville.  It seems pretty cool and I love that I control all his friend requests and that it connects to my FB friends.

8. We are having the worst luck with vehicles.  One’s transmission is shot and the other needs all new tires.

9. The most fun part about this book I’m writing is that I am including some thing taken from my life, but very few people will actually know what’s real and what’s fiction.

10. I love rain.  I would like for it to rain every day, except when I have to do something that requires no rain!  For example, we have this ant poison for outside that we need to sprinkle in the yard, but it wants you to do it when the ground is dry and rain isn’t forecasted in the next 24 hours.  In other words, I can’t do it until…. October?

I have been itching to go thrift-store shopping for a few weeks and I finally had the opportunity for a quick trip before an appointment this morning.  I only got to spend about half an hour in the store, which wasn’t nearly long enough.  I didn’t even get to look at men’s clothing or furniture.

I still came out with some goods!

These stereotypical vacation souvenir is so perfect!  There were two Florida plates, but I chose this one because it features the Citrus Tower, which was right near our apartment in Clermont.  We had a view of it from our balcony.  This has now sparked a new collection.  I want to collect plates from the states where either of us has lived.  Now we need Mississippi, Texas, and Missouri.  I think I’ll do Alabama too, since I was born there.  Technically, I should have Maryland, but I don’t have the best memories of that place.

Nick has decided he wants to be a soccer player when he grows up, so when I saw these like-new Umbros in his size, I knew they were coming home with me.  I mean, I had these in 7th grade!  in every color imaginable!  For Harper, a little tee in my high school’s colors.  Looks like I’m having a bout of nostalgia, right?

Speaking of nostalgia… I bought a couple of skorts!  I got this same one in white.  Now, to be clear, these are not the kind that look like shorts from behind.  These are the ones where the shorts are hidden completely.  This a total Mom item (they are even by St. John’s Bay).  But hey, I AM a mom.  These babies are super practical for crawling around on the floor with kids.  I hate shorts because of my chunky thighs, so at least I can stay comfy and a bit concealed.

You really can’t tell from the pictures, but this linen shirt (Chaps – Ralph Lauren) is the most beautiful fabric.  I absolutely love linen for summer.  I love the slit-cuff 3/4 sleeves and the amazing fit.  What sold me though was the tiny Chaps logo embroidered on the chest.  I forgot to take a pic of that, but it’s basically a little box with a C in it.  Perfect for celebrating my new last name!

This is by far my favorite find!  Perfect colors, fit, and fabric weight.  It can be worn belted or unbelted.  The belt shown is actually no belt at all.  It’s a purse strap, the only belt-like object within grabbing distance.  I don’t use it as a strap and it has now become my new belt.

Thrifting is so much fun to me.  I love the thrill of a good bargain!

1. I started the morning out with killing some time at the thrift store before an appointment.  $11 dollars later, I had 2 skorts (oh yes, SKORTS!), 2 shirts, a pair of shorts for Nick, a shirt for Harper, and a decorative plate.

2. After this morning’s appointment, I finally got a library card at my hometown library.  The last time I had one there I was a teenager.  I checked out Kristen Chenoweth’s A Little Bit Wicked and Jennifer Weiner’s Best Friends Forever.

3. Yesterday, I swore to everything holy and not that I would work out after the kids went to bed.  I did not.  I would like to say this was the first time I reneged on my promise.  It was not.  But TONIGHT!  Tonight is the night!

4. I now have a tv-watching app on my phone and I got to watch Big Love for the first time last night.  I am so excited that I will now get to watch TV in bed!

5. I have ideas.  Lots and lots and lots of ideas.  The problem is, about 79% of the time, I don’t follow through with my brilliant ideas.

6. So I have finally decided on a camera.  And I chose it based solely on aesthetics.  My photographer friends are probably rolling their eyes.  But I’m going to look so cool using it once I buy it!

7. I made a decision many years ago that still haunts me sometimes.  This is one of those “haunted” days and I’m bummed over it.

8. I am very slowly getting some organization going on in the house.  There’s only so much I can do with my dad’s clutter everywhere, but I’m organizing to maximize storage more than anything.

9. Forgiveness is one of my strong suits.  Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so forgiving, but I am.

10. With the exception of Sunday, I have continued showering and dressing in the mornings to boost productivity.  I’m so proud of myself!