Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award- i was nominated- can you believe it?

Happy Wednesday Y’all!  I have been following Lanthie at her blog Life is just a bowl of Cherries for a year now. She is the coolest chick that lives in South Africa.  She nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award yesterday. This means a lot and and i appreciate you Lanthie for thinking of me in this large blogging world.  Go check out Lanthie’s blog and tell her I sent ya!

I will tell you that I was nominated back in October by 3 different sweet bloggers for the Leibster Award and still have done nothing about it. To you 3 lovely ladies ( you know who you are), please know that my heart is so full and I danced in my head for days feeling so honored. I got so wrapped up with my Halloween party and then recently I jumped in head first into one of my weird funks that I sometimes get in, it was overwhelming to come up with answers, more questions, and to forward to other bloggers.  I will start working on that soon. But for now i will start with this award....

So the rules of the award are as follows:

• Include award logo in blog post 
• Thank the nominee and link back to their blog
• Post 7 interesting facts about yourself (See below)
• Pass the award to 7 deserving sisters

7 Interesting facts about my life:  I always find this difficult as interesting to me is not necessarily interesting to you.  But here goes:

·         I had a drillteam dance scholarship in college and I performed in the Macy’s Parade in NYC and the Orange Bowl halftime in Orlando. That was my 15 minutes claim to fame.

·         I bought my first Harley in 1999 when I was 31 yrs old but I’ve been riding since I was 4

·         My grandfather on my mom’s side was Choctaw Native American Indian and I have most of his traits. However, I also have some Spanish/Mexican from my family tree. I get asked A LOT what my ethnicity is. I know very little Spanish but I want to learn how to speak it fluently enough to get by.

·         I just recently started drinking wine around 6 years ago. I didn’t like it at first and didn’t know much about it. I got to work for almost a year in Northern California where all the wineries are and I stayed over the weekends instead of coming home so I could go wine tasting. I had lots to learn and now I love it love it love it! Red wine particularly is my favorite

·         I went to 31 different schools by the time I graduated high school.  My mom moved around A LOT!!!

·         I didn’t graduate college and quit my senior year to take a job in restaurant management. It paid the bills and then some back then. My biggest regret!!!

·         Music moves me! I seriously would be ok if I never had to watch TV again as long as I had a radio. I love almost all kinds of music but I prefer alternative and hard rock and even Christian songs. I learn lyrics to song very quickly and could kick butt playing any music trivia!

Now to nominate 7 Deserving Sisters ( very hard to choose just 7) and this is in no order..

My sweet cuz Lauren at the Crazy life of LT

Danielle at Secrets of a sweet southern girl

Monica over at Mrs. Inappropriate

Dusty at Girls love Fried Pickles

Marci at Stone Cottage Adventures

Kim at Queen of OverDoing

Julie at A Beautiful Day

To all my nominees- I TOTALLY get it if you dont want to play along but just know that i thought of you today. 

To the rest of all my bloggers that i follow and my followers, i love all of you and so grateful for you and your support!!

Oh what a weekend!

How was your Thanksgiving? Can you believe that Christmas is just a few weeks away now? Holy Cow!!
I enjoyed my days off and stayed busy everyday.  I have volunteered by feeding the homeless every year for the last several years ( eleven, twelve, or thirteen - i lost track). My friends own a very popular diner chain  Norma's around Dallas and has opened their Oak Cliff location every year to serve free meals. The tradition starts by having a huge Thanksgiving meal on the Wednesday night before at their house. I bring a hashbrown casserole every year that i like to make.  I get over to their house by noon and help cook all day and set up the folding tables and settings until guests arrive at 6:30.  We had 43 people total eating dinner this year and it was so much fun. This year of course my honey Todd was with me which made it extra special. The next day on Thanksgiving, i got to the diner by 9 am and then we spend 2 hours cutting pies, making tea, wrapping to go containers, everything in preparation for the diner to open at 11. We serve until 1pm and the time FLIES by. All my waitressing skills from college come back and i serve food the whole time. It's a blessing to see the same faces every year and i always get to hold the sweetest babies in between while the mom gets situated in the booth.

Me and Pam. Yep, already had gravy run down my shirt from a loose lid

Once i was done with serving , i had Thankgiving meal this year with my Honey (Todd) and his family. They live north of Dallas and i got there the same time Todd and his brother did so good timing!  The meal was wonderful and i enjoyed hanging out with them. I had bought a newspaper on my way there so i could work on my game plan for Black Friday specials and after dinner while watching the football game , i made my list.  Can i just tell you what a trooper Todd is? He went with me to Target that night and stood in the longest line ever with me. Target was opening at 9 and we got there at 8:45. The line was completely around the whole building (Its a large Super Target) and we had to walk behind the building which was not lit up and kinda creepy. We did a divide and conquer plan where we each had items to get and we would meet near the boys wear. The line moved pretty quickly once it opened and we were out of there in my truck by 10:10. Man, Target didnt play around either! The aisles were taped off and we had all these different lines to stand in for electronics, check outs, anything. There were tons of employees in red shirts and they would stand guard on all the aisles. They made announcements that there is no running or shoving  or yelling and we would be asked to leave by security if someone didnt abide.   I feel like it was a little too organized if that makes sense but there were no craziness like what happened at several Wal-Marts. A girl in line next to us  said that she had been at Walmart and got knocked down that night. Nothing is worth that!!  I got some great door busters that i'm excited about like a cute red 8$ waffle maker, some boys pj's for 5$ for my friends little boys, a suitcase for my honey that was half off normally 120$, and a few little gifts.
I got up early on Friday and went to Kohls, Ulta, and JcPenney's for their early bird specials and was done by 10am. Later that day i cooked my very first turkey and it turned out so yummy! A friend of mine gave us a 12 pound frozen turkey earlier in the week and Todd asked me " what are you going to do with that"? Since i had never cooked one i wanted to practice and if it didnt work out we could throw it away and not care. I used one of those cooking turkey bags and it worked great. I made homemade red bliss potatoes, gravy, and stuffing and invited Todd's brother over for dinner to send home with leftovers.
Speaking of waffle maker- I saw this on Pinterest and had to try for myself. Using cinnamon rolls instead of waffle batter. Y'all it frickin rocked!!! It took 4 minutes to have a yummy cinnamon roll waffle.

We got our Christmas decorations out of storage and put up our tree on Saturday. The tree is special because between the both of us we each had lots of ornaments. Todd and I had to compromise and use our favorites to put on the tree. I think it turned out so pretty and he said it was his prettiest he's had in 10 years.

I had to decorate my birdcage

Grinch Table

I got all my Grinch stuff out on my tea cart and i am SOOOOO Happy!  I am so in love with all things Grinch and i am looking forward to watching the cartoon and the Jim Carrey movie. Of course i have both.

This post is long but i havent blogged in forever and see what happens. :)

Go now and enter to win this Giveaway

I'm participating in my sweet sweet friend Kim's 100th follower celebration.  Her blog is The Queen of Over Doing.... Chronically Kim. She reached a 100 followers last week and is doing her very first giveaway. I am donating one my favorite Kelly rae Roberts ornaments. I was at a boutique in Dallas and went crazy over these. They all "spoke " to me so i bought a dozen. Yikes i know! A lucky winner will get one and more fabulous prizes. Kim has her own business called Sweetsie's and makes homemade amazing treats and will ship them to your doorstep. She's giving not 1 but 2 packages away of her goodies.  I wont tell you everything else being given away so you can see for yourself.

Click here and enter to win. Have fun Y'all!

Hey there- It's just me

I still have a funk, writers block, holiday blues- whaatever you want to call it but i thought i would try to squeeze out a few sentences that mght make sense. I've already lost 2 followers this past week. I'll talk a little about my weekend.  I had last Friday off as vacation day and i have all the Friday's off until end of the year. Sweet! I still could not sleep late because it's just this total rebellion my body likes to do with myself when it's a vacation day. So i got up early and watched a few of the Ellen shows that i had saved on DVR. Ellen makes me laugh and she has the best guests on her show! After being lazy on the couch for a few hours i got up and found the nearest Nordstrom's Rack near my place. I had a coupon to use there and i needed to get my stepmom a birthday gift. I spent almost 2 hours there. I totally got in a zone and wandered around the whole store. I tried on dozens of shoes but didnt buy any. I grabbed a shirt and bracelet for myself and some cute pajamas and STILA lipgloss set for Deb (stepmom).  After i left Nordstroms i came across a garage sale on my way home and totally scored! I grabbed a small footstool for 5$ that i want to recover, a few shirts that were a dollar that i'm gonna cut up in strips to make some banners, a cute apron, some crafting scissors, and tin tower that are compartments to store craft stuff in.  I was a happy camper on my way home for sure.
Saturday morning my Honey and i helped my cousin move into her newest apartment. We both drove our vehicles so we could fill them both up with her stuff during the move.  It went real well and we got done pretty quickly. I looked like Sanford and Sons again when i left her place because she had a couch, chairs,and various crap piled in my truck that she needed me to haul off and donate to our local charity.
Later that night was a dinner and a movie. My Honey and i were undecided between Lincoln or Skyfall but we ended up with Skyfall because of the action. I would have slept through Lincoln because i was tired from getting up early and moving. If you havent seen it yet- GO Now!! It was a great movie and one of the best Bond movies i've seen. Adele sings the cover song for it.

Yesterday was a simple day. We went to church, had lunch with a friend after church and then vegged on the couch watching football . I worked on a few crafts on the couch while watching football so i was a little productive. I also caught the music awards last night and was blown away with Pink's performance! Did you catch it? She made Singing while doing gymnastics look easy and graceful.

My crafts i'm making with my gazillion wine corks i own

Sequined shirt makes great strips for banner

I'm working today and tomorrow and then off the rest of the week.  I will be volunteering for my 14th year in a row feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving and i love it so much. I'm usually done around 2pm and then i'll meet my Honey and his parents place. I'm not sure if there's anything i need to get in line for at 4am for Black Friday but i may come up with something. What about you? 
Happy Thanksgiving my sweet sweet blogger friends and followers!

A little something

Hello my beautiful bloggers. I cant explain it but i'm just not into my blog this week. I'm not feeling it. I love to blog and i love my friends and followers from having my blog. I've been swamped with work too so there's that. I'm sorry to give such a lame post but i cant gather my thoughts enough to make a post that somewhat makes any sense. Maybe tomorrow i'll feel up to it. Then again maybe not- We'll see right?
So, i thought i would share some of my fave sayings that i love from Pinterest. Happy Hump day!!

I'm linking up for the Craft Swap

Last month Jamie with CRAFT ( creating really awesome free things) hosted a Craft swap with 100 bloggers. Due to Hurrican Sandy messing many things up, we had to postpone until this month.
Each of us were paired up with another swapper to send a package for anything crafty. I got paired up with Stephanie at Geek in Glasses and I really enjoyed getting to know her. I also became a sponsor to her blog as well. We have until the 20th to link up so i wanted to do it today. My package was so great.

She put in some blank cards and some alphabet stamps, some wooden snowmen and white glitter, a baggie of scrap papers and stickers to use on my cards, and 2 pieces of scrap material with bird cages on because I LOVE BIRDCAGES!  What i'm also excited about is the cute leather bow bracelet that she made (and included a tutorial on her blog), with 2 of the cutest bobby pins that have gray bows glued to them.
I mailed Stephanie a gift card to Joann's fabric store, a clipboard with scrap paper to cover it, a cookie cutter and cupcake sleeves,  and the makings of a leaf garland. I included printouts from Pinterest with the ideas to use what i sent.

Let's face it, I think we've all participated in some swaps and received crappy stuff on our end. It was such a relief to get a fun package that had thought and fit me to a "T"!  Thank you Stephanie!

I'm signed up for 2 more swaps soon that are ornament swaps. After those , I'm done for the rest of the year with swaps. They can get expensive when you sign up for a lot at same time which i kinda did.

Happy Friday Y'all!! Today is my sweet Daddy's birthday and we're celebrating with him and some family tonight. Tomorrow my cuz Lauren and I are going to a fun junkin and crafty fair  and i cant wait! I'll tell you all about it.

I'm a Hot Tamale! No really go see. Read about my take on tattoos

So if you havent come across Dusty at Girls Love Fried Pickles you need to NOW! I came across her blog around a year ago and i love her. She's my sister from another mother for sure. She lives in Tennessee and one day we will meet in person! She features Hot Tamales ( her friends and sponsors) on Thursday's on her and it's all about me today. Holla!! Woop! Woop!
My post is a little long but you can tell i have a few strong feelings on the topic of tattoos. Please say Hi to Dusty and tell her i sent ya. And give her a hug from me if your closer than i am.
Happy Thursday Yall!
If your a new follower - thank you so  so much for stopping by. It means so much from the bottom of my heart ( or butt because its big too). :)

Holli

A little more on my Halloween party- oh hush it's my blog!

Yep, i'm crazy late on posting all about my awesome party that i had for Halloween. Here's the truth, i didnt take ONE SINGLE PICTURE that night. I was so busy being the greatest hostess ever that i didnt pic up my phone or camera to take pics. My sweetest cuz Lauren took soome great pics at out photo background we set up but no action party shots. Another friend took lots of my pictures of my decorations that i've been waiting on and she still hasnt sent them. I asked her for them a few times and i cant keep waiting so this is what i got. I can't even describe how every wall, piece of furniture, door, window, etc was decorated somehow.
 We served up a big pot of chili and we had all the fixin's for Frito Chili Pie. I had 6 yummy dips with bread, crackers, chips,and vegetables, a cheese and salami platter, and shrimp cocktail. I bought all kinds of different M&M's (pretzel, candy corn, peanut butter, etc) and had them all around my place in cute bowls. We rented a keg of beer and i bet i bought 12 bottles of wine. The only thing i had left was some beer from the keg. I also had bought some marshmallow Halloween peeps, some graham crackers, and chocolate bars to make smores in the garage but we forgot about it.
My honey put my old TV in the garage so the kids could play video games and have a place to hang out while the adults got their PARTAY on. It worked out great and i also have a patio in the back of my apartment to accomodate any smokers. I wore 2 different dresses throughout the night. My first one had long sleeves and i got really hot. The 2nd one was sleeveless and much cooler but not attractive for the ol bat wings under my arms. Oh well, my wine made me feel beautiful! LOL.  I had around 35 guests total and i my heart is so happy ! Nearly everyone commented a few days later on how much fun they had. I do believe i may have started something... like an ANNUAL Halloween party from now on. You wanna come over and play next year?

Honey and me. Mr and Mrs Couple of Death

My family -brother and cuz's

Sarah (my awesome sis-n-law), Lauren (my cute cuz), me

These are 2 great gals i went to high school with

My beautiful Pirate family (my bro and the girls)

Dollheads- hehe

So just to mention a little something on last night's elections, I am a firm Believer and i know that GOD has everything in his hands. We need to pray for our President and our Congress often.

My repost about my thoughts on voting

I posted this last month as a guest post but since today is THE VOTING DAY, i thought it was good for a repeat. Get out there people and vote. I dont care who you vote for but it's our right to vote and have a voice.

I don’t know about you but I’m so over the politics — debates and election — of 2012. The commercials are on my nerves and November 6 can’t come soon enough. Politics are a private matter for me, and it’s been that way since I started voting at age 18.
The emotions coming from coworkers, family members, and Facebook friends are very strong and, in some instances, cruel and mean.  I’ve even seen comments threatening to un-friend anyone who disagrees with their political candidate or opinion.
REALLY?!?!
You’re willing to dismiss all opinions that differ from yours to the point you don’t care?? Hmm, let me know how that goes when the election is over and you need a friend!!!! Sometimes, I want to un-friend a person for being so obnoxious!!!!! But I won’t. Regardless, nobody’s going to convince me to vote their direction in response to inappropriate statements and rants.
Facebook and Twitter have mostly been the two places that I see the political rants day and night. Perhaps, now that I think about it, I should unplug from both social networks so I am not exposed to all the angry comments. I have no intentions of telling anyone WHO I’m voting for, but I promise you I AM voting. I believe we all have a voice and our vote counts.
In the meantime, and the rants continue, I’m going to enjoy the light-hearted cartoons such as these I found on Pinterest:

I'm so behind - I think I'm ahead

Good morning Y'all! I know i still havent posted pictures about my Halloween party. I've been nominated twice for a Liebster award and i havent responded to that, and i've been constantly running around like a crazy girl.  One thing i DO have a quick minute for is to tell you I'm part of a huge ginormous giveaway. How would one of you like to win a 100$ to Target, Starbucks, or Kohl's before Christmas? WHAT- WHAT!  I know girls- what are you waiting on?

500 Follower Giveaway Extravaganzaaaaa

Go see Stephanie's blog (The Vintage Modern Wife) and Good Luck! She's so excited to have 500 followers she's came up with great giveaway.


AND, i'm being featured over at my sweet friend Kim's blog ( Queen of Over Doing) today. GO say hi to her too -tell her i sent you. Here's my Q and A that she posted:

Hey there friends!  This week I am showcasing some of my wonderful friends & sponsors that are over there to the left on my sidebar!

I've asked them some questions so we can get to know them a little better and I hope you visit their blogs today and often!

I hope you have fun getting to know my friends as I have!

Today I'm handing it over to Holli from Holli's Hoots and Hollers!  Holli is a wonderful and very friendly lady and has quickly become a new favorite bloggy friend of mine!  She loves Harley's and wine.  She's a lady after my own heart!

Q:  What is the name of your blog and what's it all about?
Holli says:  My blog is Holli's Hoots and Hollers.  My blog is pretty random.  I travel a lot with my job and when I do, I blog about the restaurants and the sights I see in whatever city I'm in.  Mostly it's just about my life in general.

Q:  Do you have a small business (or a large one) online (or b&m) on Etsy or Storenvy?  If so, how did it come about?
Holli says:  Nope!  Nothing yet.  I'm in the process of starting a business with my cousin and we're in process of working out details, so stay tuned!

Q:  What do you do when you aren't at work?  How do you spend your "free time"?
Holli says:  I love to go junkin!  Garage sales, thrift stores, etc. and buy things to "repurpose them".  I also have a Harley that my Honey and I ride quite a bit.

Q:  Tell me something good!
Holli says:
Wow, where to start.  i don't like to cook much but I'm all about desserts and dips.  A blogger friend of mine Jules from A Beautiful Day introduced me to a dip this year called Shiner dip.

Shiner beer is brewed here in Texas.  I'm not really a beer drinker, but dang this dip is awesome!  I've made it almost every other week, no kidding, for parties, potlucks, etc. that's been happening lately.

I prefer to make it the day before you need it so that all the flavors can set in overnight in the fridge.  You can get the dip on the internet by typing in "Beer dips".

This makes a large batch which is perfect.

You need 2 pkgs of cream cheese blocks, softened, a bag (2 cups) of shredded cheddar cheese (I use sharp cheddar), a pkg of dry ranch dressing dip, a can of Shiner Beer (whatever beer you have, but use a full-bodied beer, nothing light).  Mix it all together while slowly pouring the beer in.  I used less than a can of beer but it was enough to add flavor.  Refrigerate and eat it with Frito's scoops.

Yum!

Then the dessert I love that I got from Pinterest was homemade Turtles.

Grab a bad of round pretzels, a bag of rolos and some pecans.  I spread the pretzels all over a cookie sheet, then add a Rolo to each pretzel.  I put in the oven for about 4 minutes to get them soft.  Right when you take them out of the oven, slap a pecan in the middle while good and melty.  They are so awesome and quick.  They didn't last long

Now I'm hungry and need to go make something yummy to snack on...maybe some Homemade Turtles!
So, you've got to know Holli a little bit here, please go visit her blog Holli's Hoots and Hollers and make a new friend! 

Kim, thank you for featuring me today- You're a sweetheart.

November's Vine Giveaway! Get over there quick!

Good morning Y'all! Happy November 1st.  How was your Halloween last night? I will tell you that i'm about to break down and cry over mine. As all of you know by now it's my fave Holiday and i go ALL out to participate in all things Halloween. Last night was no exception. I bought 10 bags of candy to hand out to trick or treaters and some cute little party favors like tattoos in a box for kids. I live in an apartment complex with lots of kids. I did not receive a single ONE knock on my door! I swear if i see the same kids tonight who always play in the parking lot, i'm gonna yell at them " where were you last night"!!!   Oh well, i bought the really good candy so i'm not too sad to have to eat some of it. I brought a lot to the office and it will go fast. Can i just tell you how sweet my Honey is? He felt bad looking at me all made up in my witch dress and head band on just sitting and looking at my watch. He snuck out thru the garage and walked around to the door and knocked. I was so excited i squealed!  When I opened the door and saw him standing there,  I laughed and cried at the same time.  My Honey's birthday is tomorrow and i arranged a small dinner party for him at a yummy mexican restuarant. Bring on the Margarita's!

I am participating in a giveaway over at Danielle's blog Secrets of a Sweet Southern Girl.  I found the cutest ornament that says CREATE and the artist is Kelly Rae Roberts. I love her stuff!  Go over there now to sign up for the giveaway. Danielle is one of my fave bloggers and you'll love reading her blog while you're there.

Hugs!!