So I Walk into a Bar...

A few Thursdays ago was a day of many firsts:

my first time ditching school,

my first time being in a bar,

and my first concert!

Hunter Hayes was doing a free concert with a local country radio station at the Buffalo Wild Wings Grill&Bar that's right a cross the street from school...so obviously I was going to go! Forget class, this was a once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity!

Look at him-isn't he adorable? {even in spite of the awful pictures}
And he was seriously flawless live - that's talent, people.

And we totally made eye contact! He was giving a cue to his guitarist, and when he looked up I was just standing over there smiling like

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and I'm sure he looked away thinking I was the most attractive thing he'd seen all day.

I try.

P.S. I'm grateful for

+ WiFi

+ alarm clocks {and actually getting up when they tell me to}

+ cooler weather for running! {hopefully this time the weather stays...}

Dear Boys,

Dear Train,

I totally wasn't kidding about that date.
Unless you start lecturing me about Duck again. Then I'll take it back.
Try me.

Philio,
Niamh



Dear Duck,

It's been a really long month. And there's still a couple of weeks to go!

Love,
Turtle



My dearest Spaniard,

Is it kinda funny that you've been replaced by someone that's actually a Spaniard?

See you sometime,
La Senorita



Dear Ewok,

It's nice to know that you care enough to throw my music stand into the audience if I ever get gauges.
Thankfully, we'll never have to go through that, but it was a very sweet thought.

Love you too,
Meep



Dear 12,

Oh, my gooseness. I'm not even gonna lie, I was staring at you playing the piano during the entire Jazz Show. If we ever got married, I would make you play piano for me all.the.time.

Love,
Rethinking my Katniss status



Dear Doctor,

I was getting my hopes up, just a little, and then you went and brought your girlfriend to church. What is she still doing in California???

Meh,
Scarlet



My dearest Stripling Warrior,

I haven't been thinking about you nearly enough lately. I'll get on that, and keep working on being ready for you!

All my love and then some,
Your Virtuous Woman ... in training

P.S. I'm grateful for

+ friends who really get me

+ boys to write to :)

+ ice cold water and rolled down windows

Because I Looked Amazing: Thrifting Haul Part 2

I love Salvation Army. I know I've mentioned that before, but it's worth saying again. Last weekend, I got to check items off of my Fall Wears Wish-list, and get everything {well, almost} that I needed for my Halloween costume. Going through the nastiness is entirely worth it - especially when I come home with a haul like this!

blazer: vintage, thrifted
scarf: h&m, thrifted
shirt: hand-me-down
skinnies: hand-me-down

This blazer made me so happy...after I cut out the shoulder pads, that is. And I'm loving the scarf!

top: old...from some hole-in-the-wall store
skirt: vintage, thrifted
tights: hand-me-down
shoes: target, thrifted
necklace&earrings: gift

My friend called this the "sexy librarian" look. This picture makes it look more like the slightly-pregnant librarian look...I didn't even realize I was holding my stomach. Really, though,
"sexy" is a weird word that I'm not sure I like being used in a sentence that's describing me, so "slightly-pregnant" it is! Pregnant people are adorable, anyway.

shirt: target
belt: vintage, thrifted
skirt: wet seal, thrifted

Notice this snazzy pattern-mixing here? Lurve! And even better, the skirt is textured...yes, I did rub the dots all day. You would have, too.

P.S. I'm grateful for

+ safety on the road

+ freedom to vote

+ tolerance and understanding of different views

Halloween ... a Few Days Late

Halloween didn't feel much like Halloween this year. I went to our Church "Trunk-or-Treat" party, but when I wasn't running a face painting table for the kids, I was studying. It felt much more like Halloween when I went to another party the Saturday before, though, so I wasn't entirely cheated out of my Halloween fun!

My favorite part of Halloween is dressing up, hands down. I couldn't care less if I get any candy, or decorate the house, just as long as I get to dress up. This year, I was Rosie the Riveter!

See the resemblance?

headscarf: scrap fabric, joann's
shirt: thrifted
skinnies: thrifted
pin: printed off and duct taped to a "stop bullying" pin

 There were very few people who actually knew who I was. The two most common guesses were just your average 40's girl {they got the era right} and Taylor Swift {I thought that was kind of strange}. Every time I told someone who I was, I'd have to do the pose, or they still didn't get it. But they thought I was cute, and that's all that matters, right? :D

Now, for your viewing pleasure, some take-outs {that I obviously didn't really "take out", because I'm showing them now}:

me: "Wait! Stop! I forgot my lipstick!"

My uber-attractive kissy face...kissing people with
messy red lipstick was quite possibly my favorite
part of this costume

How was your Halloween? What did you dress up as?

P.S. I'm grateful for
+ random sweet e-mails
+ cars that I get to drive
+ writing letters to people I love

NOVEMBER: {attitude}

These were my goals for last month...do we really need to talk about how miserable I was at keeping them? And how many times I was ready to quit my year of happiness less than a month into it? Yeah, I was kind of pathetic. But that's the point of this year - improvement! And I wouldn't need to improve if I wasn't pathetic at some point...

This month has been a bit of an eye-opener. For the first time in my life, I've been able to recognize myself going through the pride cycle. 

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I should have gone and stopped it as soon as I realized I was in it...but...yeah. Bad month on my part. It was interesting, though! I don't usually see myself that clearly {which may be a good thing...}. 

I've definitely been letting school get in the way of my relationship with God. I rationalize that putting off reading my scriptures and working on the Personal Progress goals I had for last month {none of which got done, by the way} gives me more time to get my work done, but really, without doing those things, I'm not able to be as productive anyway. It's a lose-lose situation. I've been extremely self-centered, too - I'm tired and cranky so I couldn't care less about how I can help anyone else. 

This was a good start to my happiness project. No, I'm actually not being sarcastic. Being able to see more of my weak points has humbled me a bit, and I think it's prepared me more for a full year of self-improvement.

Now, for this month's goals! November's theme is attitude.

 What's going to be hard this month? Um...everything. Well, the new goals, anyway. No, I was right before, everything. Be positive - this will be a hard habit to acquire. I can usually at least fake positivity, but not so much this last month. No complaining - I do an awful lot of that. Does it help anyone? No. It just makes things worse. Refrain from criticizing - last month, I discovered something about myself. It was quite the epiphany. When I know I'm not living my life quite how I should be, I get really annoyed with myself {eventually I get motivated to change, but for a while I'm just annoyed and unpleasant}. I already knew that, but last month I discovered that I cope with that by letting every little thing that everyone else does bug me. It's like, if I can focus on what they're doing wrong, I don't have to think about what I'm doing wrong. Except for the fact that as I'm doing it, I know it's wrong, and it only makes me more frustrated with myself...which gets me more frustrated with everyone else...and so on. Refraining from criticizing first myself and then others will give me an infinitely better attitude. Gratitude journal - I have one that I keep on the shelf by my scriptures, but I haven't used it in forever. I'll be using it again, daily, and I'll close every blog post with a few things I'm grateful for {how fitting...this month is Thanksgiving, isn't it? I haven't quite processed the fact that it's November yet}.

I'm hoping I pull off this month better than the last - and have some fun while I'm at it! What are you all looking forward to about this month?

Whaddaya Know...She's Still Alive

I don't even know how long it's been since I last blogged...it probably hasn't actually been that long, but this past week has felt like a month in and of itself, so it feels like forever! School is thoroughly yucky. What do you say about me dropping out to become a full-time blogger?

Oh. You think that sounds dumb? And a waste of time and money? ... Right. Me too. Duh.

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It's over...can you believe it? I can't. 

The first blogger I was assigned to disappeared off the face of the earth, so the day before the reveal, I was reassigned to Starr at The Kiefer Cottage.

To be perfectly honest....I could have done much, much better. Poor Starr was orphaned by her first angel and then reassigned to me...who dropped off the face of blog-land for a while shortly after the reveal due to life gone insane. I've been commenting as often as I've been able. She requested help with guest posts and collaborations, so I emailed her about some opportunities I knew about {since this here bloggy is pretty small and guest posting here wouldn't do much to increase her blog traffic}. Starr remains one of the funniest bloggers I know, with an adorable family. I'll definitely be keeping in touch with her, and helping more if I can!

My bloggy mentor has been amazing, making herself 100% available to help me with anything I need. We had the pretty cool coincidence of having me win a giveaway of hers, and I'm going to be guest posting on her blog soon. Brittany has pretty much been the epitome of an ideal blog angel - thank you Brittany!!!

See everyone else's experiences here.

Coming up in December is the ULTIMATE Blog Angels experience - if you didn't sign up this time around, I would definitely recommend joining in December. It really is an amazing experience!

I should be back in business this week. I've definitely got a lot to write about!

Project Inspire Link-Up!

{Dear Ann,

You're not allowed to read this post. Since you can't link up, I'm linking up for you, and your card still has to be a surprise for when you get home! I want to keep you in suspense:) And you already know how much I love your card, so you don't need to read this anyway. So you can just exit out now....}

I was paired up with Ann at Hi, from Ann. This is the super-cute card that Ann made for me! I've really loved getting to know her through emails and comments on each other's blogs. And getting this in the mail completely made my day and put a smile on my face!

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Ann is having fun taking a three-week course away from home...which means she's not going to get to see my card for another two weeks! It did arrive safely at her house, though, which is good. So since she can't post about it, I'm going to share it in her place - just as proof that I wasn't a lame partner who didn't send out a card {although I was a lame partner who put off making the card until the day before it had to be sent out...}!

Overall, this was a great experience. I always love getting mail {who doesn't?}, and I loved making the card for Ann. I'm definitely going to be participating in things like this more often!

Check out everyone else's experiences here!