Its been a while!!

Man, I have really been slacking on my blog lately!! I started a new job as the senior assistant manager at a new store called Charming Charlie and have been working around 50 hours a week. Its been going great... Tiring, but still great :)
I woke up this morning with a huge feeling like I needed to accomplish something.... Something big-no, huge! No, I'm not referring to the huge load of laundry that's been piling up or the long to-do list I have that is ever-growing. I feel like there is a big, huge plan out there for me somewhere... Something that is much bigger than Rogers, Arkansas.
A few years ago I decided to start writing a book after being totalky inspired by the huge success of J.K Rowling, a once single mother who thought up a wonderful story on a train ride one day. I was very passionate about the story line I had come up with a carried around an old notebook with me everywhere and wrote in it every chance I could get. I've decided to go back to that book that I have such a strong feeling about. (Yes, as if I have all this time to devote to writing a book!)
So, here I go again..... Once more with even more feeling! Wish me and my old philosophy notebook luck :)

DIY Thursday #3

Photo courtesy of Kelly Hicks

Although its nearing the end of summer it's still SO HOT here! I found this awesome tutorial for refashioning an old pair of flip flops. Even if you don't have an old pair you can still find flip flops for as cheap as $1 a pair at places like Old Navy.

In this tutorial she takes a new pair from Old Navy and uses leftover knit fabric for the braids. It's so easy!!! I'm so going to make some of these!

By using different textured materials such as rope and vintage fabric, or even beads you can make a really great one-of-a-kind pair of sandals for under $3!

Click here for the tutorial!

The Weekender

I FINALLY had a Saturday off (yay!! woo!) and we decided to make a day of it. A few days earlier I was giving Elia a bath and checking on some info for my homework in the bathroom. Yes, I know what you're saying, "Why would you have your laptop in the bathroom?" I'm sure you know where this story is going...
Elia was slinging her Barbie around in the tub and completely drenched my laptop's screen with water. I have a Sony Vaio and a MacBook Pro and it was the Vaio that took the hit. Luckily, when I purchased it last year I also bought the "Accidental Protection" (thank you Best Buy!) which covers everything from dropping to liquid spills. We started the day taking my laptop to Best Buy where they graciously sent it off to Sony to get fixed. Bye, bye laptop!
We were really wanting to try the new restaurant in Rogers, 5 Guys, but the parking lot was packed so we headed over to Qdoba. The food was great!

And of course I can never get BOTH of them together in a good shot!!

Eva doing her usual... sleeping away!

On a whim, we later decided it was about time Elia gets a new pet. So off to Petco we went!

They had cats and dogs there for adoption from the Humane Society! Made my heart melt! I wanted to seriously take every one of them home with us. 

But.... since we already have 2 dogs we thought it best to start with something small, a fish!

The lady at Petco told us the best one was a Betta Fish. Let's hope she's right!!

Introducing the new member of our family, Miney!!

 (pronounced like "Hermoine" from Harry Potter without the "her".)

It's technically a male fish, but Elia insists it's a girl.

Let's hope Miney loves it here with us, Spongebob, and Gary!

Sniffles & Coughs

We have a bit of a sickness going on in our house right now. It started with Elia complaining of a sore throat for a few days and turned into both her and Eva having runny noses and coughs. And of course, me having an immune system that catches anything the cold has snuck up on me as well!
Hopefully a nice day out today will do the trick. Not sure what we're going to do but I have the whole day off so we're taking advantage.
On another note, Eva is now old enough to play in her Jumperoo!!

Although, she's not fully convinced in it's ability to entertain her yet. She'd rather sit in it and watch Sesame Street!

Check out those chunkers!

I didn't realize my focus on my camera was off until it was too late...

Wednesday was also my birthday! My mom, Elia, Eva, and I spent the day shopping at the Pinnacle Hills Promenade and ended the evening at Mimi's Cafe for dinner with the family. Unfortunately, this was the only photo of the day I was able to capture! 

(Elia & her crazy excited eyes, haha!)

We ended up having to leave the restaurant early because Eva decided to have a SCREAMING fit in the middle of dinner! But it was still a great day!

Have an awesome weekend everyone!!

DIY Thursday #2

A couple of months ago I used this blouse...

.... and turned it into this dress!

Here is the tutorial I used. 

She has a lot of really cute tutorials. Be sure to check her out!

madebylex

Thanks Lex!

Back to School: Week 3

This week in my Media & Society class we're discussing more theories of media. One that caught my attention was the "Cognitive Dissonance Theory," where someone is presented with a conflicting message or thought other than what they would normally believe. The first example that came to my mind was the Glenn Beck controversy over how he "thought" Obama was a racist.

Beck begins by saying that Obama "has a deep-seeded hatred for white people or the white culture." When he is shut down with facts that most of Obama's top officials are white, Beck's statements change to "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people," and then going back to "This guy is, I believe, a racist."

In this example, its obvious that Beck has two opposing thoughts. Maybe he honestly does think that Obama is a racist, maybe he doesn't. Either way, the way he's being perceived is someone who is thinking one thing but wants to be looked at in a different way. To release some the obvious tension seen  in this clip, Beck goes back and forth on what he's saying while still trying to get his initial idea across... whatever that is!

References:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzKFYcHKbnk
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/cognitive_dissonance.htm

DIY Thursday #1

Since I love basically all things crafts I decided to start a weekly DIY Thursday! I'm definitely going to try these shoes out on Eva!

Find this CUTE pattern at fleetingthing.