Giveaway Winner

I used random.org to choose the winner of my MOLO Designs giveaway, and the lucky lady is:

Brandy!

Send me your email and I'll get you hooked up with Beth for your free holiday card design. Congratulations to B and a big THANK YOU for those who participated and helped spread the word about this giveaway! I had fun hosting this event and I hope to provide my readers with more in the future.

XOXO

Stacey

My A,B,C's

I straight-up stole this from one of my favorite people in zee world: Morgan. This is fun, it’s like those blurbs celebrities fill out in Cosmo. I always liked those…

A. Age: As Daniel Tosh says, I’m on the wrong side of 25 (I’ll be 26 in February).

B. Bed size: King and we sleep with separate covers. Cover-stealing problem solved, people!

C. Chore that you hate: Cleaning the toilets, obvs.

D. Dogs: We have two dogs; Xena is 8 and she’s a German shepherd mix and Bradley is 4 and he’s a Pomeranian. I hated having dogs when Laila was a baby because as she was crawling on the floor I was made very aware of how often I should be vacuuming. Now? Their fur is a pain but they are an important part of our family. We will always have a big dog and I’m really fond of having a little lap dog.

E. Essential start to your day: Washing my hair, I feel like I can conquer the world with clean hair.

F. Favorite color: MUSTARD YELLOW! Ugh, I love just saying it because I get an image of it in my head and I’m instantly happy!

G. Gold or Silver: Silver – or white gold.

H. Height: 5’[almost] 9″

I. Instruments you play: Straightening iron & curling iron. I’m not musical but I have relationships with the music I listen to.

J. Job title: Customer Service Extraordinaire a.k.a. the person who gets screamed at over policies and procedures that I clearly made up JUST to piss you off. Oh, but I will make you smile before you leave my office!!!

K. Kids: Laila, Monster, Goober, Bun, Bunny Roo (all one child).

L. Live: FL born and raised. I told my husband I want to move somewhere interesting, he asked what I meant, I said anywhere but here. A change of scenery would be nice!

M. Mother’s name: Gaela Jean

N. Nicknames: My dad called me Bumpkin when I was little. My husband calls me Babs or Little Miss. Some of my best friends call me Stacers, Roo, or just plain Stace.

O. Overnight hospital stays: Once when my sister broke her arm when she dove off a couch at our aunt’s house and once when I had Laila.

P. Pet peeves: There are so many… People who don’t teach their child manners so their kid is a jerk to mine on the playground. People who put leashes on their kids. Oh, and bloggers and/or YouTube people who give the vibe that they think they’re famous and too good to communicate with little people.

Q. Quote from a movie: “Take that vest off, you look like Aladdin.” –Superbad. This isn’t my favorite of all time but we saw this movie three times in the theater because it made us laugh so hard. I’m not one to remember quotes, just how a movie made me feel.

R. Right or left handed: Right.

S. Siblings: A brother who is 21 and a sister who is 19.

U. Underwear: Whatever doesn’t cut into my hips, cuz mama got back.

V. Vegetable you hate: CILANTRO! Gah! If butt tastes like anything, I imagine it tastes like cilantro.

W. What makes you run late: Making sure I have all of my daughter’s accoutrements in tow.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Besides my teeth? My knees. I had really bad knees growing up and there were a couple times when I dislocated them that I had to get them imaged to see if I tore ligaments. I never did have anything torn but moving my crazy-weak, crazy-sore knee around in odd angles was a blast!

Y. Yummy food that you make: Beer-battered shrimp/fish, and ceviche is my newest obsession.

Z. Zoo animal: Penguins. I like watching them waddle on land and then glide so gracefully in the water.

A Pinterest Rant of Sorts

I wrote this upon seeing a picture of a girl who clearly has an eating disorder pinned on Pinterest. I didn't have to click on it to know why it exists. There are sick girls out there who look at these images as motivation and nothing makes me more sad. Soon after seeing that picture (several times) I saw a picture of Emma Stone, which I pinned as well (because I adore her), but I changed the caption that previously read: could I just be you, please.

This subject of confidence pains me so much. I've come a long way from the obese child that I was and I still have days when I don't feel great about myself, I think we all do. I pray to God that I can instill confidence and strength in my daughter. It scares me to death to think that she may be so insecure that she wants to be someone else or resorts to an unhealthy lifestyle. 

'Tis the Season for Giving

I've joined up with my friend, Beth from MOLO Designs to bring one of my lucky stalkers loyal friends your choice of a holiday card design from her shop. Beth has become my go-to girl for design. My blog banner is a custom MOLO Design and the brain child of Beth after I requested she make a banner that mimicked the style she created for my MOO mini cards.

As far as holiday cards go, photo cards give me a real kick in the pants. I've used photo cards for our family for the past three years and I love hearing feedback about how cute our little one is, it's the stuff mamas like me just eat by the spoonful. I'm a little nutty for the honeycomb design Beth has whipped up for me, so I'm a real sucker for this particular card in the MOLO shop:

The beauty of ordering through MOLO Designs is that you can have as many cards as you want printed and if you're a frugal girl like me, you know you can get prints on the cheap from either Snapfish or Walgreens (depending on promos and codes).

Enter to win your choice of a MOLO Designs holiday card by visiting Beth's shop and then commenting the link to your favorite design below along with a blurb on what your favorite thing about the holidays is, a winner will be chosen at random in about a week. You can earn an extra entry by subscribing to my blog.

My favorite thing about the holidays is making them special for my daughter. We've made new traditions, just the three of us and it's enabled me to let go of the pressure of trying to fit into other's traditions. Seeing everything through her eyes makes my world magical. Truly. 

My Morning Hair Routine

It was recently suggested to me that I should do a hair tutorial when I was twittering away with Brandy and Alicia. I have reservations doing this because I've learned a lot of what I do from well-know YouTube guru, LolaMarie7. I think Jess rocks and would never claim her ideas as my own, I decided to post this just to let inquiring minds know how I usually do my hair in the mornings.

I also have anxiety about being on YouTube full-blown because I've seen people get so nasty towards the girls who make videos. So, for now, this video can only be viewed through my blog (and maybe my YT channel).

I hope the video isn't too long or redundant, it's my first. Let me know if you'd like to see my version of a quick wavy 'do.

{Wordless Wednesday -iPhone/Diptic edition}

Sequins found while thrifting always remind me of this...

...wait until the 31 sec mark!

Some Hussy

Some hussy hit on my husband last night and lives to see another day. Long story short, my hubalicious (real nickname – he loves it) went out with his friends to eat, drink, and collect their copies of MW3 during the midnight release. Hubs was texting me while he was at dinner, telling me about the amazing mozzarella sticks he was eating, blah, blah. I usually stay up when he’s out just because we’ve slept together so long that I cannot fall asleep without him next to me. Last night was an exception, I was exhausted and I knew he was safe due to the texts, so I fell asleep while my lectures played on the iPad and the TV hummed in the background. Side note: if he isn’t home, the only way I can fall asleep is with the TV on.

He got home around one in the morn and must’ve thought I was awake, because all I remember him saying was, “I actually got hit on tonight.” In my sleepy haze I can remember responding, “I don’t like that!” I believe I repeated myself a few times and then proceeded to need to know all the details. You see, I don’t doubt that my husband gets admired or hit on more regularly because I, myself am still wildly attracted to the man. I think his day-to-day run-ins are probably more subtle therefore he doesn’t realize what’s happening. Most men are oblivious, or at least that’s what they lead their wives to believe.

I’ll admit, I had a twinge of jealousy and while I’ve joked with him about it a bit, I probably won’t anymore and that’s as far of a hard time I’m going to give him. Jealousy isn’t cute and I know if I let it get to me I I’ll just end up going all psycho mutant wife on my husband and that definitely ain’t adorable and it doesn’t draw a man closer. Besides, who could blame a guy for being smoking hot in his motorcycle jacket, just trying to get his grub on?

Sorry little miss waitress, but you only reminded me that my hubby is hot, he’s all mine, and it’s been a while since I’ve rode on the back of the motorcycle with him. Cheers to you in your endeavors! I’m actually more jealous of these phenomenal cheese sticks I have yet to experience, maybe you can serve them to me…

Professional stud muffin