September Coffee Date!

Happy football season y'all! I'm going to Athens this weekend for the UGA/Notre Dame game, so please send your thoughts and prayers because I'm not as young as I'm going to act this weekend.. All I've felt like writing lately has been "Can I Bring Albus?" posts, but I'm trying to space those out. So let's chat! 

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IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE I'd tell you that it looks so weird in the editor when I type that in bold and all caps, but I really like how it looks on the theme I have going on so I keep doing it, hopefully it's not something I have to go back over if I ever decide to move to wordpress or switch the layout here. ALSO SPEAKING OF. I've been having problems with sharing posts to twitter & facebook -- they're just showing as a link and no image or preview, I have no idea what I've done. Elle tried to help me, we discovered that for some reason my domain isn't showing as "secure" so I paid the domain company I use for an SSL license, that I have no idea how to add. It's fine, I'm fine, everything is fine.

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE I would ask for suggestions on relatively affordable jewelry that won't turn my skin green or make my ears feel like they're on fire. I'm apparently allergic to copper or nickel or whatever makes yellow gold yellow? So I can't wear the fun $3 earrings without my ears getting all gross and itchy. I ALSO can't wear the cute little necklaces from target or etsy because somehow they turn my neck green. I am trying to talk myself into "investing" in a few nice pieces that I can wear every day, but having a hard time telling myself it's worth $100 for a new necklace. I have a pair of 1/4 carat diamond studs that I got for my 25th birthday (get it? .25 carat?) that I have literally taken out maybe twice since then, lately those are the only earrings that I don't end up taking out and shoving in my purse halfway through the day. Am I the only one with this problem? Plz help.

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE I would tell you I PASSED my GA Real Estate Licensing exam! I'm meeting with a brokerage this week and will hopefully have my official license all handled by the end of the week. *fingers crossed* So now it's just time for someone to need me to sell their house.. It feels a little surreal now, to have to think "okay, the class is done, now I have to find clients." I'm excited though, I've already met some really cool people that I look forward to working with.

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE I would tell you about this bracelet for my keys. I was influenced by Becca & Christine because I am literally a walking infomercial for a product like this. I always try to make JUST ONE trip from the car to the house, and I will put my keys in the same hand that I use to carry all of my crap from the car (ps, can we combine coffee mugs and water bottles into one thing that has my coffee hot and my water cold at the same time? thanks in advance) and then I get to the door to realize that my keys are in the wrong hand, I have to set everything down, and unlock the door. Just found myself shouting "there has to be a better way!" Enter this rubber bracelet that my keys clip on to. Derek makes fun of it, saying I have a child's teething ring on my keys, but whatever, it works.

I'm up to my teeth in library books, which is not bad at all. It's too damn hot outside to do anything else. We're melting down here guys. Anyways, what's new with you?

The World Needs More Wine Hashtags

FIRST THING IS FIRST. I hit 1,000 followers on the gram so Elle Talk + I are celebrating with a giveaway on said gram. Then we got to talking about how there isn't a list of boozy hashtags. Now, two of my favorite parts about hashtags are that they help you group your pictures together and they bring people of like activities together. SO here I am, with some of my favorite boozy hashtags. 

I just discovered this one yesterday -- #yeswayrose HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THAT? (side note, I have that thought a lot. beer koozies, insulated stemless wine glasses with lids, the likes..)

I honestly started this as a post for boozy hashtags, but I've decided to focus on wine this time. Halfway through... Because you know what that's how blogging works. I've decided that there should be more than one so we can focus on the best kinds of booze and you guys can help me find more! Since we're focused on wine, I also love #winenot

Last but certainly not least, #lemmewineaboutit -- I'm not sure I want to share, because it's currently exclusively my wine photos. I guess y'all could all join in.

Also, I really wanted to embed the hashtag feeds, why isn't that a thing Instagram? I mean, not that my wine gifs aren't fun, but come on man. ANYWAYS. don't forget to head over to the gram + help me celebrate 1K! Do you have any boozy hashtags I should be using? I was a little disappointed to find there aren't that many yet, maybe we're just in time to start our own! Are you going to join me with #lemmewineaboutit ?? 

Currently

Hey do you know what is great for the blogger writer's block? A "currently" post! So how about a look at life lately?

Listening : To ALL THE BEATLES SONGS also Drink You Away #cantstopwontstop #ALLofhisfriends #Irealizethisisnthashtaghumpday #butimgettingaheadstart

Reading: I just finished Drums of Autumn so I'm on to The Firey Cross next. I might finish the entire Outlander series this before the spring. Then I'm going to need more suggestions guys. I've been the biggest bookworm lately. 

Planning: This Peru/Macchu Picchu trip. guys. it's going to happen. Right now I'm leaning towards the Contiki Inca Panorama but I haven't ruled out figuring it out on my own. Y'all think I can do that right? The travel bug is real y'all. So real. 

Drinking: A giant bottle of wine I bought in preparation for the #Snowmageddon16 (we got 1/4" it was incredible -- it was enough snow to be pretty and it was all gone by like noon Saturday. insert praise emoji here.)

Dreaming: of the summer. I am so over "feels like 11" HOW DO YOU PEOPLE UP NORTH DO IT? Also I hate that it's dark when I get out of work, it's like, what does the sun even look like. Remember daylight? Yeah, me either. 

Baking: GUYS I NEED SUPERBOWL FOODS. I'm having a Superbowl party. It's happening. I need food ideas because I gotsta be the hostess with the mostest obviously or no one would want to read subsequent blog posts about it. Any suggestions? 

What's up with y'all? Have you read the Outlander series? What on earth will I read next? 

Dear Babes of Blogland

I want to take a minute today to thank all of you lovely ladies (+ gentlemen, I assume boys read this sometimes too. even if it's just because I make them, thanks guys!) I know sometimes it's hard to tell because I'm all jokes and snark, but this past year has been really challenging for me. I'm sure it will probably read like I'm super conceited or something -- but I've always felt like I was good enough. I've never really failed at anything I've tried. I'm sure it's thanks in part to the fact that I feel like I need to put my all into whatever I do, but not landing a job in baseball just about ruined me. 

my posture is outstanding.

Enter the blog life. [I didn't choose the bloglife, it choose me] If you had asked me back in December of 2013 what I thought would come out of writing my own blog, I probably would have laughed and said "I don't know, a little carpel tunnel?" because I've never put my whole effort into it before, unless it's been for work. I remember seeing those page-views rise, getting reasonable comments that weren't spam, and thinking "hey, maybe I am actually good at this!" So I really needed it when I didn't get the dream job. 

I never would have imagined that I would build the relationships and friendships I have in this short year-ish. I never would have imagined that these women could make me feel like I'm still worthy and that maybe everything doesn't happen for a reason we can see, but a reason we have to trust. If I had landed a baseball job, I maybe never would have focused as much time and energy on this little space. I probably wouldn't have met the outstanding people that make me feel like the prettiest princess every day with their comments + instagram likes + tweets. 

I've never needed to be the center of attention (okay. well except on my birthday because IT'S MY BIRTHDAY OKAY), so it seemed crazy to me that I could write a blog about my life and thoughts and how I feel about baseball pants and snowboarders and that people would actually read it. I've never considered myself funny, like really funny, until I let it out here (and on twitter...) I feel like I have really grown as a person + it's 456% thanks to all of the fantastic people in the blogosphere. So, thank you for being a friend. 

see what I did there?

Babes In Blogland + A Giveaway!

I have been asked by the ever adorable Melissa to participate in the Tour Through Blogland. Guys -- I'm going to be honest, I wrote that first sentence two weeks ago when Melissa asked me way early enough for me to have my act together. I don't. I was planning on doing it last week but you know, life is what happens when we're making plans? Also, this weekend was a crazy one, more on that later. Anyways. Here's how I'm not following the rules [again, sheesh]. I'm answering questions today and also finding people to continue today so I'll tell you who's up a little later this week...

What are you working on now? getting it together. I actually started making a blog business plan so that I'm more organized + surprise 12 hour car rides don't completely throw off my whole blog week. [my whole real life week is a completely different story.]  I'm also working on a fun wine cork project -- I posted a super cryptic sneak peek on Instagram, I took a zillion pictures, then it fell apart, because apparently hot glue does not hold wine corks together, so I'm working on a solution and something more sticky (stickier?). That's coming soon toooo!
How does your work differ from others in it's genre? well honestly, I don't even know what my genre would be? Someone asked me the other day, "IRL", what do you blog about? I hesitated for a minute, because I'm not really a sports blogger, even though I totes could be if you're looking to hire someone... I'm never sure how to explain "lifestyle blogging" to people either, because it sounds so vain when you really start to think about it, so I usually end up with "I blog to keep my creativity alive, everything from sports to that time I admitted that sometimes I get John Elway + John Denver confused. Oh wait, that's still a sports thing, how about the time I asked if curly fries came from a different kind of potato...
Why do you write / create what you do? I like this one! I write because I need a creative outlet, because it's something I'm actually pretty good at [who doesn't love doing things they're good at? or does saying I'm good make me look like I'm being cocky?]. Also, I continue to write because people tell me they dig my sense of humor, like the posts about what you need to know before a Georgia game this weekend, and because I have made some super awesome beautiful amazing friends, duh.

source

How does your writing / creative process work? It honestly depends. It's always assisted by some kind of beverage, coffee, wine, tequila..... I'm hoping to create more of a workspace, because sometimes the kitchen table [or uh, my desk at work...] doesn't quite cut it. Plus have you seen the pinterest boards for workspaces? Helloooo project!

SPEAKING of friends in blogland, how cool is it that we give prizes away for our birthdays? Becca put together a killer giveaway for hers, and you should totally enter it! If you win, you can always donate the $250 to things I would do if I didn't have student loans!

a Rafflecopter giveaway