H54F

Hooray, I'm off work today and it's time for a H54F post!

1. I launched an Etsy shop! Check it out and buy some earrings: Yellow Lily Jewelry

2. And...I had my first buyer! A friend came over last night and purchased three pairs of earrings. It was a pretty cool feeling! Pictured above is one of the pairs she bought.

3. Hooray for infinity scarves!

4. And hooray for baked potatoes! My favorite, and this one was delicious.

5. My baby, Lily, sleeping. Isn't she just too cute?

Find more H54F posts over at From My Grey Desk Blog and say hi to Lauren!

A busy bee with a new Etsy shop

Hello, friends! I've been away for too long, I know, but never fear — I'm safe and sound and back.

Work has been as busy as ever, so I haven't had too much time for blogging. Plus...I've turned my jewelry-making hobby into an Etsy shop that just launched today.

Check me out at www.etsy.com/shop/YellowLilyJewelry

www.etsy.com/shop/YellowLilyJewelry

I hope you enjoy, and I'll be back writing soon, I promise.

Sick day

Today is a sick day. As in, my nose was so stuffy last night that I couldn't breathe or sleep, so I stayed home sick today.

When my alarm went off this morning, I was already awake (as I had been most of the night), so I sent a quick voicemail to my boss letting her know at the very least I needed a couple more hours sleep before functioning today.

Including my "extra" sleep this morning, I figure I accumulated a total of 4, possibly 5, hours of sleep overnight. Coupled with my cold/sinus issues, I am not well-rested. Ugh.

Finally, I can breathe this morning/afternoon, but my throat hurts, my ears hurt and I'm still coughing occasionally. Ultimately, I decided to stay home from work and keep my germs contained to my house.

(Don't worry, my husband has already had this stuff. Hey — I had to get it from somewhere, right?)

Anyway, allow me to share some internal musings. I've said this plenty of times before, but I started this blog, in part, to allow myself the chance to write for fun. *Again,* I'm a writer/editor/photographer/designer at a weekly newspaper for a living, so although I write weekly, most of it is not what I would consider fun writing.

One of my personality flaws is that I don't do things if I can't excel at them. I never learned to whistle or ride a bike because I wasn't great at either during the first few tries. Endearing, I know. Most of the time I excel at writing and editing, hence my job as an editor. But I also enjoy writing, hence my desire to blog.

However, I often get discouraged with my blog/blogging abilities because I fail to keep it updated on a regular basis (because my day job takes A LOT of time) and, let's be honest, because there are probably only three of you reading this. I could call you by name, but I won't.

I would love to present this incredible declaration that I'll find a way to better manage my time and save time for the blog to let my creative juices flow, but I believe I've done that before as well and, obviously, it worked wonders.

So, I'll pose the question to you: what are your tips for time management? How do you manage to find time to do things for you (whether it be blogging or something else)?

I would just love some tips on how to devote more time to the blog instead of only writing a H54F post at the end of the day on a Friday or rambling almost uncontrollably on a sick day. Any advice?

Hiatus

Sorry I've kind of been on a hiatus as of late. As mentioned previously, my mother has been ill and is still seeing doctors and having tests run. I live 130+ miles away from her, so trips home to check on her and my dad are pretty exhausting, especially when they start and end within about 24 hours. My hubby is currently snoozing on the couch because he's battling a sinus infection and feels terrible. Quite honestly, I don't feel so great myself, so I'm going to grab a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream, wrap up in a blanket and watch what's left of Thursday Night Football.

Happy October, folks! May autumn be kind to you :)

I leave you with this picture of eternal cuteness — one of my dad's 5-week-old puppies lapping milk from a saucer:

This is Betty Jo, named after one of my late aunts. Her momma wasn't feeding her enough, so we gave her some milk, which she LOVED! Cutest, tiniest puppy ever.

Prayers and praise

I'm a believer, a born-again Christian, and I believe in the power of prayer.

Tonight, as I tap this out on my iPhone and hope the Edge network is enough to let me post, my mother is in the hospital. In short, she's doing OK now, but was ill earlier today. I've prayed and asked friends to pray for her, for my father who won't leave her side and for my husband and I who traveled into town this evening from two hours away.

Too many prayers have been answered today for me not to give God praise. I'm scared, but it could be a lot worse. Friends, I ask you to remember us in prayer because we're not out of the dark yet, and truth be told, we can all use a little guidance. Thank you for your love, support and prayers. May God bless you, too!

High Five for Friday

So, how about having a H54F post on Friday?! Fabulous, I know.

1. Sometimes you have to snap a picture of the back of your hair in a mirror to get a sufficient view. Also, hooray for these bobby pins from Sally Beauty Supply. Invest! It's $1.50 that will change your life.

2. Apple picking with the hubby and a couple of good friends/family members :)

3. The first scarf of the season courtesy of a Three Bird Nest grab bag.

4. Using the recipe from Lauren at From My Grey Desk Blog, I ventured into the world of apple fritters. Though some of them looked like various aquatic creatures (see the whale in the upper right?), they tasted delicious.

5. No photo required. I woke up with a terrible sinus headache this morning. But, after two Ibuprofen, a Sudafed, a cup of coffee and two and a half extra hours of rest, it finally went away. That's the good news — the headache is gone!

See other H54F posts at FMGD!

Energy and shoes

It's amazing how energizing a visit with a great friend can be — especially if that visit includes a salted caramel mocha.

Today has been a little up and down — I woke up with energy and after a trip to the grocery store, I made some apple fritters (yum!). It was my first try making them, and I used a recipe from Lauren at From My Grey Desk Blog. Even though mine didn't look as pretty and round, they tasted delicious. So delicious that my husband dubbed them the best thing I had ever made, and that's high praise right there. I'm not the best cook, but in four years of marriage and nearly 10 years time together, that has to be pretty high praise.

Anyway, after a nap and a caffeine-filled visit with one of my BFFs, I have enough energy to tell you about my lovely shoes that arrived/were purchased this weekend.

First of all, I've been coveting (OK, I know I'm not supposed to covet) a pair of shoes frequently worn by Kate from The Small Things Blog for quite a while now. They're gray patent leather wedges, which doesn't seem too impossible to find, but apparently they are (especially within my price range, I suppose). So, I was super thrilled when Kate posted a link to some similar shoes on a blog post a few days ago.

Even though they're a different color and material and the heel appears to be a little bit higher, they were such a great deal that I ordered a pair immediately.

Love in shoe form | Urban Outfitters

The description said the shoes run a little large, so I ordered a size down. They're a little snug, but not uncomfortably so, I don't think. They're beautiful though, that's for sure.

While visiting friends yesterday, I stumbled into Urban Attic, a consignment store with great prices and cute clothes. I found a Banana Republic dress, a J. Crew sweater and a houndstooth pattern skirt, but possibly my favorite purchase was these suede booties.

They kind of have a western flair, I think, and the heel isn't so high that it makes them difficult to walk in. I can't wait to wear them, and with the forecast for this week, I think it may almost be time to pull out the rest of my boots and booties.

What great finds have you stumbled upon lately?

H54F (the abbreviated version)

1. This week was forever-long, and I am glad it is over.
2. I got more than 5 hours of sleep last night.
3. Weekend=football
4. I'm going to an orchard/farm/awesome place tomorrow with friends, and that sounds amazing!
5. I realize this is a subpar post and plan to make up for it with a post about awesome new shoes tomorrow.

Goodnight all, and darn, now it's technically Saturday. Oh well, I started typing on Friday ;) It still counts.

My NFL Sunday 'recap'

Can I just say how excited I am for the start of the NFL season? I'm a bit competitive, so with a little coaxing five years ago, fantasy football and I became BFFs. I now know about and understand the game of football (unlike when I cheered for it in high school), so nothing makes me happier than sitting home on a Sunday afternoon/night and watching any and every second of the games that my husband and I can find.

Yesterday, the first NFL Sunday of the season, we may have overindulged a little bit.

These two pictures were taken literally seconds apart despite the fact that it looks like we were watching football in the dark in the first one. I wanted to focus on the TV screen though, so everything else is dark. And in the second one, you can see what I mean by overindulging. But hey, that huge box of pizza fed us all day ;)

Though I won't know for sure until late tonight how my fantasy teams fared, it looks good so far! My QBs had stellar performances this week, so here's a shout out to Tony Romo and Matt Ryan.

Well, happy Monday (if there is such a thing)! This will undoubtedly be a rough week at work for me, so I would appreciate any positive thoughts and prayers. Have a great week!

Turning 'buy' into 'DIY'

Last night, I came ever so close to hitting the "buy" button on Etsy and purchasing an adorable pair of earrings. Trust me, I've done this many times. I've become especially fond of the Etsy iPhone app — it's so easy to browse and find all kinds of beautiful things ... but I digress.

I knew I didn't need to purchase any new earrings, mainly because I could walk about 20 feet down the hallway and have everything I needed to make a pair or three of my own.

So yes, along with watching the University of Kentucky get a win in football (!), I made these beauties:

High Five for ... the weekend?

I was too tired and in too poor a mood to post last night after work, so my high five this week shows up here on Saturday.

1. I bought a beading magazine, which had instructions on how to make a new style of earring. And by new, I mean, I hadn't made anything like it before. I have since made its mate, but here's the first one:

2. BUBBLES! My (first) two bubble necklaces finally came in the mail this week. I am so excited and trying to refrain from wearing them EVERY. DAY. I might have to order some more.

3. See what I mean? On Wednesday, I wore the teal necklace with a gray patterned shirt from Target (last year) and a gray-chambray skirt from American Apparel (click here).

4 & 5. Panera, need I say more? No, but I will. Panera is the only place I go to eat where the soup is the featured menu item and the sandwich is more of a side. I always get the broccoli cheddar soup, but depending on the mood I'm in, I pick a different sandwich. Also, my meal came with a 99 cent bakery item, so I tried my first muffie. I'm sure that means it's a mix between a muffin and a cookie, but it makes me smile to think it's just a muffin top.

(Ab)Normal

When did it become "normal" for someone to work 1.75 times the length of a typical American workday and be OK with it?
Maybe I'm just grumpy and sleepy (plus five other dwarves, right?!), but this 14-hour workday thing is for the birds.
Oh well, here's a positive about today — my new necklace and my seat on the lace-train, this pretty silver/gray lace top:

Necklace: New York & Company | Shirt: Dress Barn

Alright, goodnight all! It's time to set up my fantasy football lineup and go to bed :)

H54F!

Since I missed last week's H54F post, this week's will encompass both weeks ;)

1.) I spent last weekend at home with my parents in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. It had been ... way too long ... since I had been home just to chill. For the most part, the four-day weekend was a success. Here is a picture of my handsome daddy driving my car. He's so wonderful. He cleaned the car on the inside, on the outside, vacuumed and even did the windows. After cleaning the car, daddy said, "Well, if I learned anything about you by cleaning the car, it's that you don't litter."

2.) This necklace was made using a kit purchased from Fab.com. It's very interesting, and I'm happy because I learned a new technique — it's made from a canvas ribbon and rubber washers and modeled after an Anni Albers creation. Albers is very interesting if you've never heard of her, and honestly, I hadn't.

3.) My cat-nephew, Izzy, just looks so stately in this picture. He's such a pretty cat :)

4.) There's nothing quite like a late-night bowl of cereal. I only wish eating that late at night meant not being hungry the next morning — especially when there's no time for breakfast.

5.) A question to ponder: what makes this ketchup so fancy, anyway?

Visit Lauren at From My Grey Desk to see more High Five for Friday posts!

Draft day makes me a "woo" girl

One of the most exciting days of the year (for the past five years) has been our draft day for fantasy football.

My hubby got me hooked on this way of life shortly after we were married, and since then, sports has become a near obsession of mine.

For those who don't know, Fantasy Football is played in "leagues" with family or friends, and draft day is the day you all choose your teams. Basically, all of the players in the National Football League are fair game. It's like you put them all in a glass jar and take turns picking them out to form a "fantasy" team.

This year, my QB is Matt Ryan from the Atlanta Falcons, and my star running back is Arian Foster from the Houston Texans. I also have players from the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers, etc. The "fantasy" part comes in (because it's not real life, yes, but also...) because you get to combine players from different teams to form your own team.

When the NFL season starts next Wednesday, we'll face off against another member of our league and continue as such each week until the playoffs begin.

By this point, you're either interested, which means you should find out more and maybe even play in a league of your own (comment below if you have questions), or you're bored.

Either way, here is a screenshot of my team for this year. Feel free to critique or ask questions!

Woooooo! Let's play (or watch) some football!

**For those of you wondering about the woo girl reference, I point you toward this clip of How I Met Your Mother:

And if you're wondering, a woo can be elicited by fantasy football draft night. ;) **

A trip to the land of no Internet

Hello, lovelies!

Just leaving a note to say that tomorrow after work, I'm heading to the land of no Internet — also known as going to visit my parents.

Unless I steal away to McDonalds or Wendy's for free wi-fi. I probably won't see you again until the end of the weekend. Have a glorious rest of the week and a fantabulous weekend!

Saving a Sunday afternoon

My husband begins his second year of law school tomorrow, so of course, a trip to the bookstore was in order. I volunteered to go with him to put off doing laundry for a few hours and to make the afternoon a little more interesting than simply going to get really thick, expensive books.

One reason I'm glad I decided not to apply to law school.

Despite feeling old when I realized that the newbies on UK's campus this year are nine years younger than me, the walk near campus was beautiful.

And we discovered a great little place to have lunch, The Local Taco.

 The southern-fried tacos — fried chicken, honey lime mayo, lettuce and tomatoes, with black beans. I would eat another one right now.

The drive back home was fun, too. Pretty clouds, farms and some GenX radio.

I hope you enjoyed your Sunday afternoon!

Up and at 'em

In the middle of dinner last night, I giggled aloud, prompting my husband to ask what the giggle was about.

"I'm just excited to get to sleep in tomorrow," I said with a smile.

It's now 8:27 a.m. and I'm awake. For no reason.

Someone might get growled at today.

Happy weekend, and I hope you're all still asleep :)

High Five for Friday!

Hello, friends!

It's late, and again, I've worked far too many hours this week, but there's still time for a H54F:

1. On Saturday, we were out of cereal, so I had a mini Butterfinger for breakfast.

2. Saturday night, the hubby and I took in a couple of flicks at a drive-in. The night was perfect with an awesome clear sky so we got to see the Perseids meteor shower, too.

3. Though the lighting in my bathroom is terrible, Wednesday was a good hair day.

4. This photo just does not do justice to the beautiful farm country I was at for work on Thursday night. You're driving in the middle of nowhere down a back road, and then it just opens up to this beautiful farm. I also got to hang out with some elected officials. Well, not hang out with, but photograph.

5. More jewelry making! I'll ruin the surprise if she ever sees this, but the top pair was made for a friend of mine whose birthday is next week. I actually planned ahead and made these in enough time to ship them to Texas. The bottom pair was an experiment. I found a beautiful pair of earrings on Etsy and tried to mimic them, but failed a little bit. Still, for my first try at wire-wrapping, it's not terrible.

Visit Lauren at From My Grey Desk Blog for more H54F posts!

A Liebster Blog Award!

Woohoo! Val from The Daily Distraction nominated me for a Liebster Blog Award today!

The Liebster is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers and it's meant to be a nice, welcoming way to get to know each other in this lovely little blogging community.

So here are the rules:

1. Each person must list 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the 11 questions that the tagger has set for you plus you MUST create a set of 11 new questions for the people you will nominate.

3. Choose up to 11 bloggers linking them to your post.

4. Go to their page and inform them of the nomination.

5. Absolutely No tag backs.

6. Remember to only tag bloggers with less than 200 followers.

The 11 things about me:

1. I'm a journalist and have been living life according to AP Style for nearly a decade.

2. I am terribly afraid of bugs — bees, wasps, flies, spiders, grasshoppers, gnats. I dislike them all.

3. I am nearly inseparable from my iPhone.

4. I work too much (for example, I was at the office by 7 a.m. today and didn't leave until 8:30 p.m.).

5. I can be extremely paranoid.

6. I don't do things I'm not immediately good at — for example, I never learned to ride a bike or whistle because I couldn't do it the first few times.

7. Some days I have quarter-life crises and wonder if I'm a disappointment or should be doing more with my life.

8. My husband and I agree that we're both too selfish to have kids just yet.

9. If my husband is out of town, I typically sleep in the living room, on the couch, with the front door in my line of vision ... you know, just in case.

10. Friends is my favorite TV show, and I've seen each episode at least eight times each. Some episodes (like Season 7's The One with the Engagement Picture) I've seen a bajillion times already, but I could still turn them on and laugh at every joke.

11. I love surveys, and upon seeing how this award nomination and subsequent blog post contain survey qualities, I interrupted my dinner (Taco Bell) to immediately dig in!

The 11 questions Val sent me:

1)  Besides blogs, what website(s) do you check daily? Facebook and weather.com

2)  How long did it take you to tell your friends and family about your blog? Ha, most of them probably still don't know. I took the leap of faith of posting the URL to my Facebook page a few months ago.

3)  What inspires you to blog the most? Other blogs I read and the desire to write more for fun (I'm the editor of weekly newspaper, so I write and edit for work a lot).

4)  What is the best birthday present you've ever received? Two years ago, my husband bought me tickets to go watch the Cincinnati Bengals play the Miami Dolphins in Cincinnati. It was my first (and only) NFL game, so I was super excited.

5)  What food could you not possibly live without? Potatoes — baked, fried, mashed.

6)  What is your go-to piece of clothing in your closet right now? A grayish-tan cardigan I found at the Banana Republic Factory Store about five months ago.

7)  What blogger inspires you right now? There are about four I follow on a regular basis: Kate, Lauren, Val and Katie. Katie is a personal friend of mine, and I've followed her blog since she first found out she was pregnant. My "niece" CeCe is now almost 2! Katie is hilariously candid and I suggest checking out her blog even if you're not a momma or a momma-to-be.

8)  What is your favorite word? Absolutely.

9)  What country are you dying to visit? Any other country — seriously, I've never been outside the U.S.

10)  If you could have any job, what would it be? Well, isn't this the $100 million question. Up until I was 17, I thought I was going to be discovered and become a famous pop singer. I'd still take that career. Either that or a book editor. I enjoy making red marks on black and white pages all day.

11)  What is your favorite ride at Disneyland? I've never been to Disneyland, and only visited Disney World for the first time a few months ago. I'm not much of a "rides" person, but I did enjoy Splash Mountain.

Questions for the people I nominate:

1. What's your biggest pet peeve?

2. Be honest — do you frequently confuse "your" and "you're"?

3. What is your favorite book?

4. Are you Team Jennifer or Team Angelina?

5. What is your biggest motivation to blog?

6. What did you do on your last real vacation?

7. Which are you more likely to paint — toes or fingernails — and why?

8. What is your favorite color and why is it your favorite?

9. How much sleep do you average each night?

10. What would you do if you had an entire Saturday morning to yourself?

11. If you could go back to school (or to college for the first time), what would you study?

And ... the blogs I nominate:

Random Thoughts of an Anxious Mind

Soggy Fruit

Because I'm not smart enough to find the number of followers on some of the blogs I read, I nominate the following, as long as they qualify.

My New Heartbeat

I need to read more...

Thanks, Val, for the nomination! It's been fun :)

High Five for Friday!

So, I started this post last night, thinking to myself I'll put this together tonight and schedule it to post tomorrow because I know I won't have time to write it tomorrow. Of course, I got distracted and did not get anywhere. And most days, I'd get discouraged and say just forget it at 8:47 p.m. Really, I mean, how much of Friday is left?

But, today I will post anyway. Though Friday has not been great to me, I am glad it is here because it's the weekend! So, here are my highlights from the week:

1. Duck-bill clips - I finally invested in some duck-bill clips to set my voluminous, bouncy curls. I would show you the finished product, but this picture is more fun.

2. Frenergy! - So, I made up a word. My husband and I had friends over last weekend, so this picture represents a late night and a need for an extra boost of energy the next morning.

3. Baseball - Following the doubleshot energy drink, we took in a Cincinnati Reds game for a good friend's birthday. The Reds lost, but we had a great time and pretty great seats.

4. Home cooking - I regret I have no picture to share, but Wednesday, my beautiful, wonderful mother-in-law cooked a scrumptious dinner for the family. We had fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, corn, fried cabbage, cornbread, tomatoes, cucumbers and onion and all sorts of yumminess. Oh yeah! And I can't forget the peach cobbler. I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds just looking at the food, and another 50 by eating it. But it was delicious!

5. A lunch-time fiesta - As I mentioned above, today was not nice to me. To make up for it, I ordered a Mexican meal for carryout. My burrito al carbon was great, but I was also reminded how kind it is of restaurants to include chips and salsa with to-go orders. :)

For more H54F posts, or to join the link party, visit www.frommygreydeskblog.com!

Work is hard

So, remember how I took a day off on Friday. Well, that seems like forever ago.
After a jam-packed weekend with friends and two very long days at work, I'm as exhausted as ever.
To spare you the details, let's just say that Monday's work day was about 12 hours long, and after approximately four hours of sleep, Tuesday — the production day for my newspaper — started at 4:30 a.m. My work day was 13.5 hours long, and at 10 p.m. with 8 percent battery life (for me and my computer), I'm going to bed :)
Have a good night — and remember, we're that much closer to Friday!

High Five for Friday!

I am unbelievably excited about my first High Five for Friday post! (For many, many more H54F posts, visit From My Grey Desk!) But here are five highlights from my week:

1.) Making the most of a terrible storm and losing power during the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. With rain, hail and tons of lightning outside, my hubby, his dad and his sister passed the time with some blackjack.

2. Having time to experiment and make some new earrings.

3. So, this adorable puppy isn't mine, but how cute is she?! I work at a newspaper and we're hosting a pet contest to raise money for our Newspaper in Education program. The upside (in addition to putting newspapers in classrooms)? Seeing all the cute pets, of course!

4. I won something!! As I've already posted, thanks to a giveaway at The Daily Distraction, I am a proud owner of these beautiful Elisabeth Ashlie earrings.

5. And (drumroll, please) the reason I've been able to post today is that I took the day off work and slept in until after 10 a.m.! Woohoo! And, for the record, those brown eyes do belong to my puppy, whom I love very much.