Rejuvenating plans

As I mentioned in my last post, I got to spend some time with my parents and some close friends at the end of June.

Usually, nothing ever works out the way I plan it. A trip home all too often starts or ends with someone ill or in a hospital or plans just fail. But this trip was different. Literally all of my plans came through.

I got to see two of my best friends from high school, one of whom lives in North Carolina and just happened to be in town the week I was.

I LOVE these girls and am so happy for both of them at this phase in their lives.

And, to top off the weekend, my cousin (on the left) was in town before I came back home so I got to see her, too. That's her pup, my dog niece, Emmie, in the center and my mom on the right.

Some times we need a rejuvenating weekend with friends and family and because of that we make plans and the plans come through. That was a weekend I won't soon forget!

Bath time!

Ha, if that title doesn't turn heads, I don't know what will.

Anyway, the last weekend in June, I took a few days away from work and spent some time in Southeastern Kentucky with friends and family.

My father has some extremely cute beagle pups, and they're at just the right size where bath time means a dunk in my mom's mop bucket.

So, I present to you some extreme cuteness:

Here's Big Ott

And Ruby

And Benny

And Blue/Brownie/Diamond

Dad has a tendency to name his dogs after family members. The first dog is named after his brother Arthur Lee. Dad always calls him Ott and the dog is the biggest of the four, hence Big Ott. Ruby is named after dad's sister. And Benny could be named after a number of people in the family — not the least of which would be my dad, whose nickname is Ben, or my grandpa, whose name was Ben.

The fourth puppy has a host of names depending on who you ask about him. He has blue eyes, so Dad calls him Blue. He's brown, and my mom insists Brownie is a better name for a dog than Blue. And last but not least, he has a white diamond on his back, so occasionally Dad calls him Diamond or Blue Diamond.

This is how they look at feeding time, ha! All standing on their back legs waiting for a taste of food. :)

Vacation: All I ever wanted...

I'm feeling kind of like Superwoman tonight. My husband and I have been back from vacation for all of about three hours, and I'm nearly caught up with the laundry.

But, so you won't start thinking I really have super powers, I will say that 1) laundry was caught up before we left, so all I had to wash were the clothes we wore on our trip and 2) our trip only lasted a total of four days.
On July 4, we drove down to celebrate a birthday and, you know, independence, with family. And, for our anniversary trip, we hit the road on Friday for Greensboro, N.C.
This coming Friday (July 12) we will celebrate our five-year wedding anniversary. On our wedding night, we stayed at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro (the halfway point to our beach house), so with this being our first "milestone" anniversary, we headed back down south for the weekend. But no beach this time.
Here are a few photos from our mini vacation.

Those tiny letters at the top spell Proximity.

My handsome husband in the Tanger Family Bicentennial Gardens.

This mess on top of my head was the result of me forgetting my curling iron and volumizing mousse and the wonderful humidity in North Carolina. Ponytails and frequent hair washing were prominent.

Another scene from the Bicentennial Gardens.

The two of us enjoying the sunning patio outside the hotel.

And, just to show you some deliciousness: Here are the four desserts from my dessert melange at the Print Works Bistro.

Hair yesterday and hair today

So, for a while now, I've been thinking it'd be fun to examine my "hair trends" over the last little while. Just thinking back over the past couple of years, I feel like my hair has changed a lot. I had bangs, I cut my hair pretty short. It seemed like a lot of change.

But now that I've actually gone back and done the research (where research means scrolling through iPhoto), I'm a little disappointed.

There's definitely some change there, but not nearly enough.

In May 2011, my hair was mostly straight with my bangs blended into the rest of my hair.

In January 2012, I had thick, straight across bangs cut.

In May 2012, my bangs had pretty much grown out and I pinned them back with my mostly straight hair.

In July 2012, I had my hair cut into an angled bob.

But over the past year, my hair has looked pretty much the same. Growing out with some layers, side-swept bangs and some curl.

Who thinks it might be time for a change? I'm not quite sure because I love my hair long enough to wear in a ponytail. But there's certainly some thinking to do.

May 2011

January 2012

May 2012 (with my sister-in-law in Disney World!)

July 2012

November 2012

May 2013

High five for Friday!

Geez, it's been forever since I've had a legitimate post up here, so why not make it a H54F! Here are some of my highlights from this week:

1. I'm on vacation! And by vacation, I mean I squeezed a couple of days away from work, but I'm only at home. No beach or other adventure for me just yet. But it might explain why I have time to write today!

2. I managed to somewhat successfully complete a tutorial from Kate at The Small Things Blog. Personally, I thought it looked fantastic, but I don't think my husband was that impressed. When I asked him if it looked like the picture from the tutorial, he responded: "Yes, it looks like a messy knot and yours looks like a messy knot."

3. My husband planted some oriental lilies in the flower bed in our front yard, and they are GORGEOUS! Of course, they're about bloomed out now, but this picture shows them at their beginning.

4. After showing you one lily, I'll show you another. Although this Lily doesn't seem the least bit impressed I wanted to take her picture. She's still super adorable, though!

5. I am traveling this afternoon to see my cousin, who seems more like a sister, and I'm so excited. It's been waaay too long.

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone! And don't forget to stop by the link up over at The Lauren Elizabeth Blog and say hey!

Momma got a new toy

My new iPad mini (pictured on the left) came in yesterday. So far, I'm in love. I'm not sure what it is that makes it better than a full-sized iPad, but I love it so much. I may even be using it right now...

Yeah, I am. 😉

Reconnecting

As I sit here on a Sunday morning, waiting on my steel cut oats to cook and drinking a Chai tea latte, I'm allowing myself a few moments to sit down and reconnect — with you.
I haven't had, or taken, the time to sit down and write a post in so long and I miss having the outlet.
My job as a small-town, community newspaper editor nearly consumes my entire Monday-Friday of each week, sometimes spilling over into the weekend, but that's the nature of the beast. News never stops. And sometimes, neither do I.
In my previous job as a news editor of another community newspaper, each week I had the opportunity to basically put a "lifestyle blog post" into the paper as a column. My boss handled the hard-nosed criticism of local government officials, so our columns together seemed to balance each other out.
But now, I'm the boss on the news side of things and his job on the opinion page is now my job. My point is that I don't have that outlet anymore to just write whatever I want. So, in theory, I would bring it here... (here comes the caveat:) when I have the time.
My husband would tell me I always have the time, I just don't take the time. Instead, I take a three-hour nap, but a girl's gotta sleep.
Seriously, though, I'm starting to see how important having a fun, creative outlet is. One of my outlets is my Etsy shop, Yellow Lily Jewelry, which allows me to express creativity I didn't know I had until about six months ago, but this blog is another type of outlet that meets my need to write for fun. So, I'll try to keep it up.

Fun reconnecting facts:
•I made an appointment to reconnect with my hairstylist this week. Hey, trims are important!
•A Facebook post from a dear friend, whom I only see about twice a year, inspired me to sit down and write this morning.
•I'm meeting another dear friend, whom I haven't seen since her wedding three months ago, for an early dinner tonight and I'm so excited.
•I do not wish to reconnect with snow any more this year, but alas, my corner of the world is under a winter weather advisory tonight. Yuck.

See you again soon, ok?

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Feeling blue ... and that's OK!

So, I'm wearing this skirt today:

J. Crew Factory

And, I love it :)

That is all.