100 Followers!!!

I just want to say a great BIG HUGE thank you to all my sweet followers! You have no idea how much it means to me that you actually take interest in and/or enjoy reading what I post. Today not only did I make my first Etsy shop sale (YAY!) I also reached 100 followers! And for me that is such a big deal especially since I don't do sponsors (at least not yet.) or anything. It's just word of mouth and blog hopping (and those random Google searches!). I'm very happy that for the most part people stumble upon my blog via Google by searching for stuff about smiles or tattoos! Lol! Makes me feel so cool.....

But anyway, again, thank you so much! It means the world to me! And in honor of this special occasion I'll be giving away a couple of things from my Pretty Nods "shop". So stay tuned for that. It probably won't start till Monday because I have a lot on my plate this week getting ready for a holiday craft bazaar......but it's coming!

My First Etsy Sale!

So guess who made their very first

Etsy sale today?

I DID!!!

I'm so excited because to be honest this Etsy thing has been discouraging for me.

I've of course made sales through friends and Facebook but to actually make

one through my online shop makes me feel very happy!

I'll be updating it with new items after this weekend so stay tuned!

You can check out my Etsy shop HERE.

Obsessive Visionary

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” - Jonathan Swift

In January of this year God gave me a vision for our family. And I do not say that lightly. I'm not one to run around saying "God told me....". I see way too many people doing that and 1. it's not God or 2. They never act on it and then people are left wondering if it was God at all. And I know it was God because it just wasn't something I'd ever come up with on my own! It wasn't something I ever thought I'd consider or think about in my future or our future. I spent almost an entire month agonizing over it to be honest. Trying to "figure it out" in my mind because that's how I am. I want to have a complete plan in place before I even utter it to anyone. After that month I finally built up the courage to talk to my husband about it. I remember being so nervous and almost on the verge of tears bringing it up. He was very receptive to what I had to say and I left it at that, for awhile. But the seed was planted and it was growing in my heart and I couldn't shake it.

Here's the thing - once I open my heart to an idea, vision, person, etc. I can get almost obsessive. No one else may see it but I'll think about it, day dream about it if you will. And this vision has grown and grown - I think about it constantly, imagine what our lives will be like once we start down the path towards it, how we'll get there, how others will react, how we'll react.......

To be honest, when I first started envisioning this I really expected us to be farther on the journey by this point. I didn't realize that just because I felt so strongly about it didn't mean everyone else would. Or that the time wasn't right then. I didn't think that almost an entire year later it would still be a dream, still something I am carrying around almost alone (I've shared my vision with very few choice people so far.). There are days I think about it and I get discouraged. I get angry with God (yes, sometimes I get mad at God!) because He hasn't made it happen yet. How could He give me this dream and desire and then just make me wait with it burning inside me? Doesn't seem fair. And I've spent far more time trying to figure out a way to make it happen then I have praying that God would start moving. I'm afraid I'll mess it up, I don't know when it's the right time to take the first step. Things don't seem "right" for it to happen, things are perfect & in order, we don't have everything we need to see it through. But then again, does God ever ask you to do something when everything seems to be there and in order? We wouldn't need to trust Him if that way the case. Don't get me wrong, you can't jump blindly into something and just hope it all works out. There is preparation that has to be done but when is that period over? When is it time to start taking steps?

I have let visions die before. I've let them go because I didn't know how to make them happen and I guess I wasn't mature enough in my faith to trust God to make them happen. Up until now there hasn't been anything in my life that I've had to have HUGE amounts of faith for. Don't get me wrong, we have to trust God and have faith daily in day to day things. We have been on the edge many times and had to trust that God was going to come through for us and He always had but it hasn't been for anything that I honestly viewed as all but impossible. I'm scared that I'll miss out because I don't know how to take the first step or I'm waiting for someone else to lead me.

For now I'm an obsessive visionary. I'm obsessing over my vision and I want so badly to be able to share it with everyone, to start the journey and be making strides towards it no matter how small they may seem at first. I want so badly to be working towards it. For now I feel stuck. And to be honest it puts me in a bad mood some days, I don't want it to because it's a beautiful vision full of joy and hope but the waiting is killing me! I'll keep day dreaming and waiting....I hope that in another year I'm not writing another post similar to this one. I hope I'm not saying "I'm still day dreaming...." I guess that's what scares me the most.....I don't want to see this vision die because I wasn't brave enough to step up and claim it because circumstances and life didn't seem right yet. If I wait for that I may be waiting a looonnnggg time!

What's your love language?

Today Casey talked about love languages on her blog. And it got me thinking about love and how it's expressed. You can go HERE and take the 5 love language assessment test. I think I've taken it before when my parents went through a 5 Love Languages course. They have one for children as well as adults. I took the test this morning and I think it was pretty right on. Obviously the language with the highest score is your love language. I actually scored 9's on 3 languages. And I would put them in this order - not 1,2,3 but 1a.,1b.,and 1c.! Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch and Quality Time.

For me, words means a lot. This was their "definition" for Words of Affirmation and those who have that as their love language.

"Actions don't always speak louder than words. If this is your love language unsolicited compliments mean the world to you. Hearing the words, "I love you", are important. Hearing the reasons behind that love sends your spirits skyward. Insults can leave you shattered and are not easily forgotten."

I love hearing that B say he loves me and more then anything I like hearing WHY he loves me. I love to hear encouragement from him. And after that his touch is very very important me. It fixes things for me. I can be upset and just him wanting to hug me or give me a kiss makes things so much better in an instant. Quality time is another love language for me - getting time alone with him is so exciting for me - just talking and enjoying each other's presence.

I'm eager for B to take the assessment test so I can find out more clearly what his love language is. Because I want him to feel loved and just because I have a certain way I like love to be expressed to me doesn't mean it's the same for him and sometimes I honestly forget that. I want to make sure I'm doing the best I can to express love to him the way he needs it.

I also want to help Gi take the children's test too. She's not quite 5 but fairly close and I'd like to hear her answers. From my point of view I would think that Words of Affirmation and Quality time would be Gi's love languages. She absolutely lights up when you praise her and she seems to seek hearing that's she does well or that she looks pretty or that you care about her. And of course spending time with her too - I think she shares such a bond with B because he takes the time to play with her and be silly with her. Something I sometimes struggle with.

I want to get better at loving both B and Gigi better. I want them more then anything to know HOW much I love them. I feel so inadequate as expressing how much my heart loves them and how much they mean to me. I fail at it so many times I know but I want to learn all I can so that I'm better equipped to love them better.

I can honestly say that I think, whether he realizes it or not, B has really been using my love languages more lately to show me how much he loves me and I couldn't be happier with our relationship right now and I couldn't be happier or more in love with him!

So what's your love language?

*** Update on love languages....my hubby took the assessment and luckily we scored about the same. Words of Affirmation and Physical Touch seem to be very important to both of us! It's hard when your love languages are opposite because you really have to push yourself past your comfort zone to meet the other's needs.

Holiday Questions!

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate! I hate egg nog but B loves it! I think he's been through two containers of it so far and it's not even Christmas yet! Lol!

2. Does Santa wrap the presents or just sit them under the tree? Lol! No idea, we didn't do Santa growing up and even though I don't have a problem with him we don't pretend he's real. I wrap the gifts and put them under the tree randomly before Christmas. Gi has started insisting on Santa all on her own and when I laugh and say he's not real she gets offended!

3. Colored lights or white lights on the tree/house? I personally prefer white lights. I like how clean and pretty they look.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. I'm not even sure what mistletoe looks like really? There is plenty of kissing in this house without having to hang mistletoe up. LOL!

5. When do you put your decorations up? Growing up we ALWAYS put them up Thanksgiving evening. It was a big tradition. But now that I have my own home they usually go up the day after Thanksgiving. We cook and clean up all Thanksgiving day and by the evening I just wanna crash not drag out a tree and figure out lights.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? I don't really have a favorite - probably mashed potatoes and croissant rolls! Or ham. And of course all the sweets are a favorite of mine!!!

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? I think our TN trip every year are some of my fondest memories. We've been doing it for like 10 years now or something.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Like I said, we didn't do the whole Santa thing so I knew from the very beginning he wasn't real.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No, we open all our gifts on Christmas morning. Of course we get some before when we're in TN because we do Christmas with my mom's side of the family. So we can wait till Christmas morning for the rest of our gifts.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? White lights and a little garland and then all our ornaments. Most of my ornaments I got the first year B and I were married - we went to Pier 1 Imports during a big sale and bought lots of pretty ornaments! And then each year on our TN trip we all bring ornaments to share with each other. So I've collected quite a few that way.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? I love it if it's on Christmas Day but any other time I could pass. We live in the middle of nowhere and the roads stay bad for a LONG time and I'm terrified of driving out on snowy icy roads.

12. Can you ice skate? I've only been like once or twice and I wasn't very good! I think I held onto the rail the whole time! Lol!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Yes! Last Christmas B got me an iPod Touch (before we had iPhones). It completely took me by surprise, I had NO idea! It was awesome!

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Getting together with family. Even though every family has their up's and down's for the most part at Christmas it's set aside for lots of fun and love.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Um, probably peppermint bark. It's SO good! I could eat loads of it!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Our TN trip! Seriously, I look forward to it starting in September when we book the cabin. It's just so much fun, lots of good fun, cold outings and just that great Christmas spirit.

17. What tops your tree? A silver wire star.

18. Which do your prefer, giving or receiving? I like receiving of course and I like to give but my only problem is I'm so bad at picking out gifts for people. Even people I know really well like my family. I'd rather us not give or get gifts at all so that I don't have to think about what to get everyone and worry if they really liked it or not.

19. Candy canes - yuck or yum? Yum! I like a few, I can only eat like a couple eat each season!

20. Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas with Bing Crosby! Loved it growing up and I still think it's so magical!

21. Saddest Christmas song? Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg (so sad but I still kinda love it!)

22. What is your favorite Christmas song? It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas by Michael Buble'

Sunday Confessional V.2

11. I really miss my hubby's earring. I know, it sounds stupid but I thought it was so hot. He had to take it out when he worked at Outback and it started growing back and he's never gotten it re-pierced. *sad face*

12. My first kiss was in the basement of my then boyfriend's grandparent's house and we hit teeth. No joke. It wasn't pretty! Lol!

13. When I was about 7 or 8 I was helping my dad sharpen his pocket knife collection and he stopped to take a phone call. I was opening some of them up and even though I KNEW proper knife protocol and I knew not to touch the blades - I went to open one and it wouldn't open all the way so I put my thumb on the blade and pushed.....yup, popped my thumb right open! Blood everywhere! I should have had stitches but we didn't have insurance (and I was terrified of the doctor anyway) so they just wrapped it up really good to keep me from bleeding to death and I finally healed up!

14. When Gianna was born she was way too tiny for the little newborn outfit I had brought to bring her home in so my mom and sisters went a bought a few preemie outfits for me to choose from. One was a super ruffly dress that my mom wanted her to wear - I remember flipping out and saying (in a totally irrational manner) that she would suffocate to death in it! Lol!

15. If it wasn't for Benjamin I'd probably still be listening to nothing but Pop music and totally missing out on the amazing world of Indie/Rock music!

16. I grew up eating nothing but Breyer's ice cream and thought it was THE best of the best. Up until recently and now I'm a Blue Bell girl, another great thing my hubby introduced me to!

17. I have a large mole, or more nicely known as a "beauty mark", on my left cheek. I'll admit, I love it! But it didn't show up until I was 10 or 11 years old. If you go back and look at photos of me up until that point it wasn't there, at all. But I don't remember the day it "showed up" either!

18. I have this bad habit of standing on the sides of my feet, the outsides. I turn my feet out and balance on the sides. I've been doing it since I can remember and now it's resulted in an extremely strained left ankle, the pain in it reminds me not to stand that way whenever I start to.

19. I'm obsessed with tattoos. People that have lots of them really mesmerize me. I would totally have LOTS more if it weren't for the fact that a good tattoo artist costs a good deal of money. My next one is going to cost $250 and that may not seem like a lot but it IS! Lol! I'm DYING for the day my hubby actually gets one, I may faint from how hot I think it is!

20. Taco Bell is my favorite fast food but we eat it every Sunday now so I skip it any other time. But McDonald's still have THE best fries and Burger King has the best burger. If I could blend them together I would!

Saturday

We got up this morning without an alarm clock which is so nice. I now look forward to Saturday mornings because even though we don't sleep in a lot (we're usually up by 7:30am) it's still nice not to wake up to a beeping alarm. And it's also nice to just lay in bed even once we're awake and talk and check stuff on our iPhones.....and that's what we did this morning! Then I tackled a work out and then we ran around for about an hour and picked up the house. It was quite a mess, stuff here and stuff there. Then we decided to make a run out of town to do a few things. We live in a really small town and Wal-Mart is our biggest store. If we want anything besides Wal-Mart we have to drive about 40 minutes to a few bigger cities near by. So we usually make a little event of it when we need to go out. I needed to run to Hobby Lobby for some supplies to fill a Pretty Nods order........

We decided to stop at Fuddrucker's for burgers. You pick your burger (they even have 1 pound and 2 pound burgers!) then they have a condiment bar and you "fix it up" yourself. Gigi and I split a burger and fries. It was super yummy! The hubby got onion rings and they were the best I've had in a long time.

After that we ran by Hobby Lobby and Plato's Closet.....I needed some new skinny jeans but didn't find anything there.

We made a run by Wal-Mart to pick up some flea treatment for our poor kitty - he's been battling fleas and we have tried everything under the sun and he's still got them. Ick. And I found some jeans - cheap jeans seem to fit me best. Lol! Guess I shouldn't complain too much.

Gianna was in a second parade today - it as pretty chilly out and we made a wrap out of my scarf to help keep her warm on the ride.

(It's crazy how grown up she looks lately!)

We grabbed pizze on the way home and finished watching the LSU/GA game. Then I decided to start tackling the load of headband and necklaces I have to make by next Saturday. I'm going to have a table at a local Holiday Craft Bazaar. Hoping to sell a bunch of stuff and make some gift/trip money for Christmas.

So far we've had a great weekend.....they seem to go by so fast but I'm looking forward to our trip to TN in 12 days so I'm ok with it flying for now. Then it just needs to slow down already!

Happy weekend-ing!