December Daily Introduction

Hello Dreamers!

I hope this post finds you well!

So now that it is about halfway through the month, it is alright for me to start talking about and working through my December Daily album for this year! For those of you that don't know what December Daily is, here is how it is described by it's creator, Ali Edwards:

"December Daily® is a December mini-album project that documents the 25 days leading up Christmas. The simple goal is to capture the spirit of December via one story per day.

Over the last eight years this project has become one of the highlights of my year and a beautiful community of memory keepers has come together to share their December stories with one another. It is an awesome way to document and celebrate the season." -Ali Edwards

Some people do December Daily for the 25 days leading up to Christmas and some people draw it out until New Years. Some people don't focus on days, they focus on telling only the holiday stories. It is all up to the person completing that project.

For me, I'm going to complete the entire month, simply because we're traveling between our two families towards the end of the month. I want to document our first Christmas together and the fun times we have. 

Later on this week I will share a list of stories that I want to tell throughout my album, mostly because I want to have them written down somewhere and figure that maybe someone else here might be looking for stories to tell. It's always a little harder when you don't have kids, but I'll definitely make it work!

Until next time!

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Hello Dreamers! 

Happy Monday! also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

Is there ever such thing as a Happy Monday? Sounds kind of like an oxymoron to me.... but that may just be me.

If you follow me on Facebook then you will have already seen all of these photos, but for those of you that don't.... here ya go! Last Tuesday I went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party with my friend Ashes back home at Walt Disney World. We've been going to Disney on and off since I was in middle school, but for some reason this was the first year that I attended the Halloween Party!

We got to the park around 4PM because even though the event doesn't officially start until 7PM they still let guests enter around 4 so that they can ride some rides if they are only there for the party. It was the perfect time to get some photos of all the decorations and what not. The first thing Ashes and I did was to go look for some pins at the stores. We knew they would have special pins just for the party and we both wanted some.

Since my birthday is actually tomorrow, and one of the reasons that we decided to go was to celebrate my birthday, I got this nifty button that I got to wear. All the cast members that saw it wished me a happy birthday and I even got a brownie with dinner in celebration.

Ashes and I wanted to get on the Pirates of the Carribbean ride since it is one of our favorites, but unfortunately it was closed down for maintenance. We did manage to stumble upon this awesome treasure hunt though that we never knew existed! We completed 3 out of the 5 maps before it was time for dinner and we got side tracked. Next time I will finish the last two so I get all the maps AND the treasures! For those of us that are into scrapbooking and memory keeping, these maps and treasure cards are perfect memorabilia for our albums. I am working on my album this week, there will be pictures and a walk through video once I am done with it for those that are interested!

Excuse our derpy faces here! We decided to give vlogging a try and this is when I took a photo instead of a video. haha. We are both still pretty new at it and I will have the video up on my YouTube channel sometime this week. 

So I won't lie to you, this was our number one priority of the party, haha. We both love Nightmare Before Christmas (I'll include the video that I got of meeting them in my vlog) and it was definitely worth the wait. We ended up having this really nice family behind us and we sang with their daughters for the duration of the wait and had fun talking with the parents.

This was my birthday hug from Sally.

For those of you that aren't going to watch my vlog: If you are going to the party and you want to meet Jack and Sally, here is a tip for you. Get there at 4PM and immediately get in line (they are at the gazebo over near the Christmas shop) that way you don't have to wait long. They get there around 5 and the cast members close the line around 930-945. The earlier you get in line, the less time that you have to wait to meet the characters.

After this we went and rode the Haunted Mansion ride and did some trick or treating while waiting for the other main events to start. We decided to go to the later times for the events so we could enjoy the park and not feel rushed.

The Hallo-wishes event was fantastic, if not blinding. I love the colors that they had on the castle and how it was more villain themed to fit the occasion!

For a photographer I took some terrible shots! Haha. I decided against bringing my big camera because I didn't want to take the chance of damaging it, so I did most of the photography and videos on my cell phone. For the most part it has a decent camera, but the lighting for parts of the Hocus Pocus Villian Spectacular was terrible! 

The show was phenomenal and thanks to being handicapped, we actually got to see the show up close and personal. Which is really nice when you're short like Ashes and I are. Haha. It's definitely a must-see in my opinion if you go to the show.

We only saw part of the Boo-To-You parade, because we wanted to beat the traffic out for our 1 hour and 45 min long drive back to my parents house, but what we did see what phenomenal as well. I love seeing everything decked out in Halloween. Whoever thought to combine Halloween and Disney is an absolute genius in my opinion!

Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my blog post! Make sure to keep an eye on my YouTube channel for the vlog as well as the scrapbook mini album that I am working on to document the trip!

Hope you all have a fantastic Halloween!

Working The Haunted House

Hello Dreamers

Happy Saturday! I hope this post finds you well!

So yesterday was a super busy day for Lee and I, which only sucked because we're exhausted after this week. It's been busy and chaotic and he's been working 15 hour days. I really don't miss that part of the military life, I really don't.

Last night was the Haunted House for Lee's work, and while I was originally just there to help set up, I ended up becoming part of the cast for the event. Since it's a haunted house created by medics, of course there were lots of blood and body parts.

I wish I had gotten some more pictures of the event, but since I was in it, I forgot to ask someone to take a picture of where I was at. I showed up in all black and I let Lee cover my arms in blood. I was laying on an Army stretcher (does anyone else know how uncomfortable those things are?) covered with a bloody sheet. People thought I was a mannequin and once they got close enough to me (if they saw me at all) I reached out and groaned, moaned, or yelled while grabbing their ankle or grabbing at them. Needless to say, I scared the hell out of quite a few people, which made me laugh. Please excuse my terrible hair..... I don't know what was going on with it. 

 

We were set up in their locker room area, which helped lead people throughout the whole thing. We had to wait for it to get all dark because not all of the lights would turn off for some reason. I think they were on a time delay because eventually (about 30 minutes into the event) all of the overhead lights turned off and it made it incredibly spooky. 

 

Lee was being chased around by Josh (our bassist who was some creepy butcher looking dude) and he would scream for help and what not. Unfortunately I didn't get to see him because I was more towards the beginning then he was so he was on a different set of lockers. I was paired with one of the daughters of his boss (who was incredibly creepy) so her and I had a lot of fun. I almost got kicked in the head at one point because I scared one girl so bad, another girl yelled at me for about 5 minutes (which just made me laugh harder), and it was just ridiculous. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall the night went really well and apparently we were the scariest of all three houses at the event. We literally set everything up and finalized the plan for everything yesterday afternoon before everyone went home to get ready. For being slightly improvised, it went really well! I was pretty glad that they wanted me to help out because I rather enjoyed it. 

 

I know that it's hard to see, but Lee is standing right over my shoulder.

The little girl in white and the clown freaked everyone out. The little girl was screaming bloody murder (which helped with the house) but good lord she was creepy.

After that it was time for the Halloween party back home, which didn't last long. There was only one person that showed up for me and that's just because she was at the haunted house with us. Lee and I didn't stay downstairs long for it, he wanted to go play his new Battlefield game (he got it the night before the rest of the pre-order's did for some reason, so he's been playing it whenever he can).

Everyone that dressed up at the Halloween party including all the children. Lee didn't dress up because he was exhausted, but I put on my Gender-bent Jack suit for a little while, including the wig that my best friend sent me via priority mail just for this event. I didn't have makeup on because I had just taken a shower, that is reserved for Halloween night itself.

Thanks for stopping by!
Gotta go get ready for a show tonight. This is a new venue for us, so this should be fun.

Craft It Halloween 2K16: My First Pocket Letters

Hello dearest Dreamers!

Here with another Craft It Halloween 2K16 post. Today is all about pocket letters!

As I've mentioned in my videos and other posts, I am part of Serena Bee's October Daily Inspiration Facebook group, which makes my little heart happy! Last year I was introduced to Pocket Letters but was unable to find the right supplies while I was in Germany, so I just obsessed over everyone's videos and photos.

This year, since I am back in the states and have easy access to a Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and A.C. Moore, I figured that I would give it a try. So far I have made two separate pocket letters to send out to my swap partners.

I created a video on my first pocket letter, which you can watch below.

As I mentioned in the video, that handmade pumpkin card is my favorite card!!! I used Serena's October Nights collection that she released this year. She hand designed all of these cards, and since they are digital cards, you can print them as many times as you want (which I have been).

Since I am using a 6X8 album for my October Daily this year, when I made this pocket letter, the only sheet protectors I had were 6X8, so that is what I used. It is small, but I actually kind of like how this one turned out.

My second pocket letter was made last night! I finally went out and got the right sized sheet protectors from Walmart (they are baseball card protectors). They are smaller then 3X4 (I think they are like 2X3) so you have to make your own cards, and I really loved how this how PL turned out! So much so that I need to duplicate it so I can keep one!

Don't you just love it? Because I absolutely love it!!!

I bought the DCVW paper pack from Joanne's called Spooky Night Mini Stack and cut out my cards from there. It's a double sided paper pack, so I only used like 4 actual sheets of paper (it's 6x6). Some of the ephemera is from K&Company that I had from my stash (and I actually just ordered more because I love it so much) and the other ephemera is from Art C (Halloween ephemera collage kit). 

Some of the paper is gold foiled, which usually I don't like but I actually really like this paper pad. 

So what do you guys think?

Do you like them?

"I Love" Sunday's v.78

Happy Sunday Dearest Dreamers!

I hope this post finds you well.

Like my graphic? I am trying something new but I might be using this until the Halloween season is over. We'll see!

** Last weekend we opened for Adelitas Way in Wilmington, NC. The show was almost cancelled but at the last minute they changed to another venue and the show continued on. The guys did amazing (as usual) and we gained some new fans.

** If you love rock music and you haven't checked out Letter's From The Fire's new album.... I highly suggest that you do! It's an amazing album and there isn't a song on the album that I don't like. It doesn't hurt that Alexa has a killer voice!

Yes, I took this photo on the 01 Sep show when we opened for Letters From The Fire, Children 18:3, and Art of Dying.
Check out my photography page for more photos from our shows!

** I've been working on a lot of craft stuff over the last two weeks, for which I am super excited for! There will be blog posts coming (or already posted) to talk about each individual craft.

** I decided to get my hair done on Wednesday, and this time I went to see my old co-worker Brenna at the Paul Mitchell school. She graduates on the 1st and I wanted to see her before she leaves to move. I decided to do something a little different and bolder since I don't have any hair restrictions (Starbucks changed their restrictions right after I left the company- go figure).

** Friday night was the first show that we've headlined and we were lucky to be sharing the stage with our good buddies of Bridge to Breakdown! We love playing with these guys. We did share the stage a little bit at some separate times, which was beyond awesome. Our bassist sang their first song for them, there was a drum battle between their drummer and Lee during our set, and their vocalist joined our guys on stage to sing an awesome rendition of Simple Man! You can watch all of the videos HERE on our timeline. One of Lee's LT's joined us for the show as well as my favorite classmate and her husband! Music definitely brings people together, which makes me love it that much more!

** I created a Virtual Assistant portfolio finally to accompany my applications for jobs. I am pretty proud of myself, it's the first time I've created something like that. This job is teaching me a lot of new skills that I haven't had before and I am LOVING it! The best part is one of my clients has me doing other tasks  that I can also add to my portfolio. That is always a bonus. Today, I am working on her Pinterest account for her.

** Unfortunately on Saturday, I made the mistake of taking the wrong medication at the wrong time and it made me sick as a dog. The good news? It made me love Lee that much more because he took care of me all day. He was super extra sweet and attentive (not that he usually isn't- because he is - but he made sure to check in on me more and get me anything that I needed. Usually on the weekends he plays his video games while I work in my office and we check on each other periodically.) Yesterday, he checked on me a whole lot. He didn't even get mad when I woke him up (5 hours after we finally went to sleep after the show) because I needed some mouth wash (we ran out) because I was sick. He didn't argue, he just got dressed and went to the store for me. Super sweet guy (no one else has taken care of me like that other then my mother). He's super sweet! Just another reason to love him that much more!

old pic, if you can't tell by my hair... but we don't have any images since I've redone my hair.

.: Little Loves :.

|| Home Free's cover of Die A Happy Man | Halloween decorations | Serena Bee | crafting | Gatorade | hugs | Hibachi Chicken Bowl at Miyabi Jr. Express | working from home | HALLOWEEN!!! ||

What are you loving from this week?

Craft It Halloween 2K16: Halloween Tags #1

Hello Dreamers!

Happy Friday!

As I mentioned yesterday, Halloween has landed here on the blog until the end of next month!

Today I wanted to share some crafts that I have been working on in preparation for October Daily and some swaps with other lovely ladies over on Serena Bee's October Daily group. We are sharing pocket letters, supplies, and just our love for the holiday.

So in preparation for all of this, I started working on some different tags to put in the album.

These two happen to be my most favorite tags that I have made so far! Aren't they cute! I got the idea after watching Serena in one of her pocket letter videos or something like it.

This is the very first tag I made based on watching some other YouTube videos from some awesome ladies. It's not the best... but I'm learning as I do.

These tags are kind of unfinished, but I got the idea from this video by Serena Bee

These tags are so easy to make! Here are some tutorials for you to check out:

Halloween Gift Tags by Eny Dunn

Jumbo Halloween Tag Tutorial by Serena Bee

Have you made any awesome Halloween Tags? Share them below because I would LOVE to see them!

May the Fourth Be With You

Hello dearest Dreamers!

Just wanted to stop in today and wish you all a happy Star Wars Day!

I am not as big a Star Wars fan as Memphis, but I can definitely enjoy it. We get to dress up at work today for Frappy Hour, and of course the theme is Star Wars. I may have gone out and bought a jacket specifically for this instance... and a light saber because Mem didn't have one yet. 

I'll be able to reuse this jacket for shows with the band and for other costumes. I borrowed the boots from Amy because I don't have any black boots yet, I'm wearing my BB-8 t-shirt, and my tan skinny jeans are work pants anyways. 

This is the shift I worked with this evening, the other three had to close the store at the end of the night.

Whatcha think?

Did I look alright?

Have a great day!

"I Love" Sundays v.64

Hello dearest Dreamers!

Happy Sunday!

So the only reason that this post is so late today is because I am visiting my parents in Florida for the weekend. I had to clean out my storage unit there so I can stop spending $70-ish a month to house stuff that I want in my house anyways. I drove down yesterday and unfortunately leave tomorrow... but it's been nice none-the-less. I did however find my cowboy hat, which made me super happy.

** After arriving home yesterday my best girls Ashes and Lindsay came over for a visit and we headed out to the beach for a walk. On the weekends there are usually street vendors out and about selling stuff, but the weather kind of prevented that this time around. Which probably worked out better in the end since apparently it's Spring Break week here....

** If you haven't seen my announcement across social media, on Monday I was alerted that I was picked to be part of the Awesome Ladies Project Creative Team for 3 months starting in April! This is the first time that I have been picked for a creative team, so I am pretty excited about that!

** My first check came in from the VA finally, which was nice. I was a little concerned that it got lost in the mail, but it eventually arrived.

** While getting my oil changed on Tuesday, I made friends with the guys that worked there. I brought them coffee from work, so they said they would help me out next time I had to come in for some work on my car. They were just great guys to talk to, so I don't think I'd be going anywhere else anyways.

** Got to have lunch with Lee again this week. It's always nice to be able to meet up for lunch in the middle of the day. I see him most evenings, but lunch is always nice too. :)

** Saint Patrick's Day was definitely a blast, both at home and at work. We got to dress up at work, and we all kind of went all out on it! Amy made corn beef and cabbage, potatoes, and some other Irish things for dinner (which was awesome) and then I took some food to Lee since he had 24 hour duty.

** I also helped my dear friend Sarah start the stuff for her own blog. Once we get some stuff finalized, then I will share her with you guys. She is writing a blog about her blended family, children with autism, having a newborn, and just starting over.

.: Little Loves :.

|| Dr. Pepper | my Travelers Notebook | being home | good friends | holiday shenanigans | Clearwater Beach | Steak n Shake | crafting ||

What are you loving from this past week???

"I Love" Sundays v.60

Hello friends!

Happy Sunday! Hope all is well on this Valentine's Day for you lovely Dreamers!

** My little "family" celebrated Valentines Day this past Friday. Amy and I took Memphis and his friend to go see Deadpool in theaters before eating dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Originally it was just supposed to be me, Amy, and Mem, but his friends mother called and asked if we could take him for the night so she could have her own V-Day with her boyfriend, so he joined us for the night. We decided to celebrate it on Friday because Amy works Saturday and Sunday as it is. I won't spoil the movie, but it was AWESOME SAUCE!!!!!

I am not really a fan of the holiday personally, never have been (at least not since middle school - but I did love getting those little folded cards and sharing them with my classmates). I just don't understand why there is a specific day set aside to show your significant other some love.... shouldn't you be doing that the whole time? Why do people only buy flowers for their significant other on this day? Why can't you buy flowers any other day? Wanna take your s/o out somewhere special? Date night?!? I dunno... I just don't get it.

** I went on a second date with a guy I met (well... he met me at work once my shift ended and we sat there and talked and laughed for about 2 hours). It went better then I expected and he seems like a really cool guy. We'll see how this all pans out. Actually, he joined us on Friday for Deadpool and Buffalo Wild Wings too. My little family thought he was awesome. And I am meeting him for lunch today....

** All I am going to say is that I really enjoy where I work.

** Thursday saw me turning in my completed paperwork for school, which starts next month. Hopefully I get accepted and my GI Bill gets everything covered and I can start school. I really want to work on my degree. The best part is that I can still take classes on base, which I am more comfortable with. 

** I got a bunch of my Geeky Valentines Day cards in for a swap I am doing with other Geeky Bloggers. I absolutely LOVE them all. I think I am going to hole punch them and make a mini book out of them. They are just too cute. Especially since I don't really have a Valentine this year. Although Memphis (through his mom buying it) gave me a cute stuffed bear that says 'hug me' on it for the holiday. 

** Something popped up on my timeline of a cover of this song by another band and it prompted me to share Any Given Day's cover of Diamonds by Rhianna, which just rekindled my love for this cover. I heard it first over a year ago and just couldn't help but loving it. I like it when rock bands cover some poo songs. It's all thanks to this cover right here!

.: Little Loves :.

|| White Chocolate Hot Cocoa | Molten Chocolate Frappaccino | Chocolate Croissants | new friends | happy mail | having a job | my purple fuzzy blanket | Home Free | Music ||

What are you loving from this past week?

"I Love" Sunday's v.59

Happy Sunday Dreamers!

Hope you all have had a good weekend!

** You might have seen this picture on my FB page or my IG from Tuesday. I know that I don't look all that thrilled, but I was tired. I took the picture on my 10 minute break, and really it was a good day. Although I had only worked there for a couple of days, I qualified for my first set of tips ever!!! Being as this is my first serious job other then the US Army, I've never made tips before. It wasn't much, but it was definitely kinda awesome.

** So I finally got my Starbucks hat from my manager. She had to order new ones when I joined the company and they came in on Monday. On Wednesday, my manager handed me my Military Appreciation aprons specifically for spouses and veterans. I took them to the mall to get my name sewn on and picked them up on Friday evening. Little things make me happy. :) 

** I got my taxes done in about 20 minutes on Thursday. Little victories here peeps!

** My roommate converted an old dressed into a nice little entertainment center for the living room. She had it done before I came home from Germany, but we were missing a couple of pieces. We finally got the tv mount thing in the mail and got our new entertainment center all set up. The TV sits much higher then it used to, but the entertainment center itself is much more sturdy then the other one used to be. We no longer have to fear if the old tv stand was bumped the wrong way that everything would come crashing down.

.: Link Love :.

** Danielle from From Girlie to Nerdy shared a post on The Fairytale Traveler about her trip to the Universal Orlando Celebration of Harry Potter Experience. I am SUPER jealous about this experience and can't believe that I had no idea that it existed until afterwards. What kind of Potterhead am I to not have know that this thing existed. Note to self: Must go next year!!!!

** Alexz from Spooky Pooky shared her 2016 Valentines Day cards. I love them!!!!! They are free to download, however she asks that you not try to sell them or remove her name from them. Check out her blog for more cards!

.: Little Loves :.

|| Sweet tea | Twizzlers | having a job | homemade dinners | Oreos | NCIS | new friends ||

What are you loving from this past week?