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!

"I Love" Sunday's v. 83

Hello Dreamers!

Happy Sunday! I hope this post finds you well.

** Lee got super lucky on Monday and other then showing his face at first formation, he didn't have to be at work. His NCO gave him the day off since he had been screwed over in the weeks prior to that with the field and with EFMB. He and I got to spend most of the day together outside of when I was in class. Perks of working from home for myself. :) I did all my work from my laptop from the comfort of my own room (my roommate was super sick with strep and something else and was sleeping in the living room downstairs).

The added bonus to Monday was we went and ate dinner with our friends from a local bar. We call them the bar family, two of them are bartenders at this bar, another one is the DJ on the weekends, and the rest of us just like to hang out together. We met Jess and Dani because they came to a few of our shows and then Jess convinced her boss to let the boys play a show at the bar, and we've been great friends ever since. Even our bassist Josh is part of the bar family, he's probably the reason that we even started hanging out in the first place. Haha.

this is Dani and I from the last week!

** Lee and I went out to eat at Olive Garden for my birthday this past Wednesday since he wasn't here last week. I've always been very skeptical of our Olive Garden because when I first got to Bragg back in 2011, they had a case or two of Hep B and I didn't want to go anywhere near that! I finally decided that since it was years later without incident, I could give this one a shot. Olive Garden has always been one of my favorite places to eat at, so it's been killing me slowly that I haven't eaten there since I've been home.

To make it all better, Lee came home with some gorgeous flowers for me for my birthday! It was a total surprise but I love it so much! Aren't they pretty?

** Thursday was nice because we went out to dinner with some of Lee's new friends from EFMB before heading out to the bar to see our friends. We hardly drank anything, but it was nice to hang out with our friends. Lee has a 4 day weekend this weekend which started on Thursday, so we decided to go hang out with our friends.

I've made really good friends with the bartenders Jess and Drea, but I've become especially close to one of the other girls named Dani! She is kind of like my new best friend and I adore her to death! I need more friends where Lee and I live and I feel like this is a good start!

** Yesterday was band practice at Roger and Cheyanne's house before we drove back into town to see our friends at Bridge to Breakdown play at another local bar that we've played at before. I've mentioned these guys before because they're our friends and we try to see them anytime they're in town (they live about 2.5 hours away from us). Their drummer, Taylor, was super awesome because he gave Lee some travel bags for his drum kit and in exchange Lee let Taylor play on his kit for their show last night.

** I gave in and decided to order Ali's main kit from last year's December Daily and it arrived yesterday while we were at band practice. I can't wait to start playing with it! You'll see more of my posts about December Daily starting this week! 

.: Little Loves :.

|| Flowers | scrapbooking | moving forward | stars | crafting | Dr. Pepper | new friends ||

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.

"I Love" Sunday's v.82

Happy Sunday Ghouls!

Hope this Sunday finds you well!

** All schools, including my college were cancelled for this week, and Lee was home Monday due to the storm this past Saturday. He was upstairs playing video games when I came in to tell him that I gained another client and (although he doesn't look like it) he was super happy for me. I pestered him for a little while (he'd been playing video games all day) and snapped this photo.

** Tuesday saw me working on my October Daily album. I filmed a video that is posted on my YouTube channel of the latest walkthrough of my album. I think it's through day 10 as of right now (which means it's time to film another video.

** On Thursday, our friends Sarah and her family came over for dinner and just to hang out. Men's friend A was over as well, which always proves to be interesting. A is one of the best behaved and most polite teenage boys I have ever met! That evening Amy decided she finally wanted to have a fire in the backyard, which was fun!

** Friday was an incredibly busy day for us. Lee had a family organization day with his unit, which was full of games and fun and food, and obviously families were invited. Lee asked me to accompany him, and it was a nice day overall. I spent a lot of the time talking with his NCO (she used to be a flight medic with the 82nd) so we had some stuff to bond over. Haha. I really like her and I seemed to be the only significant other who talked to her without an issue (like other people seem intimidated or scared or something)

That night we had to drive 3 hours to a show, which went relatively well. The drive was long (and the drive home was kind of miserable. If my best friend from back home hadn't called me just to talk for 2.5 hours, I probably would've had to pull over and sleep on the side of the road). Haha.

The last good news of Friday? Lee's new kit came in before we left for the show, so we got to take it with us for him to play. It's a gorgeous ebony stain, with a much larger bass drum then he usually uses, so it's sound is ridiculous! I mean that in a good way! In some lights it looks dark purple!

** Yesterday was a kind of busy but still relaxed day. The whole reason that we drove home from the show instead of just staying the night like everyone else was because he had to work Saturday night and we needed to get some stuff before he had to go to work (like his dress shoes and a belt). So we spent the morning running errands before he had to be at work at 1 PM. We've been together almost a year now, which makes us both happy.

** Today was a good day! This morning we went to the NC State Fair (Brandon left his wallet in my bag on Friday night and I needed to get my camera back from them as well) so we met there. While we waited for them to get there we walked around the entire fair and just enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

We saw this MASSIVE pumpkin on display, it won first place. It weighed 1,090.5 lbs.... that is ridiculous to me!!!! Does anyone else think that it looks like two pumpkins that grew together into a single pumpkin?

.: Little Loves :.

|| Time off | cuddles | silly moments | being proud of the amazing drummer that Lee is | Feeling proud of the amazing soldier and medic that Lee is | Gatorade Arctic Blitz | movies at night ||

What are you loving from this past week?

"I Love" Sunday's v.81

Hello Dreamers! 

I hope this Sunday finds you very well.

** October Daily has definitely started! For which I am super stoked. I've shared some pictures on my IG account and I shared a video yesterday on my YouTube channel of my first week's flip through. I got a completely new album, which is discussed in the video, and I love it SO MUCH MORE!

** My mini pocket letter from Eny came in and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! She is super sweet and I love everything that she sent me!

** Wednesday I shared with you all a look at my first ever flip book inspired by Sam of Halloween Happy.

** My kit came in from Serena Bee and I am super stoked! I bought her stamp set from last year because I just couldn't resist. The first thing that I did? Use the stamps in my planner. I'll share a picture of this on my IG tomorrow!

** This week is the last week of my Introduction to Human Services class (it was only an 8 week class). For this I am thankful because while I like the subject matter, the teacher left something to be desired and everything was crammed into a short period of time. Tuesday was my last day in class, which is where we presented our power points about our service learning projects and Thursday was the actual last day, where we just stayed home and took our last test. I think I would have liked the class more if we had more time and a different teacher.

** Lee had 24 hour duty Wednesday but has been off since Thursday at 0900.... and doesn't go back to work until Tuesday morning. That's a lot of time off. Haha. We went out and he bought a new video game that he has been obsessed with and played non-stop.

** Since I didn't have class Thursday (just tests), Lee and I decided to go to Red Lobster because his mother sent us a $25 gift card for no reason. It was very sweet of her and the food was amazing! It was nice to have a mini date night together!

** Hurricane Matthew hit North Carolina early yesterday morning and it has been one hell of an adventure. Our city wasn't quite prepared for the flooding that would happen, but that is mostly just because of the flooding from last week's storm. There were a LOT of rescues that day (around 700) and FEMA from NYPD and FDNY, NJ, OH, and Charlotte, NC came to help out, which makes my heart happy. I don't know if there were many (or any) casualties here in Fayetteville, but it is going to take us a while to recover. There are still a lot of areas that are flooded, schools are still shut down, and now we're having water problems. Fayetteville, being the military town that it is, will persevere.

The photo on the left is the two houses across the street as it started flooding. By the time it was all said and done the flooding had reached our driveway, but we got lucky that we didn't have any damage. The house on the right of that picture had sand bags in front of their garage door and the water over ran the sand bags. They didn't appear to have much damage (we went around the neighborhood today to see the damage and there wasn't much to people's homes).

The picture on the right was where the road was washed away right down the road from me. My nephew took that photo right after it happened because they heard it fall apart. It's a main road in our neighborhood so it's going to be interesting to see how this affects us in the long run. The guard rail and part of the road is now gone. The picture below is what it looked like from a better angle.

** We had my classmate Jakki and her husband over for dinner last night because they had no water and no power. We had a blast because we decided to crack open my new Cards Against Humanity box that I just bought from Target. It was hysterical and I can't wait to do it again. It was kind of hard to get all of us in the picture... that's part of Lee's face at the bottom. It's a weird photo, but I definitely kind of like it. My friend's husband always makes funny faces in pictures as you can see below.

.: Little Loves :.

|| All the Halloween movies that we've been watching | Extra time with Lee | October Daily videos on YouTube | Gatorade | No school | Dr. Pepper ||

What are you loving from this past week?

"I Love" Sundays v.80

Hello friends and Happy Sunday!

It's the 2nd day of October and I am beyond stoked!

** I filmed a video for my YouTube channel about two pocket letters that I received this week! You guys should check it out! Just click on the image below to be taken to the video.

** Lee had to go to the field Tuesday night but he had part of the day off because it was going to be an overnight thing. It was awesome because except for the fact that I had class that evening, we got to spend a lot of time together. I love when we get to do that!

** I created a basic logo for the blog here in Canva.... and I kind of like it ((You can see it in the picture below)). I used the Nightmare Before Christmas font (because I am obsessed of course) and two arrows. I am thinking about a rebranding of my blog by the start of the new year and this is a start. I think I have been talking about it for a while, but it's finally time to get started on it!

** I spent Thursday painting these items after I saw Sabrina Ann's video on her Raskog cart. Mine are obviously different colors because I did not want to copy her completely, but she definitely inspires me!

** Since Ikea is over 2 hours away from me, it's a little difficult to go shopping there.... and I am not paying for shipping from there either! Which means so shopping at Ikea for me. I've wanted my own Raskog cart from there since I lived in Germany but it was too expensive (it was like 50 euro and the conversion rate is ridiculous) so I never bought one. I decided this year that I needed some kind of cart while I am doing my October Daily just to keep my desk at least somewhat organized. So while I was at Target I decided to check their home storage section and came across this cart that is a perfect substitute for the Raskog until I find my way there some day.

** Lee and I went to dinner Wednesday night after he came out of the field. We went to this Japanese hibachi and steak house that we love and it was crazy! There was just so much food! 

While we were there it started pouring.... and it didn't stop for 14 hours.... and it was LOUD and crazy. I accidentally left my two back windows cracked, but it was a blessing that my car wasn't flooded. At least it didn't appear to be flooded Thursday morning when I had to leave for an appointment. Our town isn't used to a rain like this so the schools were closed on Thursday (and Friday which we found out later) and Lee got out of work early on Thursday and a late work call on Friday. There was actually some flooding and some sink holes appeared throughout town. That part is crappy!

** I am just happy that October is finally here and we can start celebrating my favorite time of year!

** I recorded another video yesterday about the start of my October Daily, a quick look at my craft space and my supplies for the month, as well as a look at my October Daily Cart. You can watch the video by clicking on the photo below.

** We had a show last night back at our usual spot. The headlining band was interesting because they are a metal-ish band from Brazil.... it was an interesting band. We've become friends with the promoters girlfriend (he's been on tour driving a bus for some Magic mike kind of thing so she runs his shows for him) and she made the comment that the lead singer looked like a younger Heath Ledger, especially with the jacket that he was wearing at the time. It was quite comical. The boys made friends with their band and we will probably see them again.

.: Little Loves :.

|| Home Free | Michaels | stamps | friends at school | Dr. Pepper | Asian food | being inspired ||

What are you loving this past week?

"I Love" Sundays v.79

Hello Dreamers!!

Happy Sunday to you all.

** I finished 3 pocket letters this week while Lee was gone. Now I just need to write the letters and then mail them off. I am pretty excited about swapping pocket letters with some of the most creative ladies I have the fortune of "knowing" through the internet.

Random question:  are you guys enjoying my crafting posts here on the blog? 

** Lee came home from the field on Thursday (yay!). It was a super rainy week where we live so I felt really bad for him having to be out in the field all week.

** I started and pretty much finished the show Quantico on Netflix! While the show is a little confusing because it switches between the two timelines, I still really liked it. I can't wait to finish watching it!

** Lee and I bought a new tv yesterday! I am super excited about the new tv. I've had our old one since 2012 and it survived the move to/from Germany. During the move to Germany, because it didn't have an actual shipping box (the movers made one out of cardboard) it was damaged and it had two white lines running down the screen. Lately it has really started to bother us when we're watching tv so we decided to get a new one. Let me just say that this new tv is cheaper then the tv it's replacing.... and it's a 4K tv. It's an off brand, but the quality and sound is amazing. We're pretty sure that we aren't going to need a sound bar like we originally thought.

** We have band practice today, which is something we haven't had in over a month or so. We've had a lot of back to back shows and no time for practice (especially because I was so sick last weekend). They really need the practice time and thankfully we're doing it at Roger and Cheyanne's house, where we are more productive vs. doing it at a friend's music shop. It takes wayyyyy too long to get set up at the shop and by then everyone is so annoyed we hardly get anything done. Thankfully today they got quite a bit done, despite the weather making everyone feel a little slow and sleepy. It's nice to have a productive practice. 

** Now that I have a better camera to take videos with I am working on recording some new crafting videos for YouTube. I am pretty excited about that! Speaking of, have you seen my latest video that I posted on YouTube? Where I show off my first pocket letter I've made and show you how I made my favorite card? If not, you should check it out here!

** I talked to one of my clients briefly today about whether or not she wanted to keep using my virtual assistant services and she didn't even hesitate to tell me yes. YAY! We're talking tomorrow to discuss payment and duration of her using my services, plus another task that she wants me to complete. I love the fact that she didn't even hesitate to say that she wanted to use me again. It makes my heart happy!

.: Little Loves :.

|| Gaterade | Dr. Pepper | Arby's | cuddles | sweet texts | candy corn ||

What are you loving from this past week?

P.S. Another question for you: What all do you like about this here blog? What keeps bringing you back to read more? Is there a certain topic that you like reading that I share? Is it the pictures? What is it? 

What would you like to see more of?

"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?