Free Winter Printable

Happy {almost} winter my sweet friends! It's hard to believe that our first official day of winter is 5 days away and the funny thing is, North Carolina is expecting 70 degree weather that day?!? Crazy, I know! 

I am finally on a three to four week break off the road from work where I can enjoy being home with family and friends. Over the past few years I have really gotten into making printables. During last semester when I was student teaching, I had a new printable on my desk every week. With free time on my hands now and a new design software update, I decided to make you all a free chalkboard winter printable for your own enjoyment! Let me know how you like it and happy Monday!

 Click here for Winter Printable

Stocking Stuffers for Her

Over the past few years, I have really fallen in love with Christmas stockings and the goodies that can fill them! Josh's grandparents have a long tradition going of hand making each grandchild a stocking when they are born and then filling them throughout the year with gift cards and small items. These are then part of the gifts they receive on Christmas day. I've been lucky enough to have been added to the stocking receiving list two years ago and now get my own beautiful stocking full of goodies every Christmas. I decided to create a post for things that any girl would swoon over if they landed in their stocking this year... and better yet, they are all $25 or under! 

1. Kate Spade Thermal Mug: $18
2. Kate Spade Tickled Pink Card Set: $25
3. Coach Poppy Rollerball: $22
4. Essie Nail Polish: $8
5. Victoria Secret Color Drama Lipstick: $14

What's on your stocking stuffer wish list?

Wishful Wednesday

Hey blogger friends!

Happy Wednesday :-) Apologizes once again for no post the past few weeks! I have been traveling to a new school/state every 4 days so once I catch my breath it's time to move again. However, I'm currently enjoying my last week on the road before Thanksgiving in beautiful Alabama! 

With Christmas (and my birthday) upon us, I decided to show you all some of the top things I'm being wishful for this year! Let me know what you think:

Lilly Pulitzer: Shopper Tote

Marley Lilly: Monogrammed Vest

Nars: Blush 

Mint Julep: Good as Gold Top 

A trip to the Baltimore House 

What are some of the things you're wishing Santa will bring to you this year?

Flashback: The Start of Us

So if you read my post last Friday, you learned that Josh, my wonderful boyfriend, and I will be celebrating 4 happy years together later this month. I posted a few pictures of us together and posed the question for you to e-mail me with where you thought we met. Several of you responded and guessed college, a bar, and a basketball game. Well, none of those are even close so I thought today I would do a little flashback and tell you all the story of how we started dating...apologizes ahead of time for the possibly long and cheesy post! 


Flashback to the 60s/70s
Our parents grew up in the same community and went to the same high school. My aunt became high school best friend's with Josh's mom and still to this day do almost everything together.

Flashback to Easter 1994
When my parents got married in the 80s, they were the only siblings in both of their families to move away from their hometown. I grew up 2 hours northwest of my entire family and well Josh as well. Growing up, my parents and I would always drive down to my Grandparents church for any holidays and I would go into my Grandma's Sunday school class. Josh and his family attended the same church as my Grandparents and Josh was in my Grandma's Sunday school class. Well on Easter 1994 she captured a picture that she later gave to Josh and I; it is of us in her same Sunday school classroom. I guess you can say this is the first time we officially met!

Flashback to the late 90s-2000s 
Josh attended elementary through high school with all of my cousins and they all grew up together. He continued to attend my grandparents churn and my aunt always loved Josh and his younger brother. In high school, my aunt would always mention how she wanted me to meet this really great young man named Josh because he was perfect for me but of course growing up two hours apart from one another I thought it would be weird to have a long distance boyfriend in high school...so we never met.

October 2009
It was our freshman year of college. I attend UNC Charlotte and Josh attended UNC Chapel Hill. Our two schools were 3.5 hours apart and our paths had still not crossed. It was October 8, 2009 when I got the phone call that shook my world. I was getting ready to go to my first midterm as a college student when my aunt called to tell me she couldn't get ahold of my mom but Grandpa was being rushed to the hospital for having a heart attack. Little did I know at this point that my Grandpa had already passed away but my family didn't want me to be upset while making the four hour drive to where my family was. I quickly emailed my professors and rushed to Fayetteville, NC. When I met my family at the house I was told the news that I would never get to say goodbye to the one person who meant the world to me. 

Two days later the family was at the funeral home for my grandpa's visitation and that ladies and gentlemen is where I met Josh. Yep, you read that right. I met Josh at my grandpa's funeral visitation...I bet y'all never would have guessed that one! Shortly after the passing of my grandpa, Josh and I became friends on the big world of Facebook and started to message each other every few days. We finally exchanged numbers towards the beginning of November and on November 6th I went to UNC Chapel Hill to see my best friend in a play. I somehow remembered I had Josh's number and thought to text him. He agreed to meet me and my mom for dinner at [B]Ski's on Franklin Street and the rest is history. 

It took a few days for us both to get up the courage to tell one another we liked the other but I then began making weekly trips to good ole Chapel Hill since Josh didn't have his car freshman year. Right before Thanksgiving break we were on a little date night walking around campus. When we got to the intramural fields we stopped to look at the starts and then Josh asked if he could call me his girlfriend...the rest has been nothing but memories! 

So come November 21st we will have been together 4 years! And yes, if you've put two and two together we have dated long distance the entire four years...including SUPER long distance as I've been traveling the country this year! Josh graduated this past May and is now in his first year of grad school at Wake Forest University! Now that you've learned a little about "us" I'll share some pictures with you that way you don't have to keep reading words! Enjoy :-) 

NovemBURN

So I once heard that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. While I don't know what the full statistics of that saying actually is...I can say that it has worked for me before in terms of breaking a habit. So I thought I would give us all a little challenge for the month of November. If we can all make it through the entire month then we will have done OVER 21 days of fitness meaning it should become a habit! One of my favorite websites for full body toning that is FUN is blogilates. Not only are there fitness videos but every month a new calendar comes out with fun, daily exercises! The one for NovemBURN is amazing and let me tell you, tonight I did the 100 challenge for November 1st and it was intense. I paired it with 40 minutes on the treadmill and it was a very refreshing workout! So here's your calendar for this month's workout! Who's with me on making November our fit and healthy month??