A favorite photo of yourself and why

For today's Blog Everyday in May challenge, I'm supposed to share a favorite photo of myself and tell you why. So here it is. A friend took this photo shortly after Eric and I got engaged (read our love story for more) and it just makes me smile. It was a beautiful evening at camp,  my husband-to-be was sitting in the background, and I'm wearing one of my favorite (now deceased) dresses.

Happy Friday!

Outfit of the Week - Emerald & Cobalt

Blazer: Old Navy (similar) // Necklace: F21 // Tee: Target (similar) // Pants: Target (similar) // Flats: Payless // Watch: Fossil

Today's Blog Everyday in May topic is "a day in the life." While I am not on top of it enough to actually take photos of each hour of my day, I thought I would just share a few things that are going on in my life right now:

• This past weekend we celebrated Mother's Day, my dad's and brother's birthdays, and my youngest brother's graduation. Whew. 
• We are reading, prepping and preparing for our upcoming vacation to Europe (Paris, London and Ireland). Guys, I'm pumped.
• Eric and I are on a coed softball league and we are soooo terrible. But it really is soooo fun.
• Warm weather means lots of fresh fruits and veggies in our house.
• Last weekend was university graduation, which means our college town is quiet, desolate and wonderful.

What is going on in your pre-summer life?
 

Ten Things That Make Me Really Happy

1. Saturday morning breakfasts.

2. Walking out of a store with nothing in hand. 

3. The smell of my dog after his bath.

4. Publishing a new blog post.

5. Doing anything with my besties.

6. Feeling close to God.

7. My floral pants.

8. An upcoming vacation to Europe.

9. My blooming peonies.

10. Looking at my most recent craft every time I walk out the front door. 

What is making you happy these days?

Outfit of the Week - A piece of advice

Striped Tee: H&M (similar)

Skirt: JC Penney

Blazer:  H&M (similar)

Oxfords: UO (similar for $20)

Necklace: DIY

No one loves unsolicited advice. At least in my experience. But for today's "Blog Everyday in May" challenge (that I am very loosely participating in... don't judge) I was asked to give some. So, internet, here it is:

Stop stressing. 

Just. Stop. I know, I know. Easier said than done. As a type-A, perfectionist, oldest child, I know stress. I know how it feels to be overwhelmed with everything you have to do (perfectly), all the people you have to make happy, and all the plans you need to make for the future. But somewhere in the last couple of years, I stopped stressing. It happened around the time that my chest literally felt constricted and my heart would beat a million miles a minute, just because I was overwhelmed by all the things I had to do.  It's then that I realized that stress can take years off your life. Really. So how did I stop stressing? Three things:

1. Prayer - I would pray that God would give me His peace that passes all understanding (Phil 4:7)
2. Rational Thought - I would stop and think about the things that were actually stressing me out. For example, I have a paper to write. Is worrying about it going to get the paper written? No. So, I would make a list of the things I actually needed to do to get it done.
3. Saying No - We are a generation of multi-taskers. In my opinion, we do too much. Why do we take on so many things? Learn to say no. If you are stressed out all of the time, you are probably doing too much.

I'm curious - what do you do to manage stress?

DIY Hanging Wire Letters

This craft came from the place that nearly all of my crafts have come from: first a need, then cheapness. In this case, the need was to fill an empty hook. Over the holidays, I hung a wreath on the inside of the front door, which I loved, but then I just had an empty hook (*side note: we have been re-watching Arrested Development lately and whenever I hear the word hook, all I can think of is poor Buster. Any AD fans out there???). So, I decided to make something to hang using some items I had on hand (that's where the "cheap" comes in). Here's how it turned out:

 Here's how I made it:

Supplies Needed:

• yarn
• needlenose pliers
• hot glue gun (and glue sticks)
• wire hanger
• washi tape (not shown)

Step 1: Use the needlenose pliers to create your letters. This is relatively easy, just keep a couple of things in mind. First, your letters aren't going to be perfect (at least mine weren't). Secondly, be strategic about the space you'll need for each letter. I planned on making each letter much bigger, but I realized one wire hanger didn't give me as much space as I thought. 

Make sure that you have a plan for each letter to connect to one another. For my letters that meant a few twists and turns.

Step 2: Close off the ends of the hanger by wrapping them in tape (not shown). I simply wrapped the two lose ends shown here in washi tape to close it off. It doesn't need to look pretty, but make sure you wrap them tightly.

 Step 3: Wrap yarn around the wire, keeping it in place with hot glue. Squeeze a little glue on the wire and then wrap a few times before the glue dries. Repeat until the wire is completely covered in yarn.

Step 4: Step back and marvel at your work. It's OK if you think it looks like a 4th grader made it. It's all part of the charm, right?



Linking up: 

DIY Show Off 
Flamingo Toes 
Nifty Thrifty Things
Twigg Studios
Under the Table & Dreaming
Alderberry Hill

Story of My Life in 250 Words or Less

Have you guys seen the "Blog Everyday in May" challenge over at Story of My Life? Weeell, I really doubt I can blog everyday for a month, nor do I really want to, but I thought it might be fun to pick and choose a few prompts and link up. Especially since I am terrible at sharing things about my non-internet personal life. So here goes:

I was born in Oklahoma City to two awesome parents. After me came a sister and two brothers. I was the stereotypical oldest child – bossy, a perfectionist and organized. I grew up in church and loving Jesus. I am so thankful for that. I was homeschooled until 4^th grade, and then I attended a small private school where my mom was a teacher. My junior year I transferred to a larger private school and it was a bit of a culture shock. We never went to bed hungry or anything, but we definitely didn’t have a lot of money. I was able to go to the school because of the generosity of others and I loved it, but it was definitely a weird experience to have my dad drive me to school while all my friends drove Lexus’s and BMWs. I graduated and went to a small liberal arts university about 40 minutes away from my family, and majored in Public Relations. During my summers I worked at a camp, which is where I met Eric. We got married the fall after I graduated from college and we worked at the same camp full-time for about a year. After that we moved to Tulsa, where we only lived for 6 months because Eric got a great job in the same town that I got into grad school. We bought a house and we’ve lived here now for nearly 3 years. We added a ridiculously cute dog to the mix and life is just really lovely.

255 words. Not bad.

Outfit of the Week - Crazy Pants

I called myself "Crazy Pants" while wearing this outfit. And also, "Crazy Tall Lady." The second one wasn't new, but when I put on these heels, I just had to acknowledge how awkward I felt being 8 inches taller than everyone else. But, "Crazy Pants," yes, that one was new. Let's just say there was no hiding in the background for me when I wore this outfit. People kept shouting "love the pants" and I kept responding "yeah... just call me Crazy Pants!"

These pants are not for the faint of heart, ya'll. But luckily, I love 'em. I definitely made the right call during the floral pants hunt. I am pretty much obsessed with all the floral going on this season. Just call me Crazy Floral Lady. Okay... too much, Ashley... too much.

 Pants: Target

Tee: H&M (similar)

Shoes: Old Navy (similar)

Necklace: F21 (similar)