Pinterest Project #2623425

Yet again with Pinterest...
This one was super easy, cheap, AND cute.

I made this smaller one for my younger brother who goes to Appalachian. 

What you need:
-An empty frame.
-Glue gun.
-Twine or Hemp
-Mini clothespins
-Pictures and such to hang

What you do: 

Hot glue the hemp to the frame so that you have a way to hang it. Then take strands of hemp the width of the frame and glue them from one end to the other. Do that as many times as you want across. Stick the little clothespins on the hemp and hang photos/tickets/stickers etc. on it. Hang up on a wall. See.. easy, right?    

  

This larger one I made for me. It's a great way of hanging up some of your wallet sized photos of Instagram pics.

 

One Extreme to Another

When we arrived back from our cruise, we were greeted with snow back in NC. How lovely. Well since I had the weekend off, I decided to cross another item off on my bucket list... Snowboarding! Adam, a good buddy of mine was capable of making my spontaneous trip to Boone and my friend Kristyn let me borrow her equipment. Without them, this item would still be uncrossed on my list. 

Adam and I had a blast... errr at least I did. Poor Adam tried to teach me what to do. He watched me fall, helped me up, and continued to help me up after each fall. He was such a sport. After a few hours I finally got the hang of everything. It's a lot harder than people make it look. Not being able to move your feet is tough. Other then the fact that everyone else in NC had decided to also go snowboarding/skiing that day too, it was a perfect day to go. Considering we were in the snow, it was actually warm. Like it got hot at some points and we were sweating. 

Bunny Slope

I told you he was a sport... tying my boots. 

Ski Lift

One of my "graceful" falls. 

Finally, after five minutes. 

Cruising

 A few months ago when my Aunt Donna asked if I wanted to go on a cruise, it was obviously a no brainer. Shortly after, we booked a five day cruise from Tampa to Cozumel and Grand Cayman that left on January 12. After a few months of cold weather, we were ready for this!

We had an absolute blast! Met interesting people, saw awesome things, soaked up warm rays, and ate great food. I'm ready to go back.

Here's a brief summary of our trip in pictures.

At Sea

Sailing away 

Typical laying out and reading

Captains Formal Night

Karaoke 

Awesome Towel Monkey 

Our Dinner Group

Met this guy, Michael, the first night of the cruise. He was super cool and he became our cruise buddy. 

Grand Cayman 

 Here we picked an excursion that included a trip to Hell, a stop at a rum cake factory, turtle farm, and then swimming with the stingrays at StingRay city. 

  Hell Post Office- That's right. I was cool and sent some postcards from Hell. 

 

This rock formation is termed "Hell." 

 

  "Fresh Coconut Water. Good for this and that and better than Viagra and Cialis."

 These "little" guys were EVERYWHERE. It was like the squirrel of Grand Cayman. 

Turtle Farm- really neat. We got to see lots of turtles and learn about how they reproduce and "grow" them. We even got to hold a baby turtle at the end. 

  

 Swimming with the Sting Rays! These sting rays are at a sand bar out in the middle of the ocean. They are so accustom to tourists and getting fed that they are super friendly! What we animals will do for free food... 

They loved me! Or maybe just the food that I had. Don't know if you've ever fed a sting ray, but it's weird! 

 

 

Cozumel

Here our excursion consisted of a tour of the Mayan Ruins and a stop at the beach. 

 We also got a tour of a tequila factory which was actually very neat. One thing about Cozumel: They love their tequila. Everywhere you went, they wanted to give you a free shot. Buy some jewelry, get three shots of tequila. Walk down the street, get a free Margarita coupon to Margaritaville. It was insane. 

 Mayan Ruins

 Awesome beach spot

 BEST Tacos I've ever had and what a view we had eating them

 

 Gorgeous 

 

Catching Up

Three tomatoes are walking down the street: pappa tomato, mamma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Pappa tomato gets angry, goes over to baby tomato and smashes him and says.... "Catch Up"

Corny joke? Maybe. But don't act like it didn't at least put a smirk on your face. It fit with the post title so I thought why not.

Anywho, on to bigger and better things... Today is Friday! Wooo Hooo. AND I'm not at work! Unfortunately the reason I'm not at work is because I left early due to sleet, ice, snow and whatever else consists of that nasty wintery mix. The whole way home from Pinehurst I was praying and driving like a grandma. Didn't want a recap of last years car accident did we? I am home safely now (thanks for the concern), with nothing to do. I plan on getting caught up on a few blogs and reading some of my books.

Hope everyone else that is stuck in this nasty cold is bundled up drinking hot coco. Drive safe if you have to go out!

Earring Organization At It's Finest

I'm not sure who came up with the idea for Pinterest, but I sure would like to shake their hand and give them a hug. I've been making projects and recipes that I've been getting off there for the past two weeks.

Problem: 
My earrings were in a clutter. They were in a little button bowl (that ironically enough I also got the idea for that off Pinterest) that just wasn't big enough to hold my growing collection of earrings. Not to mention it was hard to sort through them all to see what I had.

Solution: 
Earring organizer inspired by Pinterest.


What You Need: 
An empty frame. (Wal Mart sells them empty or you can buy a frame at a thrift store or Goodwill and just throw away the backing and glass.)
Paint
Enough burlap to cover the frame.
Hot Glue Gun
Lace if desired

What you do:
Paint the empty frame if you want a different color than the original. Hot Glue the lace onto the burlap (if you wanted to use lace). Hot glue the burlap to the back of the empty frame. Make sure it is pulled tight. Add earrings. Simple, yes?

TA-DA

Bon Voyage!

It should be Saturday and I should currently be boarding the Carnival Paradise in Tampa, Florida with my Aunt Donna. (Assuming we made it down here safely.) We're off to Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico for a few days. Be back in a week with lots of photos and stories I'm sure. Everyone have a wonderful week!

Life Without Social Media

Is there such a thing? What did we do before Facebook? Before Twitter? Or before Instagram (mom, if you don't know what this is, ask and I'll inform you later)? Believe it or not people, our lives DID use to exist before all of these forms of social media took over our lives. Before smart phones, we actually used to carry on conversations. That's right, it happened. I used to worry about going over my minutes because I didn't have text messaging. But I could ramble on and on about how anti-smart phone I am and how we as a society are becoming ignorant and blah-da-blah-da-blah, but that is not the point of this blog.
The point of this blog is to explain why I'm going without social media for three weeks. DayStar, my church, is doing three weeks of prayer and fasting. During these three weeks we're seeking God's will and praying for spiritual renewal in our lives.
In Psalm 139: 23-24 David says: "Investigate my life, O' God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about; See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong- then guide me on the road to eternal life." When I examined my life, I realized it was easier for me to spend a good hour or more on the internet checking out what everyone else was doing rather than reading the Bible or praying. Therefore, it was pretty easy for me to decide what I was going to give up during this time of fasting and prayer. I want to make God priority.

Belated Happy New Years!

Late is better than never, yes? Seems to be my blog motto... 

Where DOES the time go?! Seems like just yesterday I was in Hawaii with Jessi and the twins starting my blog and BAM!, two years later here we are. 2012 was a good year; finished school, got a "real" job, loved, laughed, and grew closer to a wonderful and loving God. So what's in store for 2013? Wish I knew that answer. Did I make any resolutions? Travel more, not to eat candy (that does not include sweets/desserts though), and grow even more in my relationship with Christ. Since 2012 I've kinda been on a fitness kick so I couldn't really add that. 

I rang in the New Years with my Aunt Donna at the Avett Brothers Concert in Greensboro. If you weren't there, it TOTALLY rocked, not to rub it in your face or anything. 

Here's to wishing everyone else a wonderful and blessed New Years! 

Us before the concert

Avett Brothers 

Happy New Years!