Fall Blog Swap

This Fall season I decided to participate in my first ever blog swap.

And lemme tell ya, it was everything it's cracked up to be!

I was paired with the lovely Jessyka from At Home With the Galow's and I couldn't have asked for a more lovely partner!

We exchanged emails, stalked each others blogs, asked each other some pressing and deep questions requiring extensive thought and critical thinking; things like "what's your favorite fall color? Do you like to decorate your house for holidays? What's the Fall weather like where you live?" ...all very earth-moving questions right? Either way, they were totally effective cause Jessyka hit the nail on the head with my Fall package!

It's like Christmas in...the Fall!

1.) This little guy will be getting me through class this weekend. It's my last intensive session for my public policy analysis class and there's no better way to make it through the day than with a trip down the block to Starbucks

2.) These bad boys...are already gone. There's really no getting around it.

Gone.

Eaten.

Finished.

3.) How cute is this candle?

Super cute right?

It smells even better than it looks.

It's like something from the Gods of pumpkin spice heaven.

Good choice Jessyka!

4.) And lastly, this lovely Fall decor dish.

I'm thinking I'll use it to put Reese's Peanut Butter cups in.

Shoot, but then I won't be able to display it, seeing as how I don't share Reese's.

Hmmm, I may have to rethink that one.

Thanks Jessyka for my awesome package! I love EVERYTHING about it!!

Happy Fall!

Summer Rewind Part II

DIY Day Summer Edition

I was a little late on the summer crafting thing this year, but I figured better late than never right? And what better way to start late than with mom and a DIY day?

I wanted to make a summer wreath inspired by Emily over at 52 Mantels, and this was my best shot:

Eh, not too shabby right?

While I started on my summer wreath my mom got a head start on her Christmas crafting and began a Christmas wreath:

I didn't get an "after" shot cause she finished it the next day when I wasn't around.

Rude.

For my wreath, I took fabric that my mom had left over and simply wrapped it around those styrofoam-ish looking wreaths and secured it with pins (see, this is why I'm not a craft blogger...I have poor descriptive skills. Clearly.)

Then I took burlap and folded strips of it like an accordion and fastened them down by tying rope around them. As far as the decor part of it, I just kinda winged it (winged?); picked out what I thought might work at the craft store and ran with it.

One trip to Michael's and two trips to Hobby Lobby's later, I had my masterpiece!

I must give credit where credit is due, however...and Gun dog deserves a little credit for being my helper for the day.

Next, we took a shot at these DIY air fresheners my mom found online.

All they are, are (are are?) baking soda mixed with essential oils and some scrapbook paper to make a cute lid. Punch some holes in the paper and voila, you have yourself an air freshener!

However, I will say, that while you can always smell the essential oil when you put your nose up the jar and take a big whiff, it doesn't seem like these put out a lot of scent if they're just sitting in your living room or something. I ended up moving them to small spaces, like my hall closet, or bathroom and it seems you can smell them better that way.

I'm pretty pumped for DIY Day Holiday Edition. 

I'm pretty sure the Holiday Edition will be the mother of all DIY Editions.

Yep.

Summer Rewind Part I

As we all know, Fall is upon is. It may be "upon" more people than others seeing as how it was over 100 degrees today. But as I'm (trying) switching into Fall mode, I got to thinking that there's some fun things that happened this summer that have gone unblogged.

So I thought to myself, "self, you should have a summer rewind and blog about all the things that in their current state of affairs, remain unblogged."

So, I declare the next series of posts, none-other-than... a summer rewind.

Kinder Creek 

My parents and I did this hike last summer (you can read about it HERE), and enjoyed it so much that we made our return this summer and brought along my hubs, my sister and her bf, and of course Mace and Guns...the dogs that is, not the weapons

Although, you might count them as weapons considering Maycee has a pretty ferocious growl and either one of them can slice your leg off with their high powered tails.
Either way...they were pretty excited to get their hike on. You could tell by the way they kept trying to sneak into the back seat...

It's a good thing grammy was sitting there and not their dad. It probably would've ended differently.
Just sayin'.

Kinder Creek is north of Payson, and as we all know, anything north of the Valley in the summer time is a good decision.
So off we went!

 

My sister's bf Adam

It didn't take long before Nate found the first sign of wildlife.

Behold: the horny toad.

The first place we stopped at was taken last year, but this year we were fortunate enough to get there first and got the whole beach to ourselves! The dogs ran like bats outa hell when they saw the water...you know, the usual.

My sister and I

 

Once Nate and Adam noticed all the crawdads in the water (and by noticed, I mean was continually pinched on his feet) some serious crawdad fishing ensued.

While the crawdad fishing was happening...another thing was happening. And we like to refer to it as Xena's Olympic Swim.

Xena doesn't really swim. But she ran out of options when she realized the beach quickly descended and her little paws didn't touch the bottom anymore!

 

That's one proud mama.

And one traumatized chihuahua.

After a while we decided it was time to pack it in and move to the next spot. By this point the crawdad fishing had really caught on and we were on a mission...a dinner mission. We even made make-shift fishing poles with beef jerky to use as bait.

Crawdad's didn't stand a chance.

 

The final count for the day...yes these bottles and bags are filled with crawdad's!

Maycee wanted in on the whole beef-jerky-on-a-string thing

Dad doing his photo thang...

I hate love to brag about AZ because most people who don't live here think it's nothing but dirt and heat. And while the latter part of that is true, most people don't realize just how awesome it is and all it's hidden gems. All we had to do was drive 2 hours north to be in this place and enjoy such a perfect afternoon. We even got drizzled on as the monsoons and the clouds came in and out all day.

Can't wait to come back next summer!