New Camera!!

A little over a year ago I talked about saving for a new camera, well the time has come and I finally upgraded! I didn't get the one I wanted a year ago I got the newer version of it. I got the Sony DSLR A77. I just got it in the mail Monday night so I haven't been able to fully get out and take pictures yet with it, I have just been playing with it around the house. I'm super excited to get it out for a shoot and sport pictures to see what it's all about. So, far with just taking a few pictures around the house I LOVE this camera! The pictures on this are just amazing so I can only image what they will be like during a photo shoot or action pictures. I'm hoping this weekend I can get out and use it some and share some of the pictures with you. I will have to take both my cameras and compare the old one to the new one. Don't get me wrong I love my old camera but it was time for an upgrade, I have had that camera since 2008. It still works great and I will keep it around to use again for sure.



Stay tuned for pictures soon from this camera of a shoot or just some random stuff I take. Haha! :)

Jasper, AR - 2012

This is our book from when we took a weekend trip to a Cabin in Jasper, Arkansas. We took this trip shortly after we moved into our house. It was such a fun trip and nice to just get away for a few days after hard work of getting our house together. :) 

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2012 Memories

I got our book for 2012 all completed and order just a few weeks ago. I haven't gotten too behind on keeping up with our photo books. I have one vacation left to finish up from last year and 2012 will be complete and I can keep up to date with 2013. :) 

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2012 coming to an end....

2012 is coming to an end. This has been a fast year and a great one well at least for us! I hope 2013 has lots of exciting things in our future. :)

It's been a long time since I have posted about my goals from 2012. Now that the year is ending let's see where my goals stand that I set last year at this time. :)

• Organize the House  - When we lived in the town-home I did lots of reorganizing stuff and it helped out so much and I continued to keep stuff organized since we have moved into our new home. There is some things I would like to get organized but that will continue into 2013 to get those few things done. 

• Eat Better & Work-out  - This started out right and I continued to do my best to keep on this as the year went on. I have been doing the Special K diet with meal bars for breakfast and shakes for lunch. Dinner we have been doing better about planning out better meals. This will continue into 2013.  

• Organize all photos into Photo Books -I did finish all my books and got them ordered. They turned out great! I still have a few photos to add to the 2012 book and then it will be ready to be ordered and I can start on my 2013 book! 

• Build up our savings account  - Our savings account is doing great! We had it built up for months now and haven't had to take any out till just recently. Which was okay because it was for Christmas food that we needed so it was all good. We will work on putting that money back at the beginning of 2013. 

• Buy a House - This was a huge success and we moved into our new home in August. 

• Continue pursuing Photography  - This was slow this year but I did get some shoots in and enjoyed everyone I did. I will continue to work on this more in 2013. :)

• Reading - I read so much this past year it's crazy! I really enjoyed all the books I have read and I look forward to reading more in 2013. 

I haven't set any goals for 2013 yet and I'm not sure if I'm going to or not. Some of my goals from 2012 are going to roll over to 2013, so I guess I have some set. 

If I would set any goals for 2013 it would be to get some stuff done around the house. I have some little things that I would like to get done in at the beginning of the year.  One thing for sure I would like to do is put pictures all over our hallway! 

I hope everyone had a great 2012 year and are looking forward to 2013. 

Enjoy yourself tonight and be safe! 

We will be staying in tonight and hanging out at home! :)

Weekend Recap

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a good Easter Sunday!

It was such a nice weekend to enjoy being outside and great weather for the Easter bunny to leave it's eggs outside for the kidos to go find!

The weekends seem to always just fly on by and then it's back to work. I love my weekends and wish they would last longer. :)

Here's a recap of our weekend....

Friday night we has some friends over. We went out to dinner at Pepperjax Grill, I love this place they have the best philly's! Then we headed back to our place, hung out and played some cards Phase 10. It was good evening. I enjoy hanging out with our friends. :)

Saturday we tackled organizing stuff in the basement. It took a fews hours but we got rid of 3 boxes of stuff, 2 were just trash and 1 we will take to goodwill. We had to run to the store after that and get stuff for dinner that evening. When we got home I worked on some graduation stuff then got ready and our friends came over. We grilled out steaks and they were so yummy then we hung out and we played Phase 10 with them as well. That game is fun! It's long but it's fun.

Sunday we got up and went grocery shopping. This is our Sunday routine all the time. We like to get right up and get to the store so it isn't so busy and it's done and we have the rest of our day. After the store I went up North to take my brother driving. When I got home Shane headed out to go climbing at Swope with his buddy. They are getting ready for the climbing trip this week! I worked on graduation stuff while he was gone and did laundry. When he got back I ran to the laundry mat to dry our clothes. Our dryer broke on us a few months ago. We decided not to buy new ones till we got into a house. I want really brand new nice ones, I really want to the front loading one! We grilled out steak again for dinner, it was so yummy. Then the rest of the evening we watched our recorded shows to try and get caught up on some.

It was a pretty good weekend for us. Now back to work for 3 days this week then we are heading out Thursday morning to Arkansas.

Hope everyone has a good week!

2012 Goal Update....

Hope everyone is having a great year so far...Since we are now into April...I thought I would give an update on my goals for this year and see how they are coming along.

• Organize the House  - This has been good process. The only thing left that really needs to be organized is the basement and we are going to tackle that this Saturday. Our place is pretty much organized as much as it can be until we move.  

• Eat Better & Work-out  - This is definitely on the right track. During the week we have been planning good meals to eat. The weekends we are a little more easy on our self with what we eat. But I'm good with how the eating better is turning out. I feel so much better and I can definitely tell a difference in some areas of my body. Working out is going good as well. I try and work out at least 3 times a week if not more. I have been doing a lot of walking lately since this weather has been great! I have been also doing cardio and an ab work out.

• Organize all photos into Photo Books - I have finished all of our photo books and got them ordered. I have a 2012 book started and have been keeping it up to date as I add pictures. The only book I haven't started is for our wedding. This will take much needed time and I'm not ready to start this yet. I would say this goal is now complete! Yay!

• Build up our savings account  - This is coming along awesome! Our savings is almost to our goal amount and we are only into April. We are for sure going to have more in our saving then we thought and we are both very excited about this!

• Buy a House - As I mentioned in my post yesterday, this process is moving right along. We are a little far out to start looking now so we will start the looking process in June. I'm so excited and can't wait!

• Continue pursuing Photography  - This is still a little slow but hopefully now with the weather is nice get more business. Since January I have only had 3 shoots. This month I have 3 to do so far. Well 4 if you count our trip to Arkansas to take pictures of my Shane and his buddy rock climbing (but of course I won't make any money off this). But it will be a good time and I can't wait!

• Reading - This is going along great. I have a read more books so far this year then I have in my entire life. LOL I'm really enjoying my reading and look forward to continuing it. I just started the True Blood Series and I'm almost done with the first book. I'm very happy about how much ready I have done so far this year and look forward to much more.

I'm very happy with my goals I set this year and very pleased to see how much I have accomplished on them! This usually never happens. I have to say I'm proud of myself. :) The way it's going I may have to set more for myself b/c I will be out of goals. LOL

House Stuff...

Can you believe that it's already April!! This year just seems to be flying by.

I just wanted to post an update on how our house buying is going.

Shane and I sit down and talked about our budget and came up with the amount we both feel comfortable spending each month on a mortgage payment. We didn't want to spend ALL our extra money on a mortgage because we still want to be able to vacation every year and put money in our savings. So the number we came up with I think will be good and we will have a nice house.

Last week we did the application for our pre-approval. We both were very nervous about this. It's such a big amount of money to have. LOL. We got the pre-approval letter and we are good to go. Shane also got approved for a VA loan so that will help out as well. :)

We have been looking a lot online to get an idea of what we like and what we can get in our price range. We both are so excited to get into a house and we can't wait to start looking in person. We have found a lot we like online but of course pictures never show the best of the house so we are looking forward to going in person. We are getting very excited to start the looking process. Our lease isn't up till August so we won't start looking for our house till prolly June.

A couple weeks ago when we were grocery shopping we decided to stop off in the paint area and look at the different colors. We actually got a few samples we both liked and brought home to see what we liked best with our furniture. So we kinda have some paint colors picked out for just the living room, dining area and master bedroom we would like. I'm actually really excited to paint so our house it will be what we love and not just plain white. :)

This is where we stand as of right now with the house hunting. I will keep you updated through the process. :)

Getting The Process Started....

This is the year Shane and I want to buy our very first house! We are both very excited about this and have been looking forward to buying our first home together. He went out during the week and bought the book Home Buying for Dummies. He wanted to read more up on the process and understand stuff before we meet with the realtor. So he is currently in the process of reading and he is learning stuff (so that's a good sign) LOL. I believe our plan is to schedule a meeting with the realtor in the next week or so. We want to have him help with suggestion a good mortgage lender to use and start the pre-approval process. I'm very excited and very nervous at the same time. I know everything will work out but it's a big step so it's makes me nervous. :) I can't wait to actually start looking at homes. This will be so fun!

I will continue to update on our process as we go. Wish us luck and stay tuned for more to come. :)



Craft Organization

I continue on my organization of our house. Last week I started working on my craft stuff to make things easier to find and see in the cabinet. I found some really cool things at Hobby Lobby to better organize my stuff. I got a few items on sale and I was super excited about this. I love sales and getting stuff cheaper than normal. :) I don't have an actual craft room right now I just have stuff in our dining room and bedroom. I use the dining table that is in there to work on projects. We don't ever eat in the dining room for many reason, we don't have chairs for our table and we like to watch TV why we eat. LOL But once we get a house I want a nice dining room table and to have my own craft room so it's not just out for everyone to see. HAHA. I used to have a craft room in our basement when we moved in the townhouse but after Kira decided to get through the door and mess my room up I decided it wasn't worth it to have it down there. I put a lot of money into building my collection and I don't want the dog to mess it up and I have to throw stuff away. I could prolly get away with moving it back down there b/c we now keep her in a kennel, but it just seems so far to walk down there to work on stuff. Sometimes I hate that our washer and dryer are down there. I know silly but I'm sure many of you know the feeling of up and down the stair to do laundry. But most definitely when we start shopping for a house we will make sure to have a nice place for me for my crafts and my photography. I can't wait! I hate just have stuff everywhere and not all together and looking nice. It drives me nutty!

Before...I liked the little divders but they didn't hold a lot so I would have to buy many of them.

After....This wasn't the original organizer I bought for card stock. The first one I got I just loved and was super excited for it but once I got it together it didn't go together right and the shelves didn't fit. I was very disappointed about this. So Shane and I took it back while we were out last weekend and I was looking for something else but didn't see anything, so I asked him he is seen anything that would work and he found this bad boy! I do like this organizer and I can buy more and they will stack together.

Before...This was all my brads and stuff.

After...I got this at hobby lobby and it would great so I can see everything I have now!

Before

 After now I have a little caddy I can just pull out and sit on the table when needed.

Before....I had all my stickers just in a shoe box and it was so messing to go through every time I need to see if I had a certain one or not.

After....I found this bad boy at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and I was so excited about it. I couldn't pass it up it was prefect for all my stickers I have.  So much easier to loo through now. Doesn't it look so nice now?!?



I still have some stuff I want to organize for my crafts but not sure I can do much more till we move and I have my own room with a desk! I can't wait! :) 

Bridal and Bachelorette Party

I'm just loving making these books. I can't wait to get them all ordered. I have them made just got ordered yet. I like to wait for sales before I order them makes it cheaper :)

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2011 Memories

Another book done! I'm working right along getting all my pictures put into photo books. I believe I just have 1 book left and I'm going to start my 2012 book and try to keep that updated throughout the year. :)

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More Organization....

I have been moving right along with getting things organized and looking good! I'm loving it. At the beginning of January I did some cleaning of our bedroom closet and organized things around. I'm a little late about posting on this but now is better then never right?! :)

Between Shane and I we have a good amount of books and they were just put in our linen closet but we finally ran out of room in there too put anymore. I have been a reading fool lately so it was getting piled with books. So I decided I would make room in our closet to put the books up. We had a shelf that was good for it and we really didn't need it after I did some cleaning. As of now that is our little book shelf. When we do get a house I definitely want to invest in a nice book shelf to store all our wonderful books. We might grow out of this space soon but I will fight that battle when we reach it. LOL. Also, in the closet I hung all of Shane's hats up. I didn't like them just hanging downstairs on the railing, so I got some thumbtacks and hung these babies up. I think it turned out nice.

When I joined pinterest I found this idea to see if you wear your clothes throughout the year. I forget where I seen it (yes I forgot to pin it), but I'm sure it's not hard  to find. Sunday I decided I would do this and see how it turns out at the end of the year. I turned all my hanger around and every time I wear something I will hang it the opposite of the other hangers. Once the new year comes and all the hangers that are still backwards then I will get rid of it. I know this should have been started January 1 but it's better late then never to get things organized, right? :)

So here are all my hangers turned and ready for me to start wearing. :)

T-Shirts Organized

As part of my 2012 Goals I wanted to get our house more organized. I just joined Pinterest this week and I'm loving it! I have got so many ideas for organizing stuff around the house it's awesome! I'm trying not to do anything too crazy since we want to try and buy a house this year. If we do get a house I will want to do so much when we move.
I got this idea for our t-shirts off pinterest, so Sunday afternoon I decided to organize our shirts. I love this idea and it's look so nice in our drawers. I did this while the hubby was out climbing and he came home and I showed him and he thought it was a good idea. We can now see all our t-shirts without digging for through them.

Organized T-Shirts

Shane's T-Shirts

 My T-Shirts

Jewelry Organized

In my 2012 goals I wanted to get things organized in our house. I have been doing one room at a time trying to do what I can to keep things looking nice and neat. I found this really cute idea to organize jewelry over at Sonya's blog. So I thought I would do this in my bedroom with my jewelry. I had a jewelry box with stuff in in and I also just had necklaces in the boxes they came in. Not every organized at all! So when I seen this idea I loved it and wanted to do it myself. This past weekend we when to target and I found the hook rail and hooks I wanted to use. Shane hung this up for me yesterday and I put all my jewelry on it. I love how it turned out and I can see everything just hanging there nice. .

If I get anymore jewelry I might have to buy more hooks or add another rail with hooks. This one is now full! :)

Pictures from 2010

As part of my 2012 goals, I wanted to get all my pictures put into photo books. I got all our vacations done now I'm just going back throug the past couple of years and doing books for them. I just finished a book for our 2010 pictures.
Now I just need to wait for a sale so I can order my book to put with the rest of them!

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Half way through January.....

Can you believe that we are already half way through the month of January! It's crazy how fast time goes. So far this year has been good for us. We are looking forward to seeing what else this year holds for us. Hopefully lots of fun and exciting things! :)

A little update on my goals for this year. So far they seem to be going good now lets just hope I don't forget about them and things go down hill. LOL.

• Organize the House  - This is coming a long very well I might say. I was a busy girl at the beginning of the month working on stuff around the house and getting rid of things. I still have more progress to do in the house but it's coming a long. Things that I have organized so far: Kitchen, Bedroom Closet, Linen Closet, Went through our clothes, Dining Area and Bathrooms. Now let's hope that these areas stay the way they look and not get unorganized again.

• Eat Better & Work-out  - Eating better is definitely a work in progress but we are slowly making our dinners more healthier. I started my workout last week. I got up before work 4 times and did my work out. This week I'm going to start some cardio and switch between the 2.

• Organize all photos into Photo Books - I have finally finished and ordered our last vacation book. Now it's time to start on the rest of the photos. Slowly coming along.

• Build up our savings account  - This is slow at getting started b/c we had some stuff come up we had to pay for (Dental Bill and Car maintenance). I have faith that we will be at our goal account in no time. :)

• Buy a House - Nothing started on this yet, but we plan to meet with the realtor soon (I hope!)

• Continue pursuing Photography  - This has been slow so far this year but I have hope it will pick up again in no time.

• Reading - I have started out strong so far this year with my reading. I'm on my 3rd book so far this year. Well 1 of them I'm still reading it's a lighting book on photography and I'm trying to take my time so I understand everything. But my series that I started back in the summer I will be finished with hopefully by next week. I already know the next series I want to start and I can't wait. :)

That's the update so far....Not too bad of a start for 2012. But more to come so stay tuned! :)

2012 Goals

I finally have my list of goals made for 2012. I'm excited for my goals I have set this year and I look forward to meeting everyone of them! :) Normally I don't set goals or any resolutions for myself. Last year was the first time I actually set goals for myself and I stuck to them. So, I decided to set more goals this year and see what the year brings. Some goals are overlapped from last year.

• Organize the House

We keep our house pretty clean but it could use some more work. I always feel like there is so much clutter in our house and it drives me crazy! So, I thought it's time to start cleaning rooms and organizing stuff.
I started on the Kitchen already and I just have 2 things left I want to do in there and I can move onto the next room. Shane and I also went through our clothes and we have a big pile to give away.
I need to get a list together of everything I want to do so I can mark it off and see the progress I'm making.

• Eat Better & Work-out

I set this goal for myself last year and I did so good at it. I was proud I stuck to this and I lost 10Ibs! This kinda got lost towards the end of the year when we went on vacation. I want to get back on track now. When we made the grocery list for Sunday we made sure to get some healtier foods for dinner. I know we can do this as we did it for a long time last year. I also want to start my work out video again and get back into shape.

• Organize all photos into Photo Books

I have fallen in love with photo books from Shutterfly. They are easy to make and very nice. I have started making all our vacations through Shutterfly and they have turned out wonderful. I have 1 vacation left to make a photo book for and then I can forcus on my other millions of pictures I have. LOL. I would like to keep my photos organized and I thought these books would be the prefect way to do so. Then I won't have just a bunch of 4x6 pictures loose and I don't know what to do with. I would like to make a photo book for each year of my pictures I have (ex. 2010, 2011). All my photos are uploaded to shutterfly and I just need to start working on our books. I'm can't wait to do this and get them all ordered! They are so fun to make and look at. If I catch them on sale they are really cheap to make and order. I'll post the books I have already made so everyone can see the fun of these!

• Build up our savings account

This goal is something I have already been doing every paycheck. I hate not having money aside for the just in case things or the emerency stuff. I don't like using credit cards but if we have to for an emerency then we do. My goal for us this year is to have our savings account up to at least $5,000. This will make more sense on why it's so high with my next goal for this year. It seems high but I know we can do it! We have before and we will again.

• Buy a House!!!!

This was something we wanted to do last year but it didn't work out like we planned and we are ok with that. This year we definitly want to be in a house. Our lease is up at the end of August so we plan to buy close to when that is up. We are both very excited about this. So, now you might understand why I want our savings account to be at least $5,000 if not more. I will continue to update on this of course as we move towards filling this goal. I CAN'T WAIT TO HAVE OUR OWN HOUSE!!!!

• Continue pursuing Photography

As most of you can see I LOVE Photography. I love pictures, I love taking pictures...I just love pictures. Last October I decided to start offering service in Photography doing photo shoots. Let me tell you this was a big hit and I have been busy shooting pictures and editing pictures. I have so much fun doing this. This year I want to continue pursuing more business in photography. Of course I will post all my exciting shoots on here for you to follow. :) Lets see what 2012 holds for my passion!!

• Reading

In 2011 I did a pretty good deal of reading books. I'm almost done with the House of Night Series that I started and I just love it. I will be sad when it's done but that just means onto another series I can enjoy. There are lots of books I want to read so I plan on doing a ton more reading this year! I want to start trying to read every night before bed at least reading 1 chapter. Stay tuned for all the upcoming books I plan on reading this year....

It seems I have a long list of goals for this year but they all seem pretty reasonable and very easy to keep on track to accomplish. I'm very excited about my goals for this upcoming year and looking forward to updating as I complete them!