I'm back.

Remember that one time when I didn't blog for over a year and a half? Yeah, that happened.

During my absence, I've been thinking almost constantly about starting a website or a new blog, but I just haven't had any idea where to begin. I've heard time and time again that starting is the hardest part. Well, isn't that the truth? The other hard part is deciding on the primary focus for a blog or website. Should it be a personal blog, filled with pictures and stories and bits of my life? What about a fashion blog? A blog full of inspiration and things I love, whether it be pretty outfits, tasty recipes, home decor, DIYs, party and wedding ideas? Maybe all of those things combined into one crazy, unfocused blog that represents every aspect of me and the things I love? I don't know! I can't decide. I've debated deleting all the posts from this blog and starting over here, or creating an entirely new blog on a different website. But for now, I'm going to start up where I left off. I have no focus for this blog right now, other than bits and pieces of my daily life, as well as lots of inspiration posts. Bear with me as I attempt to figure out this whole blogging thing again. ;)

If you're wondering what has happened in my life since December 13, 2011 (the last time I blogged), let me tell you.

*The big thing is that Richard and I finally got engaged!!! He proposed on May 27 of this year, and we're getting married in just a few short months on October 12! I know that is so soon, but we'll talk more about that later.
*My life until last May was consumed by school and writing and editing for the school newspaper. My major was journalism, and now that I'm done, I have no desire to write professionally for a while. Sorta sucks when you spend five years working for something, and then when you finish, you realize you no longer love this huge aspect of your life that you thought you would love forever. We'll talk about that later, too.
*A little bit of traveling. I've taken a couple big trips over the last 18 months, and there have been lots of spontaneous weekend trips, too.
*I got a new job, but let's not talk about boring stuff.
*Most everything else is still the same. We live in the same apartment, even though we have spent so much time and energy looking for a new place (finding the perfect place that is actually affordable is impossible, I swear!). We still spend our days doing the same things. Richard has the same job and still travels.
*We think constantly about where we want to live, what careers we ultimately want to have, whether or not I should go back to school, whether we should have babies within our first few years of marriage or put it off, etc. Lots of thought over big life decisions that have yet to be resolved. It's felt sort of like limbo, and some days I don't think we've made any progress when it comes to making these decisions, but I guess that's alright. Early adulthood is so weird and confusing.

And that's about it. Let's all hope that I stick with blogging this time. I'm in serious need of a creative outlet these days!

I love this week.

Let me tell you why:

I've been listening to a lot of Christmas songs, and that always puts me in a great mood. Our favorite local radio station has been playing Christmas music nonstop, and last night I may have downloaded 55 Christmas songs... Here's the ones I got: A Very She & Him Christmas by She & Him (after listening to it for months on Spotify), The Christmas Sessions by MercyMe (maybe my favorite... it's got all the classics), Hey! It's Christmas Vol. 1 and 2 and Carol of the Bells by BarlowGirl (my favorite version of this song right now).

My sister came up for a surprise visit last night and was able to spend the night with us. We ate really good food, drank coffee (umm... three times... I'm a little embarrassed to admit that) and had really good conversations. And tomorrow, I get to drive down to her house to stay a couple of days.

On Friday, my love and I are going out of town for the weekend to visit some of my very favorite people. I'm so excited. Our weekends at their house are usually spent around the campfire, making s'mores and eating great food, shopping and thrifting, discovering new movies, talking about old times and having really wonderful late night conversations.

Tonight my little sisters, our mom and I finally saw Hugo. I thought it was brilliant and so beautiful! And it was the best 3D movie since Avatar, if you ask me. I can't wait to see it again already.

On Saturday, we spent the morning serving our city's unfortunate families, providing Christmas gifts and food to help them make it through the holidays. Serving others is so important to me, and the whole thing was very humbling. After, we met up with my Grandmother and lots of ladies from her hometown at Crystal Bridges, and then Mom, Richard and I discovered a really great new coffee place. I'm obsessed with their vanilla honey latte!

I hope your week is going as well as mine! I'm so happy and thankful right now. It's a good point in time for me. :)

It's been 13 days since I last posted? How did that happen? I guess time flies when you're as busy as I've been these past few weeks. I've been busy with school work and finals, family events, Christmas shopping, Christmas decorating, a short road trip and just all the things that go along with day to day life.

Tonight I downloaded 54 Christmas songs. I guess you could say I'm really in the Christmas spirit this year. Last year, it just seemed like Christmas snuck up on me and then flew by. I loved it, of course, but I just didn't get very into it. So I'm making up for that this year by keeping up with old traditions, starting new ones, spending every day with loved ones and making every moment special. There are so many things I want to do this season! It feels like it's moving by so quickly, but I'm determined to squeeze in everything I want to do. I'm really, really happy right now.

Here's a peak at my Christmas tree. I never thought I'd be one of those people with a themed Christmas tree, but purple and silver sounded like a great idea, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'll show you the details of our tree and some other Christmas decorations around our apartment soon!

I've been sick this week, but my family's pretty Christmas trees (yes, that's trees with an "s." One tree is not enough in this family) made me smile yesterday when I popped in for a visit. Our family does Christmas really, really big. My mom is big into decorating the inside of the house, and my dad, brother and Richard go crazy with Christmas lights around the house and yard. There is something so peaceful about Christmas decorations. I love the look of a lit, decorated tree with presents piled underneath, garland, ornaments and all of the creative decorations my mom has put around my family's house. Everything looks so cheery; this is truly my favorite time of year!

I'll post about my Christmas decorations this week, too. Do you celebrate Christmas? If so, do you go all out with decorating?

1. What you see when you walk in the front door!

2. The big living room tree. 

3 & 4. Cute ornaments from my childhood.

5. Stockings on the mantel for my siblings and I and our pets. 

Please excuse the mess.

We just got back from a week-long trip two hours south to visit our families. We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving week, despite the fact that Richard's hometown flooded Tuesday night and many houses and businesses around town were damaged. We had the best time visiting with our families and friends. We ate so much good food (specifically Grandmother's cranberry sauce, Aunt Rin's sweet potato casserole, and, of course, my dad's deep-fried turkey). And, as you can tell, we did way too much shopping. (I'm not even sure how all of this fit in our car on the drive home!) 

I'm glad to be home, and I'm even more excited about the fact that I only have two weeks left of this semester. But I came home sick and am very worried about how I'm going to manage to accomplish all the things I have to accomplish this week when all I want to do is snuggle up on the couch with a blanket and a box of tissue.

How was your Thanksgiving? 

Red cup.

I'm officially in the Christmas spirit, thanks to this little red cup and A Very She & Him Christmas. We've finally started our Christmas shopping, and I love bundling up, grabbing some coffee and heading out into the cold with my love to shop for our family and friends. It's such a happy time of year!

If you're wondering why I haven't been around lately, let me tell you. I had four tests and lots of homework. I have been working on three articles for the paper. My best friend came to visit for the weekend. We went to the opening of a world-class art museum, which opened in my town last weekend (more about that later); went to Eureka Springs; ate lots of good food and shopped for books; spent hours in my bed, talking and laughing about old times and reading David Sedaris stories to each other and drinking wine; and just had a really great time together. Basically, I've been super busy. It's that time of the semester when everything starts getting really stressful, and hard tests/projects/papers become a daily occurance. Sigh! Thankfully I will be done with this little thing called college in May.

How are you?

I feel bad for people who don't like football.

There is nothing like college football (and more specifically, SEC football). Nothing compares to cheering on your favorite team alongside 72,000 fans, calling the Hogs and participating in all the other fun, silly traditions that countless University of Arkansas students and Razorback fans have been participating in for so many years. I'm so proud of where I go to school, our football team and the many traditions that are so important to our student body!

I went to the Razorback game with my mama on Saturday. We played South Carolina, and we killed 'em, 44-28! Although we were ranked 7 in the nation last week and beat a Top 10 team, our ranking is now 8. I don't understand that reasoning at all,
but I guess we'll take it. It was sooo cold, and we didn't have very good seats, but it was still so, so, so much fun!

So, the point is, if you don't like football, I feel bad for you. You really don't know what you're missing out on. Just saying. ;)

*I haven't charged my camera in over a month, so I apologize for all the poor quality iPhone pictures you've been seeing over here lately!