Versatility

Thanks to Mrs.Hoppy for this blog award! You are too kind.  

Requisite rules: "Seven things you may not know".

1. I'm the oldest of seven kids. 

2. My husband is the first guy over 5'11" I ever dated.

3. My favorite season used to be summer, but now it's fall.

4. I've memorized most of the two letter words in the Scrabble dictionary.

5. I still sleep with a teddy bear. I promised myself when I had kids I would retire it, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen now...

6. I hate rollercoasters.

7. When I drink seltzer I shake all of the carbonation out of it, essentially making it flavored water. This drives my husband nuts. 

Feeling Unsubstantive

It's quite funny to be given an award for having substance at a time when you feel unsubstantive. This blog has suffered greatly since the end of my second IVF. First it was because I was feeling so emo after years of cycling. I was in some sort of weird funk waiting for the other shoe to drop, wondering when this miracle would end. And so I kept quiet.

Then I was clearly knocked up. And so many of my followers are others struggling with infertility that it just felt wrong to come on here and write about my life. I felt guilty. Unbelievably guilty and sad/happy. Sappy?

And now, well, now I'm just boring. The only thing I think about is nursery decor and babies and getting ready for babies. There are other things too, but they're kind of reeeeeally personal, so I keep those to myself. And I used to share those details, but lately I've felt kind of private.

I still devour decor, but I'm not lit up by it right now. And I still exercise and run races and cook crazy recipes, but something has changed. So I'm trying to figure myself out and in the process I've gone mute. Go figure. I'll get back here again. I mean this blog's been around for SEVEN years. Longer than I've had followers, longer than I even had grey hairs. I'll be back. I'm just transitioning and figuring myself out.

Anyway, thank you very much dear Kate for thinking of me and making me miss blogging...a little. And for giving me this award. You've become a dear friend over the years and I just want you to know how much I truly appreciate you.

As for my blogging philosophy? Um, I think I just made it clear that I have none. I write about my life, whatever is happening in it. And if anyone wants to read about it they're welcome to. In my blog, like in my real life, I'm pretty much an open book.

Now as much as I'd like to pay this award forward, I have to admit, the only blogs I've been reading are those from my IF friends and those from my IRL friends and that's about it. Most of those blogs are linked in my sidebar and they all have substance, so if you are looking for something new to read check out my link love. And thanks again Kate!

Gorgeous Blogger Award

A huge thank you goes to to my lovely Mrs. Hoppy over at Our Journey for this award. You are too sweet.

The rules:

• Accept and thank the blogger that gave you this award
• List 10 things about yourself
• List 5 additional things you don't like
• Award this to 10 fellow bloggers

10 Things About Myself

1. I was a bartender for ten years. I hate going to bars now. 
2. I have a dog, which would make you think that I'm a "dog person". I'm not. I don't like all dogs. I just like my dog :)
3. My sister was born two weeks before my 7th birthday and I called her my birthday present. For her entire life.
4. My brother was born two weeks before Christmas and I called him my Christmas present. For his entire life.
5. Until my brother and sister were born, when people would ask me if I had any siblings I would reply with "no, I'm a lonely child" instead of an only child. My mom insists, to this day, that I knew the difference but I was milking it for a sibling.
6. My favorite flower is a gerber daisy. I adore them and keep them in the house as often as possible. But I think they aren't good wedding flowers. So I used roses in my bouquet instead. I hate roses.
7. I love worms. They are my favorite animals.
8. I'm judgmental. It's one of my worst qualities.
9. I'm a republican. It's one of my best qualities.
10. My favorite thing to do is sit in the sun with a good book. 

Five Things that I Dislike

1. Dishonesty. 
2. People who apologize without apologizing. 
3. People that drive slow in the fast lane. Anything lower than the speed limit is slow.
4. Winter. Anything to do with cold, snow, wind, temperatures below 50 degrees.
5. Rollercoasters.

Paying it Forward

1. Reluctantly Domesticated - for being my nearest and dearest.
2. Ella Minnow Pea - for getting it.
3. Traffic Jelly - for starting a blog and accidentally finding mine. Kismet.
4. One Love - for shining in the face of adversity.
5. OhBrooke! - for making me remember why I want to be pregnant some day.
6. Live Creating Yourself - for being a Syracuse grad and rocking a blog at such a young age.
7. littlebrownpen - for making the ordinary seem extraordinary through photography.
8. jentrified - for making interior decorating hysterical.
9. Frugal Fashionista - for making it okay to be 30 and shop at Charlotte Russe and Forever21.
10. Deliciously Organized - for catering to my obsessive compulsive tendencies.

Beautiful Blogger Award

A dear friend and fellow blogger, Rebecca, surprised me with a lovely blogger award last week. How fun. Rebecca is a ridiculously talented (and unbelievably stylish) graphic designer (check out her work on her company blog, The Pink Orange) who makes couture stationary and the.most.gorgeous wedding invitations EVER. Rebecca and her husband are the loveliest couple you'd ever want to meet and so freaking funny. Words cannot begin to describe how much my cheeks hurt when we're together.

Okay, enough with my yammering. Here's how the award works:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Post this award to 15 other bloggers that you like to follow.
3. Leave them a message on their blog so they know they received the award.
4. Post 7 things about yourself.

So…here are some of my favorite daily reads, in no particular order:
1. Blue Hydrangea
2. Blueprint Bliss
3. Elements of Style
4. Flourish Design + Style
5. Frugal Fashionista
6. Greige
7. Urban Grace Interiors
8. Pink Wallpaper
9. Pure Style Home
10. The Lettered Cottage
11. Little Green Notebook
12. Simply Seleta
13. Decorno
14. Deliciously Organized
15. The Estate of Things

And (if you're still with me, thank you!) seven things about myself...
1. I love reality TV. It makes me realize how normal the Husband and I really are!
2. College was some of the most fun I've ever had.
3. I was a vegetarian in high school…I drove my family nuts and then one fine day, at a frat house, I ate a hamburger and I realized that I like meat.
4. If I don't exercise a few times a week, my mind gets "muddy". Something about working out helps to clear my head, keep me sane and prevent my husband from choking the life out of me.
5. I absolutely need the ocean. I have to see it as often as possible to feel right.
6. I can count on one hand the number of true girl friends I've had in my lifetime.
7. I went to college so that I could be a travel writer for a national magazine, but when I graduated from college I was too broke to travel. My current career is about a thousand degrees from where I started and I still have no idea what I want to be when I grow up.