Five on Friday, 2014 volume 7

It's another Five on Friday with April and crew!

Not much happened this week, but there are a few things I forgot to blog about over the past couple of weeks, so here's kind of a recap of the month of March for you! 

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Mark and I went to Arlington last night to celebrate my dad's birthday. We got to hear lots of words and funny things come out of this little girl! 

This was her "please give me candy" slash sleepy slash wiping her eyes...

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Jody invited me to go to a concert with her a few weeks ago that was put on by the Dallas Chamber Symphony. I had never been to the concert hall and I loved it! It was a nice intimate size and the concert was the perfect length. The ballerina cancelled (due to sickness) but the second half of the show was the score to a classic black and white movie. It was so interesting! I loved getting into the Dallas culture scene, even if it was just for one night!

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Here are my fave pins from the week:

I just LOVE this picture. It is such good design! I would totally have this in my house. Although I might hang the antlers a liiitttllleee higher. Ouch!

I'm thinking of adding this scripture as art on canvas in my office/guest room. Love it!

I posted this this week and got a lot of feedback via Pinterest. This idea is genius! We finally have a backyard to get some sun, but no pool. I'm SERIOUSLY considering this, y'all. SERIOUSLY. 

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I met my friend Macie for dinner a few weeks ago. At her suggestion, we tried Hopdoddy in Preston Village. Oh. my. word. It was a delicious hamburger!

When I got there, the line was out the door. It was about a 20 minute wait to order food and then sit down, but it was pretty dang worth it.

They have a few different locations and they all seem to be doing REALLY well. If you like a good burger, go to Hopdoddy! You won't regret it. YUM!!!

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Be SURE to come back Monday because I'm hosting my very first giveaway!!! I picked a good one too...

EEEEE!!!!!!!! :)

Happy Friday!

My favorite Five on Friday yet!

I've got a sore throat, but I think I slept off all of the anxiety from last night and I'm here for another Five on Friday!

As usual, I'm linking up with April at A. Liz Adventures. Check her out!

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I have been checking the weather lately to see when a chill in the air will make it's way down to Texas, and I'm pretty excited about this outlook next week:

I mean, it's no Canada, but it's a welcome break from the heat and the signal of the beginning of fall!

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I saw that there was a sale on boots at Nordstrom a couple of weeks ago over on Shay's blog (yes, she is "Sean the Bachelor's" older sister!) and I've been slowly saving my pennies for a boot splurge, so I bought these puppies:

They are REALLY tall, great quality leather, non-slouchy, and on sale right now for 50% off! Yep, that's just $89.99 for a pretty nice pair of boots! Get on over there and buy some. Plus, Nordstrom always has free shipping and free returns. Can't beat that!

*update-I was a little annoyed when I went to link to the page where I bought these boots because I noticed they had been marked down even more and were now $40 less than what I paid for them just a few weeks ago. I planned on stopping into Nordstrom this weekend to see if I could return and re-buy the boots at the sale price, but on a whim I decided to give them a quick call. I didn't have to hold at all to wait to speak to a real person, and they INSTANTLY credited my card with the sale price difference. I was on the phone for less than a minute! I have to give them mad props for being the company that consumers want to buy from. Way to go, Nordstrom, and happy day for me!*

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I'm thinking this weekend calls for some blog TLC. I haven't been paying much attention to it lately just because my life has suddenly sped up over the last couple of weeks, so it needs some love! I want to add a sidebar feature about Motley and Mark, but what else do you think I should change or add? 

She's sad because she doesn't have a sidebar feature.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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Speaking of Fall, I'm holding out as long as I can to put out my decorations. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE fall and Halloween, but with a combination of the heat, our unfinished house, and the effort of cleaning around fall decor, I just want to wait until the moment is right. Here are some photos of my previous decorations over the last couple of years:

A little decor at my first Dallas apartment!




I loved this fireplace...even though it didn't work!


Harvest blocks courtesy of Kelly. Aren't they cute?!


My sister as a TMNT and me as Amy Winehouse!

The spread from my Halloween party a couple of years ago.

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I mentioned I had high anxiety last night, and if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you'll know why. It's because Texas Tech (I might have mentioned them once or twice here and here) had their first conference game against a new rival, TCU. My sister and other family members went to TCU and if anything, they have some pretty die-hard fans. Tech and TCU haven't played each other much over the last 10 years, but TCU joined the Big 12 conference last year and I can see the early makings of a pretty big rival, even outside of my extended family. Mark and I joined friends at a "Tech" establishment with about 100 other fans and watched the game on the big screen. It was a nail-biter, but we pulled out ahead and are undefeated so far! Tech always seems to bring a dramatic game, and this one was no different. Here are the headlines this morning from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram and the Lubbock Avalanche Journal:

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Lubbock Avalanche Journal

Now, there is rarely a game with perfect officiating and this game did have its questionable calls, but all in all, my Alma Mater won and it was a great game! I'd love to address some comments from TCU fans on Facebook, but I'm trying real  hard to bite my tongue...and that's all I'll say about that! Wrecked 'em!

Happy Weekend!

My first 'day off' and another Blogtember post

I'm putting aside the worries that I'll sound like an old diary post and saying that I'm sorry I haven't written! I only missed one day, but I know how miffed I get when one of my favorite bloggers (not that I'm anyone's favorite blogger by ANY stretch of the imagination...) skips a day or - God forbid - goes on vacation. It's not a good feeling. So, here I am, and I'll try to make this post extra good!

I'm joining up with Jenni today through her Blogtember linkup and sharing how blogging and social media has changed me.

Granted, I've only been blogging for about 2 1/2 months, but I can already tell the effect it's having on me. I started this blog with the intention of sharing parts of our home renovation, and look how far I've strayed in two short months! I have to say, though, that I'm happy with the organic change my blog has taken on. I like being free to write about what I want without the guilt of not sharing a DIY or house update every day. When I have them, I share them, and when I don't, I just use this space of the internet as my little place to share my thoughts! Pretty pictures, too.

I never thought of myself as the writing type. I've sworn up and down that I'm a more math-centered brain, and I still stand by that, but I won't shut out the creative writing side of me, either. I might feel like I'm stretching and trying to form decent sentences every time I write, but I think it's good exercise and I think this little bloggy here has helped me to come out of my shell a bit and just write what I'm feeling and thinking.

Blogging has also given me purpose throughout my day. I take more pictures, find a story in the little things, and even try to dress better in the rare chance I participate in a WIWW. I hope that the adventure continues to inspire me, because I need that to keep me going, blog or no blog.

Social media has played a HUGE role in my life over the last oh....8 years. Yep, I joined facebook when I was 18, before I even went to college. My sister was already in college and kept talking about Facebook and as soon as I got my acceptance letter and email from SFA, I signed up. Yes, children, those were the days that you had to be in college to use Facebook. After that it was MySpace, AIM, words with friends, and now Instagram. I chose (wisely, I think) to skip the whole Twitter thing. I know a lot of bloggers use it but luckily I haven't felt the need to fold to it, yet.

(one of) my first photos on Facebook. This was about a year in. I think I deleted multiple other albums, phew!

...and according to Facebook, this was one of the first pictures I was tagged in. Marked October 27th, 2005! Baby Diana...times two!

One of my favorite things about Facebook was having all of my photos on my profile and using it as a virtual photo album. That, of course, turned in to a massive amount of oversharing but I'm able to look back at a lot of photos and laugh or remember good times. My love of photos of course transferred over to Instagram: the perfect app for me. No, really. I love me some Instagram. It's easy to use, browse, and navigate and I LOVE IT. I do, however, mostly post photos of my dog and food, but it serves its purpose.

My first Instagram post! Yep, only been with this game for 40 weeks. 

Just editing a 'selfie' (new word in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, check it) to post a teaser for this very blog post! Talk about cheap advertising...

I think social media and blogging in general is starting a whole new generation. Everything is now literally in the palm of our hands and we tend to be adapting well to the never ending change. I can't wait to see what's next!