You know you're a blogger when...

Kelle Hampton is a household name.

People in your phone are saved under names like:
"Bargain Blonde"
"Young & Fab"
"Busy Bee Kristin"
 "Kentucky Jess"
 "Buckeye Katie"
"Shalyn+DrewDrewHotPants"

Thanks to fashion bloggers, your shopping habits have become borderline obsessive/compulsive.

The only places you shop are from other bloggers' Etsy shops &/or Marley Lilly.

Your mailbox gets more love letters than it does bills. <3

You take pictures of anything remotely close to being "blog material".

Your latest meal was either blog or Pinterest inspired.

[Applesauce cupcake/muffin recipe here]

"#OOTD" is something even your husband knows the meaning of...

Sunday nights consist of picture uploading & photo dumping.

Your most recent vacations are spent with complete strangers.

Your new girlfriends live thousands of miles away and you've probably never met them.

"HTML", "followers" and "pageviews" are now everyday vocabulary.

The top of your wish list is your first DSLR camera
even though you don't know a lick about photography.

Your husband rolls his eyes every time you snap a photo because he knows,
damn well, that you're about to blast his face all over the world wide web. 

[Poor guy!]

When picnik.com shut down, it was the worst day of your blogging life because you knew, that very moment, you were going to fork up an arm and a leg to buy and learn how to use Photoshop. (Or stick with a free site like picmonkey.com....duh.)

Amiright? Or amiright?!

SO Ready!

I realize I probably don't even need to ask this question but I have just have to...

WHO'S READY????

My DVR has been set for DAYS and I have a fresh bottle of vino with my name all. over. it.

Obviously...I'm SO ready for drama, love & drunk men swooning over a beautiful Southern Belle. ;)

Sorry Beau. Your Monday night Duck Dyansty/Swamp People watching days are over!

****

SO ready for NEXT WEEKEND. 

Soakin' up the sun, partaking in many-a-car bar and possibly even tawkin' like a yankee with 3 of my faves! All in honor of Miss Katie's birthday! CAN NOT WAIT!!!!!

 ****

 SO ready to buy/build this beauty!

{{Fingers crossed...}}

Beau and I have full-on homebuying fever...and we've got it baaaad.

****

Last but definitely not least...SO ready to see this young man graduate from college THIS weekend.

Baby brudder...all growwed up...siggggh....

Over & out, lovebugs.
I can already tell...it's gonna be one of those days...

This One's For You, Mom!

There's not a day that goes by...

 ...where I don't look forward to our early morning chats about life, love, relationships, work, babies & more.

...that I don't thank God every single day for giving me someone like you who loves me more than life itself.

...that I don't look up to you for you strength, hope, love & encouragement.

...that I don't doubt the wonderful grandma you'll be to all our future baby Howards.  :)

...that I don't cherish all the times we've spent shopping, laying out and drinking an ice cold beer.

...that I don't feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have such a loving, supportive mother like you.

...that I don't curse you for the ass & thighs but THANK you for the massive eyelashes and big brown eyes you've so graciously given me. 

You are beautiful.

I just love you so darn much and I want you to know this! 

xoxo

A Day in the Life of Me.

First of all, can we start out with the fact that I'm lucky to be sitting here pecking at this keyboard?

*Warning: if words like "shit", "mother effer" or "damn" offend you, 

you might want to go ahead and click that little red "X" in the corner of your screen*

So the other night I decided to turn into Betty Crocker and make "Applesauce Cupcakes" for my nursing team at work. (BTW-it's nurses' week. Shout out to all the nurses!!)

Ok-back to Betty Crocker...

So I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought "What the hay? Let's give it a whirl." (I should have prefaced this by saying "I DO NOT BAKE." I just don't. There are one too many rules to be followed when you bake and following rules is not my forte.) Whatever. I'll bake for my nurses...

So I head to the grocery store for all the 'gredients, get home and start reading the recipe. 

A hand mixer? Say wha? 

Yes. I have one but I mean, really? Can't I just stir it all up in super-duper fast mode and get the same effect? Wouldn't that serve the same purpose without me having to get out yet another appliance? Yea...I didn't think so. (Reason #3467 why I don't bake: too many tools, too many ingredients, too much measuring.)

Fine. Hand-mixer it is.

I get it out, plug it in, rummage through the kitchen drawer for the mixers. Plug the first one in. Plug the second one in. And this is when shit went wrong...

You see...when I went to put the second mixer in, my hand holding the actually base of the mixer slipped and hit the "ON" button. And by "ON" I mean it definitely slipped all the freaking way up to the highest setting possible, meanwhile, my other hand is STUCK IN THE MOVING MIXER.

To paint the picture for you...imagine one hand holding the base of the mixer with the other hand completely stuck completely in the other mixer on the highest speed possible. I swear that thing get's 5,000 RPM...

Talk. About. Tears.

I've never seen my fingers go in so many different directions all at the same time...except for when I speak sign language...which I don't do either...

I rest my case.

There were tears. And sweet Beau kisses. And the cupcakes were pretty damn good if I must say so myself (sans fingers, of course.)

Moral of the story: when your hand gets stuck in the mixer, it's a 
sure sign from God that you should go ahead and retire from your baking career.

***
My seecond fail of the week was yet again...in the kitchen.
Oh-and the same night as the Betty Croker fail. (Damn it, Stephanie!)

Here I am testing out yet another new recipe...this time...salmon patties. I open the main ingredient: canned salmon, only to find that by "canned salmon" they meant "Hey. Let's throw an entire freaking fish into a blender and can that shit" because that's exactly what it was. Shredded salmon stuffed up in a can. Bones, scales, eyeballs...you name it, it was canned. (Why on Earth ANYONE would intentionally buy this is physically and mentally BEYOND me...)

I should have known it was going to be a rough night in the kitchen from the second my phalanges (aka: fingers for all you non-anatomical peeps) got stuck in that hand-mixer...Seriously.

Screw you hand-mixer.
Stupid freaking salmon...
Never again.

Moral of the story: DON'T buy canned salmon, 
stick to the recipes you're used to & no one gets hurt.
***
And just one more awesomesauce example of a day in the life of me...

This morning, my alarm failed to go off (Guh-reat. I should have known right then and there it was going to be one of "those" days). I ran out of the house with wet hair, half-ass makeup only to find out at ONE P.M. that I'm wearing two totally different earrings. Mother effer.
You've got to be kidding, right??

{at least I was kinda close, right?}

Apparently all the cool kids can't cook AND wear mis-matched earrings...you should try it some time.

This is my life. I don't know why I'm surprised...
***

And now that you've wasted 10 minutes of your life reading about my misfortunes of the week, what do you say we end on a couple more pics from this weekend's photoshoot:

That Shalyn...sigggh.
I can. NOT. wait to see the real things!

Does anyone else find it incredibly sweet that her adorable Drew Drew takes
 pictures of her while she's taking pictures of her subject?! Seriously adorable. :)
***
Happy Thursday, friends. Who needs a cocktail?

My Weekend with Shay & Drew...

...was just downright perfect!

Here's how it all happened...

So last summer, Shalyn and I talked all about us coming to Austin to visit them. Time has come and gone and dangit we just haven't been able to make it up there! Life just doesn't stop for Beau and I these days...

Fast forward to a few months ago and I get a text from ShayBayBay herself asking if she could take pictures of Beau and I in our wedding attire to broaden her portfolio. Um hello? Do you know who you're talking to? She's an amazing photographer. I love being in a wedding dress. How could I say no to that?!

So the plans were set. We would meet at the Frio River in the Texas Hill Country for a little getaway, take pictures for Shalyn's new photography website and sun our buns for the rest of the weekend.

...and that's exactly what we did!

The weekend started out beautifully when we drove past these little pretties and our truck immediately pulled over to the side of the rode for the most perfect photo op. Funny how the car can read my mind. :)

Shalyn & Drew finally arrived and I should have known we'd be a match made in heaven...

Within the first 5 minutes, she was humping the air. (Horrible picture quality...I know.)

Good form, Shay...

The next morning I woke up at the ass-crack of dawn to get dressed for the photo shoot. 

I don't have any of the images back yet but y'all...let me tell you one thing...the girl KNOWS what she's doing. I can't even describe it. [PROOF!] Having gone through the ringer with wedding photographers, Shalyn was such a breath of fresh air. She knows exactly how to pose you, when not to pose you, where to turn your head, to smile or not smile and, of course, when to make you laugh. Her go-to make-you-laugh pose is something I like to refer to as the "mid-air hump". Sister is has perfected it...  ;)

Below is a sneaky peek I stoled from her camera ;) 

I have dreamed of taking wedding pictures under this tree tunnel since the first time I saw it when I was 15 and Shalyn made that dream come true...tell me this isn't incredible?!

Drew...what a sport, y'all! He held memory cards and cameras and even a plate full of brownies that a sweet little boy walked down to give to us to congratulate us on our "marriage".

Boy did we fool people...it was 9am at this point...

After we wrapped up the photo session, it was time to change and head to the water. Le sigh....

BBFT & DDHP...padnas in crime

 

Love this child!

  

We stumbled back up to the house, napped, changed and cooked. Right before dinner, I found DDHP napping on the bathroom floor. And no, I'm not kidding.

We ended the night at a bar called Jimmy Joe's where writing on the tables in permanent marker and tricycle riding on the dance floor ensued. (Two more reasons I love Texas...)

Sunday morning came & we woke up to these little tinies right outside the window...

We packed up and headed down to the water for a few last minute pictures and to say our good-byes... :(

I think Shalyn & I both prolonged the "good-byes" because

I insisted we stop to buy t-shirts and she insisted we stop for sno cones.

So stop for sno cones we did!

Precious Drew :) Seriously-this guy has a heart of gold!

And Shalyn...well she's just simply amazing. So gorgeous, sweet, fun, genuine

and downright a lot like myself (or so I'd like to think...)

Shalyn & Drew,

Thank you so much driving all the way to the hill country to meet a couple a goons like Beau and myself. We had such a wonderful time with you two and I truly idolize you, your marriage and your incredible photography career! Sister...you are going placed! Y'all are the most adorable couple ever...and that's no lie. Thank you so much for the wonderful photos you took of us. I'm already chomping at the bit to see what you do with them! We love you guys and can't wait to see you again soon...I foresee many more failed attempts at beer bonging and sleeping on bathroom floors. ;) MWAH!!