Holiday Swap Reveals.

Over this past holiday season I participated in several swaps. Over Christmas I got sick with the flu, then on New Years had strep throat – so I’m finally feeling better and have some time to catch up on blogging.

Giving Thanks Box hosted by Emma & Nicole
I was partnered with Adrienne for the swap.

2014 Ornament Swap hosted by Dawn
I was partnered with Lisa for this swap.

Scarf Swap hosted by Bethani
I sent to Bethani and  received from Melanie.

Color Swap hosted by Melissa
I was partnered with Nina for the swap.

12 Days of Christmas Swap hosted by CG Swaps
I was partnered with Brittney for the swap.

Merry & Bright Swap 2014 hosted by Bailey
I was partnered with Bex for the swap.

Christmas in the Country hosted by Jamie, Laurie, Robyn, & Erin
I was received from Nicole and sent to Sarah.

Great Christmas Swap.

Winter Time = Soup Time.

Did you know January is National Soup Month? Makes sense with these colder months and flu season kicking in that this centuries old dish would get it’s own month. Which is why personalized gifts company Personal Creations conducted a survey to find out what soup reigns supreme in the U.S. You can see the results below—did your favorite soup place first?

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 150,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 6 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Own Your Bed Head.

When you woke up, were you dealing with out-of-control frizz, an untamable tress-mess, or mangled tangles?  Doesn’t this always happen the days you have to be up early or are running late? For me at least, it’s a yes!

Casper is a new start-up mattress company. Their outrageously comfortable mattresses are made of latex and memory foam. They are designed specifically for “better sleep for better days”. Casper knows that not even the perfect mattress can prevent bed head, so they reached out to find tips and tricks on how to manage, combat, or embrace your bed head as part of their ‘Own Your Bed Head’ Project.

So I’ve come up with my top 5 tips for combating and embracing bed head…

1.The obvious one, would be the clean slate. Start fresh. Jump in the shower, shampoo and condition your hair, and style like usual. This is much more time consuming than other options but is the best fix.

2. If your hair is lacking volume, flat, or a bit on the greasy side I start with dry shampoo. I spray it on, let it sit a minute, rub it in, the rub the brush through my hair. This will usually go the trick.

3. If your hair is frizzy, kinky, and just plain out of control I generally start with some styling products and a flat iron. Not the best thing for your hair, but hey, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

4. If it’s just plain unmanageable or you’re running too short on time, resort to the good ol’ up-do/style. Pull your hair into a ponytail, messy bun, or clip it up. Hide all that bed head:). Pair that with a flashy necklace, flattering shirt, or more makeup than normal – nobody will notice your second day, frizzy bed head up-do!

5. Embrace, embrace, embrace. Jump out of bed, run a brush through your hair, and own it. Easier said than done, I know.

Everyone knows that the key to a good nights sleep is a good mattress. The key to looking your best is being well rested. Get a good nights sleep by checking out the newest innovation in mattresses by Casper. This may not make your hair look any less crazy, but you’ll be looking so good nobody will notice your sub-par hair. Plus, with a 100 night risk-free trial and free shipping you can’t go wrong.

 

Survival Kit Essentials.

I was contacted by Man Crates Gifts for Men to share my top five must-haves for a survival kit. This wasn’t supposed to be your average list of survival items, but just those ‘fun’ items you can’t live without.

Man Crates is gift box for men. Most arrive in a wood crate with a personalized crowbar to open it with. There are crates for every personality; survivalist, carnivore, beer lover, snack enthusiast, gamer, or athlete. The crates include themes such as; whiskey, jerky, bacon, gamer, snacks, new dads, survival, grill master, coffee, shaving, and even old school.

Rather than doing the standard survival items of food, water, a plane, a boat, your mom and husband I decided to have some fun with my five items…

1|2|3|4|5

1 | Pepsi. It’s a must-have for me, gotta have my caffeine fix. Hey, I’m a nurse I need it to get through the shift.

2| Carmex Cherry Lip Balm. I’m also a fan of cherry Chapstik. The Carmex balm doesn’t smell or taste the best, but it works. I use it every night it keeps my lips from chapping and getting dry. I use Chapstik during the day because it works but isn’t as strong.

3 | Samsung Galaxy S4. My phone. I’m not one of those people who always have there phone glued to their head or couldn’t survive without it. But this is a survival kit and a phone comes in pretty dang handy! Plus, I’d have internet access, games, apps, etc. Gotta have something to do.

4 | Kenra Dry Shampoo. Gotta keep your hair looking and smelling nice. I’m a big fan of this dry shampoo, works great and smells good.

5 | Crest Pro-Health Gum Protection. C’mon people it’s a survival kit, gotta have your toothpaste. This is by far my favorite toothpaste ever. It’s minty fresh and leaves your month and teeth feeling clean all day.

What are 5 items you can’t live without?

And with the holiday season quickly approaching be sure to checkout Man Crates for a great gift for the men in your life.

Spring Beauty Swap Reveal.

Back in March I signed up for the 3rd Crystal Cattle beauty swap AKA the Spring Beauty Swap. This swap was co-hosted by Taysha from Dirt Road Charm. I was paired up with Carilynn from A Patchwork Life. And boy did she spoil me! Check it out:

The wonderful goodies I received:

*Organix Coconut Oil Mist
*Teal Sally Hanson Nail Polish
*Hugo Naturals Himalayan Salt Scrub
*Polka Dot Makeup Bag
*Cute little bin to store everything in
*Sample Packets
*And YES, that is the UD Naked Basics Palette! Like I said, girl spoiled me! 🙂

I had a great time getting to know Carilynn and hope to stay in touch. And as usual I can’t wait until the next swap!

Mug o’ Comfort Swap.

This month I signed up to participate in the Chaotic Goddess Mug o’ Comfort Swap! You can read more about by clicking the picture below. Sign up ends March 3rd so you still have time to join if you want! I’ve only done beauty swaps so I’m excited to try a different kind.

Basically you get paired up with someone and you send them a mug along with goodies that go along with it (hot chocolate, tea, coffee, etc.). Since we’re still fighting off the polar vortex this will be perfect to help warm you up!

Beauty Swap #2.

Crystal from Crystal Cattle has been hosting beauty swaps every so often. This is the second one, and so far have each been co-hosted by a different person. This time she partnered up with Courtney from Cowgirl Crush. Anyways, I was lucky enough to be partnered with Taylor from College Girl in a Ag World. And man did she spoil me :). So what did I get? Here ya go:

After chatting with Taylor about ourselves and our beauty routines, we found out that we have a lot in common. So that was great. She sent me a finger knit scarf that she made (!), an EOS lip balm in summer fruit, Dove Dry Shampoo, and three lipsticks!

The EOS lip balm makes me miss summer even more! Does summer feel like some mythical time that existed a long time ago to anyone else? Like the dinosaurs or something. I’ve been looking for a good dry shampoo for sometime. This Dove one works pretty good and has a really nice, clean scent. The top lipstick is Sonia Kashuk and the other two are Revlon.

1. Blushing Mauve (pearl) by Revlon. 2. Pink (pearl) by Revlon 3. Blushing by Sonia Kashuk. Three very pretty colors, prefect for spring if it ever gets here! They really can be worn year round (especially the first two) due to them being a nice mauve/neutral shade – which is great!

Like last time, I had a lot of fun participating in this swap and can’t wait for the next one! If you want to see what I picked out for Taylor check out her post here.

I could be an Olympian if these were Olympic events.

In the midst of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, I thought I’d write you this fun little post. Now I might not be an all-star athlete, but I could bring home the gold in these events:

Sarcasm. I would hands-down hold a world record on number of gold medals won in this category. It just comes natural.

Watching consecutive hours of Bones. I could definitely give you a run for your money. I’m currently watching my way through all the season, for a second time. And they’re still not old.

Eating shrimp or crab at a buffet. I’m not proud of this, but I get my monies worth. Ha. It’s scary, yet slightly impressive. No, I’m really not that bad. I can just eat more than you think by looking at me. Obviously, Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster is my favorite promotion of the year.

Cuddling. This would be my all-time favorite event.

Organizing. Mainly because I have slight OCD. Not really, but whatever, things must be organized.

Multitasking. I am always doing multiple things and have 100 things in my head. Especially at work, there’s always a million things I need to be doing at the same time. And then an alarm goes off and I have to drop everything and sprint off. (Hey, isn’t sprinting an Olympic event?)

Just call me the next Steve Prefontaine.

Liebster Award.

What is the Liebster Award, you might ask? It is awarded by one person to their ten favorite up and coming blogs (up and coming is defined as a blog with under 200 followers). Furthermore, liebster is German for “dearest.” Just for some context.

I want to thank Jillian from Jillian Paige Blogs for nominating me for this award. I’m honored you picked me and enjoy reading my blog! Thanks girl!

Oh, how does it work? Simple, I have been nominated by Jillian, who has asked me to answer 10 questions.

These are those questions:
1. What book are you reading right now? Give a 1 sentence review. I’m honestly not reading a book right now. The last book I read was Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl. It was a funny account of a woman’s journey from a six figure job in a corner office to a 500 acre beef farm.
2. If you could binge watch any TV show, what would it be? Bones! That is my favorite show hands down. I also really enjoy cooking shows on Food Network (but we don’t have cable).
3. When and why did you start blogging? I started my blog in May 2013. I decided to start blogging for two reasons: 1. to connect with people who had similar interests 2. to be an agvocate, agriculture is so important & there has been so much negative media lately.
4. What would you do with 1 million dollars? Have my dream wedding and build my dream home.
5. Share a quote you live by. “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” Good ol’ James Dean, but seriously it’s good advice.
6. Do you believe in ghosts? Aliens? Why or why not? Hmm, kind of a hard question. I don’t believe in aliens or UFOs. But maybe there could be life outside of earth (like weird bugs or something, I don’t know. Haha). I don’t believe in ghosts but I believe in angels.
7. Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten? Happily married, had some babies, built a new house, own more farm land, oh you know just living the dream.
8. What are your five favorite songs right now? Oh gosh, I don’t know. I’m a fan of any country. Well not Taylor Swift & Carrie Underwood country but you get the point. 🙂
9. What is your favorite color? Pink.
10. Who is your favorite Disney character? I honestly don’t know! I sadly haven’t seen a Disney movie in forever :(.

Now, it is my turn to nominate 10 people. Should these people choose to accept, they must adhere to the following rules:
Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.
Answer the 10 questions given to you by the person who nominated you.
Nominate 10 of your favorite blogs with fewer than 200 followers and notify them of their nomination.
Come up with 10 questions for your nominees to answer.

My nominees:
Pretty in the East
International Cowgirl
Kellie For Ag
Get Fit With Lynds
Country LINKed
Blame It All On My Roots
Beef & Sweet Tea
Harvester’s Daughter
Faith, Farming, & Cowboy Boots
Ranch Wife Life

My questions:
1. Where did you grow up? In a small town, in a big city, or in the country? On a farm, an acreage, or a downtown apartment?
2. Do you have any pets? If no, did you have any in the past?
3. What is your favorite recipe?
4. One item you can’t live without?
5. Why did you start blogging?
6. What was your first vehicle?
7. What’s your family like? Brothers, sisters? Married? Children?
8. What are your hobbies?
9. Hollywood has decided to film a movie about your life, who did they cast to play you?
10. What do you want to accomplish in your life?

UPDATE (1/26/14): I was also nominated for the Liebster Award by Modern-day Farm Chick. Thanks for the nomination! Be sure to check out her blog.