5 on Friday

1.  Beautiful Running Weather

The weather Saturday morning was gorgeous!  I ran 2.21 miles with a pace of 14:42 pace.  

I have really enjoyed running with some coworkers in Maumelle's Women Can Run clinic.  We're in the Beginner Runner B group.  This week we were running 2 minutes, walking 3.  

2.  Hair Gets a Makeover

Saturday afternoon I finally had a much-needed hair appointment.  I last had my hair trimmed in November, and we haven't touched up the color since June.  My ends were flipping out everywhere and the color was very brassy-looking.  Does anyone else have problems with their color fading? 

Jean, my hair stylist for the past 3 years, will be celebrating 50 years of cutting hair this March! Jean is amazing, and I think she does such a great job with my hair.  I trust her completely!  She trimmed 1" off the ends and foiled a reddish brown in my hair.  It's very similar to my natural color, just with more red.  Even though she foiled it in, she said I could easily do this color all over, which I just might do in the future.....

Crazy as it may seem, I continue to use the same stylist even after I moved to Maumelle.   It's an hour drive, so I usually just make a whole day of it and catch up with some friends and places that I miss in Russellville.  After our hair appointments, Adam and I met up with my brother Andrew and sis-in-law Norma.  Norma took a few pictures of Adam and me for our 2-year anniversary.  Although the trees were still brown and bare, I think we got some good shots.  I'll be sharing some of those in a future post : )

After pictures, Adam and I returned to a favorite Russellville restaurant:  Stoby's.  We had many of our first dates here!  They still have the best cheese-dip and possum pie around!

3.  Recent Beauty Splurges

Naked Urban Decay Basics.  Ordered mine from Sephora.

They're Real! by Benefit.  Also ordered from Sephora.

I'm loving my new eye makeup!  The first day I wore this mascara, my principal seriously did ask me if my eyelashes were real!  This stuff is the bees knees!  

4.  My Go-to Necklace

This has been my favorite piece of jewelry for years.  I get so many compliments on this necklace (probably not because it's pretty, but because it's definitely unique.) I've been stopped in airports by complete strangers wanting to know where I got it/how I made it....they even ask to take a picture of it, so they can try to make their own!
About 4 years ago, a friend was helping me sew some aprons for Christmas gifts.  I hadn't bought buttons yet, so she offered this necklace up--she kept it in her sewing box for spare buttons!  I exclaimed it was too cute to cut buttons off, so she gave it to me.  Someone had crocheted this for her 20+ years ago, and she just didn't think it looked good with any of her outfits.  I wear it with just about anything : )     

5.  Blu-ray Finds

After our Stoby's date in Russellville, Adam and I went to Hastings to look at movies, books, etc.  It just so happened they were having a buy 2 get 1 sale on all used blu-rays and dvds.  I scored these three movies for just $13!  I was pretty proud of that : )

Hello/Goodbye Linkup

Hello March, Goodbye February

I'm linking up for the first time with Allison from Nestful of Love.  Check out her cute blog!

Hello Running Shoes!  Long time, no see..... I'm super excited about the Women Can Run Clinic starting back up this week.  This will be my 4th year to participate, and I'm pumped about how much I'll improve this time around.  One day, I hope to be a year-round runner rather than a fair-weather runner : )

Hello to 2 years of marriage with this handsome guy! Our anniversary is March 17. We're planning on taking our 2-year anniversary pictures with my sis-in-law this weekend.

Photo by Mallory Berry.  www.malloryberry.com

1st Year Anniversary.  Each year, we're going to take a picture holding the picture from the year before.
Picture by Mallory Berry.  www.malloryberry.com

Hello Daylight Savings Time, Goodbye getting home after dark!

Hello Spring Cleaning!

Hello beautiful hiking weather, Goodbye snow days!  (I might be a little premature saying goodbye to snow days.  We're celebrating a snow day today due to yesterday's ice storm.)

Pinnacle Mountain, West Summit Trail

Pinnacle's Summit.  March 1, 2014

March 3, 2014.  Snow Day due to the ice storm!

Hello Weight Watchers, Goodbye to the extra pounds I've been carrying the past 2 years.

Hello (regrettably) to Girl Scout Cookies.  I may have gone a bit overboard....Tagalongs & Samoas are my favorites! 

Hello Daffodils and Tulips!  I'd like to visit the Daffodil Festival this year; I haven't been since I was in the 6th grade.  The tulips at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs are also a must-see.  

Hello Divergent, Goodbye Happier at Home.  I'm the person who has to read the book before the movie.  Can't wait for it's release on March 21! 

Hello to March's Resolutions as part of my year-long Happiness Project!

-Give the blog a Makeover

-Be Amanda

-Push myself

-Thing BIG

-Take weekly steps to promote my blog

-Follow my curiosities

-Avoid time-wasters

-Take time to wander & play

Here's to the new month!

Thanksgiving Recap

Thanksgiving this year was such a wonderful experience,and I was so disappointed that I never made a post about it! So here it is, less than a week away from Christmas, and I'm still stuck on Thanksgiving.

This was mine and Adam's first Thanksgiving together. We flew out of Little Rock on Wednesday to spend the holiday with my great Aunt Kay and Uncle Greg.  Their holiday dinner is always so special. Kay has had me make a different cranberry sauce each year. Y'all, this year's cranberry sauce was unlike any other. I think she heard about this recipe on NPR and found an article in the local paper as well. The recipe called for grated cranberries and onion, sour cream, horseradish, and a bit of sugar.  No, you read that correctly.  Horseradish and cranberries.  Sounds strange, doesn't it? It was actually really good! And its color had a striking resemblance to Pepto Bismol.

On thanksgiving day, I had the honor of preparing the turkey. This was my first time, and I think it turned out rather well!  Instead of getting up super early, we cranked the oven up to a high temperature and roasted the turkey a little over an hour-and-a-half.  Yes, it was done all the way through, and it was soooo moist!

Adam was in charge of the greenbeans. Don't they look yummy?

The day after thanksgiving, while the rest of the world is doing their Black Friday shopping, we were packing the car with boxes of china and heading to the historic town of Rugby. Kay puts on this amazing tea every year as a fundraiser for the Rugby Historic Society. Adam and I got to help put on this grand event. We decorated a whole army of gingerbread men for the holiday tea!

I failed to take pictures of the actual tea event.....I guess I assumed I had enough pictures from previous years.  

This year, we had 40 people show up for High Tea.

I have just now discovered the Blogger App for iPhone, so maybe I will be posting less sporadically now : )

Happy Holidays!

Peace and Quiet

We had a very laid back Halloween.  Sarah, Courtney, and I stayed in and passed out candy to the neighborhood kiddos.  We were not prepared for that many trick-or-treaters!  We finally had to give up and turn the porch light off--we were down to a pack of Ramen and some chili beans.  (This was after passing out packs of applesauce, hot chocolate, and popcorn!)

We had some fabulous costumes.  And since there was only the three of us, we had an almost-theme going.  Together, Sarah and I were Peace and Quiet.  Courtney added some R&R.

Peace and Quiet......Get it?

Peace and R&R

My costume was a little challenging.  I couldn't talk.

Quiet (yeah, right!)

And since I haven't posted in almost a month.....here are some pictures from our pumpkin-carving party : )

Okay....more like a pumpkin murder party.....

Mine and Adam's Jack o Lanterns.  We're slightly obsessed with Angry Birds at the moment.....

Mine's the spider. Sarah's is the cat.

I guess that about wraps it up for October.  Maybe I'll do a better job of posting regularly in November....Probably not, but I'll try : )