4 Years (Well, Almost!)

I can hardly believe that Saturday is the four year anniversary of Monograms and Manicures!! I still remember the night I decided to start a blog. I had been a lurker of Tres Posh Preppy, Tickled Pink and Green and Journey to Our Daughter for about a month when a light went off. Ding, ding, ding! These people were full of life and loved all things pink just like me so perhaps I should take a the plunge. After a short introductory post I started truly blogging by sharing my favorite etsy store (I have stuck to my roots in continuing to share products I adore...) and went with it. Things have certainly come a long, long way since my very first days as a blogger (from my hair to my home to my wardrobe to my blog design and writing skills), but all for the best in my opinion!

 

Image from the AMAZING Martha Stewart

When looking back on all the memories I have that involve blogging my heart becomes SO full! I have been given once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and made some of my very best friends through the Internet of all places. While all does sounds perfect and grand I will be the first to admit that that is most definitely not so, but the good FAR outweighs the negative. God is SO good! 

I thank you all for joining me as I live out my life to the fullest. I treasure your comments and emails and all the friendships that have evolved from them. I am unsure where the next year might take me, but I certainly plan to keep you all along for the ride if that is where I feel I am led.

Cheers to four wonderful, charming, creative, fun-filled, blessed, successful, magnificent, colorful, blissful years!!!

Horsing Around!

Cassie and I have had the best time at the stables the last few weekends! We are slowly but steadily learning to ride (Cassie) and getting used to being back in the saddle (me).

 Week one of riding went far better than this past Sunday. My horse was SO slow (I like to live life in the fast lane...) so I thought he must be worn out. Well, turns out he is just not into riding English as he only does Western trail rides. Alas, I guess it is good to get all types of experiences, right?

Cassie had a rather stubborn horse that would NOT listen to commands. He was very, very, very naughty; so naughty in fact that she was given another lesson!

Even though our saddle time was far from great we did manage to get a handful of cute photos!!

I also have to admit that I was thrilled that I scored the pink and green saddle pad for the lesson. It is all about the little happys and victories sometimes!

DIY Business or Blog Cards

One of the items on the "must bring" list for the Texas Style Conference was blog cards. I have a handful of different options, but none met their minimum suggestion amount so I threw around different ideas. Since I neglected to order anything and was really trying to keep things as inexpensive as possible I decided I might as well try to make my own.

As mentioned last month I use GIMP for all my printables. I buy the backgrounds and "tags" from a handful of etsy sellers, resize them in GIMP and I finally "layer" the images (that is official GIMP lingo I think) until I have my desired result:

Since our blog cards were to reflect our blog I went with the same background as my header and then of course had to do pink and green.

I made a set of cards for Melissa in her blog colors (minus gold) as well.

We both sent our documents to Fed Ex-Kinkos for printing on white card stock (I love the luster of their color printing over the matte of my printer). I then used a scallop square punch to punch mine out and voila:

I was extremely please with how my budget cards turned out and was even more thrilled when people complimented them! 

Printables are SO much easier to make than I ever thought they would be and the possibilities are really endless. Have you taken a stab at making any graphics or printables? If so, feel free to share tips and favorite graphic vendors!

Weekend in Photos and New Jayes Winner

Life has been steadily busy as of late and Spring is in full swing!

I was craving fried rice last week and had all the ingredients on hand to make a batch. So, instead of hitting up my beloved Pei Wei I decided to make some for the first time. I also had loads and loads of spinach in my fridge thanks to the $1 sale at Tom Thumb so I cooked some of that up and threw it in. I know it sounds like sort of an odd combination, but I promise Spinach Fried Rice is extremely tasty and a great way to get some more greens into your day.

The weather was SO beautiful this weekend that I decided to take a walk outside after the gym. 

I live down the rode from one the most beautiful walking "trails" in Dallas and loved seeing all the Spring blooms and greens around me.

Simply beautiful!

This past Sunday I got back in the saddle. I have not ridden in almost ten years so I was a tad nervous as to how things would go, but thankfully, all the basics came back to be as soon as I got on Silver. I still have lots of practice and many lessons ahead of me to get back to my old level, but I had a grand time at the stable.

I spotted these darling notebooks in the $1 bin at Michael's on Sunday. I think they would be cute party favors at a birthday or a perfect little gift to mail to your bff in another state.

Since I, sadly, never heard from the original winner of the Jayes Studio wastebasket giveaway winner so a new winner has been drawn.

Congratulations to comment 26....Caitlin (cmarie21@hotmail.com). Please email me and I will get you in contact with the wonderful Amanda at Jayes Studio!

A Little Green Blessing

"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rains fall soft upon your fields, 

And, until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand."

 HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Here are a few green goodies to brighten your day!

McDonald's Shamrock Shake

Lilly Pulitzer Elsa in Prep Green Pink Twinkle

Tea for Two in Apple Lace

Dana Gibson for Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker

Happy Cactus Birthday Card

Harry Allen Pig Bank

Forever 21 Fitted Skinny Jean in Mint

Rowen Kacee in Green

Elizabeth McKay Eliza Bow Top

Thin Mints

The Pink Pagoda Blue Willow Giclee in Lime Green

Eshakti Surplice Front Poplin Dress

Rachelle Bracelet

Wordless Wednesday

Victory is mine!!!

Weekend in Photos

This past weekend I headed to Austin with Melissa, Katie and Emily for the Texas Style Council Blog Conference. It just so happened to also be to the first weekend of SXSW so of course we took full advantage of that as well. In fact, I will admit we enjoyed that and a weekend in Austin a tad more than the conference and ended up just having the most fantastic time!! We were not there for more than 15 minutes when Katie spotted her favorite celebrity Andy Cohen. We took full advantage of our weekend and made the most of out time down South:

I love, love, LOVED the tassel garland we spotted. I am thinking I need to find an occasion to make my own I loved it so much.

We parked ourselves at the Driskill for cappuccinos and drinks on Saturday afternoon to escape the rain. It was the happening place and we were ucky to not only score a table, but one with a couch and outlets too.

Our other go-to was the Four Seasons. We enjoyed making lots of new friends here (hi Meg!) and could not pass up a meal at Trio.

Thankfully, cowboy boots are always appropriate in TX and work well as a rain boot too.

I spied the most darling pink and green eggs at Chez-Zee Saturday evening. Another DIY project might be in my near future...

There were a number of stores that partnered with TXSC. Each shop had treats out for us shoppers and attendees and since I cannot say no to a sweet treat I was a happy camper all weekend long.

While I am hardly familiar with Austin (Melissa and Emily are the gurus since they lived there) I had been to Bess Bistro and loved it. Beantown Prepster and I actually dined here two years ago on the day we met! Our little group enjoyed brunch here yesterday and to say it was phenomenal would be an understatement. I do not even like shrimp very much, but when Emily offered me a bite of her shrimp and grits I about died and went to heaven. DELICIOUS!

PS- Can you tell that I love to eat and cannot get enough pomme frites from my food photos?

Before we headed out yesterday we made one last stop at Walton's Fancy and Staple to stock up on Golden Eggs. Yum, yum, yum!

What a wonderful weekend. So wonderful that I can hardly wait to go back in May or for SXSW next year! I loved meeting I Pick Pretty as well as a handful of other blog readers when out and about in the pouring rain (hello to those in Colombus, MO!) and exploring Austin was such a treat.

Friday Five

Phew, the weeks are just flying by!! Cheers to the weekend!!!

1. I transformed my feather wreath into an Easter wreath. I bought the feather, egg garland at Michael's and simply hot glued the bottoms of a handful of eggs to my wreath base. I love the final result though I still need to change out the ribbon to something more pastel.

2. Striped Dresses

The dress on the left is $60 at Dillards and reminds me of the $440 dress on the right. I have the black and white version of the left dress and LOVE it. Very cute and practical for warmer weather!

3. InPink Bracelet

InPink is a sponsor of the blog conference I am attending in Austin this weekend. They sent each participant a very generous gift card in anticipation of said conference. I picked out the above bracelet and am just loving it! I think it will be perfect with shift dresses come July :)

4. Pippa Dress

The Pippa dress I ordered on super sale a few weeks back has arrived. I have to say I was shocked at how flattering it is. I have bigger hips and a larger rear so I was worried the style would not work for me and was pleasantly surprised that it did. Still, I have no Pippa derriere, but at least I have a new gown to sport! 

PS- You can no longer say I only post flattering photos. I had just rolled out of bed before taking the above photos, I had no makeup on nor has I brushed my hair and my derriere is far, far, FAR from being in gear!

5. Bulldog Videos on YouTube

I got a link on a bulldog video this week and got sucked into to watching loads more. Bulldogs are just too funny and SO sweet!

Favorite iPhone App and Jayes Studio Winner

I am a total iPhone convert. Last year I wrote and tweeted about how much I loved my Blackberry, but when it broke this summer I took the plunge and got an iPhone. It was immediate love. From the touchscreen to the using it as an iPod and GPS to the App Store. I am just head over heels for my iPhone and am working on convincing my mom to get one next. 

One of my favorite iPhone apps is WallAboutYou. I bought it for $1.99 a while back and I have loved making wallpapers for myself and friends:

There are a handful of background options which you can customize with different "stickers" and fonts. 

This is such a fun and easy little thing to make and then text to a friend to brighten their day! Not to mention it totally personalizes a phone in a new way.

In other news I have finally gotten around to selecting a Jayes Studio winner. Thank you to random.org for doing some of the work...

The lucky winner is comment 120.

Congratulations RMC of Monograms and Manhattan! Please email me and I will put you in touch with Amanda of Jayes Studio.

As a thank you to everyone that entered Jayes Studio is offering 20% off your order! This comes just in time as they have updated their website and added lots of new Spring product. Your wallet can now be a winner too :) Use the code KAPPA to receive the discount off your next order!