Re-Introductions and a Liebster Award!

Oh em gee! I am so excited!! A number of wonderful things happened yesterday [I'll tell you all about it] but one in particular has to do with the post I had planned for today!

First and foremost, I'd like to say WELCOME! and HI-I-AM-SO-EXCITED-YOU-ARE-HERE to all of my new followers from The Collective! I hope you enjoy my posts and believe in the movement as much as I do!

Originally, I planned to write an "about me" style post, introducing myself to my new followers. Then this totally awesome blogger-friend that I made last week nominated me for a Liebster Award! Thank you Kylie @ Absolutely Arkansas for the nomination! I absolutely love your blog, and the fact that you're from So Cal like me! How's the snow life over there in AK? [p.s. everyone, I do know that AK is for Alaska, but one of my very best friends moved to Arkansas a few years back and we just always called it AK. Yes, I did take history in school, but somehow I missed learning all of the states. Plus I like AK better for Arkansas than AR, it sounds cooler, right?] 

Anyway, what is a Liebster award, you ask? Well, Kylie wrote a super awesome introduction to it, so I'm going to share hers - seriously, go check out her super fab blog!

Basically, Liebster is German for sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing & welcome. Um, HI nicest words ever! This award is passed from Blogger to Blogger as a “keep it going!”! It’s an award for new bloggers with under 200 subscribers that is meant to encourage you to keep at it…because you’re awesome!

Along with the award, you get 11 questions to answer - which is the part that goes along with your regularly scheduled blog post :) Without further ado, here are my questions from Kylie!

1)    What are you obsessin’ over right now in your home?

          Right now I am totally obsessing over our clean carpet! Currently, we're living at my mom's house to              save money for the wedding. Most of our furniture is in storage, but today we got the carpet cleaned              in our bedroom [my fault, I didn't put the lid on the coconut oil, and apparently that is very bad for                 your carpet.]

2)    What makes you say “seriously, get in my mouth”?

         Chocolate and pretty looking sweets. If you ever go to San Diego you must go to Extraordinary                    Desserts.

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3)    What kind of blog comments make your heart twerk with delight? (Yes I said twerk…for the 100th time)

         To be honest, I don't think I have ever said twerk. BUT I get some hcore pitter-patter when I get blog           comments about people telling me that they love the movement. YES! That is my whole goal for this              little blog - to raise awareness of the movement and to start my magazine! Thank you for all of your              encouragement!!

4)    Shopping spree! Where are you going?

        Back in the day it would be some place like Charlotte Rousse, but right now I am really thinking some           place like TJMAXX or Marshalls. Biggest bang for my buck! Plus they have a little of everything! 

5)    Chevron obsessed? Or not digging the trend?

         I'm not super into it. I think it looks good, but it isn't very me. I'm more of a polk-me-dots and hearts             type of gal.

6)    If you could only use 3 colors (not including white/black/neutrals) in your home FOR THE REST OF its LIFE what 3 colors would you choose?

        Is gray a neutral? I would probably choose Red, Blue and Yellow. Most of our color themes are red              and gray [go Buckeyes!] but I love yellow flowers. Plus a cool blue is a good balancer. 

7)    How do you blog-plan? Are you a simple-sister who takes it day by day? Or an OCD Diva that plans in advance?

       Can I fall a little in between? I try to plan out my posts with a super awesome Google Doc Template               that I found a year or so ago. Here that is. I wish I could write all of my posts over the weekend, but              I'm bad at sitting down and writing too many at once. Okay, if I had a serious deadline I'd do it. The              journalist would come out in me. I'm attempting to do that, but of course include in random posts,                 when awesome things happen [like yesterday!]

8)    What are your thoughts on the word, “Y’all”?

         I think it is endearing! Wayyy better than being known for saying "like" or "hella" over here in Cali. 

9)    Have you ever had a Pin-tastrophie? Tell me about it. (I could seriously run Pinfails by now)

        Yessssssssss. I tried to make some really good looking hot cocoa cookies. In addition to cocoa all               over the floor, they were not soft and gooey and I am pretty sure the people at my work only ate them           because they love me and because I brought delicious peanut butter Nutella cookies. 

Didn't even taste like hot cocoa! GRR

10)  Are you obsessed with Katy Perry's new song “Roar” I GOT THE EYE OF THE TIGER! (I am…clearly)…if not, what music are you jammin’ to right now?

         I am! And I sort of kind of got mad that everyone was all "She stole that from Sarah Barielles." Hello,            she was inspired by it! Both her and Sarah said it. Plus it is a total Warrior Queen song! Also, really             grooving to some old school Blondie after watching CBGB last night. Anyone excited to see that                   movie?

11) What gets you up in the morning? (That’s what it’s all about, right!?) 
         Life! Seriously, I shared my story about Gregory and his battle with cancer here. When he died, I                  swore to myself that I would live each day for him. He had a love of life that I love to feel. Today the            guy at Starbucks [I should totally learn their names, I have lunch there almost daily] told me I was                  always so happy and having a good day and I told him "Today I thought 'today's gonna suck!' and then         I said 'Nah! I'm not gonna let it suck!' Then it was super awesome." And that's pretty much how I do              it!

Now I get to tag my favorite new bloggers and ask them 11 questions. Woo hoo!!
Go check out these lovely ladies:
My Random Lovelies
d'Asti At Tiffany's 
Crazy Beautiful Life
Forget the Times
Faithful Footprints

All you girls have to do is write a post answering these questions :)
1. Are you an Apple or Android user? (PC or Mac? lol)
2. What is your dream concert?
3. If you had to get a tattoo, what would it be?
4. What type of car do you drive vs. your dream car?
5. Why did you start this particular blog (In case you've had other blogs)
6. What is the biggest thing you're looking forward to in 2013?
7. How have you changed in the past year?
8. Do you have any "tried and true" blogging methods?
9. Who is your blog role model?
10. What's your favorite way of communication? (social media, in person, phone, text, etc)
11. What's your dream job?

Be sure to link back so everyone can read your posts!! <3 p="">
To get to know me a little bit better, you can read these Things You Should Know, Why I Began Blogging, ABC's of Little Ol Me, and Warrior Queen Means Me.


Happy Tuesday!

Check out one of our featured Warrior Queens:

Wedding Wednesday: Budget Woes

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When I got engaged all of the websites and books and blogs and people repeated to me the importance of a wedding budget. It is THE most important thing to have a stress-free wedding. I've been engaged for 9 months and I do not have a budget.

Not because I haven't tried. I have forms up the wazoo and sit down to work on them all the time, but then I just get overwhelmed. I don't like to see the glaring amount of money I somehow have to save to have my wedding in 8 months. 

At first I was excited to see that it was possible to have a 4k dollar wedding with a bunch of people. All of these blogs boasted about it. I could do under 5k. Besides, I have a lot of people donating their time and skills to us.

Then Iman and I went to look at venues and we realized that to get married in Southern California...that 5k wedding would only work if we miraculously had a huge house and backyard to get married in. If we had a huge house and backyard...we probably wouldn't need to have a 5k wedding.

Our venue, including meal service and champagne, costs $15k. That is the cheapest we were able to find, and miraculously it has absolutely everything I wanted.

Our wedding photographer is a dear friend of mine and we're paying less than $2k for her and a second shooter [also impossible in Southern California...we're flying her in from OHIO].

We don't have to worry about: any of my attire, most likely his attire thanks to all of the suit places doing their buy the groomsmen, get the groom free, any of the attendants attire [they're buying them], DJ, cake, my hair, makeup is largely discounted, most likely we won't have to pay our officiant...and you see how the costs were cut low.

Yet, I'm still looking at a number around 24k. Which is roughly what I make in a year working 2 jobs and a million hours.

My other problem with the budget is that, I really have no idea how much anything is going to cost because I'm not paying for a lot of things and I'm too anxious about it to sit down and do the research on pricing. Our day of wedding coordinator [I won a discount in a blog contest!], is super helpful with giving me feedback on prices but she's not going to write my budget for me. I'm not paying her for that. I'm paying her for day of and anything she does extra is out of the pure kindness of her heart.

I can't rave about her enough. She is phenomenal.

But really, I need to just sit down and do the research and write the prices down in my own custom budget.

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Only, I think I'm way too busy trying to work a million hours to pay for the wedding. I cut back my hours [I'm sure you've seen my rant post where I decided it was enough]. My room is finally clean.

I have no more excuses but to sit down, do my research and plan my budget.

I don't like budgeting. I don't even have a regular budget. The important part is that I'm trying at least?

Hopefully by next week I'll have something made up [and maybe even share].

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ABC's of Little Ol' Me

I'm working on my About Me page. I have a page dedicated to the history of the warrior queen movement, but there isn't one about me...and...well, if you knew me back in the MySpace days...I was am obsessed with about me's. Changed mine on the reg. Soooo this ABC's taken from my blog bff Megalin has to happen. NOW. :)

This picture just so perfectly sums me up :)

A is for AGE:  24, oh my lanta.
B is for BED size:  Queen, but our Cal King is in storage...I always thought they were way way too big before I shared my bed with a giant.

C is for CHORE you hate:  All? Ok. I REFUSE to clean the toilet. 

D is for DOGS:  I want a rott someday. aand a shitzu named Little Shih t. Iman likes pugs though.

E is for ESSENTIAL start to your day:  kisssessss

F is for FAVORITE color:  Red!

G is for GOLD or silver:  White gold and silver...although I am kind of getting into yellow gold...

H is for HEIGHT: five feet one like the Iggy Pop song

I is for INSTRUMENTS you play:  Ocarena for dayssss

J is for JOB title:  Office Manager, Server, Computer Lab Instructor......... #workaholic

K is for KIDS:  Not yet!

L is for  where you LIVE:  So Cal Living. Don't make me move. ever.

M is for MARRIAGE:  9 months away!!! Crucial no baby time. 

N is for NICKNAMES:  Rae, Rae Rae, Crazy, Boo Boo, Winkie, Runty, Rowenna, Spunker, Rae [to the] Wyn << yes, my family actually calls me that...i get a lot of nicknames.

O is for OVERNIGHT hospital stays:  OHH just the first couple of weeks of my life, nbd

P is for PET PEEVE:  People who drive with their headlights off at night. I will follow you and yell at you and flash my brights until you understand!

Q is for QUOTES:  You can't change the world, but you can make a dent! - Death to Smoochy

R is for RIGHTY or lefty:  Righty.

S is for SIBLINGS: 1 big little bother, 2 almost brother in laws,  aand  for the "siblings" an almost adopted older bro/sister in law, 1 adopted mini me, 1 adopted little brother and countless best friend siblings!

T is for TIME you wake up: I shoot for 6 am, and wake up at 7:15 flying by the seat of my pants to make it to work 

U is for UNIVERSITY you attended:  THE Ohio State University and California State University Northridge...grad school miiight be in my future, too!

V is for VEGETABLES you dislike:  mushrooms and tomatoes. blahh

W is for WHAT makes you run late:  my DNA

X is for XRAYS you've had:  back, foot, teeth, and back again tomorrow

Y is for YUMMY food:  foreign fooooood, Papa Perry's cooking!

Z is for ZOO animal:  I LOVE THE ZOO. I once made a dance out of all of the zoo animals at Cbus Zoo