Monday, September 30, 2013

Garage Sales and Snuggles

I took this picture of Ivy and Madison on Saturday and it really made me laugh because you can't tell which head belongs to which body. We always wear our Razorback jerseys on Saturdays. We feel like it brings us good luck. We may not have won the game but I thought we did a great job and I was proud of the Hogs!
I participated in my neighborhood garage sale on Friday and Saturday. I got rid of a pretty good amount of stuff. I priced things super cheap because I wanted it gone. What is so crazy to me is my nicest stuff is what I'm left with. Art from Lighting Emporium, designer clothes and even a Tory Burch handbag. What? I kind of enjoy having garage sales. It's fun to me. I may have to go on a little fall shopping spree with my garage sale earnings!
Homeland returned last night and I was SO excited about it! I think it's my favorite of all the shows I watch. Revenge returned last night too but something was wrong with Directv and it recorded a black screen with no noise. I mean, how irritating! It really stresses me out when my shows don't record. I watched in online this afternoon so I'm glad I didn't have to miss out on anything. Speaking of shows, I think I'm the only person in this world that didn't watch Breaking Bad and I'm kind of bummed about it because apparently it's awesome.
These three little nuggets got to go on a long walk today! Unfortunately for them going outside means getting a bath. Poor girls aren't allowed to just be dogs for once. If they didn't sleep with me it wouldn't bother me but one laying on my pillow, one between mine and Scott's pillows and one in my curve is just a little too close for smelly comfort. Now they're smell good puppies which makes them extra snuggly!

Saturday, September 28, 2013

30th Derby Party

Last night Scott and I went to our friend, Trey's, 30th birthday party. It was a derby theme and everyone was supposed to dress the part. It was so cute and fun! I found the prettiest little velvet and lace vintage hat at a flea market/antique store in Rogers. I love it so much and I think I could totally wear it again to a wedding or something. I wish we wore hats in America like they do in Great Britain. How fun would that be? All of the girls looked so cute in their hats last night. I think we should start the trend ladies.
They hired a caricature artist to do drawings for anyone who wanted them which I thought was such a cute idea! Scott and I had one done of us in Vegas last year so I wasn't super interested in getting another one. However, I thought it would be so fun to get one done of my girls!!!
How cute is this?! I love how it turned out. In case you can't tell it's L-R Ivy, Grace then Madison. I thought he did a great job drawing them and he was so fast at it too! Now I need to find a place in my house to put it.
It's crazy that our friends are starting to turn 30 but I'm looking forward to all of the fun parties! Last night was a good one!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Always Add Rainbow Sprinkles

I have been going 90 to nothing today and it felt so good! Some days it's nice to be super busy. I started my day at the gym (always feel like a winner when that happens) had lunch with Jaclyn at McAlisters, (mmm....tea) then checked off a lot of things on my to-do list. Including, but not limited to, a stop by TCBY.
I drive by there almost every day and every day I want to stop in but I never do. Today I did and I'm pretty sure TCBY has never tasted so good. I went with my classic--chocolate, vanilla and strawberry....with rainbow sprinkles simply for pretty purposes.
I need to give these 3 nuggets a bath before I sit down in front of the television for the next few hours watching Modern Family and Nashville. Rejoicing a little (okay a lot) on the inside that fall TV has returned this week!!

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

My Weekend & (hopefully) A New Show

I had a really great weekend! On Friday night my neighbors hosted a BBQ so we went over there and hung out. It was a little chilly outside so we made a fire and sat on the back porch and it was just so lovely!
My parents decided at the last minute to come up on Saturday instead of driving up and back down from Little Rock on Sunday. They got to my house around 5:00 and it was such a nice surprise to have them here for an extra day!
While I was waiting on them to arrive, I spent a lot of my Saturday afternoon organizing my pantry. I had let it become a mess and it needed some help. My neighborhood is having a garage sale this weekend so it was a good excuse to get rid of clutter. I didn't think I would have much to put in the garage sale but I think I'm going to have a pretty good amount of stuff to sale. Mostly big pieces and clothes I've decided I'm just not going to wear again.
Later Saturday evening Jacqueline and I hosted a progressive dinner! We started at her house where she served sangria and taco cups. I'm going to have to get both recipes from her to share with you all because they were both delicious!
I stole this photo from Jax. I hope she doesn't mind!
After our first course we walked to my house for dinner and football. It was so fun mixing up our typical get-togethers with our friends! Have I mentioned how much I love having Jax as my neighbor? Now I just need all of my friends to move into Hyde Park and I'll be all set!
Not much else has been going on sense then. Gracie is staying with us for a few weeks and the girls always go 90 to nothing when all three of them are together.
Scott and I watched that new show that premiered on abc tonight, Lucky 7, and I thought it was really good! I'm crossing my fingers that it stays that way because we don't have any Tuesday night shows to watch and what else are you supposed to do at night besides sit in front of your TV and watch your shows? Haha, right after I typed that last sentence my Mom sent me a text that said "Did you watch Lucky 7 tonight? It was really good!!" So there you go. Maybe you should tune in next week if you need to add a new show to your DVR!

Friday, September 20, 2013

Hello Friday!

My weekend is off to a great start! My friend, Jax, who is also my newest neighbor (insert many !!!!!!) and I have been running around town together all day. After a quick stop at Signed Sealed Delivered (love that store) we decided to eat at The Green Bean for lunch.
I love eating at The Green Bean because it's ridiculously healthy. To say that my diet hasn't been the best lately would be an understatement. If you've read my blog for a while you know that Scott and I really like to eat as clean as possible but we have been failing. Majorly. It felt good to load up on some veggies and fruit! Maybe I'll get back into the healthy eating swing of things......after the weekend of course. Tonight we're going to a neighbors house to grill burgers and chill out and I'm looking forward to that!
The weather up here is actually a little chilly today which is soooo exciting!! It's always hard for me to know how to dress with this kind of weather though. It's like, you don't want to get overly excited and throw your boots on but you feel kind of silly in flip flops. The in-between weather always throws me for a loop and it takes me an extra long time to get dressed. It's annoying but I also love it!
Tomorrow is going to be a fun day too! We're just watching the game at home. Although my husband really, really wants to set up a tailgate outside for our neighbors complete with food, a tent and a TV. We don't have a tent or a TV to set up outside so I think he may have to let go of that dream. For now. Maybe another game day when we have a little more time to plan because it would be a lot of fun! Saturday evening Jax and I are hosting a progressive dinner for our friends! We're starting at her house and ending at mine. It'll be casual with football going on in the background but we're looking forward to it! Love that my friend is now my neighbor!!!!
Hope everyone else has a great weekend as well! GO HOGS!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Soup and Shorkies

I still haven't heard back from Anton. Anton from Budapest. I'm so mad at him and I still can't believe that happened! I mean, but why should I be surprised because of course that happened to me. I've lost a lot of readers and it makes me sad! I'm sure they're wondering why I mysteriously disappeared. Boo!!
Tonight I made an amazing dinner that I found off Pinterest---Loaded Baked Potato Soup! YUM-O it was amazefest. With every bite Scott and I raved about how good it was. I'm excited about my new soup recipe and I discovered it just in time for the colder months! If you want to make it you can find it under my Recipes board on Pinterest (kara2lou). This is a great recipe if you have a gluten intolerance as long as you use a gluten free flour. Other than the flour I'm pretty sure everything else in the recipe is gluten free.
I may have gotten a touch carried away with the amount of cheese and bacon I put on top. Who cares though because it was scrumptious!!!
These little nuggets went to the beauty shop yesterday and got their hair cut! They always smell so good after they get groomed. I wish I knew what kind of shampoo gets used on them. 
Everything is going good in Ivy and Madison's world. Ivy's anxiety has gotten so much better (knock on wood) and she hasn't destroyed anything in months. I haven't been locking them up when I leave the house either so I'm glad we're making progress. Maybe it's because she's getting older? I'm not sure but I hope it sticks! Madison still walks around and falls asleep with toys in her mouth. I don't think that will ever change.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Pinterest

I love browsing Pinterest. I have the little app on my phone and I love looking on it to see what others have pinned. A lot of times I just admire the photos and forget to pin them myself and then get mad when I think of that cute picture/idea but forget exactly what it was. I guess you could say I'm a bad Pinterest-er but I'm wanting to get better! I need more people to follow because I mostly just re-pin what the people I follow have pinned. I know I sound like a 97 year old grandma so don't make fun of me but I have no idea how to find people to follow on Pinterest. I just follow people back who follow me. So, if you're really into Pinterest and are always pinning neat ideas or pretty photos please follow me (kara2lou) so I can follow you back!
A lot of people are pinning fall stuff right now and like every other girl out there this makes me happy! Fall is my favorite season and I'm super excited for it to get here. Here's a few photos I've found on Pinterest recently that I can't wait to start putting to use this fall season!
I love how simple this decor idea is. I love seasonal decorating and I go all out for Christmas but for other holidays/seasons I just like to add little things here and there. This is a great way to make your home festive and fun for Halloween!
This outfit is so cute to me! Since I pretty much live in black in the fall and winter this was a must pin for my style board! All I need is that scarf and I'll be all set!
I haven't tried this yet but the idea was so brilliant I couldn't resist pinning. One scoop of brownie batter and one scoop of cookie dough in a muffin pan. How easy is that? There's no way it isn't delicious.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Just karasstories.com For Now

Boy have I got a mess on my hands. My precious blog that I have loved and adored for over 5 years now is giving me the worlds biggest headache.
I clicked on my blog last night only to realize something was terribly wrong with it. After frantically searching through blogger and GoDaddy I realized my domain name had expired. I was automatically irritated since google failed to send me an email notification letting me know it was time to renew it. They've been so good about that in the past. Like, I don't know when it's time to renew it so I'm going to need an email reminder please and thank you. Thankfully my blog was still intact through blogger so I knew I wasn't going to lose any of my hard earned blogging material I've done the past 5 years, just my domain name www.karasstoriesblog.com. No biggie, I'll just buy it back. Or so I thought.
That is until I was on the phone with GoDaddy until 1 AM last night and the customer service rep discovered Anton from Budapest swept in and bought my domain name from me the second it expired. Apparently there's people out there who do this. They search the internet looking for sites that get a lot of traffic and the second their domain name expires they buy the name then try to sell it back to you for an escalated price. I'm livid. LIVID I TELL YOU!!!
So I email this Anton from Budapest and ask him to sell me my domain name back to me. The name I've had for 5+ years. He hasn't responded yet. And who knows how much he'll want for it. The GoDaddy guy said he's seen anywhere from $15 to $3000!!! Who are these losers and why do they think it's acceptable to do this to people?
In the meantime, I decided to buy www.karasstories.com and have this little blog set up through a new domain name. If Anton from Budapest ever responds and will sell me www.karasstoriesblog.com for a reasonable price I'm going to buy that name too.....And just have a zillion domain names and have them all redirect to my blog so this never happens again!!!!
(Ugh typing all of this out is making me just even more angry)
It's like my Dad said when I called him in a panic this morning "I've got a mess on my hands and there's nothing I can do about it."
To say I'm frustrated is an understatement. I'm grateful that I didn't lose my actual blog but it's really frustrating that I'll lose some of my readers. Hopefully I can get my original domain name back so I can put this mess behind me. In the meantime, if you want to read Kara's Stories you'll have to now go to www.karasstories.com.
Let this be a lesson to all bloggers out there. Don't forget to renew your domain name and by all means make sure Anton from Budapest doesn't steal it from you.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Hogs In LR

Scott and I had a great weekend in Little Rock. It was nice getting to see my parents two weekends in a row. We got to my parents house around dinner on Friday. Mom made a delicious meal (as always) and a homemade chocolate pie. There's nothing like a home cooked meal! Even though Mom has shared all of her recipes with me and we cook a lot of the same things, it always tastes better when she makes it.
On Saturday morning we woke up, got dressed then went and searched for Halloween costumes for our girls! Last years costumes will be super hard to beat because they were all three SOOOOO cute but we're going to try and at least tie with them. I think we've decided what we want to do but it's still not 100% yet so I'm still looking at options. It's ridiculously fun dressing them up for Halloween and it's nice that the girls don't mind wearing costumes.
After we shopped around a bit we ate lunch at Bar Louie. I enjoy eating there when I'm in LR. For all of you LR peeps, the BBQ sandwich from there is phenom! Scott and I split it and we couldn't stop raving about how good it was. 
Once we finished lunch we headed to War Memorial to tailgate! We have such a great LR tailgate spot because our (massive) tent is under a huge tree. It's a good 10 degrees cooler under our tent because of it. 
I enjoy Little Rock games. I'm probably one of the few residents from NWA who would say that. People on Twitter were going crazy during the game when we were down and blaming it all on the fact that we were playing in Little Rock. So Ridiculous! I'll admit that it is kind of odd that we don't play all home games in Fayetteville but I don't mind at all that 2 of them are played in Little Rock. And that's all I have to say about that.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Cinnamon Roll Bites

I treated myself to a yummy breakfast this morning that my Mom used to make for me when I was a little girl. I really enjoy it and it's so simple to make so I thought I'd share it with you all today!
You start with a tube of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. Lay them on a baking sheet, slap on a little butter, then top with cinnamon sugar.
Roll them up and cut into little pieces and bake for the least amount of time the package instructs. Once they're done, viola! You have a simply delicious little mini cinnamon roll!
Give it a try sometime. You'll love them!!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Flower Cheer

These beauties are currently resting on my dining table and I love looking at them. The roses and carnations are from Walmart but I cut the hydrangeas from my own garden. I have loved my hydrangeas this year. They've quadrupled in size from last year. It's crazy how much they've grown! I'm kind of getting tired of taking care of my flowers and watering them every day though. I wish I could invent some type of sprinkler system for flower pots. Watering them is getting old but I sure will miss them in the fall and winter. Flowers are just so cheerful!
Madison played with this cow all morning. I have no idea how she could see where she was going.
We're going to Little Rock for the game this weekend and I'm looking forward to it. Tailgating in Little Rock is so much fun. I'm not actually going in to the game so I'm thinking about bringing the girls to the tailgate. They would LOVE it. Plus they look so cute in their Razorback jerseys. We'll see....
A black bear was spotted roaming around NWA today so that was kind of odd. Other than that the day was pretty typical. Until tomorrow....

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Labor Weekend 2013

I had a great Labor Day weekend! Scott and I didn't do much on Friday but the rest of the weekend was packed full of activities.
Grace, my parents and their friends, The Gobers, came up on Saturday for the football game and stayed with us. Scott and I opted out of the football game since it was so stinkin hot. We stayed home to cheer on the Hogs instead. It felt like Christmas morning when I woke up on Saturday. I love waking up and turning on Game Day during football season. I know it's kind of surprising to some of you that I enjoy watching that but I love it!
Since Jax so conveniently lives right down the street, she came over and hung out with me for the evening. We went to Papa Murphy's and got a couple of take and bake pizzas (I love their take and bake pizzas!!!) then we walked around the neighborhood and snooped through some of the homes that are being built.
My parents and the Gobers left after a late lunch on Sunday but Gracie is staying with us for the week. We didn't do much Sunday afternoon but later that evening we had a wedding to go to. My friend (and neighbor) got married and the wedding was so, so fun and so beautiful! They served iced tea and lemonade in mason jars and let me just say, I love drinking out of a mason jar. I think I may have to go get some to have around my house.
Scott and I spent the entire day on Monday at our pool. The grill was going pretty much all day long and I constantly munched on queso that I made. We had some leftover hot dogs from the 4th of July that I took home and froze so we had a lot of hot dogs for the neighborhood to enjoy. Also, one of my neighbors is an amazefest cook and he brought steak, pork chops, shrimp, corn and plantains for us and it was heavenly! Definitely a Labor Day meal fit for a king! For dinner we grilled some burgers and had mac and cheese and BBQ beans on the side. Basically I ate all day long. It was worth it.
Today I've been recovering from my busy weekend. Other than running a few errands I've pretty much been home all day picking up my house and doing a bazillion dishes that I acquired over the weekend.
The girls were out of food so I ran to PetSmart and while I was browsing I decided to get them a new toy. Even though they have a million already they actually haven't gotten a new one since their birthday in March. They were super excited about it and have already killed the squeeker inside.
You may wonder why I didn't get 3 toys since I have 3 puppies with me but that would be totally pointless. Because toys are just like bones. One is always better than the other and they fight over who gets the best one.
So that was my weekend in a nutshell. It was a great one! I hope yours was as well!!