Georgia On My Mind

One hundred and eleven.

111.


That is roughly how many days until Jared and I leave Ft. Drum, New York and move back to Chatsworth, GA. Now that the days are dwindling, I find myself more and more impatient to just get back home already!!!
Like, I have to convince myself multiple times a day that I cannot start packing things up( I'm hoping that I can at least make it until August to start that). So, I've been thinking about all the things that I want to do when I get back (not mentioning seeing all my family and friends, that is a given!). No, I'm talking Georgia stuff, Dirty Murray stuff :)
So, I have decided to make a list. Here it goes:

1. Eat at the following fast food restaurants: Zaxbys, Chick-Fil-A, Krystal, Panda Express, & Jimmy Johns. There are probably more.
2. Eat at Edna's. ( Chatsworthians know why this gets its own number.)
3. Take a drive down 411 blaring my radio.
4. Take a hike on Ft. Mountain.
5. Go hide in the magnolia tree in my grandparents backyard.



I know that I'll be thinking of more things as the days go by. But what I am really looking forward to is that feeling. That one that you get when you hit the county line and you know that you are home.

Review of Underworld by Meg Cabot

" O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

Today, my copy of Underworld by Meg Cabot, the sequel to her book Abandon, came in the mail!!

My darling husband brought it in with lunch around 12, and after he left for his CDL class at 1, I dove in!

For those unfamiliar with Cabot's Abandon series, it is a retelling of the myth of Persephone about teenage Pierce Oliviera and the very mysterious John Hayden( Since this is a review on the second book, their may be some SPOILERS concerning the first. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED***)

Here we continue our adventure with a seventeen-year-old Pierce and her "death deity" boyfriend, John. Their relationship becomes evermore tangled, if not passionate, all whilst dealing with the evil Furies that crave John's pain and Pierce's demise. Can they find a way to defeat the Furies AND keep Pierce's loved ones out of harms way?? More than that, can Pierce come to terms with who John truly is???

I implore you to see for yourself!

True to Cabot's style, this book had me literally glued to the pages. Like, stumbling around my messy apartment( which I 100% neglected today because I had better things to do, which lead to this review), trying not to lose my spot on the page. Perhaps what I love most about Cabot's style of writing is the way that she captures your imagination without losing you in overdone detail.

What I particularly loved about Underworld is the way Pierce and John's relationship progresses. I have no doubt that there are hard times to come, but I was extremely satisfied as a reader by the maturation of their relationship.

I waited almost a year for this wonderful book to come out, and I finished it in FOUR HOURS!! And I say this not to comment on my uncommonly fast reading(my husband barely believed me) but to add another testament to how truly gripping I found this book.I HAD to know what was going to happen. Like, yesterday. :)


If you can't tell yet, it has my vote. Check it out!


P.S.- Fans can anticipate the third novel in this series, Awaken sometime in the future.



[I do not own the images used in this post]

DIY Bachelorette Party Survival Kits

Greetings:) It's been a while.


We had a lovely weekend at home, and can't wait to get back there to stay!
The main occasion for our trip was that my best friend Kim got married that weekend, and lucky me, I was her maid of honor! Me being all the way in New York and not being there to really help her out made me feel kind of bad, so when we planned her bachelorette party for the night that I flew in to Georgia, I knew that I wanted to make something special and fun for the occasion.


And then I remembered an idea that I had seen somewhere online, survival kits! There are plenty of great sites out there who sell them ready made, but I'm not really a ready made kind of girl :)


The best part about these are that you can personalize them any way that you want!  If your bridal party is super close and have lots of fun inside jokes, then you can tailor it to fit your needs. But since I had just met all of the lovely ladies in Kim's bridal party, I chose to fill it with some fun things that everyone can enjoy and get a kick out of.

In my boxes I included a button pin that read "TEAM BRIDE" that I found at Spencers, pink beads and candy bracelets that I found at Michael's, and cherry chapstick, Altoid smalls and condoms which you could pick up at any Wal-Mart or drugstore (side note: the condoms were a joke! And there was only one in each box, but I photographed what each side looked like)

My first thought for the containers were chinese take out boxes. These babies are PERFECT for so many different crafts, and they work marvelously for this. I picked one with a print, but there are many colors to choose from as well as clear.

I had an image in my head from the get-go about how I wanted these to look. I picked some ribbon that had a very pretty satin look and used Modge Podge to attach it to the box. **Important** I only applied the Modge Podge to ends of the ribbon that overlayed into the flaps on the box as well as a small section on the bottom, that way it stays out of sight because it the Modge Podge did discolor the ribbon a bit. But, you'd never know it!

The rest is wayyy too simple! I picked up some embellishments at Michael's like pearls and blue crystals as well as labels that all have adhesive on them, so you can just pop em on! All of my embellishments are from the Martha Stewart craft line, which I adore.

 See!!! (front)

 (back)

(top)

I loved how these turned out! (Sorry for the poor lighting, our apartment is old and has no ceiling lighting, all we have are lamps! And I also apologize for my poor photography skills. I'm working on it!)

You know I couldn't stop there.

As an extra, I decided to make her a bouquet for fun. 

These are also soo easy to make and very versatile. 

I used the idea that I found in a tutorial for rolled paper flowers. I used a textured card stock to give it a multi-dimensional look. To make the bouquet all you need to do it hot glue some floral wire to the bottom of your flowers to make stems. The wire I bought was a tad thin and I wanted it to have a more solid feel, so I twisted about 3 pieces of wire together for one stem and then trimmed them to make them even. Then I took the leftover ribbon that I had and wrapped the stems. Voila!

Well this one was pretty long, but I hope all my rambling was instructive!!

Until next time!

~Hannah