10 day you challenge {two songs}

TWO SONGS

1. Blessings - Laura Story

amazing song.

i listen to it at least once a day.

Lyrics:

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace.

Comfort for family, protection while we sleep.

We pray for healing, prosperity.

We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering.

All the while, You hear each spoken need.

Your love is too way too much to give us lesser things.

Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops?

What if your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near?

What if trials of this night, are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear.

We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near.

We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love.

As if every promise from Your word is not enough.

All, the while, You hear each desperate plea.

And long that we'd have faith to believe.

 

Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops?

What if your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near?

 

What if trials of this night, are Your mercies in disguise?

 

When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win;

We know that pain reminds this heart, that this is not, this is not our home.

It's not our home.

Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops?

What if your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near?

What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life;

Is a revealing of greater thirst that a world can't satisfy?

And what if trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights;

Are Your mercies in disguise?

2. Remind Me - Carrie Underwood & Brad Paisley

the more i hear this song, the more i love it.

carrie has such a beautiful voice.

10 day you challenge {three films}

THREE FILMS

 I probably could count on one hand the amount of times in the last six years that I've actually sat down and watched an entire movie from beginning to end. I enjoy them, but obviously I enjoy sleep a little more ;) I'm proud to say, as of last night, I watched not one, but TWO movies {at night, too} from start to finish!

1. Best Little Whorehouse in Texas starring Dolly Parton & Burt Reynolds

The name sounds hideous, but it is indeed a good movie.

If you like musicals, you will love this!

2. Lincoln Lawyer

A few days ago, I found these Free blockbuster rental discount codes. 

Cliff and I rentted & watched two at home last night!

 Matthew McConaughey was the bomb! The hubs REALLY enjoyed this movie.

He said it was 'the best to date'.

3.  Love and Other Drugs

{2nd movie of the night}

This was a pretty good one too!

xoxo-

[a taste] of country elegance.

our photographer snapped 2,000+ of our wedding day.

it's been almost two months, and i still have not made it through them all.

it's a shame, i know.

last night, i nearly made it halfway when my computer decided to gain a low connection to the neighbors internet [we get free internet, thanks to my grandparents living next door ;)]

it must've been a sign for me to give up and go to bed.

fair warning: this post is full of pictures, and more pictures.

every.thing. was unique in it's own little way.

each part represented us, somehow, some way.

i like being different.

i wanted our wedding to be unusual.

something everyone would remember for years to come.

the boutonnieres were made from fresh gerber daisies. we simply pulled the petals off & added a few berries. the wooden C + C = <3 sign, i handpainted. the tutorial is found HERE. the wood came from an my daddy's grandparents farmhouse. the pink C & C wooden letters (pictured in the very beginning image), were purchased from hobby lobby at 50% off. i handpainted them with a sponge brush & acrylic paint.

the flowergirl carried a wooden heart sign stating "here comes the bride" on one side and "thank you" on the back. my maternal grandpa made & painted the sign for me. i attached the ribbon, & wa-la!

the pillows were old pillows laying around our homes. our wedding planner covered them with a pleated brown fabric & placed them upon the hay bails.

the fingerprint tree guestbook(s) was handpainted by my former high school art teacher. she did an absolute fabulous job! she painted two identical ones. hobby lobby framed them.

i loved how they turned out.

looking forward to hanging them in our home.

six doves were released. two signifying our new life together. two in rememberance of cliff's grandfather & grandmother. two in rememberance of my grandfather & great grandmother.

part II coming next week, hopefully ♥

10 day you challenge {four books}

As much as I would like, I do not have time to read.

I've never been a reader actually.

With age, I've come to enjoy it a little more.

Although, I can honestly say that I have not read a complete book/novel in over 5 years.

In saying that, I am switching this challenge up a bit.

Rather than books, I'm going to post websites.

Here is where I spend most of my time

(in no particular order)

1. Facebook: I have a personal page & a business page that I keep up with. I really don't do much on my personal page anymore, it's kind of blah.

Follow me HERE

2. Blogger: this is my daily read. I love to read about everyone's different lives, projects, recipes, crafts, & what nots. I could do this all day.

3. Etsy: I have no idea how I came across this a few years back, but I am oh so glad I did. Half of my wedding essentials came from here: bridesmaids dresses, bridesmaids brooches, ceremony programs, mother of the bride/groom gifts, & so much more. Warning: This website is a true addiction. I've spent endless hours browsing through the shops & favoriting items.

4. Pinterest: my newest obsession. Thank goodness my computer has a glitch in it when I scroll to the bottom of a page (or does it do this for everyone?). If not, I would be pinning my life away.

Follow me on Pinterest HERE
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stayed tuned ♥
i'm hoping to post a few [unedited] wedding photos this afternoon!

Happy Friday folks!

10 day you challenge {five foods}

FIVE FOODS

1. Chicken fingers, preferably fried. Love them. Favorite food since I was a kid. 

2. Japanese : filet mignon (pronounced by cliff exactly as it's spelled, "fil-et mig-non") & grilled shrimp  with vegetables (zucchini & onions) ... absolutely delish. Best.out.to.eat.meal.ever.

3. Mexican : arroz texanos - basically texas fajitas over a bed of rice & topped with white cheese. I literally have this at least once a week. I will settle for a chicken quesadilla topped with white cheese on occasion.. depends on how big of an appetite I have. hehe. Both are fabulous.

4. Chinese : sweet & sour chicken with fried rice and an egg roll.

 5. Parmesan Chicken from Long Horns or Olive Garden - favorite.

One couldn't tell that I prefer chicken, now could they?

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If you're new & visiting, I have two giveaways going on this week! Be sure to stop in & enter for your chance to win a $25 store credit to my etsy shop!

Young & Crafty

Craft-O-Maniac

10 day you challenge {six places}

SIX PLACES

fyi, this was the biggest challenge so far.
here's a list of where i've been, where i want to go, special places, & my most comfortable places.

1. Cancun, Mexico : Honeymoon Destination

We stayed at the Playa Mujeres. May I add, best.resort.ever.
If I can talk the hubby into it, we will be going back here for our 5 year anniversary.

2. Sanibel, Florida : In a few weeks, we will be vacationing here with my family.

3. Home : I'm such a homebody. I love being at home.

4. Lady & Sons : place I would love to have dinner at { and possibly meet Paula Dean? }

5. NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) : place I've always wanted to work.

6. Our bed : where I'm at as I'm writing this. There's just something about this bed. We're not sure if it's the sheets, the comforter, the mattresses, or just the fact it's a place we can lay our heads, but we absolutely loooove our bed.

What are your six favorite places?

10 day you challenge {seven wants}

SEVEN WANTS

I want...

1. this cute camera strap from XCESSFABRICS for my birthday!

or this one from Mel V Designs

2. to build a home & raise three children on a farm with tons of animals.

3. to learn how to sew, reupholster, and can.

4. to have a successful online/storefront business that will bring money to the table.

5. to learn how to use my Nikon D3100 without having it on 'auto'

{via google}

6. to find a church home where we can become active & functioning members within it's walls and our community.

7.  own one of these adorable handstamped necklaces

from sosobella designs

or this beauty, and it's even for a good cause!

the shine project

{my birthday is in 7 days... hint, hint Mom ;) }

If you didn't have the opportunity to enter my giveaway over at Young & Crafty, there's still time! Hannah is giving you until Thursday at midnight to enter!
Pssst... there's a 15% off discount code available from now until August 4th, too! cchheck-it-out.

Today, I've linked up with Jen at Craft-O-Maniac allowing her to host yet ANOTHER $25 store credit giveaway!
That's not one, but TWO opportunities to win!

xoxo-

10 day you challenge {eight fears}

EIGHT FEARS

1. cancer.
2. roaches.
3. loosing someone close.
4. being confined within a small space.
5. failing my licensure examination.
6. a theif breaking into our home or my store.
7. being unable to become pregnant.
8. life going by so quickly that i forget to take time to enjoy the little things.

advertisement & blog giveaway!

Advertisement plays a major role in the retail business.

Unaware of the amount of advertisement blogs had available, I stumbled upon a few sites that inspired me to move forward in showcasing my business online.

I joined etsy & added a majority of our products months ago.

Before long, I began to broaden our products and handmake more & more of our items.

Being from a small town, your clientele is only so big.

In order to make my business a successful career, I needed to move forward taking some big steps.

We currently own a website domain: TheEmbellishBoutique.com, where I've worked endless hours on taking pictures, resizing images, adding attributes, descriptions, prices, inventory amounts & customization options. It's more work than you think. It's actually pretty hard to keep up with an etsy shop, a blog, an e-commerce website, a facebook page, and a physical storefront on a weekly basis. But, don't get me wrong. I love every second of it. I like to see the expressions on our customers faces when we hand over their personalized item. It's priceless. They love them! And we love creating them.

Two weeks ago, I contacted a few ladies that I follow on Blogger.

They have successful blogs, in which numerous people flow in and out daily.

Advertisement links are posted on the right side & giveaways are hosted frequently.

Normally, when I used to see a blog that was hosting a 'giveaway', I would immediately skip right over it. Then after seeing some of the cute stuff being 'gave away', I opted to enter into a few of them. I even won a super cute monogrammed acrylic drink dispenser!

Now that I own a business, I completely understand the advertisement perspective of these generous shop owners. It's a must. In order to show people your products, to get your name out there, one must advertise. How else are people going to know about you and your fabulous products?

These three or four ladies have agreed to let us sponser their blog by placing our 'button' on their page & by hosting a giveaway (for a small fee, of course). This way, they have more traffic increased to their blogs, while I get new advertisement & traffic into my shop during the process. It's a two for two.

I'm excited to see the results.

As of today so far, our etsy shop had 92 visitors.

In the last 7 days, we've had 688 hits & 2 orders.

In the last 30, we had 2,229 visitors & 13 orders.

This blog has had 34,784 hits thus far.

As of today, I have 120 followers.

I'm not out to get increased traffic to my personal blog or to just gain followers by any means.

This blogger world does have great opportunity for me to advertise my business, however.

I will use this blog to post my weekly ramblings, findings, thoughts, and special memories, just like before. Nothing is changing here. These are just stats for me to look back on one day & remember where I first began.

Tomorrow is the first day.

Hannah over at Young & Crafty is hosting my very first giveaway.

Make sure to visit her & enter to win!

Here's to the first day of making my business a successful one!

is blogger acting strange?

For a few weeks now, blogger has been acting incredibly strange.

I thought it was due to the fact that I changed my URL from caitlin-cliff to acountrynest.blogspot.com.

And still, it could've been the reason.

After commenting on a friends post today, she then realized I posted as "anonymous" rather than from my own google account. She then proceeded to find my page, only to realize that she hadn't been receiving blog post updates on her dashboard for my last five posts.

She said she had to re-add me just to see my page again.

All of the blogs I follow still show up on my dashboard with no problems whatsoever.

The only problem I've noticed was when I go to a personal blog after signing-in, it stills says for me to 'sign-in' in the top right corner. strange, huh? I've been having to comment by entering in my name & url information each time. Not thinking anything of it since I hadn't posted/commented in a while, I was just thinking blogger had changed it while I was away.

So I get to researching and I clicked "help" next to dashboard on the main page.

I went to a help forum from there & found a log-in discussion board.

Here's what they said to do if you are having the same or similar problems:

{I sign-in, then clicked sign-out and re-entered all of my information in & unchecked the 'remember me' box. So far it has been working & I commented with my google account just like the old days again!}

First, try a different login procedure.

1. Login to Blogger using "www.blogger.com".

2. Do not check "Remember me".

If that does not help, try a second time..

1. Clear cache, cookies, and history - then restart the browser.

2. Login to Blogger using "www.blogger.com".

3. Do not check "Remember me".

Alternatively, you can enable "third party cookies".

Sorry for any confusion & if you've been wondering why I have been commenting this way..here's why. Hope this helps some of you! 

10 day you challenge {nine loves}

NINE LOVES

1.  my husband {& family, of course}.
2.  fried foods. why is that?
3.  being cuddled up close.
4.  the color pink.
5.  seeing a wedding band around my husbands finger.
6. living in the South. 
7.  a cold glass of pink lemonade or my grandma's sweet tea.
8.  creating a masterpeice out of junk. basically, just creating anything at all.
9.  driving with the windows down & the radio up. there's nothing better ♥

xoxo-

10 day you challenge {ten secrets}

TEN SECRETS:

1. as much as say I don't want any children right now, I really am ready and excited for them in our near future. i don't ever foresee there being a "perfect" time to plan for one. the money will never be sufficient, the time will never be right. we will just let the good Lord decide when a little "Y" will join our family.
2.  i want to invent & patent something, sell it at wholesale costs to retailers all over the world, & make millions. don't we all?
3.  i bring home no income from my business. with time comes profit. for now, I'll work hard to make it successful, the rest will come later.
4.  nursing is a career. creating, crafting, and being happy and successful is a desire.
5.  sleep is impossible without Cliff by my side.
6.  my second toe is larger than my first. doesn't this mean I'm the "ruler of the house"? ...a-hem!
7.  i'm terrified by roaches & will squeal loudly if one comes close.
8.  i edit my photos in photoshop and make everyone blemish free. lately, i've had a case of the break-outs. after asking everyone why? they claim it's stress. as i was talking with a friend the other day, i stated "if this is what my face looks like now, i'm seriously worried about what it will look like ten years down the road with three children running around!" sheesh. i'm concerned. i've never had this sort of problem in my younger days, ever :( i guess it's a calling to
   "de-stress" my life..?
9.   i'm a horrible commenter & blogger friend. please know that i read your posts & absoutely love each and every one of them! i really do! i find so much inspiration and joy from reading & looking at everyone's different lives. i get my e-mails sent to my phone & can read them while i'm driving/working, but can absolutely NOT drive and text. i don't even try. shortly after, i forget about them completely...like, days later before i remember again. it's bad. --> short-term memory loss, fa sho!
10. i'm home alone & enjoying the quiet time catching up while cliff is hanging out with some friends playing horseshoes. he's asked me to ride over, but instead i'm seriously considering spending the evening sitting right here & enjoying a nice glass, or two, of wine. as soon as he gets home, he wants the computer out of my lap & for me to be snuggled up close to him while he falls asleep. tonight, it's just me & you all!

XoXo-

projects.

Back in the day, I should've been diagnosed with A.D.D.

I can not keep my mind focused on one thing for any specfic amount of time.

It goes to show with my list of projects I have scattered about the house.



Take this for example.

Project #1:

This is a hutch that goes to a desk we bought from the Auction to use at the local Christmas parades in our booth last year. Now that we have a storefront, we use the desk portion, but not the hutch.

Whenever we finally decide to paint and finish up the remainder of the house, this will go in my craft room.

Lowes had a gallon of bright yellow paint for $10 when I dropped in last week.

I had to buy it.

Thursday night I painted one coat.

Today, it is still sitting on my back porch...with one coat...newspaper flying around underneath...unfinished.

Project #2

My grandpa gave me this old window a few months back. I used it as a peice of rustic decor at our wedding and now plan to use it in our bedroom.

I want to refinish it, nail up a shelf, & prop this baby up on it above our headboard.

Project #3

After I get my window up & situated, I want to add this little wooden "Y" wrapped with twine in one of the bottom corners.

This project = DONE

Project #4

I posted a tutorial link here & here a few weeks ago regarding the YoYo Florettes.

Well, I found this cut & stitch fabric at a local craft store and in my spare time I've been hand stitching these lovelies!

86 total.

I've got 84 to go.

Available on my etsy site, here.

Project #5

Resin Applied Floral Jewelry

For the past two weeks, this has been my steady project.

I am attempting to create numerous earrings, necklaces, and ring sets to showcase in my store.

These are my new obsession.

Beautiful vintage-inspired style & perfect addition to any outfit.

Available in my etsy site, here.

Can you tell my brain is scattered?

[ha]

I'm easily inspired & quick to hop on board the next crafting adventure before my previous creation is complete.

These are just a handful of my spontaneous crafts lying around our home at this time.

Crazy, crazy girl.

{dress: social statesboro, burlap broach: A3Sisters, necklace: embellish boutique, ring: embellish boutique}

fill in the blank friday.

today I'm playing along with The Little Things We Do for Fill in the Blank Friday

1. I am a (morning, evening, middle of the day person)... definite morning person. Or shall I say was? Cliff and I are "early to rise, early to bed" people. However, lately I've found myself staying up late & having trouble waking up in the mornings. I think it's due to the new brown curtains hanging in the bedroom & blocking all of my beautiful morning sun rays from beaming in. Early morning is when I get a gush of energy. If I get busy with something and someone/something interrupts me & my plan, my entire day gets out of wack!

2. My favorite Pandora stations are... Avalon, Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, & Casting Crowns.

3. 3 of my "must-have" songs for a road trip playlist are... Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield, Miranda Lambert- Heart Like Mine, Honeybee- Blake Shelton

4. My favorite pattern is... floral. I'm really digging this print from fabric.com

I purchased two old chairs yesterday at the auction ($8 for both) that I intend to re-upholster. When I do, I would love to find something similar to Little Miss Momma's craft room chair print. How fab is that?!

5. My favorite perfume is... Dream Angel Heavenly from Victoria's Secret. It's sad to say, but I haven't purchased another brand of perfume in over 8 years. It never gets old!

6. Rules are... meant to be broken? That's the first thing that came to mind.

This rule is a favorite:

7. My most overused phrase or punctuation is...  :)

What can I say, I'm a happy person who likes to smile!

xoxo-