Words From the Wise

Have you ever taken a personality assessment? I did in high school but I haven't in sometime. Plus I know present day Ashlyn is a little different than high school Ashlyn.  I recently decided to take one to see what my 5 strengths were. There was zero surprise when my first strength was revealed- empathy. And I knew that with being empathetic that also accounted for my emotions. I've always been told I have a big heart. I've been told I can be a little dramatic at times. I've been told I find the good in people and that I love. And I love a lot. When I was younger, I remember crying in movies. I cried when Mighty Joe Young was in the trailer and stuck his fingers out of the hole to wave at the little boy. I cried during Bambi...ok well who didn't cry during Bambi?! But I've found over the years I've gotten worse at watching movies. I would say I cry in 90% of the movies I watch. Yes, I cry a lot. I cry during the sad parts, and I cry from laughing so muc...

Note to self- whenever I want to accomplish something, post about it on my blog. I have finally accomplished some scrapbooking AND some wedding planning. Look at me go! It just took a little bit of guilt from posting about it...and TA-DA! So where to begin? I've accomplished so much. Ok, well really not a lot...but compared to the last 2 months it's A LOT. Let's start with some scrapbooking shall we? But not right away. First we need to admire my lovely salsa I canned this weekend. Yes. I also canned salsa this week. No big deal. I received an e-mail from my dad asking if I was coming home. It was followed by CANNING IS FUN! I NEED YOUR HELP. He must have been desperate. And I knew I would get to keep some for myself so I figured why not? So let's take a minute to admire all of those tomatoes I juiced, the peppers, jalapenos and onions I cut (and shed tears for), and the minutes I spent over the warm stove stirring this deliciousness. Best part- it's all home ...

Time for Part Deux of my crazy traveling trip! I had full intentions of getting a lot of my scrapbooking completed this week but my actual life had other plans. Around 8:00 last night I decided to crack down and knock my Tennessee trip on its tooshie. I was really feeling it at first. I finished the first page...I was no longer in the mood to scrapbook. Grrrr. I just hate when that happens. You're all pumped and feel like you're going to accomplish A TON. So you drag out all of your scrapbook stuff. You work on your first page and that feeling you once had of motivation has suddenly left. AND it took you longer to drag out all of your supplies than it did to make that first page. And that's what happened. But I wasn't going to let that stop me! Here are the pages that I powered through last night and can check off my to-do list. BOOYAH! The guitar and "Nashville" came from a map I got on my trip. I was super pleased with how that turned out....

Yes, I really did find $2! Best day ever. The weather here in Indiana has been getting warmer, but a little too humid for me! I don't "glow" or "glisten" very well in this humid weather. And my hair doesn't look so hott either. So to save myself from looking like one hott mess out in public, why not look that way in the comfort of my own home? I figured it's the perfect time to play catch-up on my Project Life! Yay! I was SUPER far behind. Like embarrassingly far behind. How far behind? Well...let me show you.  Hmm...does that say January 27? Why yes, yes it does. JANUARY . Yep. I was that far behind. But the good news is I'm getting caught up! A few tricks about this layout- the paint chip, invitation, and confetti. I just love how paint chips can give that nice variety of color and they're easy to write on! The confetti took a while to grow on me. (in fact it's still growing...) But it's cute and festive and fits nicely wit...

Here's the problem I always seem to have: I go on a trip, take a ton of pictures, return home and develop my hundreds of pictures, tell myself I will scrapbook them later...then never get to them. Until recently this has been my anthem. Prime example- my trip to the city of hustle and bustle, NYC. I went on this trip in 2009 with a group from college. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't do much scrapbooking in college. In fact, I don't think I did any...so I have some catching up to do. This project has been looming over me ever since I've decided to really get back in to scrapbooking. While I'm scrapbooking my most recent adventures (probably because I have the strongest memories of those) , I look at that pile from NYC and tell myself, "you can get to that one later." So finally "later" came and it was time to tackle the project that's been sitting there staring at me. I've decided to post some of the pages I've completed. As ...

Time to get to work on the largest space I have...my floor. Remember the Ferris quotation I used in my last entry, yeah..it's still true. Will life ever slow down?  ...and remember that one time I decided to start my own Project Life? Well that is one thing in my life that has slowed down! I have spent the last week playing catch up for February, March, AND April. Holy cow. Here's the biggest piece of advice I can give- if you're going to PL, keep a journal! I started out doing pretty well and there are 3 weeks I forgot to document and now struggling for my book. I guess it gives me more space to be creative. But there is one project I was very eager to start on. My vacation to Florida. So I've decided to load just a few of my pages to share of few tips and tricks I've learned!  Hello Florida! All of the products used were random odds and ends I had in my craft supplies. I have no idea why some of these are loading this way! Sorry. I did get...

Ferris Bueller was so right - Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. My life has been busy, so I've done a horrible job at blogging. BUT NOW I HAVE SOMETHING FABULOUS TO WRITE ABOUT- The proposal at Disney World! *Warning* This post could make others nauseous with the overwhelming amount of cuteness and romanticness (is that even a word? Is now.) Read at your own risk. But really, you should read. Because it's cute. And I said so. It all started back in January when Brandon drove to my parents house to tell them the news and ask for their permission. Immediately my parents asked how they could help. Minutes later, my mom brings out my Grandma Irene's engagement ring and tells him she'd be honored if he could somehow use it. After weeks of Brandon e-mailing my mom, he had the proposal all figured out. Just look at that cheesy smile! My mom put the ring in her purse the night before we left for Disney. My da...

Here we go! Two more pages are finished of my PL Highlight section. I'm starting to feel incredibly accomplished. I've been chugging away on getting some of the pages done of my favorite memories from 2012.    Every we year travel to Chicago the day for Black Friday. I never manage to take very many pictures but happened to take a few this year.   A lot of my close friends tied the knot in 2012! I didn't save any of their actual invitations (because at the time I wasn't thinking about scrapbooking them). But I did save 3 of the Save the Date magnets and one of the thank you cards! What a great way to remember by friends' special days :)

Well friends, I've been a busy worker bee! I think I'm close to being done with my trip to Ireland. I have a ton more pictures, but decided to edit it down. Feel free to scroll down and see some of my work! Sorry for the blurry picture- you still get the idea! I was trying to make my trip not too green, but that started to make things tricky. And in comes all the green..whoops! I did want my pages for St. Patrick's Day to be green, I managed to make a few days before then green too. Green is my favorite color, so what can I say? It was really easy to find St. Pat's Day stickers. And it was really hard to find Ireland stickers. I did manage to score a sticker book of just shamrocks from JoAnn Fabrics for $1..Ashlyn for the win.

Holy cow. I have been slacking big time with my blog. So I was sitting here trying to think about what to write about today. As soon as I got to my office, I had a huge stack of cards to sign for our seniors in the office. Then I noticed all of the Facebook and Twitter post about graduation or ending another year. Then it hit me. A blog about graduation. It's hard to believe that just a year ago I was finishing up my last semester of college. It seemed like just a year prior to that I was saying goodbye to my family, unpacking my belongings in Cravens Hall and starting my freshman year. My how times flies. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once and a while, you could miss it. Yes. That is from Ferris Bueller but I had to insert that. But it's true. I have found that this past year has gone faster than any year yet. And from what I hear, it just gets faster and faster. Ok, but to last year. I remember getting ready to say goodbye to a...