Miscellany Monday - Where Cosmetics, Football, & Mr. Rogers Collide =)

Happy Monday friends!! I hope you all enjoyed a little break from my neurosis last week =) because I have LOTS to say and share this week!

* I've found a new love....Glossybox.  I think that my new found cosmetic subscription service obsession deserves a post all its own BUT in case this week gets nuts - and by that I mean I get distracted by something shiny - let me go ahead and say - its all name brand products in awesomely generous sample sizes :) I'm. In. love.

*  I think it's pretty clear that I have a full on fanatical love for all things football.  So, it should come as no surprise that I soaked up every nano second of the NFL Draft :)

Truth.

 It's like all my favorite things colliding into one event of total perfection...

I mean - there's a RED CARPET!

And my precious Gamecocks did A-MAZING and all found NFL homes...

I can't wait to see Mr. Lattimore in that 49ers uniform =)

* I am the lucky lady who is married to this rock star:

Why yes...yes, that's my man strutting his mega talented stuff a week or so ago on Broadway :)

 I'm keeping him.

* Two years ago today thiiiis happened...

*sigh*

My pretend BFF is so beautiful....

* I'll leave you with a great quote from the one and only Mr. Rogers because:

a) I think it's awesome and true.

b) I like to try and cover the most random array of subjects possible in a fifteen minutes time span.
c ) It's Mr. Rogers... what other reason do we need =)

Your turn....Rock my socks off with randomness!
 Link up below =)

Miscellany Monday Madness

Hellllllllooooo friends!  Happy Monday to you!  It's one of my fav blogging days  - Miscellany Monday! Link up below and hold on tight... Here comes my random thoughts...

I think I can officially declare this spring to the season where I let lavender nail polish dominate my life.  I was a little nervous that pastels are a smidgen too "Hi - I'm an Easter Egg" but I think I have found the two most perfect shades EV.ER.

Let me introduce you...

Are there other fabulous springy polishes I need to know about?? Don't leave out of the know!

I know that we established some time ago that I have a posse of fabulous (and fake) BFF's =)

Well.

I have decided to invite a new sassy lady love into my crew...

Oh Audrey... Is there any other woman on the planet who has managed to embody such elegance and class and - from what I imagine - still be a little sassy pants when needed? =)

(Side note - I seriously can't get over her fashion choice for walking her pup... I mean... Let's get real here... She looks more pulled together walking her dog than I do going to work.)

(One more side note - I want an occasion to wear long gloves!)

The pollen count here in Nashville is at approximately 4,631% - to be exact.  I didn't know that it was possible to want to claw out your own eyeballs.  Praise the Lord for the Walgreens allergy section because, otherwise....

And now I shall leave you with some humor and inspiration I stumbled across on the Pinterest this week =)

I just about spit out my Diet Coke when I read this ....

And this challenged my heart...

Your turn!

Link up here:

Insta-Kristi Photo Dump

I, along with the rest of the free world, have a compete crush on all things Instagram! To be fair, I'm a little obsessed with all things social media and go though phases where I use The Tweeter

 like I'm getting paid for it! 

(To be clear.... I am not, in fact, getting paid for it)

(Also, yes, I know it's called Twitter but I like calling it The Tweeter...sorry for the fact that I'm sure that's annoying...)

I loooove reading other peoples Instagram photo dump posts and thought -

"Hey. Kristi. You should copy that idea!"

Soooooooo..... Here ya go! Some Instagram highlights from recent days =)

If you want to follow my hijinks in real time you can find the link to my Instagram on the right!

As I mentioned Monday, I'm a liiiiitle bit of a crazy football fangirl and so getting a new Carolina sticker for my car put me on cloud nine.... Or maybe I should say cloud 21 since that is the jersey number of my fav Gamecock =)

(Gooooo Marcus!)

The Lord hasn't brought any babies our way yet but he's given me the privilege of having a precious little one to practice on :) I like to put her in giant hairbows because - say it with me southern ladies - the bigger the bow the closer to God. ( Fairly sure that's not in the Bible but am positive its implied)

Sometimes I get bored in the car. This is the result. Jonathan loves it.

Finding the joy people....finding the joy... A sweet gift from a friend helps remind me :)

I. Miss. The. Water. Sometime around last August I reached the point where, if one more person told me the lake was the same as the ocean, I was going to have a full on Real Housewives of Somewhere level meltdown. The lake and I are working on our relationship though and I think, by this summer, I might be willing to even to dip my toes in the water without rolling my eyes.

Hushpuppies are my love language. End of story :)

Do you love Instagram? The Tweeter? Give me a follow so I can follow back!

Miscellany Monday, Shawty

Happy Monday party people!! Ready for an explosion of randomness?? Awesome.

*  Sorry again that things around here have been a little more quiet than normal...Things have been so sporadic around here lately because I have undiagnosed ADD we are in the midst of some transition.  To say that I don't like change would be liken to saying that the Kardashians use a few hair extensions - a.k.a. it would be a massive understatement.  I'm confident that I will share more about my neuroses in detail but, in the meantime, I'd love your prayers for my sanity and for Jonathan to not throw me off a bridge =)

*  My mourning for football season in officially in full force. Besides happening in the midst of my favorite time of year - FALL! - I have a love for football that borderlines on fanatical.  I may or may not follow this tumblr just so I can have a countdown to my own personal Christmas.

*  I am eager to bring back this trend.... 

I have a hard time letting trends that I LOVE go (Please reference my first point...) and have decided that I am going to single handedly bring back the hair feather trend. You are welcome Steven Tyler...

*  I am unashamed to admit that I am L-O-V-E with the "Cruise" remix featuring Nelly.  I already loved that song and now they've gone and added in a rapper from circa 2001 - which was also a time known as "The Year I Wore Pleather Pants & Went Clubbing".
  (Praise the Name that there are few, if any, photos of that unfortunate period...)
ANYway....
At one point in this fabulous little ditty Nelly drops one of my all time favorite "If-I-Were-A-Wrapper-I'd-Use-It-All-The-Time" words:
Shawty.
If you haven't heard this collision of two musical worlds, fear not =) Here ya go:



Disclaimer:  I really tried to look for an official music video or something that wasn't just several minutes of staring at Nelly's face but - alas - it was not to be found. sooooo focus on the tune =)

*  This sweet city has so grown on me...

Alright shawty... Your turn =)

The Grace Gift

Grace.

It's a word and concept that anyone who has grown in or around church has heard countless times.

It's so abstract but yet so concrete.

It is pivotal to everything we believe as Christians and a vital element to extend to a hurting world as we attempt to live as Jesus did.

This past week, I was helping a precious lady at work choose a gift.  We looked at several goodies and she settled on a beautiful jewelry piece with the word "Grace" engraved on it.  As I stood by for her to think and to answer questions, she threw out a question I didn't see coming.

"What exactly is grace?"

Um. Woah. Ok.

My answer?

Grace, to me, is defined in context of my relationship with Jesus... Grace is like an outstretched hand that is continually available to us.  It is a soft place to land in the moments when we need forgiveness and for the love and gentleness of a Savior to put our hurting hearts back together.

One struggle I have with this gift of grace is battling the idea that it can be earned or, likewise, lost... It's in the moments when I need to encounter the healing grace of Jesus the most, that I am usually the most convinced it's not available to me.

I rattle off a list of countless things I've done wrong in the past days and convince myself that - yep. The grace of the Father isn't mine for the taking today.  I've failed too big. I've fallen too far.

Nothing is farther from the truth friends...

The gift of grace is ours always and has an infinite shelf life.  It can't be earned and it is NEVER withheld from us as punishment.  Rest in the truth that the grace of Jesus is complete, and full, and ALWAYS yours to encounter.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness...:

2 Corinthians 12:9