After the fire, I started having some trouble with my cell phone and since I needed to replace my phone I decided to go ahead and splurge on an iPhone. Not the fancy new one, but the older model. I just needed something functional and I’ll admit I was kind of looking forward to having a nicer phone that might simplify my life. And it sure has!

It’s made it easier for me to stay on top of emails, what’s going with the Facebook page and staying in touch with my awesome clients. But it’s also added some fun perks to my life too! So I thought I’d share some of my favorite apps with you! Perhaps some of these are favorite apps of yours too or maybe they’re new ones I’m introducing you to! Either way I hope you find this a fun little peek into some things I’m loving!

• Instagram
Instagram was one of the first apps I knew I wanted to get for my new phone. Several of my other photographer friends had this app already so I knew I wanted to tinker with this fun photo app. It’s really neat. You can take pictures, add a retouch to them, and then share them through the app. It’s really quick, clean, and easy. And it’s even super simple to share the pictures with my friends on Facebook and twitter.

• C25K Free
I just recently got this app since my friend Amber and I decided to start getting in shape again. We agreed to do the Couch to 5K together. So when I found this handy little app that tells me when to run, walk, warm up and cool down – I was pretty excited. It simplifies my workout so I’m not having to think to hard about the numbers…. which I love!

• My Fitness Pal
Fitness Pal was another app I knew I wanted to get for my phone before I had a fancy phone. This app makes tracking calories, exercise, etc incredibly easy! I love that I can even plug in my own recipes to figure out how many calories I’m consuming in a meal. I can save recipes, exercises, and foods to my app too so it’s easy for me to find them later. I’m hoping between this app and the C25K app I’ll be getting my booty back in shape.

• Pinterest
As I’m sure you already know – I’m a HUGE Pinterest addict. So the fact that there’s an app for Pinterest only makes me that much more giddy. I still prefer the website version over the app, but I do love being able to scan through it on my phone when I’m waiting at the doctor’s office or something. I always find cool things on there.

• Scramble with Friends
I only recently downloaded this app too, but I’m addicted! I’ve played Words with Friends, but it didn’t hook me like this game did. I love that each game is only 2 minutes long. It’s more a game of speed and word searching where word of friends requires a bit of analytics…. and when I need a break from work I don’t usually want to have to think. It’s a perfect little break from work. So I LOVE this game!

So there you have it – some of my favorite phone apps. Hopefully you found this little bit of app love to be fun! I hope you all are having a wonderful Friday and that you get to do something SUPER fun this weekend! See you back here on Monday!

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So I’m still in the midst of editing photos since I just got my replacement laptop and software late last week. And since today is Halloween I thought I ought to share something a little Halloween-y.

I’m not hugely into Halloween. I’ve never really decorated for it or gotten into the whole getting dressed up thing – especially once I was past the age of the door-to-door trick or treating. But there is one thing I look forward to every Halloween. For the past six or seven years, Ryan and I got to the Conklin’s Barn II Dinner Theatre in Goodfield, IL with his family. It is an absolute blast every year!

If you’re unfamiliar with the Barn Theater – it is basically this giant red barn that has been turned into a Dinner Theater area with loft seating and the whole she-bang! We typically go on a Sunday afternoon and get lunch, which is always an amazing buffet style meal. There’s typically: fried chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, steamed veggies, rice, biscuits, and dessert. So you get your food, you sit down and eat for a bit while visiting and then the show starts!

We love going to the October show because it’s usually a funny mystery of some kind. This year’s mystery was called Exit the Body. A hilarious who-done-it adventure of a mystery writer in New England whose closet is the rendezvous point for stolen jewels and dead bodies. A body found in the closet promptly disappears only to be succeeded by another. The hunt for the jewels reaches a climax at two A.M. when four couples unknown to each other turn up to search them. And as always the cast did an amazing job!

The other part of the Barn Theater that makes it so great is that they always remember you! We really only come once a year in October as a nice little treat and a time to visit with the in-laws. But every year they remember our names when we walk in and they are so friendly and excited to see us again. Plus – the actors and actresses also work as wait staff, food service people, and box office personnel. So you are actually being waited on by someone playing in the show!

They’re actually gearing up for their holiday show now which will having singing and dancing and another outstanding cast! I highly recommend going to at least one show (though I think if you go to one – you’ll probably want to go to more ). And if you have a few minutes – do me a favor and show them some love on their Facebook page. Go like it and share it with a friend! I’d really like to help get the word out about this awesome place!

Alright – enough of my talk – have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

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I have sat here… I kid you not… for at least an hour trying to decide what to write about.  I have some ideas for future posts, but they aren’t quite ready yet – most are only half-formed. So I thought I’d do another Showin’ Some Love post and focus on other blogs I love.

1) Fab35mm: A Place to Squee
http://elizagolightly.tumblr.com/
I’ll confess I absolutely love this blog! I check it almost daily. Audree describes her tumblr account like this:
I am a blogger in my mid-20s. My blog is full of movie reviews and other things, but I try to hold back my inner fangirl. That’s what THIS account is for. A nice warm place to let out those squee urges. Hope you enjoy and perhaps can add to it!
And I feel like that description describes it perfectly. She shares so many awesome pictures, quotes and info on tons of things I love! (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Elijah Woods, Keira Knightley, etc.)

2) Vegan Yum Yum
http://veganyumyum.com/
I found this blog through Pinterest. I absolutely love pinterest because I always find the neatest things. I love this blog – it’s got tons of great vegan recipes. I haven’t had time to try any of them yet, but I’m really excited to soon!

3) Elle Apparel
http://elleapparel.blogspot.com/
Another blog I found through Pinterest. This blog has tons of awesome DIY clothes tutorials. I’ve always loved sewing. Heck – in high school I made all my dresses for my high school dances. This blog has lots of great ideas and they are super easy tutorials!

4) Mary Janes & Galoshes
http://www.maryjanesandgaloshes.com/
Yet another blog I found through pinterest. This blog has awesome tutorials and DIYs for around the house. Whether it’s selecting paint color options, coming up with new decor, or refinishing a piece of furniture – you can find great step-by-step instructions here.

5) Green Mommy Blog
http://greenmommyblog.com/
I found this blog a while ago… Even though I’m not a mommy (not yet anyway), this blog is chock full of awesome information, great green products, and tips for going green. I love the tiffins on the products page and I would one day love to have a set of my own!

6) Sleep Talkin’ Man
http://www.sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com/
This will be my last one this time. This blog may have some crude language, but it’s so funny! This is a guy who talks in his sleep at night and his wife records/writes it down and shares it with the world. Part of the reason it’s so funny is that awake – this guy is the sweetest, most polite guy you could ever meet, but when he’s asleep he turns into this ginormous jerk! They’ve even got t-shirts and things with some of the quotes on it.

Well I hope you’ll find something fun in some of these blogs! Have an awesome weekend!

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It’s been a while since I did a Showin’ Some Love Post, so here’s some things I’m loving this week!

• My Painted Kitchen Cabinets
As you know, we’ve started working on our kitchen… as inexpensively as possible. So for now we’ve painted our cabinets. What’s funny is I photoshopped a picture of our kitchen to show what it might look like when we finish it. And the cabinets are surprisingly close to my photoshopped picture:

This is the photoshopped picture

This is what it looks like now...

But I’m quite honestly incredibly happy with how it’s turned out! The kitchen is so much brighter and it looks so much less dirty and worn and cheap. It makes me happy every time I see them! I don’t know why we didn’t do this sooner!

• Heaven is for Real! by: Todd Burpo
My wonderful friend, Raeanna, let me borrow this book, and I couldn’t put it down. I read the whole thing in one day! It’s such a good book. It’s about a 4 year old boy who had an emergency surgery and miraculous recovery. Afterwards he tells his parents he left his body during surgery and authenticated his claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on. he talked of visiting heaven and relayed stories told to him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. He also described obscure details about heaven that matched the Bible exactly, though he had not yet learned to read. It’s a brilliant read! I’d recommend it to everyone!

• Customize Treasures Moss Covered Letter
I love this awesome moss-covered letter I got from Customized Treasures! I have it hanging on my kitchen cabinets so it’s the first thing people see when they come into my house. I love it! Being the outdoorsy, nature loving gal I am, I love any way I can bring the outside in and this is a perfect way to do it! Check out Customied Treasures etsy page to get your own!

• Magazine Cover Photo
I just got an envelope in the mail last week, and tucked inside was the May edition of Healthy Cells. I have to admit, it’s totally surreal to see my image on the cover of the magazine. There are about 4-5 pages inside the magazine that are covered with my pictures too. I feel so proud to be the photographer for this wonderful little magazine!

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
If you’re a Harry Potter fan – you know that the first part of the final movie came out on BluRay and DVD a couple weeks ago. I’ll admit… I’ve watched it at least a dozen times in the past couple weeks, and July 15th can’t get here soon enough! I can’t wait to see what they do with the final film! Lord of the Rings will still always be my first favorite film & book combo, but Harry Potter is a close second.

Have a Happy Friday and a wonderful weekend!

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Well Wednesday is here already. I had plans for today, but it looks like I’m going to be shifting those over to tomorrow’s to-do list. Ryan finally decided it was probably a good idea for him to go to the doctor now that he’s been sick for almost two weeks. We’ve both had a cold of some sort, and we are both to stubborn to go to the doctor. We aren’t fans of doctors …or doctor offices …or bills.

Which leads me into a new installment of Showin’ Some Love.

• Puffs Plus
With both Ryan and myself having runny noses, we’ve gone through about six boxes of these in the past week and a half. I have to say there definitely is a difference. I love these softer kleenexes, and my nose is SO much happier. With the cheaper tissues my nose would be red, chapped, and raw by now, but with the Puffs Plus kleenexes my nose is only slightly chapped and not sore at all.

• Halls Cough Drops
Ryan has had a terrible cough and I’ve had a bit of one too. I’ve tried a lot of different cough drops over the years and I have to say I still think Halls is my go to cough drop. They don’t taste terrible and they definitely sooth your throat and cough while you’re sucking on them. Now those newer fruity ones, the Breezers – I think, they don’t do much of anything. I’ll stick to my old school Halls, thanks very much!

• NyQuil
Now I’m not much for medicine. I avoid it if at all possible, but I love how much comfort Ryan gets out of NyQuil. It has helped him get to sleep the past few nights especially with all the coughing he’s doing. Now I don’t know if it’s the NyQuil or being sick but it also cuts back on the snoring… Just an interesting little tid bit of info for you.

Well there you have it – my cold-related love. Hope you’re all having a wonderful week and staying healthy!
Happy Wednesday!

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While Christmas is my favorite holiday, this is most definitely not my favorite time of year! Don’t get me wrong – I love having seasons. I even enjoy getting snow. But it’s the freezing rain and slick, slippery roads I’m not a fan of. Driving 30 mph down an ice-covered country road is not my idea of fun!

• Hot Chocolate

Actually I could drink hot chocolate all year long, but there’s something so perfect, so aesthetic, about curling up under a big fluffy blanket and drinking a cup of hot chocolate in the winter. We’ve taken to purchasing the big variety pack of Land of Lakes Hot Cocoa mix at Sam’s Club. Chocolate Graham Cracker and Tiramisu are my favorites!

• Baking

Christmas time is the best excuse for baking! You fire up the oven and it adds and extra oomph of heat to the whole house and then the smell of whatever you’re baking makes the whole house smell delicious! Yum! When we were little, my mom and her sisters and all the girl cousins would get together and bake during Christmas-time. We’d make sugar cookies, and hard rock candle, caramels, and gingerbread cookies, and all kinds of delicious treats! I miss doing this, but now I have an excuse to do baking myself and someday it will be something I can do with my girls.

Well there’s just a few reasons I love this holiday! Check back tomorrow… I’m hoping to have a blog post up in the next few days about a truly giving, wonderful couple and how you can help them.

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