Monday, January 31, 2011

new camera

I FINALLY GOT A NICE CAMERA!!!
one of my very best friends traded me for it :) 
how wonderful is he!!!?
I have to be honest, on some level I thought that once I get a nice camera, all of the sudden my pictures would look magnificent.. 
....i don't think that is reality.
Its a Canon EOS 50D-- I have all of the books and everything and need to start reading up, but any advice you guys have? or good websites to check out? 

I can not wait. I am obsessed with nature and beautiful scenery and I can't wait to start snapping away. 
I'm going to take the advice of a twitter friend and become a tourist in my own city and take tons of super cute pictures!!! (hopefully..)

Friday, January 28, 2011

friday blanks


playing along with lauren today! 





1.   If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab      oh my gosh... my 10 seasons of FRIENDS (thats 1..), my computer and my new camera :)

2.  A smell I really like is  lemon flavored soap?? i know.. weird, but SO GOOD

3.  Something you might not know about me is       I was a child model and  my dad saved all of my money for me and gave to me when I graduated college and I loved it .

4.  Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are   blogs for days

5.  This weekend I will     be going to a rehearsal dinner & wedding for a friend of my husbands (and mine :) ) and hopefully having a relaxing day saturday and sunday!!

6. Nothing makes me happier than     getting things done, sunshine, having a long quite time.

7.  A bad habit I have is      touching my face and my hair always which a new friend of mine pointed out :) 

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

in need..

of a bit of a wardrobe update.
I decided that I want to dress more sophisticated...
I am so lazy with my outfits most of the day, and honestly desire to be in my sweats all the time.
I've been known to dress for comfort most of my life but that doesn't mean I still can't dress cute..
looking to be inspired a little bit, I found a few of these looks that I like:




in an effort to start, I bought yesterday at Target
2 pairs of tights (black and blue)
2 fun rings
and these 2 pairs of shoes:
here


and here
excited to start playing a little bit of dress up! 

What do you feel like your style is? 
Do you have fun with your clothes or does it seem like more of a burden to dress up?
any tips on still being comfortable while dressing up a little bit more??

Thursday, January 20, 2011

desired collection


I've been getting so exited to build up my jewelry box. I don't wear a whole lot right now, but as I get older, I want to dress more sophisticated and with that comes some wonderful jewelry. Loving how cute this vanity set is :)



Wednesday, January 19, 2011

blogiversary

one year ago I started this blog as a cry for help.
I was so super miserable in my job where I sat at a computer doing nothing all day
I started this blog just For Me so that I would have a place to be creative

I chose the blog title For Me as a reminder to myself; to be motivated by me and me alone. A lesson that the Lord has etched into my heart this past year has been all about Him being the true source of guidance, answers and truth, instead of seeking to win approval from everyone else, I practiced how to only hear HIS voice and no one else's.

We can spend so much time as humans, and women, comparing ourselves to everyone else, or confusing the decisions we need to make with the answers they are coming up with instead of what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us-- about what church to go to, where to live, what to spend money on, when to have kids etc. Although I have a wonderful husband, friends and family, they do not know what is best for me, The Lord does. January 16th's devotion in My Utmost for His Highest says this:
"The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not ours. God providentially weaves the threads of His call through our lives, and only we can distinguish them. It is the threading of God’s voice directly to us over a certain concern, and it is useless to seek another person’s opinion of it. Our dealings over the call of God should be kept exclusively between ourselves and Him."
I use this blog as a reminder to live this way. It's For Me and for Him to decide together.
I feel like this year I really gave up that control, let Him lead me and I am so excited where He is taking me.

and {although} I blogged For Me,
I have found some wonderful friends, been inspired like MAJOR and had SO much fun!!!
I can't wait to continue!
THANK you for reading, THANK you for inspiring me and THANK you for your frienships!!!


Here are some of my favorite posts from the last year:

encouragement of your stories
my built-ins that I love
my life's seasons in scripture
complete desperation
love is here, love is now
beginning of forever
impassable
loving lots of white
alive & thirsty

Friday, January 14, 2011

WINNER

of this beautiful necklace
congrats amanda from Prim and Propah :)




amanda, send me your contact info and I will get you connected to the wonderful ladies at Sea Lillie :)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

give me SUN




it was freezing here in Portland on Monday but SUNNY, now, it's back to rain but I am just CRAVING sun. I need it, my skin needs it, my hair needs it, my SOUL needs it. dreaming of being HER right now.

update on my life right now

1. my cousin had her baby girl tonight! going to see her tomorrow, so so excited.

2. my mamma is going in for surgery on friday because she broke her arm/elbow last week :(

3. I'm going to BEND with my bible study girls this weekend, I CANT WAIT to relax, cook, watch friends, see the snow, and hopefully the sun!

4. my GIVEAWAY ends tonight!!!! come and enter!! PLEASE :)  all you have to do is be a follower, heart Sea Lillie on etsy and then leave a comment saying you did so! the necklace is SO cute

5. I am working on my health right now...part of that is being gluten free, which I have been for 12 years but now its like SUPER STRICT no gluten.. it's killing me right now... any great gluten free recipes out there?

How are you?! What are your plans this weekend??

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

wish I was here wednesday


friends, i would looove to see:
where do you wish you were today???
write a blog post or a picture post and come back and link up!!!

Grab this button if you'd like to put into your post
so everyone can link back and swoon over all of the wonderful pictures and ideas:

For Me


Friday, January 7, 2011

2 things You told me

two things You told me
that You're strong
and that You love me
yes You love me


Your love is
Your love is
Your love is
strong


Your love is
Your love is
Your love is
strong

-jon foreman

Thursday, January 6, 2011

{GIVEaway TIME}

Friends, so excited to share this beautiful line of jewelry with you.

Sea Lillie was created by this sister-in law team as a means of expressing
 their passion for God's creation as all of their pieces are nature inspired.

I've been drooling over their stuff the last few days and deciding what to buy for myself right now!
:) some of my top choices right now....


That cutie elephant necklace in the bottom left corner has a great story. These girls partner with an organization called The Give Life Project and all proceeds of this "Hope Necklace" go towards supporting them. How great is that??


 "Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice!
 Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!" 
Psalm 96:11  


 UP FOR GRABS: 
this lovely flower petal necklace



(i love the details on the clasp)

how to enter:

*leave one comment stating that you've done the following 2 things:
{1.} Be a follower of For Me using Google Friend Connect
 & {2.} heart Sea Lillie on etsy
{This is a mandatory entry & must be done before other entries}

additional ways to enter
{leave a separate comment for each!}

1. follow Sea Lillie's blog
2. follow me @oliviakcarter on twitter
3. Tweet about the giveaway & include @oliviakcarter 
4. add my blog button to your side bar
5. blog about the giveaway {2 entries}

{Giveaway closes next Thursday 1/13 & the winner will be chosen via random.org}

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

wish I was here wednesday



friends, i would looove to see:
where do you wish you were today???
write a blog post or a picture post and come back and link up!!!

Grab this button if you'd like to put into your post
so everyone can link back and swoon over all of the wonderful pictures and ideas:


For Me


Tuesday, January 4, 2011

organized: storage

a few weekends ago my mother-in-law and I cleaned out her attic big time.

Attics or storage spaces are so tough because they begin to become overwhelming. There is SO much in there. Storage, holiday stuff, lots of old junk, old treasures etc. Boxes continue to pile up in the awkward spaces in our homes which makes it harder to get to and more of a reason to just leave it be.

operation clear out:

Step One: Pick a day.

just do it. just decide what day you are going to clean it out. recruit a friend or 2 and write it on the calendar. this will hold you accountable and not let you make an excuse to not do it.

Step Two: Goals and Objectives with the space: write them down, talk about them as a group right before you start.

in the case of my saturday, my mother in law is looking to move out of her house into something of a more managable side. She wanted to purge and get rid of things that she hasn't in years and be realistic about the things that she needs to keep.

Step Three: We created the following bins:

Goodwill | Trash | Keep in the attic | put somewhere else in the house

since the room was so big and such a large project, the bins would fill up fast.
to keep the job moving, and to not let us loose steam and get bored we would take care of the bins every time they got full.

We put the goodwill stuff in a garbage bag and labeled it with masking tape
We took the trash down to the garbage outside
took the "somewhere else in the house" and put it in that place

this made our day go by so fast and not let us get overwhelmed with the amount of stuff we had coming out of the attic.

Sadly, we were so excited to start that I forgot to take a before picture but to give you the picture, the MOMENT you opened the door there was ... stuff.

here are the after pics, we cleared out so much stuff it was so wonderful
we took the goodwill stuff straight there, vacummed up :)



we were so happy and proud to put storage boxes back in without anything in them 


if you're thinking about doing a big organizing/purging project like this, my biggest advice would be to not be overwhelmed to start. keep in mind that it will most likely take one day. it seems crazy and chaotic in the midst of it, but is so so worth it when its over and done

happy purging :)

Monday, January 3, 2011

need.. more.. space...

brian and i have been itching in the last few months for a new home.
don't get me wrong, we are beyond blessed to own a nice home now...
but there are so many things we don't like about it, after living in it for 2 years,
more and more things bother us, like the 90's doors and cheap cabinets, 
the super small laundry room, lack of storage space, taupe carpet & walls.. etc.

dreaming of a new, clean, simplistic beautiful home like this:






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