Sunshine Award Vlog Edition...

One of my favorites and second-time new Momma's, Annie, from One Crazy Mama hit me up with another Sunshine Award!  Boom!  I know y'all are excited because this time I'm vlog'n it, yo!'

You're Welcome!

 

Here are my version of the "rules"...

1. Include award logo in a post or on your blog.

2. Link to the person who nominated you

3. Answer 10 questions about yourself and write 10 questions for your nominees to answer.

4. Nominate bloggers to receive the award. Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs letting them know they’ve been nominated.

1. You're at starbucks what do you order?

2. Do you and your hubby/significant other have celeb "free passes" if so who?

3. Peanut butter and jelly or honey?

4. Favorite workout machine at the gym or at home?

5. Favorite place to online shop?

6. You have 3 hours of uninterrupted time what do you do?

7. If you could do ANYTHING to your hair and you knew it would look good what would you do?

8. If you have to choose between doing your makeup or doing your hair what do you do?

9. Day at the spa or day at the beach?

10. Do you believe in love at first sight?

xoxo

Jamberry Party & Giveaway...

Holy Shit, Y'all!  I think I've found, no...I know I've found my newest fashion addiction!  Ever heard of Jamberry Nails?  If not, you'll thank me later for this introduction! Jamberry will make your life nails way more flirty, exciting, flashy, stylish, fun and  most importantly...EASY!

Jamberry launched in 2010 by three sisters who wanted a cheaper alternative to expensive salon visits!  The DIY, easy at-home application method, along with over 200+ designs PLUS a nail art studio where you can design your own, quickly became a hit and a new era in nail art was born!  Each Jamberry sheet of comes with 18 wraps and each wrap can be cut in half, meaning you can get more then one set out of a sheet (most sheets are good for 2-3 sets on average).  Jamberry even offers junior sheets for your little lady and I can't wait to get Norah some of the new holiday wraps!  All Jamberry wraps are gluten free and latex free.

A couple weeks ago I tried my first set of Jamberry Nail Wraps, and I don't think I will ever go back to straight polish!  The wraps last 10-14 days on average, but the key is the application.  I have to admit, I was Fuh-Reaked about putting on my first set, like for real!  Once I got started though, it was cake!  It took me about 30 minutes that first time, but it only took me about 10 minutes to put the second set on!  I'm a nail picker by nature...polish usually only lasts 2, maybe 3 days before it is just all sorts of F'd up!  The first set of Jams lasted 8 days, that's like forever long for me!  After talking to Lacey, my Jamberry Consultant, I told her the ends had started to get rough and that's why I took them off...she told me that if you just file the ends again (like you do when you put them on) that they will smooth down and last a few more days so I'm definitely going to do that with this set!  I've had them on since Saturday morning so far...the challenge is on!  Haha!  I was super surprised though by the patterned second set I have!  I'm usually a solid color girl, but I'm loving the pattern one the Delicate Rose wraps!  It's gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous and truth be told, I think the pattern helps hide any small imperfections from the application process!  You can easily cut the wraps to fit your nails perfectly, if needed, which I did for my thumbs since I have wide, straight thumb nail beds and the wraps are more round!


First Jamberry Nail Wrap Set - London Fog

What you need: Hair Dryer, Alcohol, Cotton Balls, Nail Scissors, Rubber Cuticle Pusher, Nail File, Jamberry Nail Wraps!

Second Jamberry Nail Wrap - Delicate Rose

Now, the part y'all have been waiting for...who wants some Jamberry for FREE!?  My girl, and Jamberry Consultant, Lacey is giving one lucky reader one sheet of their choice of Jamberry Nail Wraps!  All you have to do to enter is 1) follow this blog, StronglyFeminine, on Bloglovin! 2) like Lacey's Jamberry Facebook Page! 3) leave a comment saying you did so!  The giveaway will run through Sunday at 12:00pm CST and the winner will be announced Monday, September 23rd!  Holla!

I'm also hosting an online Jamberry Party!  If you are interested in trying out the Jamberry Nail Wraps and don't win the giveaway click HERE and you will be directed straight to my online party website where you can check out all the designs and place your order!  The party will be open for 2 weeks!

If you have any questions about Jamberry or want to learn more, you can email Lacey directly at laceymegan.jamberry@yahoo.com!  To get to Lacey's personal Jamberry website click here! 

Jamberry Nail Wrap Application Video!!

 

If you've already tried the Jamberry Nail Wraps, do you love them as much as I do?!

xoxo

Iseminger Chronicles...

Hey Y'all!  I'm guest posting for Ashlee today over at Iseminger Chronicles!  If you've ever thought to yourself, "This shit would never have happened before I had kids..." then you should head over and check out today's post "Only After Kids" here!

Anniversary Weekend Recap will be up later this week!

Giveaway City!

I posted a Giveaway on my HomeGirl (Instagram @darci_spear) Friday evening for a super cute handbag perfect for Fall, if you haven't entered head over there now and do it!

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for a Jamberry Nail Review and Giveaway!  You won't want to miss this one!

 

Make it a great Monday, Y'all!

xoxo

Five Years...

Thank Goodness It's Friday! 

It's a very special day at the Spear Shack... it's The Husband and I's Five Year Wedding Anniversary! 

I wanted to share with y'all some of our wedding photos!  Mostly for attention because I love it, but also because The Husband rarely makes an appearance on the blog!  What can I say, he's my Gypsy!

Enjoy...oh and stay tuned for a little wedding horror story after the photos...



 

 

Gorgeous photos, right!?  However, did you notice anything different, odd, missing?...Say maybe our wedding party...family and friends...the ceremony and reception...maybe?  Well, let me tell you a story...I'm gonna break it down for you nice and easy...we do not have one single picture from our wedding day from the photographer we hired!  Not one!  I know...go ahead, gasp...I'll wait!  Oh and on top of that, I was 10 weeks pregnant with Jack in all of these photos...I know, right!?  So the wedding day went off without a hitch, well besides it torrential raining which lead to about a third of our rsvp'd guests pulling a no show and having a shit ton of wasted food and booze (well booze never goes to waste, but I digress)...otherwise it was a wonderful day!  I had my best girlfriends with me and I don't think I yelled at too many people?  Eek!

Our photographer was from my hometown, even though we got married in Pittsburg where we live, and she had shot numerous of my friend's weddings.  She did our engagement photos, loved them!  The day of the wedding I think she shot for 6 hours, maybe...we ventured outside in the rain and took the cutest group photos with black umbrellas, we spent an hour getting all the different family photos, she of course captured the ceremony and the reception and all that good stuff!

Fast forward 2 months, my cell rings and I see it was her, I was so excited because I knew this meant our photos were ready for viewing!  Squeal!  Instead I answer and immediately know something is up...she was rambling and mumbling and stuttering, finally I hear "I don't have any of your pictures from your wedding!"  I was all, "Say whaaaat!?" In the end, the disk she had in her camera was corrupt so when she went to pull the pictures off of it...she couldn't.  She had sent it out to two different data recovery places and they couldn't get anything off of it either.  There I was, now 6 weeks pregnant, bloated and without a single wedding photo...mother fuck!  Of course, she refunded all of our money and asked if she could at least do a "studio"shoot with us.  My first thought was, "yeah, sure if I can get my gut back in my body hugging, unforgiving, straight, zero poof, lace dress."  Followed by, "where is my dress?!"  And lastly, "Fuck!  I just cut off all my hair!"  I had cut about 12 inches off my hair the week after our honeymoon, so those are extensions in all of the photos!  LOL!

Four weeks later we had our studio shoot and I have to admit, we ended up with some amazing photos of The Husband and me...but it's not the same, no way - no how!  I am thankful for the photos we do have though, and my step-mom actually took quite a few candid shots throughout the day so we do have those as well!  Here are a few photos from our actual wedding day!

Moral of the story:  When life gives you lemons, you might end up with some gorgeous photos...just not the ones you really wanted, but be thankful and satisfied with what you do have!

Anyone else have a wedding horror story!?  Do share!?

 xoxo



Dirty Thirty Update...

In honor of Throwback Thursday, I'm going to throw it back to January 2013 when I shared my plan to accept and embrace my Dirty Thirty with y'all! 

 

Let's play a little catch up for those of you who are new(er) around here!

So here is the deal, I'm going to list out 30 things, items, tasks, adventures, goals, targets - whatever you want to call them - that I want to accomplish in my 30th year here on this great place we call Earth! Awesome right, and so not overdone...HP! My items will be anything from fitness or cosmetic improvements, foods I've never tried, places I want to go, people I want to see/meet, things I want to have the balls to wear in public - pretty much whatever! I'll keep track and update as each item is scheduled and completed! Boo-ya! Sounds amazeballs, right?! I'll admit, I just thought of this concept this morning (like 10 minutes ago), so I might not list all 30 right here and now because I don't want them to be lame, ordinary and/or expected goals!

 

Below are updates, progress reports if you will, on all Dirty Thirty items!  You're Welcome!

one Run 3 10k Races - One down!  Two to go...


Groundhog Run 10k - January 2013

two Run a Half Marathon - I am officially registered for the Route 66 Half in November, but with the whole hip/IT Band/knee injury I'm already considered dropping to the 5k option for this one!  I've just now gotten back to 2-3 mile interval walk/runs.  I have until the 1/25/14 to accomplish this one though so I hopefully will still be able to get this done!

Route 66 Half Marathon - November 2013

three Get New Boobies - Mission Accomplished! You can find out all about the process from beginning to end here, here, here and here !!  As a final update - I love them!  Couldn't be happier with the results! 

four Run five or more 5k Races - Mission Accomplished!

Joplin Memorial Run 5k - May 2013

Starry Night 5k - June 2013

A Midsummer Night's 5k - July 2013

Stars & Stripes Virtual 5k - July 2013

Blue Moon 5k - August 2013

Running For Maggie Virtual 5k - August 2013

five Get to my pre-baby weight - This honestly seems like a never-ending battle!  I've bounced around the same 5-8 pound range since April!  I have about 15 pounds left to lose to hit this goal! To Be Continued...

six Rock a swim suit with no shame at the public swimming pool this summer - Mission Accomplished!  More than once!

Norah Jane rock'd the shit out of her BIKINI too!

seven Fit into my wedding dress!

eight Experience Mardi Gras STL Style - Mission Accomplished! You can read about that here!

nine Take a girls trip - I've done lots of girl's weekends, but the big Girl's Trip is going down in November!  Chi-Town Baybay!

ten Visit another country - Mission Accomplished!  The Husband and I spent 8 days, 7 nights in Cancun, Mexico for my brother's wedding the end of April!  It was a much needed and amazing vacation!
 eleven Get Norah Jane's Birthdate tattoo - Mission Accomplished! twelve Get Eleanor Roosevelt quote tattoo!

thirteen Get E.E. Cummings quote tattoo - Mission Accomplished!



i carry your heart

fourteen Take the kids to Branson for vacation - Mission Accomplished!

 



fifteen Go for a hot-air balloon ride!

 

sixteen Take Jack horseback riding!

 

seventeen Go to a concert! - I'm supposed to go to a PINK concert in November, I'm just not a big concert person I guess!  Although I really wanted to go see T Swift when she was in KC and I had plans to go see Miranda Lambert with all the Memphis Bloggers, but that fell through! 

 

eighteen Family Camping Trip - We've camped in the living room...does that count?

 

 

nineteen Get my photo wall done at the house!

 

twenty Hang curtains in the living area!

 

twenty-one Do a Tough Mudder - I actually have TWO Tough Mudders coming up and I'm scared shit less!  First one is next Saturday 9/21 in Topeka, KS and the second one is 10/26 in Dallas, TX!

 

 

twenty-two Go to my FIRST ever KC Chiefs NFL game - We are going to the Chiefs versus Cowboys game this Sunday for our anniversary!  Boom!

 

twenty-three Meet my TWINIE Kassie from Southern Girl Gets Fit!

 

twenty-four Purge my closet and get rid of or sell a shit ton of clothes - Mission Accomplished!  Have you checked out Second_Hand-Style on my HomeGirl yet?  If not, you've missed out on a ton of clothing sales!  It's the best!

 

 

 

twenty-five Do Norah Jane's Big Girl Room - I found her bed, it's awesome!  We are planning to do her room for her big Christmas present!  I'm so excited!

 

twenty-six Get Jack to sleep in his bedroom!

 

twenty-seven Adopt a pet - Mission Accomplished!  Meet Oscar the Boxer!

 

 

twenty-eight Take a long weekend trip to see my Queen B, Brecken in CO since she deserted me here in KS!

 

twenty-nine Sky Dive!  Eek!

 

dirty thirty Get my Twerk, Wobble and Dougie on all in the same night!

 

If anyone wants to volunteer to help me accomplish any of the remaining missions, please feel free to email me - we'll make plans!

 

xoxo