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just for fun

chronic stylegiveawayjust for fun

Birthday Recap & A Giveaway!

One of the other highlights of fall is celebrating my birthday! I don’t like celebrating my age (creeping towards the mid-30’s category scares the crap out of me) but I am definitely one to stretch things out and try to celebrate over the course of a week! At least a week! More if I play my cards right 🙂

This year John had to play guitar in a wedding on my birthday for one of our former youth (which seems to be happening a lot lately and making me feel even older!) so we had a little family celebration the weekend before. We had a family day and went out to do a little shopping and of course eating! One of my new favorite, favorite places to eat out is Brixx Pizza. I absolutely love pizza and could probably eat it every day of the week but when I was diagnosed with Celiac disease in 2010, I never thought I would be able to enjoy pizza out again until I discovered Brixx! They offer a gluten-free menu and the pizza is amazing! John and Abby also give the gluten-free pizza two thumbs up which doesn’t always happen! If only I can talk John into liking pineapple on our pizza! I have already converted Abby onto Team Pepperoni & Pineapple but can’t seem to bring John over to the other side!

Another awesome thing about Brixx is there patio terrance which provides a beautiful backdrop to a gorgeous fall day:

Birthday Celebration Recap

 

The following Saturday (the 18th) was my actual birthday and since John had to be elsewhere, I had to find a partner-in-crime to celebrate with! We have an honorary member of our family named Taylor (more affectionally known as TT) and it just so happens that her birthday is four days later! She is most definitely my partner-in-crime in all things beauty related and we can find just about every excuse in the book to make a trek to Ulta so we decided to enjoy a birthday girls’ night out!

Who doesn’t love to buy a new dress and get all dolled up? And of course, you have to rock the Birthday Girl sash:

Birthday Celebration Recap

Thankfully I was able to snag a picture with John before he had to scoot out for the wedding! We don’t have a lot around here (we do only have one stoplight after all) but we headed out to Outback (their gluten-free selection is also amazing) and ended the night with Cookout milkshakes.

Five Friday Favorites will be making a return next week so I will share my five favorite things from my birthday outfit which I adored:

Dress: Attention Women’s Studded Fit & Flare Dress

Heels: Abbey Dawn (purchased on Poshmark)

Bracelets: Also purchased on Postmark

Ring: ShopMissA.com (Similar)

Makeup Tutorial: Midnight Blue by GoldieStarling

In honor of my favorites and my birthday, I am going to be giving away some of my beauty favorites to one of YOU! Look at these goodies:

Birthday Favorites Giveaway

Giveaway box includes:

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Physician’s Formula Eye Booster 2-in-1 Lash Boosting Eyeliner & Serum in Ultra Black

Foundation Pump by BeautyMP (fits Revlon Colorstay)

Color Icon Eyeshadow Palette 5 Pan by Wet N Wild

Daily Brush Cleaner from ELF

Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips by Sally Hanson

Brilliant Shine Lip Gloss by Milani in Rose Blush

Matte Lip Crayon by Ulta in Hazy Pink

Anti-Bacterial Hand Gel by Bath & Body Works in Coconut Cabana

Ready for the Rules?

1-Leave a comment letting me know your top 3 beauty favorites that I need to check out.

For an additional entry:

2-Tweet about this giveaway and leave me an additional comment letting me know you did (including the link to your tweet).

Giveaway will run until Friday, November 28! Good luck!

Disclosure: I am hosting this giveaway and all products included in today’s giveaway box were purchased by moi! Honesty and transparency are always a priority! I hope you enjoy!

familyjust for fun

Fall Family Fun!

Welcome back y’all! Hopefully you guys made it through yesterday’s video post without any ill side effects! If you made it through the entire video, I am sending you a virtual cookie and a hug!

Thankfully in the midst of a Fall full of migraines, we had a couple chances to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather! Some of my favorite things about fall are beautiful days and a drop in sweet Southern humidity! Can I get an amen on that?!

My family lives five hours away so whenever we get a chance to all get together, we try to soak up every minute we can get! My parents along with my sister and three sweet nieces came down for a visit so we took advantage of a beautiful Saturday and headed down to Hollywild Animal Park! We love going to Hollywild as its a smaller zoo so its child (and spoonie!) friendly! It also helps that the terrain is almost entirely flat so that adds bonus points in the child and spoonie department. If you notice Hollywild sounds a lot like “Hollywood” as many of its animal residents are animal actors and have stared in movies or commercials! The resident rhino is the star of the Zycam “rhino virus” commercial as well as the Land Rover commercial from a few year’s back!

Here are some of my favorite shots:

Fall Family Fun at Hollywild Animal Park

I melt every time I look at the picture of Abby and Dorothy holding hands (be still my beating heart!) and I laugh every time I look at the picture of Happy Jack (the zonkey in the middle!). One of our other favorite things about Hollywild is the safari ride where you get to feed the animals! Be careful as you might get licked!

 

One of our other fall adventures was to our local corn maze! It is seriously one of the coolest places to visit! This year’s maze was in the shape of Charlie Brown & The Great Pumpkin! In addition to the maze, they had a hayride to a pumpkin patch, a zipline for kids, a cow train ride, a corn canon, and a host of other redneck  fun:

Fall Family Fun At The Shelby Corn Maze

I thought Abby would be a little hesitant to try out the zipline but I was way wrong! She loved it and probably rode it five times! We made it through the maze by luck as somehow our directions weren’t lining up and we seemed to bypass some markers! I thought only Thomasville had big chairs but we learned that Shelby has one too! I could not help but take a picture with the giant metal chicken! If you have ever read The Bloggess, you will know exactly why!

These were definitely two highlights of fall so far! Have you had any fun fall adventures with your family and friends? Do you have anything that is on your “must do” list every fall?

bloggingchronic illnessjust for fun

A Little Life Update & A TMI Tag!

I am so, so sorry that it has been so long since my last post! If you follow me on other areas of social media, you might now that the migraines I had been struggling with continued to amplify and I was have sometimes 4-5 migraine days a week. Of course with my migraines, I get all of the classic symptoms: hypersensitivity to light and sound, nausea, vomiting, blurry vision, vertigo,etc. Not a very fun existence at all if you can even call it existing. Black out curtains became my BFF and I honestly began to feel like a vampire!

After a few false starts, it finally seems like we may be getting a better handle on things and the number of migraines has gone way, way down. I have to be careful to not stand up to quickly when taking my new medication or I will pass out (which is always a fun side effect) but thankfully after you hit the floor a few times you learn your lesson 🙂

With my return to the land of the living, I am so excited to hop back into the swing of things and get this blog cranked up! The perk of being bed bound for awhile is that it does give you some time to think so I’ve got some ideas I am hoping to incorporate! Yay!

As my first post back, I thought I would do something a little different and I recorded my first ever video post! This is called the “TMI Tag” and I answer random questions that hopefully will allow you the chance to get to know me a little bit better and maybe have a laugh or two! It only took me four (ok, five) tries to get it right and we won’t go into the tears that were shed trying to figure out the editing program. I definitely still have a lot of learning to do in order to figure out the whole video and YouTube thing but it is finally done and I am really proud! Until recording this, I didn’t realize how thick my accent is so don’t laugh too hard!

There it is! I hope you guys really enjoyed it and congratulations if you made it through the entire thing! When I decided to do this tag, I had no idea it would take so long! LOL

I would love to hear you guys answer some or all of the questions! If you have a blog (or youtube) and do a post, leave me a link or just answer a few in the comments! Here is the list so you don’t have to take notes 🙂

1. What are you wearing?
2. Ever been in love?
3. Ever had a terrible breakup?
4. How tall are you?
5. How much do you weigh?
6. Any tattoos?
7. Any piercings?
8. OTP (One True Pairing: what’s your favorite fictional couple)?
9. Favourite show?
10. Favourite bands?
11. Something you miss?
12. Favourite song?
13. How old are you?
14. Zodiac sign?
15. Quality you look for in a partner?
16: Favourite Quote?
17: Favourite actor?
18: Favourite color?
19: Loud music or soft?
20: Where do you go when you’re sad?
21: How long does it take you to shower?
22: How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
23: Ever been in a physical fight?
24: Turn on?
25: Turn off?
26: The reason I joined Youtube/Blogging?
27: Fears?
28: Last thing that made you cry?
29: Last time you said you loved someone?
30: Meaning behind your Youtube/Blogging Name?
31: Last book you read?
32: The book you’re currently reading?
33: Last show you watched?
34: Last person you talked to?
35: The relationship between you and the person you last texted?
36: Favourite food?
37: Place you want to visit?
38: Last place you were?
39: Do you have a crush?
40: Last time you kissed someone?
41: Last time you were insulted?
42: Favourite flavour of sweet?
43: What instruments do you play?
44: Favourite piece of jewelry?
45: Last sport you played?
46: Last song you sang?
47: Favourite chat up line?
48: Have you ever used it?
49: Last time you hung out with anyone?
50: Who should answer these questions next?

I just want to end by saying that you guys are absolutely amazing and I can’t put into words how much you guys and this little community means to me! Its such a special little family and I have really, really missed connecting with you and I am definitely excited to jump back in and hopefully chat and hang out! You have to let me know if you liked the video and if you think it would be fun to add them in every now and then!

Love you guys & I’ll talk to you soon!

disclaimer

Information posted here should not be considered medical advice. It is not intended to replace consultation with physicians or other healthcare providers. A New Kind of Normal covers my personal experience and because every person's experience is unique, it should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional healthcare.

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