Bridal Shower Ideas

Good afternoon lovely readers! As ya'll know, my best friend recently got engaged to the love of her life and as her best friend I'm super excited to throw her a Bridal Shower. However, I am in need of some prep-tastic ideas. Here's the happy couple!



I have a couple ideas about a shower, but since she reads this blog I'm just going to post a couple of ideas I got from these pictures. The shower will be around Christmas so I'm not sure if I should have a bit of a Holiday theme or a theme more catered to her interests OR a combination of the two. Any and all suggestions are highly appreciated!

The Men's Guide to Love

One of my good friends works for the Men's Guide to Love website and sent me this video this morning. Two adult identical twins finish each other's sentences and give other men advice on love. Enjoy!

The Man's Guide To Love #210 from themansguidetolove on Vimeo.

Love, hugs, and funny boys...

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

First off, Congrats Regis Philbin on your new world record as the person with the most hours on U.S. television!

As most of you know, I've been on the job hunt for a while now. Unfortunately, all I've been able to find are more unpaid internships. So I have finally decided to go ahead and go with another internship. I found one at an international advertising and marketing consulting firm called 360 Creative Inc. that I'm pretty excited/nervous about. It's a three month social media marketing internship with the intent to hire full-time after three months. I also interviewed for another one that I really want, also social media marketing as well as the chance to cover red carpet events, but I haven't heard back from them yet, sadly. I'm trying to look on the bright side of things and have decided that I'm simply going to do the best I can and work as hard as I can to move up and succeed. How am I going to pay the bills for three months? Good question. It's super tough to get a serving job out here. You have to have quite an extensive serving resume in order to get a job. On a funny note, I was searching through Craigslist trying to find a part time job that would help with the bills, and I accidentally clicked on a janitorial job. I immediately starting laughing hysterically because as it turns out, I'm not even qualified for a janitorial job because I don't have any experience! It was one of those times where you either laugh or cry. I'm praying for faith. God always delivers.

Also, today I plan on writing ALL DAY. It is time to buckle down on my novel. As NTP so wisely said, my dream of publishing a novel will never come true if I keep putting off writing. I do that because sometimes I read over it and hate everything I've written and then get into a mindset that I'm a terrible writer. So I'm fighting that demon today and I'm getting on track.

Wish me luck!

Love, hugs, and pushing through the pain...

Dear Noles...

Dear Seminoles,

Let me begin by saying I love you dearly, but you hurt my heart today boys. I woke up ready for an Oklahoma upset (I mean, what exactly are Sooners?) and even after the first touchdown (seriously refs? I'm blaming you for that one) I still had faith that ya'll would fight back and we'd go back to Tallasnazzy with a win. But letting them score on every possession? Boys boys boys. But not to fret, there's always next week. And C.P. I love you like puddin n pie, so please don't force me to defend your manhood and respond to an obnoxious gator's comment by remarking on his mullet while I'm minding my own business trying to leave the sports bar. K thanks.

Love always,
Your loyal fan Ally

P.S. Sorry to all my gator readers. I'm sure none of ya'll have mullets, but you should have SEEN this guy's. Wow.

Big (and I mean BIG) news!

So like the title says, I've got some big news, but I think I'll save the biggest for last. So first off, we made it to Hollywood. We saw a lot of lovely and gorgeous things along the way. I'm always amazed by God's creations (like Zion National Park). Thankfully we only encountered one problem, which is now just hilarious. NTP's car got a flat tire on the very last day only two hours away from L.A. We were stuck in the middle of the desert and the temperature coming off the pavement was a toasty 136 degrees while him and his dad put the spare on. We managed to get the car to the nearest town (Barstow, CA) and into Walmart. The auto people at Wally World informed us it would be about two hours before the car was done. So we wandered around for two hours and then went to check on it. They had JUST gotten it down off the lift when the power went out. Apparently a little rain in the desert is a big deal and shuts the whole town down. So they kicked us all out of the store and locked it up. With NTP's car in the garage. Then started sending workers home. To make a long story short we finally did get the car and made it to L.A. five hours after we planned on getting there. Frustrating then, funny now. But anyway, we're working on getting settled in and I'm trying not to hyperventilate every five minutes.

Next on the news agenda... I'm about to revamp the ol' blog. I'm continuing to write (and maybe SOMEday I'll actually finish), but I think it's time for a new theme. So since I uprooted from the South I love so dear and moved to Hollywood, I think I'm going to share my adventures in figuring out how to be an adult, finding a job, and bringing a little of the South to this town.

And now for the biggest news. Drumroll please... MY BEST FRIEND IS ENGAGED!!!!! I'll let her tell ya'll all the adorable details on her blog Have Your Cake and Eat It Too. I'm so so so incredibly happy for her. She's marrying a wonderful man that takes very good care of her and I'm so excited to see what the future brings them. I'm also very sad that I can't be there to share in this with her. Lord knows I love throwing parties. But I'll find a way to help and share in as much as possible with her. She's the greatest friend a girl could have and I love her very much. Ok, I promise I'm done with the sappiness now.

Stay tuned for the Hollywood adventure!

Hawaii Recap!

Aloha! We got back from Hawaii yesterday after a very, very long flight and a little incident of missing luggage. However, I have now had plenty of sleep, sweet tea, catfish, and cheese-grits (and a lazy ride down Turkey Creek) so I'm doing good, except for the terror of driving across the country (starting tomorrow). But I'm not going to get into that right now. How about some beautiful pics of Hawaii instead!?



We started the vacation with mai tais and strawberry daiquiris and boyyyy were they tasty!



The sunset the first night in Waikiki :)



This is a waterfall on the North Shore that we hiked to and went swimming under. The water was soooo cold but it was so worth freezing for!



This is at Kaolua Ranch where they filmed tons of movies, including Pearl Harbor, Jurassic Park, 50 First Dates, Godzilla, and LOST!!! Look familiar?? :)



And for all you LOST fans, this is Hurley's golf course! :) (Can you tell I love LOST?)

Ok I won't bore yall with any more pictures. Tomorrow I embark on the long road to Cali and I will try to document the adventure as best I can to share with ya'll.

Time to bring some twang to Hollywood!

Love, hugs, and embracing my adventurous side...

Worst blogger ever, I know...

Hello long, lost lovelies! Let me begin by saying I am so sorry I haven't blogged in almost three weeks, which is basically a lifetime in blog years. I'm currently trying to catch up on all your lives and pull my own together. And what better way to do that than make a list!

1. California was amazing. NTP was waiting at the bottom of the escalator at the airport for me with donuts (he knows me too well) and then when we got to his apartment there was two ginormous bags of sour patch kids (my favorite) and a bottle of Relax riesling wine (he REALLY knows me too well). We went hiking to the Hollywood sign, ate more cupcakes than I care to confess, saw a movie at the Arclight on Sunset Avenue, walked down the "Dreamer's Boulevard", ate at so many delicious places (including In-N-Out of course, took a trip to Newport Beach where we met his friend and said friend's wife (who is from Laguna!), but my favorite was just spending time with NTP again. But now I am home and after moving out of the house in Tallahassee (which was super emotional), I'm now going through all my stuff trying to organize, declutter, and decide what makes the cut for the big move to Californ-i-a (aka what fits in my little Volvo).


2. This big move and making this decision has absolutely been the most stressful period of my life and I am so incredibly ready to sleep in the same bed every night and go to the same job every day. That probably sounds extremely boring for ya'll, but after the past three months, it sounds like heaven. It's also been super emotional. My parents put the car title, insurance, and soon the cell phone in my name so I will be completely independent. I had a not-so-minor meltdown when this happened because I guess for some reason I always pictured a black void after college, not reality. Also, today has been my last full day with my parents for who knows how long. My mom and I have gone from random crying to hysterical laughing for no reason. It's sad but exciting to leave and it was so nice to hear from her that she admires me for taking this risk and going on this adventure. "Cause if you don't like it, you can always come home." :) Always good to know.

3. In addition to packing, crying, and laughing, I'm getting ready for Nick to come visit me! He should get here Friday or Saturday and we're going to spend some time here before heading back up to Tally for his graduation ceremony and then Hawaii for 10 days with his parents! (Quite the travelers, I know.) Then after that it will be a long trek across the country, but I'm excited to bring a touch of twang to Hollywood. Who knows, maybe I'll be famous. ;)

Love, hugs, and life turning upside down...