Why I'm Done Blogging

So, it's been quite a while since my last blog post.  Just over a month, really.  And so today I'm just going to stop by here and say "bye" and give you my thoughts on why I'm done, at least for now.

1.  The time and upkeep and the guilt and being present.

I work 8 to somewhere between 4:30 and 6 every day, and tack on 2 hours of commuting.  And then a few nights a week I work at home too.  And I'm also taking on more at working and getting some new responsibilities.  We have our delightful puppy who needs lots of time and love and attention, and deserves to have that.  And of course I have my supportive and wonderful husband, who also deserves time and love and attention.

So when I get home at night, I want to be able to maybe take a quick run, or start dinner and have a glass of wine and relax with my boys.  Not feel guilty about not wanting to find clever gifs or not wanting to write up a good recipe, etc.  I want to be present and focused on our little family.

2.  I made a REAL friend.

I never planned on blogging to meet any friends, online or in real life.  But guess what?  I did it!  Lauren at Eat, Drink and Be Lauren (f/k/a Method to My Madness) and I hang out on the regular, and our e-mail strings and texts could fool anyone into thinking we've been friends for WAY longer than a couple of months.

So basically, it's way more fulfilling for me to spend a Saturday out shopping with her and having prosecco and pizza IRL for three hours than to spend that time locked in front of my computer.

3.  I didn't miss it.

I didn't write a "goodbye" post right away, because what if I wanted to come back a week later?  So I deleted Bloglovin', HootSuite, and the Facebook Pages app from my phone. And I removed my blog email from my phone.  I cut it all off cold, and guess what?

I didn't miss it at. all.  For the most part, I found that my life was better because I was enjoying what I was actually doing a lot more.  Not worrying about taking photos, or thinking of a clever post based off of Barley's latest quirk.  I also didn't miss feeling that I needed to be keeping up with other people's posts in order to garner attention to my own blog...which goes back to the time.

So today, I feel confident in saying "bye" to this blog for a while.  Who knows, maybe in six months or a year or in two years it will all change and I'll be back.  I didn't delete any of my social media accounts, so there's always that possibility.

Finally, if you're reading this now or you took the time to ever read my blog, thank you.  It's flattering that anyone would read anything I have to say, and it's extra-nice that so many of you did.  I hope that some of you will continue to follow my Instagram and we can stay "internet friends" in that way, and if you're interested in following along on Twitter, you can find me here.

See ya later alligators!

Slacking Much?

I've been slacking big time on the blog.

I know, every blog out there has "this" post.  But I have been, and it's crappy, so I want to acknowledge it for whoever is left in my readership!

It's not even so much about my lack of posting, but my grave inability to keep up with other blogs I LOVE and adore, and comment on them as frequently as I would like.

I swear up and down that I have NOT forgotten about any of you, especially the ladies who grace my sidebar, it's just been one hell of a start to summer.

The blog is not the only place I've been slacking.  I actually think work is the only place I have not been slacking at.

Here is the proof:

1.  I got an iPhone5 approximately a month ago.  I haven't put any music on it, or uploaded pics from it to my computer.

2.  We ate frozen pizza two nights consecutively for dinner during the week last month.

3.  I haven't unpacked all of my shoes from our move.

4.  We had to kill a cockroach in the bathroom the other night.  And by we, I mean Bryan, and no, this isn't relevant, just wanted to re-share that.

5.  I have THREE bottles of wine we bought like two weeks ago that are just pretty decorations in the wine rack for now.

6.  I don't know the last time I dusted our living room.  No wonder I'm all sneezy and congested.

Honestly, part of me feels like I lost a little bit of my momentum with blogging, and so for now, I'm going to be posting mostly about my half marathon training, our weekends, BARLEY (duh.), and of course the occasional recipe.  I actually do have a great DIY lined up to share, as well as a ton of pins I want thoughts on!

So pretty please, stick it out with me everyone!

On Behalf of Me, I Accept These Liebsters

Oh I think they like me, yeah I think they like me!  Memba that song?  Well you do if you like early 2000s rap :)  My BFF Adriana at Dog Hair is An Accessory has nominated me for the Liebstah!  And then, days later, Heather at Pretty Strong Medicine also nominated me!  

Thanks so much guys, it's always an honor to be recognized as a fun blog to read and follow :)   

My first couple Liebsters can be found here and here.

A recap of the rules:

1. Each blogger should answer the questions the tagger has set for you.

2. Choose a few new bloggers to pass the award on to and link them in your post.

3. Create 11 new questions for the chosen bloggers.

4. Go back to their page and tell them about the award.

5. Each blogger should post 11 random facts about themselves.

6. No tag backs!

Flattered, grateful, and happy to be here again!  Today, I'm going to answer both of their questions and send the love on to some other bloggers. 

1. Who's been your biggest bloggy help?  Hm, I would give this back to Adriana.  Although we aren't really great at helping each other with the technical aspects of blogging, it is so nice to have a bloggy bff you can count on for advice on postings, drawing a personal line for your blog, etc.  Also, we are pretty ace at bitching about blog stuff via text too! :) Her posts are legitimately WAY more creative than mine, so follow her!  She does awesome pinned it and made it posts and is way more likely to have cool things to do than I am! 

2. What "Most Likely To..." superlative would you get now? (doesn't have to be traditional)  Most Likely To stay at home drinking wine or brandy and watching reality tv on a Saturday night because she wants to save money for clothes, a dog, or a house.

Things have changed.

3. What's your favorite movie to quote?  Bridesmaids, for sure.

And for good measure, my favorite TV show right meow, The Mindy Project.  Technically off for summer, but please watch this! Mindy Kaling nails it with everything she says on this show:

4. What's one thing that surprised you about blogging?  That I would enjoy it as much as I do.  

There are times when I've considered pulling back or stopping altogether because I'd like to see more growth, but I love my audience, and consider it a compliment now that anyone wants to read the stuff I put out here. 

5. What's the first thing you do when you get home from work?   Um it's to take off restricting business casual clothes and get into my VS boyfriend sweatpants as soon as humanly possible.

6. What's your favorite social media outlet?  I love the ease of Twitter, and the peek into people's daily life on Instagram.  Because I'm a creep.

Follow me on Twitter @SaraInTexasBlog and on Instagram @Grendella.

7. What's your go to/signature drink at the bar?  Vodka soda water or just vodka and still water with lime.  Gross?  Only if you HATE saving tonic calories, ladies. I love it.  Funnily enough, I rarely drink this at home.  It's truly my bar drink.

8. What's your dream career?  I really thought I knew what I wanted to do...but now I'm working in an industry I would never have imagined. So I will say that I'd like to be able to advance through in what I'm going to be doing now--working with the government in a certain capacity and providing services.

9. How many times do you snooze your alarm in the morning?  Two usually.

10. What's your favorite summer activity?  Having a meal and drink drinks outside, which mostly you can't even do in the summer here because your ice will melt immediately. 

11. Flats or heels? BOTH.  Shitty answer, I know.  Heels for dinner/drinks/weekends, wedges, flats, and kitten heels for work.  Being 5'8'' automatically makes me taller than most, and at at new job, I really don't like to be "the super tall new girl".  

And now, Heather's questions :: 

1. If you could be a Disney Princess, which one would you be?  Well my niece always assigns me to be Belle I think.  Or Snow White.  So one of those because I have dark-ish hair.  Although when I saw her a couple weeks ago, she was like, "Why is your hair black on top and white on the bottom?" Ombre is a hard concept for five year olds!

2. What is one food you could survive on the rest of your life?  Honestly? Cereal.  I love cereal.  Like I eat it as a snack.  Special K with anything in it, honey nut Cheerios, Puffins, etc.

3. Describe yourself in three words.   Personable, motivated, funny.

4. What's your favorite summer activity?  Having a meal and drink drinks outside, which mostly you can't even do in the summer here because your ice will melt immediately. (Same answer for Adriana's similar question!)

5. If you were famous, what would you be famous for?  My amazing ability to watch endless reality TV shows on Bravo!!

6. What's your biggest pet peeve?  The same as everyone else's -- the confusion of their, they're, and there.  And two, too, and to.

7. What would you do if you were invisible? Probably be a total creep and spy on people all the time.

8. What was your favorite class in school?  Well I mostly loved all of my classes in grad school, but my favorite was probably one I had that cross-sectioned with the College of Real Estate and was about planning and public policy.  I also liked my Capstone ((Thesis-ish)) class too, because I got to design my own research project and implement it.

9. If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?  Back to Europe, ideally Italy again and Germany for the first time.  We are hoping to do a big trip before we have kids!

10. What's at the top of your bucket list?  Well, probably something from my 30x30 list for now. I would really like to do the half-marathon in January, so at this point just waiting to sign up. So watch out for that on here, because the lottery opening starts June 5th, and by the end of June I will know if I'm in it or not.  My left foot has been really sore along the outside, so it would be great for that to heal up so I could run longer!

Also, Europe.

11. What's your biggest fear? Snakes. ALWAYS snakes.

::

I nominate these blogs that always make me smile, I based the <200 followers count off of your Bloglovin', so if you have more on GFC, that's why you've been nominated!

1. Kari @ Cupcakes and Bling

2.  Emily @ Sassy in Sequins

3.  Candice @ Just Stay Lovely

4.  Ashley @ Downsizing

5.  Rita Marie @ Champagne N Pizza

6.  Niquelle @ Paper Plane

7.  Meredith @ Belle in Boots

8.  Aleshea @ GlitzNGrits

9.  Alison @ Life a Little Brighter
10. Brooke @ Babbling Brookelyn

I know, I'm short on this, but a lot of the blogs I follow seem to have BIG followings!

11 facts about me:  

1.  If there is a photo booth at wedding, I will probably be there all night.

2.  I read a minimum of two books at a time.  In high school, it was more like four at a time.  My brain was stronger then!

3.  Hi, I'm Sara and I love making mug brownies.

4.  My favorite home stores are Pottery Barn, Home Goods, Crate and Barrel, and Target.

5.  Pretty sure I'm the only person in Texas who drinks unsweetened iced tea.

6.  You will never convince me to back an NFL team besides the Packers.  SORRY I'm not, Texans & Cowboys fans.

7.  Idk how, but I def saw the movie Pretty Woman when I was like 10.  Probably the one movie I would watch forever if I could only pick one.

8.  I made seven types of Christmas cookies this last year.  My mom made like 25 though, no big deal.

9.  I also made the best Thanksgiving turkey ever, probably.  Just saying.  And it was our first time making one.

10.  We are going meatless at least once a week now for dinners.

11.  I only met with one reception venue, one florist, one photographer, one linen company, one hair and makeup stylist, and one bakery for our wedding.  One and done'd all that nonsense.

Here are my questions:

1.  What's your favorite summer outfit?

2.  If you have a typical day, what is it like?

3.  What type of posts would you like to write more of?

4.  Where's your favorite vacation spot? 

5.  How many times a day do you check social media sites?

6.  What's the best book you've read lately?

7.  Favorite website besides your own blog :)?

8.  If you could only watch one movie for the rest of you life, what would it be?

9.  What's a DIY project you're hankering to do?

10.  What relaxes you the most?

11.  What's you go-to easy meal for a busy night?  Take-out, recipe, whatever!

Have fun everyone, can't wait to read the replies! :)

Setting it all aside

Usually I post recipes, and tell you about my weekend, and of course, wrap-up my weeks!  When I start DIY-ing things I will definitely be sharing more of those, and a lot of that is in the works right now.  But for now, I'd like to share a semi-serious post about what's been happening.

Right now, we have a lot going on in our lives.

Since one year ago, we have moved across the country for B's cool, new job (& away from both families) (but hey, we love TX now!), I finished grad school (& left school for good for the first time in 21 years!), got married (!!!!), we lost his dad in January, and then my mom had a big health scare in February.  Life is starting to relax again, but it's still a balancing act.

While there are obvious positives, like getting married and finishing school and new jobs, a lot, ok, most of it has been tough too.  We both get overwhelmed by everything that's going on, but I just want to say how good it feels when we decide to put the anxieties aside, and enjoy our life together.

We have been through a lot more than we ever expected this early on in our marriage, but I think that in a couple years, we will look back and realize that we made it through the fire relatively unscathed, and for that, I'm proud of us!

So if anything, this should serve as a reminder that sometimes you need to pop in a movie/go out for a meal/take a walk together and make the time to unplug from your phone, blog, iPad, laptop, etc. and just enjoy your good company and the other blessings life has given you. 

The Liebster! Round Uno

So, on Tuesday, a name-sharing new blogger friend of mine, Sarah at Limited Space Organizing nominated me for a Liebster award!  How incredibly surprising and nice to be recognized as a fun new blog!  Here are the rules of the Liebster:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog and link back to theblogger who presented this award to you.
2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator, list 11 random facts about yourself and create 11 questions for your nominees.
3. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 11 other blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed and leave a comment on their blog letting them know they have been chosen.
4. Copy and Paste the blog award on your blog   

Sarah's 11 questions for me:

1. (Obligatory) Why did you start blogging?  

Good question.  I had been reading some great blogs that I found via Pinterest (find me here) such as Kate @ The Small Things Blog and her sister Lauren's blog, From my Grey Desk.  So those inspired me a bit, and then my husband had always said, "You're so funny (sometimes), you should just start a blog and write about junk!"  Well, it was something to that effect.

2. What is your favorite thing to organize?
*big smirk* I would say I like to organize my personal agenda the most.  Our desk is a federal state of emergency area-I use it for working from home and we use it for our "stuff"-bills, etc.  My cabinets have things piled on top of each other...mess.  Just a mess.

3. What kind of friend/person are you?
I would say I'm a damn good friend, who is lucky to have a posse of equally amazing ladyfriends scattered all over the country now.

4. What is your favorite piece of clothing to wear?
This varies *so* frequently, I can't even begin.  Right now I'm digging my long skinnies from American Eagle that create a perfect cuff to go with flats or heels. 

5. What is your favorite project you have done?
Well, I'm not really a project expert, as I mostly DIY things I have seen on pinterest!  But, by far, my favorite and most used are my coasters-scrapbook paper modge podged onto 13-cent tiles from Home Depot!  Love the "party animal" paper-get it....animals...in party hats...!!

y'all are jealy for sure, i know, i know!

6. What is the best piece of advice you can give someone?
I don't think I should be giving anyone advice! I am not Oprah.  But, I will say that that becoming friends with my mom and not just being mom and daughter has been a wonderful experience, and I recommend it to anyone.

7. What is your favorite book and why?
 I actually had to go to my Goodreads page to see what I like.  The problem is that I almost always enjoy everything I read, as evident by my 3.88 average rating of over 100 books.  I love any book that has a transforming power to it-teaches me something new about the world/past, takes me on a journey (Harry Potter is probably my favorite in this sense), or just makes me think about things in a new light.

8. How did you come up with your blog name?
Well, my name is Sara.  And I live in Texas now.   And part of it was just trying to say "this is me, and how I live, and I also live in Texas, which sometimes is starting to play a role in how I live my life now."  

9. What is your favorite thing about blogging?
Yeesh, I guess having my own "place" to go really.  And tweaking my colors/layout constantly.  And deciding if I should go for it and get a professional design.  Not yet probably.

10. If you could eat any food for the rest of your life what would it be?
I could legit eat french toast and bacon all day, every day.  

11. What would you do if someone gave you one million dollars to spend however you like?
Honestly, I would buy a home (something reasonable but awesome), pay off my student loans, and save/invest the rest.  I'm boring like that.  Wait, I would also buy a Louis Vuitton Speedy 30. 

11 random facts about me:

1. I have known my husband for 13 years, and we met at a little league baseball field.  He played, and I sold concessions with my bestie (also my maid of honor 13 years later!)

2.  I hate seafood so much.  It's an issue of texture for me. Yes, I will try it.  But I will probably hate it.

3.  I am trying to learn to run!  Yes, I feel it's a "learning" situation.

4.  I love going grocery shopping.

5.  I am a person who says everything I like is "the best" "my favorite", "love it so hard", etc. 

6.  I love Wisconsin sports-go Packers, Badgers, and Brewers!

7.  I'm obsessed with Pottery Barn and can't wait til we have a house one day so I can do DIY PB projects.

8.  We are hopefully getting a dog this summer!

9.  I feel like 26 is a weird age-I'm an adult, but not really?

10.  I hold/am(????) a Master of Public Administration.

11.   I'm working on integrating more color into what I wear (yes this is a real thing/problem I have). 

And the 11 blogs I'm sharing the love to:

Y'all this was my most difficult part!  As a *very* new blogger, I really have focused on developing my ideas for my content, and trying to stay away from too many other blogs for fear of imprinting a little!  This has lead me to a bit of a drought in reading new, and smaller blogs.  Often times I find myself drawn to blogs that have massive followings.  I am working on this for Round Dos, which will follow soon, I promise!