blog awards

Thanks to my real-life and blogger friend Halie (from Penguins, Pasta & Polka Dots) for nominating Hook & Stylit for it's first ever award!!As part of the nomination process, I had to do the following things (forgive me for skipping steps 4 and 5, I just don't know enough bloggers yet to make my own nominations)...

As some of you may already know, The Liebster Award is a way to give a friendly little shout-out to bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It's a way to tell others that you really dig their blog, and to meet a few new people. The rules of the award are as follows:

1.  List 11 random facts about yourself

2.  Answer 11 questions from your nominator

3.  Create 11 new questions for your nominees to answer

4.  Nominate up to 11 bloggers for the award with less than 200 followers

5.  Go to each nominee's page and tell them you've nominated them for the award

6.  Link back to the blogger who nominated you as a "thank you"

11 Random Maggie-isms

1. I decided to change the spelling of my name in 7th grade from MaggIE to MaggY. I changed it back a few months later when I realized it wasn't catching on like I had anticipated. 

2. I'm the oldest of three girls. Anne (aka: Annie) and Mary Katherine (aka: Kate) are my sisters.

My sisters and I post-ski in Winter Park, CO

3. I have a full blown, bonified fear of teeth. Don't touch them, wiggle them, talk about them. In elementary school I went home sick every time someone lost their tooth. My mom hated me. 

4. My boyfriend John and I have a two year old Wheaten Terrier name Remington. Long story short: I really wanted a dog so to make sure my dream became a reality I "gave" John Remy for his birthday. So just to make me mad John named him after a brand of guns. I hate guns. Whatever, I still maintain that Remy is the best dog in the world, ever if he does have a dumb name.

The day I "gave" John "his" puppy :)

5. I HATE YOGURT. Don't even try to tell me to try a certain kind or mix it with something. I've tried to trick myself into liking yogurt for my entire life. After almost 25 years I'm throwing in the towel and officially calling myself a yogurt hater. 

6. I love watching reality TV. Especially in marathon formatting.

7. I went to Flagler College and graduated with a Major in Communication (Public Relations) and a minor in Youth Ministry

Graduation Day / aka: the best day ever!!

8. My dream job is to open a summer camp

9. I HATE shopping in stores / malls. Online shopping is my jam. 

10. I drive a white Jeep that I call my Barbie car

11. I could eat Chipotle for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the rest of my life and NEVER get sick of it. EVER. 

Questions from Halie

1. What is one of your favorite memories from college or high school? 

1. I don't think I have a favorite specific memory from HS or College I can hands down say is my favorite ... but I can say that the year that my friends and I created the "Blonde Mafia" were some of the greatest times I had in college.

1.  

The blonde mafia in all its glory!

1. Do you (or did you) play any organized sports? 

1. Yup! I was a swimmer and on some sort of swim team my until I graduated high school! I was even spirit captain of my HS swim team my senior year ;)

1. What is the one food you can eat over and over again without 

1. getting sick of it? 

1. Duhhh .... CHIPOTLE!!

1. What is one big goal you wish to accomplish in your life? 

1. Own a house on Vilano Beach 

1. (with John ... who will HOPEFULLY put on a ring on it by then!)

1. 
   

Vilano is where John grew up, it's where we met, it's where we fell in love. 

It's our place.

1. Do you like roller coasters and amusement parks? 

1. I don't like amusement parks. I have crowd anxiety and don't like being around so many people. But I like roller coasters - so it would be great if somehow I could just be teleported onto one without actually GOING to an amusement park! I'll keep my fingers crossed that there will be an app for that on the iPhone 6. 

1. What's your all-time favorite album or record or CD? 

1. Hootie and the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View. ALL TIME FAVORITE!!

1. Mexican food or Italian food? 

1. M-E-X-I-C-A-N

Do you believe in Heaven and Hell? 

Both.

What are your top 5 favorite books? 

Angela's Ashes, Oh the Places You Will Go, Are You There God? It's Me Vodka, 

The Help, She's Come Undone 

What are three things you can't get through the day without? 

My iPhone, gum, adderall

  

This is John mocking me. Yes, I ALWAYS use a pink koozie on Saturdays and YES, I ALWAYS have my iphone in my hand. I like to think that it's attached. 

Do you prefer a vacation in the mountains or at the beach? 

Either. I love the mountains but to me they represent work. So to me 

(at this point in my life) the beach is a more desirable vacay. 

But if you're buying ... I'm flying! NO COMPLAINTS! 

11 Questions from Me to you

(or in this case, whoever feels like answering)

1. Dog or Cat

2. Favorite TV show of all time and currently

3. Favorite Holiday, why?

4. What's your idea of a perfect weekend?

5. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

6. Do you read your horoscope?

7. What's in your purse?

8. Phobias? 

9. Favorite part of the day?

10. Favorite food to cook? 

Thanks again Halie for the nomination!

Recap

My weekend according to Instagram:

(A day late, it obviously took me a little while to recover from the devastating Gator loss on Saturday)

Taking full advantage of the FULL BOTTLE of leftover champagne 

from the photo shoot at work. Aka: Weekend Pre-Gaming.

Prepping for our tailgate.

At this point I feel obligated to mention that we took absolutely ZERO pictures during the game. I then decided that I was going to revise my previous expectation to "take a picture during every game" to now be "take a picture during every game that the Gators WIN." With this new correction, I've inevitably made myself not feel to guilty for my lack of photos. BAM!

I forgot to mention that my sister, Mary Kate, and her boyfrannn, Matt, spent the weekend with us. After the game that will no longer be mentioned on this blog, they fancied up and went to the Zac Brown Band Concert. JEALOUS!

This was our Sunday existence:

 1. Watching DVR episodes of extreme cheapskates

2. Watching the my least favorite NFL team loose (Jags)

3. Questioning the sanity of the Steelers stylist (and maybe Nike) and their god-awful decision to create (and wear) a "tribute uniform" reminiscent of a bumble bee

Exhibit A:

Really, what were they thinking!?

(photo cred)

The silver lining of the weekend was the weather! For the first time all year the temperature wasn't offensive outside allowing us to open the windows!  ... thus creating Remy's new favorite hobby: Guard Doggin' the carport. 

Follow my exciting life on Instagram: Magmag1010

Update 1

Well since I legit couldn't even remember my Blogger password being as the last time I blogged was about a million years ago (give or take a few years), I find it only logical for me to update my 10 fearless followers on my current life situation-ness:

Update #1: We moved. Yup, we Jefferson-styled it and moved on up to the east west side aka: out of the hood. Having been screwed over by multiple landlords in our (never ending) journey as tenants, we had a VERY long list of criteria that our new house had to comply with:

• No rats 
• Nowhere near the hood
• NO carpet
• Hardwood floors OR tile
• More than one bathroom
• 2(+) Bedrooms
• Fenced in backyard
• Lawn service
• No nosy landlords that go through my garbage and call my parents when they find more than one empty bottles of wine 
• Safe enough to walk Rem-Rod by myself
• Central AC
• No gated communities / neighborhood associations 
• Above average water pressure
• Cement block

As you can imagine, not only was our search comparable to finding a needle in a haystack, there was an added layer of difficulty just trying to find a landlord willing to put up with our insane interrogations! In the end, our persistence paid off - we made a few compromises ie: white tile in the kitchen ... seriously, WHO puts white tile ANYWHERE .... as a result I now own a mop and John uses it often :) We didn't get 2 FULL bathrooms, but we got 1.5, but the shower in the full bath is made for a handicap person and is HUGE (total bonus)! BUT the best part of all is if enormous fenced-in backyard that Remy dutifully sniffs every inch of each morning, that John grills in (almost) every night, and that we host our infamous bonfire parties in every Saturday. 

Overall, we couldn't be happier with our new crib! 

Our handi-capabile home! 

Go ahead, bring your wheelchair, we gotcha covered!

Move in day / aka: John's least favorite day of the year

Remy graduated from the crate and is now a whole-house puppy! 

In celebration of his new freedom, GG (Grama Gail) got him a new dog bed! 

Master bedroom 

(lets all take a moment and notice the one and only shelf John has hung since we moved in)

The kitchen ... sans dishwasher. 

Coincidently John is training for the Dishwashing Olympics, he's getting lots of training.

View from the back door

A house full during our Cino-De-Derby party

The backyard in all its glory!

Remy REALLY loves his new digs! 

Check back tomorrow (or in ten years) for update #2 :)

 

hood lesson #1

Similar to my weekend staples (WS) collection, I also have a special sales meeting (SM) collection. It's an entire collection of boring, work-ish, boring, dressy, boring, uncomfortable clothing. In other words it sucks.


After careful evaluation this afternoon, well basically after I took my outfit pictures, I've come to the conclusion that my SM collection sucks. 


tomorrow my friends, i'm stickin' it to the man and wearing jeans. thats right, JEANS!


I'm not saying that today's outfit is all that bad, but I know what the rest of the collection consists of, and well - it aint pretty.


Today the lady across the streets house was broken into. they took everything. Don't get me wrong - that SUCKS and I would never want anything like that to happen to me .. but it made me think, how come they chose her house? Was mine too hood looking for robbery? Does it not look like I have anything bling bling - nice inside? Does my 22 pound wheaten terrier's little yap sound intimidating? 


Hood Lesson #1:
Contrary to common practice, instead of keeping your yard cleaned up and your grass mowed. The more you blend in and the crappier you can keep the front of your house looking, the better off you are. 


John and I have decided to add a "beware of pit bull" sign to our front door and empty beer (cans) on the yard - just to keep up appearances.  I'm still on the fence about trading in my white barbie car jeep for a black chevy impala with rims and tinted windows - I'll keep you posted.

Shirt: Anthropologie

Sweater: Ann Taylor Loft

Pants: Gap

Shoes: Nine West