Currently.

Obsessing over the book I'm reading at the moment. It's called Real Marriage, by Mark and Grace Driscoll. I am only a few chapters in so far, but I am loving it. Blake's sister in law was reading it over the weekend while we were at the lake and I caught the tail end of a conversation about the book and my interest was sparked! I wanted to start it immediately, so I downloaded it on iBooks... so I've been reading it on my phone when I have time. Have you ever read a book on your phone? It's tough business, guys.
I'm also reading a book called Right from the Start by David and Lisa Frisbie. Basically, it's all about making sure your relationship has the best foundation possible before going into marriage. I've had this sitting by my bed for a while, and I've started it numerous times, but I'm finally able to really read it. So far, so good!

Working on a list of things to do while Claire is in town in a few weeks. This will be her first trip to Springfield ever, so I'm pretty excited to show her around! And who knows, we might even fit in some wedding related projects while she's here! #lovehavingcraftyfriends

Thinking about school stuff. I still have yet to get some things resolved and it's making things rather difficult. The summer semester starts next week, so I'm becoming rather anxious about it all.

Listening to The Civil Wars. I was listening to them yesterday while I worked on a painting for my brother's fiancee. Barton Hollow just sounds so good on vinyl!

Wishing for the next, oh, five months to pass by rather quickly. Why, you may ask? Because I got JUSTIN BIEBER TICKETS FOR MY BDAY. Oh yes, celebrating my 21st birthday like a 10 year old. Breigh and I will be seeing good old JB in October, and we couldn't be more excited! Thank you Blake for the awesome (not so secret) surprise!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!
xo Haley

Thoughts on being real.

Just a random photo of the Hooters that Blake and I ate at right after getting engaged. #classy

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. Lately as in last night.
I was catching up on blogs and I just kept thinking, "these people have incredibly perfect lives."
We all know that this is not true. No one has a perfect life. But when you put your life out on a public space and you only show the positive, it just sort of kind of makes us all feel like crap.

I am so far from perfect. I am stressed out all the time (Blake can tell you that this is very, very true). I have an anxiety problem (and maybe even acid reflux, exciting I know). I have this problem with not taking school seriously sometimes. I have struggled with depression the majority of my life. I never see my best friends, and speaking of my best friends, one of them has a 2 brain tumors and a kidney disease, which adds to the stress. I'm not embarrassed by the imperfections of my life, but I deal with it all enough in real life that I don't want to continue talking about here, you know?

But then again.
I look at a couple of different blogs and I think "How is she this pretty all the time?" 'Why can't I just up and move to Paris?" "Why is her family the cutest ever?" "How THE HECK does she look like that after giving birth?" "WTF, I just want to take weekend trips to NYC whenever I feel like it like she does." A reoccurring theme with all of these thoughts was most definitely "COME ON NOW. This can't be real life."
And when I see this stuff, I wish more bloggers would share the real aspects of their lives... not just the sugar coated happy butterflies and flower fields aspects of the lives.

This is me just thinking out loud, because it's something that's been sitting on me heavily in the past, oh, 12 hours. I don't want to be one of those bloggers who just blogs about the good stuff. I want to be able to write about the bad stuff, too. I don't know. Like, I said... I'm just thinking out loud.

xo Haley

Currently

I feel like I just did one of these not too long ago. Man, the week goes by so fast!

Obsessing over Glee's finale (wait, was that the finale? I'm not sure, whatever. The most recent episode). I've said this before but I used to be a total Gleek. It was mine and my dad's thing - we would watch it together every week. As the show progressed though, I kept watching, but it was just out of habit, I just wasn't that into it anymore. But HOLY COW, the past couple of episodes have been great!

Working on blogging, wedding idea gathering, school planning, all that stuff.

Thinking about school. I have been so stressed out about how this semester would turn out, and now that it's over (and it didn't turn out so great, btw*) I was even more stressed, to the point of where I couldn't sleep last night. But I stayed up extra late and I did some planning and mapped out the rest of my time at OTC (my school), and I'm feeling much more at peace with it all now. :)

Listening to (or watching, actually) Bridezilla's. Why do I love this show so much?

Wishing for ice cream. I don't even like ice cream.

Other things, as of lately:
-I am so excited for my bestie (and bridesmaid!), Claire! She starts her new internship at her church today! Proud of you!
-A local theater is putting on a production of Rent next month and I want to see it so bad! A few years back, the national tour came to Springfield & my dad took me to see it. So I'd love to see a local version!
-My mom and I went on a date last night. We ate at Maria's (she's obsessed with their seafood tacos now!) and we saw Hunger Games, since she hadn't seen it yet. She said it reminded her of The Truman Show. Let's just keep in mind that she had no prior knowledge of what Hunger Games really was before she saw it. ;)
-The Springfield Blogger Love meet up is coming up on June 2nd! Are you going? :)

Anywho! I hope you have a fantastic Wednesday! I'm so ready for the weekend. Blake and I are going to a wedding + a grad party + I think going to the lake for the weekend. Happy girl right here!

xo Haley

*I took a public speaking class this semester. If you know me - you know that public speaking is NOT my thing. At all. Well, throughout the semester, giving speeches got easier and easier. My last speech had to be done in front of five people, on campus, and recorded for my teacher. I got through with it just fine and I think it was probably my best speech of the semester. Last night I get online to check my grade, and I got a zero. Why? Because I got so caught up in getting that speech turned in, plus some other projects turned in, that I forgot to turn in my Works Cited for my speech - so she emailed me and told me that she wouldn't grade it because I didn't turn it in.. So, 250 point assignment down the drain, I (almost) failed the class, and it lowered my GPA significantly. I was so bummed last night, I even cried a little bit. But as I said, I'm feeling much better now that I have a plan of the rest of my time at OTC. I'm very excited about the coming semesters now! Sigh. I learned that lesson the hard way, but at least I'll never have to take that class again, and I'll know to be more careful when keeping track of assignments. Sigh, sigh, sigh.

Disney Dreaming

Via

I went to Disney World for the first time when I was 7 years old. My family went on a vacation to Florida to stay with my dad's sister (she lives there) for the week. On the very last day of our vacation, we got to spend the day in Magic Kingdom. This was such a big deal because as everyone knows... Disney World is not cheap. It was seriously a dream come true, even though I can't remember it now, and I only have pictures to remind me. We went again when I was 10 (my birthday was actually right in the middle of our trip!) - my dad's company has an annual week long meeting in some random location, and that year, it was in Disney World, so that families could come along. This was an even bigger dream come true for me (and my family) because we were able to stay at the Contemporary Resort (which is like, top notch, let me tell you). We got to spend an entire week on Disney property, and got to visit every single park (some more than once!). I spent my birthday celebrating with Mickey and Minnie, and to this day, I still remember eating breakfast in Cinderella's castle. That trip to Disney is by far my favorite memory, even though I can't clearly remember it these days. (Old person brain!)

Anyways. 

I'm getting married! The whole thing is still sinking in, seeing as I've been planning my wedding for years. And I'm coming to find... with Pinterest at my finger tips 24/7, I basically have all that I want to do for my wedding completely planned out. All that I have to do is book things, and start the hundreds and hundreds of DIY projects. And with over a year until the actual wedding, I've got time to get this stuff done. So... my attention has been focused on the honeymoon! Blake and I have decided on... Disney World (didn't see it coming, right? Haha!). We've been reading all the books and the websites and talking all.the.time about Disney related things... and I can't wait! I think we are more excited about Disney World than the actual wedding! 

Looking through Disney blogs and such, it kinda makes me wish I was more of a princess kinda girl. If I were, I would totally force my parents into a Disney World wedding. Those things are stinking expensive though! But seriously. They look amazing! I'm sure my parents are glad they aren't going to have to shell out for a destination wedding of that level. :) 

I just wanted to share this today! We have Disney on the brain over here! So if you have any fun stories or tips, feel free to share! We *love* hearing about Disney vacations! It's our current obsession. :) 

xo Haley

Monday is the best day of the week.

You wanna know why?

The Bachelorette.

My crazy obsession with the show started not too terribly long ago when Breigh made me watch clips of a previous season. It just so happened that Brad's (2nd) season had just started, and was probably only 3 or so episodes in. So, I spent a day catching up on Hulu and then watching faithfully every Monday night after that. I even made Blake watch the finale and then ran to get ice cream between the finale and the After the Final Rose Ceremony.

Since then, Ashley has been the Bachelorette, Ben was the Bachelor (worst season e v e r) and now Emily, America's sweetheart, is the new Bachelorette. I am SO stoked.
I'm not one for reality tv, but this is seriously my guilty pleasure.

Since Ashley S. was booted off on Bachelor Brad's season, she's been running the blog Say No To Cosmo, where she recaps every episode and writes about other dating related things (she's been my favorite contestant ever, I just love her!) She provided this awesome bracket to fill out for the upcoming season... I have mine filled out, do you?!

I am *always* guilty of looking up Reality Steve's blogs... and I found out who the final 4 are... and only two of my guys are correct! But oh well, I'm keeping the same bracket. It'll be fun to see how well I did on the other weeks!

Anyways... I just wanted to fill you on Ashley's blog! Let me know if you fill out a bracket! Maybe I'll share mine next week!

:) 

xo Haley

Tonight.

Via

My night is looking a whole lot better than I thought it would. 

Blake informed me that Drive is now on Instant Netflix... so can you guess what I'm watching right now?

Drive, honeymoon planning, looking at wedding inspiration and filling my notebooks full of ideas. 

Tonight is good.

Have a happy weekend!

xo Haley

I Have Bridesmaids!

 I've been browsing wedding blogs long enough to know that I needed a super good way to ask my bff's to be in my wedding. I actually had a completely different idea in mind when I walked into Hobby Lobby but walked out with supplies to make something entirely different. Here's what I came up with:

A bracelet was pretty much a no brainer as a gift for Breigh; we like to have little BFF type trinkets like this (I got us bracelets once that we both wore until they literally were falling apart). I decided to keep all of the bracelets the same for all the girls and make secret message bracelets! Good news: they loved them, and I am so happy with the way they turned out! I gave Breigh's hers first, and she was so surprised when she got it. I sent Claire's in the mail, along with her graduation card, so I'm pretty sure it came as a surprise to her, too. ;) And I gave Cassie her's last night! She'd seen Breigh wearing her bracelet and begged to know where she got it, but Breigh wouldn't tell her, so she was so happy when I gave her one of her own! I just thought this was a perfect, simple little keepsake to remember the whole planning process!
Colby is also a part of my wedding party, but I didn't think that a bracelet was quite fitting for him, so I just flat out asked him... he said yes and then asked what he could wear. Love him!

So there you have it! My side of the wedding party is official! I'm so excited and I can't wait to plan this little shindig with my best friends! I love you Breigh, Claire, Cassie and Colby! ♥

xo Haley
(and of course... we Instagrammed every time they got their little present!)

(Claire lives in Arkansas so I had to send hers in the mail! But she just told me today that she'll be visiting in the summer to help me plan! I'm so happy to have her by my side during all of this!)

Currently.

Obsessing over planning. I won't go into too much detail, but Blake and I are in the process of figuring out details for our honeymoon. We want to get all of those plans out of the way first, so then we can focus on wedding details. We are so excited! I can't wait to share more... I have a blog post planned for the occasion. :)

Working on nothing, really. The semester is over (thankfully), and I have a reading list to attend to. Let the lazy commence.

Thinking about moving soon. Our lease is up in September, and unless I continue living with Anna and Isaac (which I think they are moving out as well), then I can't live here as a student (silly restrictions!)... so, I've been searching for apartments. Breigh and I would like to live together before Blake and I get married, so I'm trying to work with that, but I think it's in my best interest to move in with the family I work for (in the nanny apartment). We'll see. I'm just not sure of anything yet!

Listening to Beach House's Teen Dream. Because I refuse to listen to the new album. Call it weird or whatever, but I will never let go of Teen Dream. #favoriteforeverandever

Wishing for ice cream... or better yet, Pineapple Whip!  I'm ready for a good summertime treat.

I don't have much to say these days. I have been so consumed with work and school (and reading up a storm lately), that I haven't really made time for much else. I do have something to share with you all once I'm done sharing the news with everyone else... I'm excited about this!
xo Haley

Life (and a playlist for your Friday)

Life gets so crazy sometimes. It's (nearly) finals week and I've been scrambling to finish projects and get everything in order so finals week won't be as stressful as it usually is. But enough about that - one of my very best friends is graduating high school today! Claire, you are the best, best, best! I can't wait to see you soon (because I just want you know - yes, you will be road tripping here this summer, even if I have to come down there and kidnap you!) I stayed the night with Breigh last night. We ate chinese food (Oriental Inn is the best in the area, I'm not joking), we watched Friends, looked at apartments online, and wedding planned and painted our nails. Essentially, we got nothing of importance done. And that's what's happening today. We're currently watching What Not To Wear and napping. I love days like this. I love my best friends. 

So, in honor of school being (basically) over and the weather is getting so nice as of lately - I wanted to share my summer playlist with you all! It is full of new and old songs, all of my favorites from the past few years. A ton of these remind me of my final days of high school, when Breigh and I got in the habit of hitting up Sonic for Happy Hour and then going tanning... we were silly girls! Anyways - enjoy my extremely eclectic early summer mix!

xo Haley

Currently.

Obsessing over my new blog layout! It's so girly and cute - perfect for me! It was done by Steven Andrew - he's one of Colby's blog pals, and I love Colby's layout, so I knew I could trust Steven with mine! I think he did a fantastic job. :)

Working on wedding invites with my dad. Who knew I'd be designing these with my papa?! One of his bff's is a graphic designer, and so we found a few examples that I like and he's going to create something for us! I'm so excited about this - he designed my grad party invites a few years ago, and they were so adorable (Dr. Seuss themed - My mom's idea).

Thinking about getting a pet fish. My apartment doesn't allow pets (or so I thought, but I'm seeing a lot of dogs around lately), and I need an animal of some sort to call my own. Ever since I can remember I've wanted a dog but my parents never let me get one, so I swore I'd get one when I moved out. And where did I move to? An apartment that doesn't allow pets. So. A fish it is. And maybe I'll save the dog for when Blake and I get married.

Listening to this song. It's so hilarious. I love Lana Del Rey... and I love Hunger Games, so obviously this was spoof is funny to me.

Wishing for the next week or so to speed by. I'm so done with school.

xo Haley

Top - Forever 21// Skirt, necklace - borrowed from roommate :) // Belt - Target// Bracelet - Forever 21

Lazy Days

There's something so wonderful about being able to sleep in and then plan your day around the things that you want to do. I just love that feeling. This weekend was so great - it was super relaxing, which was what I needed most (even after the most relaxing week in St. Louis). I came back to Springfield with a speech and numerous projects due, so I had a very busy Thursday/Friday, so the weekend was very chill.
The next few days are going to be the best. I seriously have nothing planned, except for a few projects for school- I'm knocking out all of my finals in one day next Tuesday, so I only have one more week! Wish me luck. :)

St. Louis.

*oops, got a finger in there!* that's what she said.

Our trip has been so fun! We still have a few more days left, and I'm pretty excited about that. We have just been relaxing and hanging out with my aunt and uncle, having the greatest time. 

I bought a few disposable cameras for the trip, and here are a few photos from the first camera. I tried to take a few during the Florence concert, but I didn't use the flash (since it wasn't allowed) and I guess they just didn't turn out because they didn't even develop and print them for me at Walgreens! 

...and yes, we did see Hunger Games again. They released it again in IMAX, so we decided to see it there, since Blake didn't get a chance to see it in IMAX the first go around. We just really love that movie. :) 

The other photos are from when we were walking around in St. Charles. (where Blake proposed!) 

We are big fans of this area. Blake, can we move here? 

xo Haley

Currently.

Obsessing over wedding blogs, now that I am engaged. Well. If you know anything about me - when have I not been obsessed with wedding blogs? They're just so inspiring!

Working on finishing a speech I have to give on Thursday. I'm super nervous about this one. It's the last speech of the semester and it's worth 200 points. I need to do good on this one!

Thinking about screen printing! Apparently my dad bought materials needed to do screen printing... I'm not too entirely sure why, but he did. And so my mom and I have been texting constantly trying to find ideas for invitations for mine (and brother's) weddings. We are so exciting about having DIY weddings to plan!

Listening to The Last Song. I just love this movie. Not a fan of Miley Cyrus. But I love this movie. 

Wishing for school to be o.v.e.r. I'm so tired of this school business!

Have a happy Wednesday!

xo Haley

May.

May is for planning. Planning for the summer. Planning for weddings (and learning the art of screen printing for wedding purposes!). May is for silly chick flicks and girls nights. May is for spending time with my best friends. May is for spending time with my fiance. I am a happy girl. Things couldn't be better.

Blake and I have just chilled out and watched a lot of tv today. We've been going nonstop since we got to St. Louis, so it's nice to just relax. We've spent a lot of time watching Pregnant in Heels & Bridezillas. My choice, not his. Although, we are currently watching The Last Song and he is happily watching it with me. :)

xo Haley