Road trip! Yippee!

This weekend Jason and I are in Cleveland attending the wedding of some good friends. Since flights are expensive on holiday weekends (yikes!) we decided it would make much more sense to drive from Minneapolis to Cleveland. After all, it's only 14 hours! (Hee!)

Thursday evening after work Jason came home and we left our house around 5:30pm. With minimal bathroom and gas stops we made it all the way through Wisconsin and Illinois into Indiana. We stopped at 1:30am in Indiana where we were able to get about 5 hours of sleep before hitting the road again in the morning.

Another 6 hours driving brought us to Cleveland, Ohio, where we picked up my bestest friend from the airport and headed to our hotel to relax.

I've had SO much fun so far and the driving wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be (except for LOTS of road work in Illinois! Whoa!) Now, let's see just how I feel about this on Monday when we have to drive the 14 hours back in one day! :)

5 Fabulous Bloggers You Should Know About

Thanks to Trop50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 Fabulous Wishes. Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous!

With all the blogs I read (oh dear, I read a lot of blogs!) it's hard for me to narrow down all of them to just five favorites. My blog list is always changing and evolving with my interests but there is certainly a type of blog I am always attracted to. Bloggers who are authentic and real are the same ones I want to read every day. If I can feel a connection with the person I am reading about, and feel like I really know them, just by reading what they write, that is a good blogger. Below are five of my favorites, and why I think they are fabulous.

O My Family
I've actually had the pleasure of meeting Allison a few times, and I can honestly say that her blog reflects who she is. She's real and sweet and funny. The best part about her blog right now? She just gave birth to her second child, an adorable little boy, and I love the photos and observations she's posted so far. Even though I don't have kids, I enjoy hearing about her experience with a newborn and a toddler at home.

Ordinary Courage
Brene is a professional researcher of connection. Everything (literally everything) she writes, every speech I have listened to from her, every blog post, and now her book (which I am currently reading), all of it inspires me. Her words reach deep down and bring about a lot of self-evaluation, introspection, and realization. This may sound strange, but really, I love all of it. It's good stuff (I mean really good) and good for anyone to do as well.

The Dainty Squid
Let me start by saying that I love Kaylah's style. I wish I could pull off the look she has. I love her hair, her dimples, her tattoos, everything. She's an awesome photographer (eye candy!) and thrifter (something I am just getting into) and crafter (my favorite kind of people!) I find every post she writes interesting, no matter how long or short or what it's about. She's inspiring and genuine.

Whimsy Love
Nikki is basically adorable. She has two adorable girls who are always crafting and having fun with her. She's a pro at taking jumping photos, and runs an adorable Etsy shop where you can purchase an awesome Grape Soda Bottle Cap Badge, inspired by the movie UP (I mention this only because I love them... I own two of them. :)) Her blog is all fun and crafts and happiness and if you like all those things, you should check it out.

Gussy Sews
I've also had the pleasure of meeting Maggie (aka: Gussy) as she lives here in the Twin Cities and let me tell you, she's just as adorable in person as she is on her blog. She's also incredibly inspiring, and although we're the same age, I want to be like her when I grow up. She runs a successful online shop selling handmade, sewn items full time and does so while staying true to herself and living her dream. Her story is inspiring to anyone who dreams of doing the same. Oh, and her products are adorable too!

Don't forget to enter the 50 Fabulous Wishes contest for a chance to win $1,000 to celebrate a friend with a refreshing attitude about looking and feeling fabulous. I was selected for this Tropicana Trop50 sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do. I received compensation to use and facilitate my post.

What are you doing up there Bruno?

Silly kitty on my new (to me) sewing machine. :)

Aren't they both just SO pretty?!? <3

Today

It's a side-braid, sunshiny kind of day today. :-P

Everett loves the sunshine

Like many people, I am a huge fan of the Instagram app. For those of you who may not know what this is, it's a photo sharing app which allows you to apply cool filters to photos before you post them. I often leave mine as is (like I did with this photo of Everett). I already post these to Facebook and Twitter, but I thought it would be fun to post them here as well. Many of you may not follow me on those sites, so I figured I would post here too. Most are everyday moments that I want to document, little snippets of my life worth sharing. :)

An amazing gift

When we returned home to Minnesota after New Year's (we spent our holiday in Vermont with our families) we had lots and lots of mail to go through. Most were Christmas cards, a whole big stack of them.

Among the piles of mail was a box. Within that box was this box:

Beautiful, isn't it? There was no invoice or form or any indication that I had ordered this item. I was puzzled.

When I opened the pretty box, inside was this necklace:

Gasp! I LOVE this necklace! I even blogged about it and how much I LOVE it! Did I order it and not remember? How could I not remember ordering it though? Where did it come from?

After wondering for a day or so how I was so lucky to get this necklace in the mail, Jason and I sat down to open all those Christmas cards. Towards the bottom of the pile was a card from my good friend from college, Sue. We were two of only 5 girls in our engineering program in college. We were always partners for projects, hung out during and after class, stuck with each other. We were both shy girls who had found themselves in an engineering program with a bunch of guys and often wondered "what the heck are we doing here anyway?" It was so awesome to have such a good friend to count on to help get me through those 3+ years.

The card from Sue contained a note about how much she appreciates my friendship, and how great it was to have me there for her in college and a lot of other really great things that made me cry. I mean CRY. It was the sweetest, most sincere, best note I've ever received. Ever. She also said in the note that she bought me the necklace in hopes that I will "continue to travel and support and inspire people along the way." Mystery solved... and in the best possible way!

The note, the necklace, and Sue's friendship mean so much to me. So much. This is not just an awesome piece of jewelry that resonates with me, it's a token of a friendship I made in college, one that got me through A LOT. A security for both of us during that time. A reminder that I made a difference in my friend's life in a good way. It's so so special. I wear it a lot, and every time I do I am just so happy.

Thank you so much Sue. I appreciate it more than you know. It makes me so happy that we happened to have fluids lab together that day and that you are my friend. :)

The Cutest Pets Ever (because they're mine.)

I thought I would show you some of the cuteness that I get to see every day. My pets are like my kids, so this is me gushing about them. :)
The tan kitty is Bruno. The Wheaton Terrier pup is Everett, and the black kitty is Booger (who's real name is Baylee, but we never call her that.) Ok, gushing over. ;)

Minnesota Swarm

In January Jason and I discovered indoor Lacrosse. It's all kinds of awesome. The local team is the Minnesota Swarm, and they play in St. Paul. This year we went to 6 different home games and had SO MUCH FUN at all of them. Even when they don't win it's a seriously entertaining game that I get really into (most of the time, on Sunday morning, my voice is crackly because I scream so much... haha.)
In the last two photos I had Jason pose with me while I held out the camera. In the second one he was looking at the screen, where a fan was proposing to his girlfriend!!! It was really cool (she said yes) and it was really funny to look at this photo of Jason being totally distracted (and excited) by it.

Get Lucky 21k

On March 19th, Jason and I got up early and headed to St. Paul where Jason ran his 3rd Half Marathon. 13.1 miles! He did awesome, met his goal, and felt great afterward! I am always so so proud of him for having this hobby, and for always working to do better. I always work really hard not to tear up when I see him cross the finish line.

In the last two photos Jason wanted to pose for an ad for Muscle Milk. Haha. Silly silly boy.

What's going on anyway?

The other day, Jason's grandfather emailed me to ask if I'd retired this blog. I actually had to go and look to see when the last time I posted was... turns out, it was almost two months ago. 2 MONTHS?!?! Wow. It's been forever friends.

The truth? I don't want to retire this blog. I love this blog. A lot. I even took some time to go back and read past posts and I learned a bit from what I said. That's a powerful thing people. When you can have a hard day (or week or month) and something that you yourself wrote can actually put things into perspective, that's not something you can really ignore.

I'm not ready to give that up. I've been blogging here for 3 years. This post is #638. A lot of effort has gone into this blog, a lot of nights of writing, wondering if what I am saying is even making sense to you all (I bet some of it doesn't.) A lot of time designing, and redesigning, and redesigning again. It's been a hobby and a source of joy and it's even made me some new friends and opened doors for me in a good way.

All that being said, I need for it not to be a source of stress. Blogging for fun, a personal blog like this one, needs to be a source of inspiration and joy. And so, my plan for All Sam's Idea is this: I will keep posting when I can. I will not stress about what I post. I will know there is value in whatever content I can post, and hope that you all appreciate reading it. I will focus much more on the personal stuff, the fun things that we do, our adventures, and sharing them with you all. I will not take for granted what this blog has become, and how much I adore it. And I really hope not to go another two months without posting. Hopefully I can post some sort of update on our life every week or so.

If you are a fan of crafts, definitely come see me at my new blog dedicated to simple craft projects.