Not All Bloggers Are Mean

The title of this blog post could also read "Most Bloggers Are Nice".

Recently I've read a few things on Twitter and blogs

that have made me very disappointed in social media.

Social media makes it very easy for people to spew hate and spread negativity. These things often spread like wildfire. Fortunately the positive side of social media is having the ability to build friendships, connections, and spread positive messages. With the ability to reach so many people with the use of our fingertips on a keyboard, we must think twice (or even three times) about what we write. What we choose to share with others, via the Internet, is a reflection of our lives outside of cyberspace. It's our choice how we use social media. Do you want to cause heartache and stress, or do you want to be a light in another person's life?

It's your choice.

Even though social media does have its downsides, there is much to love. There are so many great things about blogging that I am only beginning to learn about and understand. I've had the opportunity to 'meet' some really sweet people who blog and share their lives and passions with others. I've even met three bloggers in real life. My favorite bloggers are very real, loving and caring towards others, and never afraid to share their perfectly imperfect lives. They're quite like the people I prefer spending time with in real life. Funny how that works. It's almost like looking in a mirror. If you learn about yourself and the things you love, there's this gravitation towards more of the same.

This leaves me to remind you that not all bloggers are mean;

just like not all real people are mean.

There's a lot of kindness out there.

Sometimes you just need to wade through hate and seek out the love.

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Speaking of kindness, tomorrow I'm going to share with you

something very thoughtful that my blog friend Alisha did for me!

If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting my sweet friend Alisha,

go visit her blog { Alisha and Brandon } now.

Is It Too Soon?

Halloween has come and gone, the leaves have fallen from our trees, and the shelves are already stocked with gifts and holiday merchandise in preparation for "Black Friday". Before we know it, we'll be ringing in the year 2012. Where has the time gone?

Wait a minute, let's slow things down for a second here!

Why the rush?

Is it just me, or does this time of year always seem to rush by in a hurry?

I know one thing.

Seeing how eggnog is only available for a short stretch of time each year,

we're enjoying a glass (or two... don't tell anyone) tonight.

We always enjoyed some eggnog during Thanksgiving when I was growing up,

and over the years that's something that will not change.

Good thing my husband loves eggnog too,

because I'd sure hate to drink a whole quart all by myself. *wink, wink*

There's also no shortage of holiday candles around our place either.

{ candles both from anthropologie Aloha Orchid tin and Balsam & Cedar }

In our household we do have a pretty steadfast rule

of not putting up our Christmas tree or listening

to any Christmas music until after Thanksgiving though.

You have to draw the line somewhere.

Randomness & Nail Polish

Oh hey there.

This is a random post, because I've been busy

and have had such little time to think & write lately.

Did you know that I love creamsicles? Well. I do.

You know what else I love?

Painting my nails. Love.

nail polish { metallic gold by Revlon and OPI Mimosas for Mr. & Mrs. }

I wrote a blog post a while back about how much I love the half-moon manicure,
and after all this time I still love it.

Here it is again.

If you're interested in doing this yourself,

check out the link to Pretty Shiny Sparkly in my last half-moon blog post.

Happy Tuesday!!

It Was Painful, But I Did It

Just like kicking any addiction, habit, or vice in life, it was tough making the decision to finally delete my Facebook account. I had new complaints about it with each passing day, and the negatives of having a profile really seemed to outweigh the positives anymore. These are a few of the reasons why I finally bit the bullet and deleted my Facebook account. Call me a traditionalist, but I'm hoping that maybe some day my life will consist of more quality phone calls, emails, and maybe even the elusive snail mail item or two.

It may have been a television program I watched late last week that really kicked my butt into 'Facebook deletion mode', but it was something that had been in the back of my mind ever since my husband deleted his account months ago. It was time for me to draw up enough strength and 'unplug' myself from all of the pseudo connectedness that Facebook made me feel.

Facebook seems to do a wonderful job at making us feel that we have tons of friends (around 400 in my case), but in all reality Facebook was only making it convenient for keeping hundreds of acquaintances at my fingertips. What good was that doing for my quality of life? I don't know about you, but I find that keeping up with relationships can be tiring. Friendships take work, and I feel that Facebook is degrading the definition of 'friends'. Growing up, I was always the kid who wanted a few close friends more than I ever wanted tons of meaningless friendships. I guess I haven't changed much in that department over the years. I will forever be the girl who wants to do things all the way or not do them at all. If you don't really want to be my friend, and you only want to keep me at your fingertips when it suits you, then I would rather be without you as my real life and Facebook friend.

After finally deciding to delete my account, I posted a status update letting my friends know that I would be deleting my account and to email me if they wanted to keep in touch. I received only a couple of comments from friends who let me know they wanted to stay in touch, and I received a couple of emails in my inbox as well. Out of almost 400 Facebook friends, I would say that was right along the lines of failure. Either that or their news feeds were too cluttered with more very important things, like Farmville invites or Spotify song suggestions, to notice that one of their friends would be leaving the world of Facebook. In that case, it solidified my decision. Being part of a human advertising experiment was never all that fun.

There are a lot of people who I miss, and would love to stay in contact with, but I prefer more meaningful methods of communication where you actually hear the other person's voice on the other end. Skype me! It's like an old-fashioned phone call but with video included. I'm not saying goodbye to all technology, just the ones that don't make me a better person. And yes, I do everything I can to not answer my cell phone during dinner. Like I said, call me old fashioned.

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Below you can see the video of me actually going through the process
of deleting my Facebook account.

Yes this is actually me.... I rarely wear my glasses.
Try not to laugh.

* I really struggled with the captchas, they don't make those easy do they? *

Did you know that deactivating your Facebook and

permanently deleting it are two completely different things?

{ you can read more about that here }

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I hope to use my new found 'free' time post-Facebook for learning, reading, writing, and

maybe even sending the occasional letter and thank you note via snail mail.

In the words of my high school art teacher,

who was always one of my very favorites,

"Quality over quantity!"

{ Thank you Mrs. Fuller! }

* oh and if you're wondering.... I haven't missed Facebook at all.

Fall Smells Good

I know it's already November and winter will be here before we know it,

but it's not too late to share some of my favorite scents for fall, right?

{  mulled wine candle: anthropologie  |  nail polish: essie  }

Anthropologie's website describes the mulled wine candle as
"red wine stewed with oakwood, cinnamon, and citrus."
I think it's the cinnamon that has me hooked.

The smell from this candle easily fills your whole room....
and maybe even your whole house*.
* { Depending on the size of your house. We live in a small two bedroom apartment. It works for us. }

I love the smell of food
cooking on Thanksgiving day too!

What are some of your favorite fall scents?

Our Encounter with a (Very) Curious Squirrel

Remember how we visited the Sawgrass Lake Park last week? Well, I forgot to mention that we also saw some millions of squirrels during our walk around the park. They probably outnumbered everything else at the park, including people and trees. They were everywhere, and they were not scared.

Signs around the park read "do not feed the squirrels", but some had obviously been modified to tell us otherwise. Every squirrel we encountered was rather curious and not afraid of us silly camera-toting humans. We were able to get up close and personal with one incredibly curious squirrel. I almost had to intervene and save my husband. I thought for sure he was a goner for sure. This particular squirrel looked rather hungry.

See for yourself:

As you can see we had a tough time stifling our laughter.
We wanted to see how close it would get before we scared it away with our noise.

P. S.
Did you notice the squirrel takes a crap in our video at about the 0:40 second mark?
We didn't notice the poop until re-playing the video on our computer at home.
We felt sorry for scaring the crap out of the poor little squirrel.
Then we laughed about it.