Sorry to leave you hanging...

Okay people. Sorry to leave you hanging for so long. And even before that, sorry about all the random, non-sense making, not finished posts. I've just been totally scattered brained lately and I'm afraid I still am. I have a lot of ground to cover and none of it is related. So if you find yourself reading and suddenly not knowing what I'm talking about... I probably subconsciously switched subjects. So just back track a few sentences and it might make better sense. Just think of it as a flashback to taking the SAT reading part. Chad is out of town and I am more lonely than ever. Yes I want some cheese with my WHINE. Anyway, but him being gone is going to leave me a lot of time to reflect. 5 days to be exact. It also give me plenty of time to devote to blogging... ALRIGHTY THEN. So a few weeks back I went to Austin's "RISE" '10. RISE stands for "Relationship and Information Series for Entrepreneurs. I went with Julie, a friend I know from AWC. (Austin Women in Communications... which I was just asked to be a board member of- GO ME!) It is basically a week full of informational sessions related to entrepreneurship and shenanigans like that.

We went to the session "Thinking Big, Working Small." The session was hosted by Lorrie Marrero of "The Clutter Diet."

She talked about how she started up her business, and how at first she made some mistakes; but not only did she learn from them, she is now sharing that with us as well as the secrets to her now successful venture. She was totally fabulous and she said a couple of things that will stick with me FOREVER. I'm going to share them with you now... #1. "Crash organizing is like Crash Dieting, it's never gonna work!" and #2. "There is no such thing as work-life balance, it's all about being work-life FIT!" Words of a genius if you ask me! Just marinate on that for a minute!

{I just got a tweet from Lorrie and I MUST share.

"clutterdiet: Thx, Tiff! I would like to credit my friend Cali Yost for the "work-life fit" concept... she is author of that book. :)" There ya go!}

Anyway I totally look up to Lorrie because I, myself, is very organized and totally neat freaky. Anyway, after her session, and especially after Megan's comment a few weeks back, I'm really considering starting up my own business. However... I have NO CLUE where to start. I really need to get some experience under my belt, but that just doesn't seem to be taking flight yet. I had a few promising interviews on Friday, so I'm just waiting to see. Something cool to note though...

FACEBOOK is opening a corporate office here and will put over 200 jobs out into Austin... I will definitely be applying... DUH.

Ever heard of Phase 10??? Yeah, well I hadn't either until Chad and I were bored one night and decided to make a late night trip to Wally World. Apparently Chad has been playing this game his whole life, because when we got it home... he kicked my butt! It is an ADDICTING rummy type game.. but is SO FUN! I have yet to beat Chad... seriously... I'm such a loser! However, I am getting close... I only lost by 5 points the other night. Wish me luck in my Phase 10 endeavors. I'm going to interject right here and share a tweet from a few days ago.

Straight from the real live PRESS SECRETARY OF THE WHITE HOUSE. Apparently the Alabama Football team headed to the White House for some stupid reason. Whatever. I'm just glad our Press Sec. knows what's up. WAR DAMN EAGLE!! I'm so ready for football season to come back. I am, however, very much enjoying the spring. Though it has been raining here like EVERY FREAKIN' DAY, (it's raining right now.) we've have had a good amount of sunshine too. The good, no, GREAT! kind. The kind where the air is cool, but the sun is hot. Doesn't get any better than that! My body is not near as close as I want it to be for bikini season, so I'm still running and trying my hardest to stay away from junk food. My guilty pleasure now is EASTER CANDY. Why does every holiday have to be celebrated with candy? Sheesh. I have been SO good, but today I broke down and bought some M&M's and Starburst Jelly Beans. (MY FAVE) I actually like them more for decoration, but they are certainly yummy too.

(p.s. Real Simple is the BEST magazine EVER.)

See how pretty the candies are? Yeah, that's what I thought. So today, while I was in the PERFECT springtime mood, I did a little spring cleaning, (including donating a good amount of clothing) and I made a flower run. It's been a while since my last fresh flower. I believe it was my daisies on Valentine's Day. That was just too long ago. If anything makes me happy... it's having fresh flowers in the house. I went out for flowers and came back with 2 bags of candy...

I did, however, on the way home, share a handful with a homeless man. The homeless people are everywhere in Austin. They are literally a protected class and I hear that one even ran for mayor. I usually try as hard as I can to not look at them and usually think "get a job, bum!", (is that mean?) but today was different. I thought about how if I didn't have the love and support of my family, friends, and Chad, that I could be in their shoes, I mean... I can't even get a job. So I rolled down my window and asked if he would like some candy. The biggest smile came upon his face, and I couldn't help but to smile too. He was so happy and thankful for just a little hand of candy. Talk about a reality check.

Okay so other than flowers and candy, I got a new candle too. In the spring mood, I needed a spring scent for the apartment. So I pulled out my trusty %20 off coupon for Bed, Bath, and Beyond and headed straight for the Yankee Candle section. These candles are pricey but they are just plain BETTER. I've bought the $5 candles numerous times... and you know what... they don't really smell. I'm looking for something that will fill the room with a glorious spring scent. So after, at least, a good 30 minutes of sniffing I came out with this one...

MANGO PEACH SALSA

It's sweet but not too sweet, and not too perfumey- ya know what I mean? I was really looking for something citrus like orange or lemon, but unfortunately that is not the the Yankee Candle repertoire right now. BACK TO MY FLOWERS. Here is a little peek at my fresh flower selection. I took a floral design class so I think I'm pretty good with floral arrangements. Maybe one day I will share some of the arrangements I've made! But for now I stuck with simple tulips (the petals were still closed at the shop, and you always want to get them before they bloom!) and then I made what I like to call a "mum mixer." Book me for your next event!

My apartment is now officially transformed into a spring time haven! Bring on the spring!! Not to mention this whole "spring forward" nonsense. I mean, would the world really end if we didn't set our clocks back and forth?

I feel I always adapt to "fall back" pretty good. Probably because it always falls on the weekend of the Ole Miss game, so I'm down for an extra hour of late night tailgating, but spring forward? It always takes me like 3 days to adjust. Am I getting old? WHATEVER.

So we have this AMAZING bookcase thing from Ikea. I think that it is supposed to be stood up on it's end, but we decided to flip it over and use it as an entertainment center. It has clean lines and the various sized boxes make it interesting and eye catching. We thought this would be great to display books, knick knacks, and good storage for entertainment junk and our billion DVD's. However, the free standing DVD's are hard to dust around and frankly just don't look nice. So I'm on the look out for some sort of baskets that I can store DVD's in. I don't really want the DVD boxes because, honestly, well I don't even know why, but I just don't. So if you have any suggestions... PLEASE BE A SHARE BEAR! Let's flashback to last week. For the past 2 months I have been attending, what we call in the Twitter world, BATHH's. It stands for "BIG ASS TWITTER HAPPY HOUR." This particular one was a sort of kick off party for SXSW (South by Southwest Festival) This was a social networking BLACK HOLE. I have met so many fabulous people through these things and I love it! I got my business cards in, but unfortunately I got them in one day late, so I wasn't able to distribute them at the BATHH, but definitely at the next one! It was at Frank (bacon bloody mary's and whoopie pies!) and I would say over 500 people showed up. I always volunteer to work the sign in table and I know I signed in quite a few. So I had a few drinks, tried some chocolate covered bacon it wasn't too bad! and hit up the photo booth (armed with props and all) courtesy of the FABULOUS Korey Howell.

I met this awesome girl Stacey. You can hit her twitter up @riotgrrrlie. We did the "sign in" table together and after a few drinks, I convinced her to do a SXSW belly dancing

class with me. The class was held at Copa and was taught by these lovely ladies of Sabaya. The class was intense! I thought we were going to jump around in jingly skirts but NO! I was popping my hips and clinching my butt and before I knew it, I was sweating!!

It was even worse because I had actually ran that morning and Chad and I had footed it all over downtown on an adventure to find a new place to eat and do a little SXSW sight seeing.

This whole SXSW thing is just HUGE. I had no idea! I'm trying to get involved with it as much as possible but there is just TOO much to do! I went to a party the other night at Beauty Bar because there was some fabulous PR guy from Dallas there and plus there was FREE BEER. duh. Not only is SXSW Film, Music, and Interactive... but it is PARTYING, like everyday! All day and all night. Too much for lil' ol' me. I guess I am getting old. DAMN. However, Rachel did make me feel like a giddy little school girl the other day... She has been doing these fabulous giveaways for a few weeks now. I always enter and then pray that I have a chance of winning the fabulous item.

WELL....

last week...

I WON!!!

I won this BEAUTIFUL necklace and I just can't wait to get my paws on it! I want to build a whole outfit around it! I got this dress from Target today... it might just do the trick!

What do you think? It's not as frumpy as it looks here. The color is more bold and vibrant, and it's flowy. A little hippie, but still pretty. PLUS the waistline makes me look skinny. JACKPOT.

SO. Rachel's giveaway this week is just as fabulous...

and has inspired my next little rant. If you haven't entered to win... DO SO.

And mention that I sent ya! :)

So I LOVE NAIL POLISH. Especially OPI. I'm sort of a snob when it comes to it. OPI may cost a little more, but the names are AWESOME and the paint is so shiny after it dries, there really is no need for a top coat! I have a small collection of colors that I simply can't live without. Here they are! I reccomend you go out and get them after you read this.

K?

From left to right.

#1."Pompeii Purple"- I'm wearing it now. It's more of a fuschia, it's fun and fabulous. Perfect for Spring Break!

#2. "My Private Jet"- Not only worn by yours truly, but my girl Kim Kardashian swears by the color as well. It is like a brown/grey/purple metallic color... soooo pretty and chic!

#3. "My Chihuahua Bites"- Sort of like "Cajun Shrimp" but more pinky. My staple summer color. I would compare it to coral.

#4. "Pamplona Purple"- My newest addition and is from the Spain collection. A funky but pretty purple... perfect for spring/summer!

#5. "Dutch Tulips"- Introduced to me by Miss Jamie Cooper, don't let this perfect RED get away. Not too red, not too pink, not to light, not to dark. JUST DO IT.

#6. "Russian Navy"- I first got this during a pedicure thinking it was purple. It freaked me out at first when I looked down and saw blue toenails, but this color has really grown on me. It is purply/blue/ metallic/ glittery and fabulous. Perfect for a night on the town or a WAR EAGLE football season!

#7. "Elephantastic Pink"- The absolute PERFECT girly, cutesy pink! 'NUFF SAID!

Okay, so I have been going for a while, and man has time flown! It's time for bed! I didn't even notice that Chad was gone... JUST KIDDING! Miss you Chad!

Anyhow, I'll be back tomorrow with pics from the John Mayer concert and I've got a few more interesting things going on in my life that I would love to share. Other than that I will leave you with these. Wouldn't you love to have these little beauties hanging off your keychain?

'til then.