October Days

With the crisp cool air of October in our midst, I believe it is time for me to set some goals of things I want to get done this next month.

For anyone who doesn't know me personally, I am the type of girl who likes to have a plan. I LOVE to-do lists and seeing them get completed.

My goals list is partially for my and partially for you all, my readers. I would like it to be sort of a Table of Contents for what you can expect to see on my blog this next month.

So here we go...

Goal...
1. Plan and Execute an Amazing Halloween Party with my roommate Bonny

2. Celebrate my Mom and Significant Other's Birthdays!

3. Get caught up on Once Upon A Time and Pretty Little Liars


4. Renovate and Update My Half Bath


5. Come up with some great craft projects


6. Build a Homecoming Float for the Central Student Alumni Association

7. Save $$$ money $$$

8. Attend Some great events to share with my readers!

9. Obtain more readership on my Blog
10. Blog at least 20 times this month

Sounds like a busy month but a fun one filled with Scary movies and close friends. What more could a girl want. 

A Lovely Day at the Oklahoma State Fair!

This last weeked was the last weekend of the Oklahoma State Fair! So sad... I just love going every year its basically my own personal kickoff for Autumn. This year I was able to eat two things of curly fries, a wonderful carmel applel, my jug-o-rootbeer, fried cookie dough on a stick and five corn on the cobs. Now this was in my TWO visits to the fair. NOT ONE! I'm not that much of a fatty. This last saturday I took a few picture of this elderly lady with her beach babe t-shirt.

and here she is petting a stuffed piggy....ENJOY!!!

Cooler Weather = Finishing my BIGGEST renovation

Ready to hear about my biggest renovation of all??..

Well let me start from the beginning....

Being the independent young woman I am, I had been eager to move out of my parents house as soon as I started college. My freshman year I lived in the dorms, even though my parents live in town. As "bratty" as that was I still made a bunch of friends on campus and would never EVER change my decision to live in a cramped dorm for my first year of college. My sophomore year I lived in this dingy apartment near campus and walked about half a mile to class everyday. Worst experience EVER! By March 2011 I had had it with the apartment, the management and my messy roommates that I begged to break the lease and I moved back home that spring break.

Last year I decided to not move out of the parent's house so that I could save money for a trip to Paris, France. Best Decision I Ever Made! But...and yes there is a but. By Christmas, 3 months before my trip, I was losing my mind! I felt trapped with my parents and that the next time I moved out it would be the last time. I found a roommate and we started looking for an apartment to move into in May. My loving parents were concerned that getting an apartment was a waste of money. They offered to help me with a down payment on a house.

One of my mom's co-worker's aunt had a 3 bedroom house they were preparing to sell for $85,000. Now, for those of you not familiar with the housing market this is CHEAP! I was concerned it would be a shack or completely disgusting inside. I was wrong....

It was the outside that was disgusting.. So my BIGGEST renovation has been bring to get this house some curb appeal. With the help of my lovely parents and a very bad hail storm I have been able to paint the front and sides of the house, get a new roof and gutters and give this eye sore a complete makeover. Unfortunately the summer became a hot mess and the paint project had to be postponed. So here is what we have gotten done.

and here is what we lack...

With Fall in our midst this project can get completed and off my renovation list! I'm going to be posting Britt's Renovation List soon so you all can see what I have done and what I still have to do! Please give me some feedback on the house and tell me what you think!

New Additions to the Louvre?!

Only 6 months ago I was at the Louvre and there was no sign of any renovations or additions to this world renowned museum. Today in the New York Times the top story in the arts section is about the New Islamic Galleries at the Louvre in Paris, France.


In 1989 the Louvre added I.M. Pei's Glass Pyramid which is now the main entrance to the Louvre.

It had horrible feedback from the public because of it's contemporary style. Now the new feature for the Islamic Gallery will be a ground and underground level interior spaces with a golden undulating roof.

They did a great job of hiding the project for 10 years! This cost them $125 million! $20 million of that was donated by Prince Alwaleed bun Talal of Saudi Arabia which is the larges single monetary gift ever given to the museum. Can't wait to go back and see it!!!


Read the full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/arts/design/the-louvres-new-islamic-galleries-bring-riches-to-light.html?ref=todayspaper&moc.semityn.www

DYI: Melted Record Catch-All Bowls

Here is an easy project for anyone who has a love for music and interesting conversation pieces.

All you need is...

• An oven
• Records (that you do not mind destroying)
• Baking Sheet
• Small oven safe bowl
• Another bowl to use a a formation for the record

Steps..

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Place your oven safe bowl upside down on the middle of your baking sheet.
3. Put your record on top of the bowl.
4. Place in oven for about 3 to 4 minutes.
5. Take out of oven and quickly place the record in your formation bowl.
6. Form your record bowl however your want it. Do it quickly because the record will cool fast and your bowl will set.
7. Voila! A record catch-all bowl!

Now you can set this bowl by your door to put your keys, on your dresser to put your jewelry or even take it to the office to hold paper clips!

Here are two Reasons to Love the Record Bowl: On top of using it as a bowl, you can also hang multiple record bowls on the wall for a great art piece and if you are tired of the way your bowl is shaped or didn't like how it turned out you can just stick it back in the oven and try again!

Improvement

Here are some questions I am currently pondering and will be working on in the coming week.

1. What area of your blog do you need to work on to improve?
I need to improve my profile and the layout of my blog, including the darn background. I really feel that my site is not portraying the personality I would like it to. Do to my poor technological skills I am having a difficult time getting my page to be what I want it to be.

2. What would make your blog more interesting?
I feel that just the layout being more organized and more "me" the blog will keep readers on the page long enough for them to want to start reading my posts. Then of course having interesting posts no here.

State of The Blogosphere

Ya know when I think of blogging I think of a great place to get my ideas out in public for other people to find useful and a place where I can inspire and be inspired. What I don't think of when I ponder about blogging is about how big the internet is and how many other people are out there that are trying to do the exact same thing. Competition. I should not see this hobby as a competitive sport but people do and thats how the world works and I can either get with it or just  delete my blog now. 

If you look up "State of the Blogosphere" on Technorati they give you the most recent state of the blogging world. What I learned after reading this that there is so many other people wanting to accomplish the same thing as thousands of others. There is a very slim chance that someone's blog will get discovered and become famous or better, make money off their blog. The U.S. has the most bloggers in the world following is England and Australia. Not going to lie to ya'll but I am a bit of a perfectionist and when I do something I want to succeed. I want to have a successful blog, so right now I am going to make a goal for my new blogging hobby. Here it is...

By January 1, 2013 I would like to have 75 followers and at least one post per week with several comments from my lovely followers :)

Think I can do it? Have some suggestions? Leave me a comment!

Love Brittany

Bonjour!

Hello Readers!

I've got my blog up and running but that's about it... I know what I'll be posting and I know what kind of personality I want my blog to have... My personality! Unfortunately I am not savvy when it comes to computers and things as simple as blog backgrounds. I know what I want but I don't know how to get it on my darn blog. As I deal with that I am officially kicking off my blog by tell you all what you'll be able to find on my blog.

I just bought my first house last April. It was built in 1971 and although the previous owners took care of the house there was ALOT that needs to get done to not only update this house but to make it my home. :) The main topics of Reasons to Love will be things like home renovations, DYI projects, organizational tips, ways to live greener, and maybe even a few recipes! Now this is a personal lifestyle blog and I think I live a some what exciting life, so you may even find a few funny stories, places to travel and eat or even some reviews on movies, shows or books. What ever it is that you enjoy I hope I can give you a Reason to Love something for you on my blog. Don't be shy! Leave me some comments!

Love Brittany