Astleigh Guest Post!

I found Astleigh’s blog through a link up a little while back and I love the look of her blog. She takes beautiful pictures and it’s so fun to follow along her first pregnancy. I’m so excited she is guest posting today!

Hi there! I’m Astleigh and you can catch me blogging over at Hill Collection where I share bits of my life as a married gal with our first baby on the way, DIY projects, home décor, recipes, etc. I’m a lover of the fall, coffee drinks, and a good read. I’d love to learn to knit, I prefer dark nail polishes to lighter ones, and I’m crazy for accent pillows, firmly believing you can never have too many, though husband might disagree. I’ve been saved by a mighty Savior and my life is built on Him as my cornerstone. The holidays make me giddy, desserts are my love language, and I get shy in front of a camera.

Creativity is my jam, and I’m always exploring new ways to express that. Most recently I’ve launched a design business, Hill Collection Designs. This new endeavor is my creative outlet, as well as such a fun way to interact and collaborate with others. Let me tell you more about it!

HC Designs is a card and stationary small business that offers anything from holiday greeting cards to shower invites and thank you notes. I pride myself on coming up with unique and classic pieces that will win not only your heart, but those that receive these sweet pieces of snail mail too! From pre-made to custom options, my cards are meant to inspire creativity and excitement. I can’t think of anything better than a mailbox full of Christmas cards. So why not spread that kind of cheer all year through?!

If you’re looking for holiday cards, may that be Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the New Year, or so on, an invitation to send out for a wedding or baby shower, or a sweet way to say ‘thank you’, HC Designs is your place! I’d love to work with you! Take a peak at what I offer and if you have any questions, I’d be happy to chat, just send me an email: hillcollectiondesigns@gmail.com

Thanks for sharing in one of my passions today. HC Designs gives my heart all the exciting flutters and I’m looking forward to seeing where this business goes! Likewise blogging has been incredible for me and I hope there are many more years of it to come. It continues to open up my world to so many wonderful people, and through that I get special opportunities to guest post and share more of my life with you! So a huge thanks to Julie for letting me pop by her space today and share a bit about some of the things I love!

Find me on Instagram and Facebook, I’d love to connect! xo

How gorgeous are her card designs? I know I love getting mail in this day and age of technology. Thanks again so much for sharing your new design business with everyone today Astleigh!

 

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Mattie’s Guest Post

Mattie, from Northwest Native, has been an awesome blogging friend of mine, so friendly and real. She and I started our first link up together, called “Tell Me About It,” that we host at the beginning of each month. Our next one is October 2nd where you tell us your favorite thing about your state! I’m super excited to move to Seattle next month and finally get to meet Mattie in person!

Today she’s sharing some items on her bucket list with you all:

My bucket list is mostly travel and experiences. I am getting married on October 10th and our goal is to save up for a down payment and buy a house as soon as we can. We also hope to have kids one day. But none of these things are part of my bucket list, especially since when I was in high school and part of college I decided I would never be married or have kids. But then Michael came around and changed my mind. So because of that, I don’t feel like those should be bucket list items for me.

Visit all fifty states. So far I’ve been to Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Maryland, Virginia, Hawaii, and Washington D.C. (not a state, I know, but it’s included in this for me). Only nine states and D.C. That’s just sad. Reading blogs has really increased my wanderlust. Everyone talking about their cities and the great things there makes me desperate to travel! (Oh yeah, I’m not counting states where I’ve just been in the airport.) Currently Denver is near the top of the list of places to visit. I’m also desperate to visit Austin, NOLA, and Savannah. First I need to visit my friend in Madison as soon as I can (she’s been to see me twice, and the wedding will be three times!). And Michael’s cousin is getting married in Minneapolis next summer and since he and his fiancee are coming to our wedding, I think we should try and go to theirs!

This is from Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park in Montana. Michael and I went on a road trip to Montana and stayed in a tiny cabin with no wifi thirty minutes from Glacier. I love exploring different parts of the country!

Swim with dolphins. I’ve wanted to do this since I was a little girl. However, I took an animal law class my senior year of college (probably my favorite class of all time) and it’s made me really think about things like this. I only want to do this if I know it’s humane. Michael and I went to Mexico in March courtesy of the company I work for, and there was a place where we could’ve done this. But I looked into it and it turns out the place there is run horribly and is not very humane, so I couldn’t support that.

Run a 10K. I just decided on this one. I’ve run one 5K. The longest I’ve ever run is the equivalent of a 10K. The day after Michael and I did our 5K in March, we decided we’d try to tackle a five mile run, which would’ve been our longest ever. But at the five mile mark we weren’t dying, so Michael said, “Let’s just go until we hit an hour.” And then when we hit an hour we were so close to 6.2 (aka a 10K) that we just pushed through to that. Since then, the longest I’ve run is probably four miles. My standard run on a good day is a 5K (3.1 miles).

Go ziplining. I’m afraid of heights, but I think I would love ziplining, especially if it was in a super scenic location. I’ve been places where they had ziplining (Mexico multiple times) but just haven’t done it!

Wonders of the World. Apparently there are tons of lists of various Wonders of the World, but there are some that I absolutely want to see some day (though I wouldn’t mind seeing all of them!). Stonehenge, the Great Wall, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Empire State Building, the Panama Canal (my grandpa worked in the Canal Zone so my mom lived there for seven years), the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef (I was so close yet so far away when I was in Australia–sigh)… There are a ton more listed on the Wikipedia page, but I was getting tired of typing (and thought maybe you guys were getting tired of reading!). There are definitely more I want to see.

In my mind, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in Sydney are wonders of the world. I was lucky enough to study abroad in the Sydney area for a semester and my friends and I did the bridge climb (like my childhood idols, Mary Kate and Ashley).

Exploring my own backyard. Oregon and Washington have a ton to offer that I’ve yet to see. Crater Lake has been on my list for years. I also want to travel to Bend, Oregon because it sounds like an awesome city. I’d like to go to Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens (I’ve been to St. Helens, but I was really young on a school field trip so I don’t remember it much!). I’d also like to go to Vancouver, BC (I can’t believe I haven’t done this yet) and go back to Victoria, BC (I went when I was twelve and it was beautiful).

There’s a ton of other international travel I’d like to do, but I don’t want to ramble for days. What are some of the things on your bucket list?

Thanks again to Julie for asking me to guest post!

I love that Mattie mentioned that Mary Kate and Ashley were her childhood idols because they were mine too! Hah. I, like Mattie have such a case of wanderlust and want to travel to SO many places both near and far! Thanks again for your post today Mattie!

Katie’s Guest Post

Katie has been such a supportive blogging friend (and soon to be real life friend once we are both up in Seattle together!) I’m so glad she agreed to guest blog today. She and I like a lot of the same things so it’s so fun to follow her blog and see what she’s up to.

Hi everyone! I’m Katie from over at Better Off Benedict. I usually blog about our adventures (ok, maybe not as adventurous as Julie over here), married life, my deals and finds, projects, kitties, and of course football! I’m a huge lover of all things pink, weddings, coffee (duh, a true pacific northwest girl), and girly books. Just last month I started co-hosting a link up called Bookworm Wednesday where we review all of the books that we have read over the past month.

I started my blog back in February so in some ways I’m still a baby blogger. For a few months before that I bad been reading a ton of blogs and felt like the blogging world could be so much fun. I also felt like it was absolutely terrifying. Who would want to read what I was writing? And what would I even write about? I knew seriously absolutely nothing about blogging. I started looking into it and thought… hmmm I think I could come up with a few posts. It all just sort of spiraled from there. I had no idea how supportive other bloggers would be. I have made all sorts of friendships in the blog world and have even had contact with some of my very favorite big time bloggers. Everyone is so great; so don’t be afraid to start blogging! It is so much fun.

My husband makes fun of me (in a joking way, of course) for all of the friends that I have made in the blog world. I think it is amazing! It is like an entirely different group of friends who you know so much about from their blog! These relationships are some that I have truly grown to value in my life. It took a while, but I even started sharing my blog on social media for all of my friends to see. It is something that I’m now proud of instead of embarrassed about. I love the blog world!

I’m also really looking forward to keeping track of all the things we do in our married life! It will be so fun to see each of our successes and adventures written out for us to look back on. I have learned so much since I started blogging and it definitely keeps me plenty busy. Sometimes I even have trouble keeping up with all of my favorite blogs. My motto is that if a blog post is going to stress me out then I shouldn’t write it. After all, blogging is supposed to be fun! I hope you will pop over to my blog and say hello!

I’m so impressed that she’s only been blogging a few months but already has a nice following. Thanks again so much for helping me out this week!

Molly’s Guest Post

Day 2 of my week of guest bloggers comes from Molly at Colors of Life blog. She is so real and endearing. I love following along her life in Texas! Take it away Molly:

Top of the morning, y’all! First of
all, I just wanted to say that I am MORE THAN excited to be guest
posting today. I consider Julie one of my good blog friends and I’m so
thankful that she thought to ask me to be one of her guest bloggers
this week while she is gone.

Julie told me that I was to basically
introduce myself and my blog and I automatically thought “Crap, I have
to come up with something that makes me interesting to other
people!!!” Haha. So I thought. And thought. And thought. Annndddd
thooouggghhhttttt. Y’all, I’m a boring, normal girl. But, in guest
blogger spirit, I knew I wanted to have a post ready so I did the best
I could to be interesting for you. 😉 *crosses fingers*

So where to start? A little about me:

1. I go to school
full-time. I am a Business Administration major with an
emphasis in Human Resources and Organizational Behavior. I’ll graduate
this year (HALLELUJAH!)

2. I am a full-time
employee. I just got a promotion at work to be a Human
Resources Generalist.

3. I am a full-time Red Sox
fan. This is not a drill, I repeat; this is not a drill. I am
constantly getting score updates on my phone or watching when I have
some extra time.

4. I am a homebody,
a family girl, and would choose hanging out with my grandpa over going
to any kind of party. I love home. Home is where the heart is.

5. I love Jesus all the
time. I try to be as involved as possible at my Church, pray
constantly, live like Jesus would, and spend time with Him daily. It’s
hard and I fail every day but He reminds me that He still loves me
regardless of my flaws (and boring, normal girl-ness).

6. I’ve dealt with
an eating disorder, anxiety (still sometimes), depression, and a
multitude of health issues already in my life. As miserable as it was
at the time, it’s made me a stronger person and given me a whole new
outlook on life. I talk about them all in my Colors of Life
posts.

7. I LOVE, love to
exercise. Every day you can find me on a walk, following
along to a work-out DVD, or meditating along with some yoga class.
Exercise is a huge part of my life and always has been.

8. I have a passion for the
elderly. My ultimate career goal is to own or manage a
retirement home one day. I’ve been joking around a lot today, but this
is really not a joke hahah.

About my blog:

I started this blog one night last
spring after reading Shay’s blog and realizing that it was something I
really wanted to do. As mentioned in #6 above, I do feel like as a 21
year old I have already been through a lot in life and I wanted this
blog to be a way to share it with other people so they can realize
they aren’t alone and really to know that someone out there is
thinking and praying for them (hence Colors of Life and my COL page).

I’m a huge fan of scrapbooking, so I decided why not make this online
scrapbook with which I can share with my family and my friends. Some
of my best friends read my blog everyday as well as family members.
It’s always fun when they text me or e-mail me about something I wrote
about. It’s difficult to do something that not everyone else is doing.
I knew some people were making fun of me for blogging, but I still
continued it and I’m glad I did because I’ve met some really awesome
people in doing so.

My favorite vacation:

To be honest, my family has never
taken that many vacations. At least not as many as other people I
know. My favorite vacation to date is probably when we went as a
family to Orange
Beach, Alabama in the Summer of 2014. We all enjoyed each other
and had fun doing nothing and laughing. Another good vacation was in
May when my dad and I went to Boston.
And every time we go to my grandpa’s house is a blast.

My favorite thing I’ve done this summer:

I didn’t really do anything OUT OF
THIS WORLD this summer. I had to take 2 summer classes that started in
June and went through July and I worked pretty much all summer, except
for the days we were in Iowa. So if I had to choose one thing it would
be going to my grandpa’s house. And meeting my cousin Tommy 🙂

What blogging has taught me:

Blogging has actually taught me a lot
more than I thought it would. Other than the fact that it has taught
me how to write better, it has taught me about being open and honest.
Blogging has taught me that sometimes people really do care about me
and my life as well. That there really are nice people in this world!
And it has taught me that my friends and family love it because they
can keep up with our life from all over the country. (The most fun
part!)

Bucket list and life goals:

I actually posted my bucket list right
here. And then I mentioned some other things for my bucket list
and my life in a post right
here.

Favorite book and movie ever:

My favorite book: ever would
have to be Nicholas Spark’s The
Longest Ride (I reviewed it in this post) because I loved the plot
of it, the movie is one of my favorite’s, and I wish that was my
life!!!

My favorite movie: Well, I’m more of a TV show kind of girl
rather than a movie girl. Some of my favorites are: Hart of Dixie,
Parenthood, Nashville, Full House, Gilmore Girls, Revenge, Friday
Night Lights, One Tree Hill, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, The Voice,
Grey’s Anatomy,The Vampire Diaries, and probably some others that I’m
forgetting. I told you I’m a TV show person!

What makes me, me:

I think probably the fact that i’m
not your average 21 year old. I know I just got done saying that I was
normal and boring, but hear me out on this one. I promise I’m not
crazy! All through college I haven’t really been like everyone else. I
went out and partied at Oklahoma, but once a weekend was fine and I
was over it. By the second semester I was completely over it. Not
every college student works and even likes to work. I always tell
people that I’d rather be working than be at school. I just like doing
something and feeling like I’m making an impact somewhere.

If a degree
wasn’t required I would not be in school. I like learning new things,
but not school things. I like real life things. Not all college
students still love living at home. Not all college students are
perfectly content staying in on Friday and Saturday nights. Not all
college students like the elderly/care about the elderly. The list
could go on. I’m just not your typical college girl and I’m 100% okay
with it, although I used to think something was wrong with me. But
that’s another story for a different time.

Julie, you rock! I hope you’re having
a blast out of town. Everyone else, you rock for reading this!!! Feel
free to come say hi over on
my blog too. Have a great day everyone!

In the blogging world where a lot of people only show their ‘good’ sides, I think it’s so refreshing how realatble Molly is. Too bad she’s all the way in Texas and I’m moving to Seattle, because we could totally be friends in real life. 🙂 Thanks again for guest blogging today!