The Best Game Ever. No, Really. Friends. Canadians. Designs. Blogiversary.

You guys. 

After yesterday's down-in-the-pooper venting/pity party post (thanks for listening/loving/not judging/advising, btw), I feel like I should share something amazing with all of you.

1. We sort of have friends. Woo! I see this going places.

2. I discovered the BEST game in the entire world. You probably won't believe me, but I'm serious. The name of the game? Funny Bones. It's a game that hopped straight out of the fifties, and it provides more giggles and fun than Twister ever could.

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So the idea of the game is this - you have a partner, and you have to do what the card says. For example, if the card says "head bone connected to the elbow bone," you and your partner have to connect a head and elbow, holding the card in place between the two body parts. 

You see how many cards you can hold in various positions before you drop one, and then you add up your points. 

Mike and I were pretty much champs. I wish I had photo evidence, but I do not. Maybe next time. 

3. I have some pretty cool ladies giving away some pretty awesome stuff. Have you entered this giveaway yet? No? Well, you should. See, I made it easy for you.  

Amanda // Rosie

a Rafflecopter giveaway

4. I finished another blog design. This one was for the fabulous Noël. 

5. Canadians are cat lovers and procrastinators. And they really like hockey, maple syrup, and ice fishing. Maybe. I actually have a real-life Canadian for you to meet. She's pretty cool. I mean, just look at that hat!! 

My name is Emily. I am Canadian.  I blog at Hope Squared.  I blog about stuff.  I like cats, fonts, and poutine.  I am an aspiring sewist, wannabe photographer, and a self taught 'I will make your blog look pretty' designer. I dream big - but also procrastinate.  I blog about my really awesome life, my rare travels, and sometimes about blog design.  If you're into Hodge Podges - then this is the blog for you. 

blog. twitter. facebook. bloglovin.

6. It's my one year blogiversary today!! I'll share some of my most viewed/favorite posts from the past year throughout the week. And I have something to tell you all:

The Latest, yo.

HI!!!! 

Last night I met a blogger. Her name is Emily, and she's awesome. And you know what?! We were horrible bloggers, because we didn't get a single picture together. Oops. Ummm... just take my word for it - she is cool. And you should meet her, too - virtually. 

Anyway.nYou guys, I feel like I have been slammed with design work lately.

So... here's a few of my latest designs. I highly recommend checking them all out, but if you just picked one... I'd go with the first. It's amazing (I'm so humble). And involved lots of extras, which involved the coding ninja working his butt off.

There's a slideshow feature, custom signatures, and a grid of the contributors. I'm glad my husband can do cool stuff and help me out when I need it - he's awesome. That slideshow never would have happened without him. Or me going bald from ripping my hair out. 

I did a redesign of Ali's blog, and it was so fun - she wanted something fairy-tale-esque, and I think this works! If you want to have baby fever... stop by and see the design in action.

 For DB I strived to keep it classy and simple, but not girly. He wanted neutrals that would compliment his food photos rather than distract. If you need good recipes, check him out.

 For Megan's design, I wanted to put her blog title into pictures by using the words. Yeah... that made sense in my head. Anyway, she wanted purple and grey for a color scheme, and I think it turned out great - not too boring and blah, but not too overwhelmingly purple, either.  She has an adorable pup, so if you want to look at cute animals, head over there!

If you are interested in a design, stop by my design page. I am currently working on a couple of projects, but the wait shouldn't be long!

Lately. Awesome Points. Other Stuff.

Yo Homies!!


I'm in South Dakota right now, so if you're not getting lots of comments from me... that's why. I haven't started ignoring you guys, I promise!!

Anyway. Here's a bit of life lately:

1. KITTENS!!! 'Nuff said. Just look at the picture and say, "Awww!"

2. Blog Designs!!! I am working on a few right now, but am always open to customers!!

3. Awesome points!!! I decided to start this thing where I add up the awesome points that you guys have gotten from random things on my blog. Once you get to 75,000 awesome points, you will get a random (probably ridiculous but definitely awesome) surprise in the mail from yours truly. Just keep looking for ways to get awesome points. You'll know when you get them.


4. I don't really have a number four. Oh, look! A cool picture!

5. Uhhh... Tell me something funny that happened to you or a friend this past week. The person who makes me laugh the hardest gets 7,500 awesome points.

My Dad Told Me to Write about Tacos.

Hola! 


That seems like an appropriate greeting, since my dad told me that I needed to write about tacos. This is my dad: 

Cute, huh? Sorry for the iPhone quality.


This was our conversation:
Me: I don't know what to blog about.
Dad: Blog about all the weird stuff in America.
Me: I did that already.
Dad: Blog about how tacos made from flour tortillas are way better than the ones made with corn tortillas.
Me: Are you serious?
Dad: Yeah, it's a good, solid blog topic.

Well, Dad - consider it blogged. 


Seriously, though - If you're ever in the Wichita area, Taco Shop has some of the best flour tacos around, and you can get a dozen for $7. Holy amazeballs. So good. I may or may not have eaten my weight in tacos today. You're welcome, Rosie and Sara. If you guys weren't the ones I was talking about tacos to... then just ignore that.   


In other news... I finished a blog design. Actually, I finished two. I just forgot to take a screenshot of one of them, so you only get to see one. If you click it, it takes you to Meg's blog, where you can see it live.

fonts used: Trendex & just realize

And just for you, Emily: My cat had an affair with its father's best friend and is now pregnant with quintuplets.


No, that isn't true. I just wanted to give Emily a good read, in case the taco thing wasn't interesting enough. Don't go spreading those nasty rumors, y'all. And please, please do not ever let me say "y'all" again. Ever. 


And... That's all I've got.

Some More Scotland. Some Changes. And Vampires.

Helllloooooo Blogworld! 


If you don't want to read about the changes, skip to the big neon green sign that says "Start Here." If you just want to look at pretty pictures of Scotland, scroll down till you see them. 


So... what do you think of the new look? In case you've never been here before, this is what these parts used to look like:

I feel like I should mention a new feature that I'm doing, and explain it a little bit. It's called Blog of the Month, and here's how I described it to Jennie, my first ever BotM:
"Okay, it's not so brilliant, and i maybe sort of borrowed and then slightly modified someone else's brilliant idea, but hear me out. So Gentri Lee does this little feature every Monday where she features a smaller blogger that she really likes, and I think that's awesome. I also think, however, that I am way too selfish to give my blog to another person that often (I'm awful, I know), so I decided to do it once a month...I want to try to find bloggers that have less than 200 followers, but are totally awesome and cool and funny and all that jazz. I'm trying to find bloggers that are within the same niche so that my readers will actually appreciate me sending them [their] way."
So there you have it - the new feature. A ton of looking goes into finding these new blogs, and I'm stoked to be able to give them exposure for a whole month.


NOW!!!! On to the post! 

You know, I feel like I have a lot of posts that mention vampires, which is odd, because if I had to pick a Twilight team to belong to, it would totally be Team Sexy Werewolf. Whatever. This post is not about Twilight. Although... I could totally make fun of K-Stew for hours, I will resist and get to the point.

I think I'm turning into a vampire. Seriously - hear me out, peeps. I've gotten so pale that I practically sparkle in the sun and I sleep during the day and am up all night (which makes going to my day job pretty torturous). Someone come tell me that I'm not going to turn into Edward Cullen, please?!

Okay, now on to to the real point of this post - Scotland. Specifically, pictures, because I'm tired of boring you with my words. Even more specifically, pictures of nature. Because Scotland is pretty much one of the most beautiful places in the world (if you're into rolling hills and green).  

 

See? Scotland really is beautiful!

Sunday Confessions Link Up

Happy Sunday! 


So. By now I'm sure you know the drill - grab a button and link up. Easy peasy. 

<center><a href="http://itsalyx.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6701442513_4c7153a301.jpg" width="200" height="200" /></a></center>

I'll admit - these are not the most entertaining confessions ever. Sorry!

1. I had 5 nutella sandwiches yesterday. It's okay, though, guys - I have an excuse! We're moving in 2.5 weeks, and so I have to get rid of all the nutella, right?!

2. I am so excited to get some lake/four-wheeler time in. I guess that's a plus of going home soon- it's already in the 90s there, and the lake is calling my name. I'm actually really in the mood to spend a day floating down the Niobrara River or playing sand volleyball.

3. I'm doing it!!!! Get your minds out of the gutter. I'm going to start offering WordPress custom blog designs! Together with Mr. Husband (who wishes to be known from here on out as the coding ninja), I will be offering these ninja-coded designs for the low, low price of $100. That may seem high, but have you seen what a lot of people charge? Plus, it's basically building a website from nothin'. I bet you could even pay the coding ninja in milk and cookies (they'd have to be homemade). I would require nutella and ice cream.

4. I am not a normal girl. It just occurred to me that there is something seriously wrong with me - I am not a fan of shopping, and would rather spend almost all of my time outside hiking, biking, boating, whatever - I just don't like shopping, don't like doing my makeup or hair, and rarely spend more than 20 minutes getting ready in the morning.

My go-to look: a t-shirt, hair pulled back, and I'm willing to bet $100 that I'm wearing sweats. The cat is there just because he's cute.

5. I HATE it when girls cannot walk in heels. Guys, this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Especially when it's girls who wear them all the time or are really fashionable. I mean, honestly - it is not hard. I'm the least graceful person you will ever meet, and I do just fine. I feel like I should do a YouTube video on how to walk in heels, and display how ridiculous half of the female population looks while they're stumbling around attempting to look cool.

PLEASE, for the love of all that is holy, if you do not know how to walk in heels, DO NOT WEAR THEM. You just look stupid. Also, buy shoes that fit. Too often, I see people wearing heels like the ones below, and that's what contributes to the inability to walk. 

via

Wow. That almost turned into a blog rant about how much I hate girls that cannot walk in their shoes. I'll save that for another day, though, because believe me, I could talk for hours about this pet peeve. 

Am I ridiculous for getting that worked up about shoes, or is there something silly like that that REALLY bothers you, too?? 

Favorite Things Friday

 Hiiiii!!!!!! 


So... it's Friday! I didn't really have a real week, so it seems a little soon for the weekend, but who's complaining? Not this girl. 
So... who wants a premade template for $20? Color changes are $5. Email me. 
I don't have a spot on my design site for templates, yet, so I'm putting it here. 

Anyway... Time for a little list of my favorite things!! 


1. Tiffany Alvord's cover of "I Won't Give Up." I love it! I think I might actually like it more than the original. Don't hate me!!!


2. The smell of springtime. Flowers, if we're getting specific. Germans love their gardens, and I love them for that. Echzell smells amazing right now. That's a plus of living in a teensy town, right?!

3. Blates. I went on one!!! I met Bailey in Heidelberg on Monday, and it was great to meet another blogger in Germany!! I'll blog about that soon.

4. Finding new recipes. You guys are awesome, and when I ask for recipes, you deliver. Approximately half of them contain cheddar cheese (which I can't find anywhere here), so they have gone on my Pinterest food board until I get back to the states. The other half of them will be (and have been) feeding Husband and I, so keep em coming! [Yes, that was me encouraging you to share more yummy recipes with me].
Even more important than the recipes... I just figured out how to embed pins. I'm a little slow.

Source: acrazywalkonthesafeside.blogspot.com via Alyx on Pinterest

5. Students doing well. My student that I was tutoring passed his Abitur!!! AND he did really well on his oral exam!!! I'm so proud of him!! 

Linking up here! 

Once Upon a Time I Craved Cupcakes with Frosting [and I went all the way to Scotland to get them]

Yo, yo, yo! What's crack-a-lackin'? 


Did you all have a hip-hop-happenin' weekend? My weekend just seemed too short, but isn't that how they always are?

So... I just wanted to tell you guys some really exciting news, but you have to suffer through this post before you can get it. [Don't skip to the bottom, either... that's just not nice]. 

Anyway, I'm sure you all remember this little breakdown that I had a few months ago:

If you don't listen to it, I'm basically crying my eyes out over fatty American food. Totally normal.

So. Imagine how over-the-top ecstatic I was when we went into ASDA (the Great Britain Wal-Mart chain) after 8 p.m. (the stores in Germany would all be closed by then) and found CUPCAKES WITH FROSTING!!!!!! You bet your freaking bottom dollar I bought some of those bad boys.

They were glorious. I will not tell you how many I devoured over the seven days that we were in Scotland. 

I didn't just go to the Wallace Monument, I went to the Wallace Monument and ate a freaking cupcake while complaining about the hike up the hill. 
Oh, to go back to being a lazy American.

Speaking of the Wallace Monument, we hiked up to it, but opted not to go inside.

We did Scotland on the cheap. We went to probably twenty castles and monuments while we were in Scotland and only paid for one. We still got good pictures and saw a lot of things, but we didn't spend a fortune doing it.

Scotland has castles up the wazoo, and almost every single one charges more than five pounds entrance fee. Multiply that by two, and we would have gone broke with everything we saw.

So... most of my vacation entries will be about traveling on a budget. Since, you know, we're so po we can't even afford the "o-r."


Now for the news...


HA! I bet you all are thinking I'm preggers, right? WRONG. But. I did get admitted into the master's program at The University of Southern California. 

via

Now, before you go all crazy telling me to enjoy the weather, know that it's an online program (I still have to do all the student teaching and classroom stuff - they have connections all over the world to set you up with it). It's the perfect program for us and our little travel bug (and Mike since his schooling is priority).

We will still be heading to Buffalo, New York in the fall, and who knows where we'll be in the spring of 2013? Probably somewhere new, because, as the name of this pretty ole blog suggests, Every Day is a New Adventure. 


Finally, check out the latest design! You can click the picture to go to Katie's blog and see it live.

I used lace brushes from SSDema,  random brushes by Seasonstea, and the fonts are passionsans, playdate, and cursif. 

Saturday.

Hey there! 


Our Saturdays are always lazy. We sleep in till noon, make sure we have adequate cuddle time before dragging ourselves out of bed, and then argue lovingly about which one of us is going to cook breakfast. 


...Then we realize that we don't have any eggs, and all the stores are closed until Tuesday, because it's Easter weekend. 

We will probably starve to death. 

The End. 

PS: Before I starve to death, you all should probably look at these cute business cards and blog welcome image I designed for Rachel. 

Little Randoms. Toilets. Elephants.

Hiiii!!!


So lately my life has been spent on the computer. I have a ridiculous amount of English homework because I'm trying to finish two Independent Study classes in less than 8 weeks, and that's one of the reasons I haven't exactly been the best blogger, either. Sorry if I'm not commenting as much on your posts or if I'm leaving super generic comments. I promise that I love you all and that I will be better once this is over! Oh, and PLEASE for my sake, turn off your comment word verification!!! I mean, REALLY. This affects my homework productivity levels, people!!! 

Anyway, because of this whole English is taking over my life thing, I don't have any super creative, crazy "Germans are interesting because..." stories. Just a bunch of random thoughts that run through my mind when I should be doing homework.

1. I have always wanted to ride an elephant. For some reason, this has been on my mind a lot lately. Don't ask, because I have no answers for you.

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2. If you want to find out about that one time I scored a goal for the other team, you have to go here. This is also the blog of the girl with the most amazing eyebrows.

via

3. I really need to clean and rearrange our apartment. It's been the same for too long, and it's driving me crazy. Plus, since my life has been taken over by homework, the apartment has suffered in the cleanliness department. I'm not even going to put a picture here, because I'm embarrassed by what it looks like. Let's just say that if one of you decided to make a spontaneous visit, it would take me more than 10 minutes to make the place presentable. 

4. I have time to do ONE more blog design before I go out of town for 2 weeks. If you're interested, prices and portfolio are here. I get them done within a couple of days as long as you email me back. I just recently finished this one for Bri. Check it out on her site.

5. I had another weird/vivid dream last night. It involved walking into my in-laws' bathroom and discovering that it had 2 toilets instead of one, and flowery toilet paper. One toilet was German, and the other was American. I sat there for what seemed like hours trying to decide which one to use.

   via                                                                                  via

So anyway. That's how exciting my life is - toilet dreams and thinking about riding an elephant.