Why, thank you, thank you very much!

jacket: cato, dress & blouse: inherited, boots: thrifted

Happy Monday, pretty ladies! Hope you had a great weekend.

I had the privilege of being nominated for the Liebster Award by the fabulous and stylish Alyssa of A Matchy Matchy Midlife. I discovered her through Go Chic or Go Home and she totally cracks me up on a regular basis. ;) So, for those of y'all who might be unfamiliar with the process. I had to answer 11 questions from Alyssa and give 11 random facts about myself then nominate 11 more bloggers and ask them 11 questions. Fun right?! :)

Here are my answers to Alyssa's questions:
1.)  What did you want to be when you grew up and how/why/did that vision change when you did? When I was around five I wanted to be a supermodel. I was informed that you had to be tall to do that and I. was. not. Never have been, never will be. (My kiddo, bless his heart, has told me that that's okay.) Then I decided I wanted to be an archeologist. This was around the time the Nat Geo with King Tut's tomb was out. I can't remember how old I was (this was in the early 80's), but this lasted for a number of years. Then sometime around ten years old I wanted to be a nurse. During a regular check-up at the doctors, I told the nurse this and she was helpfully explaining everything she did. Such a sweetheart. She had to prick my finger. There was blood. After they revived me and picked me up off the floor, she very kindly told me that I might want to rethink my career options. Around 12 I finally decided that what I really wanted to do was to be a wife and stay at home mom. It took nine years after we were married to be able achieve that dream financially, but that is what I am now. And I could not be happier. As soon as my son was born I felt like I was doing what I was meant to do. I had found my purpose in life.

2.)  If you could only follow one blog (not your own) which would it be and why? Holy cow, Alyssa, this is just mean! ;) I am not really sure I could pick just one. I love Kendi for her style and wit. She never fails to make me laugh. However there are a number of ladies that I have built relationships with and would love to meet and be friends with in real life and those blogs are far more meaningful to me. I definitely couldn't pick only one of them, so I am going with Kendi.. :)

3.)  What is the most expensive thing you ever bought as an indulgence for yourself, and what is the story behind it? Ummmm. you see that little blog title up there. I am not kidding when I say 'Cheap'. I am reasonably certain that the most expensive thing I have ever purchased is my wedding dress (which came in at a whopping $250) and nothing else has come even close to that. I think I splurged and spent $32 on a pair of heels a couple of years ago. (And yes, that is the most I've ever spent on a pair of shoes - sad I know.)

4.)  Which word or phrase do you most overuse? I have no idea. I was an English major and am a diehard bookworm, so words are kind of my thing. I love them. All of them. And I use them. People look at me oddly and even my kiddo has been using actually, peculiar, interesting and such since he started talking. Totally freaks people out.

5.)  How do you relax? Bookworm, remember? I read. A lot. My favorite is a good book in the bathtub with a cup of hot tea. Ahhhh. Bliss.

6.)  What single thing would improve the quality of your life (and don't say money)? A job for my hubby. No question.

7.)  What do you consider your greatest achievement (and children do not count here if you have them)? I have no idea. I am a very boring sort of person. I don't think I have any achievements aside from my kiddo. (And I am not sure he really counts as an achievement as I'm not done with him yet.)

8.)  What is your biggest regret? Wow. Ready for a long answer? No. Okay, abbreviated version. When I started dated my hubby my grammy was kind of against it. Due to all sorts of circumstances I freaked and moved out of the house. (I was 19.) Anyway, we did repair the relationship after hubby and I got engaged almost a year later, but I missed out on an entire year with her and I lost her right after hubby and I celebrated our first anniversary.

9.)  Tell me something people would be surprised to know about you. Well, let's see. People who know me in my real life would be surprised by this here blog of mine. It's kind of a secret. Shhh. Internet friends might be surprised to know that I became a published author at the age of 15. I think I had six or seven poems published around that time. One of these days I am actually going to finish one of the fifteen novels I've started and maybe I'll be a real published author. Unfortunately the ideas come faster than I can finish them.

10.)  Does your blog accurately reflect all of you, a part of you, or is your blog persona completely different from the "real" you?  Details please. Okay. My blog accurately reflects a very small piece of my life. I do love clothes and getting dressed, but my life does not revolve around what I wear. However anything I write here is totally me. Sometimes serious, sometime sarcastic, often veiled.

11.)  The Book or The Movie? Truthfully I have never seen a movie that lived up to the book. So for me it is always the book. (You totally don't want to get me started on the Two Towers movie vs the book.)


And just in case you don't already know enough about me, here are 11 random facts.
1. I am a total introvert. I hate the telephone. And meeting new people scares the poo out of me.
2. I breastfed my kiddo for a full year and hated every minute of it. However, I believed (and still do) that it was the best possible start I could give my kiddo. So I did it. And boy was I glad when it was over. Everything from having to dress to be able to bare all at a moment's notice, to the actual physical discomfort to having to deal with milk machines that were twice as large as my already ample bosom was pure misery. And should I be blessed with a second baby I will do it all again in a heartbeat. (TMI? yeah, probably, sorry about that.)
3. I don't like frosting or whipped cream. Yuk.
4. I enjoy cooking, and firmly believe that recipes are only suggestions and starting places.
5. I don't like any kind of sugary, carbonated beverages. Unsweet tea and water. That's all I drink.
6. My hubby is the first guy I held hands with, kissed, etc.
7. I hate arguing. Of any kind. In fact I just don't like any kind of discord. If I don't agree with you, I probably won't say anything unless I know you are the type of person to agree to disagree. Needless to say politics gives me a headache. Blech.
8. How many more of these do I have to do, I am not actually a huge fan of talking about myself (see #1 above) I'd rather talk about my kiddo, my husband, my dog, the weather.....
9. I am terrified of spiders. We are currently living in a house populated by wolf spiders, brown recluses and black widows. Not cool, y'all. Not cool at all.
10. I would seriously rather be reading a book right now, are we almost done?
11. Before we had our kiddo, hubby and I both felt that it would be easier if we could just go ahead and have teenagers and just skip the whole infant, toddler, kiddo thing. Teens, we know. Kids not so much back then. (We'd been working with teens for well over a decade at that point. They were known.) And honestly I still prefer teenagers. I can't talk to kids. (Except my own - he gets me.) I've been told I am too sarcastic and use too many big words. Oops.

Whew. That was a whole lot about me. Hope you aren't bored yet, because there's more. No, wait, not about me. We're done with that part. There's more to read. I get to nominate 11 bloggers and ask 11 questions of my own. Fun, right?! ;)

So, here we go:
1. AJ Wear's Clothes (a fellow Arkansas girl)
2. Sabine (A really cool lady from Germany - I have no idea what her blog title is!)
3. Casual Chic Mom (Tunde has great casual style and the most adorable baby girl)
4. Fabuless in Heels (A fellow thrifty shopper and super cute lady!)
5. Goodwillista (cute name, cute girl!)
6. Newly Loved (this girl has mad thrifting skills and is adorable to boot)
7. She Hath Done What She Could (OK technically she's over the 200 followers, but I love her and she's a fellow minister's wife)
8. The Fashionable Adventures of Bethie the Boo (I met Bethie through the Bauble Swap this summer and really fell in love - she is such a sweetheart)
9. The Perpetual Student's Wife (Kate is seriously gifted at making neutrals look sophisticated and interesting and amazing!)
10. Twelve by Six (I love Laura's classic professional style)
11. Pork Chop Tuesday (Peggy is one of my real life friends - she cooks some really amazing stuff that totally blows my mind.)

And now my 11 questions:
1. Why do you blog? (Big one, I know!)
2. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
3. The Movie or the The Book (Thanks, Alyssa, had to pass that one along!)?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Beach or Mountains?
6. Coke or Pepsi?
7. If you had to describe yourself using only four words, what would they be?
8. Flats or Heels?
9. For whatever reason you have to start your entire wardrobe, shoes included, from scratch and you can only buy 15 pieces. What are they?
10. Thrift or Retail?
11. Chinese or Mexican (food)?

Whew, that was a whole lot of a post! So. For those of you have been nominated you now get to write your own super long post answering my 11 questions, posting 11 facts about yourself and nominating 11 other small blogs (under 200 followers) to continue the fun. (If that is too much for one post, you might break it down into three posts!) I really look forward to seeing what you have to say.

And for everyone else reading today, if you have received the Liebster award or have a similar post answering random questions, please leave me a link! I'd love to come by and check it out!

Linking up with my usual Monday lovelies: YOLO, Monday Mingle and Visible Monday.