paper heart.

since it's saturday and i can be lazy...

i made this paper garland today.

i needed some valentine deco for the condo.

i love this new paper line from crate paper.

paper heart.

it's so pretty.

what do you think?

guest blogger: alexis laughs

hello my dears.

i have yet another LOVELY guest blogger today.

meet Alexis.

before i get too far into her guest post, i think you should know that this girl is hilarious, gorgeous, smart, funny, talented, a health nut (in a good way), and inspirational.

i have followed her blog for about a year now, and what can i say, she's an inspiration.

see for yourself...take it away Alexis!

Hey you guyyyyyyyssss! Goonies anyone? My name is Alexis. It would be impossible to introduce myself without telling you a few things first. One: I'm married to this handsome hunk of man.

Also, I'm a nutrition student at ASU. I love food and my best talent is eating. I like to shake my bon bon. I like dogs, babies, and anything that's yellow. I think life is really funny. My blog posts range from side splitting hilarity (to me at least) to heartfelt posts about things like body image, anxiety, and this beautiful messy thing called life. 

But today...since I'm new... I'm going to try to be on my best behavior. No bathroom humor or talk about embarrassing stories like that time I got my arm stuck in the water vending machine.

_____________________________________

Remember how recently you made a laundry list of New Year's resolutions that you've most likely forgotten about by now? I'm going to help you put those goals into action and, possibly most importantly, remember them.

Tip 1: Make reasonable goals. Actually think about how much time each thing is going to take and if it's doable. It cracks me up when I see goals like Walk the dog every day, workout for two hours every day, make a new recipe every day...and I add up the hours and wonder where all the time is going to come from. You going to quit school? You job? Replace sleep with IVs of caffine? nuh uh sista! Find goals that work with your schedule. These resolutions are meant to improve your quality of life, not flush it down the crapper. [shoot, does that count as bathroom humor?]

Tip 2: Reminders, reminders, reminders! Set alarms on your phone, write days on your calendar you're going to work on it, Write it in your planner, use sticky notes, etc. Tailor the reminders to the goal. If your goal is to watch less TV, cover the TV in garbage bag or hide the remote or post a reminder above the TV so that at least you have to think twice. If you want to eat more fruits and veggies, first BUY them, and remember what's in the fridge. Find recipes to use them before you buy them. Make it so you see them! Leave yourself notes of encouragement! It's allowed, I promise.

Tip 3: The more you stick with goals, the easier it becomes. The sense of pride and satisfaction you feel after accomplishing something fuels you into accomplishing the next goal. And it's okay to reward small progress too! If you want to lose 40 pounds, reward yourself with a new shirt after 10, a new movie after 15. Whenever you get the feeling you want to just give up, tell yourself outloud "I can do this!" I tell myself multiple times a day. It works. It also makes strangers think you're looney but that's beside the point.

If that doesn't work, tell yourself this.

Character is the discipline to follow through with goals long after the spirit in which they were made has passed.

That helps me. I want to have character.

Good luck with all those goals gals and possibly a few guys!

Thanks for having me Ashley! And readers, I'd love for you to come visit me sometime!

birthday girl.

warning: photo overload.

it was Linds' birthday and to celebrate we went out to the JAZZ game.

there were about 15 of us in total that went to the game together.

it was a blastttttttttttt.

we laughed the entire game and had fun trying to spot people we knew in the crowd.

(i  saw a dentist that i used to intern at!)

after the game we all ran over to Iggy's for some delish grub.

i've only been there once before and i was impressed with my wedge salad.

we had fun eating the bread and dip until i looked up the calories in the bread.

(150 calories for 2 oz. of bread - yuck!)

i sure know how to be a downer at dinner y'all.

i forgot how much fun basketball games are to go to.

andi and i decided that we need to go more often.

love. love. love. love. love.

happy birthday malady!

love you lots!

ps. you should go check out her blog (here) it's so darling!

thursday's ramblings.

i love to ramble and talk about a bunch of crap sometimes.
this crap is actually probably not that important, but i still like to discuss it.

like how john hunstman is brutalizing mitt romney  (see the article here)
or how guys in provo suck at dating.
or how i get irritated when people try to control me.
or how i am trying my hardest to lose my lbs to get my booty into gear for the 1/2 marathon.
or how i am excited about the trade show at the end of the month.
or how i feel when guys aren't straightforward with me.
or how i get irritated with bad drivers.
or how i am exhausted after staying in slc all night with peeps.
or how i am so excited for the next couple of months.
or how i think some people need to just learn to grow up.
or how i am looking forward to the girls trip next weekend.

there's a lot of happy things going on in my life right now.
i am seriously loving my life.

the girls and i are going on a vacation next week.
lady antebellum is coming to concert.
going to dinner with the brother this weekend.
taking a newborns photos on saturday.
i mean, life is seriously sweet.
i love it.

guest blogger: krystal's kitsch

I'm totally grateful that Ashley opened her blog to sponsors. Not only do I get to know Ashley's readers, I get to virtually meet Ashley and help her on her blogging journey!

I blog over at Krystal's Kitsch -- which is a whole lot of random. Two posts won't be the same. I don't have a set theme or even a set goal. I write when I want about what I want. :) I like to experiment with both food and crafts and I love entertainment... television, reading, and magazines. I also am a pretty big makeup hoarder. Sometimes I'll post about those things. Other times I'll post about how I made my house a confetti mess by trying to imitate something I saw on Pinterest. I also have three fluffy dogs, a husband, and a brand new city to adventure in (we just moved three months ago!). I also am participating in Project 366 {it's a leap year so that's why it's 366!}. I'm taking a picture a day to document my year!

So, for my post I wanted to just introduce myself a little further with some likes and dislikes.

LIKES

• Coke Zero
• Peppermint Mocha Coffees
• Old Navy sales
• Target's $1 section
• Postcards
• Funky postage
• Snail Mail
• Surprises
• Kate Spade anything
• Betsey Johnson
• Glitter -- anything and everything! Especially glitter polish!
• Zoya Nail Polish
• Pop music
• Jersey Shore. Haters gon' hate!
• Parks & Rec
• Stand up comedy
• Good beer
• Baseball
• Beaches
• Pirates
• Vinyl -- as in records, not the material! ;)
• Journaling
• Nonfiction Books -- memoirs, especially humor ones, are my favorite!

DISLIKES

• Being late
• Plans changing at the last minute
• Paying shipping for online shopping
• Paying full price for anything
• Days I'm running too late to straighten my hair
• Winter
• Hoarders
• Junk... I like to go through my stuff regularly and PURGE!

Hope you are all having a lovely day and Happy 2012!

don't forget...

hello lovelies.

Monday was a great start to the week with the ever-so-adorable

Rachel guest posting for me (see her post here)

isn't she darling?

2012 has already been a great year for All Things Ashley.

my followers have been increasing significantly already this year.

thank you so much.

it makes me so happy to know that there are people in the blogosphere who actually like to read what i rant about on this ole blog.

i hope that you remember this post from last week.

well, i finally got the necklace in the mail over the weekend, and i just had to try it on

(sorry to the gal who wins this, it's been tried on by moi)

(pretty pretty necklace...i want to keep it for myself)

(that's me...lookin so fresh and hopeful with the necklace on)

so, now that you've seen the necklace in action, what are you waiting for?!

make sure you enter the GIVEAWAY asap.

the giveaway ends this week on Thursday the 12th.

that means you only have 2 days left to enter.

the hope necklace is so pretty.

(and a $25 value!)

so what are you waiting for, go HERE to enter!

and remember, come back tomorrow for another lovely guest blogger.

x - ashley



guest blogger: xoxo Rachel Sayumi

 hello my dear readers!
happy monday
right now, i want to introduce you to the cutest lady!

blogger, please meet Rachel
i have loved loved LOVED reading and following this girls blog for as long as i can remember.
she blogs over here
i asked this pretty gal to be a guest blogger on ATA and she kindly obliged.

without further ado, here is the adorable rachel from xoxo Rachel Sayumi

Hello, friends of All Things Ashley!

My name is Rachel, & I blog over at xoxoRachel Sayumi

My blog is about inexpensive modest fashion

Come say hi sometime! (:

Today I decided to share some random facts about me...

-My favorite color is the rainbow.

-I LOVE ICE COLD WATER!!

-I love anything with a vintage-y feel to it. Gold. Lace. Pearls. Pastels.

Swoon.

-I have never dyed my hair before.

-I'm probably addicted to chapstick {Burt's Bees,of course...}

-I am half Japanese.

-I don't like to exercise.

-I'm the oldest of my siblings,and the oldest of my cousins on both sides of the family. So basically,I am always around kids... and I love love it.

-I don't like feet.

-I don't like being cold

-I LOVE smelling good! I love perfumes and colognes so so much!!!

-I'm obsessed with frozen yogurt. And anything sweet, really...

So there ya go,that's me in a nutshell,I guess...

But really,come stop by my blog sometime.

Thanks, Ash for havin me here! (:

xoxo

Rachel Sayumi.

keep going.

i needed to hear this today.
i gotta keep going.

the many faces of ashley.

i feel like sometimes i don't change up my look that much during the week...

but i realized this week that i have rocked a different 'look' every single day.

mabye i'm a dork, but i don't like my hair to look the same two days in a row.

i like to have a variety in my life and change this up a bit daily.

reader, am i the only one who feels that way?

i sometimes pretend i'm a celebrity and change my look on a daily basis.

with clothes.

hairstyle.

jewelry.

makeup.

shoes.

mustaches. wait. what?

what is your favorite look?

do you have a specific 'style' you're rockin' as of late?

favorite article of clothing?

favorite hair-do?

oh, and ps.

happy FRIDAY

psssst....don't forget to enter the HOPE GIVEAWAY (here)

meet the gal behind the blog

remember this giveaway from yesterday?

well, this is Megg, the lady who made it all happen.

she is the author of the cutest blog and i have loved getting to know her

through the blog world, emailing, and looking at her etsy creations.

i asked her to do a guest post for me this month, since she is a sponsor and all...

and she kindly said YES!

so, blogger, Meet Megg

I'm Megg, and I write over at The Life of a not so Desperate Housewife. I knit, cross stitch, make jewelry and scrapbooks and play mancala and Monopoly at work. I live in Seattle with my husband and two crazy cats.
I'm in a season of my life that I never expected to be in 2 years ago, when I married my husband. Or 6 years ago, when I first met him. Or 11 years ago, as I was heading into my last semester in high school. For better or for worse, this is where I am now.
For better or for worse, I'm working part time, in a job I love that isn't exactly in my field (although it's a lot closer than when I was working in an office last year).


When we first got married, I thought we'd be talking about having a kid after our second anniversary, and start a family soon after that anniversary. Well, we just hit 2 years and though we did have that discussion, neither of us feels that we are ready, for various reasons.


When I graduated with a Masters in Library and Information Science 2 years ago, I thought I'd be working as a children's librarian in a public library by now. For better or for worse, I'm working with kids, but not in a library setting.

 There are so many things that I could be discontent about in my life right now. I'm not living the life I thought I'd be living by now. But you know what? That's OK. I'm learning to be content with the season of life I'm in. It's not perfect, but it's my life.

 So, I go to work every day and smile because the kids make me happy. I wake up every morning next to my husband and smile because we have this time together, just the two of us. I sit on my Freecycle couch instead of the recliners that I thought we would have by now, and I'm thankful that we at least have a couch to sit on.

 The truth is, I'm incredibly blessed, even if I'm not living the life that I always thought I would be. I'm learning to be content in what I have, and not comparing myself to others. It can be a struggle, but then I remind myself that I will never have these years back. I know in 10 years, I will look back on this season of my life and be glad I experienced everything I did. It isn't always what I want, but it's my life, and I'm learning to love it, and myself, just the way I am.


Check out my Etsy shop!
The life of a not so desperate housewife