Book Sale :)

So...I may have a went a little book crazy at the book sale on Friday.  I found a set of Charles Dickens Works from 1875. The complete set includes 15 books but the set I found is missing one. I purchased them for $18.00. When I got home I googled them and found that this set, if complete, is worth over $1000. Needless to say, I will be on a mission to find that one book! I also found a set of of 6 Edgar Allan Poe Works. There is no publication date, but by the looks of them, I'm guessing somewhere around the early 1900s. My favorite purchase is a book called "So You're Going to Paris". Its basically a travel guide for short trips to Paris...published in 1929. Love it. The only problem with all of these books is that I'm completely out of places to put them...I think its time to build my dream library! :)

Slack-a-lackin'

Obviously I am completely behind on my book list........I am still on book #3 (The Sound and the Fury). This is definitely going to turn into a 2-3 year challenge haha. The past few months have been crazy with traveling, overcoming obstacles I never thought I would have to face (which reminds me, I have the most amazing friends, family, and husband that anyone could ask for. Without them, I could not have gotten through these months), starting a new job, and just living life. The Sound and the Fury was not giving me the distraction that I needed at the time, so I put it on hold for awhile and picked up some new books.

While on a beach trip, I read Safe Haven. It was an easy read and a great escape. I tried to pick up book #3 again but got distracted by some movies that came out that are based on books. A couple of my friends and I decided to watch Water for Elephants but I HAD to read the book first. I just can't bring myself to watch a movie that is based on a book, if I have not read the book yet. Then, One Day came out. Had to read that one too! However, I ended up not finishing in time, short by about 50 pages. For the first time ever, I thought the movie was better. And I'm actually glad that I didn't make it to the end of the book. Amazing movie. Bring tissues and wear waterproof mascara :)

Next books on my list:

• The Help
• The Hunger Games Trilogy
•  Never Let Me Go

I have told myself that I MUST finish The Sound and the Fury before I can start any of these. Off to go read, I have a lot of it to do :) I will try not to neglect my blog anymore!

~Namaste~

Birthday Cake

In celebration of Michael's birthday, Carey and I decided to make him a fondant cake. It literally took us about 10 hours! Fondant is some crazy stuff! We started it on Thursday and worked till about midnight, and it turned out horrible. We woke up Friday and started it again. This time was much more successful with the help of this video (YouTube is amazing!). There is no way I could have done it without Carey, her patience got me through. Thank you so much love! We were pretty impressed with the results and still can't believe that WE made the cake. It was perfect for Michael- two of his favorite things: LOST and Texas Tech. I just thought I would share some pictures from our project :)

Frosted and ready for fondant 

 End of Day 1

 Fondant success! (2nd attempt :) )

 Thumbs up from our little helper

 Tracing the dharma logo off of the computer haha. We ended up doing it freehanded though

 Putting it all together!

 Finished!

Happy Birthday Michael!! 

Week 8 Blog Challenge: A place I have traveled to...

A place I have traveled....hmm...I have been fortunate enough to do tons of traveling in the past 6 years.  Ever since I can remember, Paris had been my dream vacation, but never in a million years did I actually think I would get to go. And then one day, my bff Jami called me up and said that her and our friend Julia were going to London and Spain for school and they wanted me to meet them in Paris. Umm, YES! How could I possibly turn that down?? So, long story short, I got my dream vacation. And that's exactly what it was- A DREAM! It was perfect! Except for one bad night in Spain and getting to the Louvre as it was closing....on our last day....haha. It was beautiful, amazing, perfect....insert any positive adjective here, and that's what it was to me.

Week 7 Blog Challenge: Favorite Movies

This kind of seems like a lame blog challenge to me....I doubt that that many of you really care what my favorite movies are, and if you do, you've probably already looked at them on my facebook page! BUT, it is what it is, so I guess I'll give you all the list (in no special order) :p

~Blood Diamond
~Not Since You ( kind of cheesy acting, but I love it)
~Napoleon Dynamite (funniest, dumbest movie ever)
~Breakfast Club
~The Holiday (love this story)
~Rain Man
~Office Space
~Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
~Adventures in Babysitting (don't judge me :p)
~Love and Basketball
~Tears of the Sun
~Top Gun (duh!)
~The Notebook (best love story ever)
~Paris Je T'aime (someone take me to Paris again PLEASE!!)
~500 Days of Summer (LOVE the ending to this movie)
~Titanic (but I can only watch the first half; the second half is just too sad!)
~Black Swan
~Beaches ( I bawl EVERY time that I watch this)
~Billy Madison
*Beaches and Billy Madison are tied for the #1 spot ;) *

Our garden! :)

I promised my pretty cousin that I would post a blog about my garden as soon as we planted it...I may or may not be a little late on that...sorry Jess! We planted our garden about a month or so ago, and I forgot to take pictures. We planted six tomato plants, three jalapenos, two squash, two bell peppers (one red, one green), a million onions (but zero are doing well), and some okra, which we planted from seeds so they're taking even longer to grow. I also have an herb garden....and forgot to take beginning pictures. Whoopsy :) BUT i finally got around to taking a few pictures. Lo and behold...my herb garden is already dying...I don't understand! They say they need 6-8 hours of sunlight, but I guess that 6-8 hours of sunlight in TEXAS is a bit different than other places. sigh. I even made super cute little herb markers. I had fun doing it; too bad the plants are dying. If anyone has any suggestions on how to bring them back to life, let me know! :) Here are a few pictures...

 I just HAD to get this one of Toby peeing in the middle of the garden!

 One of several tomato plants

 One of three jalapeno plants

 Red bell pepper

 Our first attempt at squash...

 Metal stamps I used for the markers

 My tools :)

 The markers!

 AND....a few of my pathetic herbs...haha :(

Week 6 Blog Challenge: a picture of something that makes me happy

(From left to right: Theresa, me, Kiley, Samantha)

Every time I see this picture, a flood of memories consumes me. And I feel as though I am 5 years old again.  For those who don't know the four of us, we all basically grew up as sisters. Our parents were friends before we were even born. I moved away after kindergarten, but somehow every time we see each other, its as though we never separated. I know that no matter what happens, or who moves where, the four of us will always have a sisterly bond that will keep us connected for the rest of our lives. Love you girls :)

My New Orleans Treasure :)

While one of my best friends, Caroline, and I went on our annual girls' trip to New Orleans, we were trying to think of different things to do, besides the typical Bourbon Street scene.  While googling for ideas, we came across Faulkner House Books. This amazing bookstore was tucked away on Pirate's Alley. It took us forever to find, I literally thought Caroline was going to kill me! haha. Its probably the smallest bookstore I've ever been in, but it had so much character and history. This is where Faulkner resided  while he wrote his very first novel, Soldiers' Pay. 

Of course, after learning all of this, I HAD to purchase my next novel from here! After being completely captivated by all of the antique (and VERY expensive) Faulkner novels, I opted for a cheaper, newer version of The Sound and the Fury. Here's to hoping this won't take me as long as Gone With the Wind! Cheers

Week 5 Blog Challenge: My Sibling...NATHAN!

Week 5 Blog Challenge: My Sibling

I have one sibling. A brother. An amazing brother. His name is Nathan. He's 28...almost 29...wow, where does the time go?? 

Nathan is probably the best brother that one could ask for.  He has been through SO much in his life and is an awesome man because of it. When he was in 8th grade, he gave us the scare of our lives. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor on his pituitary gland. This caused his growth to be stunted at the height he was at that age.  He had dreams of being in the NBA, and there's no doubt in my mind that he would have made it. Nathan is one of the best ball players I've seen (except when he's playing me, of course ;) )

 I don't know that I've ever actually told anyone this, but I was scared to death that I was going to lose him. To this day, I can picture him being hauled off to the surgery room and thinking that I may never see him again. 15 years later.....I still thank God that he is here. 

We have been through some rough times, but we wouldn't be where we are without those trials. I am so proud of what he was...who he is now...and who he will become.

I LOVE YOU NATHAN!!
P.S. If anyone ever makes fun of him for being short, I will kick your ASS! (sorry for the profanity Mom, but I know you would back me up:) )

Gone With the Wind: The 3 Month Marvel

Wow. So not only has it been 2 months since I last blogged (so much for my weekly blog challenge!), but it also took me WAY too long to read Gone With the Wind.  It was fairly simple reading, but I'm pretty sure my self-diagnosed ADD kicked in. BUT, three months later, I finally finished it! I'm not so sure I will complete all 100 novels this year, especially if I continue reading at a snail's pace....that being said, I LOVED the book!

This is such a great story about courage, surviving, and unrequitted love. While reading this novel, I couldn't help but feel that Scarlett was a feminist ahead of her time.  She never gave up and always fought for everything that she believed in. I'm sure much of it was attributed to the situations that she was put in, but nonetheless, she fought. And she won.

Two things I disliked about the book:
1/ It could have been a little shorter. I felt like there was a lot of filler
2/ Rhett said "My dear, I don't give a damn". I was waiting for "Frankly" but apparently that's only in the movie :/

Week 4 Blog Challenge: My Parents

My parents......hmmmm.....lets see...
 My Mom...
I have always looked up to my mom. I can remember the days when she was a single parent struggling to support two kids. And I'm sure we were a handful! I can recall years when she would work 3-4 jobs just to make ends meet, while she was attending college. She was finally accepted into nursing school when we discovered that Nathan had a brain tumor. She gave up EVERYTHING to get him the absolute best medical care at The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. What a sacrifice!
I remember leaving for college, very sad, but also very excited for the road trip because my mom had made me her special choclate chip cookies that all of my friends would beg her to make when they came over. Here I am, driving away in my Ford ZX2, filled with all of my boxes, TV in my passenger seat. Jami and Blanton (her boyfriend at the time) were following behind, their car also filled with all my crap! And Michael was in his truck behind them, ALSO filled with my crap :) We get about 2 hours into the trip, stopping for gas, and I realize that I left my container full of my mom's chocolate chip cookies at home. Never, ever, have I missed my mom more than that day. It still makes me cry just writing about it. I love you Mom!!!

Randy (My step-dad)....
If I would have written this blog a year ago, I would not have known where to start. No one can deny it, we had a rough start. But I have made that all a blur in my past. Today, Randy is an amazing individual and I am so thankful to have him in my life. He is the icebreaker of awkward situations, and is now always the one to make everyone crack a smile, even when they don't want to. He has become more involved in my life than he ever was before (I'm sure this has a lot to do with facebook! haha) but I couldn't be more grateful. I now can honestly say that I look up to him as a father.

Dad.....
My dear Dad. I love him so much. He has been through Hell and back, and he is still standing. I cannot put into words how proud I am of him. He never gives up. He never loses hope. He, honest to God, is probably the strongest man I know. And I probably don't tell him that enough. I know this paragraph about my Dad is short, but I can't think of any stronger words to describe him. I LOVE YOU DAD!

Goodbye 2010

Goodbye 2010 from Danielle Taylor on Vimeo.


My 2010, in 5 minutes and 18 seconds. It was a great year, and here's to an even more amazing 2011. Cheers

Week 3 blog challenge: My First Love

Let's see......my first love was in 8th grade. I remember sitting in science class with Mr. Middleton. And this super cute boy walked in. I knew, he had to be mine. After a few weeks, he asked me out. I think we only "dated" for a couple of months, but I fell head over heels. And then he moved. He left without any goodbyes.

When I saw the title of this blog, I was debating on whether or not an 8th grade love actually counted as a first love. It was puppy love. But it WAS love. Regardless of what kind, it was love. I realized this when I asked myself how I felt when he left. And i was completely heartbroken. You can only be heartbroken if you were, in fact, in love. I cried over him for a long time until I realized he was not coming back. No number to call, no email to write to. It took a while to grasp, but it was what it was. Thinking back on it, it was a great experience, and a great memory.