Golden Globes 2014- Best Dressed.

The Golden Globes Sunday were fabulous.  I  LOVE Tina Fey & Amy Poehler and they did great! Last night  there was not a shortage of beautifully dressed women, but of course there were a few women in gowns that made you wondered if their stylist hates them. Here are my thoughts on who hit a home run. 

This is my favorite red-carpet look I have ever seen on  Sofia Vergara. Sofia while always beautiful, tends to go for sparkly mermaid gowns time after time and this sleek Zac Posen black ball gown was a refreshing surprise. 

At her first Golden Globes, Lupita Nyong'o made quite the impression in a red, caped Ralph Lauren Dress. Ladies ,that is how you wear a cape. 

Tatiana Maslany was robbed of the Golden Globe but she looked beautiful in this Jenny Packham gown. I feel the gown is part grecian, part twenties glamour and complete elegance. 

Olivia Wilde showed her bump off proudly  in this emerald Gucci Premiere gown and she sizzled as one hot mama to be.

Monica Potter, (who in my opinion Should have won for Best Supporting Actress TV Drama), shined in this gold and black Romona Keveza gown.  

And Now What?

In college I felt competent. I have faced issues with insecurity & lack of self-esteem throughout my life. I have always identified as an outsider, one who struggles to belong or fit-in. I belonged in college. Growing up, if I went to college was never in question. I used to joke that I had Senioritis since Kindergarten, but I genuinely remember anticipating that time of life from the time I knew about the existence of College. There were moments, throughout my college years, where I would be walking to class and this feeling would wash over me “ This is my life, I’m in college, I made It”. It sounds corny but it always made me smile. I dreaded certain classes & at times was a master of procrastination but now I look back with such a feeling of nostalgia. Some might say that it is a bit ridiculous to be nostalgic for something that only ended a year and a half ago. But I am. When I posted a status on Facebook recently about missing college, someone commented saying I should go back. I immediately rolled my eyes when I read that comment. While it is a logical comment, it would not fix my predicament. Though I loved the classes and learning that I could get by going to Graduate School, what I am truly missing is that time of my life. A time that is finished. It is a lightning in a bottle experience that I am nostalgic for, It cannot be duplicated or re-experienced. It is over. I am particularly nostalgic for that time because I have not found the answer to What’s Next? I feel stagnant. I want to have an amazing life but I don’t know how. I have become a fearful person. I am scared to make mistakes. I am scared to live life and for it to plain suck. But what am I doing? Nothing. How stupid is that?! Very. But I don’t know where I belong now. I went through life going to school anticipating college and now it is over. I belonged in College. And it was great. And now what? 

The Vampire Diaries

So I've been working as an extra. I don't have a regular job & have been trying to find something to do while I try not to put pressure on myself to figure life after college out ASAP. (it's almost been a year, so clearly it ain't ASAP). I live outside of Atlanta, so there is a lot of film & television projects happening here. One of the shows that films here is The Vampire Diaries. Last night one of the episodes I'd worked aired & you can see me really well! I even made it onto tumblr haha! 

Pep Talk!

Hey! yeah I know long time no blog! I am sharing a video today. It made me smile, and I hope it does the same for you! I had seen it posted on facebook but hadn’t checked it out. Well my cousin messaged it to me yesterday, and so I watched it! This little kid, who goes by the name Kid President,  has a pep talk for you and me and everyone! It is so cute and so true! 

Hope you enjoyed, Elissa! - ( Not cool Robert Frost! ) 

Oh How Pinteresting- Jan 9th

Source: imdb.com via Elissa on Pinterest

Wilson Bethel is very, very pinteresting!

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TRUTH. 

Source: petitegoldens.com via Elissa on Pinterest

A GOLDEN COKER RETRIEVER- looks like a puppy when they are full grown! 

Source: tumblr.com via Elissa on Pinterest

YES! 

Source: bookfessions.tumblr.com via Elissa on Pinterest

Oops, I finished it in a day!

- ELISSA

Mountain Christmas Photo Dump!

After Christmas we went up to the Mountains for a few days! 

Duke, my grandfather’s boxer likes to sit by me on the loveseat!

Duke also likes to jump up on the recliner!

Joey’s Pancake House is a mandatory stop while in the mountains! My order- Reeses Pancakes and  Coffee. If I’m extra hungry I will get a sausage biscuit too. 

It snowed Saturday night and most of it melted overnight, but my mom and I took the Dogs outside while it was snowing Saturday night! 

The Dog’s had to check the snow out! 

Holding 2 leashes at once!

-ELISSA

Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 was great. In my family, we wake up Christmas morning and my mom makes a big deal about me coming downstairs and seeing what Santa brought! It doesn’t matter that I’m 22 she always keeps the Spirit of Santa Claus alive. After we see what Santa brought, we open presents as a family.  

   Then we relax for a bit before getting ready to go down to the country to my Dad’s parents for Christmas. We always have Christmas Dinner at my grandparents, but this year my mom requested we have Christmas Brunch. (She had been planning to go up to her Dad’s on Christmas, but she ended up waiting till the next day). Christmas Brunch was great. My aunt cathy made these delicious sausage pinwheels that were addicting (I took a bag home with me and had them for supper that night and lunch the next day!). I had a good time with my cousins. I am closest with my cousin Katie, who is 5 1/2 months older than me. All of the older cousins always sit on the back porch, we always have fun chatting and teasing/telling stories about things that happened when we were younger. I say older cousins but we used to be the only ones, but now we have a 14 year old step-cousin and a 7 year old and a 3 year old cousin. We had a great time down in the country. 

Me and Katie

My Grandmama and Granddaddy posing for a picture! 

- ELISSA

Holiday Blogger Gift Exchange

Blogger Gift Exchange! 

Amy from Sweet Home Santa Barbara hosted a Blogger Gift Exchange over the holidays! We had been paired up as blogging pen pals this summer and she came up with a great idea to have a holiday gift exchange! Because I’ve failed at blogging lately I am just now blogging about the exchange but here goes! 

I got paired up with Katie from Time of Your Life ! She sent me such a fun care package! 

The package included lavendar body soap, some christmas pencils, elf lipgloss stick, hair-ties, nail polish, two purple snowflake ornaments and a bag of Reeses! 

Thanks to Katie for a great package of goodies and Thanks to Amy for hosting the exchange! 

- ELISSA

Merry Christmas Marcie!

Hi! I hope y’all had a very merry Christmas! I have mentioned on the blog before that my friend Marcie is on The World Race- An 11 month mission trip to 11 different countries. Since she is far away from her family and friends here in the United States this Christmas, a bunch of her friends made her this video! I thought that I would share it here on the blog. It would be wonderful if you would pray for Marcie and her world race team as they continue their work in the mission field, spreading God’s love to many people all over the world! 

If you want to learn more about what Marcie is doing, she is blogging about her experiences on The World Race at 

http://marciewallace.theworldrace.org/ 

Go Dawgs! Sic' Em!

Tomorrow my Georgia Bulldawgs are playing in the SEC championship. Not only, is it the SEC championship but a trip to the BCS National Championship is on the line. 

There are some striking similarities between this season and the 1980 college football season.                               

Gurshall-- Todd Gurley #3 and Keith Marshall #4

Man, I hope this happens! GATA! Go Dawgs!

Cinnamon Roll Waffles!

Cinnamon Roll Waffles 

Saturday, I made an awesome breakfast treat for me and my mom! It was thanks to pinterest! I had seen the pin for Cinnamon Roll Waffles forever ago and never made them! They are seriously delicious and take less time to make then if you made them as regular cinnamon rolls! 

So here are directions! 

1. take four cinnamon rolls and place them on the waffle iron! 

2. close the waffle iron and let them cook for about 3 to 4 minutes! 

3. drizzle the cream cheese frosting over the top and enjoy! 

Verse for Thought

Amy started this new blog segment last thursday called blog for thought and she said she would be glad for me to do some similar posts!

I was reading my James: Mercy Triumphs Beth Moore Bible Study and the first lesson for this week focuses on James 1:19.

Source: biblelockscreen.com via Sheena on Pinterest

Well I hadn't really thought about it but reading this made me realize that I have been getting angry lately, just getting ticked off over little things. It has to do with my unhappiness with still feeling in limbo, but seriously that doesn't matter. I really have nothing to be angry about. I have a great family and I am blessed to be able to live with my parents right now, (even if it feels frustrating and weird). James 1:20 goes on to state that Anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Anger, for anger's sake doesn't really accomplish anything. So I am going to focus on being quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. 

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Basketball Season is here! . . . what you thought I was talking about Christmas? y’all thanksgiving’s still 2 weeks away! But Basketball season has arrived! Duke’s first game of the season is tonight against Georgia State. It’s at 7pm est on ESPNU! 

Being present with God.

Being present with God. Yesterday at church the sermon was on being present with God. A lot of time we focus on God’s presence. But the question we need to ask is not “Is God present?” but instead “Am I present with God? I have recently been praying to feel God’s presence in my daily life, but I think I might need to refocus my prayers and in addition to seeking God’s presence first make sure I am present. I am bad when it comes to setting a routine for myself and often do no not spend quiet time with God like I should. I am going to work on that and when I have my quiet time I am going to try and make sure that I am sincerely present in that time with God. Number’s 6: 24-26, the United Methodist Youth Fellowship Benediction says 

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I have always loved this benediction. The word countenance means face. God lifts up his face upon you and gives you peace! Wow, what an amazing image that is. God is looking at you, God is present with you, but are you looking back at him, engaging with him? Are you present with God? As I continue to go through this post-college journey and I as I continue to go through life God will be there right beside me but I must make sure that I do not check out on God. 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! 

Last year, I actually went trick-or-treating (yes I was 21, sorry I’m not sorry). I had a paper due the next day that I hadn’t started BUT it was Hallo-freakin-ween! Some of my friends decided to go out and I decided I really didn’t feel like starting my paper yet. It was cold, we didn’t stay out long and I eventually had to write that paper, but it was sure fun procrastinating! 

Caroline and Madison were the best grandma’s EVER. I just dressed up in their clothes as a basketball player. Taylor was a nerd and Ali was herself. 

This Halloween, I will be in charge of handing out the candy. I also want to go buy a pumpkin and roast some pumpkin seeds! Hope Y’all all have a Happy Halloween! 

t.swift & 22

Happy, Free, Confused, and Lonely at the same time. - Oh T. Swift How you capture my life in your lyrics. This is a lyric from her new song “22”. The song is not very deep and is pretty much a party anthem dedicated to Taylor’s best friends. BUT- it is still very relatable and super-catchy. 

HAPPY- I am generally a pretty happy person. So even though I have been struggling lately with this post-college life, I still overall would describe me as happy. Even though there have been a lot of days where I have definitely not been happy, I try not to focus on those. I AM happy I graduated college and I am happy that God has a purpose for my life, even if I have no idea the specifics right now. 

FREE- For the first time in my life, I do not have school tying me down. As stressful as not having a job and feeling lost in my search for one is, I should try and embrace this unique time of my life where I am FREE. 

CONFUSED- I am confused with life right now. I don’t know what my next step should be. I try to zone out because my thoughts are everywhere and I stress myself out otherwise. I am confused at the fact that I don’t have a plan right now. I never really thought about what would happen if I didn’t have things figured out after college. Sometimes I just want to turn back time, but I know that 1) that’s impossible and 2) I need to embrace this next chapter even if I am confused and scared and stressed about making a move, not having a job or a plan for what comes next. 

LONELY- I am Lonely. I am an only child, living at home again after graduating college. I lived by myself for most of college but there was always lots of people right nearby. My best friend doesn’t live close-by (and she has a next chapter). I miss having lots of people all around. 

I understand how it is to be all of these things at the same time but I am going to work damn hard to focus on the HAPPY! 

In her liner notes, Taylor dedicates "22" to ASHLEY, DIANNA, CLAIRE and SELENA

   

Top Left- Selena Gomez, T. Swift and Ashley Greene 

Top Right- T.Swift and Dianna Agron 

  

 Bottom Left- Claire Callaway and T. Swift Bottom Right- T.Swift and Selena Gomez. 

A good conversation

I have sucked at blogging lately. I know. I have been in a funk for awhile and lately even If I’ve had something I could possibly write about I didn’t want to. 

I have been struggling with figuring out what my next step should be in this post-college life. Should I work retail or waitress? I don’t really want to but maybe it would be good for me for awhile. What about something else. Maybe there is still something else out there. Whatever I do, I know I need to do something because I am approaching the point of shutting down. I need a routine. My current routine of a lot of nothing, is not working out well for me.  

I am in a Bible Study with a few ladies and it is really good for me. The ladies are 11 to 18 years older than me, but it doesn’t matter much. After our bible study, I went out to lunch with one of the ladies. We had a really great conversation about life and it was just good to get out and do something. In this funk of not having life after college figured out, I have not done much at all. So today felt really great to get out and just have a good conversation with someone. 

this is the new study we just started today in our bible study. It is a Beth Moore study of the Book of James. 

Confusion, Confidence and Clarity

I’ve been a bad blogger. I blogged once last week! I will try and do better. I guess I have felt at a loss for what to blog about, because I really don’t have anything going on right now. I still haven’t figured out what my role in “the real world” is. I think about how hard I worked last year, I definitely had a killer workload and I thought my thesis was never going to be done. But I finished it and everything else and sometimes I can’t help but think what for? I slaved and stressed myself out last year to get to this year and ... For What? I did all that and where did it get me? I know that for whatever reason this utter confusion and lack of clarity on life is not without a purpose but honestly it really sucks. I keep telling myself that before I can find that next chapter I need to work on my self-confidence, because this entire post-grad experience has really kind of opened the door to how big of a problem that is for me. But truthfully besides admitting that and praying about it, I have no idea how I can work on and improve my confidence. I have always struggled with worrying about the future and the unknown but now I feel like I have to do something or else I am going to wake up and realize how much time has passed and I still haven’t found my role in the real world. 

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*Disclaimer- I know this post is a real jumbled mess of thoughts! 

Cracker

October 5th. Friday would have been my grandparents’ 65th wedding anniversary. My Grandmother died 4 1/2 years ago. She was amazing. She was a preacher’s wife. That says a lot right there. My mom always said “Daddy’s got the license but Momma preaches anyway” She didn’t need a license to preach! When I was really little she gave me those little ritz crackers that had peanut butter in the middle. One time she gave me a whole box. My mom asked where I got them from, I told her grandmama and she asked “Grandmama marks? and I said “No Grandmama Cracker!” It didn’t take long for the Grandmama to drop and I called her “Cracker” my whole life. She died about a month and a half before my high-school graduation. As much as I wish she had been there for that graduation, I really missed her so much more when she was not there in person for my college graduation. I know she was there in spirit though. And I will just keep reminding myself that all the time when I wish she was here in person. She had this amazing nature about her and I feel like she would be so so amazing for me right now in my life. While everyone else seems to stress me out, even unintentionally, Cracker would have been such a wonderful guide as I try and figure out this new chapter of life. I hate that she won’t be there when I figure out my next step, when I fall in love and get married, when I have kids. My mom and I visited her grave a couple months ago. We know she is not there underneath that plaque and grass, we know she is in heaven, but it was a neat moment to go to the spot she was buried and talk with her for a minute. 

Books! Books! Books!

I have mentioned before that my Dad sells books. However when I tell people we have a lot of books, I don't think anyone really gets just how many we have! 

Let me give you a look into our basement and my Dad's office. 

The first two sections of 16 ft wall to wall bookshelves in our basement.

The end of the wall to wall bookshelves. 

Stacks upon stacks of books in my Dad's office

My Dad's office from the doorway

SEE! I really really mean it when i say we have A LOT of books! My dad sells his book on Amazon and has over 9,000 books listed for sale. 

Here is a screenshot of my Dad's storefront on Amazon. His sellername is emarks13 and if you go to www.amazon.com/shops/emarks13 you can browse through all of my Dad's 9,234 listings! He has great competitive prices! I'd love for you to go check his stuff out!