the ladybug blog

so, as it seems, i have become a little tired of this blog. i love it, yes, but i decided to start a new one entitled "the ladybug blog." its going to be a little more me, a little more fashion, a little more beauty/makeup...basically a fashion magazine with my life thrown in there.  so i guess you could say a magazine, and i am always on the cover ;) anyways. i am really excited about it. i just feel like its gotten so hard to keep with this one. and because ive made this to be basically "here's what im doing today. here's what i did yesterday." and so on and so forth, its just become really difficult to manage, especially since i don't have a computer where im living.

anyways. i hope (crossing my fingers) that this new blog takes off. i think it will. it took me two years to even get seventy followers on this one, so i suppose i can't just expect success over night. but to any of my avid, wonderful followers, i'd like to personally thank you for support! please head over to "the ladybug blog" and become a follower over there. who knows, you may just like it even more than this one...and im sure you will :)

xoox minnie kaileigh

boise trip circa july 2011

sorry for the delay of these photos as well. i got to see so many wonderful, beautiful people while i was home last month and finally made my decision to move home as soon as possible. im back in boise this very moment visiting right now and (so excited at this news) getting a new car, but hopefully ill be all moved back by the end of september. wish me luck. enjoy!

lunch with rachel (circa july 2011)

about a billion years ago, i went to boise to visit my family and friends. okay it was only a month ago, and now im actually back in boise right now, but i haven't been able to update my blog in so long that it actually feels like its been quite some time since ive been home. sorry for the lack of updating. not having a computer or internet in arizona is hard.

while i was in boise i was so lucky to be able to see my beautiful friend (who i consider a sister to me) rachel and her little boy gavin. he is the best nephew a girl could ask for.  it totally makes me want a baby.  i mean okay, yes i can definitely wait a few years and i surely do not mind admiring everyone else's babies while i wait, but he is just so darn cute! and she is the greatest mom i may have ever laid eyes on. i love both of them very much. oh and on our little lunch date, we went to the brick oven bistro which is is our place to venture when we go on our said lunch dates.

p.s. if i can be half the mom rachel is someday, i'd be one very proud, happy mama.

(just) a few reasons i was so excited to come home

well, this past week i have been back home in boise, idaho. when i first left for phoenix (as some of you may remember), i wanted to get the heck out of boise. i hated it here. i don't know if i actually said that in my blogging, but i absolutely hated boise. i wanted nothing to do with it, no association with the place, i wanted to forget i even lived here. i thought it was boring, had nothing for me, and well quite lame.  however, after being away for almost four months without seeing my family, friends, or having a familiar place to go to, i started to realize how much i actually love boise.

you know how they say "everything happens for a reason" ? i have ALWAYS been a true believer in that quote because it really does. i have so many things that can prove that that saying is true. anyways, maybe the reason i moved to arizona wasn't to have an escape finally. maybe the real reason i moved to arizona, was to learn how to appreciate and love something that was once taken for granted.

so, as the days grew closer for me to finally embark on my plane ride back to boise, i started to become more and more excited to FINALLY be home.. heres a few little reasons of why i wanted to be home so badly, just a few of the things i missed so dearly, and a little number of things i can't wait to finally have back in my life once i move back home.

1. hugs! yes this may sound quite lame, but imagine being so sad and no one to give you a hug or to hold you to make it all better. i have a couple of friends in arizona yes, but there is nothing like a hug from your family or best friends back home. its hard to find that comfort elsewhere.

2. family

3. being able to go outside during the day

4. friends

5. boise downtown

6.. the summer season, the fall season. every season in boise is lovely

7.. seeing someone i know every place i go to

8. kind people

9. familiar faces

10. the daycare center

11. the boise river

12. grass

13. flowers

14. moxie java

15. bsu anything

16. familiar landscape & familiar roads

there are so many more reasons that i love being home as well. my list has grown rather large though, and im sure i dont need to list all of them. that is the jist of it though! 

oh home, how i miss you.

BOISE i really really...

BOISE, i really, really......

LOVE YOU. 

who ever thought those words would be coming out of this mouth of mine. im so happy to be back and be home for the week. i arrived on wednesday and will be leaving (sadly and regretfully) next thursday morning. but i couldn't be happier to be back in this place. maybe the entire reason of moving to arizona was so that i could actually appreciate the beautifulness in the city i once despised. long story short, i never want to leave. i wish i could stay here and get a cute house in the north end. soon enough though. this trip has been the best thing i could have ever hoped for right now. so happy to be home!

if there ever comes a day

i love this. its perfect and sweet.

its applicable to friendship and love and family.

so darling.

THE  END.

cute craft ideas to tickle your fancy

so after gawking at some crafts on one of my favorite websites i decided to share some cute ideas i saw.
some of them will be followed by pictures and some of them won't but i just thought i'd put up the cute ideas i saw anyways:

1. coffee stencils made out of pringles lids.
-you know how when you get a cute latte, mocha, hot chocolate, etc., and it has a cute little design on top? you can make your own at home out of a pringles lid! just find a design you like, trace it on top of the lid, cut it out, and wah lah! STENCIL! then shake your cinnamon, cocoa, whatever you desire on top of your drink, and wah lah! COFFEE STENCIL !

2. rolodex scrapbook
-making a scrapbook out of rolodex cards using just about anything and everything to remember your little memories. how cute is this idea. whoever created this thing is a genius. i know that this idea would help me if i ever needed a pick me up if i were missing something because all i would have to do is go over to my counter that my rolodex was on and flip through little index card memories to feel better.

3. toilet paper tube animals

-the website was all in spanish, and maybe you can read spanish but i know that personally i cannot. maybe someday, but for now im going to use common sense and say that they just pushe the top downs to create the little ears? then painted the tube. maybe it was the other way around. either way im sure it doesn't matter, as long as it gets painted. unless you have a steady hand with painting, i would suggest using a sharpie to draw the darker details like the face, whiskers, feathers, etc. how darling are these though!

4. button magnets

-self explanitory really. but its such a cute idea. get some cute buttons, cut out magnets the size of the button, glue the magnet on to the button, and there you have a cute little button with a magnet button! LOVE IT.

5. paper pom poms

-i made these with my daycare kids one time for mother's day. they turned into flowers and they painted flower pots to put them in. they turned out a little different because i didnt round the edges. you can visit the site for full directions. i want these in my room above my bed!



6. homemade candy

-okay this isn't a craft but how could i resist adding this? this lady has recipes for candy and homemade goodies that look quite delicious. when i try them i will let you know! YUM!



ive been absent, excuse me please

so very sorry. june seems to have been slipping right through my fingers. the middle of the month already? seriously. its actually nearing the end of the month considering its now on the latter part of the middle of the month. lets see though...as far as what ive been up to...

1. ive been able to lay out! three time (all on my days off that ive had the past week and a half.) thats been so nice. and so ive gotten myself some nice color. i was beginning to wonder if i lived in the north pole and not arizona.
2. ive been eating pretty well and finally have been seeing results. so excited about that.
3. i fixed my car. all on my own. i mean i didn't personally fix my car. but i paid for it by myself and i felt very good about that.
4. i worked. obvs. thats a given though. so thats not something exciting to update you on.
5. i went to CHURCH! it was such a great service. i haven't gone in over two years and i am a firm believer in everything happening for a reason, so i know that that night was meant for me because the message spoke to me in ways that i can't even begin to tell you.
6. talked to my grandma in boise on the phone.
7. talked to my grandma in new jersey, who's visiting in boise on the phone. that felt disappointing because im not in boise to see her. i miss her. she is wonderful.
8. gave myself a pedicure. it looks so cute!
9.  went out with some friends and met some new people.
10. checked my mail and got a huge pile of it out of the mail box thing at the apartment mail room. (yes i put this on the list because i NEVER check my mail.)

11. oh and i got a kitten ring tone. its cute. this definitely should make the list.

THE END.

our very own gryffindor common room

we made our own common room last night. yes you read that correctly. kylie and i made our very own gryffindor common room last night. you see...i put the sorting hat on and was sorted into GRYFFINDOR. (really people, did you you expect anything less?)

and i thought (out loud of course) "KYLIE we HAVE to make a common room somehow!!" so, we created a fort in the living room.

and yes it was amazing. and no im not pouting. then we decided to try on our invisibility cloaks that obviously worked because you definitely CANNOT see us in the next two photos despite our best efforts to make us known that we are in fact extremely visible.

also kylie forgot that it wasn't july, the month in which christmas is sometimes celebrated, but mostly the month in which we celebrate our fellow classmate harry potter's birthday...

after all of this documentation of our amazingness we decided to take a best friend picture and get back to studying our spells. our owls are coming up. duh. THE END.

 

i believe i could be happy here

do you see all of these black and white photos i just found? do you kno who could be happy here for the rest of her life? well the correct answer is not your friend judy, or your friend bill. NOPE! the answer is me. i have wanted to live here since i was four or five. it would be magical, splendid, infinitely wonderful. do i need more adjectives to describe it? possibly. but i think you're catching my drift.

i love new york city  more than any other place on this planet. i do believe i could be happy here for the rest of my life.

inspiring and/or lovely blogs

sometimes, looking at other peoples blogs can be so inspiring. i have definitely come across one or two that i read weekly (if not daily) and have left me so inspired to want to be a better person. especially lately since i have been feeling so lost...its just been nice to read blogs about people who have wonderful, simple lives in which they've found happiness. theres also some blogs that i love to look at because they are just fun, or cute, or just directed more towards my interest.

so for your viewing pleasure here are some reads that i just absolutely adore:

1. the rockstar diaries 

{the inspiring one i love filled with washington dc, nyc, bulldog, a baby, and husband!}

2. embrace the sunshine

{for a dose of happiness written by my cousin}

3. stylebook

{for a dose of personal fashion by a pretty girl}

4. bleubird vintage 

{a cute family and her style and vintage shop}

5. red velvet shop

{fashion, crafts, and pretty little things to feast your eyes on}

6. my cup of tea
{my bff's cute blog. she is cute and so funny!}

ENJOY!

a thousand umbrellas

id like to own a thousand umbrellas. wouldn't that be neat? i mean, maybe not a thousand but at least ten. i just saw my background on my twitter page and realized how adorable they really are. im looking at umbrellas online right now and i had no idea they were so many different styles and types. how cute would it be if your job were to be an "umbrella designer." i think someone who was extremely adorable with good style would be perfect for that job. they must have a plethora of umbrellas at their house too.

i think people only believe umbrellas are for the rain. ive seen a few people here in arizona though, that have umbrellas to block the sunshine! im sure some people think they are just crazy for blocking the sunshine, but when it gets super hot here i can definitely understand why umbrellas are a necessity for that purpose. i prefer however, to have an umbrella to cease the rain from landing on my head. i love the rain, i do. but i don't love bad hair days, and i dont love rain adding to bad hair days. and i especially dont love rain ENDING a GREAT hair day.

so this fall i have decided i will be acquiring an unnecessary amount of umbrellas.

                

glasses glasses glasses: I NEED YOU!!

In the sixth grade I wanted glasses so badly. Having better than 20/20 vision however, did not help this cause whatsoever because glasses were not a necessity. Obviously the money did not need to be spent on these glasses so in turn I never bought a pair.  But with my grandma being a great grandma, she took me to the store and bought me a pair anyways. Needless to say, I lost them a short time later and didn't try the glasses thing again for a while.

Then a few years back when I was in high school, Urban Outfitters came out with a pair of glasses that were like the cute sunglasses they carried but with clear lenses. I wanted them so badly ! (If you were my friend on myspace you would have seen i had a photo of them on my page everyday.) Finally I got a pair and I would wear them all the time. They look rather silly to some people and quite a few asked if they were prescription and of course I said "no," because, well they weren't.

Anyways I lost those too :/ I think I let my friend borrow them for a costume party last year and I never saw them again. So now, I have had a hankering for glasses again. This time though, I think I actually need the glasses, with a prescription and all that jazz. Why do I think I need a prescription? Well, I was watching Sex and the City a few weeks ago with my tv about 10 feet away from me, and Carrie Bradshaw's face became blurry and I couldn't make out all the details like I used to be able to.  Thank goodness I have watched the episodes so many times so I knew what was going on, and who everyone was, and what their outfits looked like before the blurriness.

So before I go to hopefully get a prescription pair, I am going to find myself a pair of fake ones. They are so darn cute. And I always get super jealous (in a nice way of course) of all the cutesie people who get to wear them.  Hopefully this week I can find a new pair, to match the new hair im getting on Tuesday.

Any suggestions on where I can get a cute pair of Urbany type glasses?

happy birthday to my favorite brothers

my dear friends jake and jordan had their birthday the other day. they were my first friends here in arizona. the two boys turned twenty-two (obviously they are twins thats why they have the same birthday duh.) anyways, we all went out to a bar called stray cat and after we went over to jake's house where all their friends came over. i brought them each a dozen red velvets with green dots on them from sprinkles (red velves and the color green are both of their faves).

most of the end of the night was kinda blurry (oopsies!) but i know what i did remember was pretty alright, even if i did get tackled and fell over a couch...and even if i burnt my hand on a lean cuisine when i got home (dont ask). i know i met a lot of beautiful people that night too and i know that i made a fool of myself a lot but as long as jordan and jake had a good night then thats all im worried about.

so happy birthday to two of my most favorite brothers. you'd be lucky to have friends like them in your life. so if you ever get the chance to meet them, don't take that for granted.

and a photoshoot in the "washroom" as josie calls it :)

who knew vegetarian food could be so delicious

last week i went to lunch with my dear friends micah and josie and josie's precious puppy melishka. im not sure how to spell her puppy's name but she is so sweet and darling. micah is a pescetarian, so we went to a vegetarian restaurant in scottsdale called green. looking at the place from the outside you would NEVER realize or even think to stop by. it was in a little strip of businesses in a dark grey building and a somewhat empty parking lot. i mean, i definitely would not have known this fantastic place really existed. so thank you to miss micah!

it was so delicious. i had the sweet and sour bowl, and i had vegetarian chicken in it. i was kind of nervous to try it. i mean...meat that isn't...meat? its weird to think about. but i will tell you now...i couldnt even tell a difference. it was wonderful.

you can bet i will definitely be eating there again.

is there an over the counter treatment for homesickness?

they say home is where you heart is. my heart isn't in boise though i don't think. so why am i so homesick? maybe my heart is there and i just needed to move here to figure that out. im not sure. but what i am sure of is that i miss my mom. i miss my best friends rachel and sabra. i miss my sisters, my family, working at the daycare.

being here has opened me up to a new adventure and i have met so many wonderful people. i am so appreciative of that and i would never change it for the world. moving away from home though has just got me feeling really homesick. one thing i was thinking about today as far as what i miss was having boise be so comfortable. i know all the streets, roads, shortcuts. i know so many people there. i used to hate the fact that i could never go anywhere without running into someone. but now i miss that. i still dont know a lot of people here and i haven't been able to do that with anyone here. i think though that maybe moving away was what i needed to appreciate the great things i had there. then again, there are definitely some things about boise i don't miss. perhaps i just miss the idea of boise? im not sure. but today i am just missing EVERYTHING about boise.

i was talking to my lovely friend ashley (ive feature her before) and my amazing best friend rachel about all of it too. ugh i miss my rachel (ive featured her also here and here and a few more places!). rachel is just one of those friends who is always so honest with you and supportive and caring. they both made me feel a lot better about today and missing home.

ashley told me "you can always come back and you are somewhere beautiful.you are missing out on NOTHING here. dont let your past steal your present kaileigh:) just keep looking forward! you moved.. thats the hardest part! now focus on all the possibilities." to this i replied "youre right. my past just holds so many comforts i took for granted, but i cant let that affect all the memories i could be making." and then with that ashley said back to me (and i love this):

"you said it yourself though it was "comfortable" dont confuse that with happiness just because its comfortable does not mean it is right for you. life isnt supposed to be comfortable, its supposed to be EXCITING!"

and for that i love her. my whole day became so much better because of my conversation with her. i just need to go home and visit boise asap. also i did decide that my heart is in boise. sometimes i wish it wasn't though.

fabulous feature friday !!

so today i am featuring another one of my new friends here in arizona. her name is ashely hanson and she is sooo naturally pretty its insane! im really excited that she was the first one to write me back about featuring someone today for the blog for my new feature friday posts. not only does she work at sprinkles with me, she works at j. crew as well. hello how amazing is that store? i can tell that she and i are going to have a great friendship and i am lucky to have her here in arizona.

here are ten things that make ashley very, very happy:

1. marc jacobs bargains
2. cute boys
3. seafood/sushi
4. friends and family
5. the beach
6. a good run

7. laughing so hard she pees her pants and being goofy

8. corny jokes
9. flowers
10. getting into good trouble

oh and she just informed me she forgot one!

11. concerts

so there you have it. a little insight into ashley's happiness.  what are some things that make you happy?
if you'd like to be featured feel free to e-mail me your happy list { minniekaileigh@yahoo.com }

a lesson in shortening words aka being cool

alright alright so ive been using some words lately that some of you but most of you may not understand. hopefully my closest friends do considering that they have been using them too and that would be just silly to say words that you dont understand. so i compiled a list of words with their meanings and examples of how they would be used in a sentence. feel free to add any of your own.

perfect - perf
   example: holy cow his hair is so perf.

usual - (pronounced yousjuh) not quite sure how to spell it
   example: oh i havent been up to much. just the usje. (once again spelling this is weird.)

no big deal - nbd
   example: i hungout with garrett hedlund last night...nbd.

red velvets - red velvs
   example: yea i'll take a dozen red velvs.

obvious/obviously - obv
   example: i watch dirty dancing everyday obv !

totally - totes
   example: "did you buy the new land before time movie?" "you mean number 27? totes!"

sprinkles - sprinks
   example: "did you want sprinks on that dark chocolate cupcake?"

regular - reg
    example: i do yoga on the reg.

precious - presh
   example: that dress is so presh on you.

random thoughts on my unfocused day

yesterday i was at work extremely bored on my break and i thought of some random things to tell all of you. here goes:

-sometimes i wish i spoke multiple languages or that i could read lips.  that way whenever someone with an accent talked to me, i could understand them and not say "what?" repeatedly.

-have you ever noticed how adorable little children with accents are? especially little boys with british accents! i would move to england for the soul purpose that my children could be all the more cute with a little accent. AND you can bet that i would dress them up as a different harry potter character every halloween.

-i am ninety-seven percent positive i want to live in denver for the rest of my life. thats a big statement but i would love to own my own house in the cherry creek neighborhood.

-when i am able to buy my own house i want to have a cute little one story with a pretty front yard that has a big tree in it.

-i still would love to be a wedding planner. once i move away from arizona, i plan on moving to denver to do just that.

-has anyone ever noticed how amazingly good looking garrett hedland is? he is in the movie tron and in the movie country strong. my friend kristen told me about him the other day and HELLO he is the new secret celebrity crush of mine. dear garrett can we please meet some day? thanks.

 

-i finally started paying off my debt! im so excited. i have quite a bit to pay off but if i stay disciplined i will get it all paid in no time!

-a wall color for my room has been chosen. GREEN! im not sure when ill be painting it but obviously ill be putting pictures up when i do.

-miranda kerr is so incredibly gorgeous and she is married to orland bloom and they have a baby together. thats a whole lot of beautiful going on there.

thats about it for my random thoughts. hope youre having a fabulous day !