Brining art to life!

My dear mentor Crystal Young (Crystal Cattle) is doing a giveaway with The Farmer's Trophy Wife through their blocks. If you are not a follower of either, you should be.

Bringing a boring Tuesday to life, they are giving away a 20x30 canvas print of one of Crystal's photos that she has taken. Of course, in true competitive spirit, I have already entered in every possible way I can. I love canvas prints and I know exactly which one I would choose if I won and I know exactly where it would go. Hello bedroom!

Being a hobby photographer like I am, I have dreamed of a day when I had nice photos taken by myself that I could make a collage on my wall. Show off my work! Until then I will dream of winning the work of a dear friend and mentor until September 2nd!

Wish me luck!!!

Address Wreath

Because we all need a little DIY

I really enjoy doing crafts. I love doing crafts and being able to give them to your friends and family. Its a gift you worked on, took the time to plan out, and put in hours of work for that particular person in mind. It is special.

Since discovering Pinterest (if you haven't, hurry go now, I'll wait) I have been finding all kinds of DIY and craft projects. AND since, I have a new house to decorate, making crafts is even more fun.

One of the first items I found I wanted to make was this really cool Address Wreath for our front door.



All I needed was:
1- 14" grapevine wreath
wooden numbers
Acyrlic paint
Fake flowers
and my trusty glue gun

I sat down one evening painted my letters. They started a burgundy color, but I changed them because you couldn't see on our door. While my letters were drying, I arranged and hot glued my flowers to the grapevine. After they were dry, I glued the numbers to my wreath and Ta Da! A wreath was created. I'm pretty excited about the end product and it looks wonderful on our door!

Have crafting!

Makes Perfect Scents!

I'll be honest with you. Since graduating from college, the job market is pretty sucky right now. I've searched, googled, applied, and interviewed. Somedays searching for jobs just makes things really dark and low. My husband can attest to that. I mean you go to college for four years, get a degree, and then head out into the real world at one of the worst possible times.

Of course, I was looking for something in agriculture. And of course, I wanted still be able to work for the family business, which I seem to love a little more everyday. (You might ask me that again around Christmas after fall sale season). After many tears, discussions, and thoughts, I have decided to start selling Scentsy to earn some income. In the meantime, I'm still job searching and doing the DP thing. It gives me the freedom I have been looking for, and you know what? I'm really excited about it. Something I have felt like I've needed.

I have some other things in the plans for the future, but right now things are slow going. So we'll see. AS for right now though, I think you need to check out my website http://hollihatmaker.scentsy.us and check out our products. The new catalog items come out on September 1st! Until then though, in the month of August items are 10% off! What is great is you can be my friend from wherever and I can share this product with you through my website. You can order right off of it and it will be shipped right to your door!

Somethings in life haven't seemed to make much sense since graduating college, but finally something seems to be making perfect scents!

:)

Won't you be my neighbor?!

Well, its finally official and over.

The Hatmaker's are homeowners!



I haven't been too vocal about the fact that we were purchasing our very first home because I was nervous. It is a long process with lots of paperwork and name signing. And truly, the faith of my happiness and our new home was in the hands of the bank/mortgage people. I didn't want to get too over zealous. I even asked our loan officer one time if I could continue packing.

But now, thankfully the waiting is over. We closed on our new home 2 weeks ago today. That was a Friday and we were able to begin moving on the following Monday at 6pm. Of course, the weather for most of the United States has been HOT, and it was no different moving. We kept everyone drinking lots of water.

After about two and a half days, we were successfully moved out of the townhouse and into our HOME. It was a very weird, but rewarding feeling. Nothing big, just a small little starter home for Drew, Gabby, and I. I'm thinking about getting a fish?



There are not many photos of the new house just yet because I don't want to share them with the world with boxes all in them. But soon. Now, its time to unpack the boxes and make into a warm, cozy, decorated home. One of our new neighbors even brought us some brownies to welcome us to the neighborhood!

I promise to work on the pictures soon!

Make your Mark!

The First Ever "Summit"....

When I was on the American Junior Simmental Junior Board and after interning for the American Hereford Association, I wanted to start a leadership conference for AJSA members. Unfortunately, during my time on the junior board this did not happen, but because of some others shared the same goals as me, last year plans were made for the first ever "Summit" Leadership Conference to be held in Kansas City.

I was honored when the junior board asked me to be apart of the planning process for the event, and even asked me to be apart of the conference itself. Drew, Gabby, and I headed to Kansas City last week for the Summit. After a quick intro from outgoing AJSA President Tyler White, I was on to lead the group of fifty-five juniors through icebreakers. We did paper plate introductions about themselves and themselves as leaders, get to know you bingo, two truths and a lie, silent line-up, and the big finale, a game of Ships and Sailors.

Throughout the two day and half day conference AJSA members heard from industry leaders in animal science, marketing, and communications, keynote speaker Andrew McCrea, and travel to visit ranches like Shoal Creek and Sanders Ranch. Overall, it was a great conference and I am so happy that the AJSA was able to put this on to benefit the future of their juniors. It was so rewarding to see something you have dreamed about be put into action.

Thanks again to the AJSA for allowing Drew and I to be apart of this event, and thanks to everyone for their hard work! Can't wait to see this event in the future.

A few photos from the conference.....

My Best Friend's Wedding

As I sit here, I've just put the final touches on my Matron of Honor (makes me sound old) Speech for the Kilburn-Hurter wedding tomorrow evening. You see, my best friend Salena is getting married tomorrow. :)



Salena and I have know each other for 15 years and have been best friends for 14 of that. I can't believe it has really been that long now. It seems like just yesterday. I thought writing my speech would be such a piece of cake (yum, wedding cake can't wait), I thought all the thoughts would immediately come to me, but turns out there was lots of things to say. It was hard to nail down the special moments we've had together, or articulate just how amazing of a person Salena is.

Last night, as we were outside of her house, she gave Drew and I the sweetest 1 year anniversary gift. She made us a scrapbook of all the important invitations and documents from our wedding. There were a few invitations to showers I never got to see until last night. But after we opened it and I had my crying moment, I realized that we are now growing up, getting married, and starting a new chapter of our lives. For some reason last night it felt much different. I mean I know that Drew and I have now been married for a year, but knowing that Salena is getting married very soon (tomorrow!) made me feel much different. It had always been just us, and now we are both soon to be married. It's a beautiful thing, but still touched me in a very sentimental way.

For a long time, I thought I've wanted to include a certain poem in my speech, but as I wrote it, it just didn't seem to fit, so instead I'll bring it to my blog, as I hope sometime in the near future Salena will read. So, here's to you best friend and sister at heart. I am so happy for the love that you have found.

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
BY E. E. CUMMINGS
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Welcome to the family!

The Hatmaker family grows!

Drew and I have been talking about getting a Corgi puppy for quite sometime now. We were waiting on a particular dog to get pregnant and for sale season to wind down. When the dog we had been waiting on didn't get pregnant, we were sad but kept on looking for our perfect puppy. After some facebook investigation, we stumbled upon a lady that I knew from when I interned at the Hereford Association. She sent us pictures and we picked our puppy. Delivery was set to happen in the coming weeks.

Well, last week Drew and I were in Kansas City. It was Tuesday afternoon and we were sitting an airport restaurant waiting to catch our flight home. As we sat there, I brought up the fact that we weren't very far from Tulsa, Oklahoma (which is close to where the puppy lived). I brought up that we could rent a car and drive down and pick her up then go home. "No," Drew said. Determined, I got on my phone looked up the price of a rental, the hours to get there, the hours to get home. I was pleading my case with good evidence. I even got my friend Lauren and our waitress in on it. After some great evidence (I should have been a lawyer), we were heading out of the airprot and to rent a car.

We drove an hour south of Kansas City to Louisburg and stayed with our friends the Barbours (whose sons were our ringbearers) to spend the night. We also had to make a pit stop at Target since we only brought overnight clothes to pick up a few essential items and puppy items.

The next morning we loaded up in our Nissan Versa and headed south. We arrived to destination puppy after 1:00 and met the previous Gabby. She was everything we had hoped for. We even got to met her sisters, aunt, grandmother, and grandfather.





Tying up a few loose ends, our Versa now included two happy parents and one Corgi puppy named Gabby. Our adventure back to Kentucky began. Gabby did an excellent job on the way home. She never pottied in the car and typically went to the bathroom everytime we stopped. When we were driving, she slept in her crate like a little angel.



We drove just east of St. Louis that evening and stopped at our first pet friendly hotel. Gabby was so happy to finally get out of the car and run around. Our first night went well, and the next day we headed home.

Gabby seems to like it here now. And loves to chew on everything. She sleeps through most of the night before she has to go potty. And of course, we just love her. :)



Welcome to the family Gabby!!