Up next is my Mom-Mom. She grew up during the 50’s when Elvis was super popular, and he was her favorite. When I decided I wanted to do an Elvis day, I knew she had the perfect story that needed to be shared. She’s a little nervous about posting so be sure to leave her some love in the comments!

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Hello everyone! This is my first attempt at blogging and I am SO nervous! I wouldn’t do this for anyone but my sweet granddaughter, Ashley. Ashley, you owe me big time for this!!

I grew up in the 50s. I graduated from high school in 1957, and was a HUGE fan of Elvis. I still am! I bought all of his records as soon as they were released and played them over and over.

After graduating high school my two best friends, Billie Fay and Lela, and I got jobs in a nearby town and took turns driving to work. One day we were having lunch at the Tastee Freeze and while we were sitting in our car eating, this pink Cadillac pulled in to a parking space right in front of us. We almost choked on our food. Elvis has a PINK CADILLAC!!!! But, there was a woman driving the car alone so we decided it wasn’t his car after all. We couldn’t help staring at it anyway.

After a few minutes the lady went to the window to order her food, then she came over to our car and said she noticed us looking at the car she was driving.  She said she was driving it from California to Tennessee for Elvis, and she asked if we would like to go over and get a closer look at it. We all scrambled out of the car and ran over to the pink Cadillac. It was AWESOME!! It was all white leather and pink plush inside and his initials were embossed in the middle of the steering wheel…E. P. It also had a TV. It was beautiful and we were ecstatic! I wish we ‘d had a camera.

A couple of years ago my daughter Cheryl and granddaughter Ashley took me with them to Memphis and we toured Graceland and the museum of Elvis’ things. I even wrote my name on the wall in front of Graceland! We bought lots of souvenirs and I drink my coffee out of an Elvis cup every morning.  Love it!

Hey y’all! Today’s posts are all about Elvis! I’ve talked here several times about how much I like him, and today’s posters share my love for The King!

Jennifer from Crazy Shenanigans is also a huge Elvis fan! She just got back from a trip to Memphis a few weeks ago, and I so wish I’d gone with her! Be sure to check out Crazy Shenanigans and her travel blog JMO Travels.

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I’m Jennifer from over at Crazy Shenanigans and guess what… I’m an Elvis fan. I’m actually a really big fan of his. I love his music, his movies, his humanitarian efforts and most of all what he taught us about the American dream. 

I’ve been to the King’s home, Graceland twice and I’m attending this year’s Elvis Week. It will be my first time and I can’t wait to experience it and be around thousands of other Elvis fans. Now I could go on and on about the reasons why I love Elvis but that would just be silly. So instead, I’d like to talk about what he represents… at least in my eyes. I believe Elvis represented the good and the bad in the American dream.

If you know anything about the King of Rock n’ Roll is that he wasn’t always the King. He grew up in a two room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi. His family barely had money for food, let alone any extra extravagances. From a young age he had a dream of being able to what he loved the most- singing and to in turn be able to take care of his momma and the rest of his family. He didn’t care about having money for cars, clothing or impressing girls, sure that would be a great plus but he just wanted to provide. He’d lay awake at night and hope and pray for the future.

And as we all know, he achieved his dream. He rose from the poverty and became one of the most recognized faces in the world. He was able to buy his momma the house of her dreams and give her everything she could possibly want and more. Along the way he made tons of friends, his fans grew by the thousands and he got more than he could ever dream of. He spent a lot of time giving back to charities, down and out friends and family and often total strangers. However, with fame and achieving the American dream came the downside.

Once you get everything you’ve ever wanted what do you do next? He became depressed, dependent on prescription drugs, developed mood swings and shut people once close to him out of his life. He had the American dream and to him it started slipping away. He had the fans, the music and the money but to him it was about finding his spiritual side and being happy. He died way too early in life and I often think that he could have been saved. So what does he represent the American dream because many others follow in his same foot steps. Don’t we all wonder and secretly wish to know what it would be like to be rich and famous? Well there’s always a downside to the dream and Elvis taught us that.

Hey y’all! Today’s first post is by Meghan from The Perfect Compilation Tape! I started following Meghan’s blog right after I started my blog, but it was when I was too nervous to publicly follow anyone. I had her blog bookmarked! I thought she was super cool, and now that I’ve gotten to know her, I just love her! I’m super excited Neely and I get to visit her this summer. Chicago isn’t going to know what hit it!

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Hi everyone!  For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Meghan, and I blog over at "The Perfect Compilation Tape" where you can usually find me blogging about Chicago, cupcakes, coffee, and everything else in between!  I am happy to be helping Ashley out with a guest post, and even more excited about the fact that I actually get to meet Ashley in a few months!  You see, Ashley and Neely of "A Complete Waste of Make-Up" are coming to the Windy City to visit and I couldn’t be more excited!  I’ve been thinking a lot about where to take these two lovely ladies and it inspired me to put together a little post about some of Chicago’s greatest highlights – a tourist’s guide, if you will.  And so, here are my top 5 places that I cannot WAIT to take Ashley and Neely this summer!

Millennium Park

(Source: www.chicagoclout.com)

From the famous "bean" to concerts on lawn, Millennium Park is the perfect place to sit, have great conversations, and people-watch in the middle of this concrete jungle!

The Willis Tower Skydeck

(Source: http://gadgetsteria.com/2009/05/01/sears-tower-to-get-skydecks/)

From the tallest building in the United States, the 103rd floor skydeck provides an awesome view of the city! 

Swirlz Cupcakes

Somehow, I doubt that this won’t be the only cupcakery that the three of us visit, but it is imperative that Ashley and Neely experience my favorite cupcakes in all of Chicago!  Instead of a wedding cake, my husband and I ordered a tier of Swirlz cupcakes instead.  They are PERFECTION!

Thrifting in Wicker Park

Wicker Park is Chicago’s quintessential "hipster" neighborhood and is filled to the brim with vintage shops, boutqiues, cafes, etc.  It’s such a great place to grab a cup of coffee and skim the racks of vintage pieces.  This neighborhood makes for GREAT people-watching, too!

Running/Walking/Biking/Sunning Along the Chicago Lakefront

Views, views and more views.  I love my city.

If the lovely Miss Ashley was coming to visit your city, where would you take her?

Today’s other post comes from Neely from A Complete Waste of Makeup! When I started blogging, I never imagined I would roadtrip to Dallas to stay with someone I’d never even talked to on the phone and I never imagined I’d talk/text someone almost daily that I met online! She’s a great friend and I love her!

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Hello Ashley’s blog followers. I am so excited to be guest posting for my sweet lovely amazing friend Ashley today.

I am Neely and I blog two places: Daily at A Complete Waste of Makeup and every Wednesday at In My Twenties.

So today I want talk to y’all about why I love to blog and what it means to me.

When I started blogging officially in December of 2009 I was shocked when I had 5 readers. I remember calling my then boyfriend and saying "OMG 5 people read my blog!" and thinking "Why would anyone read my blog?" I never thought I would meet legit friends or find people who I consider best friends or people that I could relate to so much.

Blogging means the world to me and I couldn’t imagine NOT doing it. It has become something I love to do everyday. I love curling up with my laptop and a latte or glass of wine and reading blogs, writing blogs and discovering new blogs.

I have been lucky enough to meet a ton of bloggers like my sweet friend Ashley. 

Do y’all ever get weird looks when you talk to non bloggers about blogging? Or from anyone you say "I have a blog" to. Its because if you don’t blog you don’t get blogging…right? My family and friends and even people I meet and tell I have a blog to sometimes look at me weird when I talk about a blog friend or a twitter friend. But these people have become people I turn to when I need a shoulder, when I need advice, when I cant decide what to wear, when I need support, when I need anything. These are not blogger friends these are FRIENDS. People I couldn’t imagine not in my life.

This is why I blog.

This is why I have continued to blog everyday for over a year. Because I have made life long friendships with people I never would have met otherwise. I now have two summer trips planned to visit others bloggers, I have gone to a blogging conference, and I have discovered so many amazing stores, brands, ideas that I would have otherwise not known about.

Blogging means the world to me and I hope some of y’all can relate to this as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and please come visit my little corner of the blog world.

WINNING

Neely

Hey y’all! Music post number two comes from Aubrey from High-Heeled Love! She is super cute and super sweet, and I know you’re going to love her post!

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Hi lovelies! This is Aubrey from High-Heeled Love. Ashley asked me if I’d be willing to drop by with a guest post today because she has a killer week at work. Please feel free to pop by my blog and say hi.

The weather has been so pretty where I’m at lately. It makes me wish that I were still in school so that I’d have a spring break. Pretty sunshine-y weather always gets me itching to take a road trip with the windows down and the radio turned up high.

I’ve been having fun going through old mix cds that I’ve made from previous road trips, and I wanted to share my top road songs and which trips that make me think of.

1. Vertical Horizon takes me right back to high school. My senior year, a group headed to Myrtle Beach for the weekend to see them in concert at the House of Blues. A week later, we went to see them in Charlotte. "Everything You Want" regularly makes an appearance on my ipod, and if you have an opportunity to pick up their Live Stages cd, I highly recommend it. They toured with Stroke 9 that year, and I will always love "Little Black Backpack" (Nasty Little Thoughts) too.

2. The summer of 2004, I was freshly single and on the road a lot. I probably went to Knoxville about six times that summer to visit friends up there. They introduced me to Wheat’s "I Met a Girl" (Per Second Per Second Per Second Every Second) and "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (Fever to Tell).

3. Most of my family lives in Detroit, so I’ve done the 12-hour drive from my parents house to my grandmother’s old house more than a few times. One trip that was particularly memorable was taking the Mister for the first time in 2006. It was funny because I have found a mix cd from 2002 that I had made for another trip to Michigan.  So we listened to quite a bit of the Goo Goo Dolls. The standout songs on the cd were "Say Anything" by Good Charlotte (The Young & The Hopeless) and "Great Romances of the 20th Century" (with the extended intro) by Taking Back Sunday (Tell All Your Friends).

4. Followers of my blog know that my buddy Rob and I headed to Delaware for Thanksgiving twice to visit my best friend when she was in grad school. I started listening to 30 Seconds to Mars since their debut cd showed up  in 2002 at WUSC, where I deejayed in college; back then Jared Leto was dating Cameron Diaz. However, A Beautiful Lie was in rotation in Rob’s cd collection back them, and "The Kill" reminds me of driving up I-95 at 2 a.m. with him.

5. I’d be seriously remiss in my road trip nostalgia if I didn’t include all the trips to Charleston in 2009 when we were planning our wedding. =) "Say Hey (I Love You)" by Michael Franti & Spearhead (All Rebel Rockers) was all over the radio that summer, and it just reminds me getting ready for the big day. The Mister’s choice song for the trips was "Walking on the Moon" by The Police (Regatta De Blanc).

So that’s my list of road trip songs. Now it’s your turn…tell me which songs always remind you of getting on the wide open highway?

Today’s first guest poster is Stephanie from A Professor’s Wife! I’ve been following Steph since her days as a Grad Student’s Wife, and she is one of the sweetest girls ever! I wish we lived closer to each other because we should so be real-life friends. Be sure to stop by her blog!

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Hey! Today’s guest post is my precious friend Regina! Regina and I met in a bible study in college and became great friends! She is one of the sweetest people ever! Unfortunately, she and her husband Joey left OKC for Flatsmellyland, Texas, and I miss her terribly! But thanks to the power of Facebook, blogging, and Twitter, we are able to keep in touch. She is super crafty, and today’s post is a few fun DIY projects! Enjoy, and be sure to stop by her and check out her sites listed at the bottom!

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Hi y’all! I’m Regina and I have known Ashley for, oh… I guess going on 6 years now. (Yikes, girl, has it really been that long… lol.) First off, some of my favorite things about Ashley include, but are not limited to, her intense love of N*SYNC which I will not fault her for because of course everyone knows that BSB were, and always will be, the best (and I’m loving the fact that she has to post this to her blog… hehehe…) [hardest thing EVER for me to post!]; her incredible sweetness; her wonderful family; and her ability to make people always feel important. Although, for your sake, I hope you’re never around her when tornadoes are in the area because she does tend to panic… a LOT.

Anyway, like I said, I’m Regina and all you need to know right now is I’m a lover of music, listography, animals, children, God, photography, prayer, rainbows, fashion, crafting, unicorns and narwhals. The rest of me you can find out later by checking out my various sites listed at the end of this post.

Now that the formalities are out of the way… on to the GOOD STUFF! When Ashley asked me to be a guest blogger I was super honored and immediately went to my "blog book" to figure out what I wanted to post about. But it wasn’t until later when I was playing around on Pinterest that I made my final decision. I just kept coming across one amazing idea after another. What makes these ideas so amazing is 1) How gorgeous the finished product is and 2) How inexpensive these little DIYs are. Gorgeous AND inexpensive?… umm… yes please! So I hope you’ll enjoy these great ideas and maybe have yourself a little DIY party sometime soon? I know I’m already saving up my TP rolls…

image via Original source unknown;
edited version seen here via everythingfab.com

I love maps. Back when I was a kid we used a good ol’ atlas when we went on road trips, and I loved sitting in the back seat with the huge atlas spread out on my lap and taking my own little "detours" and imaginary trips. I am ever so thankful we have GPS nowadays, but I do still love looking at maps. And what a gorgeous way to display some vintage looking maps! All you need is maps, picture frames, and your imagination. Incredible wall art/decor display….DONE!

image via twopeasinabucket.com

Another super easy project. Some white or even a colored cardstock, a few leftover buttons, some leftover scrapbook paper, a picture frame and VOILA, a sweet little gift for mom on Mother’s Day, or to fill space on a table or shelf somewhere. Brilliant!

image via marthastewart.com

Okay, so this isn’t exactly a craft project but it’s a super easy solution to one of life’s big annoyances. Try it out, you can thank me later. Oh okay, you can thank Martha later…

image via tomkatstudio.blogspot.com

Let’s see… one part left over fabric, one part a couple of free hours while watching a movie like… say… ‘You’ve Got Mail’, and the result is a lovely banner to spruce up your next party. I’m also thinking of hanging it on a table, hanging it up in a doorway, or even making a little girl an adorable hula skirt for her to twirl around the house in. Oh the endless possibilities!! Thank you, leftover fabric, for being so versatile!

And now, for the grand finale… whoever would have thought that toilet paper/paper towel rolls could be so pretty!

image via myrtleandeunice.com

A lovely design. All you have to do is save up some rolls, cut them all the same width, and get after them with a hot glue gun (preferred) or craft glue. I also saw on one of the sites that you can use clothes pins to hold the rolls together while they’re drying so there’s a little easy tip for you! I’m seriously saving up my rolls in the house to do something like this for my office.  Although, I think I’m going to spray paint them all a solid color afterwards… I just can’t decided between black or white. And for a different design….

images via growingupcreative.com

Hmm… now I can’t decide if I want the first design or the second design or somewhere in the middle… I think I’ll just get started on it and see where the craft takes me. That seems like a better option, right?

Alrighty, well, that’s all I have to share for today. I hope one or all of these inspired you to channel your inner Martha Stewart and make something super cute & super awesome for super cheap! Thanks to Ashley for inviting me along on her "carnival ride" and letting me share some awesome stuff with you all. And now, I bid you adieu and leave you with all of my many sites. I hope to "see" you around!

Take care & love,

Regina

Blog:
www.livedelightfully.blogspot.com

Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/VivatReginaC

Etsy Shops:
www.vivatregina.etsy.com
www.vivatreginasupplies.etsy.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/VivatReginaCrafts