feathers are a girl's best friend {giveaway}

**Giveaway now closed**

The lovely and oh so very talented Melissa Jackson from New Fashioned Whispers has kindly offered one of you lucky readers a pair of her vintage feather earrings! What could possibly be a better way to completing an outfit than a snazzy little pair of these?

Oh me, oh my...I am drooling over here...*ahem*...


Here are some ways you could win these!

Mandatory entry:

+ Tell me something you ♥ love ♥ about Summer!

Extra entries:

+ Follow Bella Vita

+ Blog, tweet, and/or facebook about the giveaway {each worth an entry}

+ Hop over to New Fashioned Whispers and tell me which of Melissa's products you love!

There ya go, friends! The giveaway will end July 19th and the winner will be announced July 20th. Good luck!

et cetera

one

Happy Independence Day!

two

the picture says it all

three

we got five more chicks a few days ago! We got four chickens two years ago and now have another batch. No worries friends - we have them for their eggs not them. As my dad puts it, "They only have one bad day..." As in, all of their days are happy...until they quit producing eggs...you get the point, right?

four

Like I have said a couple times on this blog, one thing I enjoy about Summer is hanging out with my friends. And these girls - are probably the best friends you could ever ask for. So don't tell me that your friends are better, because mine are the best. *wink*

Thank you to Bailey for hosting the fun little get together!

five

a couple of evenings ago, I was out in the backyard snapping pictures and got this one of Hannah. her squinted little eyes in this photo make her look Chinese. or Japanese. go ahead, call me racist. ;)

five

I guest posted over here today!

six

why am I typing with lowercase letters? I am a sucker for using capital letters, but I must say...this is kind of fun. I am not having to worry about capitalizing each and every thing that should be capital. very freeing.

A Couple of Ways...

...to start off the marvelous season of Summer are...

...*adopting* a Winter White hamster and naming him Milo...

...and an Oreo Klondike bar...

Are you doing anything to celebrate this day?

Hello Summer 2011!

I seriously cannot express to you all how extremely ecstatic I was today when I finished my last math test {of the year baby!}. I feel this sense of freedom and this large weight lifted off my shoulders. Break is officially here and there is so, so, so much in store for this Summer! I cannot even begin  to explain all what I will be doing.

 

Summer consists of swimsuits...

the lake, swimming pools, pontoon/jet ski/tubing, sleepovers, and cookouts...

pink lemonade, relaxing, the beach, juicy hunks of fruit, flip-flops, shorts, Emerald Point {water park}, chit-chatting with friends and family...

late nights, catching fireflies, shopping, sundresses, evening strolls, and seeing life in technicolor once again.


Not only am I {very} happy that it is officially Summer break; but I was able to fix my itouch! <----Long story. To tell the story in a short way, apparently the passcode on my itouch decided to be strong willed and would not work. I tried multiple times to figure out my passocode, but nothing worked. I called Apple yesterday (and talked to a lady who slurred all. of. her. words) and finally solved the problem (with a bit of their help/my insanely awesome itouch skills ;)).

All of that to say, my itouch is now fixed, everything is deleted off of it, and I currently have one song ("Hair"...don't laugh...).

What do you plan to do this Summer?

Smitten With Summer

I don't know about you, but I am itching for Summer to come. Every year I try to pysch myself into thinking that Spring is my favorite season, but no...my favorite season is definitely Summer.

 I love the mornings when I wake up and feel the crisp, cool breeze creeping through our open windows. I love gazing at the luscious green grass and hearing the sound of lawn mowers. I love the scent of honey suckles and vibrant flowers. I love watching sweet little birds splashing around in the bird bath. I love Summer.



I am fully prepared for Summer too. I have already purchased a {super cute} swimsuit from Lime Ricki Swimwear. If you need a swimsuit, I highly suggest checking out Lime Ricki. They have the most comfortable swimwear. Ever.

^Yep - that is my swimsuit! I actually have to thank the lovely Emily for suggesting Lime Rick to me!

I got a pair of sunglasses on sale for $4 at Cato. Now that's what I'm talkin' about baby! I *really* hope that these don't break like the past three pair I have had.

And what would Summer be like without a new pair of Rainbow flip-flops? These are by far the most comfortable sandals I have EVER worn.



And lookey-lookey, my dad's square foot garden has produced some lovely little onions! If you ever have any questions about organic square foot gardening, he's the person to ask!

And last but not least...

I am sooooo ready for June 3rd. Why? Because it is the last day of school for me! Whoo hoo!

What are you looking forward to about Summer?

P.S. A friendly reminder - don't forget to check out this {super short} post! Bella Vita is at 96 followers, only four  one more to go! Whoo hoo! Thank you to the people who have helped advertize, and to the new followers!

Summer is on it's way...

Oh. My. Gosh. I am getting summer fever! I am so excited for it to come!

Hot weather, cold swimming pools, the beach, sleepovers with awesome friends, my birthday, camp outs, no school (oh yea!), shopping, more time to do blogger giveaways.......

Can you tell that someone's ready for summer break to come?

Mom and I saw these incredibly cute beach towels at Wal-Mart for only like, $14. I really wish that I could find a picture of them on the website, but for some reason pictures of the towels aren't on there.

I have also been looking around at different places for swimsuits, and I came across these two at the JC Penny website...

Which one do you like better? Mom likes the blue one more, and I think that I do too. But I want you're opinion too! I'm not really a fan of wearing bikinis or showing off my belly, so I stick to a one piece every summer.

I'm sooooo excited about going to the beach this summer too! We will be leaving June 12th and then June 13th will be my birthday! So yep, I'm happy that my uncle and I can share our birthdays at the beach! We will be staying for a week on Folly Beach which is connected to Charleston.
Have you ever been to Charleston? It is BEAUTIFUL! There's so much history there (and personally, I'm not a huge fan of history), but it is so neat to see the old plantations, Rainbow Row, Fort Sumter, Patriots Point, etc. etc. etc.

So I would strongly suggest going there for a vacation sometime! It's awesome there!

Haha, 3 years ago on Folly Island, we saw two water spouts in the ocean. It scared me TO DEATH, and to top that off, my cousin was constipated and crying like crazy. Everyone except for me, was out on the balcony (this was ocean front to, which was another reason I was scared!) watching the spouts and saying things like, "COOL!" and videoing it!

If I could, I would SO put the vid on here! Maybe I can find out how...

Another thing that I think I'm excited and anxious about doing, are the blankets for hospital children. If you haven't read this post yet, be sure to check it out! It will tell you the idea I had for the blankets. I am really hoping that this project will go well! I will give you more info on the blankets sometime in June. My mom and I are going to visit some hospitals to get some information on what kind of blankets they need, what kind of feel, etc. My awesome friend, Bailey, is also going to be helping me head this up. She is so organized, so it will be great having her help out! An extra helping hand is always nice, huh?

I also have some super awesome giveaway ideas in mind for this summer! I'm thinking about doing something called Anna's Cabana Bash and doing a giveaway each day for 6 days.

I've only done two giveaways on blogger, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing them! It's a great way to meet new people too!

Hope you all have had a great weekend!

♥ Happy Blogging ♥

Pool Days....

Ahhhh, what a great time we had at the pool earlier this evening. My dad took my brother and me to the local pool we're members of, while Mom cleaned the house before we leave for Greenwood, SC tomorrow morning. Before we arrived at the pool this evening, I expected there to be a nice size crowd there like there always is.

But, to our surprise, NO ONE except the two lifeguards, and a lady working there were there. So my brother and I got the pool to ourselves tonight! It was like having our own private pool complete with two diving boards and two lifeguards. What a luxury that would be. LOL!


My mom, brother, and I will be back from G-wood on Saturday. My dad won't be able to come with us because he has to do Wednesday night church and plan his sermon for Sunday...unless he's already finished it.

I hope you all have a great Monday and rest of the week. :0)

Yard Sale & Silly Avatar! Saturday

Hi everyone! Well, the yard sale today went GREAT! We did it with some friends of ours. We woke up at 6:00 this morning to setup; and right after we set up, it poured down rain. It was pretty disappointing at first. But around 8:30, it cleared up and we got more business. We honestly thought that we wouldn't get any business, but a ton of the stuff sold. I am using my babysitting money/money from the yard sale to bid on a twin bed that's white on ebay. So it was nice to have some extra $$$ from the yard sale to help with the bidding.

Well, that's all of the 'yard sale stuff'; now it's time for Silly Avatar! Saturday. I would've done it this morning, except I literally had NO time whatsoever to post it.

Today's Silly Avatar! Saturday is (drum roll please)........RIHANNA!!!



Happy Saturday everyone! I will update you all with pics from the yard sale tomorrow.

~A.G.~ :D :O :)

Random Post :0)

Hi everyone! Well, I have noticed that I have been posting more pics and avatars and 'stuff' than actually posting about what's been going on in my life week. Let's start from this past Sunday.

Sunday: We did the usual; went to church, came back home, and later, watched the show 'Just For Laughs' @ 7:30 that evening.

Monday: Mom of course, went to her weekly women's bible study and I babysat. Later that afternoon, I went to my friend's b-day party and some of us stayed up 'til 2:30 in the morning.

Tuesday: My two friend's (I went to their house for the one's b-day party) came with me to the local pool my family is a member of.

Wednesday: Some friend's of ours hung out with us at the pool we're members of (feeling the exhaustion yet?) and then came back to our house to hang out for about an hour and a half and then we went to Wednesday night church.

Today: I didn't really do anything in the morning. But later, I labeled prices for a yard sale my friends and I are having Saturday. A little later Mom and I went to the YMCA so I could get some goggles (they are PINK and sooo pretty!) and then went grocery shopping.

Friday: We are going to setup for the yard sale.

Saturday: We are going to have the yard sale.

Yep, as you can tell, I have had a pretty busy, tiring, but entertaining week. Happy Blogging!

~A.G.~ :D :O :)

4th of July Pics (Finally)...

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great 4th of July. I know we sure did! We went to my MeeMaw's lake house to celebrate. We road on the sea do, played in the water (for me about 30 sec.), had a cookout, and ended on watching fireworks from the lake on her pontoon. Here are the pics...enjoy!



Drake, MeeMaw, Daddy, and me!



Daddy



Mom


Me


MeeMaw and me riding on the sea do


We didn't really get good pics of the fireworks because it was so dark out. We did the best we could though. They looked WAY better than they look on here...trust me. :)




~A.G.~ :D :O :)

Pics From Yesturday!

We had so much fun yesterday! My aunt (Kristle), uncle (Grayson), and two cousins (Rachael & Seth), came over to celebrate the 4th a day early with us. They came yesterday because they wouldn't be able to come today and besides, we're going to my grandmother's lakehouse tonight anyway. Yesterday, we went swimming for about five hours, came back home and had hamburgers/hotdogs/cupcakes, played football, and ended on sparklers when it was broad daylight. Here are the pics...Enjoy!!!



Sunbathing (ignore the lady in the skimpy bikini)

Drake and Rachael each bundled up in a towel


cold and sipping a slushy


Kristle


Grayson


Mom


Mr. Dorrito fingers and his mom


My dad (beside me), me, Kristle and Seth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Playing football

Seth, after he threw the football


In action!


Our dog (Hannah) getting pampered


Me, in action!

Doing sparklers in broad daylight...how 'bout that?




~A.G.~ :D :O :)