The Liebster Blog Award

I was so very excited when my sweet friend Nicole from Being a Marine Wife let me know that she had nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award!

What is this prestigious award you ask? The Liebster Blog Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is a German word meaning dear, sweet, kind, nice, good, beloved, lovely, kindly, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

To keep this award going, pass the award along to 5 other new deserving bloggers who have less than 200 followers.

The rules for the Liebster Blog Award are:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love, too!

I love that this award recognizes newer blogs. Getting the word out for those bloggers who don't have like a thousand followers is important to me.

So, in no particular order, here are the 5 blogs I would like to recognize:

1) Daisy to Sunflower
2) I Have a Degree in This

3) The Life of SB

4) Home is where my heart is..

5) Style in the City

P.S. Tomorrow there will not be a new post. It's my hubby's bday today and we are having a long extended weekend to celebrate, so much of my time will be away from the computer. To make up for it, I have a VERY EXCITING giveaway for you on Monday! Hope you have a great weekend!!!

What I'm Wearing Wednesday

I feel like it has been forever since I've posted what I'm wearing. I'm sure you've been dieing to know what I've been wearing right? Well, I felt particularly cute in my outfit today, so I thought I would share it with you in the hopes that you thought I looked cute too (Wink). The weather has cooled off just a little here in Tampa, so wearing a cardi seems more weather appropriate. I just love the color of these mint green pants and the black bow detail on the cardi adds such a nice feminine touch.

{White bow cardigan gifted from The Limited, black tee from Target, mint green XOXO pants, gold hoop earrings gifted, Espirit shoes and Fossil watch.}

{I love the lacy bow and black shiny buttons on this cardi.}

Girl Crush: Zooey Deschanel

My latest girl crush is the star of Fox's new hit TV show New Girl, Zooey Deschanel. She is such a spunky brunette (Like me!). Her style is very feminine and also has a sort of vintage appeal which makes her quite the little vixen. What I’m trying to say is I want to be Zooey or at least be BFFs with her! If her gorgeous big blue eyes and long locks weren't enough to make you fall in love, add to it her slightly husky, sultry voice. To make her even more crushable is that she puts her sultry voice to work as the lead singer of the indie pop band called She and Him! If you haven't heard her sing, you are seriously missing out!

Happy Halloween

Today is one of my favorite holidays! I've always loved dressing up in fun Halloween costumes. I don't know about you, but I remember the days when Halloween costumes consisted of a plastic mask of your chosen character held on by a rubber band and a plastic night gown type piece that accompanied it that would have an illustration of the body of your character. Some of the favorites I remember from my childhood were Rose Petal (from Rose Petal's Place) and Barbie.

As years have gone by Halloween costumes have come a long way from the plastic mask days. Here are a few of my favorite costumes. What will you be dressing up as this year?

{2003 - I was Punky Brewster and hubby (then boyfriend) was "Mike" a 50s guy.}

{2004 - Fifi the French maid}

{2006 - Cleopatra}

{2009- Wednesday Adams}

Friday Flashback

{We spent our Saturday shooting a commercial for Universal Studios Orlando.}

Happy Friday Friends! This week has been bitter sweet for me. Hubby and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, we were in a commercial for Universal Studios and our hospital celebrated Halloween with the patients trick-or-treating throughout the hospital, deptartment skits (Which ours took 2nd place. . .we were cheated out of 1st!) and our annual Monster Mash Halloween party. With all this excitement going on and the smile that I always had on my face was clouded by this aweful cold I have had since Monday evening. Let me tell you, when it comes to having a cold, I am not a good patient. Now five days later, I'm so over it as I continue to sniffle and cough. This weekend I'm looking forward to some R&R so I can kick this cold. I hope you have a good one!!!

{The view from our boat during the evening portion of the commercial shoot at Universal's City Walk.}

{After our commerical shoot, hubby and I hung around the area and enjoyed some food, drinks and music at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritavill.}

{Each department had to decorate a pumpkin without carving it as part of this year's Halloween contests. Check out ours, Mr. Jack-O-Lantern Sparrow.}

{The Gleeks. We danced to the Glee version of Proud Mary with most of the group in wheelchairs. Each one of our shirts said an attribute we like about ourself, like they also did in Glee . . .accept they wrote things they were self concious of. We rocked and took 2nd place!}

Fashion Rules to Break: Clash or Credit

The Rule: Certain color combos are forbidden

Break It: When done right, any color can be worn together. Of course prints can contain numerous hue combinations, but solid blocks of heretofore taboo pairings can also look scads more stylish than a play-it-safe palette. Black/brown, black/blue, even red/pink all work if you keep the tone the same — pastel shades put together, inky colors partnered, neon brights paired up.

So what about you lovely? Is this a fashion rule you will stick to or break?

From Where I Sit: Portrayals in Pop Culture

Hello Beautiful! Do you know how much I love you? You are what makes me so excited about this blog. Your comments, your questions, your sweet sentiments just make me so happy! I was recently asked by another anonymous reader a question for a "From Where I Sit" piece. I think it is awesome that you feeling open enough to ask those tough questions. We're all friends here.

So this question is about how people with disabilities are portrayed in pop culture and if I am offended by any of it. I was so excited over this question because I think some of my thoughts on this topic you won't expect coming from a person with a disability. So let's dive right in. . .

Q. How do you feel about portrayals of handicapped people in popular culture like Joe Swanson on Family Guy or Timmy on South Park? I have to admit I find it funny when Coach Sylvester refers to Artie as a cripple on Glee. I almost peed myself laughing when Steven Hawking was having wheelchair sex with his wife on that episode of Family Guy where Brian went back to college. Some people have said it was un-PC but I think we take ourselves too seriously these days and need to lighten up. What are your thoughts?

A. I think these shows are HYSTERICAL!!! One of my very favorite shows is Glee (I'm a little obsessed actually) and Family Guy is another favorite for both my hubby and I.

First let's look at Glee. I think the Artie character is done very well. I think Kevin McHale, for an actor who is not disabled, does a very good job in utilizing a wheelchair correctly in a show that is very " show/performance" oriented. When Sue chimes in with her "cripple" comments I laugh because that is just Sue. She cuts on everyone. Remember the episode where she was making her own Glee club and stealing all the minority kids. I loved her line, "Santana! Wheels! Gay kid! Asian! Other Asian! Aretha! Shaft!" It's great comedy.

Let's not forget about Becky. I LOVE that the writers/producers of Glee have given this actor the chance to be a part of such an amazing ensemble. Becky brings such a great spirit to the show, and pairing her up with Sue. . .even better!

OK, Family Guy. To me, if anyone is too uptight about darn near anything, they should not be watching this show because everyone and everything is made fun of. It is a cartoon people, and obviously things will be taken to the extreme because, well, it can be. I think it is too funny when Joe's wife is changing his diaper and their babies diaper. Maybe I can laugh at this because I don't have those restroom issues, but again, it is a cartoon. Laugh people!

Recently my hubby and I had the wonderful opportunity of being in the major motion picture film Dolphin Tale, a commercial for the Disney parks and another for Universal Studios Orlando. For the two commercials I was the only person with a physical disability. I was curious to see how the director would handle this. Would I be sent to the back corner of the shoot to not be in the main scene? Would I hardly be on screen period?

In all of these experiences I was treated with the utmost respect. I was even approached by the director on the Universal shoot on the great job I was doing and how happy he was with my "performance".

I bring these topics up because here I was getting a first hand account of how a person with a disability (me) was going to be portrayed in these different media pieces. In each one, I was treated no differently and my disability was not accentuated at all. They focused on me the person, not me, the wheelchair girl.

Getting back to the initial question of how I feel about portrayals of handicapped people in popular culture. . .I feel that for the most part I am on board and OK with it. I will say that sometimes I feel like a person with a disability is more times than not used as a charity case or the sad sob story. What pop culture really needs are the strong willed, independant and totally awesome individuals that have disabilities to portray exactly that. To show the world that their disability does not define them. Now that I want to see because I think those roles are somewhat lacking in pop culture. I would totally be up for that role! I'll be waiting for your call Hollywood!