Aiukli got a makeover!

It's true. This little ol' gal of mine got a bit of a face lift! I've been wanting something different for quite some time now, and the very talented Kristina from The Streeters, Unlimited was the one who made my vision of nothing into something I LOVE and plan to keep around for a while!! (The link will take you to her shop, you have to have special permission to view the blog. While you're there, check out some of her stuff. I hear the lip balm is AMAZING, and will be buying ALL THREE FLAVORS soon. She just doesn't know it yet.)

I basically told her. I want it to continue to look clean. My favorite color is purple. And go.
And this is what she created.

She is SO very talented and I adore her and her blog and have ever since I found it.

So come on over, play, take a look around! I'll slowly be updating all the pages along the top (they are dated back almost 2 years!!), and I will also be updating the URL to the blog. As I announced earlier this week, I will be changing the web address to aiukliblog.blogspot.com. The current address is a mouthful and hard to remember, so I'm hoping this will make it easier for everyone.

This URL change will go into effect roughly 8 a.m., CST, on Monday morning. That's Monday, August 20, at 8 a.m. Please take note so you can update any kind of reader settings you may have!

Thanks for reading along!

There be some changes 'round these parts, y'all

via

Aiukli is getting a makeover. And it is slowly starting today (if I can figure out the proper thing to do!). You see, I love my design now, I really do, but it was something that I did quick fast and in a hurry and my HTML coding is nowhere near where I want it to be.

The new design should be installed within the next couple of days, and I will be changing the URL to aiukliblog.blogspot.com. I have not changed it over yet, but I will let you know once it is switched over so you can update any of your feed/reader settings. But for now, get excited for the beautiful work about to be done here. I'm so excited about it!!

Weekend Recap

So I don't know if you've checked out my corner of the blogosphere lately, but last Thursday I changed everything up. I decided that I wanted a cleaner space that was super simple, so I got rid of my background and changed up my header. I somehow deleted my signature and can't seem to get it back, something about formatting my HTML and having things all wrong. Lamesauce. However, with the new header and layout also came some new buttons. These buttons are summer friendly buttons! The old ones still work if you have them, but I just wanted to give you newer options!

Okay, on to the weekend recap.

Friday, I went out to eat with my aunt, cousins, and brothers. Once we finished lunch, I went shopping with my aunt and cousins to attempt to find some new cleats for my cousin. While we were out, I ended up finding myself some new tennis shoes. They are some pretty sweet Nikes that are black and purple. You should know by now that I love me some purple :)
That evening I went to watch my brother play in his last football game (potentially). he was selected as a Green Country All-Star. His team won the game 30-0, and he played quite a bit of defense and was on special teams.

Saturday was a forever long day. When I was at the football game on Friday night, my mom and i were talking about my upcoming final interview. She asked if I had professional clothes, and I told her what I had...she basically said it wasn't good enough, and that she wanted to take me shopping to fix this. There is a store here called NBC, and it's basically a thrift store. It's a HUGE thrift store, and anytime you want to find stuff, you have to devote at least an hour to finding things. We were there from 11 to 12:30, I found about 10 pieces of clothing, and then we left to go to my second cousin's birthday party. We were there for about an hour and then headed to my cousin Emma's softball game.
Out of the ten articles of clothing I bought, I didn't get a blazer with sleeves. Although the sleeveless looking blazer is very pretty, there is no way that is professional enough for a very important interview. So AFTER the game, my mother and I headed over to Owasso to check out TJ Maxx and Ross. We had no luck there, except buying a super thick belt for the dress that I bought at NBC. However, I did enjoy perusing through the home decor section to see what I could potentially use to decorate my hypothetical apartment :)
With no luck for suits at either TJ Maxx or Ross, we went over JC Penney (they're all in the same shopping center) to look and see if we could find something there. I SUCCESSFULLY found 3 pieces to a suit (pants, skirt, blazer), and spent about $65. This girl knows how to shop.
After the successful trip to JCP, we went back to Emma's tournament.

Sunday, I got up early to go to Emma's first game of the day, and then went and watched my cousins Edith and MacKenzie play basketball for the remainder of the day. I got to hang out with my grandma all day, and she took us out to eat dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. It was delicious.
Once I was back home, I got my car and went to visit Katy since she will be leaving for an internship on Wednesday. I took my friend Sam with me and we stayed there until midnight. We were deliriously tired by the time we left and were being completely silly.

Today, I lounged around all day and did laundry. I'm also nervously awaiting my interview tomorrow. I got a phone call on Friday afternoon to confirm what is hopefully my final interview. Interview success = first big girl job = first big girl place = Mallori is all grown up. It'll be a huge change of scenery. I'm super excited for my potential apartment! I've already made plans about all kind of things!

Here's to looking professional, rocking an interview, landing the job, and being a semi-adult :)

Have a great (short) week!

Sickness = no fun

I have spent the entire day in bed sleeping. Not because I am still catching up, but because I have been sick almost the entire day. I don't really know what it is that I'm sick with, I had a fever that broke and my chest hurts terribly. But instead of boring everyone with the pity party, I just wanted to challenge everyone to participate in a fun little project with me and my friends at A Grimm Tale called the photo swap. Last weeks post was a lot of fun for me, as it's my first time to participate in something across blogs! I'm also anxious to see what this next week's photo swap brings, as I'm sure many people will include holiday-fun photos!

For now, I'm going to watch my Gossip Girl and enjoy my home-made hot chocolate that my mommy made me :D (The hot chocolate is very yummy!)

If you see my tweets on the left hand side of the page, you might notice that I had tweeted about wanting to change things up with my blog. I think I've decided to do something a little similar to this photo for my banner:

However, I've got a couple ideas to make this photo more my own. I feel like it ties into what it is that I feel about my blog...searching for the beauty in things, but maintaining that everything can be seen as beautiful. I'm going to play around with it for now!

bloggers, I'm afraid I'm stuck in a horrible rut.

Ok, so I know that I don't have many followers so I'm hoping to get some random stumbles for this one. During finals week, I typically like to have a book to read for pleasure to help me keep my wits about me. I love reading for pleasure, and a lot of times this little mental escape at the end of the day just before I fall asleep is what calms me down and quiets my mental static. However, being the creature of habit that I am, I find it difficult to just pick up a random book without first hearing others' opinions on them. Currently, I am reading this book for my book report/final project in my Human Sexuality class:

Now, this book was very interesting, but it was slightly redundant in the information. I mean, how many times can an author say that girls mature so much faster than they did in the 1700's? Anyways, finals week is in two weeks, and I am afraid that if I don't find a new book that is something other than out of this series,:

this series,:or this series:

then I might possibly go stark raving mad. So I am begging you bloggers, please save my from my pre-teen novel misery and give me something that I might possibly enjoy reading during my mental health breaks. Not saying that I don't thoroughly enjoy all three of these series, but there are only so many times I can read each of these books without looking like an obsessed freak.

Another thing that I would LOVE for you to help me out with is finding where I can update my blog layout! The template I have on it now is a nice change from the boring black I had before, but I want to expand my blogging look even more. I may not have the time to completely update the layout now, but I'm open to new suggestions to tinker with it over the upcoming Christmas break.

To my fellow bloggers, I hope you have a fantastic weekend! Sit back, curl up on the couch, pop in my personal favorite Christmas movie (seen below), have a cup of hot tea (/hot cocoa/hot coffee), and ENJOY THE WEEKEND! I will try to update some more this weekend, but again, I can't really guarantee much because I will be going to the Big XII Championship tomorrow evening to watch my SOONERS take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers for what will most likely be the last Big XII Championship in history. BOOMER SOONER!

And again, pop in this favorite Christmas movie of mine and think of me when you do!: