The Final One

Guys! We did it! I can't believe we made it to the end of this ridiculous awesome challenge to blog everyday in July.

Today is the last day of July, and the last day of this challenge (unless you're vlogging with us tomorrow for the bonus accent day (which you obviously should)). I'd like to thank each and every one of you you individually, but who are we kidding - ain't nobody got time fo dat. But seriously, thanks to everyone who participated this month - whether it was every day, most days, some days, or even just one day - we appreciate it. Also, a HUGE thanks to two of my blog best friends - Allie and Juliette for doing this crazy challenge with me.

Anyway, lets get on with it. Blogging is hard (#twss - there better be a lot of these today). I'm just going to share a couple... a few... a handful of the reasons why I think that blogging is difficult HARD.

Things to talk about - this, right here, is exactly why I've been struggling with blogging this year. I used to share all kinds of thoughts about weight loss and working out, or awful dating stories, embarrassing situations I'd get myself into frequently... but some of these things don't apply to me anymore, and I get stuck on WHAT THE HECK to blog about. I don't want to ramble e'ryday... but look, I'm doing that right now anyway. Ha.

Life - since I started dating Justin, I've had a lot less time for blogging. I'm not the type of blogger who can write from work (and even if I could, it has been SO BUSY this year) and have to make time to blog the night before my posts go live. It can be a struggle, but if I can do it EVERY day for the month of July, I'm going to do my best to go back to blogging 3-4x per week from now on.

I'm boring - I really think that my life is boring most of the time. I think of weird/awkward/should-be-embarrassing things that happen to me, and then I forget about it and end up blogging about all the things and stuff that nobody wants to read about. #struggle

I'm lazy - sometimes I'm just tired, and I'd rather come home from work and crawl into bed and take a 15 minute power nap than draft a blog post. Or sometimes I want to just browse Pinterest and look at all the things I'll never own/bake/wear in my entire life, and play pretend and make believe for like 2 um 3 uhh 4... okay 5+ hours. Don't you judge me.

Point #4 was accurate, I was too lazy to even come up with a 5th reason that blogging is hard. The struggle is real, friends.

Anyway, despite the hardness (ha #twss) of blogging everyday in July, I'm so happy that I stuck with it and that a lot of you pretty people stuck with it too. Since today is the last "official" day of blogging everyday in July, one of the lovely ladies, Allie @ Reckless has created a link up for everyone to post their social media links so we can all stalk each other keep in touch for the rest of our lives (just kidding, I promise she's not that creepy)... you can find the link up here.

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Even though we don't like rules, every fun thing in life has them. So here are a few of ours:

1. Please only link up a post if it matches with the day's topic.
2. Make sure you either grab the button code and put it in the HTML portion of your post, or link back to at least one of the hosts.
3. Go make some friends. Comments=Love

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#SorryNotSorry

Happy hump day!

For anyone and everyone who wants to link up with us today - it's an easy one. Who doesn't like writing a good #sorrynotsorry post?

I'm Canadian about 142% of the time and apologize for EVERYTHING. So this is my chance to not be sorry for all the things that I'll probably be sorry for again tomorrow. Did that even make sense? Probably not. Oh well.

• Sorry not sorry that I ate a spoonful of Justin's ice cream that he left in my freezer.
  But I am sorry that I didn't take a lactose pill and it gave me the shits an upset stomach.
  
  
• Sorry not sorry that I like to listen to a song on repeat.
  
  
• Sorry not sorry that I like to take sing breaks at work and go to the washroom for the soul person of singing.
  Sometimes I pee, but mainly I go for the sole purpose of singing.
  
  
• Sorry not sorry that I'm still mad that Charlie Hunnam isn't Christian Grey.
  
  
• Sorry not sorry that I want to eat pizza and pasta all day every day...
  Don't worry, I don't. But I would if I could.
  
  
• Sorry not sorry if I only have 2.5 days of work left before vacation and I can't focus on anything else.
  
  
• Juliette, I'm sorry not sorry I laughed at you that time you got diarrhea at Barnes & Nobles.
  But I'm sorry for bringing it up again now...
  
  
• Sorry not sorry that I love diet coke more than I love most a handful of people.
  
  
• Sorry not sorry that mini kitkat bars are like crack to me.
  
  
• Sorry not sorry that I couldn't think of a 10th thing to think about.
  
  

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Even though we don't like rules, every fun thing in life has them. So here are a few of ours:

1. Please only link up a post if it matches with the day's topic.
2. Make sure you either grab the button code and put it in the HTML portion of your post, or link back to at least one of the hosts.
3. Go make some friends. Comments=Love

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All About You Me

Well well well, today is All About You... aka "All about me" aka I need to talk about myself aka this is hard (#TWSS).
Happy Tuesday, I'm already off to a great rambling start.

1. My organizational skills - especially at work. I have a lot of OCD type tendencies about how I do everything, but I'm efficient and get everything done everyday. Plus, who doesn't love colour coded and alphabetized file folders? No? Not you?

2. My compassion, love, and friendship - I have a big heart and share it, especially with the people I love. I tend to put people before myself (which I guess could be a problem) but I like to do things for other people.

3. My eyes and my lips - this is probably a weird one to say, but I like my eyes and my lips. My grandmother always told me I had the most beautiful eyes and looking into them was like 'looking into my soul'. She also told me that she was always envious of my lips because they're big and full... and this is the most awkward thing I've ever put on this blog. Next point..

4. My photography skills - I love having an artistic side and being able to express that through using a camera as a creative outlet. Plus I think I'm better than the average bear pretty good at it.

5. My focus and drive - whenever I put my mind to something, I don't stop until it's done and I've accomplished my goals.

Despite how hard it is to sit down and think of a list of 5 things that you love about yourself, and despite how hard it is to sit down and write 5 reasons why you're 'awesome', I think these kinds of posts are a great way to not allow your mind to be controlled solely by negative thoughts. It is so easy to think 'wow, I suck at that' or even 'I'm not as pretty as her' on a daily basis... but it isn't easy to think 'my hair is really pretty' or 'I am proud of my body', etc.

Try to let push those negative thoughts out of your mind and focus on the positive parts of your life - whether it's your personality, physical appearance, habits you have, or your intelligence, just focus on those positives! Link up with us and share 5 things that you love about yourself.

There's only two more days left of the blog everyday in July challenge - I can't believe it! Well, we didn't want to leave Friday out, so we've come up with one more blogging topic and added a new host to finish out the week. That first part was a lie. We are borrowing the idea from Kay. But that second part was true, because now Lindsay is joining us for:

<div align="center"><a href="http://causeyougottahavefaithy.blogspot.com" title="Cause You Gotta Have Faith"><img src="http://i1321.photobucket.com/albums/u554/toatsblog/accentvlogaflj_zps2c04cbc0.png" alt="Cause You Gotta Have Faith" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Alright, so now here's the fun part... we want you to film a vlog? uhhh take a vlog? VLOG yourself (ha) answering these questions (that I'll share below). So lets recap...
Step 1: cut a hole in a box vlog yourself saying these things (below).
Step 2: Upload it to your blog.
Step 3: Link up with us on August 1st to laugh at everyone else's hilarious accents. Win-Win-Wiiiiin. All the Friday wins. You're so welcome.

1. Your Name
2. Where you're from.
3. Pronounce the following words: Aunt, Roof, Route, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Pajamas, Caught, Naturally, Aluminum, Crackerjack, Doorknob, Envelope
4. What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
5. What is a bubbly carbonated drink called?
6. What do you call gym shoes?
7. What do you call your grandparents?
8. What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
9. What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
10. What is the bug that when you touch it, it rolls into a ball? How about the one that lights up at night?
11. What do you say to address a group of people?
12. Do you speak any other languages? If so, say something in that language(s).
13. Do you think you have an accent?
14. End by saying any 3 words you want.


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Even though we don't like rules, every fun thing in life has them. So here are a few of ours:

1. Please only link up a post if it matches with the day's topic.
2. Make sure you either grab the button code and put it in the HTML portion of your post, or link back to at least one of the hosts.
3. Go make some friends. Comments=Love

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Three Pictures

Photo of anything:

I chose a picture of a place that is near and dear to my heart - Halifax. I will be home for a visit in less than a week and I'm so excited. I took this picture in 2010 and it's one of my favourite pictures that I've ever taken. I have it blown up and printed on a canvas in my bedroom. It always helps me to feel a little less homesick when I'm missing the East Coast.



Photo I've taken:

This picture of Amanda is another one of my favourite pictures I've ever taken. Honestly, it was hard to pick just three pictures for this post because I've probably done 20 photo shoots with just Amanda. Not to mention all of the weddings, engagements, and various photo-shoots that I've done throughout my photography career. The window reflections are what make this picture stand out to me - I love the added textures and dimensions... plus Amanda looks beautiful.



Selfie:

This is probably my favourite selfie that I've taken of myself, at least that I can think of off the top of my head. Plus, it's black and white and I chose black and whites for the other two pictures, and my OCD is happy if I keep everything in unison... so I'm just letting that happen.



Happy Monday, folks.
That's all I've got for today. Thanks for sticking with us throughout this month of blogging everyday! We are almost there - only a few more days. Wa-hoo!!

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Even though we don't like rules, every fun thing in life has them. So here are a few of ours:

1. Please only link up a post if it matches with the day's topic.
2. Make sure you either grab the button code and put it in the HTML portion of your post, or link back to at least one of the hosts.
3. Go make some friends. Comments=Love

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Pondering Pete

So since today is all about interviewing somebody, I chose to interview my dad (Peter) because he hasn't made an appearance in a while...

For the record, my dad is currently at my family's 'cottage' (aka in our trailer/RV that has been in the same location all of my life). He sent me this picture before I called him to interview him, just so I could see where he was being 'interviewed' from...

Peter lives a really rough life (as you can see)

What's your hidden talent?
Dad: I don't have any hidden talents... I make sure my talents are visible and I use them...
Faith: is that really what you want to say?
Dad: *laughs* yes, I've learned to expose them, because they're no good to me or anyone else if they're hidden...

What's your favorite TV show? 
Dad: I'm going to have to give you more than one answer... can I do that?
Faith: Maybe
Dad: Okay, well form the 1960's, it's the Dick Van Dyke show, and from the 70's it's MASH
Faith: Great, are we doing this by the decade?
Dad: *laughs* should I stop there?
Faith: Your choice
 Dad: okay well after that, in no particular order... LA Law, West wing, Breaking Bad
Dad: Oh!! Oh oh oh, I can't believe I forgot... at the end of this can you please say 'and of course, the most important is Star Trek: the original series.
Faith: Okay dad... do you know I'm writing every word you're saying?
Dad: Ugh stop that.

Name someone you admire.
Dad: My grade 5 teacher Mr. Leech
*pause while I type this*
Dad: Don't you want to know why?
Faith: Nope

Who is Canada's current Prime Minister?
Dad: Stephen Harper *laughs* why are you asking this question?
Faith: Because none of my American friends know the answer.

Do you prefer cake or pie?
Dad: PIE - no question, hands down - PIE. Do not ask me this question again.
Faith: you're pretty serious about that answer, dad.

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Dad: TOAST, hands down, no question... come on Faith.. you should know this answer

What's your favourite memory of (or with) me?
Dad: hmmmmmmm.... I have a whole bunch of them. But probably, in the top 2 or 3 would be when we had breakfast with Minnie.
*pause while I type*
Dad: You were like 4 or 5 and it was a once in a lifetime kind of memory... too bad you weren't there to remember it.
Faith: Ha, I was there...
Dad: Yeah but you don't remember. It was so hilarious because neither your mom or I had any idea that you had such a crush on Minnie Mouse and that you wanted to meet her so badly.
*Side note, apparently I lost my mind when Minnie walked through the door and I got my first glimpse at her. I sat there constantly fixing my hair and asking if I looked pretty for Minnie... hahahaha*

Quote a movie, any movie, right now. 
Dad: Uhhhhhhh.... the quote will be... uhhhh... 'I told you I'd promise you fireworks, didn't I?'
......
Dad: Do you know the movie?
Faith: Nope
Dad: It's the final scene from Independence Day. Why the heck did this just come into my head?
Faith: I don't know... can I ask the next question?
.......
Did the last question give you a little bit of anxiety?
Dad: Uh no, but it was really weird that THAT movie and quote would come to my head right away?
.......
Dad: p.s. I never have anxiety
Faith: well okay then...
Dad: p.s. your mom is answering all of these questions over here
Faith: what is she saying?
Dad: I can't hear her, she's mumbling.

Name something inappropriate you always laugh at.
*mom giggling in the background* *now dad is laughing hysterically*
Faith: what are you people laughing at?
Dad: *laughs a lot* when you see videos of animals getting hurt
Faith: Dad that's so inappropriate
Dad: isn't this the point? *laughs* like the video of a dog falling off of something, or a cat falling? Or a cat being swung around by its tail?
Faith: wow...
Dad *continues laughing*
Faith: You are a sick man
Dad: you asked the question... I'm sorry....
Faith: Stop being Canadian. I love you.

Faith: Guess what?
Dad: What?
Faith: The interview is now over
Dad: Well that was easy... did I win?


Never a dull moment with my family, I tell you...
Happy Sunday everyone. I hope you're enjoying the last day of the weekend. Go ahead and interview someone and link up with us!

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Even though we don't like rules, every fun thing in life has them. So here are a few of ours:

1. Please only link up a post if it matches with the day's topic.
2. Make sure you either grab the button code and put it in the HTML portion of your post, or link back to at least one of the hosts.
3. Go make some friends. Comments=Love

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1.	Faith @ Cause You Gotta Have Faith	5.	Kathleen @ Life with Red	9.	Jaz @ Le Haute Jaz
2.	Allie @ Allieology	6.	thepaulhagan @ i lost my url	10.	Kristen@ the miscellaneous mom
3.	Juliette @ The Other Juliette	7.	Brianna @ Life with my Best Friend	11.	Brandi @ Raising Kid Clammy
4.	Interview with @thepaulhagan on [life of love]	8.	Kirsty@ My life and other such disasters

(Submissions close in 6d 13h 22m)

URL:	(URL of your blog post)
Name:
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	Trouble linking up? Try here

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1.	Faith @ Cause You Gotta Have Faith	5.	Kathleen @ Life with Red	9.	Jaz @ Le Haute Jaz
2.	Allie @ Allieology	6.	thepaulhagan @ i lost my url	10.	Kristen@ the miscellaneous mom
3.	Juliette @ The Other Juliette	7.	Brianna @ Life with my Best Friend	11.	Brandi @ Raising Kid Clammy
4.	Interview with @thepaulhagan on [life of love]	8.	Kirsty@ My life and other such disasters

(Submissions close in 6d 13h 22m)

URL:	(URL of your blog post)
Name:
Email:	(Not visible)
	Trouble linking up? Try here

powered by InLinkz

1.	Faith @ Cause You Gotta Have Faith	5.	Kathleen @ Life with Red	9.	Jaz @ Le Haute Jaz
2.	Allie @ Allieology	6.	thepaulhagan @ i lost my url	10.	Kristen@ the miscellaneous mom
3.	Juliette @ The Other Juliette	7.	Brianna @ Life with my Best Friend	11.	Brandi @ Raising Kid Clammy
4.	Interview with @thepaulhagan on [life of love]	8.	Kirsty@ My life and other such disasters

(Submissions close in 6d 13h 23m)

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Name:
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Photo An Hour...

Happy Saturday, and thanks to anyone who is showing up to the party today.
I decided to do my 'photo an hour' yesterday... and I kind of failed. I definitely didn't take a picture every single hour (oops) but I still documented the whole day. Just sometimes the pics might have been 2 hours apart or 30 mins apart.

6:45am..

Attempting to finish my hair/make-up and get out the door.

7:45am..

My favourite breakfast - I eat this almost every day.

9:45am..

Saying goodbye to my favourite barista and scoring a free coffee = Friday win.

12:00pm..

Yummmmmmmmm

1:35pm..

Hi, smarties.

3:45pm..

Time for a little happy hour action.

4:30pm..

My favourite colleagues get off work and join happy hour.

5:30pm..

We were told to do this, so we did...

5:45pm..

6:30pm..

Happy hour ended, so we walk to a new bar... and find a piano in the park.

7:00pm..

Beer me.

7:30pm..

Selfies at the new bar, obviously

7:35pm..

Who likes to be serious?

8:30pm..

12:00am..

I need sleep

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Even though we don't like rules, every fun thing in life has them. So here are a few of ours:

1. Please only link up a post if it matches with the day's topic.
2. Make sure you either grab the button code and put it in the HTML portion of your post, or link back to at least one of the hosts.
3. Go make some friends. Comments=Love

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How I Waste My Time

Apps - they're a wonderful thing. They can connect you to the 'outside' world, they can help you communicate and stay in touch with friends that live around the world, they can keep you entertained while you're at a doctor's office, or on public transit... they're awesome, and overall very useful. Today's prompt is all about sharing my 5 favourite apps with you lovely people. For the record, I'm an iPhone user - not an android or blackberry user, so I'm not sure if these apps are available on other mobile devices.

On a daily basis I use the standard apps - instagram, twitter, facebook, and facebook messenger... but basically everyone knows about those, so lets just bypass those ones, okay? Instead I'm going to share my favourite game, favourite photo editor, favourite e-mail app, favourite communication/chatting app, and favourite running app.

Two Dots

This stupid addicting app is awesome. I downloaded it out of boredom when I got sick of beating 2048, and I cannot stop playing. It has sucked up FAR too much of my time while I'm on the train, waiting in line at a coffee shop, on the toilet or while I'm laying in bed. Great, now I want to go play it.

 Pic Tap Go  

This is, hands down, the best photo editing app that I've ever used. I have a few other apps if I want a different look, but this is what I edit 99.9% of my pictures with. Bonus: you can post full pictures to instagram instead of having a cropped square picture.

  

Gmail

The gmail app is my favourite email app. I can't stand the generic 'mail' that comes installed on iPhones and iPads. I've tried a few other "e-mail apps" and they've all sucked the big one... this one is user friendly, clean looking, and runs smoothly. No complaints on this one.

Google Hangouts

Favourite 'chat' app. Mainly because I used "gchat" aka google hangouts all day, everyday. So having it on my phone is easy and convenient. I use this to chat with my boyfriend, best friend/roommate, best blog friends, and friends/family back home... every day. It's easy to use, links to your gmail account and makes chatting/texting a whole lot easier. If you're a gchat user, you should have this on your phone too - it comes in handy, I promise.

 

Run Keeper

I've used a few different running apps over the past year and this is the best one I've found so far. It's user-friendly, looks clean (I hate messy-looking apps, hi there OCD), and is pretty accurate with it GPS tracking. I've used this for probably a few dozen runs and I find it great for helping to motivate me to run (or walk) further. Also, it has a little 'reminder' in the app to alert you if you've gone too long without working out. Yeah, the little alert is kind of rude "hey fatty, time to go for a run", but it's also good for motivating me to get my butt moving, or something...


Anyway, those are my favourite apps - comment and tell me some of yours! I'm always looking for new things to check out.

This GIF literally serves no purpose and contributes nothing to this post, but I think it's hilarious and felt like it needed to be shared. Happpppy Friday.

A friendly reminder if you're linking up with us tomorrow - tomorrow is "a day in the life" type post. We want you to share a picture from each hour of your day - so you should probably document your day today so you can post about it tomorrow!

Also, Sunday's prompt is "interview someone". Here are the 10 questions that we'd like you to ask someone,  anyone, your dog, a stranger on the street... the funnier, the better... in my opinion anyway.

What's your hidden talent?

What's your favorite TV show?

Name someone you admire.

Who is Canada's current Prime Minister?

Do you prefer cake or pie?

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

What's your favourite memory of (or with) me?

Quote a movie, any movie, right now.

Did the last question give you a little bit of anxiety?

Name something inappropriate you always laugh at.

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Even though we don't like rules, every fun thing in life has them. So here are a few of ours:

1. Please only link up a post if it matches with the day's topic.
2. Make sure you either grab the button code and put it in the HTML portion of your post, or link back to at least one of the hosts.
3. Go make some friends. Comments=Love

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