Today is a special day at My Arkansas Heart! It is our one year blogiversary!  It is hard to believe that it has been one single year since this whole escapade began.

And boy has it been an exciting one!  We’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing for all of you and sharing our slice of Arkansas life with the Interwebs.  In the spirit of nostalgia, here are a few of our favorite posts from the past year:

• Why Life Is Like A Perfectly Round and Fluffy Pancake
• A Wedding Anniversary and a Shop Vac
• Picture Perfect: Purple Coneflower
• Arkansas Snow Phenomena
• Arkansas’s Happy (Birthday) List

But My Arkansas Heart isn’t just about the blog and the writing.  This little website has thrown us into a world that we weren’t quite expecting–the world of web design.  Abby did a little bit of meddling in the code to make My Arkansas Heart look its finest, while Jonelle worked her graphic design magic on a logo and some cute little buttons.  Since then, we’ve worked with some lovely people on redesigning their sites and helping them update their slice of the Internet.  We’ve enjoyed it so much that it has kind of become more than just a fun thing we do on the side.  It’s become a part time gig–and we really love it!

That’s why things are about to change here at My Arkansas Heart.  We’re planning a big, massive, humongous and lovely redesign and update to our own site.  But this means that the blog will be getting updated, too, and possibly moving to new addresses.

It’s all happening so quickly, which is why we haven’t really said a whole lot about it on here.  Or why we haven’t really said a whole lot at all.  We’ve been busy. Heh.

Thank for reading what we’ve had to say and supporting us as we find our dream in this big ol’ world.  This isn’t the last you’ll hear of us, we can promise you that.  We hope you’ll buckle up and join us for the ride.

–Jonelle & Abby

Jonelle and I have been busy bees.

The truth is that a lot of things have happened this summer.  We’re approaching “The Moment” for My Arkansas Heart.  But we’ll tell you more about that later this week.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some of the things that I have done (or been a part of) this summer:

1. Completed two summer classes.  Now I have 18 hours of my graduate degree completed.  Hooray! Only 18 more to go! I also learned how to create an index for a book and use Adobe Premiere to edit a video.  I’m hoping that someday those skills will actually come in handy.

bamboo harvest

2. Harvested the bamboo forest. Look at that pile o’ bamboo.  Heck. This picture doesn’t even show half of it! We can’t believe how huge our backyard is now that the bamboo is gone.  One of the stalks of bamboo was 14 feet tall–I kid you not.  It was monster bamboo.

3.  Looked at our giant pile of bamboo.  I mean, seriously.  What are we supposed to do with this stuff?  Build bicycles? Send it to a zoo for a panda? Build a tiki hut?  We did the hard part of taking it down, now it is just kind of sitting there. I want to make a fence out of it, but I have a feeling it might just end up on the curb on yard waste day.

room we painted

4. Painted our ugly downstairs bonus room.  I don’t have any before pictures of this room, so just let your imagination do the work.  1970′s ish. Wood paneling. Dark, scary basement.  You get the jist.  My next goal is the replace the peel and stick tile floor. (You can see in the picture that I already pulled up some of it…)

refrigerator pickles

5.  Made pickles. As a shout out to my friend and fellow pickle-lover, Amanda, I decided to try and make homemade refrigerator pickles out of some cucumbers I got at the farmer’s market.  They’re starting to look like pickles now, but I haven’t tried eating them yet.  If they are any good, I will report back with the recipe.

frame gallery

6.  Made a picture frame gallery.  I’ve been way too obsessed with this website called Pinterest.  It gave me the bright idea to make a picture frame gallery for our foyer.  So I collected a bunch of frames, spray-painted them all white, and hung them on the wall.  It looks awesome, and I just love it. Now I am on the hunt for the perfect art to fill them.

7. Built a website. Oh yeah! Jonelle and I made this beautiful, wonderful website and online store for a handmade soap company called Erwin Soap Company. The site is amazingly customized with Jonelle’s graphic designs.  It is another masterpiece to add to our list. We are quite proud of our handiwork.

And that is my summer in a nutshell.  A very small, very brief nutshell.  What have you all been up to while we were out?  Any crazy summer projects in your neck of the woods?  How are you beating the heat without going stir crazy?

P.S. We added a +1 button to our site for all of you Google plus-ers to test out! Let us know what you think!

I am always thinking about The Moment. I wonder whether it’s right or wrong, when it will get here, if it’s already passed, how I will know it, and if it will come again. Perhaps most important of all, I’m consistently trying to be present and live in The Moment. I’m still pretty terrible at it, but at least I can recognize it now. One step at a time, right?

While it is my opinion that there is not just One Big Moment—our lives are a compilation of these telling spans of time—I do believe that some are more monumental than others. Births, deaths, and marriages are always really meaningful (in one way or another). Then there are The Moments associated with academic and career accomplishments. And depending on your outlook, Every Moment could be considered meaningful.

Then there are times, if you’re really paying attention, you notice The Moment your life path shifts. Perhaps it veers slightly to the right, but you were starting at the ground or chit-chatting with your trail buddy and didn’t notice. (This is totally fine. You don’t have to notice everything. That would be impossible. But, you are ultimately responsible for the path you’re on. You can’t just passively wander then claim you’ve ended up somewhere unexpected. I digress…) For the first time in my life, I’m here. I’m living it while it’s happening. It is both thrilling and terrifying.

My life path is veering. Really exciting things are happening. No, I’m not going to tell you all about it right now. But I felt it was important for you to know that it is happening.

I hope great things are happening in your life too. Keep an eye on that path.

p.s. Speaking of Moments, today is a big one for Abby. It’s her birthday! Hooray! You’re the best blog/business partner I could ever hope to have, and I’m glad The Universe decided we should have that poetry class together. Have a happy day!

I know what you’re thinking, “A July 4th post over a week late? Surely you jest!”

No, friends. I don’t jest. Better late than never, right!?

My Arkansas Heart has been working super duper hard lately on some very awesome design jobs that we gracefully landed.  There are some fun changes coming to our world, and we’re pretty stoked. Which is a nice and vague way of saying that we’ve been pretty busy.

Anyway, back to my July 4th. I will set the stage.  We took a trip up into the mountains over the Buffalo River and into the North Central/East part of Arkansas to a little house on Bull Shoals Lake.  The views were pretty, the neighbors were nice, but darn if it wasn’t hot.  I mean it was really hot. Like the kind of hot where just thinking about it makes you sweat.  The fun part was that the lake house’s air conditioning was broken. Yep.  We had to kick it old school style. I know, it’s hard to imagine a time without A/C, but there was one (supposedly), and we got to experience it first hand.  It was so hot we couldn’t stay inside.  And the ceiling fans and windows were kind of fickle, so most of us ended up spending two nights sleeping outside on the screened-in porch. The rest of the time was spent floating in the lake or parked under fans. It was one of those character-building experiences, and we built lots of character.  It turned out to be quite a fun adventure.  And we got to play with fire.

It was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a very long time. I’m looking forward to doing it again this weekend with my family because someone is having a birthday.

(Spoiler alert: The birthday is mine! This Sunday, I’m growing to the ripe old age of 24….)

I’ve always been fond of botanical gardens, and have visited several in Arkansas and other states. The Memphis Botanical Garden has always been my favorite. I’ve read three whole books there. Even though Arkansas has several fine botanical gardens, I’ve never seen one that thrills me quite as much as the one in Memphis. (Fond memories often skew our opinions, do they not?) Never until now, that is. I recently visited the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, and I am completely in love with it.

I’ll let the image gallery below do most of the talking, but I will say it will be years before the place reaches its full potential. It’s only been open since 2006. However, I have no doubt it will one day give the best botanical gardens in the country a run for their money. I can already tell this place has soul. Gardens are artfully designed and well tended. Sculptures, seating areas and structures are placed just so through the property and please the eye at every right moment. And best of all, THEY HAVE CHICKENS!!

I would suggest you make plans to visit the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks the next time you’re in the Fayetteville area. It is well worth your time and the few dollars it costs to gain entrance.