A Giveaway!

The ol' bliggity blog has grown a ton over these past few months, so I thought it would be fun to do a little giveaway in honor of reaching 500 followers. I want to bless my readers and blogging friends with a little Scripture to grace the walls of your home.

I've teamed up with Jessi of Naptime Diaries to offer you these Scripture prints today! Jessi is one of my favorite bloggers because of the grace and love that constantly flows through her and her writing, and she has an awesome shop filled with Scripture prints that you can find here.

Today, I have three prints up for grabs, and I'll pick three different winners! All you have to do to enter is pick out your favorite print below and tell us why it's your favorite or what you would do with it if you won. {It's okay to say you will quickly be putting it up in your own home, because that's what I'm surely doing with a couple of Naptime Diaries prints myself... but if you are going to give it as a gift, that would be fun to know too!}

Africa Continent Print

Child Print

Thankful Print

P.S. These don't actually say "naptimediaries.com" or "Africa" on them and their quality is much better than my photography skills can convey. All prints are on heavy 8x10 card stock in max dpi.

For extra entries, you can:

1) Follow The Arizona Russums via GFC

2) Follow The Arizona Russums via Bloglovin'

3) Follow the Naptime Diaries blog via GFC

4) Like the Naptime Diaries shop on Etsy {or favorite one of Jessi's prints}

That's five chances to win! Love y'all. Hope these prints bless you as much as you bless me!


*P.S. If you are trying to grow your blog, please click here for a new opportunity.*

Sponsor Lovin'

Happy Memorial Day friends!


While I wrap up this holiday weekend reading Real Simple by the pool in my backyard {true story}, I'd love for you to take the time to meet the two lovely ladies below. Check out their fun little profiles and then head over to their blogs to say HI!


Meet Susan. She's a lovely blond, a northerner turned southerner like myself, and an aspiring photographer. She just shot her first wedding, but it looked like it was her 100th wedding, because she is just so dang talented!

Locale: Virginia!
Blog: Suzels Says

What are you most looking forward to this summer?

Not looking like a ghost anymore and finally getting my summer tan on. JK (kind of). Growing and learning more about photography. I'm trying to start up my wedding photography business and can't wait to get some more weddings under my belt. Get my website up and running, and maybe even book a wedding or two! 

* * * * *

Meet Traci. She is honest, vibrant and fun. AND she lives in a tiny town in Connecticut, which I like to pretend is Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls in my head... But even if you won't see pictures of Lorelai and Rory on her blog, you WILL see pictures of her adorable little son!

Locale: Northwest Connecticut

Blog: Nonsense Things

Facebook: Nonsense Things

What are you most looking forward to this summer?

    Everything! All the typical summer fun =D Now that my son is almost two, I'm looking forward to doing all the things he was just too little to do last year like swimming, hiking, exploring, learning and beach days. Hopefully a lot of beach days. We are also house hunting so hopefully we will be buying a house too. It's looking like an exciting summer for us!  =)

Hope y'all had an amazing holiday weekend!

P.S. I am going to be taking on a few extra sponsors over the summer. If you are trying to grow your blog, click here for more information.

Flowers Fade Friday: #shereadstruth

So if you are a blogger and you've spent any time on social media this week, you may have noticed the hashtags #souldetox and #shereadstruth circulating. Basically, two lovely bloggers decided to go through a Bible reading plan and devotional together and invited many women of the blogging community to join them. The response was explosive.

You can read more about it here and here, but basically there is a devotional based off the book Soul Detox that can be found on the You Version Bible app on your phone. Women around the country are now reading it simultaneously and tweeting and instagram-ing what they are learning. It's quickly evolved into a bigger spiritual sisterhood than anyone probably ever imagined.

And I'm in.

It took me a while to be honest. I started following what was happening on day 2 or 3, and thought "Should I do this?" And then the excuses started... "But I'm late getting started and I hate being behind on things and I am already doing a Bible reading plan so I don't really need to do another one." Blah. Blah. Blah. But the more tweets I read {the newest pipeline of encouragement, obviously}, the more I was intrigued and the more I felt the Spirit tugging on my heart to get over the structure that I all too often let rule my life and join in the game. And I finally obeyed. On day 7. And now I am playing catch up.

And I'm so glad I am.

It's been such a blessing. The biggest burst of encouragement and conviction in my Bible reading for a long time. God's word breathing truth into me daily. Teaching me to take my thoughts captive and seek beauty and excellence in my life instead of dwelling on the sinful, negative thoughts that too often consume me.

I was going to actually expand on what I'm learning in this post... but clearly it got away from me... and all I want to say now is... my soul is refreshed. My mind is being renewed daily. And thank you to you ladies who boarded the #souldetox train and convinced me to jump on too.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, 

and take every thought captive to obey Christ...

II Corinthians 10:5

*Linking up with Casey Leigh*

San Diego.

As I mentioned last week, I headed over to San Diego this weekend to spend time with two of my favorite friends. My old roommate, Bekah, relocated to SD for grad school last summer and my best friend {since 4th grade} decided to fly down for her birthday. Since San Diego is a six hour jaunt from Phoenix, I drove over for the weekend as well.

It was glorious. We could have been some place boring and ugly with horrible weather and the weekend still would have been great with these two friends, but we were in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Seriously, is there anyone in the world that dislikes San Diego? I'm sure the answer is no.

From hitting up a speak easy on Friday night after Sarah flew in to bike rides around Coronado Island to free coffee at Balboa Park before church on Sunday, the whole weekend was absolutely wonderful.

I love my friends.

I love San Diego.

The end.

{Except for the pictures of course...}

1. Bekah lives right in OB.

2. Listening to Bekah play the piano.

3. Off to the speak easy.

4. Breakfast on the patio

5. Dinner on the patio under the lights.

6. Bekah's roommate is queen of succulents. Obsessed.

Bike ride around Coronado. Best place in United States in my opinion. And we found an awesome lemonade stand. Young, female entrepreneurs.

We went to Balboa Park before church on Sunday. We stopped by a coffee cart and all three of us were treated to free coffee for Bekah's birthday. Thanks for being born, Bekah!

Love you, girls. Love San Diego. Let's plan our next trip ASAP.

*Linking up with Finding Beauty in the Ordinary.

30 for 30 {week three!}

It's hard to believe that 30 for 30 is almost over. I didn't add many new things to the mix this week and I am only at 21 items so far. If you want to read about the shopping fast that prompted this little experiment, read here and here.

Here are my thoughts on week three...

It is very easy to pack for a weekend trip when doing 30 for 30. You grab 5-10 of your items for the month and put them in a suitcase and you are done. You don't even have to think about it.

Well, I didn't think about it. But I probably should have given it a little more brain power, because although I brought a dress, my romper, shorts and a couple of tops, I completely forgot any and all accessories other than the hat and bracelets that I was wearing on the day I traveled. When you have worn the same 20ish pieces of clothing for three straight weeks, accessories are essential.... I must remember that next time. And I must remember that California is cold and sweats are a necessity.

On a better note, I have started getting extra creative with my items by layering in unexpected ways. Seriously, if I always put this much creativity into my outfits, I could probably go a whole year without wearing the same outfit twice.

Exhibit A:

Meet my new romper, my giant elephant necklace and my new beach cruiser.

Exhibit B:

Cotton dress rolled down and worn as skirt over romper as blouse with belt. Complicated. Cute.

I taught high school the day I wore this outfit and got a compliment every single class period.

It was very difficult to go to the bathroom.

That is all.

*Linking up with The Pleated Poppy and 5 Days, 5 Ways*