Why didn't anyone tell me that?

There were a few pieces of information that people failed to tell me my freshman year in college..

1) You don't HAVE to take 8 am classes. Just because you've started school at 8 am your whole life, doesn't mean that you still have to.

2) You don't always have to look presentable anymore.. but lets be honest, I'll judge you if you do it everyday

3) Whatever you do, DON'T BUY TEXTBOOKS!
I spent the first 2 years of college paying and ungodly amount of money buying text books I didn't even read only to sell it back at the end of the semester for next to  nothing. Seriously, one year I sold back an armful of textbooks and received $5 and a small, plastic water gun in return. You can't make this stuff up, people! After a year the book already has a new version, and the bookstore won't even buy it back! Side note: Billy's grandpa is actually has published a college textbook used at universities nationwide, and this even bugs the crap out of him! He's getting paid for it, and still thinks it's wrong!

My Junior year in college was about when renting textbooks actually became feasible. The first two years it was really not worth the effort, to rent and return them. By then, the campus book store offered it as an in house service. {Queue the Hallelujah Chorus!}

If you've never heard of renting text books before, it's not as sketchy or risky as it could initially sound. Take Campus Book Rentals, for example. My favorite part about renting textbooks is the price. I INSTANTLY saw savings.. I could rent a book for 40-90% of the cost of buying it. I could treat it as if it were my own--I could write in it and I could keep it until I no longer needed it. Then I could ship it back for free at the end of the semester! Selling my textbooks back to the school's book store got me nothing, and selling them back online didn't make enough money to justify NOT renting textbooks.

Another great thing about Campus Book Rentals is that, with every textbook rented, they donate to Operation Smile, an international charity that provides medical services to children born with cleft palates or lips in 60 countries around the world. Finally, something good about textbooks!

So back to all those old textbooks I have stacked up underneath my bed to this day and all those I have since sold off.. I wish I had known in college that I could rent out to others instead of selling them! Well, at Rent Back, you can! This is news to me, who knew!? For instance I sold my programming book that I bought for $200 back for about $40-50. I could have rented out to others and gotten $100-200! That would have actually helped me break even on my books, which is more like it!

Now that I have gotten so excited about being able to rent my textbooks back, I'm going to say Ta-DA! and wrap this up. I can't resist anymore, I've got to go pull those old books out and get to turning dust collectors into cash!

Amanda and Tyler's Wedding Recap

As all of you were well aware, my college roommate and one of my best friend's got married last weekend! I didn't get to update sooner as I was detoxing myself from technology, but there's no time like the present!

Friday I picked up my dear friend Denise and we drove to the homeland to begin our weekend of wedding festivities! A few of the girls came over to my parents house and we finished a few last second crafts for the wedding like these cute cans to tie to the back of their car as they left from the reception.. except I was silly and forgot to actually take pictures of our look-alikes! so tadaaaa

After we finished crafting we jetted over to the church for rehearsal followed by a fabulous dinner downtown at the coffee shop. I was so excited to see everyone again. Let me tell you, this couple has some of the FUNNIEST friends and family. We were laughing the entire night! After dinner, everyone went over to the country club, which was where they were going to be holding their reception and to help decorate for the next day. Well, the girls decorated, the boys performed quality control over the bar to make sure that it was going to be suitable for the party the following night. Figures.

As gifts from Amanda, she gave us these adorable monogramed pocket shirts and sandals to wear at the reception

Saturday was the big day! We woke up bright and early to head over to Amanda's aunt and uncle's house on Lake Hartwell for a delicious home cooked wedding day brunch! You could not have asked for a prettier location or better weather!

Billy, myself, and Blake who is pretty much a brother to me. I can't describe what he and his family mean to me.

 Us with Amanda's crazy aunts. I've known them since I was a squirt! 

One of my favorite pictures from the morning. Tyler and Amanda's dad having a last second heart to heart. 

After brunch, we all went and got ourselves ready for Amanda and Tyler to start their forever together. Here are a few pictures from the precious ceremony and their absolutely adorable reception. She made such a beautiful bride! I love the way Tyler looked at her all day. I am so glad they are so happy together and that their day was as perfect as it could be for them. I had a blast and was so excited to be a part of such a special, sentimental part of them starting their lives together.

These two goofballs make my heart so happy

Some of us with my Godmother, Mama Dee

Leaving for their honeymoon in their favorite city, Las Vegas!

Stephanie Hicks did SUCH a fabulous job caputuring their special day! I highly recommend her to anyone in the Athens or Atlanta Area!

The story behind my blog name

In case you missed me saying this before, I've had a blog (a different one) for quite sometime now. However, it was more of a personal journal, REAL personal, and more of a middle school diary sort of thing. As I've gotten older, I've found it has turned more into a scrapbook worth sharing, if you will. A few months ago, I got into a better habit of updating regularly and not just when I wanted to sulk about boy troubles.. but that's not the point of this post!

When I started to take things more serious, I decided to give myself a zazzy little name like all the cool kids do. I sat around one night trying to think of a short little snippet that described me and the type of theme/blog I envisioned my little corner of the blog-osphere to be.

The one name that I came up with that fit was, Barefoot Bluejean Princess. I'm far from a princess, but when used in the proper context, it does describe me to a T. Which leads to the back story..

Flashback: In high school I went to a hurricane Katrina benefit show that was being held in my hometown. Corey Smith was headlining. This was back when Corey Smith was just becoming cool around here. There was this other guy who opened for him, we thought his name was Bradley. I fell in love with everything about him--his ora, his voice, his covers, his originals. He engulfed my attention and I was hooked. I told the friend I went with that he was going to be a big deal one day. Boy, if only I knew how right I was going to be..

He was such a baby then! Like 20!  Pre-BHM

Well, I ended up befriending this guy and figuring out his real name is Brantley a few years later when his media coordinator contacting me asking me if I'd intern with her. This is where my love for the music business began. I spent all of my college years working with specifically him watching him get his career off the ground (and also some other artists in our area), learning the business, and having the absolute time of my  life.

The night we were reintroduced, circa 2008.

B gets signed. B get's ready to release his first album that goes straight to stores (his first one was just re-released to stores). It was down to the wire for deciding what tracks made the cut for the album.. There was only room for so few, and there were too many wonderful options. Because, let me tell you, this guy is a machine when it comes to writing phenomenal songs.

I remember sitting in his house that night on that big leather couch late into the night making my case about a song and how I thought it was the one that needed to be out there and heard. After the first time I heard this song, it was stuck in my head for weeks, and I knew it had that something about it that made it worthy of sharing. He wasn't having it. I and the media coordinator both agreed, this one THE song. The night wound down, and it was in his hands to make the final say, and regardless, he knows what ultimately best for him and has done a great job choosing before. 

Not long after, I got a call from them saying, he choose the song we advocated for, "Back in the Day." Truth be told, I think it was because Lyn wanted it moreso than because of me. 

The opening line from the song was the one that I most remembered, which later inspired the name of my blog: 

Mamma, she's still got that picture of me and Katie on homecomin' night. She looked pretty in that fancy dress, but that girl was a barefoot blue jean princess

The girl could dress up, but she was most comfortable and just as memorable and in her jeans and tshirt. That's me for you.. It stuck, it was catchy then, and it was still catchy when I was trying to decide on a blog name.

Here's the rest of the song in case you've never heard it. It's easily one of my favorites that he has written, even though I feel like everything he writes is my favorite too ;). Call me biased, but he is easily one of the greatest writers out there right now, or at least my favorite.

I know you love it.. or at least you can pretend you do.

So not really a quick story, but it's definitely all of the background information you might need to know of where this title originated from and why I chose it.