Hey y’all I absolutely love this lady and this recipe sounds like it will be loved just as much.
Michelle Farley is a Texan, writer, military advocate, photographer, pie baker, wild rag maker and a Jesus lover. I have not had the honor to meet her in person YET…one day I hope to make that happen.
Please take a few minutes and head over to her website and look around and learn more about her and her beautiful Wild Rags.
Day 7 of my challenge is a get to know me style. I would love for y’all to respond back with 3 of these questions and let me get to know you as well. ♥️
1. My favorite color is____Turquoise.
2. My favorite book is_____ Well I am going to give two answers to this one. The Bible because it is full of God’s love and promises. Then I would have to say any of the Sisterchick books by Robin Gun.
3. My favorite cartoon character is_____ Hmmm this one is not as easy. Okay I am going to go with Spirit the horse. I am not sure if that is considered a cartoon lol.
4. My favorite sport is ____ Rodeo of course.
5. My favorite flavor of cake is____ German Chocolate.
6. If I had to eat one food for the rest of my life what would it be?____ Mexican food
7. I’m really good at ____ encouraging others to pursue their dreams.
8. I love to ____ sit in front of a fire pit early in the mornings or at dusk.
9. The best song to dance to is ____ ROFL I do not dance. I am going to go with Dan Seals song Bop, Rofl. Only song I remember liking the dance moves to. I think it was called the box line dance.
10. If I could be a dinosaur, I would be a ____ Sauropoda
11. ____ is my favorite thing to do ever. Hanging with my kids and grandkids.
12. Everyone thinks it’s funny when I ____try to DANCE ROFL
13. This summer I want to ____ get in shape, lose weight, go hiking, and travel to airbnbs so I can blog about it.
14. The best super power to have would be____ God’s Love flowing out of us. Nothing is more powerful than that.
15. I want to learn how to ____do social media marketing and run a non profit ministry.
16. I wish____I was already doing number 15, because my body is not dealing well with the physical labor on a daily basis.
Okay now it is your turn out there. I love getting to know my readers.
Dream Catcher 3:20
Cassie Gilman
I am beyond blessed to be a part of today’s blog. Huge thank you to Cassie for allowing me to share today. One of the biggest things I know about Cassie is her desire to Dream Big! Dreaming Big is contagious and I want to share my Dream Big story. A little over 3 years ago I headed out on a dream of mine. I have had this love of fashion since I was in high school, I think when I began getting the fashion itch. I wanted a Roxy top, Lucky Jeans and Dr Martins because that’s what the cool kids wore and had. Here is where I insert a huge thank you to my parents because that Christmas that’s what I got. It might have been all I got. I don’t remember but I was so happy. I also desired to model but I lacked the confidence to try and it was always that secret desire stuck in the back of my mind. So now fast forward to January 2015. 2015 found my love for fashion growing and my desire to help and inspire others mixed in with my confidence in who I am and (more importantly) who I am in Christ. I set out on my blogging dreams and started Living In Grace & Style with Hannah Leigh.
It is a little bit of a leap of faith to put yourself out there for the world to see and for them to read your pieces. More like a little scary, but I told myself if I can help one person then it was worth it. Over the past 3 years God truly has blessed me with meeting some incredible people and given me some amazing opportunities. You see when you finally decide to go for your goals and dreams there are a few key elements to help you along the way.
1. Believe in the dream God put in your heart and strive for it each day.
2. Knowing who you are in Christ (this will only continue to grow)
3. Never ever give up.
Some paths are harder than others and things and doubt will try to come up against you. But you have to keep pushing towards your goals and what God put on your heart. Let me show you a little how it worked for me. I did my own blogging thing for about a year and tried to stay consistent and learned as I went. As the NFR came around that year I then began to struggle a little with my confidence. The western fashion blogging/ influencing was really starting to take off and I struggled trying to be me and be different. I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes or have them think I was copying them even if we might have had the same idea. They just acted on it before me. About 3 days in I finally took a chill pill and took it to God instead of trying to fix it myself or continue to feel the poor pitiful me’s. I took a turn for the better and kept doing my thing. About a year and half later I saw a dear friends post about wanting to start a group of bloggers and influencers called The Bleacher Babe Squad. I sent in my request and was elated to be selected along with some pretty amazing other women. I was beyond grateful for the opportunity that Brianna gave all of us. It helped me get out of my shell some and begin to talk to other brands and people. I was then given a huge opportunity to work with Wrangler and Cowgirl magazine on a fun shopping style commercial by the next NFR. I can not even begin to tell you how amazingly fun and what a cool opportunity God blessed me with. See, instead of having the poor pitiful me’s and giving up at the first NFR, I sucked it up and prayed. I gave it to God and continued on the path He laid on my heart. Not only did it bless me, it blessed so many other people as well. They saw a plus size, curvy girl, real size whatever you want to call it girl rocking what she’s got and it inspired them that they can do it too!
See, our dream big goals are not only to bless us but to bless others as well. Our journeys may all be different but, in the end, inspiring others and helping others in my opinion is what it is all about. I am now up to 2 years in and year two was another growth year for me and another huge blessing. I saw another opportunity to be a part of a Style Team that was part of the Boutique Hub. This team got to write blogs and style outfits and collaborate with an amazing amount of boutiques and brands. I was blessed to be selected and a part of this team put together by Ashley Alderson and Jessie Jarvis. It helped me in so many ways by growing and learning more about being a great fashion blogger and influencer. Along the way in year 2 a dear friend of mine along with her best friend started up a marketing and design business. Well this awesome business need models of course and guess who finally got the call to be a paid model! Yes this girl right here!!! I was completely elated as it had been a secret dream of mine since I was probably a sophomore/junior in high school. I remember my first shoot like it was yesterday! This again opened up another door of opportunity and by the NFR last year I was completely blessed to model in my very first fashion show!
I know this little blog has gotten lengthy but I wanted you to see what God did and is doing in my life, that He can do in yours too. If you see an opportunity and have peace. follow it! You don’t have dreams and desires on your heart just because God put them there so run with them. He said He will never leave or forsake you so even if you feel alone on your journey just know you are not. He loves you and believes in you and so do I! So keep dreaming big and never give up, for your journey will inspire not only you, but many!
xo
Hannah
First heard on http://Gospelhourradio.com
Each week you can hear the Kickn It Java Style with Cassie audio programming on GHR Radio at http://gospelhourradio.com or on the Live365 app. Programming times are 8am and 3pm Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays
Dream Catcher 3:20
Cassie Nations
The talented and inspirational Bobbi LeAnn is my first guest blogger.
I know you will find this blog as inspirational as I did!
As far back as I can remember, I have always had a performance personality. My love for music was passed down from many generations on my dad’s side. At the age of 5, I started tagging along with my dad to band practice every Wednesday night. Singing and playing everything from Glen Campbell, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash and whole lot of Waylon and Willy. By eight o’clock, I would crash on the couch, but I was sure to be up by nine thirty for our weekly “after practice DQ run!” After years of practicing with the boys, I was excited to finally get to go on the road and perform! Dad and I would make our Tour Dates at local nursing homes, senior centers, jamborees, music contests, and where ever there was an open space to call our stage, we were there. The thrill and adrenaline of being on stage, in front of people, and showing off what I truly loved flowed through my body. My mom would often catch me singing in the living room while I would be working on my “entertainment” skills with her recorder and insisted on making CDs and DVDs to hand out to her family and friends. During my younger years of performance, my younger brother and sister and I would decorate our basement as the Grand Ole Opry. We put up a stage, unrolled an old cut out of old red carpet for our isle, set out chairs for our fans, and I will never forget sneaking the baby powder out of the bathroom to serve as our fog machine. We would pass out tickets to our parents and family friends to attend and enjoy the singing performance of Bobbi LeAnn, gymnastics routine by Brandi Walters, and serval magic tricks by Blake Walters. It is safe to say that no one came from our show without a few spots of “fog” on their clothes and faces.
Along with my passion for music, I could say that I was also blessed with a very creative and entrepreneurial mind. It was during the summer of my fifth grade year that I started my own in- home radio station. I set up a cd and tape player in my room and took music requests from my family. I would fill each commercial break with a wrap up on dad and I’s latest shows, relay the upcoming show dates, even fill in with made up ads for local business in my community, and a daily bible devotional. Although the listening area of my radio station was only our family home, that was were my love for story telling and broadcast media and journalism began.
Fast forward to my high school years. It was then that I participated in almost every extra curricular activity from the school musical to cheerleading, all seasonal sports, FCCLA, show choir to college credited courses. I can still remember the day that I went into my high school counselors office and asking if there was a chance that I could take summer school classes my junior year of high school to free up my senior year schedule to fill it with music classes. After weeks of talking, it was passed and my senior year schedule included choir, band, show choir, and music theory. You could say it was the greatest year of high school classes. My senior year went by very quickly and it wasn’t long before I was in a white gown and hat receiving my diploma.
It was only a few weeks after graduation that I loaded up my parents dodge pickup with my belongings and pointed our wheels south to Nashville, Tennessee. After a full day’s worth of driving, we unloaded at the very top of music row at Belmont University. The campus I would call home for the next three years!! The campus was arranged with beautiful flowers, architectural buildings, and best of all, music was everywhere! Heck I even lived on THE MUSIC ROW. How could life get any better? I could hardly stand the anticipation of waiting for classes to start and finally getting to meet my track and field team members. (Yes, I was a college track athlete, participating in pole vault and soon after recruited for throwing. Division 1 athlete to boot! I was so anxious to compete against the big dogs!) As my freshman year went on, I continued to feel lost. I hadn’t seen my family in months, my long distance relationship was struggling, and most importantly, I missed my small town, dirt roads, and isolation. It was then that I decided to transfer to a school in Nebraska.
The same day that I gave my notice and sent my transcripts to Doane University, my roommates and I sat in my room reading my journal. Over water and a box of Life cereal, we read through every entry and covered topics about school, boys, sports, music, and whatever other life event occurred in the past 5 years. At the end of the night, we came up on a journal entry that had a list of goals and dreams. As I read through the entry and read out the list, I quickly found myself in an emotional mess. Every bullet listed on that page, I had accomplished within the short few months of living in Nashville except two, starting a cowboy church ministry and my own tv show. That night when I laid down in bed, the wheels in my mind were spinning out of control. I woke up the next morning to one of the most amazing dreams ever. I ran to my track and field coach and told him to cancel the transfer because I was staying in Nashville. I needed to complete the next things on my goal list. Over the next two weeks, I went to class and practice but I couldn’t concentrate on what was happening around me. All I could thing about was the dream I had that night after reading my journal. Therefore without hesitation, I called a great friend of mine back home, Jim Wakefield, and told him every little detail. He was every bit of motivation and inspiration I needed. He encouraged me to come home and plan an event and get the ball rolling on this dream.
Over the next few weeks, I focused every ounce of extra time on planning my cowboy church concert and tv show ideas. A few weeks later, my extra time spent on planning my ideas would become part of my entrepreneur class work. I turned my planning process into a business model and creative piece for my project final. There was a week left of class when our professor told us that the individual with the best presentation would receive an A+ in the class as well as a scholarship for pursing their business over the summer. Over that next week, I woke up early in the morning and went to bed late at night as I polished up my final presentation. Presentation day quickly approached and I was the most excited student in the class. When my name was called to the front of the room, I confidently pulled up my powerpoint and discussed very detail in my plan. That next morning, I opened my email and found the greatest message! I had scored the highest on my presentation, received an A+ in the class AND a scholarship to purse my business over the summer. It was during my project planning, I came into contact with two great ladies in Texas who encouraged me beyond belief! They began to talk with me about moving to Texas over the summer and to purse my passions there. After getting the scholarship opportunity, I couldn’t say no! As soon as finals wrapped up, I packed my car full of my belongings and headed to Texas to purse my cowboy church ministries.
Texas was full of opportunity! I was blessed with the friendship of some of the most humble human beings LeAnn Hart, Lenzi Holmes, April Bach-Patterson, and several others. I spent days working with April and her magazine Rodeo Fame, traveling to PBR events with LeAnn, scheduling Sunday cowboy church services and hanging out with my Mary Kay girls! At the end of the summer, I was given with the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at the College National Finals Rodeo, sing on the midway at Nebraska’s Big Rodeo, and even put out my first EP. To say the dream that I couldn’t get out of my head was life changing is an understatement!
After my summer in Texas came to an end, I headed back to Nashville to finish up my college education. My last semester, I filled out job application after job application. I researched everything from rodeo, agriculture, and cowboy churches in the Nashville area however nothing was coming up. Quite frankly, I thought my run in Nashville was over. However, a month before graduation, I ran across a press release that mentioned that the RFD-TV Studios would be moving to Music Row. WHAT! I couldn’t believe what I had just read. I had found my saving grace! I applied and interviewed for any available position. This was my chance to stay in Nashville and enjoy the agriculture and western lifestyle. A month later, I got confirmation that I had received the position with RFD-TV.
While at RFD I helped with everything from answering the phones, programming, writing feature stories for the magazine, helping with events, RFD-TVs the American and everything in between. My love for entertainment and broadcast journalism just grew 10 fold. However, the time I spent being a gypsy, traveling between Tennessee and Texas wore on me. I missed my family more than anything.
I packed my belongings and headed back to Nebraska to begin my career at a local news station, News Channel Nebraska. Working as an account executive, I serviced advertising accounts for several clients and companies and got to know my new community very well. I very much enjoyed the client interaction, yet I still craved being in front of the camera. Each night after work, I went home, and added new ideas and concepts to my tv show idea that I had dreamt about my freshman year of college.
My show idea was Nebraska oriented and there was no better timing then now show my boss my idea. Over lunch and coffee, I presented the station’s owner my tv show idea and business plan of highlighting rodeo across Nebraska. Although he wasn’t familiar with the western sports industry he jumped on board and gave me a shot! In fact, he wanted the show to air a week after my presentation. SAY WHAT!? I knew exactly where I would be the next 7 days after work… at my computer editing the interviews, story footage, rodeo updates that I had just filmed that weekend. This could be my only chance to showcase my love for Nebraska and rodeo that I had dreamed up for the past 5 years, Good Life Western Sports.
The next 7 days were brutal! Editing, finding sponsorships and filling commercial space, to continuing my full time job as an account executive and planning the company’s first big LIVE community forum broadcasted over all their channels and online. To say I was busy and exhausted is a complete understatement, but I made it through. By the show’s first first air time, everything for the show was complete and the first episode was a success! After the first airing, I started receiving messages from fan spilling out their hearts. They were so excited to finally see their grandchildren, children, nieces, nephews, and friends on tv being interviewed and updating on their last competed rodeo. I even received messages from people who tuned in or saw me around at their rodeo catching footage or doing interviews. And a few angry messages from fans when the show was preempted or when it didn’t start right at 6:30pm. But the best were from messages that Good Life Western Sports was the best show on the station. About 6 weeks in, the station owner sat down with me to discuss pulling the show. He didn’t agree that the show was catching speed, in fact he could only name a handful of people he knew who actually watched it. With a great deal of convincing, and showing him the messages that I received, I was able to keep the show on through the entirety of the sponsorships, August 31, 2017.
As time went on, situations within the office began to grow and left me feeling unappreciated. There were nights that I had pulled back to back all nighters, drove dang near across the state for station events, my work week hours bled into my personal weekends (months in a row), and more importantly I hadn’t seen my own family in months. Being closer to my family was my main reason for moving back to Nebraska, and the one time I saw them, I slept all day because I was exhausted!
Over many nights of tears and frustration, I decided to quit my job at the tv station, however, the Good Life Western Sports would continue through the end of August as agreed upon. June 25, 2017 will forever be the game changer I needed! After my final day of work, I headed to the Greeley Days Rodeo. There I helped my boyfriend, rodeo announcer Jared Slagle, with music. While I was there, I was able to catch a few minutes of footage of the Sam Foltz’s family receiving a award on his behalf from the Greeley Rodeo Committee. The few minutes I was able to catch I put on the internet. I woke up the next morning to several social media notifications and messages. The video received over 100,000 views and over 10,000 shares. For a poke like me with only 1,000 Facebook followers, the video went viral! SAY WHAT! The same day I quit my job, I had a viral video! I couldn’t be more proud! The next day while waiting for the rodeo to start, the stock contractors and I got together to film a funny story regarding one of the contractor’s help. By rodeo time, Good Life Western Sports had hit another milestone. We had a second viral video! I couldn’t wait to put together the show for the next week and for the station to finally see that we had two viral videos! After a few nights and several long hours, the show was ready to be sent off! When Wednesday rolled around, my phone started pinging non stop with messages like “Where is this week’s show?, Why is is not on again!? What the heck is going on?” I called the station and to my disbelief, they had preempted the show AGAIN! I was so fed up! I couldn’t wait for August 31st to be here!
Ultimately, I wanted my show to end on an internet platform and be online and available to anyone at anytime. So in the meantime of waiting for August 31st to get here. I put my thoughts down on paper on how to grow after. September 1st, I executed. In the months following, Good Life Western Sports has more than tripled its reach and I started my own media company. Today, Good Life Western Sports is seen on multiple platforms across the United States and is the premier source of everything rodeo Nebraska. Right now, all I can say is, GET READY because there is more to come!
Bobbi LeAnn all I can say is WOW! Actually what I can say is as I was putting this on my blog I did so with tears rolling down my face!
This blog has inspired me in so many ways!! I hope to all of you who have read this amazing inspirational blog of Bobbi LeAnn’s life; you will be encouraged as well.
To learn more about Bobbi LeAnn and follow her dreams like and follow her at the following links.
http://facebook.com/bobbileann
http://facebook.com/goodlifewesternsports
http://goodlifewesternsports.tv
Dream Catcher 3:20
Cassie Nations
