How To Have an Amazing Life

Be Thankful

Look for the blessings you have in your life, and then vocalize why and how you are thankful they are in your life. Watch THIS CLIP and tell me it didn't affect you. Go on, I dare you!! ;)

Write It Down
Take a piece of paper, a deep breath, and write down everything you want in life. Don't think about the people that told you the things you want are unattainable, or how you're not smart enough to attain them. Write it all down. Did you do it? Good job. Now write down some goals that will help you attain what you want in life. Hang up your goals and dreams in a place that you will see every day. Liz hangs her goals up by her bed so they are the first thing she sees when she wakes up, and the last thing she sees when she goes to sleep.  Adrian hangs hers up in her closet because, well, she loves her closet. :) You will be happier when you feel that you are actively working towards making your life successful.

Turn SOMEDAY Into TODAY
We are all guilty of using the term someday as an excuse.
"SOMEDAY I will go take that white river rafting trip I've always wanted to take." "SOMEDAY I will learn Spanish." "SOMEDAY I will go skydiving." "SOMEDAY I will take my family camping on the weekend." "SOMEDAY I will teach that recipe to my daughter that my mom taught me."

If you put things off till someday, that day will come and go without you every noticing. Do the things that you dream about NOW. And if there isn't enough time or energy to do them, maybe the other things in your life that do have priority deserve to have their position reevaluated.

Take Ownership of Your Health
In our media-centered lifestyles, we are constantly bombarded with quick fixes that promise to make us look like the latest and greatest celebrity. Forget all that mumbo-jumbo crap. Don't just rely on what E! has to say about health. Once you lose your health, that's it. It's pretty darn tough to get it back. YOU are responsible for your own health and body. Educate yourself on nutrition, health and fitness. There is no confidence like that of pushing yourself physically and finding out that your body can not only achieve the goals you set for it, but shatter them. Quit eating shitty foods. Quit justifying buying crap and blaming your lack of energy on your kids. Food your body fuel. Take care of it by exercising. And focus on doing things you couldn't before instead of what it looks like...i.e. take up mountain biking, run in a 5k, learn to rock climb, start snowboarding....while you're concentrating on being able to accomplish new things, you'll discover one morning that your body has been sneakily changing.

Wake Up Early 
Watch the sun rise and be amazed at the sheer beauty of it. And then go start your day. You'll feel empowered and productive. And it's pretty hard to be down in the dumps when you feel empowered and productive.

Give Back
Focus on serving other people. If we think of life as a place that's all about making ourselves happy, our lives are probably going to be a pretty lonely, hard and disappointing life. Give to the people around you. Help people for no reason other than to help them. If you have an opportunity to be kind, do it. Even if you won't have the chance to Facebook it later on. OK, especially if you don't have the chance.

Go Outside
Our lives today are amazingly cushy and full of incredible things like TV, the internet (blogs like this one!), and music streamed live into our kitchens. These are all things that should be enjoyed and used! But we've also become totally removed from the outdoors and nature as a part of that progress. Take time, at least once a week, to do something that connects you to the earth. Be out in the sun, sit by a stream, watch some animals and just be a human outside. You'll be glad you did.

Don't Complain
OK, we don't mean never complain ever because that is just ridiculous to expect. Instead, try to focus on the good instead of the bad. You can't help but feel more positive if you are thinking positively. That sounds obvious but you would not believe how many people quote inspirational sayings, but approach their actual life expecting the worse. If you approach life expecting the bad, you're going to have things go wrong simply because of your attitude!! Look for the good in your life and you'll be surprised to find that it's looking for you!

Enjoy Life
Life is awesome. And it sucks because, well, it's life. We're all given a certain amount of time here on this earth. Enjoy it while you're here. Drink that glass of wine, tell your mom you love her and help that old lady out of her car. Your life is your story, live it out loud.

xo xo Liz & Adrian 

Photo Credit: Tumblr 

A Buckaroo Barbie Christmas

Today Adrian and I were guest blogging over at Jessica Hedges blog...we wrote a Guide to Surviving Christmas. It was our first time guest blogging and it was fun! Go check it out Dolls, and give Jess some Buckaroo Barbie love! 

A Buckaroo Barbie Christmas

xo xo Liz and Adrian 

GEAR | Hannah Ballantyne...Cowboy-Girl and Gear Maker

Today I want to introduce you to my friend, Hannah Ballantyne and her business, H Ballantyne Leather. She makes beautiful and high quality chinks and armitas and the best part is that Hannah is a genuine cowboy-girl and Buckaroo Barbie. When she’s not in college slaving away, Hannah works for her dad cowboying on the Padlock in Wyoming. I asked her what made her get into building chinks and what her favorite part is of working with leather, and here’s what she said:

“I’ve always enjoyed designing things, whether it be art, interiors or leather. I got into the leather in a bigger way when I went to work for saddlemaker Matt Moran. Working with him I learned a great deal about leather and how endless the creative options are. Building armitas and chinks is fun for me because I enjoy making something necessary and functional be striking and classy as well!”

And striking and classy they are! You can check out Hannah’s work at her business page on Facebook here. 

Take a look at these beautiful pictures and don't worry, drooling is not only common, it's also encouraged. 

Photo by Ken Jenkins

xo xo Liz 

Learn To Listen To The Screaming Of Your Secret Dreams

Secret dreams are the fuel that keeps our inner fire burning.  The quiet voice inside us that whispers, “Maybe…maybe I could do that one day” or “Maybe I could be like that one day”. Without a secret dream, we loose ambition in life and lack the sparkle and zest for living that people project who have something bigger that they’re working towards. The secret dream is the drive that pushes us onwards when everyone else has fallen to the wayside, bored with the work and dedication it takes to make a dream come true.

I had a secret dream when I was about 12 years old. I wanted to cowboy on an outfit, like my dad, in Nevada. When dad was cowboying in the early 90’s, girls would help out if they were family, but it wasn’t very common to see a whole bunch of women at a branding. “If you marry a cowboy, you might be able to work with your husband, but I wouldn’t count on getting to work on a place as a single girl.” I took what my dad said and figured that he was probably right and I decided I would focus on becoming the best that I could be at starting colts. And yet, a quiet voice inside me kept whispering that maybe, maybe one day, if I worked hard enough…maybe the impossible would happen and I would be able to cowboy on my own. That secret dream is what made me write out a list of skills I decided I would need in order for the impossible to happen….that secret dream is what made me wake up at 3:30am every day to do my school work so that I could work with my horses during the day…that secret dream is what made me give up fun trips with friends in order to work on what was important to me…and you know what? At the end of the day, at the ripe old age of 19, I got my secret dream. I got a job in Nevada that I never should have been able to get as a single woman and I got the chance to work for an outfit that friends that I respected and looked up to had worked for as young men. Because of that secret dream I got the chance to work with horsemen that I had idolized from a young age, I got to work with people that MY dad had worked with and made friends with people that I respected not only as cowboys and horseman, but as people too. And even though I don’t cowboy anymore, my secret dream of cowboying gave me the skills and experiences that are applicable to my secret dream now. Without the absence of cowboying in my life, I would have never had the courage to pursue writing, and writing is now my new “secret” dream. The quiet voice inside me saying, “You could maybe do this, Liz.” And because of that, I know that the impossible, secret dream is possible. And I want you; yes YOU reading this long post, to know that you have all promise and ability to achieve your dreams.

Don’t squash that small, quiet voice inside you.

Don’t you dare say that it’s impossible. And if someone tells you that it’s impossible, don’t discuss your dreams and hopes and fears with them.

Cultivate your desire, feed the want and watch it grow. No one else will go out there and make your dreams happen for you. You have to have the courage to admit to yourself just what your secret dream really is (for some reason this can be the hardest part), and then set out on the journey to making it happen.

Good luck! And just so you know, I am your biggest fan, and I know that you can succeed.

xo xo Liz

Here's To The Weekend

Happy Friday Dolls! What are your plans for the weekend? I know most of us in the cowboy world don’t get ‘weekends’ per say, but for some reason I can’t help but think of the weekend as free time…even if it's not gonna happen!

Adrian and Boone (that’s my future brother-in-law in case you missed out, catch up here), returned late last night and we’re having entirely too much fun all talking at once and have so far gone through 4 pots of coffee. I plan to hopefully catch up on an incredible amount of schoolwork this weekend and eat most of the green chiles that Adrian and Boone brought back from New Mexico. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and spend it with someone you love! Here are some fun things I’ve been looking at around the web…

A delightfully, sickeningly sweet wedding video.

A meat pie receipe. I haven’t tried it yet, but an Australian Buckaroo Barbie turned me on to this website, and I'm gonna give it a shot! Thanks Brittany Flinn! 

Hysterical JIF that cracks me up…watch her eyes!

This is a pair of pants I just bought for my fall wardrobe…what are your opinions on cords? Personally, they take me back to being 12 and my favorite green pair that made such a fun sound when I walked. They had an AWESOME tartan pair that were just so out there that I really think I'm going to have to go back and get them for Christmas....that's my wacky, Scottish side coming out in me. :) 

xo xo Liz 

What Is A Buckaroo Barbie?

Hello peoples!! This is Adrian and Liz coming to you live and direct from Bear Valley, CA! We’ve been talking and we believe a little update is in order to remind us all why we’re here, what we believe and why we even decided to write this book in the first place.

Below is an exert from the introduction of Buckaroo Barbie and an illustration that can be found in the book, just to give you all a taste and remind you what you’ve been so patiently waiting for. We believe that we have another draft of revisions to go through and Adrian has to finish ALL of the illustrations and then we (Liz, Adrian and the photographer lady, also known as the mums in these parts), have to find a time we all of us can get together to go take more pictures. Thank you all for sticking with us and waiting so patiently and being such a source of inspiration to us both. Because of Buckaroo Barbie we have come into contact with some extremely strong and inspiring women whose stories we feel so honored to know a little more about now.

If you’re new to Buckaroo Barbie and this is your first day, as it were, we are sisters, best friends and business partners. Adrian is a cowboy singer (just a little FYI because people occasionally mistake Liz for the singer and she can’t sing her way out of a wet paper bag), and Liz is a writer and we’re almost finished writing a book called Buckaroo Barbie. Yes, that is a song off of A’s latest CD Buckaroogirl and the song title was the inspiration for the book. Head on over to our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Buckaroo-Barbie/190087824357140 like us and stay updated on new blog posts, pictures and inspirational messages.

Without further ado, here is an exclusive sneak peek at the introduction of Buckaroo Barbie and one of the many beautiful illustrations that will grace its pages.

We created Buckaroo Barbie to serve as a model and inspiration for us after coming through some hard times, in both of our lives. We sat down and talked and wrote out what type of women we want to be. Her handiness as a cowboy is because the cowboy world is what we love and where our hearts are, but a Buckaroo Barbie can be anyone, anywhere. She’s basically a cowboy version of the Proverbs 31 woman. We definitely don’t have it all figured out. Buckaroo Barbie is who we are constantly striving to be and we will continue to learn, to become better hands and continuously push ourselves until the day we die. We want a life lived full to the brim. We have been made to realize that we are all given talents, a certain amount of time and the ability to work our butts off. And we intend to faithfully cultivate what has been given us and to seek out the guidance of those more experienced to help us learn where we are lacking. We didn’t write this book because we think we are the handiest girls in the world (heck, we don’t even claim to be handy!) or because we think we’re the best of the best. We do believe in the power of a good work ethic though and the importance of attaching yourself to a mentor and learning from them. We have been so blessed because we’ve had the chance to work around, with and for some really great cowboys and Buckaroo Barbie’s and in the chance that there are women out there like us, we felt like we should share with you.

So ladies, this is Buckaroo Barbie, this is who we are and this is what we believe. It’s been a great journey so far and we’re looking forward to what the future has in store for us, especially if we get to continue it with you!

xo xo Liz and Adrian