Stellar

I am obsessed with Stella & Dot jewelry. This is a new obsession and apparently I'm pretty late to jump on the train. But better late than never? I need these on my neck right now...

Gimme gimme.

Running to Remember

Do you like to wake up early? Me either. I am not a morning person. I don't drink coffee, but you better not get near me until I've been up for at least an hour and a half and I've had breakfast. Otherwise, your head just might get chewed off. I'm not a night person either...I get tired early. So really i'm just an old person. That's not depressing at all.

But I get to drag my old grouchy, sleepy butt out of bed early this coming Sunday to run in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon (well, the half-marathon, but here's hoping for the full in 2013....but I said that last year too - oops). And I can't freaking wait. I had an absolutely incredible experience last year, despite the very un-May-like weather. Here's hoping the weather is a little more cooperative this year. Although it really wouldn't matter, the race is just awesome no matter what. I love my city, I love my state, and I love this opportunity to remember what happened to OKC 17 years ago. 

And my fantastic co-workers are participating this year too! Last year it was me and Natalie, but this year we've got NINE people participating! Natalie's being the monster runner she is and doing the full, while me and 2 other girls run the half, and we have a team of 5 doing the marathon relay. We even have official jerseys. The U-Dub Run Club is a reality. So proud.

Good luck to all the runners and hopefully I'll see you out there, bright & early! and I will have had my breakfast, so feel free to talk to me  :)

We run to remember and we will never forget.

"We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope, and serenity."

Hippie at Heart

Hey y'all (....oh hey paula deen)! I decided that my 2-month hiatus was enough. It's April, almost May, which means one thing and one thing only....it's almost summer!!! Do a little dance now; I certainly am. April means....

cornhole

sweet tea vodka gets the front of the shelf

sangria with fresh fruit

ALMOST peach & nectarine season

the cottonwood trees are blooming...all over the place

abundant sunshine

freckled faces

less makeup

natural hair

Essie turks & caicos

cutoff shorts

sandals sandals sandals

shaved legs - kidding, my legs are always shaved, obviously.... :/

lake-pool-beach-river

fried chicken tastes even better

As much as I love classic styles (jcrew, i'm lookin at you), summer brings out the hippie in me. And by hippie i mean someone who drinks a lot and doesn't mind walking around barefoot (though I wouldn't suggest combining the two). Hippie = cutoff levi jean shorts, wavy hair, billowy blouses, maxi dresses, tan sandals, rockin sunnies and peach colored lipstain.

While you won't find me sporting a middle part (I have a cowlick that naturally parts my hair way on the side and as anyone who has seen any of my high school yearbook photos can attest to, you shouldn't fight for a middle part if you hair doesn't want to. your hair will always win.), you will find me daydreaming about these.....

 Via http://www.garancedore.fr/en

 Via lifeingraz.blogspot.com

 Via themannequinmd.tumbler.com

 

Via themannequinmd.tumbler.com

 

Via themannequinmd.tumbler.com

 Via http://southernsororitygirl.tumblr.com/

 Via Anthropologie

 via Pinterest

And because we all know I can't resist seersucker, much less seersucker AND bows...

 via themannequinmd.tumbler.com

peace out y'all.

Tastes Like Chicken

One of my favorite Oklahoma things: Eischen's fried chicken. It's like heaven in your mouth. And the atmosphere is part of the experience. You want simple, down-home cooking - Eischen's is about as simple as it gets. Their menu basically consists of fried chicken (ordered by the chicken of course), fried okra, frito chili pie, an assortment of cokes, and beer. Here's how it goes:

(1) Seat yourself wherever you can find room (and on a Friday or Saturday evening, you can be guaranteed at least an hour wait because this is not an eat-n-go kind of place; this is an eat-sit-drink-socialize for the night kind of place). You might be sitting at picnic-style tables with other people, but that's okay because here, no one's a stranger!

(2) Sit and enjoy the sounds of honky-tonk blasting throughout the place. And yes, this is a bar, but there's kids running all over the place.

(3) Waiter will come take your drink order, you'll tell her how many chickens you'd like and any "extras" (okra, etc.). Don't you worry yourself about getting any sides, because your chicken comes with a basket of sliced Wonder bread and a basket of pickles & onions, free of charge.

(4) Drink arrives in styrofoam cup.

(5) Chickens arrive later (or much later, depending on season, day of the week, and time of day). With them come a stack of wax paper. Utensils? What are those? No, you chow down with your hands. I'm not kidding when I say it's heaven in your mouth. Piping hot, it's the most frustrating thing to wait for it to cool down a little. Perfectly crispy on the outside, just the right amount of grease on the inside. And that is some tender chicken. I love my boyfriend, but I may or may not be serious when I say that I would marry into the Eischen family to get ahold of this recipe. Although I doubt they even give it to family members not related by blood.

(6) Play some pool, kick up your feet, relax, eat, drink, and be merry.

(7) Repeat this process as often as possible.

(left) the beautiful window decor
(right) okarche, oklahoma's finest

(left) heaven, absolute heaven
(right) typical eischen's photo op

(left) we always visit the gift shop to pic up a ring pop for the ride home
(right) i love oklahoma's wide open spaces

for some reason, fried chicken always tastes even better when it's warm outside. so thank goodness it's beginning to feel a lot like SPRING!

Get Your Spots

Loving leopard, even as I dream about the bright colors & textures that the spring holds...leopard never goes out of style. And depending on your boldness, you can incorporate it in your wardrobe in small ways, like a scarf or shoes, or use the 'go big or go home' standard and be spotted all over!

All images via Pinterest

Just scored these loafers at Dillards. Thank you, Christmas gift card.

Sweet Home Alabama

Birmingham was wonderful...both the city and the boy whose company I was enjoying :) It was so much fun to go to a place I'd never been or really even heard much about. It's kind of a hidden gem like Oklahoma City: a town that's passed through and passed over but that has a whole lot to offer for those who are willing to give it a chance. Here are the spots I can personally vouch for as places to go and see:

(1)

Mountain Brook: a really really really pretty neighborhood/town on the outskirts of the city. I would say it's kind of like Nichols Hills in OKC, but more spread out and bigger. We walked along the brook that runs through the town on Saturday morning and I "oooohhhed" and "ahhhhed" over the beautiful plantation-style mansions, most still decorated for Christmas. I will live there someday.

(2)

Vulcan Tower: I don't really remember the significance of it, but all you need to know is that it is a tower on a hill that overlooks downtown Birmingham and it has amazing views. Perfect at sunset.

(3)

Tip Top Cafe: A little hole in the wall place on top of one of the 'mountains' around town. Seriously awesome view and the best BLT I've ever had in my entire life. And I've had A LOT of BLTs. I'm sure it's even prettier in the spring and fall.

(4) Cocina Superior: a Tex Mex style restaurant kind of like Mi Cocina in Dallas, except instead of the mambo taxis, they have the El Chango: just like a swirl, except bigger and with a shot of some delicious liquor. I thought mambo taxis were dangerous....this is worse. But sooooo dang good.

(5) Any road along the hills. We drove around for a while as he showed me around and it's just a cool city with awesome scenery and a lot to look at (especially if you've never been and you're from a place known for the wind sweeping down the plains).

Such a fun trip - I can't wait to go back and see more!

Holiday Cheer

Griffing family Christmas 2011 recap:
1. built a gingerbread house complete with inappropriate but humorous gingerbread residents
2. successfully navigated a Christmas Eve trip to the mall (NEVER AGAIN)
3. had a Modern Family marathon (mom's new favorite show)
4. watched Monte Carlo (thought it would 2 hours of my life i'd never get back but actually ended up liking it - i have a girl crush on leighton meester.)
5. listened to plenty of old and new Christmas music
6. stuffed our faces full of steak, potato fries, buttery rolls and cranberries
7. gained 10 lbs indulging in a 4-layer Christmas birthday cake
8. had a sister sleepover on the floor of Olivia's room on Christmas Eve
9. attended midnight mass
10. had the traditional Christmas Eve screening of Miracle on 34th Street
11. cheered on the Thunder as they defeated the Magic
12. indulged in Christmas morning cinnamon rolls, bacon & OJ
13. laughed our butts off as Charley adjusted to his new "big boy" bed
14. had an at home manicure session (i should start doing that for a living)
15. relaxed and basked in the glory of a 5 day break and enjoyed my time with my beautiful family

It was a wonderful Christmas and I can't believe it's over! Where has December gone? Where has 2011 gone?? It is December 29th and I am confused as to how that is the date. This year flew by so fast. Tomorrow I'll be headed to Birmingham for New Year's Eve and I'll be back Monday!

See you in 2012!

Ginge

One of our big traditions is making our annual gingerbread house. Ordinarily it would have been done a lot earlier, but because Nikki and I don't live at home anymore, we had to wait until we were all together. But I have to say, we outdid ourselves with our masterpiece this year, especially with our little gingerbread peeps. We have a very different style of decorating than our engineer father - he once used tweezers to make a window pane out of sprinkles. We have a more "Jackson Pollock" approach as Olivia literally threw mini M&M's at her side of the gingerbread roof. As usual, I spent more time eating the candy and licking the icing spoon than actually decorating. Gimme a break, it's Christmas.

Charley spent most of his time groveling and begging for treats.

We all thought our little gingerbread people were pretty hilarious. Yes, we are that immature. It's the small things in life.

So thankful to be at home for the holidays surrounded by my wonderful family! Count your blessings and thank the Lord for the things you have, instead of thinking about the things you think you need. That's definitely something I have to work on in 2012.

Merry Christmas!

The Stables

Home for the holidays and taking full advantage...got to spend a little one on one time with the parentals tonight when they took me out to dessert. Two years ago, at Christmastime, the whole family drove up to Guthrie (a small town about 20 minutes north of my parents' house) to look at lights and we ate some delicious pie at this place called The Stables Cafe.

I've dreamt about it ever since and tonight, I got to go back. Had some chocolate cream pie that was to die for and got to catch up with my mom and dad and fill them in on my life to date. Also, we attempted to make butter by shaking a little container of half & half for about 30 minutes. It did not work. But it entertained us for 30 minutes.

I had the cream pie, mom had the pumpkin, and dad had the original apple and cinnamon pie. They also have the coolest decor...it looks like an old time antique shop threw up in there, and of course this time of year, it's filled with garland, little white lights, and mistletoe. I die.

Countdown

Busy counting down to one of the best holidays and a trip to see my favorite guy (well second favorite, dad always comes in first).

New Years Eve: a fresh start, new beginning and clean slate. New resolutions, new challenges and new things to look forward to. Can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for me. Although I'm not looking forward to the fact that I will no longer be able to say "oh yeah, i just graduated last year..." but will have to say "i graduated 2 YEARS AGO" or "i graduated the year before last." Geez I'm getting old.

Good night y'all!

Kisses & Disses

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a terrible blogger. But I'm going to take a page out of one of my fav blog's book and give out kisses and disses for the things I'm loving (and hating) lately:

kisses:

1) CHRISTMAS!!!


2) new purchases, thanks to a gift card to the mall. Too bad it was in my pocket for less than 2 hours before it was spent. Sorry my receiving it just so happened to coincide with J Crew's 30% off EVERYTHING sale. Don't blame me, take it up with headquarters. I'll be wearing that sparkly number for NYE :) (tip: picked that one up at Gap on super sale - they had a ton, go check it out!)



3) a sweet card from a sweet boy



4) sparkly nails



5) only thing better than sparkly nails: gold flecked nails (please Santa, bring me some "Meteor Shower"!)

6) puppies, my favorite



disses:

1) colds, yuck. I've been drugged up for the last 3 days and yet the amount of snot filling my head hasn't decreased at all. sorry, that's gross, but if I have to suffer through it, so do y'all.

2) the real world not having a month-long Christmas break. major diss.

3) Christmas scrooges

very blessed this holiday season to have a wonderful family who put up with my antics most of the time and support me all of the time, friends who have become like family, an incredible job, and my health (except for the cold). i'm thankful for every single person in my life and consider myself very lucky to have the life i do. i love you all!

happy holidays my friends, i'll be back soon!

Shoes. Oh My Gah, Shoes.

We're supposedly getting an Anthropologie in February - I'll believe it when I see it - but as much I love their stuff, I really am only able to afford to browse the sale section in that store. Next on the list for what I'd like to see in Oklahoma City is Urban Outfitters, then Zara. I first discovered Zara when I was in Orlando. The closest one to us is in Dallas....roadtrip anyone?

Soooo shout-out to UO & Zara: Get here quick. OKC is the place to be.

Loving all these shoes...

Meet me in Dallas.

Sistas 4 Life

One of the more exciting things that has happened to me in the last few months (okay, this is going to show just how dull my life is) was my little sister going through rush and joining a house - which just so happens to be my house too.

See this is something that should have been blogged about like 3 months ago, however she was just officially initiated last weekend, so it's still kind of relevant?

Anyways, I'm so excited for her. She's learning all about our sisterhood and our secrets, but most importantly, she's already experienced the presence of Debbie, aka Becky, the ghost that haunts the Alpha Phi house, more specifically the room that two of my bffs used to live in. I feel like she only shows her presence to very special people, so this is a good sign.

I look a mess, but I'm so proud of her. You're initiated sista!

Pretty family for Red Dress Gala 2011 - don't they all look so festive?


Me and my dashing dad at RDG circa 2009.

Nikki was just a little freshie in high school here and baby Livi (the best part about this picture) was like 6. Her biggest aspiration at that time was to be an OU cheerleader. she's so ambitious.

One of the best and sweatiest moments of my life - totally TMI, but I had sweat stains the size of Texas as we (impatiently) waited in 110 degree weather for Nikki to show up at the house.

I haven't always been the best example for my sisters - in high school, I was an absolute pill - so I'm even more proud that she chose to follow this path and will get to experience all the wonderful things that I did. I love you little sis, you da best!

AOE. RAPMF.

Class & Sass

Wow. So my first week of consistent postings went really really well. Number of posts last week: 0 (Coincidentally, only one less than the number of touchdowns OU scored in the entire first half of their heartbreaking, national championship-ending loss to Texas Tech last night...but I can't get started on that because I'll just have to break the tissues out again. Just kidding. Kind of. Okay, not really.)

Well I can only go up from here. I need to learn to set the bar low so I can consistently beat the expectations. Is that a bad attitude to have? Oh well.

Right now I'm super obsessed with J Crew's fall collection. I'm also obsessed with the fact that their in-store sale items have been 30% off the past week. And even more obsessed with the fact that I can still use my student ID to get an extra 15% off of that. To the cashier lady who interrogated me last week about my student status: Yes, I am an advertising senior - or I was two years ago - and your clothes are too expensive for me to not get some kind of a break. I've come up with an elaborate story about my schooling so I can be more prepared next time. Although I think my problem is that I'm too specific - maybe when they ask me what my major is they only want a one word answer and not a synopsis of my entire fake/made-up-on-the-spot schedule. If you can't tell, I'm a terrible liar.

But the point is, I seem to be even more in love with J Crew than usual these days.










(A) I want to model for J Crew one day. At 5'7" I think my chances are really good. Don't you think?
(B) When I win the lottery someday, I will buy every item in the store.
(C) I would love to work for their corporate office and design their catalogs - how freaking awesome would that be?
(D) I want to be this girl when I grow up: Libby Wadle

I'll be back again 3 times this week...hopefully.