Ray of Sunshine

After a much shorter completion time than I expected, I finished the new/additional dresser for my room at the new house! Spray paint is much more my speed than normal paint. With normal paint you have to have patience because you have to sand and prime and paint and poly and blah blah blah. Watching paint dry is freaking boring. Having to wait a whole day between coats sucks. Spray paint, on the other hand, kept this project's time commitment to a minimum which made me a happy happy girl. Patience is NOT my strong suit.

Easy easy project...And another thanks to Allison for the free furniture!

Here's the original:

Beautiful piece of furniture, just needed to be updated to match the rest of my stuff!

What color did I choose? YELLOW! Maybe it's the hot summer weather, but I love the brightness of it. I was originally going to get some Behr paint, but seriously, there was no way I was going to be able to paint over that do-dad in the middle and not poke myself in the eye with the brush after poring over it for hours on end. So I waltzed my butt over to Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon and found a lovely shade of yellow in a $4 Krylon can. Wonderful. I actually went through 4 cans (explanation later).

I removed all the hardware, which probably took longer than the rest of the process because the screws were a little rusty, so it took pliers and various screwdrivers to get them all out. And I was low on resources at my apartment. No sandpaper, so I just wiped the drawers down with a damp washcloth. No newspaper, so I taped old grocery store bags around the base of the drawer so the spray paint wouldn't get all over it. Worked just fine...

Each drawer took 3 good layers to get the color I wanted.



After they were all dried, I filled the original drawer pull holes with spackle putty stuff and sprayed another layer of paint over it.


Then we drilled holes and added new hardware. Might I add, hardware is freaking expensive, especially when you're buying for a 5 drawer dresser. After poring over the options for a good 15 minutes, I decided to go with the cheapest option and just bought 6, just in case I didn't like the way it looked. Well, I like the way it looks and I'm cheap, so I probably won't get pulls for the other two drawers. You really don't need drawer pulls at all, because they easily slide out.

Total time: approximately 4-5 hours
Total cost: $40 (dresser was free, $16 for 4 cans of spray paint, $24 for drawer pulls)

It's my own little ray of sunshine!

Jewel Tones

I'm not really a jewelry person. Most days you'll find me wearing a small ring or two, my watch (although I don't even really wear that that much during the summer), and some stud earrings. Then I found this pretty turquoise beaded/knotted mess of a necklace at Francesca's and I've worn it probably every other day since I got it. It goes with EVERYTHING. I swear, it's like a magic necklace. Skirt and blouse for work? It works. Dress to go out on the weekend? It works. Slouchy t-shirt and shorts to run errands? It works. Magical.

So it got me started looking at some other simple and refined jewels that I'd wear every day and then I came across this blogpost and I became obsessed. I don't really ever wear jewelry in the summer, but if I had any of these gems, I'd definitely change my habits.

$475: way way way wayyyyy out of my price range, but look how pretty...

Don't know that I'd ever wear these, but they're fun to look at!

Perfect colors

LOVE.

Birthday list item #1

Perfect with an oversized denim button-down

The adult take on beads. Can't get any better than candy stripes.

Kyle Richards wore a pair of earrings like these on an episode of RHOBH and I've wanted them ever since.

I have the prettiest birthstone.

Birthday list item #2 (...actually...tied with #1)

5 rings for $68? Yes please.

In the words of Benjamin Barry (I think I have a problem with watching 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days'): "Frost yourself."

Color Picker

T-minus 3 weeks until we settle into our new house and room prep is in full swing. I'm still not 100% sure that I can actually paint my walls...unfortunately, I dream about paint swatches so I'm really hoping it will happen. But I do have a new piece of furniture! And even better, it came free of charge thanks to my wonderful friend Allison. Few things can top new-to-me furniture, but the word "free" is one of them. So double win.

It's a beautiful dresser. Yes, I do already have a dresser, but who would turn down a free piece of furniture? So it's sitting in my parents' garage, waiting to be moved down to Norman. Not sure what I'll transform it into, but it will be somewhere in my room, storing something. My closet will be much smaller than my current walk-in one that's about the size of my bathroom, so I'm betting it will more than likely end up actually storing clothes.

Here's a snapshot (we took the drawers out to unload it):


Pretty isn't it? The white part is like an antique, cracked white, which exactly matches the rest of my room. The wood is light tan colored. I'm thinking about possibly painting that part (the drawers, corners and top of the dresser). I'm going to see how it looks with the rest of my furniture and then decide! But while looking at paint swatches, I came across a few I love...

The Marigold color at the bottom is the one I'm really looking at.

But I think I might end up going with this one for the drawers...

The antique-y white color that's already on there.

My bedspread is in this color range - I can't wait to see how it looks together!

And here's some ideas for my walls...I know gray seems boring, but I really think it could look cute. Very open and airy, which is exactly what I'm going for.

Can't wait to get painting!

What's in Your Bag?

One of the great mysteries of the world. Boys often ask "Why the hell is your bag so big? Why do you have to lug that thing around? Won't that cause arthritis or osteoporosis or some other bone and joint disease?" If you've ever seen 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,' you probably remember the scene where Benjamin and his friends "accidentally" knock over Andie's purse so they can look through it.

"A woman's purse...it's her source of power. There are many dark and dangerous things in there that we, the male species, should know nothing about."
-Benjamin Barry

It's true. Boys could never understand because all they have to worry about having by their side every day is their wallet and cell phone. No make up, hair do-dads, camera, lists, nail polish, etc. So unbelievably unfair. And yet, what would we do without our "source of power"?

1. THE bag: I spent a good amount of time dreaming about this purse and spend a good part of graduation and birthday money on it last summer, but it's been one of the greatest investments I've ever made (you know, besides my car and my education). I've worn it literally every day since I got it and that's why it's stuffed with all this crap. And this is after I've cleaned it out.

2. Keys to my other great investment - Miss Goldie Hawn, my CR-V.

3. Vaseline for chapped lips

4. Red lipstick - the most makeup-y item in my bag.

5. Checkbook & wallet - if only I balanced my checkbook more than once a year...thank goodness for online banking.

6. Nail polish & topcoat - never know when you're going to need a touch up.

7. Hand sanitizer - definitely not a germ-a-phobe, but it's always nice to have.

8. Mints

9. Hand lotion

10. Sunglasses

11. Glasses - That case adds about 10 pounds to the weight of my purse, I swear. It's like I'm working out my triceps every time I lift my bag.

12. Aspirin - I have a headache 80% of the time.

13. Lip gloss - I don't carry makeup in my purse because (a) it would make it even heavier and (b) I'm too lazy to actually reapply it later in the day. If it doesn't look good in the morning, it's not going to get any better. So I don't even bother.

14. Hair bands, bobby pins & a headband - I have bobby pins & rubber bands in the pockets of every skirt and pair of shorts and pants I own. Every single one.

15. Reciepts, lists & old paychecks - Most people put receipts in their wallet, but I stuff them in my purse then organize them whenever I happen to clean it out. In case this post doesn't clarify this point, I'm a list person. I have grocery lists, lists of paint colors for my new room, list of bills to pay this month, lists of new arts and crafts projects, etc. You get the idea. I used to pride myself on being organized. Now I'm not so sure.

16. Camera. Duh.

17. Live United (United Way) window cling - I guess this should be on my car now that it's been in my purse for 5 or 6 months. If you want one, let me know. I'll hook you up.

18. iPod shuffle

What's in your bag?

Paint by Numbers

Welp, I'm moving to a house in June. Which means....I get to paint!! I think. Am I excited? Obviously. There's no better way to add some serious personality to a room. I'm fairly certain I'll have to repaint over it before I move out, so I'm going to go with a neutral. Plus my comforter is a turquoise color, so I want to keep the walls muted. Loving all these rooms:

So elegant.

Funny how white and taupe can make for a gorgeous bedroom.

My comforter is the color of that door, so I'm leaning towards these colors, only gray instead of the yellow cream color.

Cutest laundry room I've ever seen.

Loving this color combo...

If I could paint the outside of my house, it would look like one of these.

I think this is what I'm going to go with. Grey on three of my walls with the white crown molding, then these stripes on one accent wall. Plus white furniture and yellow decorations and my turquoise bedspread. Perfect.


Guess I need to get to work!

mk & Ash

Loving this look on one of my childhood idols (who am I kidding, I still love her)...the one and only, Ashley Olsen. Fresh stripes: check. Punchy color: check. Awesome sandals: check. Wayfarers: check.

So fetch.

168 Chairs

40 degrees. Pouring rain. Freezing wind. Hail. Does that seem like a normal May morning to you? Uhhhhh no. Hell no. Well maybe the hail. But that's the morning the organizers of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon decided to have their event.

So me and Mary got our butts downtown for a prayer service at the Survivor Tree around 5:30 am (the last time I was up that early was when I pulled an all-nighter after the Harry Potter premiere in November...and everyone at the UW remembers what I was like the next day) and at that time it was a lovely 55 degrees and dry. Not kidding, 5 minutes later, we were freezing cold and soaked through. And we still had another hour before we even started our run. Needless to say, it could have been an absolutely miserable experience, but this is Oklahoma. And this was the 11th annual OKC Memorial Marathon, where this incredible city comes together to remember what happened to our community 16 years ago on April 19th, 1995. I was only 6 on that awful day, but I remember it well. And it is the most heart-warming feeling to see the survivors and the family members left to grieve their loved ones and hear their stories and see just how far this city has come. It was too perfect that on the day of this marathon, the Oklahoma City Thunder hosted the Memphis Grizzlies in the second round of the NBA playoffs. NBA PLAYOFFS!?! Oklahoma City? It is a mark of just how much we have progressed here to know that those two things are now synonymous. If you grew up around this area, you know exactly what I mean. 16 years ago, the only sport anyone here cared about was played between September and December and the name of the team had "University" in it. We wouldn't have dreamed that an NBA team would ever come here. But this is 2011 and Oklahoma City looks very different.

For one thing, this now sits at the center of our beautiful city:


168 glass chairs, representing 168 empty seats at 168 dinner tables. This is why we ran. We may have been young when it happened, but we've seen firsthand how our community reacted and it was nothing short of a miracle. It has come to be known as the "Oklahoma Standard" and I've never been so proud to call myself an Oklahoman. Mary brought the following testimonial from another runner to my attention a few days before the marathon and it just seems so incredibly appropriate, especially considering the events surrounding Osama Bin Laden that have occurred in the last 24 hours:

"Like everyone else in this country, I was horrified by what I saw on the news on April 19, 1995. It was hard to imagine something like that could ever happen in our country. Especially when we found out it was carried out by some of our own people. But like most people in this country, to me it was a horrible story that happened to somebody I never met and it was something I would never experience. That all changed one Tuesday morning when I went to work and somebody intentionally flew a jumbo jet into my office building. On September 11, 2001, my city became that place that everybody watched on TV in horror. But eventually they shut off their TV's and went about their lives. Yet only one American city understood what we were going through and knew what it was like to join this club that nobody wanted to become a part of. And that was Oklahoma City. Right from the beginning, people from Oklahoma City came to New York to help with the recovery effort and to comfort the family members and survivors. And eventually, that was how I came to meet survivors from the Murrah Building. Over the following years, I became close friends with these people. When they told me about the Memorial Marathon and what it represented, I knew I wanted to become a part of it. Not only to show my personal appreciation for what you did for us but to show the solidarity between our two cities. Two very different places that showed in a very similar way what it's like to stand up to adversity. And so I have to come to Oklahoma City for 5 years to run the half-marathon. This is just an incredible gathering that shows that good will always overcome evil. And that even from the worst possible acts in human history, something good can result. Thank you Oklahoma City for helping New York City when we needed it most and for letting me take part in this great event."

After reading that, it makes our small obstacles and miseries seem like absolutely nothing. The best part about my first half-marathon (and I'm sure Mary can attest to this as well) wasn't necessarily finishing (although, yes, it was a very very close second). It was seeing all the people who came out to support us. Even in the 40-degree weather, pouring rain, freezing wind and hail. Complete strangers dragging themselves out of their warm beds on a Sunday morning to stand in the rain and give us high fives, scream encouragements, and provide us with water and snacks. That was the only thing getting me through mile 11. And the reason I sprinted mile 13. And why I smiled as I crossed the finish line, right behind a group of five women who walked across that line, holding hands, hugging and crying. THAT is the Oklahoma Standard. On April 29th, 2012, you will find me on that course again, hell or high water.

As the announcer said before the starting shotgun, following the most chilling 168 seconds of silence I've experienced, "We run to remember. We will never forget them."