Rinnies

3 years. That's about how long I've been longing for a pair of red skinny jeans. The main reason is obvious: gameday. But as I started thinking about it more, purchasing a pair of jeans soley for gameday is a bad bad idea. Reality is you'd only get one, maybe two, good wears out of it. It's too dang hot here during football season to wear pants to a full day of tailgating followed by sitting in beating sun in the stands. You could only really wear them to a November game.

So, I put off buying some for several years because I couldn't find any that were reasonably priced and I wasn't going to pay $150-$200 for a pair of J Brand, Joe's or AG jeans which were the only ones I could find in a red denim option.

Enter Lucca...I just happened to be at the mall after work, when I stopped by the food court because I can never walk by it without getting an M&M chocolate chip cookie from that cookie stand. I was about to leave but decided to go into Lucca just because. Now I love the Norman and Edmond Luccas but I am NOT a fan of the Penn Square Lucca. It's cramped, the girls who work there are always rude, the music's too loud (I'm becoming my mother - this is exactly what she used to say when I had my Hollister/A&F phase in middle school) and it's just generally not a great experience, especially when you've just been browsing in the spacious J Crew, where the soothing music is at just the right decibel and all the sales associates are wearing an omg-i-want-everything-you're-wearing-right-down-to-your-scarf-and-shoes outfit.

Needless to say, I don't usually go in there. But for some reason, this day I did. And I found....THE jeans. The red skinny jeans. Almost jeggings, but not quite. So from here on out, we will refer to them as the "rinnies" (red-skinny-jeans). As I excitedly brought them to the fitting room, a part of me figured they wouldn't work. It was just too good to be true. Most rinnies or reggings (red-jean-leggings) I'd tried on in this price range were too tight, too low cut, or just didn't fit right. Not these. They're a higher rise, which I absolutely love, and even though it looks like there's pockets on the front, they're actually just sewn up, so it doesn't add bulk to the front. I thought it was weird at first, but I've decided I like it. They're the perfect amount of tight and the bottom of the legs hit at just the right spot so you can wear them with sandals, flats, wedges, heels, or tucked into boots. Success.

Now I don't usually purchase an item of clothing without coming up with at least several different outfits in my head. You'd think with red jeans it would be a little difficult, but not at all. I was coming up with so many options while I was in the dressing room deciding whether to get them or not that when I came out, the girl who had been helping me had forgotten I was in there (Embarrassing? Yes).

Without further ado...I introduce the RINNIES:

Going out options:

flowy top + the rinnies + brown wedges

white tank + black blazer ($15 score at Ann Taylor LOFT!) + the rinnies + neutral platform heels

Casual options:

white tank + slouchy sweatshirt + the rinnies + converse sneakers

slouchy gray tee + oversized sweater + the rinnies + sandals

Semi-casual/dressy options:

checked button-up (tucked in of course) + skinny belt + the rinnies + ballet flats

slouchy tye dye tee + the rinnies + minnetonka moccasin booties

flowy shirt + the rinnies + sandals

flowy shirt + the rinnies + cowboy boots (that purse is a $20 find from Britton Antiques!)

Gameday options:
(these options are pretty unreasonable because chances are if you're wearing jeans, you're not wearing a tank. But all my sweaters are still packed up at my parents house, so just pretend that these are viable options.)

white tank + striped american apparel circle scarf + the rinnies + cowboy boots

striped tank + patterned circle scarf + the rinnies + cowboy boots

slouchy tank + the rinnies + cowboy boots

So, you see, the rinnies can be worn in a variety of situations. Dinners with friends, family fun days, grocery store runs, nights out on the town, dates, and of course gamedays.

Getcha some rinnies!

Beau & Stella

Posts two days in a row - that's a record for me! But I just got something in the mail and had to share. Last week I ordered a necklace from this adorable New Orleans-based company, Beau & Stella. Which I heard about on......you guessed it, Pinterest.

They make moderately priced, beautiful delicate girly pieces. I've been looking for a new go-to piece to wear all the time and I really wanted something personalized. Enter the "personalized initial necklace." Perfect.

Not only is it cute, but the customer service with this little company is excellent. I ordered my necklace Thursday, got an email from Marcie, the woman who owns Beau & Stella, that same day, it shipped on Friday and I received it today, Monday. And did I mention I only had to pay $2.95 for first-class shipping? Yeah. It came in this adorable little box with a hand-written note from Marcie herself thanking me by name for my purchase.


You can't really see it in the picture, but it has a tiny "k" engraved in it!



Better believe I'm getting quite a few of my Christmas presents from here...already got some reserved in my little shopping cart. Next up for myself however is the "tiny luck necklace" pictured below.

4 days 'til gameday.
(not that that has anything to do with this post but it's all I think about these days, duh).

Get Organized

I've been lazy with this blog lately...my apologies. I have no excuses other than it's hotter than hell outside and all I ever want to do when I get home from work is sprawl out on the couch and fan myself while chewing ice. Weird, I know. But I'm back with some short, little organizational projects. First off, our new toothbrush holders:

We've been redoing our bathroom for like the last month and a half that we've lived in this house. Tearing down the ugly-a** wallpaper took a good 2 weeks, then painting it a lovely shade of minty turquoise took a good 2 days. We finally got our new shower curtain hung up. There's still lots left to do, but maybe we'll finish it by the time we move out? Who knows. But with 3 of us using it, we needed a little organization with our personal items. We each have a drawer, but we needed a way to separate our toothbrushes and toothpastes while leaving them on the counter. So, I introduce to you my very ingenious idea of individual mason jar toothbrush holders:

Just tape off a square (or you could use a stencil) with painters tape, then go to town with some chalkboard paint. It takes about 5 or 6 coats and you have to be SUPER careful about the paint dripping all over the place. I learned that the hard way. My roommates would be happy to know that I did this project outside on our patio, otherwise we might have a chalkboarded kitchen table. Oops.

Cost: approximately $25 (for me it was free, because my mom had extra mason jars laying around and I had that leftover chalkboard paint from when I had my chalkboard-crazy-phase. But you can get mason jars at Walmart for like $10 and the paint at Home Depot for about $15.)

Time: about an hour (plus drying time)


Second project: framed earring holder! Wish I could take credit for this idea, however it came from Pinterest, the biggest time-waster since Facebook. Get a frame, take out all the crap inside it (the cardboard, paper and glass) and cut off the part that keeps it all together that has the stand on it. Then get some lace fabric, trace the glass on it so you get the size correct, cut it out and hot glue it into the frame!

Tip 1: Use two layers of lace fabric - this will help hold your earrings on better.

Tip 2: Have someone help you hot glue the lace. Or injury could result. Just ask my fingers.

Cost: approximately $10 (Frames are always half off at Hobby Lobby and you only need about a quarter of a yard of fabric. And then you need hot glue and a glue gun - but I didn't include that in the price.)

Time: about 45 minutes


Last up is a project that is still in the works, but I also got this idea from Pinterest. I'm making a print for our to-be-completed bathroom and I want it to be Oklahoma-themed. I want to get one of these printed on cardstock, matted and framed. I did mine in InDesign and it took less than 10 minutes. I just found a photo of Oklahoma on Google, traced it in Illustrator, filled it in, drew the heart and placed in InDesign. Easy.as.pie. If you don't have those programs and you like this idea, let me know and I can draw you your favorite state as well! :)

I'll keep you posted on how this actually turns out - it could be a dud, but I'm hoping it's not.



P.S. GAMEDAY is in 5 short days!!! Therefor, you can bet there will be a gameday attire post here in the next few days.

boomer sooner forever.

Glitter Me Crazy

I've only ever gotten one pedicure and I can count the number of manicures I've treated myself to on one hand. Two proms and 3 years of rush. That's it. I've never been one to pay for something that I can easily do myself. Getting my nails done isn't a relaxing process for me so why waste the money?

As long as you've got a steady hand and the right nailpolish, you can do your own nails.

The right nailpolish for me has become Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri. The brush is specially designed to be wide and flat so it takes only one stroke on my pinky and two strokes on my other fingers to get a perfect coat. You could probably get away with one layer, but I always do two. Plus, it dries in like 10 seconds which is perfect for an impatient person such as myself.

I've also recently become obsessed with glitter. For the 4th of July, I came up with the very aptly-named "firework manicure." Two coats of bright red Sally Hansen polish + one coat of some no-name multi-colored glitter nailpolish I picked up at the local Montgomery, OH Walmart + clear topcoat. It was such a hit that I did it for my mom and sister too. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of it, but trust me, it was beautiful. The difficult part was removing it - glitter nailpolish is stubborn, to say the least and it took a good 10 minutes to get it completely removed.

This weekend I did a "Fuchsia Flare" mani and decided to bring out the glitter again, but only on one nail.

Found this photo via Pinterest and I would love to know what polish is responsible this:

Glitter away!

Home Sweet 'Homa

One of the best things about Oklahoma is the pride our people have in our state. Texas's state pride (or arrogance...sorry Texas friends) is well-known everywhere. "Everything's bigger in Texas." Whatever. Call it little man syndrome, but people here are quick to defend our culture to those kids below the Red River.

Before I went off to my freshman year of college in a little city called Orlando, Florida, I wasn't the biggest fan of Oklahoma either. I was just bored and I wanted to travel the world. After experiencing a year on my own 1,500 miles away from everything familiar to me, I found exactly what I'd been searching for all the way back here in home sweet Oklahoma. The grass truly is greener on the other side. It's funny how seeing how the other half lives makes you miss what you started with. Beautiful scenes of rolling hills, lazy rivers, forested lakes and endless plains. No congestion. Less traffic. Incredibly genuine, kind, hard-working people. Cheap(er) gas. Cheap living. Cheap alcohol. Great music. Awesome food. Legendary football, duh. And this just in, one of the best and most fun-to-watch teams in the NBA. Too bad it only took me $30,000 of out-of-state tuition to realize it.

So, be proud of where you're from. If you'd told me 5 years ago that I'd be settled in a post-college life here in Oklahoma, I would've laughed in your face. But I surprised everybody, including myself. And I couldn't be more grateful.

I'll be rocking this come gameday. Gimme some red skinny jeans, cowboy boots & red lipstick and I'm set.

American Apparel t-shirts via Tree & Leaf Clothing

Cute print via Pinterest

Home sweet sweet 'Homa.

Summer HOMA Love

Due to the unearthly 110 degree heat outside, I am currently holed up next to a vent in shorts & a sports bra, gulping ice water like it's my job and taking in the Harry Potter marathon on ABC Family. I'd much rather be outside at ANY body of water, whether it's the lake or my sprinkler, however, this heat wave we're currently experiencing (also known as a normal Oklahoma summer) is making it a little difficult to even step outside to walk to the car, much less exert any sort of energy in traveling somewhere. I'm having to remind myself that this is my favorite season...the following photos are doing a good job of convincing me.

beautiful oklahoma summer

best fried chicken you'll ever eat is located in Okarche, Oklahoma at Eischen's Bar. Just fyi.

Here are some of my favorite things about summer, in no particular order...

• fresh fruit
• watermelon seed spitting contests (hate to toot my own horn, but I usually win these. That's not a challenge or anything...)
• mason jars & their many uses. Who knew you could use them as hanging candle holders?
• MARGARITAS. Original, watermelon, strawberry, swirled, blended, on the rocks - you name it, I'll drink it.
• SANGRIA. Fresh fruit & wine? Genius, obviously.
• MOJITOS.
• PUNCH. (with alcohol, duh.)
• day drinking (I miss college.)
• patio drinking (Am I starting to sound like I have a problem?)
• 4th of July - my favorite holiday. I love America and I love red, white & blue.
• Hot weather (though not 110 degree weather. That's a little excessive.)
• Bathing suits. Although I don't like shopping for them (get real, what girl does?), they are the most comfortable thing when it's hot.
• fried chicken. It's just better when it's summer.
• LAKE LAKE LAKE LAKE LAKE
• beach, wish we had one here
• driving down the less-traveled country roads just for the heck of it, windows down, blasting Blake Shelton & Miranda Lambert, sipping on an ice cold Dr. Pepper.
• not having to wear makeup (when I'm not at work)
• not having to straighten, curl, etc. my hair (when I'm not at work). The au-natural, imperfect wave look is so so summery, according to me.
• fishtail braids
• bright bright nail polish
• long dresses & short shorts
• sitting outside in the evenings, listening to the cicadas and the train & watching fireflies
• outdoor concerts (Tim Mcgraw & EYB, Fort Sill, 4th of July, summer '09...awesome)
• popsicles
• fireworks & sparklers
• BBQ yum yummmm
• sandals
• trips to visit family & friends
• sweet ice tea, of course. McCallister's has some of the best.
• floating the river: best way to spend an afternoon

What are your favorite things about this season (besides this gorgeous weather)?

Emerson Made

Absolutely loving this adorable brand, Emerson Made.

It’s a husband & wife team that left the lights of the big city for greener pastures in the country (and who can blame them with that scenery?) in New York. The items are way out of my price range, but it is just my style. Simple pieces that can be worked into every day life, doing double duty between work and home life.

I can’t afford the clothes, but you better believe I’m asking for this old coin necklace for my birthday.

Go country.