Friday Faves: Week 10

Welcome to my 10th week of Friday Faves! 

This week I'm going to showcase some of my favorite rugs out there in the web. Confession time: everytime (EVERY SINGLE TIME) I see a rug on Pinterest, or out in about, in my head I say "Rug-a-Lug". Weird, I know, but you're welcome! 

Anyways, let's get down to it. These days my favorite rugs are really colorful or black and white. Aztec print or fun patterns. Tassels, cowhide, stripes, floral and just funky. If I could have wall to wall rugs throughout my home, it would happen. Also, I have expensive delusions.

1. Urban Outfitters is KING of cheap, awesome rugs. Here are my faves of what they've got now. 

2. I WILL have this rug. I spotted it at market a few years ago and let's just say the lady who runs the booth knows me by my obsession with this rug! I haven't found a lot of them online, but you can buy this one here (mine was a bit cheaper, even at a retail price, FYI).

3. This "across the pond" site is a new obsession of mine and Hil's. Blue Bell Gray might just be my most favorite designer ever. Heaven is layered in their beautiful fabrics!!! I could easily list the whole site here as my FAVES! Their use of navy makes me wish that a color could be my BFFFFFFFF. Ok, before I get too weird (oh, I already have? Awkward...) I'll show you what I'm talking about!

4. For my most subdued rug fave, I like this striped rug from Shades of Light. This would be a perfect outdoor rug!

5. Rugs USA is the ultimate place to get great quality rugs at a low price. I have spent HOURS on there. As you can see, I have an issue when it comes to navy. 

 

6. Overstock.com is another GREAT outlet for cheap rugs. Occasionally they have a sale going on and you can find rugs cheaper here than on Rugs USA. I found this one here in a 2.8 ft x 10 ft beautiful runner for about $20 cheaper than it was on Rugs USA. I was pretty proud of myself! 

 

7. West Elm (which I just found out that we are getting one in OKC!! Woo Hoo!!) always has a great selection of rugs. Sometimes they can be a little contemporary for my taste, but I can only handle so much of mid century inspired pieces :) Here are some  cuties they've got right now. 

8. Oh IKEA. I have such a love/hate relationship with that store. Enough relationship drama for you though! (Did I get weird again? Dang It!) I have both of these rugs in my house, currently. So cheap....I just couldn't resist! 

Ok, now that I've overwhelmed you with my rug obsession...and weirdness....go out there and get yourself a dang cute rug on a Memorial Day SALE!! :) DOUBLE YEAH for a 3 day weekend!! 

Wedding Vendor: The Dress

Today we are delving into my wedding dress shopping experience. Not gonna lie...this post kind of makes me a little self conscious, but I could not leave it out! So here it goes....
 

My dress. Guys...seriously, I was/am/will be in LOVE with my dress forever and ever! We went shopping in April and went to 3 stores. The plan was to go to a small, local boutique on Friday, with just me and my sisters and mom. Then go to a few places in OKC on Saturday with my posse.

My wants for a dress:
Tulle
Ball Gown A-Line
Sleeves

Friday: The Bridal Boutique in Norman

So, lets just get this out there. I was scared about going to a small boutique because I thought they wouldn't have my size in anything. Whew. OK, now that I have spoken my truth, let us get on with it!

The only reason I even went to BB was because I saw these pictures on their facebook page:

 BRC Photography

This beautiful dress is made by Essence of Austrailia. It checked off everything from my list, except that it was an A-Line. Which turns out was way more flattering than the ball gown silhouette.

I had a wonderful experience at The Bridal Boutique. I worked with Sarah and shop owner Alex and both were so sweet when helping us! I tried on 3 dresses while there. The first two dresses were ball gowns, and as you can see they "poufed out" at an awkward spot.

 

Here is the dress! It was seriously such a pretty dress! Hil basically said: why even go anywhere tomorrow? Since I had bridesmaids coming from out of town, we still went, plus I'm the type of person who needs to sleep on big decisions like that.

On Saturday I had an appointment with David's Bridal right when they opened. Apparently, so did half of OKC. There was seriously a line of people waiting for them to open the doors. No sale going on, or anything. If you are able, I would suggest going during the week. When they are booked like that, you end up sharing your bridal consultant. It wasn't as big of an issue for us, anytime we were waiting on her, we would just talk about each dress and what we liked vs didn't like. Our consultant was seriously great. She listened to everything that I wanted, and would bring similar suggestions based on what I liked.

Here were my top picks from David's Bridal:

 I thought that I would like this one a lot more than I did. The skirt was really pretty and the tulle was so soft (not the stiff, sticky fabric we typically think of). The top on it was a bit awkward though. I didn't think neckline was that big of a deal, but the sweetheart really just looks better.

I was the only one who liked this one. Hil obviously wasn't pleased by the look on her face. :) Looking back on it, it really didn't fit the feel of our wedding. Very pretty dress though.

So this dress was my #2 choice of all the dresses. It was very flattering and the price was on point. By on point, I mean over $1,000 less than my #1 pick. If it came down to it and I had to cut back on my budget, I could have easily picked this dress and been perfectly happy. It met nothing of my criteria. NOTHING! It was A-Line (which after the first 2 dresses, I started going for just A-line), taffeta and no sleeves.

After lunch we had an appointment at Alfred Angelo. Our experience here was...interesting. We arrived to our appointment about 10 minutes early and still had to wait about 40 minutes for a consultant. Our consultant was interesting as well.

What happens when you go to a bridal store and the sample dress you want to try on doesn't fit, the consultant will either pinch it with chip clip type thing or, if it's too small they'll add fabric to the back, just so you know what it would look like on you. Not only at my previous two appointments, but at any appointment I've gone to of friends, and even on tv shows. I feel like it's a common thing that happens. Our consultant was not having any of it. I only tried on two (terrible) dresses that our consultant chose. I seriously had pictures on my phone of 10 plus size dresses (it wasn't like I was trying to fit into a dress that didn't come in my size!) that I liked from their line and they either didn't have it in stock, or the sample size wasn't my exact size.

Another issue with AA is that they have about 12 dressing rooms, and 1 mirror for everyone to share. So again, if you choose to go there, I suggest going on a week day.

So no pictures worth sharing of dresses from here, but we did take a few group shots:

Molly said something really ridiculous after both Kortny and I were grabbing her butt.

My wonderful posse! Love all of these ladies!

Kortny had told me Bry was really upset that he couldn't go dress shopping because he thought that it was the day he was going to be our ring bearer. She asked him what kind of dress I should get and he said green. Obviously, he's got mad design skills! 

After Alfred Angelos, we called The Bridal Boutique and asked if we could come back in and try on the dress for the rest of our group.

Everyone loved this dress as well. Pretty easy when you have such a great group of people around! I always find it interesting when watching shows like Say Yes to the Dress when everyone is so arguable. It makes for great TV, but is that what is seriously going on in your daily life? Pass!

Here are my favorite pictures of my wedding dress. All pictures by the wonderful Caroline Rentzel Photography.

 

Thanks for reading about my wedding vendors! Everyone is so sweet with all of their comments! More vendors to come soon!
Mal

Hooray! Pom Banner

Last weekend we hosted Hil's graduation party. I've had this project on my mind for a few months, and this was the perfect excuse to make time to do it!

I decided on the phrase HOORAY because I want to be able to use this for any occasion, showers, birthdays, and of course graduations. 

Supplies:

Poms 

Hot glue gun

Heavy duty card stock or poster board

Twine

1.Make your letters

I'll use any excuse to get my cricut out, but you can definitely free hand this project. 

I chose the "fit to page" option for all my letters. I didn't realize it, but it made my letters different sizes. You can see that the R is slightly bigger than other letters, and the A is slightly smaller. Oops! 

I used just regular scrapbook paper and I wish I would have gone with a thicker paper. I ended up having to add support to my letters. 

2. Pom it up! 

My only cost in this project was the poms. I bought from Hobby Lobby and the Dollar Tree. Price wise, if you use your coupon (40% off) at HL for the 300 pack, they poms end up being a little less expensive than the Dollar Tree packs that were $1 for 80 poms. 

Before I started glueing I counted how many big poms there were divided them up between each letter. I glued the big poms on and then filled in the spaces with smaller poms. Easy, no brainer crafts that you can do while catching up on the DVR....perfection!

3. String it up! 

Lay out the letters to find your preferred placement of the letters and glue the twine to the back of the letters. 

*If I were to do this again, I would punch holes in the letters and string them that way, just so I can control the distance between the letters for each time I use the banner.

Here are a few pics of the final product:

Hope you guys had a great weekend! I'll be sharing details of our Austin trip soon! 

Mal

Friday Faves: Week 9

TV Shows. I love them. You love them. If you don't, we can't be friends. :)

We be like:

Between Will & Grace and Friends...I've got quotes 4 life!

I've already mentioned W&G and The Mindy Project as my favorites, so this week I'll share some of my fave new shows! (Mindy is still kind a new show....seriously, it is so funny. Season Finale was on recently, and hopefully it gets on Netflix soon!!)

1. Hollywood Game Night

If I could describe my perfect celebrity run in scenario, it would be this show. Games: check. Celebs: check. Funny Celebs: quadruple check! If I could pick my 6 celebs to play this game with it would be: Jimmy Fallon (duh.) Justin Timberlake (duh.) Donald Faison (duh.) Mindy Khaling (duh) John Krasinski (duh.) Tina Fey (double duh.) On a side note, I have a crush on all of these people.

They came out with an actual game of it, and it is on my Wish List on Amazon. Every week we watch, Jake and I both get really into it and then agree that we should both try out for the show :)


2. Brooklyn Nine Nine

I love Sandburg as much as any other guy, but ever since he left SNL, his work has kind of been mediocre. B99 does not disappoint! It's goofy and romantic and a little weird. Love! 

3. Hannibal

If you know me, you know my love for the creepy. SVU (which was just renewed for their 16th season!!) Crim Minds, The Mentalist, Bones, AHS, The Following, Walking Dead (really, I could go on forever) all crowd my DVR, waiting for when I have time to benge watch! Hannibal is truly creepy and gives an interesting POV bc we the audience know who the bad guy is the entire time. It's a really interesting take on the Hannibal series as a whole.

4. Late Night with Seth Meyers

I'm an SNL fan, so I was sad about Seth leaving, but excited that he was getting Jimmy's old gig. Now, J-Fal can't be beat. He is my ultimate fave. I might also state that I've never been through a show host change, so I didn't know what to expect. I was hesitant at first, like I'm sure anyone is with change. Basically, if you liked the vibe of SNL at all in the past several years, you'll like Late Night with Seth. It has an SNL update feel and he is always talking about BTS details! He also has said that they will be doing segments of failed skits, which I'm sure will be hilarious, in the most ridiculous way! Any SNL nerds would appreciate the show! 

We also liked a show called Surviving Jack, but it got canceled 😫 It had Chris Miloni (Elliot Stabler people!!!) playing a very funny role. Seriously, it was so funny. Jake took the news really hard. 😉

Hope you guys have a fab weekend! We are jet setting (minus the jet) off to Austin for a graduation at some weird school in Texas. ☺️ 

What We Ate In April

Here is a list of new recipes Jake and I tried in April, and our thoughts on them!

Pioneer Woman's Spaghetti

 

Nothing out of the ordinary with this one, typical of PW recipes, it was fantastic. It is hard fixing all of her recipes though, because they are all so rich. I find myself having to limit how many recipes of hers that I choose if we are trying to eat healthy!


Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry

This Weight Watchers recipe was delicious! Jake and I have a huge weakness when it comes to Asian cuisine, so this dish is easy enough that we can eat this as oppose to picking food up! Added bonus: we got to use our wok! Jake always gets excited using new kitchen utensils!

*Question: does anyone have any other Asian inspired dishes they love? Specifically I'm looking for a pad thai dish and a sweet and sour chicken dish.*


Cap'n Cruch Chocolate Chip Cookies

I shared this recipe with you last week of these awesome cookies I made! Such a fun and easy recipe to break up making the same types of cookies over and over again. I'm on the search for a cookie that uses Cinnamon Toast Crunch! YUM!!

Honey Beer Bread

 

I made the mistake of telling Jake I had the ingredients for this recipe. He asked me about it everyday for a week until I finally made it! Geez! It was very delicious. Extremely easy bread recipe to make, which was surprising. It was very dense though, so I may try a new recipe next time to see if I can get it any lighter. We love Interurban's beer bread, so I knew this would be a hit. I would have preferred more honey, which I just added to it when I ate it. Next time I'll put more in the dough!


Buttermilk Garlic Mashed Potatoes 

When you go to complete your registry at Dillards, they give you a cookbook as a gift, and we chose Southern Living Comfort Foods. Jake had been eyeing this recipe since January, and Easter was when we decided to give it a go! It tasted wonderful (what doesn't that calls for buttermilk and cream cheese?) but next time we would use actual potatoes instead of frozen.


There are several things that Jake kind of just makes on his own. He doesn't use recipes, just what we've got. It always includes meat (duh) and we have found a favorite seasoning that we LOVE using!

Head Country Seasoning

We were introduced to it by our friends, Joseph and Hannah. We use it on everything from meat to veggies. Jake recently made pork tenderloin with this as the seasoning and it was am-AH-zing! I need to try a document what he makes, which could be difficult since he is a spaz in the kitchen (and in real life).

Have a great week!
Mal