I would like to thank the academy ...

Okay, so not really the academy ... But, instaed the wonderful  ShaeKen! She nominated me for the Leibster award. How exciting! Thank you glitter pal for life!! If you are looking for a laugh, you definitely need to check out her blog. Talk about funny! :)

The award does come with a few rules, as follows:

List 11 facts about yourself.

Answer the questions given to you.

Create new questions for the bloggers you nominate for the award.

Choose bloggers with 200 or less followers to nominate.

Go to each blogger's page and let her know about the award.

Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.

My Facts: 1. My mom graduated from OSU and so did I. She also graduated from SWOSU and so will I (in 124 days!)
2. I love my dog more than some people.
3. I love photography.
4. I love crafts. And sewing.
5. I believe "the bigger the hair, the closer to God."
6. I am easily overwhelmed.
7. I have fabulous parents, grandparents and brother.
8. Felt cowboy hats are my weakness.
9. I would wear boots all the time if I could get away with it.
10. Stockshow season is my favorite time of the year.
11. I love traveling and window shopping.

Shae's Questions:

Who are three people you'd like to have a one-hour conversation with?

Miranda Lambert, Randa Yezak of Southern Jewlz and Jesus, of course. 

What makes your favorite school/team better than the rest?

Well, there is homecoming walkarounds, Theta Pond, Boone Pickens Stadium, The Strip, Ag Hall, Animal Science, America's Brightest Orange, The Walk, Bullet, Pistol Pete, The Orange Fountain, Tailgates, Friendly People, Awesome Professors and of course Cowboys! ;) I think this pretty much says it all ... 

Proud and immortalBright Shines Your Name Oklahoma StateWe Herald Your FameEver You'll Find UsLoyal and True To Our Alma Mater O - S - U

Go Pokes!

What's your favorite way to relax? 

My favorite way to relax is simple. To do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just sitting in silence and letting my mind shut down for a few minutes. After some me time, I will either craft, read, watch movies and sometimes I even eat ice cream, which is not my favorite thing at all, but when I am stressed ice cream is where it is at! 

Do you wear jewelry? If so, what are things you must wear every day?

Yes, I do (when I remember) wear my OSU class ring, another silver ring, watch and most typically a cross necklace. My new currently favorite thing is bubble necklaces! I think I am up to five currently, but I NEED more! 

Heels or flats, or other? If other, explain :)

Tough one. If you would have asked me even a year ago, I would have said heels all the way. But, now I would probably say flats. Actually, I am more of a boots kind of girl ... boots and jeans/leggings and boots ... I am fine with either. 

What do you do for work, or, if you're still in school, what are you studying/going to be "when you grow up"?

I am currently back in school full time to finish my masters in business admin with emphasis in marketing and management. I graduate in 121 days, PS! :)) I have no idea what I want to be "when I grow up!" I am hoping that will come to before my 121 days are up at SWOSU or maybe I will actually start working a little harder on that MRS degree! ;) 

What is your favorite movie? Why should I see it? (I'm trying to expand my horizons here, ya'll)

I am one of those girls that has multiple favorites of everything, but I will limit this post to my top five. 

1. Top Gun. Men in uniform. Enough said. 

2. Rio Bravo. I just love John Wayne!

3. The Holiday. I love this one around the holidays, obviously. Heeeeeey, Jude Law. 

4. Remember the Titans. "because I love football. Football is fun, sir?!"

5. A Walk to Remember. I love this one more because of the person I first saw it with rather than the movie itself! The book is ten times better than the movie! 

Where is your favorite place to eat, and what do you order?

Again, I am terrible with limiting things to just one, so top three. 

1. Texas Roadhouse. BBQ Chicken, mashed potatoes and salad. Delish. 

2. Taco Bell. Soft Taco. There was a Taco Bell right by the studio where I danced at when I was growing up. I had dance class four nights for most of my teen years and I ate at Taco Bell at least twice a week. I would prefer Taco Bell to most places if I had my way! haha

3. Alfredo's or Ted's. Taco Dinner. Yes, I love tacos! 

Have you ever broken a bone? If so, which one(s)?

Oh man, this might take a while. Well, when I was a sophomore in HS, I broke my wrist at cheer camp and later that year, I broke my left foot. But, didn't tell anyone about it for about a year and half. And, then three days before Christmas 2009, I broke my right foot. And, one broken pinky finger. 

What was your favorite toy as a child?

My Baby Pam was my favorite toy, hands down. I carried her everywhere with me. I actually still have her. She is awesome. 

Do you have any pets? What kind? 

I have a dog named, Lucy aka The Frilly Farm Dog. She is precious. Seriously. 

Also, I have a dog named Letta, who is pretty much the best dog ever. She is actually my mom's dog, except when I am home then she is my buddy. We have been through a lot together. One tore MCL, two broken feet, one foot surgery, one wrist surgery and one broken pinky ... and she was right beside me the whole time. 

We also have a yorkie named Abbie and a black lab named Mattie. 

Meet Letta. 

And the nominees are ...

Katy from Farms, Pearls and Baby, Oh My!
Lori from On the Go with Lori Jo
Megan the Small Town Girl
Karolyn from Wild At Heart

My questions:

1. If you could do any thing for a day, what would it be?
2. What is your favorite snack?
3. Favorite Sport?
4. Is the glass half empty or half full?
5. Favorite memory from 2012?
6. What is your favorite past time?
7. Who is your favorite singer/band to listen to?
8. Be honest. Do you pretend you are a famous rockstar when you are alone in your car?
9. Do you believe in retail therapy?
10. Do you make list when you go to the grocery store or just wing it?
11. What do you do when you need a little extra motivation/inspiration?

Resolution Woes

If you are like me, the word "resolution" scares me a bit and I fail miserably each time I attempt to actually do resolutions.

So, this year I came up with what I think is a better solution to my resolutions woes. Instead of going all year trying to remember all the resolutions I had set in January, I decided to do a monthly "to-do" list instead.

I am starting off January a bit easier, just to ease my way into it. Each month I will post my five "to-do" list items for that month. The best thing about this is that I can decide on my list at the beginning of the month and tailor it to the things I have coming up that month. For example, May will be finals week, so my list that month can be eat healthy, get lots of rest, study a certain amount of hours per class, etc. So here we go. January, please be nice to this novice "to-do'er!"

January To-Do List 

1. Print more pictures- most of the time I take all these pictures, upload them to Facebook, twitter and instagram and NEVER print them out. I used to have all kinds of fun photos hanging in my apartments at college, offices, etc. and now I have none. The same pictures have been in some of my frames since I was a junior at OSU. Yikes! That was a long time ago!

 2. Drink more water- Before I ended my career with extension, I was up to drinking almost 160 ounces of water a day (for those doing the math, thats eight 20oz bottles) and felt great! So, my new goals is to start drinking that much water each day again. It is a bit trickier since I won't have a Culligan man to bring me water or an ice machine in the next room, but I will manage. Thankfully, the gym has an awesome ice machine I can "borrow" ice from and there are handy water filter machines on campus to get good water! This is totally do-able, right?

3. Take more vitamins- This is self-explanatory. I don't take any as of right now, so this should change. I am accident prone too. Vitamins should be a must for me.

4. Make my bed every morning- I am living in a new (tiny) apartment for the rest of this semester and since the apartment is smaller than tiny, a messy bed makes a clean apartment look messy. So, my goal this month is to get in the habit of making my bed. I think it is probably just a good idea to get in the habit of anyways, but it won't be easy. You see, I am typically the girl that is getting up and leaving the house with the perfect amount of time to get to the office before I am late and now throwing bed making into the mix will be a bit of a challenge, but I can do it. (Getting around earlier probably should be on my goals list too, but maybe next month!)

5. Send cards to friends and family- Do you love getting mail as much as me? It is by far my most favorite thing except getting bills. That isn't fun. Anyways, my goal this month is to send cards via snail mail for any occasion or no occasion at all. No occasion cards are my favorite. It is nice to know someone is thinking of you!

So, there you have it... My January To-Do List. I think I will go work on number four right now and actually make my bed for the day ... Yes, I realize it is past noon and I have been out of bed for three hours and it still isn't made. However, in my defense I just started this to-do system and it is my lunch hour so a productive lunch hour is better than a non-productive lunch hour! :) 

Peace, love and I love to-do list,

FFG

DIY: Dog Treats

If you have read about the Frilly Farm Dog, you know that Lucy is quite spoiled ... precious, but spoiled.

So, it is only right that she gets homemade dog treats, right?

I found a couple of different recipes on pinterest and combined them to make something I thought Lucy would actually eat!

All you need is wheat flour, peanut butter or baby food ... it really is as simple as that!

For the first batch, I went with baby food.

Ingredients Needed:
2 cups all wheat flour
8 ounces of baby food (I went with banana)

First, preheat the oven to 350F and mix all the ingredients together. It will be a really stiff mix, but that is what you want. After you get it mixed well, roll the dough out flat and use cookie cutters to cut out designs. If you don't want to hassle with the cookie cutters, you can just cut small squares. Place the treats on a cookie sheet and back for 20-25 minutes and let them cool ... that is it!

For the second batch, I went with peanut butter!

Ingredients Needed:
2 cups all wheat flour
8 oz of creamy peanut butter

You basically do the same thing as with the banana treats. However, instead of rolling out the dough, I just dropped small balls of the dough and used a fork to make them look just like (human) peanut butter cookies. Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes!

Each batch made a least three dozen treats. We had treats running out our ears, so we packaged some up for our doggy cousin's and friends.

Have you seen the no bake dog treats? That is on my "things to do" list ... but, I won't commit to any sort of time frame just yet! ;)

Happy Trails!

Peace, Love and Christmas Balls

94 years young!

My cute pops turned the big 9-4 this month! He can rock the overalls, plaid shirt and sperry look all day! He even has a couple pairs of Sanuks and is the hipster at the coffee shop!

I love to listen to all his stories from the past. He has seen a lot in his time!

Days like this make me realize how lucky and blessed I am to have all four grandparents still with me!

Wedding Crafts for Kinsey!

One of my very best friends recently asked me to make a few crafts for her wedding at the beginning of December! These were probably some of my favorite things I have made in a while and I personally thought they looked great at the wedding... Not that I am biased or anything like that! :)

Kinsey's wedding was one of my favorite weddings I have attended. It was like a pinterest board came to life. Wintery and rustic and absolutly perfect!

I didnt get a chance to take a picture of the "Here Comes the Bride" sign final product, but I have to admit, it turned out better than I thought it was going too! It was probably the hardest projects to make happen. The orginal idea was to print or paint on burlap "here comes the bride!" After failing miserably, I decided a decorated picture frame would be the easiest solution and I was running out of time to get it done before the wedding!

Thankfully, I had some burlap looking scrapbook paper on hand and designed the lettering for the sign on Indesign and hit print. It worked much better than I could have imagined and was a fun addition to the wedding!

I also made the ring bearer pillow. Although the actual ring wasnt carried on the pillow, it was still fun to make and way simple!

The garter's were part of Kinsey's personal shower gift (the rest still isnt finished, but hopefully it will all come together soon, haha) and was really fun to make! Kinsey used these as her "something blue," but you could easily do these in any color or them you wanted! I was really close to putting a glittery snowflake on Kinsey's, but I accidently glued my last snowflake on another project I was working on. Bummer.

And, finally the flower girl's basket. Can you tell Kinsey and I both love rolled burlap flowers? :)

The beautiful bride and I! Love you long time!

Ketchup- Part 1

I typically find myself taking pictures of random events and saying "I am going to blog about this" and actually never do ... It is a curse really. Therefore, this blog is dedicated to playing "ketchup" from everything I said I was going to blog about to things that might be left better alone. Hold on, this is going to be a nail biter.

First, let’s talk about Halloween. Nothing cool happened. Thankfully the cool kids in town opted not to egg, toilet paper or any of those other juvenile things that I, myself have never done before.

Disclaimer: The one time we did toilet paper someone, it was my friends Uncle's house and we had permission. The egging portion of this statement is dedicated to the sophomore class of 2005. Gotcha!



 

The last home football game of the season was probably my favorite game of the year. I missed a lot of games due to my work schedule for SWOSU and this was one of the few games of the year I got to spend with all my friends. Jess, Cami, Brody and I started out sitting together and right before the game started, Karolyn came up to sit by some other friends, not knowing we were sitting right next to her.

 

Spending time with my friends is by far one of my most favorite things and I am so blessed to have the group of friends that I do. I am so thankful that I was chosen to be in the Freshmen in Transition program way back when. If it wasn’t for FIT, I wouldn’t have the group of friends I do today. Love you all! :)

Okay, moving on.

I had a really bad stye on my eye for about a week, but I will spare all the details. It wasn’t pretty.

Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays because it means that Christmas is coming and it is finally appropriate to start decorating for Christmas. :) But, before I rush into Christmas, I got to spend time with my family and had a nice break from school. My favorite part of Thanksgiving day was taking family photos for my cousins. My baby cousins are the cutest things ever. Seriously, see photos below.

Next, was the Minco Honey Festival. What a day. I decided to have my own booth at the craft festival this year. I am still in the air about whether this was a good decision or not. While it was a lot of fun, it was tiring and a bit stressful. But, fun nevertheless. Especially when Baby Tate came by to visit me. He loves his Auntie B. Just ask him! Note: Even his bib says "I love Auntie!"

 

It took a few days to recover from the Honey Festival and then I decided to go ahead with Christmas decorations. I decorated the inside first of course and then tackled the outside. I typically don’t do lights outside for the simple fact that I am a girl and haven’t conquered that part of homeownership yet, but this year I wrapped the porch in white and pink lights. It looks cute and fun, although I only remembered to turn them on about four times all month.