WE'RE ENGAGED!

Oh my freaking gosh! My best friend asked me to marry himmmmmmmmmmm!! I am so beyond thrilled it's crazy. Blog world get ready for some wedding planning, Madalene style :) I cannot wait to spend my life with Ryan! AHHHHHH :)

I apologize for the screaming, obviously I'm still on cloud 9 :)

Halloween Rag Wreath

Since I have been all about wreaths lately, I decided to make a halloween wreath! This one is really easy to make, but can take quite a while. I got the inspiration from pinterest, but found different ways of doing this online.

Things you need:
-fun holiday fabric (4 patterns, 2 yards each)
-wire wreath form (I got the large one with 4 rings)
-ribbon to hang your wreath from
-wooden letters
-paint to paint wooden letters

A. Cut strips of fabric, about 6" long and 1" wide (longer if you want), and tie in a random pattern around your ring.
B. Take a piece of ribbon and tie a loop about the top of your wreath to hang it from.  I tied it around the second ring.

C.  I wanted to attach the word "BOO" but the craft store was out of "b" so I went with "EEK."  I painted them orange and then topped it with sparkly spray paint.

D.  Attaching the letters to the wreath ended up being a little more tricky.  I ended up hot gluing ribbon to the back of the letters and tying them on to the wire form.

Here's my finished product!

A New Wreath

I made a ribbon wreath for my parents! It's very monochromatic with black, white and silver ribbon, but seriously, we represent four different universities and it's football season. Kind of hard to choose one school to put on the front door. (Let me rephrase - it would be easy to choose for MY front door, but for my parent's house, it was much harder). To see the tutorial on how to make this wreath, check out my post from February.

The only things that I did differently were to use pearl picks instead of jewels and I put a fun M on it! (Had to get my razorback color in it somehow!) I just bought a wooden M, painted it red, and hot glued straight pins to the back of it. After that, you just have to push it into the styrofoam form! Pretty easy.

Stay tuned, there will be a new wreath for Halloween soon!

Chicken Casserole

I haven't posted in a LONG time! Lots has been going on! I wanted to share one of my (and Ryan's) favorite recipes- Chicken and rice casserole! This casserole freezes well and it tastes even better each time you reheat leftovers. I could seriously eat this daily for a week or two...probably not a good idea! Funny thing is that this is the first meal my grandma made when my dad brought my mom home to meet the family. I have received a few requests for this recipe so I figured I would post it on my blog. So in the style of Ree Drummond, I am posting pictures and giving you a step-by-step tutorial.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups cooked rice
• 1 medium package frozen broccoli (chopped or in small pieces)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
• 1 can water chestnuts, sliced
• 1 small jar cheez-whiz
• 3-4 cups chopped or shredded chicken (use more if you want!)
• 1/2 cup milk
• Shredded cheese

I always forget about the milk....luckily if you DO forget to put it in, the casserole is still delicious (trust me, I've done it)

 Hmmmm...why is there a diet coke with the ingredients? Oh yeah...I'd don't cook without diet coke. Let's be honest, I don't do much of anything without diet coke. :)

 Place chicken in a pot and fill with water. Bring water to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 30-40 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Go ahead and turn the oven on to 350 if you are planning on cooking this now.

 While the chicken is cooking, go ahead and cook the rice.

 Drain the water chesnuts 

 Combine milk, cheez-whiz, broccoli, cream of chicken, and water chestnuts in a bowl or pot.

 Add chicken! I like to shred mine, but chopping works too. It's just whatever is easiest for you.

 Start adding rice until you think the mixture seems thick (but not too thick) - I end up using about 4 cups.

 Place mixture in a greased baking dish.

Sprinkle cheese on top. Seriously, who doesn't like extra cheese?

Pop in the oven for 30 - 35 minutes or freeze for later in the week. I think Ryan can vouch that it tastes pretty yummy after being frozen!

Not the prettiest picture, but I PROMISE it tastes amazing! If you do try it, let me know what you think!

Hope you have a great week!

I know some pretty talented people...

Over the last year or so, I have been kind of addicted to photography and local businesses :) I feel a need to share my favorite things with you!

The one who started the addiction to local business - Miss Allyson McGuire. Originally, Allyson was just incredibly artistically talented and used these talents to decorate coolers, canvases, and chairs for sorority stuff. Please believe me when I say that she was heavily utilized! Once she became an alumna, she was making and selling so many of these crafts that she decided to turn it into a business. She has been incredibly busy this year (even with just orders from me!). She also is into photography and does some graphic design work (all which is fantastic). Please check out a couple of pictures below as well as her blog and her facebook page. I am so very proud to be able to call her my friend and look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

Cooler made for my brother's birthday :)

Hog ornament!

Canvas (I want this so badly!)

What began the addiction to photography - Mrs. Madison Vining. I have known this talented woman since grade school. One random day last summer, she sent me a facebook request to "like" her new facebook page. Of course I went and looked at it, happened to win a discounted photo shoot for my family, and fell in love with her style of photography. My family got to be one of her first clients and I hope to take more pictures with her soon. Over the past year, I have seen her grow artistically and creatively and love every new picture she takes more than the last. All of her pictures are FABULOUS, but please check it out for yourself on her website and blog. She is especially talented with kiddos (I bet it helps that her son is the MOST adorable child I have seen in my entire life and a complete ham for the camera). She is an absolutely amazing photographer and from the looks of it, an even better momma with kiddo #2 on the way! Did I mention that this is the first time that my family has loved pretty much every single picture we took together? From boudoir to lolli parties to marketing for other companies, this woman has it all. She is able to get a feel for what each and every client wants, and delivers every time. Do not hesitate to call her and book, I guarantee that she will give you everything you want plus more!

Caden (her son) - I told you he was cute!

One of the pictures of my family :)

I haven't actually gotten to work with this next person yet, but I get to on April 30th! Ann Bennett is incredibly talented and I still can't believe she is new to this business. We both know common people from Tulsa, so of course I looked up her business on facebook when those common people had "liked" it. I instantly loved her style of photography as well as her graphic design work so I was super excited when I won a mini-session with her this spring. My best friend had the opportunity to do some engagement pictures with Ann and they are GORGEOUS. Like should be on the cover of a magazine. I know that Kara and Daniel loved her approach to the session and I absolutely can't wait for my own session at the end of the month. She recently redid her website as well and like everything else having to do with this woman, it's incredible. Here's a picture from Kara's shoot, but I will definitely be posting a lot after I get to take some pictures with Ann! Pleaseeeee go check out her facebook to look at some of her other photos.

Oh...and if you're in the market for a wedding photographer, I just heard Madison and Ann are teaming up. Ummmm let's just say the day I get engaged, they are getting a phone call because I cannot imagine a better team!

Okay...that's all I have time for now, but I promise to get some more of my favorite vendors up here soon! Hope you all have a fabulous day!

It's been too long

It has been way too long since I have written on this! Things have been pretty crazy with school, work, travelling, and CPA stuff. Since I last posted, I am officially eligible to take the CPA exam. I will start taking those at the end of May (which is going to be SUPPPPERRRR fun- NOT!). I had my first experience at Oaklawn (horse races) in March which was quite fun. I really got into it and ended up winning some money (always a good thing). I also got to go see one of my best friends in New York City for spring break. Ellen and I had way too much fun and I was really excited to see her! While up there, I got to go see my brother at school on his birthday. I took him some cupcakes from Crumbs which were absolutely amazing. I also got to spend a fabulous day on the back of a four wheeler with Ryan and three other fun couples at Mount Magazine on a Sunday afternoon. I could seriously do that every day for the rest of my life. It was so much fun and that area is absolutely gorgeous.

Well, that's the short story, but that's all I have for now! Check out some pictures from my trip to NYC:

With my brother on his birthday!

After taking the staten island ferry

Rockefeller Center

In Central Park

Looking back at the city

That's it for now. Time for another crazy week! Hopefully I'll update this thing sooner than later.



Just another rainy day

AHHHHHaoiberogwnoiaosbauifdhgnsga - What does that mean you might ask? That's what came out of my mouth about thirty minutes ago when I sent off my paperwork to start taking the CPA exam. Can't believe it's actually time to start! It seems like ever since I have been in college we have been talking about what we need to do to take the exam, and now it's time to actually take it!

On a more fun note, today has been kind of rainy and I saw this on a friend's facebook. Hope you are having a good day even if it is a rainy one!

Excuse me...does that mean I'm actually graduating?!

I just picked up my graduation robe, stole, hat and tassel. WHAT. THE. CRAP?! I can't believe I graduate in 81 days with my Master of Accountancy. 81 seems like a big number, but take out weekends and spring break and it's down to 54, then take into account I don't have classes on Fridays and it's down to 43. Seriously. FORTY-THREE DAYS OF CLASSES?!?! Please excuse my disbelief, but I really never comprehended that this was actually happening until now apparently. One more thing, what crazy person decided that DRAB (yes that's the official, gross tan-like color) should be the color for the business college stole and tassel? Obviously not a girl ;)

Now, on to some other exciting news. Last Thursday I had the privilege of attending the FarmHouse Sweetheart dinner where Kara was named Sweetheart for this year! Considering I don't keep secrets from her and if I do it comes out eventually anyway, it was REALLY hard to keep this from her! I think she was a little stunned when she walked in the room! I am so happy for her! Congratulations Kara!

 With some of the guys after dinner

Kaitlin (2009-2010) Kara (2011-2012) and Me (2010-2011)

Now off for a much needed workout. I think my body is about to hate me!





I'm Feeling Creative - Ribbon Wreath!

After much inspiration from my big sis, I decided that I needed to make a ribbon wreath for my house. A lot of my friends who have seen it have asked for me to post how to make them, so I am taking these directions from Shannon and sharing them. Please check out her two gorgeous wreaths on her blog. Thank you for giving me an idea of something to do and to occupy my (and Kara's) time!

Here is what you need:

12" styrofoam wreath form (Shannon used a 14", Kara used a 10" on one of hers, it just depends on what you want!)

Straight pins - I bought one big package (750) and probably used about half of them.

Ribbon! - You can use skinny or thick, whatever you want! I used mostly skinny so it took more, Kara used all thick so it didn't take as much, but both were really cute! I bought about 10 yards of 9 different kinds of ribbon, but only used a little over half of that.

Rhinestone pics from the bridal department at Hobby Lobby - So cute!

Ruler

Scissors

Step 1:
Cut the ribbon into about 4.5" strips. This takes quite a while,  Kara had a great idea to use the length of her phone (we have iPhones) to approximate the length.

Step 2:

Take a piece of ribbon and form a loop with each piece. The ends should overlap by about 1/2". Place a straight pin through the ribbon, from the inside out, to hold ends together. If your ribbon is one sided, make sure that your design is on the outside. It should look like this:

Step 3:

Attach the ribbons to the styrofoam form by pushing the pins into it.

I'm a little OCD about things being even, so I started by evenly spacing (somewhat) each ribbon. As it gets fuller you just have to randomly push them in and keep going until you can't see the styrofoam anymore.

Step 4: Once you have gotten it as full as you want it, you can put the rhinestones onto pins and push those into the styrofoam.

Step 5: Finally, add a loop of ribbon to the back (I just used a few pins to hold it in place) so that you can hang it on a door.

DONE! Awesome snow day project :) Thanks Shannon for the inspiration! She added wooden letters to hers which is also really cute! Below are Kara's wreaths (the first is for her mom and the second is for her house!)



Overall I am quite pleased with the results! Very excited to have something fun on my front door for the spring.