Photo of the Day: Gumbo! This sneak peek pic is a preview of my post about H and 8th, a night market in downtown Oklahoma City that totally rocked my world. So many food trucks. So many cute puppies. So much fun!
Photo of the Day: A little snippet of my outfit from Friday. I picked up this watercolor dress by Gianni Bini at Goodwill for $5…and it was in perfect condition?! Macklemore would be proud. The pink necklace is from a boutique in Abilene, Texas.
5 Things You Need to Know About Football Time in Oklahoma
1. On gameday, we wear crimson and cream.
2. Avoid traffic and paying for parking by parking at a friend’s house or apartment complex and walking up to the stadium. It’s not that far. You’ll survive.
3. You will walk into every game saying, “I’m not going to buy any food, I’m just going to wait, we’re getting Cane’s after the game” and then you will find yourself with cheese fries and a lemon chill in your hand. Plan your bank account accordingly.
4. If you’re sitting in the student section, you will be standing for all 4 quarters. Don’t wear your brand new cowboy boots unless you want to be openly weeping while walking home. (I wouldn’t know anyone who has made that mistake…cough cough).
5. Yell, scream, mug for the cameras, boo the other team, catcall the cute players, sing all the songs (including the requisite playing of Sweet Caroline in the 4th quarter), and resist the urge to leave early. Because you won’t be a student forever, and even though someday you’ll be a rich alum with box seats, there’s nothing like being sandwiched between a drunk sweaty frat guy and the next OU head coach who loves critiquing every play.
Photo of the Day: My friends and I hit up the local outlet mall last weekend, and I lucked out by finding this fantastic robin’s egg blue blazer at Loft for a pretty sweet deal. I’ve been needing a new blazer anyway, and this deal was too good to be true. Enjoy!
Housekeeping, y’all
Good news! I’ve updated my resume and the 5,000+13.1 page, so if you’re looking for a talented and totally hireable strategic communications student, wishing you had a mini fitness blog to read, or just really bored, go check ‘em out.
It’s curtains for you!
I originally bought Ikea sheers for my apartment windows, but after spending about a week waking up too early for humanity, I realized it gets quite bright in my room in the mornings.
Curtains are not cheap, however, and I’ve already spent a bit outfitting the rest of my room (don’t worry, pictures are to come!). So I decided to follow this tutorial from my favorite RVA bloggers, Young House Love, to create my own curtains.
I started out by buying 2 yards of fabric from Hobby Lobby. I knew I wanted some kind of grey print. A grey and orange ikat patterned cotton originally caught my eye, but since my room is in shades of purple and grey, I didn’t think it would work out so well. Luckily, a grey chevron patterned cotton really stuck out to me! I love the chevron trend, but I think it sadly will be headed out of style soon, so I’m glad to use it in this apartment for a low investment.
Speaking of an investment, the fabric and seam tape (as requested by YHL) only set me back $14 with my 40% off one item coupon (check the Hob Lob app). Such a great price, considering I already had a $10 rod that I got for my sheers.
I followed their tutorial pretty closely, except I did less measuring. I’m kind of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants crafter, so I used the peaks of the chevron as guides and it ended up fairly even.
If you guys plan on making the curtains, I highly suggest you follow YHL’s directions, but here’s a quick recap if you’re too lazy to click over:
1. Heat up an iron.
2. Decide your seam allowances based on how much fabric you buy. 2 yards was perfect for my 19 by 34 window.
3. Measure your seams (if you’re not me).
4. Follow the directions on the seam tape that you buy, ironing each side down to make a neat folded edge and testing it after it cools. I had to do some spots twice.
5. On the top side, don’t forget to make a pocket!
6. Hang and enjoy.
One change I made to the YHL design was creating a pocket for the curtain rod rather than buying clippie hooks. I thought it would look sleeker and go with my overall design better that way.
Drumroll please….check out my $14 curtains and let me know what you think!
Wish I could achieve an epic braid like this! I taught myself how to French braid my own hair at a young age, but I can’t even manage a fishtail braid now. Maybe my hair doin’ skills are declining with age…
Photo of the Day: A delicious chocolate raspberry cake I had at the Canebrake in Tulsa. Amazing resort with even better food.
What I Ate: pork covered in a raspberry sauce with German noodles and roasted vegetables. SO GOOD. I have so much food to write about from the retreat I just went on!
Grocery Shopping for the Young, Broke, and Health Conscious, part 2
I left you guys off with the promise of my money saving secret to grocery shopping. And now here I am to reveal it!
Drumroll, please…
I clip coupons.
My big secret probably isn’t as cool as you thought it would be (no, I didn’t get my blog sponsored by the National Cheese Board or something like that, but I WOULD BE TOTALLY OPEN TO THAT, let’s be clear) but it has saved me some big bucks!
Couponing has allowed be to take my original estimate of $50 a week on groceries down to a cool $35. And it’s even going down more now that I’m getting over my compulsive need to go shopping every week (money saving is addicting). I would go and buy things I unknowingly still had enough of in the fridge. One completely wasted bag of organic spinach down and I learned my lesson.
Oh, were you hoping for a list of carefully honed couponing tips? You’re in luck!
Couponing Tips for College Students
1. Don’t let the idea of “saving money” talk you into buying things you don’t need….
It doesn’t save you any money when you get a dollar off a tub of yogurt when you already have three tubs of yogurt in the fridge. That food will go to waste. Not cool, man.
2. …or things you don’t want.
I enjoy eating healthfully with some organic items, and I wasn’t about to compromise that to save 50 cents on a bag of Cheetos. I only use coupons on food that I would buy anyway, like Greek yogurt, turkey burgers, deli turkey, and Babybel cheese. That allows me to spend more cash moneys on fancier items, like goat cheese and organic pasta.
3. Invest a little time in planning.
Of course you’ll want to plan by clipping coupons from the paper every week and searching for your favorites on databases like Coupons.com. But you also have other tasks to complete! Don’t be like me and buy things you already have in the fridge. Look at what you have, and make a list based on that. Then check your coupons. Also, plan well by spending some time googling the brands you like to see if their websites offer coupons just for being a fan, like Chobani!
4. Share the love!
I can sometimes get extra coupon inserts from the papers at my work. Once I’m done with them or if I already have those coupons, I pass them off to friends of mine! Just because I don’t eat peanut butter doesn’t mean that $1 off has to go to waste.
Do you have any couponing tips I missed? Am I a total loser?