Help A Sista Out

I've got friends having babies every month until next June! I'm in need of some tips as this is the first child for all of my friends, I'm not a seasoned "Auntie Tine" yet - yes I'm making their kids call me that.

What was the best meal someone brought you or you've made for someone after having a new baby?

I'm trying to steer clear of the boring casserole route (unless you've got a recipe for a casserole that kicks all other casserole's asses!) but am kind of at a loss! Help please! I want to be able to bring something over that they will actually like and eat!

This made me laugh...maybe I should bring wine instead?

and for all the preggers or used to be preggers - one of Dave's friends whose in his ob residency sent him this:

OK now send me your recipes or tips on bringing food to new parents! Love y'all!

I've Missed You!

hI've missed you guys! Have you missed me?? I've been a bad blogger... Hi, my name is Christine, and it's been 2 months since my last real post. (hangs head in shame) I'm going to try my best to make it up to you. I mean I've gotta have 2 months of good stuff saved up somewhere right?

Here we go, apologies if you already knew this but I was in total shock when I found out (weeks ago, again, sorry) ZARA has a Home Line Now!?!! Yeah they do, and it's gooood!

Here's my picks:

1. Talia Throw - $59   2. Granitos Blanket - $99   3. Crown Pillow - $35.90   4. Walton Mirror - $79 
5. Cetus Servers - $16   6. Bronte Tablecloth - $89   7. Clio Dressing Gown - $89   8. Ballena Ashtray - $19

And since everyone I know is preggers - they've got Zara home for Kids too!!!

AND to make it easier for you to hit Purchase on that online shopping cart - they've got FREE SHIPPING for October!!! What are you getting?

I promise to come back more often... still friends?

Four Eyed Nerd

I've been wanting a new pair of glasses for a while for a few reasons:
1. You wouldn't wear the same earrings everyday, so why would you wear the same glasses?
2. I wanted to particiapte in the super nerdy big glasses look that's super trendy right now
3. I'm lazy and watch a lot of tv in bed and needed some bigger ones that I could still see the tv through when laying down...

So I was very excited when Firmoo contacted me to try out a pair of glasses with my prescription for free! It took me a while to decide which ones I wanted but when I finally did, they were super quick to ship them and I couldn't be more happy with my free pair of nerd glasses!
I loved that they have the option to upload your photo and virtually try on glasses, it made it so much easier to tell how they would look on. After virtually trying on several pairs, I landed on these: Unisex Acetate Full Rim Frame Glasses - in the brown color.

The only stipulation was that I had to take photos of myself wearing them... so without further ado here is my best attempt at "fashion blogger" poses. Please be nice.

And what's great is that Firmoo has a Free for New Buyer program! Which means you can ALL get a pair of glasses with your prescription in them For FREE! What are you waiting for? Go get yourself an extra pair of glasses! And post embarrassing photos of yourself wearing them so I don't feel all alone.

Tennis Love

It's no secret I'm a tennis fan. (Dave and I dream of going to every grand slam one day) With the US Open going on I thought I'd share some tennis love!

Vogue commisioned 11 designers to customize a tennis ball in honor of the US Open this year. Love all of them but here are my faves! Now if they'd just sell these... I'd love to have one of these on my desk!

You can see them all here. I hope this puts you all in the tennis spirit! :)

And while we're talking tennis, can someone come show me how to make my hair look like Brooklyn Decker's while she watched her hubby play his last professional match? so sad. Roddick was a lot of fun to watch! Here's hoping another American will step up and fill his spot.

Also, please note the OU shirt behind her.. Andy's brother is the head tennis coach at OU! I'm praying I'll run into Andy next time he's here visiting!

Latest Finds

I picked these black pants up from the Gap b/c I was sick of wearing jeans every. single. day. (I know... woe is me, I get to wear jeans to work) But these are just as comfy as jeans! Seriously go get yourself a pair now!

Have you all heard of Everlane? It's this great website offers designer quality t-shirts for a fraction of the price! I ordered this one in white b/c I can never have enough white tees! Plus they give you free shipping on the first 3 items you buy! What's not to love??

Stolen from their website:

"It's an industry fact: Your typical designer shirt sells for 8 times what it cost to make. But it doesn't have to be this way. We've set out to challenge conventions and build a new retail model.
We have no physical stores, no middlemen taking their cut and no crazy brand markups. Instead, we create our own luxury basics and sell them exclusively at Everlane.com. New designs each month, never over $100."
Actually not even close to $100.. I paid $25 for the white tee below and I've spent WAY more on tees before so I know what I'm talkin bout!

They also have a few accessories - I'm totally adding the weekender bag and the black belt to my wish list!

And I popped into the mall on Monday and got a 40% off coupon at Banana - I picked up this blouse that I plan on wearing un-clipped with my new black pants, much more laid back! Love the color!

And I bought myself a book - The Perfectly Imperfect Home: How to Decorate and Live Well I love the images in this and think it will make a great coffee table book.

Seaside

Dave and I vacationed in Seaside Florida for a few days before my family came down to Destin and the family vacay started. It was relaxing, fun and peaceful, just what the beach is all about.

If you've never heard of Seaside, Florida you might recognize the town from the movie The Truman Show. It's a very picturesque little town.

If you follow me on Instagram, I apologize, you've already seen a few of these. If you don't - what are you waiting for?? I Instagram WAY more than I blog these days! (Username: TineBaugh)
 

Our cute little cottage aptly named: Dreamboat

 Night 1:

Beer and Wine to go from Modica Market and Dave got to carry my suitcase up that spiral staircase. :) We had a casual dinner at Bud & Alley's Pizza Bar and relaxed in Dreamboat watching Step Brothers.

Our first full beach day - it was overcast for a while but it cleared up. I got a lot of reading done this day and that's about it cause that's how I roll at the beach.

We got cleaned up for a sunset dinner at Bud & Alley's rooftop deck. (oh yeah self timer pic!)

Our sunset dinner turned into sunset cocktails and an appetizer... the dinner prices were a little too high for our 'gotta buy a new car' budget. (who am I kidding - $34 for a crab cake is too high for our budget. period.)

The drinks were good though! And the view was awesome!

 

 So in lieu of spending our down payment on a crab cake we decided to do a food crawl through Seaside! It was the best idea I've had in a while. 

**funnel cake fries and fried pickles** **shrimp cocktail** **3 cheese grilled cheese**

**pulled pork sliders** **Pickles** **food truck lane**

we like long walks on the beach

 the view from our balcony

On our last night, my family came to meet us for dinner at the Taco bar!

Seaside was wonderful but we spent the rest of the vacation in Destin with the fam and had a great time as well. I'll bore you with those pictures later.

Do you remember?

Do you remember when I used to blog? Yeah, me too.. Sorry about that friends. I'm trying to be better but I think I have a pretty valid excuse....
A few weeks ago we were coming back from Tulsa and my car up and died. Like dead. done-zo. no more drivey. Or in mechanic terms "the engine through a rod", basically meaning I needed a new engine and it was going to cost $3k to put one in... long story short we decided a new car was a better investment. So I've felt kinda like my life was in shambles trying to figure the whole car purchase out. Oh and this happened 4 days before we were leaving for Florida for 9 days. Great timing!

Thanks to AAA for coming out to tow away the Jeep, we only had to wait about an hour. Luckily, we weren't far from OKC so Dave's parents were nice enough to come pick us up.

Now here's the fun part:
It was 100 degrees out and we were nervous about the dogs getting over-heated so we kept making them drink water to stay cool and we were fanning them off, but that kind of back fired... once we got into the AC, poor little Cooper couldn't hold it anymore and just peed all over us! I didn't want to set him down on the side of the turnpike b/c we didn't have a leash so it's totally our fault and we couldn't even be mad at that point, it was just the icing on the cake.

And in case you didn't read all that let me timeline that to make it easier:

1. Jeep died on Turnpike from Tulsa to OKC
2. AAA card had expired so I had to re-new
3. Oklahoma AAA office was closed so I had to explain to some guy whose never been to OK (and didn't know how to spell it) where we were stranded
4. Had to wait an hour for a tow truck
5. Worried about the dogs having a heat stroke so fanned them for an hour and fed them water
6. Rescued by Dave's parents and AAA tow truck
7. Cooper peed all over us

I couldn't decide what kind of car I wanted for the life of me... all I knew was that I wanted an SUV with either FWD or 4WD b/c the Jeep had RWD and it was Awful on the snow! I know we only get a couple of days a year where I'd need it but we decided it's worth it for those couple of days.
So I looked at a few crossovers and just didn't like any of them! They're too small to be considered SUV's! Seriously.

After lots of searching and lots of haggling I finally have a car! (3 weeks later)

My shiny new (used) 4Runner with 4WD! Love it so far!Here's my 2 favorite things about it: Navigation and Sunroof! :)

I look forward to driving this car for many many years! (and for my life to get back to normal)