What I'm Listening To...

If you've come within about 10 feet of me in the past two weeks you have probably heard me or seen me embarrassingly jamming out to Bakermat's "Baby." My obsession spurred from the current Old Navy commercial that is on TV right now. It only got worse when I took Kathleen's Barre3 class a couple weeks ago and the song was on her playlist. Cue internal dance break mid b3 combo work.

Bakermat's version is based off Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way." Which the DJ just so happened to play at Claire's wedding this past weekend. Cue dance break round 2. Only this time it was not internal. It was a full on push the guests to the side/form a circle around Annie/watch me embarrassingly think I'm good at dancing and singing kind of dance break. I pray there was no picture proof captured by the photographer. I should really keep my jam outs to by myself in my car...

Annie

Beauty Bites

When it comes to beauty and skincare, I am not a "product person." I'm a drug store mascara, forget to wash my face, sometimes my teeth, never get facials kind of person. As I'm getting more into my 20's, I'm trying my best to change my old ways. Every article I read turns into some rant about how important your skin regimen is, or "what I would have told my 23 year old self" turns into a lesson on taking care of your skin. I don't want wrinkles by the time I'm 30, so looks like it is time to grow up. at

Like I said, I've really been trying to invest in better products, take more time with my skin regimen and care more about what I'm putting on my face and body. Below is a list of my current "beauty bites." While I'm still a girl on a budget, one product is a pantry staple and nothing is over $30. 

LAZY DRY SHAMPOO
I am new to the dry shampoo world. I always swore it didn't work for me. My hair gets greasy after 24 hours, and have always washed my hair everyday if I want it to look decent. Once I joined the working world, washing and drying my hair everyday became a long and daunting task. Enter dry shampoo. It took a few weeks to get my hair used to every other day washes, but with some trial and error I've found some dry shampoos that actually work and help prolong the washing process. My current obsession is Lazy Dry Shampoo. It's all natural ingredients and locally made in OKC! You apply the powder with a soft brush at night, then you wake up and voila, non-greasy hair! It comes in two versions for light and dark hair. Lazy Dry Shampoo can be ordered here. 

RODAN + FIELDS FOAMING TANNER
I get pale in the winter, like sickly pale. When spring hits I get eager to add some color to my washed out winter skin, but it's not that easy. It takes weeks in the summer to get a tan. With my roommate's bachelorette trip in Scottsdale this weekend, I am in desperate need for some base color before being fully exposed to the sun. My good friend Bailey recently started selling R+F and raved about this tanner. I love that is is a foam, making it so easier to apply. The color shows up almost instantly giving me the color I dreadfully need.  Shop from Bailey directly here. 

COCONUT OIL
You've probably seen a million articles about all the benefits and ways you can use coconut oil, well it's true. I've recently started using coconut oil outside of just cooking with and more for topical use. Coconut oil has replaced my old make up remover. I have a jar in my bathroom that I use every night to wipe away my make up. It works better than any bottle remover you can buy at the store.  I have really dry skin so something that gently removes my makeup and moisturizes at the same time is a win win. I also apply a little extra on my lips and sometimes use it on my cuticles and elbows. 

DIY LAVENDER BODY SCRUB
My other roommate gifted me some lavender body scrub for Valentine's Day. Made from just coconut oil, sugar and lavender oil. My dry skin was obsessed. It became my ritual to go to hot yoga, come home light a candle in the bathroom, and use my lavender body scrub in a long hot steamy shower. A little home spa action. I found my skin not needing as much lotion post-shower because the scrub helped get off dead skin and moisturize with the coconut oil base. I ran out fast, but plan on using this recipe to make more on my own!

Annie

Happy 4th Take A Bite

Four years later and I'm still annoying you with my recipes, grammatical errors and obsession with food. Take A Bite has gone through many phases of it's life as well as many phases of my life. From terrible Photoshop collages, to dim lit food pictures, from sophomore year of college, to graduation, to my first job, to my second and now we are here. Four years later and I'm prouder than ever of my sweet little TAB. 

Take A Bite has brought me incredible friends and incredible opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise. It has allowed me to share my passions for cooking, baking, being creative and sharing with others. Nothing fills me up more than when someone tells me they tried one of my recipes. I write these posts, and sometimes wonder if anyone is reading them. Your comments, pictures, #takeabite hashtags etc. showing that you do, means everything. So thank you.

I didn't mean to get so gushy in this post... Let's eat instead! In typical Take A Bite I'm celebrating with Birthday Toast. I have a traditional breakfast every year on own birthday (Belgium waffles with strawberries and whipped cream), so I thought TAB deserved the same. I've been making this almond butter and sprinkle toast the past four years, from the Kappa house, to rent house, to OKC house. Make you some birthday toast and let's take a look back at some favorite bites.

My first post...omg.

Favorite posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

Most popular posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6

I've written 198 recipes and 198 Bites of My Life. (my OCD loves that)

TAB's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd birthday. 

Here's to many more blog birthdays!

Annie

Take a Pic with KGC Photography

Oh man, I have been patiently awaiting this post. A few weeks ago my friend Katie and I played around in my kitchen. I cooked and she photographed. Katie has the most incredible eye behind the lens and as soon as I saw the pictures she captured I wanted to post them all over the world wide web for everyone to see. Well the day has come to share. 

Katie and I became friends through our other friend Katie. Hi KG!! Now KR (still can't get used to that). We first bonded over finding out we both work in social media, then our friendship grew over our mutual love of matcha. Two bases of a deep friendship my friends:)

Katie started her own social media and website development company straight out of college. So impressive. But what I'm sharing today is even more impressive. After realizing photography was her real passion, Katie decided to dive head first into growing her photography business, a job not for the weak or weary! 

Katie has impressed me so much on how fearless she is in the entrepreneur world. Something I wish I had, but remain timid. She invested time and money into making her photog biz happen, and it totally paid off. KGC Photography has officially gone LIVE! KGC specializes in wedding and lifestyle shoots. I'm not getting married, #single, but when I got a snipit of her skills I immediatly texted her saying we had to do a shoot ASAP!

I'm obsessed with how the pictures turned out from our mini shoot. Katie knows exactly how to capture people in their element. Exhibit A, below. Me with my nose in a cookbook hanging out in my kitchen aka my favorite room in our house.

KGC Photography's website is up and moving and grooving. After only a few short months of shoots, she already has the most stellar portfolio. Check our her gorgeous work here. You can also stalk her via insta and FB. To stalk/get to know her more, we did a little Q&A so all you take a bite readers can see why you should "take a pic" with my girl Katie!

A: Give me some basics on KGC photography, what you offer, your style, your background, how you got your start in photography etc. 
KGC: Currently I offer lifestyle shoots + wedding photography! I don’t say no to much right now because I believe the more experience, the better. So I’ll take pictures of just about anything right now! I am loving getting to learn so much so often. It is humbling and exciting all at the same time. My style is definitely classic with a modern twist. I love the film look to digital photos, and natural light is my jam. I guess the correct way to describe my style would be moody, trendy, boho, and classic, all combined into my personal art :)

A: What made you decide to take the plunge to start KGC Photography?
KGC: Honestly, it was something that I wanted to do for a long time, but was really scared to start. I think the biggest thing that scared me is what others would think about it, which I don’t even know why I would care that much! After doing social media and taking many pictures for my clients, I knew that photography is the part of my business that I truly loved the most. There is something so special about someone trusting you to capture some of their greatest moments, and I think its a feeling that I will never get used to and always appreciate.

A: What is one piece of advice you would give someone wanting to start their own business? 
KGC: My biggest piece of advice is something that I needed to take myself: don’t worry about what other people think, and give it 100 percent. Starting your own business, no matter how big or how small, is an exciting yet nerve wracking thing to do! It has to be something that you are truly passionate about, because you will find yourself wanting to spend a lot of time on it. For me, I love it so it is never truly work. It is a very cliche saying, but very true!

A: What are your favorite and least favorite parts of photography?
KGC: There are so many things that I love about photography! I am a huge people person, so like I said earlier, I truly consider it an honor and a joy that people trust me to capture moments of their lives that they want to remember and be able to look back on. I still get butterflies when someone inquires about a shoot, and I don’t think that will ever go away! I also really love the editing process. I know some people don’t, but I see it as an opportunity to create hundreds of separate pieces of art that each have my special touch on them. I love being able to take something that started out ordinary, and make it into something extraordinary. I will never get tired of the moment that my clients open up their gallery and I get a special email or text from them, it is the most rewarding feeling in the world! To be honest, I haven’t found a least favorite part yet. Although I did wear a super uncomfortable pair of shoes the other weekend when I was second shooting a wedding for 8 hours.. I lost feeling in my last three toes for like three days. I definitely did that to myself. Learned my lesson on that one.

A: What is your 5 year goal for KGC Photography?
KGC: My five year goal for KGC Photography would be that I am booking out 30+ weddings a year, and getting to travel to at least 5 different places for 5 different weddings! I would also love to have a home office that I can edit in, but for right now coffee shops will do!

A: Coffee or tea? or matcha?! 
KGC: Gosh that is a hard question. Ask me 6 months ago and I would have been a coffee HATER. However nowadays, anything with caffeine is my jam. I’d say a dirty chai would be my drink of choice. Tea + espresso? Yes please. Now if we can just find a way to get some matcha in there somewhere.

A: Current Netflix binge?
KGC: Honestly, you’re going to think I’m crazy but I don’t even have a Netflix account! I’m a HUGE bachelor/bachelorette fan, so I am knee deep into Nick’s season. I haven’t missed a season in 4 years!

A: Favorite bite?
KGC: Right now, I’m loving brunch. I’m going to say Chicken and Waffles from Whiskey Cake!

You can follow KGC photography on Instagram under @cunninghamkatie, on Facebook @kgcphotographyokc and check out her gorgeous, newly launched site www.kgcphotography.com.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post featuring this amazeballs salad that Katie and I noshed on for lunch during our photoshoot. Look familiar? It's a copy cat of my fave salad from Republic.

Annie

What I'm Listening To...

Have you seen La La Land yet? It was just released in theaters nationwide on Christmas, but I urge you to get out and see it asap. It's already won arwards, predicted to win more and got 94% on rotten tomatoes, so that can help sway you too.

It's different from a typical movie, but it works. The story follows to California dreamers Mia and Sebastian as they strive to live out their goals, falling in love in the mean time. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling (heart eyes) are amazing. There is a lot of singing and dancing, but if you aren't into that don't let it scare you. If you are into that, run to the nearest theater. Since seeing it I can't get the songs and tunes out of my head. Especially John Legend's Start A Fire. On. Re. Peat.

Annie