No Plain Jane

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all images via Sea of Shoes

Meet Jane Aldridge. Jane is the author of Sea of Shoes, has incredible style, a killer shoe collection and was the first blog I ever read. She started Sea of Shoes back in 2007 as a hobby and it has now grown into so much more. My sister showed me her blog back when I was probably a freshman or sophomore in high school. I spent about two hours reading through all of her archives, then proceeded to read it every day. I must admit it has been a while since I checked her blog, but when I saw a tweet the other day about her apartment tour being on Teen Vogue I was intrigued.
Jane is now 21, living in Dallas, working on fashion deals and recently moved into her own apartment.  Teen Vogue did a feature on her eclectic styled apartment. Jane's style is definitely more funky and indie than my style, but she pulls it off. Her house has lots of rich jewel tones, unique furniture and paintings etc. Her home style is very similar to her clothing style. She does interesting pairings of patterns and textures, but for some reason it works. 
this is the perfect example of Jane's eclectic mix of texture, colors and pattern.

You can view the whole apartment tour on Teen Vogue or part of it on Sea of Shoes.

Oh and did I mention her mom is equally as fashionable. Her blog is fabulous too. This mom daughter duo has it going on.
xo annie

Tomato Feta Salad aka the "Megan Salad"

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This salad has quickly become a staple with my friends and family. My good friend Megan (hence the name) introduced us to this super easy and amazing salad. I eat this salad at least twice a week. As do my parents. After Megan made it for us when she stayed with my family over Easter, my parents love to text me when they make the "Megan salad."

It only calls for 4 ingrediants. These 4 ingredients are now always stocked in my fridge. This salad is the perfect side dish, great for a cookout or as fresh and healthy lunch! I had it yesterday with some grilled chicken added in, so yum!

You can see I eat this salad a lot, and like to take pictures of it. Pictured is the Megan salad on its own, as a side and which chicken for a more hearty main dish!

Megan Salad 

Ingredients:
cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
feta cheese, crumbled
a few leaves of basil, chopped
dressing of your choice*

Directions:
Slice tomatoes, chop basil, add in feta (i like a lot of feta). Toss with dressing and you're done! Like anything with dressing on it, it won't stay super fresh for long, but can stay in the fridge for a couple hours. 

*Sass' Sesame Garlic dressing is the preferred dressing but it can be hard to find. Check Whole Foods or other high end grocery stores. If you can't find the Sass, I've used Newman's Own Lite Sesame Ginger which is great as well. Even just plain balsamic vinegar works too!

Annie

Bites of My Life

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I'm disappointed in myself with the lack of pictures from last week. After getting home from Fort Worth, it was go go go! It was a busy week, but only filled with fun things! 
Wednesday afternoon started the holiday weekend. I spent the evening at one of my favorite lakes right outside of town. I ate delicious barbecue and watched pre-fourth of July fireworks with good friends! 
Thursday, we had a fourth of July celebration at our place. We laid by the pool all day and cooked-out at night! It got thrown together at the last minute, but ended up being one of my more favorite fourths!
Friday was Beyonce. Queen B came in to town and it was without a doubt the best concert I've ever been to. Beyonce was incredible and sasha fierce as always. "Love on Top," has been playing on repeat since.
Early saturday morning a group of us packed up to head to the lake to round out the weekend. You can't beat summer weekends at the lake. 

-cookies to celebrate with!
-my favorite cast back on TV for the rest of the summer!
-can't have the fourth without fireworks
-Beyonce causally flying from one stage to the other

I may have been skeptical of July, but so far so good. This week is already off to a good start. My ultimate guilty pleasure, Laguna Beach and The Hills are being shown on MTV again. I then have the John Mayer concert to look forward to this weekend!

Have a great week!
xo annie

Celebrate with Cookies!

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I saw this picture on Pinterest last week of an adorable platter of sugar cookies laid out like a flag. I have a signature sugar cookie recipe I've been making since about 4th grade, so when I saw this I knew my cookies would be the perfect sweet treat to make for the fourth! 

You can't beat my sugar cookies, buuuuut I've been wanting to try Emily's recipe to see if there are as good. What I love about the recipe she uses is the cookies don't spread once baked. My recipe is a little soft and the shapes tend to get a little deformed sometimes. Her recipe for royal icing is wonderful as well. It is super easy and doesn't taste like glue!

Of course I tweaked the recipe a bit because I can't help but make something my own! A teaspoon of vanilla was added to the cookie dough and a 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract was added to the icing. Bravo Emily, your cookies are just about as good as mine! Here is the link for the cookie recipe! 

I used a fairly small cookie cutter, but I rolled the dough out thick so they are still a substantial size! These little stars are just too cute! I love holiday food!

I can't wait to share these with my friends at our cook-out today! Happy Fourth of July!

p.s. If you're lucky maybe I'll share my secret sugar cookie recipe one day!

Annie

Dressing for the 4th

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I'm a huge believer in dressing for the occasion. When it comes to the fourth, I will be fully decked in holiday attire. I get a little mad when people don't participate in wearing red, white and blue. I can remember one year my family and I were headed off to our town's annual Fourth of July Parade and my mom thought it was okay to only wear navy and white stripes. Silly mom didn't have any red on! I quickly changed that by making her tie a red ribbon in her hair! I was a pesky little kid and did stuff like that...
I'm a little more subtle these days. Here is my version of the perfect Fourth of July outfit. Chambray, stars and a bright red lip!
sandal/dress/suit/lip

do you have your holiday outfit planned?
xo annie