Filming at The Pioneer Woman’s ranch in Oklahoma (where the wind came whistling down my zebra striped pajama pants).

First things first:

May I start by saying that the day after filming and meeting Sheila and Ree and the crew,  I broke out in a horrible cold sore on my lip so I was very grateful for the timing of this trip as nothing quite says “GET TO KNOW ME!” like herpes.

And…

There are eleventyhundred photos in this post, so I am taking advantage of the “read more’ button.  (Also, you can look at my Flickr set here for more photos).

And, and…

Let’s get the 2 things I know  you want to know the very most out of the way.

YES, MARLBORO MAN IS JUST AS FREAKING GOOD LOOKING AS YOU THINK HE IS GOING TO BE.

(No photos, sorry. I thought it would be rude and I was already trying really, REALLY HARD not to stare at the poor man’s infamous heiny when he walked out the door. What can I say? I am weak.)

He and Ree are both ridiculously good looking. I’m surprised you don’t have to wear sunglasses when they stand together. (And suddenly I am feeling like I should move on before I start referencing and/or comparing them to an angst filled, sparkling in the sun, teenage vampire couple. I do this for the good of all, really. Consider it a gift to you all.)

And.

No, there were no cinnamon rolls.

I know, I know, but this was a problem for no one.  Ree just got home from filming “The View” and they lost her luggage. No way was anyone going to expect her to make rolls, dude.  We had “stunt rolls” and Ree STILL showed up with the most heavenly smelling, yeasty dough “just in case”. What a gal she is.

And for the third thing that you might not be DYING to know, but you still may be WONDERING about.

Why THE heck was I there in the first place?

I was there to film the first in a series of 5 videos as part of the Putting it Together series for BlogHer. My episode is called “A Day In & A Night Out”. Ree, Sheila and I talked about what we “really” wear in the day, what we do when we actually need to be seen in public and then what we wear for a night out. (I may or may not of told Ree that she should taxidermy her maternity yoga pants full of holes and mount them on her wall.).  We also talked (and named the blogs of) tips and tricks from commenters who joined in about the topic. You can be part of the rest of the series by leaving comments on Susan’s blog, Friday Playdate as we continue the series by sharing ideas for the 2nd installment about how we “give back” in our communities.

THE VIDEO WILL BE POSTED IN THE NEXT WEEK (or so).  :)

I had SUCH an amazing time.  Shelia is teh awesome, people. I luff her.

But…

The trip there sucked.

It suckasuckasuckaSUCKED a duck six ways from Suckville, people.

Nothing seems to fly direct to Tulsa. The lines for check in and security were like nothing I had seen since right after 9/11 and I ended up throwing tons of my personal belongings in the trash and carrying everything on in a desperate attempt to make my flight WHICH I MISSED BY 30 SECONDS.

I ended up being 3 hours late meeting Sheila and Erin and we (we meaning ERIN) had to drive in a pretty snappy fashion to beat the sun. We were scared we would miss the turns for the MASSIVE FREAKING RANCH in the dark. (We thought that they lit a bonfire of “YOU ARE SO AWESOME to welcome us but alas…it just turned out to be the spring burn. The spring burn is a LITTLE freaky as there are just random fires burning, oh, EVERYWHERE.)

Lisa Stone (President of BlogHer) was waiting for us at “The Lodge” with hummus, bread, fruit, cheese and wine. HEAVEN!

We picked out all our outfits, laughed, talked about boys (and laughed about boys) and braided each other’s hair. Or whatever.

And of course, Lisa showed us around “The Lodge”

It is BEAUTIFUL there.

The views are amazing.

More of “The spring burn” in the distance…

The touches in the place were so pretty. (Seriously…have onions ever looked so amazing?)

It even smelled amazing thanks to the fresh vases of lilies that were placed around.

No ranch is complete without THE BOOT WALL. (If I had stayed in Oklahoma any longer I would have purchased a pair of cowboy boots, I know it. Although considering where I live they would have undoubtedly gone over better than when I vacationed in Hawaii and became convinced that mumus, shells and flowers in your hair is a MUST HAVE FASHION LOOK THAT YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY DEPART THE ISLAND WITHOUT ACQUIRING FOR YOUR WARDROBE. .)

Then, as we had to get up at the asscrack of dawn, we went to bed.

Those beds are heaven.

Heaven.

HEAVEN.

I slept better than I have slept in a really long time and when Lisa woke me up I lay in the dark and suddenly realized the light was shifting. I rolled over to look out the sheer curtains and saw the makings of one of the most amazing sunrises I have ever seen. (Shut up, y’all. I HAVE seen some sun rises in my life dudes! Not many, I’ll grant you but I live in a ring of mountains so the sun is pretty high by the time it actually appears. If I could see something like THIS in the mornings, I’d probably get up a lot earlier.)

I went out onto the deck outside my window to take it all in before going to have breakfast and coffee before showering in the GINORMOUS SHOWER in my freaking amazing en suite bathroom and getting ready for the crew to show up.

We had a sweet as they come hairstylist and I wanted to pack up the makeup artist and take her home with me.  (It’s a rare soul that can be the makeup artist for Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood who doesn’t make you feel shamed and intimidated when she tells you that you keep getting boogers in your nose and gets your nostrils looking decent for documentation. I dubbed her ‘Loralee’s Booger Patrol’. Awesome.)

The shoot was well…a shoot. Full of crew, hair & makeup, lights, sound equipment and staged coffee cups.

It went really well.

Except dude, they were NOT KIDDING ABOUT THE WIND.

AND EXCEPT THAT ERIN HAD ME WEAR AND FILM IN THIS OUTFIT MOST OF THE DAY.

Stunning, no?

She loved my zebra PJ’s and the scrub top is because I usually putter around in the scrub bottoms and a white top. If I have to go out quickly looking a bit, er…thrown together I’ll put on the scrub top and just hope people think I’ve come off a 3 day medical shift and am REALLY DEDICATED TO MY JOB.

(I know. I am ashamed. Heh.)

But in all truthfulness. I have definitely padded around my house and dinked around on social media wearing something similar. And I would probably hop in my car in this get up to go get my beloved Diet Coke. (I know. It’s a good thing that I’m not addicted to anything harder because I would be sleeping on a urine stained mattress under an overpass at this point, I”m sure.)

As Sheila and I crammed both of our bodies into the single passenger seat of her pick up (the one and only time I have thanked my maker for giving me a flat ass) she looked at me and said, “You really got the short end of the stick today, huh?”

Ree is so gracious. She opened up her beautiful home to us lot and even brought cookbooks to sign and gift to us all.

I brought her a “thank you” gift of my own: Lawry’s seasoned salt (of course), an apron almost identical to the one I love and wear and a camera strap cover (also from the same shop that I bought mine at)

Ree is simply LOVELY.

And funny.

And she was born to stand in the Oklahoma wind and look beautiful. For reals.

I may hang out in my PJ’s a lot but I have some great tips for throwing an outfit together in the day and Sheila and I had a lot to say about it. For example? Thanks to Sarah, I love scarves. I tend to always wear the same earrings and necklace for long stretches (for this filming I wore my adorable @looneytunes silver necklace sent by the FABULOUS company Survival of the Hippest and my Cambria Cove earrings that I got in a suite put together by Marie and Allison at Mom 2.o in Houston.)

I admitted that I don’t wear dresses (unless for my performances as a classical singer. Yes, I sang for Ree. I think she liked it. :) ). And that I have never owned a “little black dress”. I DID tell Ree that instead of holding a cotillion she should have a COWtillion and invite me. THEN I would gladly buy a dress.

Heh.

And, of course, I talked about the importance of having an adorable bag.

Which I DO.

I also got the opportunity to meet her adorable boys and talk with “The Marlboro Man” who is simply…damn good looking, people. Also…he is the cutest soccer dad ever. They had FIVE GAMES that Saturday and we had a throughly lovely talk with him. And with Josh, who pretty much lit the entire hill on fire after we finished shooting. (He is adorable. I know, it’s cringeworthy to call a cowboy “adorable” but dude…he so was, I can’t help it!)

Laying next to him is the adopted stray, “YO YO” that we all spent a good deal of time chasing around when she would sneak into the house.

She’s very sweet, too.

We finished the shoot and looked at some film, hugged and laughed and packed and went on our merry way.

My visit was GRAND and full of laughter, wide open spaces, “Oklahoma roosters”, beautiful people, ranches and much loved maternity yoga pants.

And cows.

Musn’t forget about them.

I loved my time in Oklahoma.

It’s a beautiful, magical place and I’m better for getting to know it.