Anniversary Trip to New Orleans.

Last Saturday was our 6 year anniversary.  And to celebrate, we headed to New Orleans!

Right after we got there, we went down to the French Quarter to grab a muffaletta to share from Central Market.  It was massive and super delicious.  (As you will see in this post, our trip pretty much revolved around food.) 

This was our view as we enjoyed the muffaletta and Barq's root beer out of a bottle. 

We then walked over to Jackson Square.

We took this exact same picture over 10 years ago. 

We did some more walking around and then got ready for dinner at Stella. 

It was one of the best meals I have ever had.  Is it bad that the idea has crossed my mind to fly to NO just for the evening to eat there?  If you are in New Orleans, I cannot recommend this place enough.  The ambiance was great, the service was perfect, and the dinner was unbelievable.  Go to their website to check out the menu (and be prepared to drool).  I am still thinking about how phenomenal my entire meal was (lobster and mushroom gnocchi, miso and sake glazed sea bass, and bananas foster french toast for dessert).  Justin was equally happy with his crab risotto and duck cooked 5 different ways.  Stella also renewed my love for St. Germain.  We left very happy campers.

Then we kept things classy and went to Harrah's and played some black jack.  :)

The next day we took a streetcar down through the Garden District.  Here are some of the sights along the way:

 

There were beads in almost every tree! 

We hopped off the streetcar and walked over to Magazine Street, which has some good shopping.  Unfortunately, most of the shops were in groups along a long stretch and without a car, we just randomly picked one group of shops to visit.  On the way back, we noticed a lot of cool places, but we'll just have to go back and check them out next time!

After shopping, we took it easy (Justin watched the World Cup and I napped) and then got ready for dinner at Commander's Palace.

We were very disappointed with our dinner there.  I won't go into all of the details, but the timing of things was off and overall things just weren't impressive (for example, one waiter told us there was no sommelier, another told us there was).  And maybe the thing that bothered me the most -- they put balloons in the dining room for birthdays (as you can see below)!  I would expect that at Chuck E. Cheese, but not at Commander's Palace.  The food was good, but we won't be going back.    

Our last day there, we headed over to Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au laits in the morning.  No trip to New Orleans would be complete without these tasty treats!  

For lunch, we went to Mother's.  This place is traditional New Orleans' home cooking -- and it is good! 

We couldn't decide what we wanted, so we got a little bit of everything.  We knew we had to get po-boys because, like beignets, no visit is complete without them.  We also got (from left to right) jambalaya, red beans and rice, and gumbo.  Everything was so good, but the jambalaya and the gumbo were amazing. 

We walked around downtown a bit after our enormous lunch.

After walking around a bit, we headed to the airport.  Sadly, our anniversary trip (and gorge-fest) had to end at some point.  We had a great time.  And of course, it was awesome just spending 3 full days of not working one minute with Justin.  (I'll do a separate post with a recap of our hotel, the Windsor Court.) 

And this post would not be complete without me mentioning that I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband.  He is truly an amazing guy and I can't imagine my life without him.  I never thought that at age 15 I would start dating the man I was going to marry!  The last 6 years have been the best, and I can't wait for ten times that many more years together.                

Meg's Birthday.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Meagan's birthday.  I am a little behind in recapping the festivities, but we had a blast!  Justin and I attended a wedding and then headed straight to the bowling alley to meet up with the group.

Wedding attire + bowling alley socks and shoes = awesomeness.

Me and the birthday girl!

Action shot of Justin bowling in a suit.  (He claimed the suit jacket "interfered" with his arm motion, but wouldn't take it off.  Clearly looking classy while bowling took priority over his score.  We got a lot of looks that evening.)

After bowling, we headed to a karaoke bar.  The pictures are dark, but I think you can make out what unfolded . . .  

Kevin, Justin, and Jeremy singing "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" by the Darkness. 

Justin has removed his jacket and tie, and Jeremy is really working that air guitar.

Kevin taking off his shirt (this isn't too uncommon of an occurrence); and Jeremy is totally getting into it (he used to be in a band, so he knows how to put on a show).

And the highlight of the evening . . . a random lady woman comes up and rips Kevin's undershirt off.  I also love how Jeremy is totally oblivious to what is happening.

By far, their performance was the crowd's favorite.  Hope you had a great birthday, Meg!

And since Meagan's birthday, Kevin also turned a year older.  So happy birthday, Kev!

Pretty Pink Peonies.

I have the best husband in the whole world.  This past weekend, he ran to the store while I stayed at home and worked.  While he was there, he picked up the prettiest bouquet of pink peonies (my favorite flower).

Since I spent 90% of the weekend working in the dining room (why go upstairs to the office, when you can rearrange the dining room table chairs to serve as extra desk space?), I put the flowers on the table in there so I could see them while I worked.

Working almost all weekend was no fun, but looking up and seeing the beautiful flowers (and smelling them) made it a little more bearable. 

Mirror Twins.

While taking a quick break from drafting a massive brief for work today, I decided to look at pretty pictures of bedrooms on decorpad.  During my search, I came across this image that's from the blog Simply Seleta.

Remember my great vintage mirror find from craigslist (blogged about here)?  It's the exact same mirror! 

Maybe I am easily excitable right now since my head has been buried in case law and depositions for most of the weekend, but how cool is that?  Now I no longer have to imagine what the mirror would look like if I paint it white and can totally picture how the area will look once completed.  (As an update, I still haven't decided for sure what color to go with.)

Mystery Solved.

I have had this horrible bitter taste on my lips and on my fingers all day today, and I could not figure out why.  It was like I had just used nail polish remover and then accidentally put my nails up to my mouth (don't tell me I am the only one that does that!).  I washed my hands about a thousand times today and it would never go away.

After some internet research, I determined that I am not alone.  It is actually from the 3M dust remover Justin used to clean my laptop this morning!  According to 3M's website, they put a bittering agent in the canned air to discourage bozos people from huffing it.  The liquid can dry on your keyboard, leaving a bitter residue.

It was kind of funny looking through people's thoughts about what could be causing it.  Some of my favorites: (1) being poisoned; (2) having gastro-esophageal reflux disease; (3) taking Vitamin D or acai berry; (4) using acne medication; or (5) having liver disease.

I did not take the advice of many people who recommended you lick the keyboard to see if it's bitter.  Um, no thanks.  I did, however, already take 3M's advice and wiped down the keyboard with isopropyl alcohol and water.  I am just glad the mystery is solved!  

Bamboo Mirror.

Recently, I have been on the hunt for an affordable bamboo mirror to hang in our master bedroom above the desk.  Here are some of the options I found during my search:

From ebay (buy it now price: $1,050):

(photo: ebay listing)

Hampstead Mirror from Williams-Sonoma Home (on sale for $466.25):

 (photos: here)

Greek Key Mirror from Ballard Designs (for $269):

 (photo: here)

All of those options were more than I wanted to spend.  But after some persistent looking, I happened to come across the perfect vintage bamboo mirror on craigslist for $150!  These are the seller's photos:    

And here it is in its new home above the desk:

I originally thought about cutting off the top part and hanging it horizontally, but I love the detail in the top.  Now I just need to decide on what color to repaint it.  Any suggestions?  White, black, something else?

Penguin Classics.

I received 5 of the Penguin cloth-bound Classic books for Christmas and love how they look on the bookshelf in our living room.  I was excited to see that they recently released some new editions!  How fun are they?

(photo: here)

I finished reading Jane Eyre a couple of weeks ago. I have never read it before, and loved it!  I need to add the new releases to my Amazon wishlist and decide which book I'll read next.

My Two Cuties.

Just thought I would share some cute pictures of Riley and Zoey . . .

Here's Riley helping us out when we hung the gallery wall.  Clearly, he was worn out by all of the hard work.

And here's Zoey looking a little goofy on the way to the dog park this evening.  Her tongue is covering the fact that she lost her bottom two front teeth yesterday!

If the number of pictures we take of our dogs is any indication of when we have kids, we are in BIG trouble.

Bedroom Update: Wallpaper Panels.

I posted previously here about deciding what wallpaper to use for the panels in our bedroom.  While I really love the look of the romo kimura wallpaper, after a lot of thought, it just wasn't the best choice for the space.  So I ordered 6 more samples from Graham & Brown.

(click to enlarge the pics to see the samples close up.)

I had to include this one because Riley is such a good helper!  

Here's a close up of the 2 on the far right.  After seeing them in the space, I'm not going to use either of them for the panels, but plan to frame them and use them somewhere else.  You gotta love $2.00 art!

Here's a close up of the 3 on the far left.  I love the pattern and that they're metallic.  We decided on the one on the left for the panels.  It's the manderley in gold.  It's perfect -- the flowers are gray and pick up the wall color and the duvet cover, and the background is a gold-ish beige, which picks up on the linen piping on the bedding and the headboard.

Hopefully the wallpaper will get here this week and we can put up the panels shortly thereafter!   

Bedroom Update: Gallery Wall.

I bought some Ikea Ribba frames a while back for a gallery wall in our bedroom.  I had a hard time deciding how to lay out the gallery wall, which would be on the same wall as the TV.  (note: don't let your husband have unfettered discretion in picking out the TV for the bedroom because his definition of "reasonably sized" may vary from yours.)

I couldn't decide if I wanted a random arrangement . . .

(photo: element interiors)

or a more organized symmetrical arrangement.

(photo: decor pad)

Then I saw this picture and was immediately drawn to the layout.
 

So from the inspiration pic above, our gallery wall flanking the TV was born:

Here's a shot of the layout straight on:

I like how it turned out!  Next steps:  deciding what to put in the frames, accessorizing the dresser, and hiding the TV cables behind the wall.

5 things . . .

5 things I am thankful for . . .

1.  My mom.  We had a great brunch yesterday at Mockingbird Bistro.  I am so thankful to have such a wonderful mom.  Clearly the dogs didn't get the memo that the camera was straight ahead and not to our left. 

2.  My super cute dogs.  Although I really wish the little one would learn that it is okay to rest.    

3.  Not having to travel this week (typed as I knock on wood). 

4.  Root beer floats.  I have recently been craving these.  So delicious.  We also tried root beer float shots not too long ago, and they are super tasty as well.  To make them, mix root beer vodka with some kahlua and a little bit of half and half.  Our friend Kevin is really the master at making the drink.

Justin isn't a fan of root beer floats (despite his love for root beer and ice cream), so he just takes vanilla ice cream and puts some chocolate syrup on it with a little bit of milk poured on top.  It's so weird to me.  He calls it a "milk float," and I refer to it as a "deconstructed shake."  

5.  The show Community on NBC.  This past week's episode with the paintball competition was so good!     

Not only is the show hilarious, Joel McHale is so dreamy.

Dallas Hotels.

During a two of my recent trips to Dallas, I stayed at the Warwick Melrose Hotel.  The hotel is very charming, and I enjoyed my stay both times (even if it was for work).  The rooms were nice and spacious, comfortable, and decorated beautifully.

How great are those crystal lamps and mirrored-top nightstand?  And the chair and ottoman were so cute.  

One of my favorite pieces of furniture was the mirrored dresser.  I wish it would have fit in my carry on! :)

Both of my rooms had nice bathrooms.  Here's the first one: 

and a portion of the second one.  I loved the scones.  I didn't get a good shot of the whole bathroom in my second room because the natural light wasn't cooperating.

I don't know if my favorite part of the room was the glass doorknobs . . .

or the ceiling fan (which is really a must in Texas).

I loved the lanterns that lined the entire hallway.

The staff was also extremely friendly and the bar there was great too.  Overall, two thumbs up.  I would definitely stay there again. 

I also stayed at the Fairmont during another one of my trips to Dallas.  It was nice, but nothing super special.  I was also in my room for all of about 8 hours, 6 of them spent sleeping.  The room was big and had a large closet as well.  It just didn't have the charm of the Melrose.

But I did have some great views of the hotel pool and of the city from my room:

(Pardon the quality of my pictures, they were all taken with my blackberry.) 

Despite staying at nice hotels and eating delicious meals, my favorite part of every trip is coming home to my wonderful husband and the cutest dogs.

Office Inspiration.

I must have offices on the brain given my crazy work schedule recently. But how great is this office?  It seems very soothing.  Love the wallpaper, light green desk, and of course, the amazing chandelier! 

(photo: decorpad.com)

I am headed back to Dallas for the fifth time in 15 days . . . glad it's a quick flight!  

Dreaming of Time Off.

I have billed almost 150 hours in the last 2 weeks.  Needless to say, I am super tired and haven't had time to do much else besides work. 

Maybe it wouldn't be as bad if my office looked like this . . .

(photo: traditional home)

Unfortunately, this coming week isn't any better. I'll be in Dallas for most of it for more depositions. I'll be back in a week or so . . .