trinity audubon

yesterday we had a "staff retreat" for work at the trinity river audubon center in south dallas. besides being a great opportunity to get to know the beautiful women i work with, it was a fantastic learning experience to see the center. this is the very first LEED-certified project by the dallas park & recreation department. not only do they have solar panels, floors made of local bamboo, walkways of recycled tires and insulation made from discarded denim, but the building itself was designed so that when you see it from above, it looks like a bird! it was truly an eye-opening adventure in the world of environmentally-conscious design. what a wonderful way to spend a beautiful day in dallas! if you live here or ever visit here, this is really something to see that might otherwise not be on your radar.

truthful tuesday - the mint plant

i realize it's been a while since my last truthful tuesday confession, so i have a good one for you today. remember the mint plant i told you about? well, let's discuss. stephen brought home the plant on wednesday and we were both excited to have a new plant! i forgot all about taking the picture of it with all the weekend relaxing and spring cleaning going on...fast forward to sunday. stephen got home from work and i said "hey what did you do with that mint plant?" stephen said "oh i set it outside to get some sunshine."  i can only guess that happened on thursday. when i went outside to check on it, the plant was limp and knocked over. it looked horrible. turns out mint plants need minimal sun and we had it sitting out there in full on sun for the two least cloudy days i've seen all year. then i remembered the huge thunderstorm on friday night. oh lord what did we do?! i'm not sure if it's completely dead or possibly able to revive...but there you have it, we killed the mint plant.

in honor of my dear, possibly departed minty, here is a photo of a not-dead plant.

(photo from sawhster's flickr)

maddie moushki turns 4

today is my youngest niece, madison's birthday - she is 4 today! here are a couple of my favorite shots of miss maddie.

happy birthday madison claire! i love you!!

set you free

a little lovey music for your monday. set you free by frightened rabbit.

" when i wake each morning
and the storm beats down on me,
i know we belong together
oh, your love can set you free."

nothing but flowers

we are really spoiled on our walks lately. the weather has been so beautiful and the flowers are just vibrant! today it's a little bit gloomy but i could use a lazy day so i'm not complaining. and sorry i lied, i completely spaced and forgot to take a shot of our new mint plant. soon friends, soon.

i can tell you, i am so ready for the weekend...with hopes that there will be sun tomorrow, i fully expect to be out in it! my pasty-ness is completely out of control and i'm in serious need of some vitamin d. our apartment is also in serious need of a cleaning so i just may have to do that as well.

so what are you up to this weekend? something fun? lazy? completely bizarre? do tell!

happy earth day!

stephen got a little mint plant from his school for free in celebration of earth day. i forgot to take a picture to show you but trust me, it's cute :) i promise to take a pic and post it later today. but for now, this cute pic of roxy lounging in the grass will have to do.

have a super day!!

xoxo

living is easy with eyes closed

here are some photos from our wonderful strawberry picking adventure in alvin, tx this weekend!

it was such a wonderful time! we ended up picking about 35 lbs; about 5 lbs to each bucket. the fields were so lush and even though the farm's "parking" area was packed, there was enough room for everyone to roam and plenty of beautiful red, ripe strawberries for picking.

this was my first time to ever go strawberry picking and i couldn't ask for better company. what a splendid addition to an already spectacular girls weekend.

(title from the beatles' strawberry fields)

uma

stephen and i love dogs, that's no secret. something you may not know is that we LOVE great danes. in fact, we are hoping to adopt one in the near future (by "near" i mean as soon as we're out of our apartment...which might not be as near as you are thinking, ha). we might already have a name picked out and everything. so when i saw these pictures on sharon montrose's blog, my heart skipped a beat. this is uma, and she had to have her leg amputated because of cancer. despite her three-leggedness, she looks so beautiful and joyful!! actually, i think the absence of her leg may give her that much more character. isn't she just beautiful??

thought that might put a smile on your face this monday morning.

xo

record store day

don't forget that this saturday, april 17th is record store day! a day where local independent record stores collaborate with artists to celebrate music. read my post about this awesome day on iliveindallas.com and don't forget to go out and support your local record store!

girls weekend!

hello lovelies!! i hope you are all having a wonderful day! forgive my giddiness ... and excessive use of exclamation points ... but after work today, i'm flying down to houston for a fun filled girls weekend with my mom and sister! we have massages, pedis, shopping and dinner all lined up. and as an extra bonus, i get an entire day with my nieces on saturday to play! it's been far too long since i've enjoyed time with my family and this is just what the doctor ordered.

have no fear, roxy will be in good hands with stephen and they'll have some bonding time.

forgive the old picture, my sister's "heyy maan" face and my less-than-straight haircut, but here we are. in all our girly glory.

so there it is, short and sweet. i hope you all have a most wonderful weekend and i will see you next week!

xoxo

love and bubbles

congratulations to our friends kelly & tiffany on their lovely wedding! complete with a bubble-filled exit.

how cute is she in her dress and hot pink shoes?!

update: look at this shot i found from one of our friends! isn't it perfect??

want to see something cute?

that's me & stephen at his prom in 2001. :) 

happy friday!

xoxo

(ps. i'm having way too much with the scanner...)

an award? pour moi?!

i was so pleasantly surprised to find out that bri chose me for the sunshine blogger award! if you have not met bri, please go on over to her blog and read her lovely, sweet and inspiring posts.

so now i am honored to pick 12 fabulous bloggers who inspire me everyday! thanks so much friends for reading my little blog. i hope you all find it uplifting and somewhat interesting. and here's to you - my little sunshine bloggers...

1. alice's adventures 
2. my farmhouse kitchen
3. owl & peacock
4. may all seasons be sweet to thee
5. sogni e sorrisi
6. e tells tales
7. my favorite things
8. live.work.design
9. hither and thither
10. heart charlie
11. lenorenevermore
12. mo pie, please

As part of the award, here's what's happening:


Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
Pass the award to 12 well-deserving bloggers.
Link the nominees within your post.
Let them know they received it by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.

suddenly seventy

  

"after all we are not suddenly seventy - or rather our seventy is an accumulation of all the other ways we were, our five-year-old selves became our ten-year-old selves and so on and on and if we unpack our souls the whole album appears and every moment is a part of the following moment and we are all a continuum that includes all the ways we were that we have forgotten." anne roiphe, epilogue

i recently finished reading this book, and this passage has really resonated with me. so true, isn't it?

(that's me in the photo...circa 1986-ish)

you're coming right back...right?

when we were in tulsa for stephen's spring break, our brother-in-law darren (a fantastic photographer) snapped this beautiful picture of roxy. i guess we had just left and she just sat looking out the front door for some time. isn't she so cute?! with her perked ears and her bandanna all askew.

hope you all have a lovely day today.

xo

weekend blooms...and food!

some more of our flowers popped up over the weekend and they look beautiful!

on saturday, stephen and i took advantage of the awesome weather and headed down to the farmer's market. like the goofball i am, i forgot that my camera battery was dead and didn't get any pics from the market. however, i snapped this one of the delicious blueberries we picked up.

we also found a fantastic little butcher shoppe there that had cheeses from the mozzarella co. here in dallas and we got a mozzarella roll with sun dried tomatoes - i can't wait to try it! after stephen took off to work (-1 for the restaurant biz), i enjoyed a nice lunch with the girls - complete with a little shopping, of course.

on sunday i had a most delicious brunch at vickery park with my lovely friend kari. i swear, they put some kind of voodoo magic in their migas because they have got to be one of my favorite brunch items in all of the big D (second only to the eggs benedict with crab meat at taverna...absolute bliss).  after stuffing myself silly and then napping with roxy, i managed to put away all of my winter clothes and get everything out in preparation of summer! i literally is just around the corner...where does the time go?

so how was your weekend?? do anything fun? i'd love to hear!

xoxo

happy birthday roxy!!

so, i'm a bad dog-mom and forgot to tell you about roxy's birthday! it was last weekend...she is 4 now! i took her for a ride to the pet shop and got her a new collar and some of her most favorite treats. we went for a big walk and spent the afternoon lounging in the grass, her favorite thing to do (next to cuddling, of course).

so here she is, in all of her new collar glory :)

(nevermind that she's not looking at me...i was trying to make her wear bunny ears and she wasn't having it)

have a super day!

ps. thanks for your sweet comments yesterday, you truly lifted my spirits.