fun friday

oh just the cutest little video you've ever seen...



(found here)

also

the sweetest birth story ever
a pretty heart sweater
the most fabulous boots for fall
and coffee for a great cause

you all have a fantastic weekend!!

xoxo

little treasures - awkward family photos

while visiting at my parents' this weekend, i found many little treasures i'm going to share with you. first and foremost, this gem of a family photo (pre-little brother).

  

that's me, bottom left, with my mom, dad and sister, who i'm sure will all murder me once they find i've posted this on the world wide web. it was just too good to pass up! i believe this was in 1990 when my peepaw (my dad's dad) married his lovely wife joanne. oh the hair on my mom & sis, and me with my buck teeth. my my my what a moment in time. 

and trust me, there's more where that came from!!

oh ps. happy first day of autumn!!!

pps. looking for some new blogs to peruse?? come join us at the link party over on fabulous k!

new week -- new collar

last week roxy got a nice little surprise in the mail from my sister - this beautiful new collar! she found it in new orleans, or i should probably say hunted it down since i was on a mission to find her a fleur-de-lis collar and my wonderful sister found it for me. so she has been sporting this fab new neck piece, don't you think purple is really her color?!

roxy and i had a little adventure this weekend and went down to houston to visit and have some family time.  i've got lots of fun snippets to fill you in on, but for now, happy monday! here's to a new week.

xoxo

out of bed

"sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning & you think, 'i’m not going to make it,' but you laugh inside remembering all the times you’ve felt that way."
-charles bukowski

tonight

let it begin, my guilty pleasure season of television.  gossip girl starts tonight!

what's your guilty pleasure show??

étouffée + happy friday

in honor of my saints winning the first game of the season last night, i'm going to share my mom's shrimp étouffée recipe. i recently made it for the first time and surprised myself at how delicious it was! i guess i was so afraid of messing up one of our favorite traditional recipes that i thought it would somehow be bad, but it turned out delicious and i can't wait to make it again!

amy's shrimp étouffée:
1 cup each chopped onion, bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 stick butter
3 T flour
2 oz tomato sauce
8 oz water
2-4 oz wine (optional)
Tony's seasoning & Tobasco to taste
2 lbs shrimp

sauté onion, pepper and garlic in butter until wilted.  add flour and stir in thoroughly.  pour in sauce, water and wine, stir. add seasonings to taste.  cook on medium-low temp for about 10 minutes.

add shrimp, stir, cover and cook on medium for 15 minutes.

serve over hot rice. 

and voilà!

lastly, serve with a side salad and some warm french bread!

a couple of notes: for the wine, my mom suggested white but i used red since that's all i had handy and it was still very tasty. also, if you don't have tony's (shame, shame...just kidding) you can use any kind of cajun spicy seasoning. also, i like to use long grain white or jasmine rice for this, even though i'm a big brown rice fan. 

and you know what? i think i'll post a new recipe from my mom's family cookbook or the marshes to mansions cookbook every time the saints win a game, what do you think of that??

y'all have a great weekend!!

xoxo

tornado warning

yesterday we had some major storms in the dallas area, complete with a tornado that went right over our apartment. stephen was at work, so i was just watching out the window (hey, i used to live in oklahoma, it's the thing to do). when the warning came on tv i rushed upstairs to tell my neighbors if they wanted to take cover they could come to our apartment. we waited for a little bit until you could hear something like a train or a jet and the house was shaking a bit. we got in our hall closet: us 3 girls, our 2 dogs and 2 cats. it was a nice little getting to know you moment and we all found it a little silly afterward.

there was no damage to our building, but next door a side door was taken off and there were some trees down in our alley. luckily we were all ok and roxy was a brave and hospitable host.

and this is what i do after having a close call with a tornado:

what's your storm protocol?

(oh and ps. my boys start playing today!! who dat!)

pirate radio

stephen and i rented pirate radio on monday and just LOVED it! have you seen this movie? it is by the same folks who did one of my all-time favorites, love actually. described as "the irreverent yet fact-based tale of a seafaring band of rogue rock and roll deejays whose 'pirate radio' captivated and inspired 1960s Britain," it was a film that hit home for me and touched my musical soul. plus you can't beat the rad soundtrack!

if you haven't seen it, i highly recommend.

what about y'all? seen any good movies lately? i usually have at least one big movie night a week, so i'm always looking for something new and exciting!

(photos)

rainy day

it's a sleepy, rainy day here which made it extra hard to get out of bed after a fun, long weekend.

hope you all had a lovely labor day weekend.

what's the weather like where you are today?

snuck up on me

oh my, how did it get to be friday already?? it just kinda snuck up on me! i guess staying really busy at work and preparing for company will just make the time fly...

so dear friends, what are you up to this long weekend? stephen's oldest sister and one of his younger brothers will be coming in town to visit tomorrow, i can't wait! stephanie lives in sunny california so we don't get to see each other NEARLY enough!! lots of catching up, drinking wine, and shopping in our future :)

on sunday we have a wedding at the gorgeous dallas arboretum. it's been raining, so hopefully it will be cooler for the outdoor celebration!

well i hope you get to enjoy this weekend, whatever you may be doing :)

xoxo