price tower

since we were in tulsa a whopping 8 days, we decided to take a little adventure to the exciting town of bartlesville, ok.  well we didn't just go to visit the b'ville (though it did prove to be a much cuter town than expected), but the purpose of our trip was to stay at the lovely inn at price tower.

price tower is the one and only realized skyscraper designed by famed architect frank lloyd wright. originally commissioned to be built in new york city, the price tower was envisioned to be "the tree that left the crowded forest" and instead was built as corporate headquarters in bartlesville for oil tycoon harold c. price. some years later, the building was converted into a hotel and arts center where they display exhibits from artists, furniture designers and even fashion icons like edith head, among many more.

we actually had visited the arts center early in 2010 and thought of how neat it would be to stay there, and being a student at the school of architecture, stephen was able to get a killer deal on a room. so what the heck, right?? we had such a nice stay and the hotel is even more incredible than i'd imagined.  all of the furniture designed for the rooms kept the original vision of mr. wright, using natural materials, basing design on the triangle (lots of 30, 60 and 90 degrees) and incorporating copper into pretty much everything.

after marveling in the room, we ventured up to the top floor and enjoyed a drink and appetizer at the copper bar (and yes, the bar is actually copper) with the nicest bartender and a beautiful view.

and with the suggestion of many, we took to downtown bartlesville to have dinner at the most adorable restaurant, frank & lola's. this spot definitely exceeded my expectations (though i did have high hopes): the food, service, decor and overall ambiance was so great and perfect for our little getaway. they even had a trendy billiard room in the back filled with a great photo exhibit so we could play pool and enjoy the art while we waited for our table.

after our most amazing dinner, we had drinks at two sister's pub & grille and called it a night. it was really a wonderful and much needed escape for the mr. & me. i highly suggest, should you ever be visiting bartlesville (or are really just a huge architecture nerd, like us), that you at least visit the price tower and if you can, stay the night with frank lloyd wright!

(all photos by me except the first one, source)

in colorado we...

 rode in a two horse open sleigh

 made snow angels

 skied with the fam

 robbed a bank...kidding! we rode in a gondola

hung out with honest abe

and marveled in nature's beauty.

also, not pictured above, we: 

• drank loads of hot chocolate (with various delicious liqueurs)
• watched a shameful amount of football
• got lost on what we dubbed "the trail of tears" (while we were skiing, if that tells you anything)
• watched my nieces in the cutest of cute ski lessons
• missed roxy to pieces (how could we not?!)

so that's that! we had such an amazing time in steamboat...probably my favorite trip to the mountains ever. a lot of family bonding, eating too much, and pushing our physical limits too far :) who could ask for more?! 

no label

 
 

a while back when i got to visit my parents in katy, tx, we attended a fundraising event at the no label brewing co. in downtown katy.  the brewery is housed in an old rice mill and has many of the original signs and fixtures in and around the building.  no label is a brand new brewery so they aren't quite selling on the market yet, but i can assure you we will be first in line when they do! their beers were absolutely delicious. and who wouldn't love a company with the slogan, "we don't need no stinkin' label!"? ha! 

so these are the film shots i captured from the event.  from the top: one of the old notices from the rice mill; the patriotic flags; stirring the hops; pouring the beer; one of the staff of the brewery serving beer; my dad (right) and his friend john talking to gilberto royo, the owner (left).

it was a fantastic time and might i suggest that if you're in the houston/katy area that you check them out!

picnic in the park

first of all, the good news is that i got my camera to cooperate, the bad news is that my zoom is completely broken. i don't know how that happened! oh well, life goes on. i did snap some pictures from our little picnic last weekend.  it was so nice until it eventually got too hot to be outside, even in the shade. oh texas, you slay me sometimes. so here are a few pics from our little adventure :)

date knight

can you guess what we did last night?! stephen surprised me and took me to midieval times!! we had tickets i won in a silent auction about a year ago and i'd kind of forgotten, so stephen noticed they were about to expire and made reservations :) we had SO much fun!! we were on the yellow knight's team (see him below? he was also the most handsome knight, i must say). he didn't win, but i did get a flower from him!

after our midieval experience, we wandered over to the design district and saw a neat little restaurant called the meddlesome moth. we hopped in to have a drink and were very pleasantly surprised! they had a beautiful wall of taps (literally, beautifully designed, see the pic below) and from looking at their menu, great food! i can't wait to go back and try it out for lunch or dinner.

so that was our little date! here are some photos from the adventure:

see the taps? the wall behind it is covered with neatly placed quarters. i thought that was a really clever design idea!

hope you all have a lovely weekend!

xoxo

journaling

lately i've had too many thoughts to keep straight in my head.  i have lists and random nonsense scribbled everywhere from post it notes to old receipts in my purse.  i finally caved in. inspired by elizabeth and naomi's posts, i bought a journal.

 

so here i go, a new adventure.  maybe not the most exciting, but something i've never been able to do before...perhaps because i was never all that honest with myself. perhaps because i was afraid of what someone might think if they were exposed to my mind. perhaps because i'm just a little more boring than i pretend to be? well i guess we'll find out.

tell me, do you journal? is it like a deepest-darkest-secrets thing for you? or just thoughts and musings?

i'd love to know.

(photo)

happy new year!

hello! well, i'm back in the real world after a nice long vacation including:

• time with family
• christmas jubilation
• road trip with stephen
• new year's celebration
• rocking the rockies
• missing our little roxy
  

i hope you all had a most memorable time over the holiday and are all getting somewhat back to normal.  i mean, what is normal anyway?! this week i plan on finally taking down christmas decorations and hopefully cleaning my apartment (such a mess and roxy is no help when it comes to cleaning!).  during our 13 hour drive home from denver, stephen and i were talking about resolutions and well, i'm just not sure what mine are.  there are so many things i'd like to improve on in my life, where to start? i'll make a little list and get back to you on that :)

so what's been happening? what did i miss??

i have lots to share with you about our wonderful adventures so stay tuned!
photo from we heart it

you could be a farmer in those clothes

when we visited stephen's family in tulsa over thanksgiving, i was very excited that his mom wanted to send us home with fresh eggs from her chickens.  i even got to get eggs out of the coop after they'd laid some! i'm not a country girl by any means, but i am definitely one for the freshest of the fresh and cruelty-free products. here are some fun shots from that adventure:

all in all, we went home with nearly two dozen eggs (she'd been collecting/saving them for us for a little while). how nice would it be just to hop in your back yard and have fresh eggs?? so fun.

bonus points if you know where this post title is from :)

the hunt for the (almost) perfect tree

for the first time since moving to the big d, we decided to get a real tree this year for christmas.  so stephen and i braved the streets of dallas to hunt for the perfect christmas tree, or something like it. we found this little guy (ok he's not really little, but was definitely bigger than our ol' reliable 3 foot fake tree!)

i was in love, can you tell?

and we managed to fit him inside our car!!

 

now, that was an adventure!

we've got him all set up and decorated, but i don't have any good pics yet so i'll have to post them later.

do you get a real tree? have you started decorating?? i just LOVE the holidays.