music monday - junk of the heart (happy)

you can't not feel a little happiness listening to this :)

enjoy
xxoo

the loot

since i beamed about how i love to see what the kiddos got at school on valentine's day, i thought i'd show you the loot. here are my beautiful niece's madi & kate with all the goodies...

lots of cards and yummy candy...even a white chocolate-covered fortune cookie! who can frown at that? no one, i tell ya.

year 6

"if the sun refused to shine, i would still be loving you.
when mountains crumble to the sea, there would still be you and me."

 happy anniversary to my love

(photo by the amazing abi)

have a silly weekend

what are you all up to this weekend?? tomorrow is our anniversary (yay!) and we are going to the lake with my family...should be a riot since lots of fam are in town from far away!! the forecast calls for laughing till we cry, eating till we're sick, and drinking till we tell secrets we shouldn't!

hope you all have a sillyfun weekend :)

xoxo

(photo from the photobooth at the legendary may wedding)

fuzzlahomaroo

sweet friends, we are leaving town today to travel to tulsa for our dear friends' melissa and kevin's wedding. stephen and i are both part of the wedding party so we are super excited to be part of what i'm sure will be an epic wedding day. melissa and kevin are the type of couple that when you're around them, their love is palpable but not in the "oh my goodness you're making me nauseated" kind of way. it's inspiring.

we have been friends with kevin for many years, and he was even our wedding photographer nearly 6 years ago :)  to see his love for melissa grow over these past few years has been quite heartwarming. and to get to know and become great friends with melissa, has been a true blessing in my life.

we wish them strength and happiness in their new endeavor as an incredible married couple!

i can't wait to tell you about all the fun festivities...let me just say that i know a jupiter jump will be involved...

hope you all have a wonderful weekend!! xoxo

(photos by the lovely abi)

the hawaiian lovers' wedding

i don't usually post about weddings, but my dear friend lauren's beautiful wedding is featured over on strictly weddings!  the festivities in gorgeous peacock theme were captured magnificently by photographer thisbe grace, and if you enjoy things oozing with beauty, love and grace, i highly suggest you check it out. simply stunning.

enjoy!

xoxo

valentine

happy valentine's day to all the lovers out there :) 

cute little vintage valentine card found here.

xoxoxo

bringing love back

with the lovey-doviest of holidays approaching, you can't help but see everything in reds, pinks, hearts and flowers...not that i'm complaining, i'm a sucker for all of it! but this especially caught my eye immediately and i had to share.

how sweet is this dress?! totally swoon-worthy...and this could easily be a romantic date dress (say, for valentine's day, perhaps?). bonus? it has pockets! (found here)

you & me

how darling are these cards from yellow owl workshop?? just the perfect, simple thing i might need for valentine's day :)

oh and in case you want some more mushy love stuff, here's a sweet song by one of my favorite bands.

xoxo

surprise date night

last night stephen surprised me by going on a fabulous little date! we started at oak cliff neighborhood gem, nova, which i highly recommend if you live here or are visiting dallas.  i mean, where else can you get salmon potato skins?! delicious. i had the shrimp pesto pizza (goat cheese? yes please!) and stephen devoured a most yummy bison burger.

salmon potato skins

shrimp pesto pizza

bison burger

then we ventured over to pinkberry for some dessert - may i recommend the new hazelnut crunch topping? droooooooool. 

after rolling out of our chairs, we wandered over to the magnolia theater to see true grit. now, i had high expectations for this movie - i'm a huge jeff bridges fan and love pretty much everything the coen brothers have ever done (yes, even the ladykillers) - but this far exceeded any of those expectations. it was amazing... and even if you don't think you'd love it, go see it, you will (i promise). 

it was the perfect little date night...and it still makes me swoon when stephen opens the car door for me :) 

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)

a typical conversation

stephen dropped me off this morning and we were talking about christmas gifts among other things and it went something like this:

stephen: i want to do something nice...
me: well i'm going to make them each a mini cheesecake so if you want to do something extra that's fine as well.
stephen: i'll make you into a cheesecake.
me: oh yeah?
stephen: (raises his hand like he has a wand) EXPELLIO-CHEESECAKE! wait no...EXPECTO-CHEESECAKE!

and we are nerds. the end.

(photo of my mini cheesecake)

i hope this gets to you

just a sweet video to brighten your day :)

live for each other

this was on my yogi tea last night. love love love love it. let's not forget it, ok? :)

birthday love

happy birthday to my love. 

my heart and soul...

i am so proud of you and everything you do

i love you so much!!

happy 28th birthday...congrats, you made it through the rock star year :)

sushi psycho

well it sounded funny to me last night anyway...stephen and i enjoyed a nice little date night at home, complete with alfred hitchcock's psycho and some sushi from one of my local favorites, oishii.

i was kinda bummed that i wouldn't be getting to attend any of the hitchcocktober flicks since my month has gotten out of hand busy, so we took it to our place instead :)

did you all have a great weekend? anything super exciting happen??

friday love

today we left home a smidge early so stephen could make it to his 9 am class and we got to stop for a little treat on the way! now this really is a delight, as we hardly ever stop at starbucks (or any little coffee shop, for that matter) and indulge. this particular location has the nicest folks working there (lemmon & knight, if you're in dallas!),  and when the barista took our orders with our names he stopped and gave a smile and gave a "how cute!"

i mean, it is pretty cute! for me, when people comment on the "stephen & stephanie" thing, it really never gets old. and i just loved that he spelled both of them out, which almost never happens, and got stephen's right with the p-h...as it should be :) i just had to snap a pic. so there it is, your daily dose of love and cuteness (can you tell i really get a kick out of it? a complete goober, i am aware).

any exciting plans for the weekend? i have a birthday celebration to attend this evening then it's relax, relax, relax for me!

i hope you all have a fantastic friday and a lovely weekend!!

xoxo

photobooth silliness

stephen and i went to a wonderful wedding this weekend - it was a lovely catholic ceremony with a spectacular reception at dallas' historic adolphus hotel. it seemed no expense was spared, not even for the 6-tier groom's cake (you read that right, 6 tiers, for the groom's cake!) or the gorgeous hydrangea centerpieces with blue beta fish swimming around in the vases. it was quite grand and beautiful, all around. when we saw there was a photo booth, we were all over it! i love this little trend of photo booth pics at the wedding. we did the photos, and each printed out 2 sheets: one for you to take home, and one for you to stick in their book and sign by. way cute!

here are mine and stephen's photos: 

fun huh?! it had the little wedding signature on the bottom but for some reason my scanner wasn't having it so here it is without. congrats to mr. and mrs. laurenzi (mark & kylee...or marlee as we like to call them :)) it was a wonderful night and i expect a full, happy life to follow!

with love all around

well we had such a fun trip to tulsa over the weekend! we got to catch up with friends & family, do my little reunion (very fun, and small so it was pressure-free :)) but the highlight came on saturday night when our friends kevin & melissa got engaged!! kevin invited everyone to mcnellie's (where melissa works) and told her that since she had to work all weekend, he brought the group to her.  he waited until she was ready to come take our orders and called her over to pop the question.  she was SO surprised!! both of their parents were there to experience this joyous occasion and as an added bonus, kevin had arranged for melissa to get off work immediately to celebrate - and the next morning for a little recovery! so here they are, in all their lovey-dovey glory:

what a couple of cuties, right? i couldn't be more happy for them, what a beautiful love they share.  oh! and you can watch the video of the whole thing:



you can just see the surprise in her face, i love it!! congrats mel & fuzz!!

up and away!

as you may know, stephen and i celebrated our anniversary a couple of weeks ago. the traditional gift for 5 years is wood, and stephen went above and beyond by building a new closet for me! as if that wasn't enough, he presented me with two of the sweetest gifts EVER:

this beautiful necklace from oh, hello friend

and he had this amazing cake made by one of our friends:

you might ask...why are these gifts so special?  well, nearly 6 years ago, stephen proposed to me in a hot air balloon. it was a wonderful, magical moment and it was just plain delightful that he commemorated it for our anniversary! i am truly a lucky, lucky girl.