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)

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)

first things first

here are some pics from stephen's birthday party last weekend...it was saturday night live themed!

 we were the coneheads (obv)

 here i am with the continental and stuart smalley

 and what would an SNL party be without matt foley?!

and this was our amazing "friendsgiving" dinner table...complete with salley o'malley, the welshley arms lovers and a gilda radner favorite, tracey (and another continental! ha!).

it was such a fun celebration for stephen and we are so grateful for our awesome friends who love to play along :)

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 :)

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

back to school

well stephen starts school with his first class tonight...i'm excited and nervous for what this semester will bring! i'm glad we took advantage of having so much time this summer to spend together, because now has 3 night classes this semester, not to mention working in the restaurant biz, which means nights and weekends as well. i might not get to see him....well, ever. so i'll put on my "supportive wife" hat and deal with his absence by working and possibly baking myself into a sweet coma. lots of luck to my love on his fall adventure xoxoxo

(oh and lots of luck to any of you who may be starting school, and especially the moms sending their little ones off to a brand new adventure!)

(photo)

oooh that smell!

i was going to make this my "truthful tuesday" post but obviously didn't get around to it yesterday. here it is, truthful tuesday on a wednesday.

as i told you briefly before, stephen built a new closet for me for our anniversary. we live in an old, old apartment and to say the closets are less than stellar would be a grand understatement. so when stephen ripped out my old closet and replaced it with a new, beautiful, functional closet, i was beyond happy. lately, when i am getting ready or just get out of the shower, i find myself lingering in the closet.  yesterday, i got home from the gym, cleaned up and went to my closet. i pulled out my little step-stool and sat right there in it, underneath all the clothes and next to all the shoes. now this isn't a lot of sitting space, but i just can't get over the smell. that smell of freshly cut wood, it's so calming to me. i love when i open the closet door and a whiff of that woody smell comes out.

this isn't the first time i've noticed how much i love that smell; last summer stephen built a staircase in our dining room for my uncle's dock, and even days after he picked it up you could still smell that wood. when we were first married, stephen worked construction and i really liked when he came home all sweaty and smelling like wood, maybe it's that memory that makes me love it even more. in short, i love being married to a carpenter - there is never a shortage of that freshly-cut wood smell! not to mention i love the idea of him being able to build me pretty much anything my little heart desires.

so, any quirky smells you love? maybe ones that provoke certain memories? i would love to hear :)

(image 1, 2)

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.

river long, rock strong, true now still

5 years ago today...

happy anniversary to my amazing husband. here's to the next 5 years :)

title from ryan adams' "my love for you is real"

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

family time

on sunday, we took a nice little walk around the neighborhood, went to grab some fresh groceries and made a most delicious breakfast (for which roxy endlessly begged...and eventually succeeded). 

we stopped to smell the roses

listened for squirrels

took in the fresh fall air and beautiful sites

and laughed. we do that a lot.

it was a most beautiful day.

oh happy day

i'm wishing the happiest of happy birthdays to my wonderful husband today.

he makes me the luckiest girl in the world.

love you baby. it's gonna be a great year!

xoxo