It's been a while...

Well, looking at my last post it has definitely been a while.  Makes sense, in December Erica and I started renovating a space to call ours.  I had a little retail area and half of a very small office, she had a chair one salon and the other half of the very small office.  The following July we took over the space next door and I felt legit because I had a storage closet and 500 sq ft of retail space.  Now only one year later we were totally, completely, and utterly crazy (this of course was self-diagnosed) and moved into a 2600 sq ft space only 2 blocks away onto Main St. We have a more than legit storage room and an office so big we can put a couch and a coffee table and eventually an awesome bar cart in it (maybe I'll get around to posting pics some day).  I think that we are both still in shock that we have a space so huge on Norman's ever-growing Main St.  I am so lucky to have a business partner like Erica who is inspiring and always wanting to take that next step to make things awesome!  I am so very lucky to have a crazy awesome husband who is willing to conquer 12' counter tops and 16' heavy duty signs.

I am just so lucky.

Well we signed the lease on the new space for July 1st and we opened our doors July 12th.  We sort of didn't stop or sleep until, well if we are honest, just last week. 

As I approach 30 years I realize I am losing my memory...I know that sounds crazy but it is true, just the small things that make you really appreciate life.  I loved when I used to post about my life....if nothing else because I can look back at it and remember.  So this will be my first attempt at making more posts.

For my birthday Seth and I decided we should take a get away road trip (our current favorite thing) and go to Austin.  The night before we left I was ear to ear happy because we finally got our sign hung.

 Austin was a blast.  We ate lots of good food, watched the bats fly out from under the bridge (apparently a thing that Austin is known for...understandably...it was really cool), did some damage shopping, and relaxed.  My favorite day was Sunday when we visited Barton Springs Pool and then checked into the San Jose Hotel.  We got some sun.  Sipped on yummy drinks and swam in the rain.  All in all a great way to start the last year of my 20s.

// breakfast at Kitchen 324 before we left town
// Hillside Farmacy -obsessed with this place
// Hillside Farmacy bathroom - seriously.  Gold stripes?!
// I ate a garlic doughnut with this salad....just like Rex's fry bread. so yum.
// Barton Springs Pool.  Awesome public pool, water was freezing but still awesome.
// We were in Austin for 3 days and I ate Amy's Ice Cream 2 of them! 
// A Maverick.  Ginger beer, beer, and a splash of lemonade.  Perfect summer drink!
// San Jose Hotel has the best branding throughout the entire hotel.
// These were our robes in the room.  I wanted to steal it.
// This was called a Sandia.  It had watermelon, lavender, and ginger ale in it.  At Hopdoddy.
// A walkway at the hotel. I want to live there.
// The area they served drinks at in the evening and coffee in the morning.  Can my kitchen look like this?

Scenes from the Weekend: Friendsgiving

Friday night I made my first ever pie and my mac and cheese so all I had to do was put it in the oven on Saturday.  I feel I am getting a lot wiser as I age, it took a lot of the stress out of Saturday by preparing these the night before.   Saturday I ventured out to the mall to return something and it was a mad house [apparently everyone is already Christmas shopping except me].  It just confirmed my suspicions that I should never venture out of the house for Black Friday. I left the mall frazzled, sweaty, and exhausted.  Saturday night the festivities ensued with fried turkey [so yum!], sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls with homemade cinnamon butter, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salad, cheesecake, and pumpkin whoopee pies [so good making them for the family thanksgiving too].  Everything was so yummy and so filling.  Let's just say we watched the sad let down of an OU football game with very full tummies.

Chocolate Cream Pie. I am not a big pie person. BUT this was so delicious that I might just be able to say I am a pie person after all.

Decorating a table is almost my favorite thing about Friendsgiving.

Full plate.

Ate one of these for breakfast.

Petra & Aunt Liz snuggling.

scenes from the weekend

Here I go again documenting my weekend.

New collars for the dogs.
Friday Night Lights.
Going to bed abnormally early.
Flea market.
Sewing new things.
Iguana Grill, salsa, and a pitcher of margs.
Saints' Slinger.
Broncho @Blue Note.
Impromptu brunch.
Brainstorming sessions.

Not doing so good at taking photos [mostly because my phone sucks].

scenes from the weekend.

great weekend.  quality time with the husband and friends.

Cleaned the house.
Thai food.
Crazy, Stupid, Love.  Wine by a fire.
Bike rides.
Sooner football.
Firepits.
Sangria.
Bananagrams.
S'mores.
Hot apple cider.
Earthquakes.
Beyonce.
Friday Night Lights.
Brunch.
Naps.

All in all.  No complaints. 

holidays are near [!?!]

One. It is hard to believe that it is November. Two. It seems crazy to think about the holidays being near. I love the holidays but usually they come and go so fast it seems like a blur and I don't fully enjoy them like I should. Three. I am going to try and make sure this isn't the case this year, thus I am already finding myself looking at Christmas decorations, gift guides and recipes.

Something I stumbled upon recently is this most amazing gift guide by Emily Henderson. She was a winner of Design Star a while back and now has a show Secrets From a Stylist which I LOVE. So of course I LOVE this gift guide too. Basically I would be happy receiving anything in it. That's how good it is!

Open publication - Free publishing - More christmas

Pistachio

 

I have been making the jewels, gearing up for:

1. Christmas
2. updating the ole Etsy site
3. Pistachio getting picked up by a super cool OKC shop!
4. and....Dustbowl Holiday! 

[yep!  Dustbowl is having a small Holiday market that we are super pumped about]
[and I dropped new stock off at Birdie.  Go check it out + they have all kinds of super cool scarves and winter hats that I really really want!]

i heart nyc shoppes

Seth and I did a lot of spending time with friends and eating while we were in NY.  My other favorite part of our trip was all the amazing stores we went into.  Talk about inspiring.

Brooklyn Flea - So awesome.  We arrived right at the end of a down pour so a lot of the booths were packed up or just reopening.  What a fun place to walk around, look at people's amazing vintage finds and handmade items.  There was also a small little area of yummy food stands.  

Madewell - If I could this store in it's entirety, I would do so.  Everything was so beautiful, so classic, so wearable, so lustworthy.

Topshop - This store was a little overwhelming but everything in there was beautiful.  There were especially tons of clothing with sequins and lots of beading...which i adore.

Muji - I wish I could organize my whole house with stuff from this store.  Our purchases here were sort of random: a calculator, a note pad, and a clock.  They have binders, pens, notebooks, bathroom goods, kitchen goods, clothing...a little bit of the most basic of everything. 

Catbird - This was in Brooklyn and it quite frankly made my heart skip a beat.  The most beautiful displays of jewelry, stationary, knick knacks, perfume, and the list goes on. It was pretty busy when we went which made it hard to look around but if it wouldn't have been so packed full of people I could have been in there for hours [quite a statement considering how small the store acutally is].

A&G Merch - Beautiful couches, accessories, jewelry, art, quirks for the home, etc.  Like heaven for the hip home body.

Smith & Chang General Goods - This was in Jersey City and it is officially my favorite store.  Every I turned I was drooling over something.  Soaps and lotions, Glassware and awesome kitchen stuff, light fixtures, furniture, paper goods, and on and on and on.  They are launching an online store in the next few weeks.  This was the 2nd to last place we went before boarding our plane and it made me realize something I think I have been trying to deny for a while now....that I want to have my own store someday.  Dreaming of my own store and what it would look like - it would be a combination of Catbird and Smith & Chang.

Brooklyn Flea

Brooklyn Flea

Brooklyn Flea

Catbird

Catbird

Smith & Chang

Smith & Chang

Smith & Chang

Photos//all by me except for Smith & Chang - pulled from their facebook.