We Have a Winner!

In April, I'm in a wedding and I wanted to share with you the bridesmaid dress that we have just ordered. Isn't it pretty?

The material of the dress is taffeta and it's super comfortable. We ordered the dress and sash in peony and it's scheduled to arrive at the end of March. I can't wait for it to arrive!

-N

We're Off to Dallas - Happy New Year!

We are off to Dallas in the morning. The plan is to leave at 9 a.m. I'm not sure if I'm going to have time to blog while we are away, so I promise to write a long post when I get back. Over the weekend, be sure to watch for pictures from the trip, as well as the introduction of my 101 list.

Happy New Year, Everyone! Have a safe and memorable evening and I will see you in the new year. 

-N

New Years Eve in Dallas

Well, it has been decided. Andrew and I are celebrating New Years Eve in Dallas with a group of our friends. Everything was finally confirmed last night. We will leave on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. and be back in Tulsa by early Friday afternoon. On our trip, a stop at the Allen Outlets and Pappasitos are a must and I think a trip to Ikea is planned as well. I'm secretly hoping that we make a trip to Sprinkles, a popular cupcake bakery that is about 12 minutes from our hotel. We will be celebrating New Years Eve at the Big D NYE 2009 event at Victory Park. It's supposed to be like a mini Times Square, so it should be fun. I will be sure to take lots of photographs. 

-N

Daffodils, Hyacinths, Tulips...Oh My!

Is it bad that I'm ready for spring? Tulsa has had the perfect spring weather the past couple of days that it's such a big tease. Even though I'm 95% sure that winter isn't over for us yet, I'm ready to put away the winter coats and bring out the short sleeve shirts, skirts and sandals. Andrew and I went to Whole Foods over the weekend and they even had hyacinths and tulips in the store. It's only a matter of days before the daffodils are available. I'm so excited!

Anxiously waiting for Spring, 

-N

It's All Over For Another Year

Andrew and I have just finished taking down the Christmas decorations. In a matter of an hour and a half, all of the inside and outside decorations have been taken down and stored in the attic. It's amazing because it takes several hours to decorate the house and then it's all down in a fraction of the time. So, here is my farewell message to the Christmas decorations of 2008. Thank you for a great season. We will see you in 2009.

Let's bring on the new year!

-N

Hump Day Dinner #38: North Pole

On Christmas Eve, the Wednesday night dinner crew celebrated Christmas at the North Pole...AKA: Eric's Apartment. Eric was a great host and he did a great job with dinner. We had chicken alfredo, salad, several different kinds of bread and christmas cookies for dessert. After dinner, we were going to go ice skating downtown, but it closed earlier than expected, so we played rock band instead. Here are some photos for you to enjoy. 

Nick, Andrew and Mark:

Jenn, Nick, Andrew, Mark and Eric:

Eric and Nick: 

Abby and Jenn:

The girls:

-N

Gingerbread House Decorating Party

Over the past few days, Andrew and I have been busy with Christmas festivities. The festivities began on Tuesday night when we were invited to a Gingerbread House Decorating Party by our friends, Abby and Mark. Wow, Andrew and I didn't realize what we were getting ourselves into that night. We were thinking we were just going to make a house pretty by decorating it with gumdrops, icing, etc. Boy, were we wrong though! Everyone at the party were professional gingerbread house decorators. There were about five couples and their creations were masterpieces! We had everything from Tony Hawk's house to a swim up bar and tropical cabana. Needless to say, Andrew and I had a lot of fun. It was funny because Andrew was the "builder" and I was the "decorator." He did a great job making sure that our house's infrastructure was strong. Here are some pictures from the evening. 

Here are all of our supplies. We had 45 minutes to create a masterpiece from scratch. 

Andrew and I created "The North Pole." Do you see Santa and the actual north pole?

You can't forget about the reindeers. Can you spot Rudolph and his eight tiny reindeer? FYI: The chocolate chips are "reindeer poop" and structure is the stable.

Tony Hawk's Summer House.

The Skate Park at Tony's House.

Nick and Jenn's Tropical Cabana and Swim Up Bar - The roof is thatched, so you can sleep under the stars.

Here is a closer look at the swim up bar.

Here is a close up on the cabana.

Lindsay and Eugene's Creation.

The Ski Lodge.

And the ski slopes. 

And the winner of the 2nd Annual Gingerbread Decorating Contest was... Nick and Jenn!

The passing of the trophy from the 2007 winners to the 2008 winners. 

Here are some other pictures from the evening. 

Samson, Abby and Mark's dog, in his santa hat. 

Close up of Samson. 

Jenn and I.

-N

Christmas Baking

I should change my name to "Baking Fool"....just kidding! Over the past two weeks, I've been doing a lot of baking for Christmas... mainly cookies (sugar, chocolate chip and oatmeal) and cupcakes. I'm still working on my cupcake recipes, but I think I have my cookie recipes to where I like them. My goal for next Christmas is to master decorating and to make my cupcakes and cookies look "pretty." Anyway, here are some pictures of the cupcakes I made for a bake sale at work, as well as my Christmas cutout cookies. 

Snowmen and Snowballs - Here is a funny story about these cupcakes. My goal with these cupcakes was to have them sell first at the bake sale. Don't ask me why I wanted that, but I was really hoping that they would sell like hot cakes. I was in OKC for the day of the bake sale, so I came back into the office to pick up my containers before going home. When I got to my desk, I saw that I still had six cupcakes left (I had given them 18 cupcakes to sell) :(. Needless to say, I was pretty bummed. The next morning, I heard that my cupcakes were too "cute" that no one wanted to buy them. So, the moral of this story is, don't make cute cupcakes for a bake sale. LOL. 

Snowmen and Snowballs:

All ready for hungry tummies:

Here are the cookies we are taking to Wednesday night dinner tonight. They are pretty tasty, in my opinion. 

-N

I love this store!

So, I LOVE Crate and Barrel because it's very reasonably priced, the quality of the items are really good and their merchandise has more of a modern/contemporary style. I try to make an annual trip to the store whenever I'm in St. Louis. So, here are my purchases from my recent visit. All of their christmas items were on sale, so I was able to get my christmas wrap for next year, as well as a few ornaments for the tree. Plus, I picked up a couple of candlesticks for the mantle. Here are some pictures. More pictures coming soon. 

This is my christmas wrapping paper for next year. I'm thinking about pairing the paper up with brightly colored ribbon like pink, bright green, purple, etc., but we will see. 

I can't find a picture online of the ornaments, so I will take some photographs of them tomorrow. They are gold colored glass ornaments. 

Here are my candlesticks. We received the 10" sticks for a wedding gift, so I picked up the 13.5" sticks on my visit this time to Crate and Barrel. For Christmas next year, my plan is to light one candle for each Sunday of advent, so it will be my own version of advent candles. 

-N

For Last Sunday...

Happy Fourth Sunday of Advent! (Sorry that this post is a couple of days late.)

We're Back!

Well, Andrew and I are back from St. Louis and we had a great time. As you know, we were worried about the weather, but everything worked out in our favor. We had a bit of a rocky start in Tulsa (check engine light came on and our neighborhood was an ice skating rink), but once we got on the road, it was smooth sailing. We started our journey around Noon on Wednesday and arrived in St. Louis around 5:30 p.m. So, we made pretty good timing. The weather in St. Louis was cooperable over the weekend, but it was COLD. The morning we left to come back to Tulsa, it was -10 degrees fahrenheit with the wind chill. Brrr.

Throughout the weekend, we ate at our favorite restaurants, did a little bit of shopping, hung out with one of Andrew's friends, celebrated Christmas with Andrew's family and really just chilled out. It was very nice visit.

Here are the restaurants that we enjoyed on this trip. 

Dewey's Pizza: Thursday night was the first time that we ate at this restaurant. With a garlic flavored crust, the pizza was delicious. The interior had a bar, a place to watch the pizzas being made and had a contemporary, laid back feel. The price of the pizzas weren't too bad ($17.99 for a large), but they weren't as cheap as Dominos and Pizza Hut. I would definitely eat here again. Yum!

Stir Crazy: Andrew and I LOVE this restaurant. I really wish we had one in Tulsa. It's funny because each time that I eat here, I always think that we should open a franchise in Tulsa. The thing that is special about this place is that you can make your own stir fry. You are given a pan, you can choose your own vegetables and seasonings and you can mix and create your own sauce. Once you have finished your creation, you give it to a chef and then they cook it up with your meat and serve it to you on a bed of rice. It's really reasonably priced at about $10 per person, for chicken as your meat. Forget about substituting and replacing ingredients, you can create a meal that you want to eat. 

California Pizza Kitchen: Andrew loves this place for wood oven pizzas. I normally have the spaghetti marinara, which is delicious. Of all of our restaurants, this is definitely one that is moderately expensive, but it's so good.

Penn Station: This place is to die for! If you love fresh cooked subs, then you will love this place. They bake their own french bread every morning. Plus, when you order your sandwich, they carve your meat and/or grill your vegetables after you have ordered your meal, so everything is fresh! My favorite is the 6.5" sub with grilled onions, grilled green peppers and lettuce. Andrew enjoys the Dagwood, which is a turkey sandwich. For a side, we normally share some fresh cut french fries. It's roughly the same price as Subway, maybe a little more, but it's so much better than Subway and Quiznos. 

Melting Pot: Eating at the Melting Pot is a Christmas tradition with Andrew's family. At this restaurant you get to experience fondue, which is delicious. The waiters prepare the fondue cheese, broth and chocolate at your table, but you are given the freedom to cook your own food. It amazes me every time because you eat small portions throughout the entire meal, but you are always full at the end of the meal no matter what. You begin the experience with a cheese fondue (We always have Fiesta Cheese, which is a queso), which comes with "unlimited dippers" like bread, tortilla chips, apples, carrots and celery. Then it's onto the salads before it's time for the main course, the meats. To cook our meats, we enjoy the Coq au Vin cooking style, which is a broth of fresh herbs, mushrooms, garlic, spices and burgundy wine. We use this to cook our chicken, lobster, shrimp and steak. After we finish our main course, then it's time for dessert, chocolate fondue. We always choose the "Oreo Dream Marshmallow Cream", which is milk chocolate and marshmallow cream mixed together with crushed oreos. It's delicious. Plus, you get to enjoy bananas, strawberries, brownies, cheesecake, rice krispy treats and marshmallows. Overall, the meal is amazing. It's expensive (special occasions only type of restaurant) at about $80 a couple, but you will be eating for about two hours. If you have a chance to go, I would highly recommend it! 

I have to share one of the places we ended up stopping to shop in St. Louis. Have you ever heard of Straub's? It's a St. Louis based fine grocers and it's AMAZING. Andrew and I really enjoy looking around these type of grocery stores. This grocery store definitely knocked our socks off though. We are still talking about it! It's a mixture between a Harrod's, Whole Foods and a normal grocery store. You can get the foods you would normally get at a grocery store (ex. Bisquick, Kellogg Cereal, Lays, etc.), but you could also get specialty items as well. So, you have you meats, vegetables, bakery, frozen foods, deli, etc, but they also have 20 beers on tap, a cafe to grab lunch, as well as classrooms for cooking lessons. Additionally, I was in awe of the baking aisle because a quarter of the aisle was dedicated to sprinkles, there were over 20 kinds of vanilla and they even had pre-cut chocolate curls. Andrew's favorite part of the store was the meat market. He really wished he could have brought back to Tulsa a steak and a kobe beef hamburger. Anyway, if you every have a chance to take a look at this grocery store, do it! We will definitely be making a visit when we go back to St. Louis.

-N

Christmas in St. Louis

Tomorrow, Andrew and I are off to St. Louis for the weekend, where we will celebrate Christmas with Andrew's family.  We are both ready to be there, but not looking forward to the drive. The weather isn't supposed to be good in either Tulsa or St. Louis, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the drive goes well. I'm taking a half day, so we are hoping we can make it before nightfall. I'm off to pack, but I will write more over the weekend and I will include lots of pictures. 

-N

For Yesterday...

Happy 3rd Sunday of Advent!

-N

Saltimbanco Recap

Saltimbanco was spectacular and Andrew and I really loved the show. This was our first arena show, so it was a different setup than what we are expected to. Even though it wasn't in a hotel theatre or in a big top, the show didn't disappoint. We still sat with our mouths open in amazement and constantly caught ourselves saying "Wow!" After seeing so many shows, you start to expect that you will begin to get bored with the acts, but Cirque Du Soleil continues to add new twists and turns to traditional acts. Here are my favorite parts of the show...

The mime, Eddy

The duo trapeze 

The bungees. 

Here is some interesting information about Saltimbanco. The show was first created more than 16 years ago. The premiere took place in the big and yellow big top in Montreal on April 23, 1992. Then in 2007, the show was re-staged to be shown in arenas. A show under the big top took nine days to setup and two and a half days to tear down. Now, with Saltimbanco being an arena show, the set up can be done in nine hours and tear down in two hours. Isn't that amazing?!?

If you ever have a chance to see a Cirque Du Soleil show, I would HIGHLY recommend you seeing it. 

-N

Hump Day Dinner #36: Joe Momma's Pizza

Joe Momma's Pizza

114 South Elgin Ave

Tulsa, OK  74103

This week Joe Momma's Pizza was on the menu for our hump day dinner. When you first think of Joe Momma's, you probably think of the location out at 61st and Highway 169. Well, they have just opened up a new location downtown two weeks ago. It's literally right behind El Guapo's and just a half a block from McNellie's. So, it's in a prime location. 

Overall, the restaurant was actually really good. The food was delicious, the decor was comfortable with a contemporary/retro vibe and the service was ok. If you are in a rush, I wouldn't recommend you going to this restaurant. You will most likely be there for 45 minutes to an hour for dinner. That's not a bad thing though because your pizza is made to order and cooked in a wood brick oven. 

If I had to compare this restaurant to another pizza parlor, I would say it's very similar to Hideaway Pizza. You will be receiving a specialty/gourmet pizza when you eat here. Don't expect Pizza Hut or Domino prices though, as it is moderately inexpensive. For two people, it's about $30 for two pizzas and a soda. 

Would I recommend this restaurant to someone else? Of course, especially if they are going to a concert at Cain's Ballroom or a show at the BOK Center. Would I eat here again? Of course, but only if I was in the area or we were meeting friends for dinner. Needless to say, Joe Momma's is a great addition to downtown Tulsa. 

-N

Three More Days!

I think I'm the biggest fan of Cirque Du Soleil. My Dad got me hooked when he look me to my first show, La Nouba, in Orlando. Then for our wedding gift, my Dad bought Andrew and I tickets to see KA in Las Vegas. I'm such a huge fan that I've seen the following shows. 

- Mystere - created in 1993

- O - created in 1998

- La Nouba - created in 1998

- Varekai - created in 2002

- Zumanity - created in 2003

- KA - created in 2004

- Love - created in 2006

Plus, I listen to the CD's at work all the time. It's great music to write to. 

Anyway, Cirque Du Soleil's show, Saltimbanco is coming to the BOK Center this Saturday.  I'm so excited. My parents are coming up from Houston and my Dad, Andrew and I are going to see it Saturday night. It's only three more days...woohoo!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered!

The 2008 Christmas cards are complete and in the mail. This past weekend, Andrew and I tackled our Christmas cards. We took a picture on Saturday, wrote the letter on Sunday and addressed and stuffed the cards on Monday night. Andrew was a HUGE help. I thought I was going to have to address and stuff over 60 Christmas cards, but he addressed all of the envelopes, helped me stuff the envelopes and went to the post office to buy stamps. Thanks for you help, babe! I really appreciate it. 

Anyway, here is our Christmas photo from 2008. It's a long story, but we have learned our lesson. The lesson is take a photograph on vacation or hire a photographer in the fall to take pictures. 

Enjoy!

-N

OMG!

Look at these boots! How cute are they? Piperlime sent me an e-mail this morning and there was a picture of these beauties in the body of the e-mail. 

They seem that they are the perfect jean boot. Plus, the great thing about the boots is they are only $70. I might have to ask Andrew if I can make an investment into my 2009 winter wardrobe.  

-N

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

For the past week or so, Andrew and I have been trying to get the house ready for Christmas. I have been taking care of the inside of the house, while he has been taking care of the outside of the house (with my assistance). I worked all last week to get the decorations up and we worked all day Sunday to get the lights up on the house. Here are some pictures of our hard work. Needless to say, it's being to look at a lot like Christmas at our house. 

Inside:

Our Christmas Tree:

The Mantle:

More decorations:

The Kitchen:

Our New Stockings:

Every time that we are on vacation, we always try to bring back a Christmas ornament. Here are the new additions to our tree this year. 

From our honeymoon/anniversary trip to Las Vegas:

This one is from our trip to London this past summer:

We picked this one up from Paris, Las Vegas. I thought it was too cute to pass up:

Outside:

Andrew probably isn't going to love this picture of outside, but it gives you an idea. I will post some better pictures this weekend. 

Can you see the glow from the LED lights? It's crazy on how bright they are. 

I hope everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit. Enjoy the pictures. 

-N