Girl's Trip to Dallas

Tomorrow morning, I'm off to Dallas with Jenn, Lindsay, Abby and Leslie for a Girl's Trip. We're going to go to the No Doubt concert, eat some yummy Mexican food and do some retail therapy. I can't wait. Lots of pictures to come on Sunday. 

-N

Memorial Day BBQ

This evening, we went over to Lindsay's apartment with the crew for a Memorial Day BBQ. We had great food, fantastic company and it was a beautiful evening. Here are some pics from the festivities...

Mark and Eric had a burger competition to see who could make the best burger. By the end of the evening, I think it ended up being a tie. 

Here's a picture of Eric's burger. It was a beast.

Here's what was left of Mark's burgers. 

The guys

The gals

Eric and Mark deep in thought over a pickle. 

Thanks to Lindsay for being a great hostess and thanks to Eric and Mark for cooking dinner. We had a great time. 

Happy Memorial Day!

-N

P.S. On our way home, we saw a smiling car (the white one). So, I thought I would share. It made me giggle. 

Let Summer Begin!

Memorial Day is the official start of summer and we know what that means, it's time to work on the tan, play in the pool and hang out with friends. To get ready for these festivities, I needed to get a swim suit. I came across a really cute one at VictoriaSecret.com this weekend. It was in the clearance section and they send me a coupon code for an additional 20%. So, I couldn't pass up the offer. My swim suit should be arriving in about two weeks. Here are some pics...

Front:

Back: This is the color of my swim suit. 

-N

Happy Birthday Jenn!

Happy 25th Birthday, Jenn. I hope you have a fantastic day. Thanks for being such a good friend. 

Love you!

-N

Check: #12 and #51

Last week, I've been able to check two more things off my 101 list...#12: Get wedding dress dry cleaned and #51: Go a week without soda. For the soda promise, there are four of us in our group that have given up soda until July 4. I'm on week two and still going strong! Keep up the good work, Eric, Mark and Eugene. 

-N

Hump Day Dinner #59: Crow Creek Tavern

Crow Creek Tavern

3534 S. Peoria

Tulsa, OK

On Wednesday, we are ate at the Crow Creek Tavern on Brookside that's popular with the bikers. It's a fairly small restaurant (it seats about 150 people) that has a great patio. Over the past week, we have had some great weather, so it was a perfect night to sit out of the patio with friends and watch the activities along Brookside, which included seeing a Ferrari. The atmosphere of the restaurant is really laid back, but unfortunately the food isn't too good, even though it's reasonable priced. Andrew and I received stomach aches from our meals (we both had chicken strips). They have some great homemade potato chips, but the chicken strips were REALLY greasy, so I only ate a fraction of my meal. Would I eat there again? Probably not, but I did enjoy the view. 

-N

49. Run a Half Marathon

On Saturday, I completed #49 on my 101 list....running a half marathon. Kim and John, Andrew's parents, came in from St. Louis and we all ran the Oklahoma Aquarium Half-Marathon. My strategy going into the race was to run to the six mile marker and then walk and run the rest of the way. I figured that I needed to at least start the race running and end the race running and running at least half of the half marathon would be cool. 

Well, my strategy changed during the race and I ended up running the ENTIRE 13.1 miles. I started the race good and my breathing was perfect, so I just worked through the little pain that I had in my legs and kept running. I ran the Oklahoma Aquarium Half Marathon in 2 hours and 50 minutes, which makes my pace to be about 13 minutes/mile. I couldn't believe it on Saturday! I still can't believe it. I ran an entire half marathon. Wow. The most I had run before the half marathon was four miles. 

I'm not sure how I did it. I think part of the reason why I just kept running was because I was afraid of what would happen to my muscles if I stopped running and started to walk instead. Anyway, I did it and I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself. I never in my wildest dreams did I think I would/could run a half-marathon one year ago. Kim and John also had a great race. Kim had a personal best time of 2:52 and John came in at 2:27. Way to go, Kim and John. Thanks for running with me. 

-N

P.S. This picture was taken right after the race. Unfortunately, they ran out of medals, so we had to take a picture with the poster instead. We have our fingers crossed that we will receive our medals in the next could of weeks. Let's hope!

Hump Day Dinner #58: Mary Italian Trattoria

Mary's Italian Trattoria

1313 E. 15th Street, #B

Tulsa, OK  74120

Last week, we ate at Mary's Italian Trattoria down on Cherry Street. It's a quaint, family owned restaurant that's decorated with family heirlooms. All of their food is homemade from scratch, so you might be waiting a while for your food. Overall, the food was good, but we didn't think it was anything too special. Andrew had spaghetti with meat sauce and I have spaghetti with marinara sauce. The meal ended up being moderately expensive for what we received. If we had a choice, we would prefer to eat at Tucci's, which is two blocks up from Mary's. Nether less, it was still nice to receive some home cooked food. If you are around Cherry Street, give Mary's a try, even if it's only for the experience. 

-N

Recap: Kansas City

As you all know, we were in Kansas City this past weekend for Andrew's birthday. If you know Andrew and I, we love food. So, it was eatin' weekend!! We had yummy BBQ at Jack Stack on Thursday night, breakfast at First Watch and dinner at Ruth Chris's Steakhouse on Friday, lunch at Ted's Montana Grill and dinner at California Pizza Kitchen on Saturday and breakfast at McDonald's on Sunday. On top of all of the eating, we did some shopping, as well as visit the Boulevard Brewery. Here are some pictures from the trip. 

We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Overland Park. Here are some pictures of the room. The hotel was in an awesome location, right around the corner from the Town Plaza Center, and it was really quiet and cheap. Who doesn't love that???

 

There were geese everywhere. They were honorary residents of the hotel. We took this picture the first night...can you see them all? Then the next night, we bought a loaf of bread from the store and fed it to about 15 geese. 

On Friday, we went to the Boulevard Brewery. This place blew me away. The brewery is the 16th largest brewery in the United States, second largest in Missouri and it's only 20 years old. Plus, they only have 86 employees and they still get together every Wednesday for an employee lunch. Get this! On the Wednesday lunches, each person takes turn cooking for the group. Isn't that cool?? 

Friday's are cleaning days :)

There's beer in those barrels. 

What an awesome view!

We LOVED the floor. These are 3" blocks of pine bricks. In the tasting room, they had walnut bricks. 

I laughed at this poster. 

Here are some pictures of the Power and Light District

We checked out the new grocery store called the Market and found these desserts. 

Gotta love the Plaza. Andrew started to drool over this car. 

Then, we visited Dean and Deluca when we were at the Town Plaza Center. I saw these flowers and couldn't resist taking a picture. 

Overall, we had a great time! We love KC and can't wait to go back. 

-N

Hump Day Dinner #57: Los Cabos

Los Cabos Mexican Grill

300 Riverwalk Terrace

Jenks, OK

On Wednesday, we ate at Los Cabos for Hump Day Dinner. It was a perfect evening to be outside, so Los Cabos was the great choice. The restaurant is located on the Jenks Riverwalk and is one of Andrew's favorite restaurants. The food is ok....Andrew would think otherwise :). The white queso is good and I enjoy the grande soft tacos with fajita chicken. Andrew's favorite dish is the grande soft tacos with ground beef. Unfortunately, last Wednesday we had extremely slow service and we were in the party room, so it was very difficult to listen to conversations. We still had a good time though and enjoyed some delicious chocolate cake from Merritts, since it was Andrew's and Lindsay's birthdays last week. Here is a picture of the honored guests and their cake :). 

Didn't Merritts do a good job??

After dinner, we all decided to head over to the RiverSpirit Casino. This was my first time in an Oklahoma casino and we all had a great time. The casino is very impressive. The style is very contemporary and overall the casino was very clean. Actually, it's nicer than some of the casinos in Las Vegas. We all got our player's cards and played a little on the slot machines. The best part of the evening was when I won $10.50 with $1.00 on the penny slots. What's even better is that I won "big" on our favorite Las Vegas slot machine....the American Classic. I was so excited to see it was at the RiverSpirit Casino. Here is a picture of Andrew and our favorite slot machine from our last trip to Vegas. 

Even though we had a late night, we all had a great time. It looks like a Hump Day Dinner is going to be at the casino in the near future. Watch out penny slots, here I come!

-N

I Can't Believe It!!!!!

It's official. StyleMark Designs is going to have a booth at the Holiday Market!!!! I got an e-mail this afternoon inviting me to attend the show. So, it looks like the jury liked my merchandise :). I have a lot to do, but it's going to be a fun ride. 

Mark your calendars - The Holiday Market will be held October 8-11 at the UMAC. I hope to see everyone there!

WOOHOO. I still can't believe it! :)

-N

Kansas City...Here We Come!

At lunch today, we're off to Kansas City for the weekend to celebrate Andrew's birthday. We can't wait for shopping, good food and amazing BBQ. The highlights of the trip will be a tour of the Boulevard Wheat Factory, dinner at Chris Ruth's Steakhouse and of course, shopping on the plaza. We'll be sure to take lots of photos. 

See you on Sunday!

-N

Happy Birthday Andrew!!!

I hope you have a great day and a fantastic birthday weekend. Enjoy every minute of it, as you deserve it. I love you with all of my heart!!

Love,

- N

We Found It!

We were on our weekly grocery shopping trip this afternoon and found Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback at Wal-Mart (The one at Hwy. 75 and 121st Street). Andrew was so excited! So, we picked up a 12 pack of both. We have only tasted the Pepsi Throwback and it's pretty good. It reminds me of the Pepsi that is sold in the U.K. If you run across it at your grocery store or gas station, give it a try. Here are some pics for you to enjoy. 

-N

It's Official

I've officially filled out my application to have a booth at this year's Holiday Market, a fairly large and popular craft fair in October, that is hosted by the Junior League of Tulsa. I had to submit some of my merchandise to a jury and if they like what I sell, then they will invite me to participate in the craft fair. I should find out the verdict in a couple of weeks. Wish me luck!

-N

Drumroll Please....

After several days of contemplating back and forth between the two designs, I ended up customizing the "Poppy Lane" design. Even though I loved both designs, I felt that the "Hydrangeas" look was very 70's looking after a while(I felt that people weren't going to identify the flowers as hydrangeas with out the design name attached to the images.) and the "Poppy Lane" design was very girly. So, I decided to customize the "Poppy Lane" design. Here is what I was able to create with the help of Erin Bradley Designs. 

After much anticipation, I am proud to introduce to you, StyleMark Designs...

Logo 1: This will be used on gift bags, stickers, gift boxes, etc. 

Logo 2: This will be used on sign labels, on the back of the notecards, order forms, receipts, etc.  

Product Tag: This tag will be attached to all products. 

So, what do you think? What are your first impressions? I would love to get your feedback. 

-N

Strawberries, Blackberries, Raspberries...Oh My!

This past week, I was reading the May issue of the Oklahoma magazine and I saw there are places around town to pick your own berries! Can you believe it?? I thought this tradition was extinct in the U.S. because the only time that I have seen the opportunities to pick your own assorted berries has been in England. 

As you can imagine, I was so excited when I saw this article. I checked out some of the locations online and it looks like there is a place in Sapulpa, as well as in Broken Arrow (at least these were the locations close to Andrew and I). Here are the business names and telephone numbers, if you're interested. 

Sapulpa: Bucket of Berries - 918-639-9914 or 918-227-0101

Broken Arrow: Thunderbird Berries - 918-704-5374 or 918-704-5795

So, as soon as the rain stops, I'm heading out to pick my own berries. I'm thinking that I can use the berries to make a strawberry shortcake or a fruit pizza. Yum. What do you think??

-N