On the Road

  I travel a good bit for my job, so I have been on the road for the past week. I always enjoy the Dallas/Ft. Worth area or DFW, and I am always finding places that I didn't know existed. I love going to DFW for the food. The first place I got to visit was Boston's Pizza. I've mentioned that before? The Sicilian? Addiction? What? Yea, so what?

The Ultimate in Pizza.

This is the personal sized pizza, but the XL pizza that can feed 3 adults is glorious.

  My other reason for loving to go to DFW is that I get to meet up with my best friend Michelle! After a long day of work for both of us, we met up for desert, her favorite. We ended up meeting at BJs Brewhouse for some tasty deserts. Coffee, Cokes, water, and sugar were had by all (no alcohol for those of you who were worried).  She and her man-friend Daniel had a huge chocolate chip cookie with ice cream on top and I had a beignet with ice cream, strawberries, and cinnamon.

  I thought about taking an "after" picture, but who wants to look at an empty plate? Sorry, for the shadows, but restaurant light is hard to work with, and busting on my huge camera to take pictures of food isn't great table etiquette. 

Michelle and I. Yea friends.

  I didn't realize that this picture was so blurry when I took it. Oops. Getting to visit with your friends and family when  you are on the road makes traveling so much better. And it helps my attitude about being away from home. :)

  I found my battery charger for my camera, by the way. It was one of those things where I asked God, "I have no idea where the charger is, but you do. Would you let me know where it is?" A few days later God said, "Check your back pack." Low and behold that is where it was. Thank you God, for knowing the number of hairs on my head, and where my camera battery is located. You are even in the small things. 

Small Change, Big Impact

  Unbeknownst to me, my husband does not like our couch pillows. To tell you the truth I don't like them either. They were the decoration frustration purchase where you can't find what you are looking for but you know you need something decision. I thought they would be fun and were a little out of my comfort zone, so I took the plunge. To be fair to my husband, we weren't married when I bought them and wasn't consulted on the decision making.

  Now we are married and important things like throw pillows should be discussed. I feel like we have good communication within our marriage. We've always been able to talk to one another. Our conversation went like this:
Me: "How do you feel about our couch pillows?"
Husband: "They're ok. They're squishy."
M: "No, I mean do you like them?"
H: "Not really."
M: "Me either! I'm buying new ones!"
H: "Ok." Husband never looked up from his computer the entire conversation.

  So off I went to find the perfect throw pillows for our couches, which was harder to find than I expected. One of the problems I ran into was trying to find pillows that my husband will like.  They are as follows:
   1. Not ugly
   2. Not girly
   3. Fluffy and squishy
   4. Soft

  You wouldn't think that this would be too terribly hard to find, but it was. I must tell you first that my husband is an artist. He majored in graphic design and draws, paints, creates, designs, and makes life look beautiful. He looks at life much differently than I do as a non-artist, and that is one of the things I love about him. But I was completely alone on my pillow search mission. He was home working on a website that he is building for a client, so, of course, I went shopping. We also need a coffee table, and I was more than happy to go hunting.

  After about 5 hours, I think I found what we were looking for. Here's the before and after.

Before:

After:

  I think I really like the look of the new pillows. Our couches and chair are brownish red, and it can be really hard to match things to it. The frame is black cedar, so I tried to bring out the trim with the pillows.  And this is the most comfortable chair in the world. 

  Here is the coffee table that we bought from Kirkland's of all places. Who would have thought? The table is a bit small, but it came with 2 side tables, which we also need. It will come in on Monday, so Husband can put it together for me! I also bought the pillows with that swirly pattern on it to mimic the rounded edges of the tables. 

  I'm also thinking of trying to find a bright teal blue pillow and maybe a mustard yellow one. I think it would add a pop of color since our living room is slowly becoming monochromatic. All in due time. Maybe I can make my own pillow cases and reuse the old pillows we don't like. I think I'm reaching here.

Pizza

  I love pizza. I know it isn't the healthiest food choice, but that has never stopped me from dialing for take out or browsing the freezer section at the grocery store. I was so inspired by last week's pizza from Boston's Pizza that I attempted to recreate the master piece at home. Here's how it turned out:

  I found a recipe that was supposed to be similar to Papa John's sauce (maybe it kind of tasted like it?) which turned out pretty good. It required a 1/4 cup or water, which made the tomato sauce run off the dough, drop off the tray, and sizzles on the heat coils in the oven. Dinner isn't successful without smoke emanating from the kitchen, right? Anyway, this is the Sicilian recreated. Not the best, but I've made worse.

  I apologize for the poor quality of pictures; only my iphone is available at this time. My Rebel XTI is what I normally use but that batteries are dead. And I can't find my charger. 

Weekend Away

  My husband and I both got Monday off, so we took the opportunity to steal away to DFW for the weekend. I was beyond excited to leave town together as both of our work schedules involve after hours devotion. My husband is so sweet that he let me do everything that I wanted to do for the weekend. Mostly, that meant eating a lot of great food, and going to Banana Republic Outlet (only the greatest store in the world).

  First stop was the Grapevine Mills Mall to shop! My husband told me to take my time at BR while he wandered over to the video game store. After that was one of my favorite places to eat La Madeleine. My husband and I love fireplaces, so we tried to snag a table close to the hearth.

And the Husband and I at La Madeleine. It took us a couple of tries to get a good one of both of us.

After dinner we went to a French bakery in downtown Grapevine called Main St. Bread Baking Co. We found this little place a year ago before attending a friend's wedding. 

If you love desserts then this is the place to go. Check out your options.

My husband opted for Creme Brulee and a white chocolate mocha. I chose cheesecake and regular coffee.

  For Sunday lunch we got to have lunch with my best friend, Michelle, and Boston's Pizza. The Sicilian pizza loaded with sausage, ham, tomatoes, pepper, and onions was delicious. All in all it was a great weekend. Hope yours was as great as mine!  

Memory Board

  We moved into a new building at work last week, and the most exciting part has been the opportunity to decorate. All of the offices are painted a butter yellow, so some of my wall art doesn't match anymore. The memory board I was using now clashes with the walls. It was yellow with pineapples and green ribbon. It was on sale when I bought it. Needless to say, it needed to be updated.

  So I rifled through some boxes and found some houndstooth wool that was perfect for recovering the memory board. But I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like before I recovered it. A little back ribbon and painting the buttons black and the recover was complete.

  Here is the recovered memory board. The ribbons are not quite center, but all I have to do is add pictures.

  Much better. I should probably lower the ribbon that it hangs on, so that I can hide the big white hook. Unfortunately we can't use nails, so this is the best we have for now. Hope you like it!

Good Morning

  Good Morning, Blogging World. Yesterday I woke up with a crick in my neck and unable to turn my head to the left, so I spent the entire day on the couch watching Lie To Me Season 2. I love Netflix streaming. My only complaint about this Saturday was that I was in pain. Sunday has arrived, I'm still sitting on the couch, still not an ambi-neck-turner and I thought I would be productive by starting a blog.

  The best used Christmas gift of the season is the heating pad my mother in law gave me. At first I thought, "what would I use this for?" However, it seems to be one of those Christmas gifts that God knew I needed before I knew I needed it. So thanks Mother in Law!

  There was so much that I needed to get done this weekend, like clean the apartment, work on some crafting projects for my new office, try some recipes, have a date with the husband, etc. and none of it got done. Ah well. Not much I can do about that now. Another day of blog surfing and having my husband bring me take out (he doesn't cook after a disastrous attempt at Mandarin Chicken). Blogs are great and I love reading them, so I thought I would join the conversation. Do I need to tell you the purpose of this blog? The purpose: Life and Life abundantly.

  Welcome to the Blue Boxcar.