Restaurant Bid-ness :)

I have to say that even though I've had a million and ONE things swirling in my head lately, I'm actually kinda surprised that I've drawn such a BLANK when it comes to actually BLOGGING about something.  I"m totally dropping the ball I know, since it's still January and I technically shouldn't be putting my New Year's resolution to blog more on the back burner already... but life's been calling me away lately...at least mentally it has....

With restaurant planning hitting an ALL time high... at SUPER warp speed no less...my brain is literally MUSH right now.  Nervousness and excitement all rolled into one as our dream of owning our own restaurant nears.  Eeeeekkkkk!!! 

Without giving too much away... at least until we have more things finalized and set in stone, here's a quick peek at some of the things that've been happening in our lives these last few days..  

Like a kid in a candy store..

Lighting Inspiration

Textured wall perhaps??..

Thinking we may need to take this drive again to see what kinds of deals they have in the South Texas..

Or... maybe the 9 hour trek can wait.. ;)

Dreaming of Blacks BBQ in Lockhart, Tx

And eating amazing Thai food at the cute Coconut Grill place by our house.. :)

One must properly refuel to plan restaurants... right??  ;) 

More later.. must. keep. planning. dreaming. creating...NOT sleeping...stressing.. ;) 

South Padre Island, Texas

The last time I made this incredibly LOOOOONNNGGG 9 hour journey (in a car) from the valley to Dallas, I was in a U-Haul packed full of all my things ready to start a brand new life in a brand new city.  Nearly 5 and a half years later, I remember why I always fly.  ;) 

The first leg of our trip wasn't so bad actually.  Cutting the trip in half, Chad and I made it into San Antonio on Thursday, just in time to crash my sweet friend Melinda's pad for the night.  With not nearly enough time to catch up, we hit the hay soon after and woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning...ready to take on the next four hours to the south Texas.  :) 

Driving in around noon on Friday, we made our rounds, meeting up with friends (and potential restaurant investors ;) and spent the afternoon with little Miss Addison and sweet baby Andrew.  :)  On Saturday, we headed to South Padre Island to enjoy some good old family time with my parents and Miss Addison (who surprisingly wanted to come along for the overnight stay, even without Omar and Christi!)  Luckily, we entertained her enough to keep any potential freak-outs at bay... Thank goodness for Mexican Bingo to liven up the party!!  ;) 

But first, a little driving tour of the island to show Chad the sights.  :)  Not QUITE like the beaches of southern California where Chad grew up...but beautiful none the less.. at least for our little neck of the woods.  :) 

  

Yuuuuuppp!!!

On a whim, and mostly looking for something new to do, Chad and I headed East this past Saturday to attend our first live auction in Sulphur Springs, Tx.  Stumbling upon the Bright Star Antiques website while looking for interesting finds on Craigslist, I was immediate struck by the sheer VOLUME of AWESOMENESS they had in store!  From amazing apothecary drawers (which I'm DYING to own one day...hint, hint Chad Kelley.. ;) to the most random folk artsy thing you could think of.. it was an experience for sure. 

Apparently it was also the 4th anniversary of this particular auction house and they had over NINE HUNDRED "lots" or items to auction off and over 200 people in attendance.  To celebrate, they even provided "lunch" to pacify the hungry crowd as the auction went on for hours.  The barn auction started at the butt crack of dawn (7am!!) and the gallery auction started at 10am and was expected to run til at least 4:30pm!  Craziness.  (We didn't last that long...)

We DID last until about 2:30pm though...but decided it was time to go after we ACTUALLY WON! our first bid (Cue the INSANE adrenaline rush as we had a face off with some lady in the back of the room that kept driving the price up!!).  Chad said he saw the hunger in my eyes....lol...and said we needed to leave before I ended up bidding on some random concrete lawn sculpture of a crazy squirrel ;)  If only we had more money and more space in our tiny little Prius to come home with bigger things!  Oh well.. there's always next time...

YUUUUUUPPPP!!!  ;) 

Jam packed!  An interesting crowd of old and young folks filled the room...

This beauty went for $1,500.  A steal considering similar things are sold at Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn for double that amount.  Just wish we had an extra $1,500 bones laying around.  :/ 

Wa, wa, waaaaaa... Next time, he's mine!

Yuuuppp.....yuuuuppp....yuuuupppp.. pretty interesting to watch these guys work.  :)

These would make AWESOME lights over a cool wooden table. 

We loved this guy... except it was one of the last things to be auctioned and we left before we could see how much he went for. 

Cool, old school coffee box

Love these old furniture carts.  They had several.... Just wish we had a need for it. 

Would make a cool coffee table.  :)

RANDOM!

  

We were actually outbid on this guy.  We stopped bidding when the price got over $200. 

This guy probably went for a couple hundred bucks!  The most random, off-the-wall things went like HOT CAKES, where larger, more substantial items went for less.  Not sure what that was about..

Cool, old Elevator Indicator panel! 

This light was AWESOME!!  Another lot we didn't wait around for.  I'm sure it went for hundreds.

Looked really cool all lit up in the gallery.  :)

A bolt of French fabric they said.  We thought it could've made a cool table runner. 

Not for over $600 though.  Too rich for our blood. 

Our PRIZE!! I've always wanted an old wooden trunk like this..  :) 

Part of me is just proud that we FINALLY got up the courage to actually bid on something 

Winning was just a little added bonus!  :) 

I couldn't convince Chad that these chairs would look cool in our restaurant. :/

Cool, Old Safe... that they actually had the combination for.  :)

Love these old drawers... :)

Didn't wait to see how much these hanging lights went for either. 

Great, great light idea for the restaurant though... Might have to recreate ;)

And these wire baskets went for like a $100 each too. 

Would make awesome lights overhead as well...

This drawer unit was cool.. just needs a little love. 

Love this old theater light :)

Taking our new purchase home :)

Oh yeah and we were happy to find an old price sticker on the side (from another antique shop I guess) that was selling this for THREE TIMES what we paid for it! 

Woo hoo to getting a good deal!!  Until next time... :)

New Years Resolutions - 2012

I know... I know... I know.. I realize this is MORE than a little late but...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! 

(Woo Hoo Party People!!  Streamers flying.. fireworks blasting off in the background.. champagne in one hand....noise maker in the other.. hugs and kisses flying about.. ;)  Go with it people!! 

I don't even have pictures to show for how Chad and I spent this past New Years Eve.  (at Chad's sister's house, celebrating with our niece and nephew, Chad's mom - Diane, Christy's mother in law and Christy's friend Jenn and daughter.)  But it probably was a GOOD thing that the glut-fest wasn't captured. We literally made ourselves SICK from the over-abundance of snacks and desserts and all things OFF-LIMITS at 12:01am on January 1st.  It was quite ridiculous I must say. 

Just so you have a good understanding of how crazy the kitchen got... On the menu for the evening.  (In no particular order.. ;)  Oh yes and all this for 6 adults and two kids..

- Chicago style, deep dish pizza

- Coconut & Pecan Praline Ice-Cream from Henry's (this was the ice-cream we had at our wedding :) 

- Butterfinger Rice Krispie Treats (soooo sooo good!!)

- Gooey Butter Cake (Diabetic Coma waiting to happen but sooo good!!)

- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge (didn't set up quite Chad had hoped but DE-LISH either way :)

- Fudgy Brownies (didn't even try these.. just saw they were there)

- Chips and Salsa

- Tacos (for Christy.. lol)

- Delia's Tamales (driven all the way up from south Texas)

and I'm sure there were other things...I think I just blocked out the excess.. (or the stuff that I didn't even get to try.. ) 

All to say that...

This year's New Year Resolution (aside from the usual suspects of doing more Pinterest Pinning, Blogging (cause I know I've been blog-slacking..) is to...

GET SKINNY or... get PREGNANT!  ;) 

In no particular order...hahaha... 

Oh and of course.. OPEN OUR VERY OWN RESTAURANT!!

Honestly, this has been the REAL reason I've been blog-slacking.  Chad and I have been so incredibly distracted...planning and researching and writing our business plan, developing a menu, designing our logo, finding investors and looking for that sweet spot to call our own... all while trying to sleep as our minds race with endless possibilities about our future! Soooo, soooo incredibly excited, it's hard to contain it and even harder to focus on anything BUT getting this thing GOING!!  :)

BUT...more on that to come later on though.. I think I've rambled long enough.. (sorry for a no picture post by the way.. ) 

Anyone out there with good resolutions to stick to this year??