My Sweet Valentine :)

Throughout the entire time that Chad and I have been together… I can probably count on ONE hand, the number of times we’ve spent a holiday together.. on the ACTUAL HOLI-DAY itself. Especially Valentine’s Day. The day when the normally frugal decide it’s time to splurge… the day when most restaurants are to capacity and my chef is working like mad to make every celebrating couple’s dining experience special. This year.. having my husband all to myself… on this once-in-a-blue-moon-probably-never-EVER-going-to-happen-again occasion… I’m sure one would’ve expected a fancy dinner at a five star, Chef Chad Kelley rated, fine dining establishment. ;) Right?? Hehehe..

How’s sausage & banana peppers, thin crust, extra crispy Domino’s Pizza, with a side of cheesy breadsticks while we picnic on the living room floor for extra ooey, gooey romance?? ;) BEST. NIGHT. EVER. Oh.. and there was a movie too ;) and a card that made me cry, big fat ugly faced tears… and two of the sweetest, most thoughtful gifts that I’ve ever received… (but.. more on that, later… ;) It took all of TWO SECONDS to decide that we would NOT be joining the masses by going out on this day.  Celebrating with my ALL-TIME favorite food, (recently been banned since starting our New Year's diet), was the best way I could think of to enjoy this quiet night at home.  ;)  I couldn't have been happier.  :) :) 

I love my husband. I think that’s been established on this blog before. He’s pretty damn great and I really can’t say that enough. Or mean it more, even if I say it a million more times. The greatest thing about him is that he’s NOT your typical macho male. He’s sweet and kind and romantical (yeah I probably just made up that last word.. I know;)… EVERY single day of the year. Not just on the day it’s expected. When every other man is buying last minute flowers and cards at the grocery store.. my sweet husband is bringing me mini babybel’s, peanut butter and nuts to work because I ran out of afternoon snacks. When every other man is picking out a cheesy, run of the mill, generic cards to just sign… my love has, in one sentence, captured my heart all over again (and produced those big, fat ugly faced tears). I don’t know what I did before him… but I do know that my life hasn’t ever been the same since.

There's so much to look forward to this year. Our lives are about to run on overdrive with so many fantastic things happening all around us.. I can't wait to see this year unfold. 

Lovey dovey enough for you?  ;)  Hope your Valentine's Day was as fabulous as mine was! 

Happy 4th Birthday Kenzie :)

Last Sunday (February 5th...for those keeping track ;) Chad and I took a mental break from all things restaurant to head up to Plano to partake in our niece Kenzie's, 4th birthday... which ALSO just so happened to be on Super Bowl Sunday!  No need for more excuses to get together and party.. Let the games begin!  :) 

On special request from the birthday girl herself... Uncle Chad spent the morning perfecting the most Pinkalicious "cupcake cake" anyone has ever seen :) 

Strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.. topped with strawberry malted whoppers and a cake ball to act as the cherry on top :) He even tinted some cream cheese frosting to make the loop-di-loops...All. By. Himself.  What a man!  :) 

Surprising the little one.. :)  Who actually isn't so little anymore!

Ready to Eat

Playing dress up with her friend Hayley :)

Daily Distractions & Pinterest

So many times during the chaos of my day, I sneak a few seconds on my phone to peruse the All-Distracting-Where-Have-You-Been-All-My-Life-Awesomeness...that is, Pinterest.  It's such an easy escape from reality.  A stress reliever of sorts as I easily get lost in the endlessness of inspiration and creativity.  I'm not quite sure how I lived without it actually.  So many milestones and events in my life where I could've used Pinterest.  Buying the house, getting married, DIY projects to last for days and days...

As our minds reel with endless possibilities about how our restaurant might look one day, Pinterest and I have become quite chummy as I scour its goodness for unique and interesting design ideas.  :) 

Here's a looksie at all the wonderful restaurant-ness I've been drooling over..

http://www.chictip.com/

Love the stools, love the counter, love the backwall.. love it all :)

http://www.trendir.com/

Seriously?!  How cool is this light fixture?!?!.. made of plastic forks!! 

MUST. TRY. TO. RECREATE.

http://www.restorationhardware.com/

Lovin' this old school barstool... too bad it's $355! 

designtraveller.blogspot.com

What a great wall of texture :)

designstamped.com

Awesome communal table, awesome bar stools..

love the feeling of this place

designstamped.com

Great facade..

http://www.busyboo.com/

Spoondeliers make me smile :) :) :)

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... :)