Taste Florence!

An older Baylor Kappa just got back from taking cooking classes and traveling in Italy and is now giving away two free tickets for this amazing tour from "Taste Florence."



Taste Florence offers my kind of tours. Like tours that take tourists to the city’s tastiest foods, educating them as they experience the best Italy has to offer. Doesn't that sound SO neat!

David and I are planning a trip to Italy for the Spring next year and this sounds like a MUST do!

Click HERE to go on over to Ashely's blog and enter to win! Or browse some of her recipes as they are simply the BEST!

Best of luck!

Caroline and Jerad's Couples Shower

Last weekend we helped host a couples shower for one of my longest and dearest friends Caroline and her fiance, Jerad.


We had the party at our house and had so much fun catching up with new and old friends and chowing down on some good food!

I made this wreath for our front door using some wooden letters from Michael's. I thought it turned out cute and was a fun way to make it personal!


The table all set up and ready. I made this banner using a free template on Martha Stewart's website. I had another one on the bottom of the table that said "Eat, Drink and Be Married."


Caroline with all the hosts.


I framed the adorable invitations (blurred out the personal information) and had it displayed on our bar. I also had all the guests sign a wine bottle with a paint pen as part of my gift to the couple. I thought that would be a fun keepsake!



Opening gifts





David and I are so happy for y'all and are looking forward to the big day!

Check this Out!

A close friend of mine has started a new business called Open Air Deals.com. If you like doing things outdoors or at least dressing like you do (that's me!)- you have to check this site out!

(Click HERE to go to the site.)
My description: It's basically a groupon site for outdoor related activities, gear and apparel.

Official description:
"OPENAIRDEALS is an online shopping community featuring everything to build your ultimate outdoor adventure at up to 70% off. We offer lodging, apparel and activity deals handpicked from the best outdoor companies in the world."

This site will feature discounts from outdoor companies like Patagonia, North Face and REI. I think my husband is already drooling.

Sign Up. It's completely free and goes live September 1st.

Oh, and tell all your friends of course! Happy Shopping!

Weekend of Friends!

We started the weekend last night by celebrating with our friends, Kent and Lindsey.


Lindsey has been searching for months to find an English teaching job but she got a job this week! Congrats Linds!

Tonight, we're having dinner with these people. Catherine and Alex moved to Tyler a couple months ago and we miss them in Dallas! We are SO excited to see them tonight.


Tomorrow, I'm helping host a couples shower for Caroline and Jerad at our house.


It's going to be so fun and I can't wait to see so many more of my close friends at the party!

Have a great weekend!

Today

Today was a busy day at work and I came home exhausted and beat. I wanted to cook us dinner tonight because we've been eating out TOO MUCH!

So I ran to the grocery with no recipe in mind and remembered this awesome summer pasta from The Little Kitchen That Could.

Roasted Tomato Caprese Pasta. That's all I need to say. However, I will say more. It's light, it's good, it's tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. You can't go wrong with those ingredients. Click HERE for recipe


We popped open a bottle of wine and I spent the rest of the night planning my weekend crafts and catching up with So You Think You Can Dance.

This dance is ridiculous. I literally don't know how these people did this. These are not current contestants on the show but were just a guest performance a couple weeks ago.

They look like they are in a dream. It's so effortless.



Isn't that beautiful!

Happy Thursday! I'm SO ready for the weekend!

Loving Layla

Y'all, I love our dog, Layla! I cannot believe how quickly I have become ATTACHED to this dog.

Let me start from the beginning. I wanted a dog SO bad after we got married. Well, I wanted one before we got married but the whole not-living-together-thing would have made that really hard. We were coming up on our one year anniversary and I was bugging David to get a dog. He wanted one too, but not as badly as I wanted one.

I really liked Golden Retrievers. They are precious as puppies. They are sweet. They are good family dogs. They are smart and cuddly. I wanted one.

I didn't want to pay the $300 + price tag for one. So we put the search on hold. (I also looked at adopting from shelters in Dallas but the fees were still $250 or more for dogs under 4 years old.)

David on the other hand wanted a German Shepherd. He grew up with one and knew they can be great dogs. I thought they looked like wolves and scared the crap out of me.

As I've mentioned before, my brother's girlfriend Amber and her family are German Shepherd breeders and they had a litter in January. One of the pups was sold to a woman but was returned for an overbite. Amber and her sweet family knew we wanted a dog so they offered her to us, for free.

I battled with the decision. This was not what I wanted. I wanted a Golden Retriever, but free! How can you compete with that? Not to mention this was from a prized bloodline and I knew she would be a great dog.

"Ok, let's do this." I told David. Sure enough, May 28th we brought Layla into our home.

I loved her immediately. She has such a sweet temperament and minds so well. I really realized how much I loved her when we had to drop her off at the vet to be spayed this past Friday. I moped around all afternoon and thought about her constantly. I was so worried about her "going under" for the surgery and I was begging David to call the vet and get an update. She did great and is now back home, thank goodness.

Layla loves to chase her shadow around the house and pounce on the reflection of her dog tag on our floor. She loves to eat ice cubes and will sit, stay, shake and lay down. I am SO glad we got her.

Family Team Work

David and I went to his family's beach house over the July 4th weekend. The beach house has been on my mother-in-law's side of the family for forever and it is such a special place for all to gather and enjoy.



The house has survived many hurricanes but it is time to give it a little TLC. This weekend 14 of us gathered and worked as much as we could in the Texas heat to take down the old shingle roof and replace it with a new tin one!




I was so impressed with every one's positive attitudes and relentless worth ethic. It truly was team work at it's finest.


Ya, we were all tired and hot but we worked together to get the job done.


David and I feel a little like zombies but we are so glad we were able to be a part of that weekend. Here are some more pictures! Enjoy!

{David's mom and her boyfriend, Tony}


{David's cousin, Jacob working on the ladder.}


{Jacob's fiance, Rikki Leigh and my work partner!}


{Our sweet, Layla enjoyed watching everyone work hard!}


{David's second cousin, Adrienne kept the roof pieces organized!}


{David with his momma}


{David's cousins, Seth and Noah}