A few of my favorite things

November and December are just flat out crazy months for us. Kyle and I were out of town for at least an overnighter every weekend in November, and December is turning out the same. That doesn't leave me a lot of time to just sit for 30 mins and let my creativity flow, so I can share with you all the going ons in our lives lately.

Kyle and I went to San Francisco for a vacation the first week of November. WOW. IT. WAS FUN. Perhaps more so because it was a our first, yes, FIRST vacation together in our nearly 8 years as a couple that wasn't within driving distance and over a couple of nights. In the course of six years, I have lived in four states, we've paid for our wedding, I went to grad school for two years, and we've forked over a lot of money on moving. That doesn't leave a whole lot of extra moolah for, well, anything. But we finally decided to just do it, and I am so glad we did because we had the most spectacular time.

Here's a couple of pix from our trip and some of my other favorite things...

At Muir Woods. The scents were SPECTACULAR!

Biking over the Golden Gate Bridge. Probably the most fun thing we did. 

Half Moon Bay for the day.

Kyle and I love to get dressed up together and go out on the town. We went to his corporate Christmas party this weekend in New Orleans and had a great time.

And finally, I love putting together complete meals. Entree, drink and dessert. Here's one of my latest.  I called it Ritas, Thai and Apple pie.

Here are the recipes I used incase you're interested in replicating.
Ritas: http://goo.gl/3BcLRM
Thai: http://fw.to/apqxxlC
Apple pie: http://www.food.com/recipe/unbelievable-apple-pie-100480

Hope your holiday season is going well!

Life's a beach.

It has been way too long since my last post. Two months to be exact. Time goes by so much faster as an adult, you blink and weeks turn into months. That cliche has been ever more real in my life lately and thus my absence. I am so grateful, thought, to report that my time away was spent having a great time and filled with exciting adventures.

I'll admit that I was not entirely thrilled to move to the MS Gulf Coast; I left a lot of really great people and environment in Baton Rouge just to start all over again. But in the last several weeks I've made really great progress in altering my attitude and perception of my surroundings.

These pics were taken on my birthday weekend--the last of my 20s :(-- Kyle and I went to Dolphin Island (just a little over an hour drive from Biloxi) and then to New Orleans for a night of dinner
drinks and dancing at a few of my fav places: Cochon, The Ugly Dog Saloon, Cafe Degas, Dos Jefes Cigar Bar and Hotel Monteleone Carousel bar. It was pretty much the perfect weekend, before I started my new big girl job, since graduation in May, on my actual birthday–Aug. 12!

I've also made some friends here and discovered a few places that make me feel like I'm building a community here. So my summer break zoomed by, I celebrated the last of my 20s, got a job and now its Fall and football season. Life is feeling pretty good and back to normal now that Kyle and I are living together again. I can't wait to show you all some of awesome DIY projects I've done to make the house we're renting feel like home.

So, lots more to come and I promise on a much more frequent basis as I get to know this area and the people here better.

Ciao for now!

Weekend rewind: crawfish, Apollo Ball and BB King

I'm going to keep this post simple and share my last couple of weekends in photos.

You all know that Kyle and I love to cook. And the last weekend I spent in Biloxi before school started, Kyle and I mostly lounged around and that also often entails cooking really delicious food. Here's a pic of one of our latest creations. If you want the recipe email me! And don't ask about the calorie count ;)

charbroiled oysters with crawfish julie topping

Horray! A coffee shop on the Mississippi Gulf Coast worth talking about. Bankhouse Coffee is in Long Beach, so it's a bit of a drive from Biloxi. It will have to be a treat for myself when I'm there, but I did leave with an in-home iced coffee start-up kit and a pound of their signature viennese roast. They can ship incase you're wondering so browse their site. 

Then I went to my first Mardi Gras Ball courtesy of two good friends that I met at my part-time gig at Garden District Coffee. It was wonderful, I felt beautiful, and made some new friends.

Apollo Mardi Gras Ball, Baton Rouge, LA

And finally, my friend Kate and I stayed the night in New Orleans at the Le Maison St. Charles hotel, toasted to three successful semesters of grad school behind us, and went to a BB King concert. Kate captured a great video. Enjoy the sounds of BB's blues..

Byblos on Magazine Street. 

Weekend Rewind: smores, lazy rivers and football

I am half way through my second to last semester of grad school and I couldn't be more excited. I took advantage of my fall break and decided to make it extra long.

I drove to Biloxi on a Wednesday evening and since it's around a two hour drive, Kyle and I usually have dinner and a drink and spend the rest of the evening veging out. I was really craving smores so I picked up the essentials at the store and Kyle and I had that for dessert.

I don't know how after six and a half years Kyle and I have never had smores together but some how that was the case. When we cleaned up dinner and I asked if he was ready for one he told me "YES!" and that I would have to make them because he didn't know how. What?!?!?? Kyle didn't have homemade deserts growing up (not that smores are fancy or anything) but I was in complete shock when I heard this. There's something so comforting about this simple combination that melts my cares away when I sink my teeth into it's marshmallow chocolatey graham cracker goodness. We had two!

Thursday and Friday we spent in Pensacola at the Holiday Inn Resort. Two absolute glorious days of just the right temperature and bountiful sunshine. We laid out all afternoon, drank our freshly made sangria and watched the tides roll in and out. We even got in the water and after a few moments it felt just perfect.

We also went out to dinner at The Grand Marlin and enjoyed a remarkable meal, beautiful view of the water and great tunes by the live band. We toasted to six and a half years together.

The hotel also had a lazy river, which I floated around a couple of times, but surprisingly the pool water was colder than the ocean. I spent the rest of my time on the pool deck catching up on the 9th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series "Dead in the Family." Nothing like escaping the rigor of grad school dry, dense academic reading with vampires, werewolves and telepaths :)

Saturday we met up with Kyle's cousin's who lives in Mobile, AL and watched the University of South Alabama football game. They recently started an official team, instead of the inner-mural league they've had for years, and it was a great game. We went to dinner that evening at Kitchen on George and that was fabulous.

It was a superberb weekend and I was thankful for the break because the next month of school will be incredibly busy and stressful.