More Favorite Things

Yesterday was plain awful...

You can say that again.

Yesterday was plain awful!

(Name that musical)

So this week has sucked.  But it's over.  Thank goodness.  And what is a girl to do when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad?  I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad!  (Ok, slight obsession with musicals this morning.)  

1.  Online shopping - Have you all signed up for the online deals at HauteLook, GiltGroup, One King's Lane, Joss & Main, ideeli, The Foundry, etc.?  I'm obsessed.  I've been having the best luck on these sites lately.  Here are few of my favorite purchases.

Cute shift dresses for work (Tahari, Taylor, Eci, Muse) from ideeli:

Great furniture for my house from Joss & Main.  I got this amazing teal settee for the upstairs landing area (which matches my map wall!) and this great storage ottoman for the bedroom.

Amazing deals on hotels from the Getaway section of HauteLook.  We booked our next Chicago trip on here  for a great price, plus discounts at the hotel restaurant (which is supposed to be delicious).

Anyone else finding really great deals online lately?  

Please share!

2. Google Chrome - Perhaps I'm a little late to the Google Chrome love fest and perhaps this is a really stupid thing to be excited about, but I can't shut up about Google Chrome.  After spending my entire life on Internet Explorer (so, I'm loyal), I've finally made the switch and I'm not looking back.  It's so fast!  And clean and uncluttered.  Plus, I can finally comment on your blogs again without having to deal with the log-in circle of death I was previously dealing with.  Makes me happy!

  

3. Italy - I've now booked hotels in two of the cities where we'll be staying and am really happy with our choices.  I'm so excited about our itinerary and can't read enough about the locations, the history, the food, the people, the culture, the activities, the views, the feeling of Italy!  I'm already planning what I'm going to pack, debating what lenses I'm going to rent and dreaming about the food I'm going to eat while I'm there!  This trip cannot get here soon enough!

4. Pinterest - This one is pretty self-explanatory.  It's now moved beyond love to a full-blown hard-core addiction. As of today, I have 27 boards, 537 followers and over 1,300 pins.  Hello, my name is Sara and I am a Pinaholic.  Please send help.  But oh, the recipes, the products, the thoughts, the clothing, the ideas, the photos, the animals, the tutorials, the inspiration.  This might be the greatest thing to happen to the internet ever.  

5.  Olivia Palermo - What is it about this girl?  She was such a bitch on The City, and yet, I'm absolutely fascinated with her.  Talk about a fashion sense!  Everything she wears is impeccable.  And that hair!  Seriously, does she ever have a bad hair day?  Ugh.  Love her and hate her.

That's all folks!  

What are you loving these days?

This pretty much sums up my week

Amen.

That time I went to Dallas...

Remember that time (months and months ago) that I went to Dallas to visit Ally and then never really posted any pictures of the trip other than crazy Renaissance Fair photos?  Yeah...sorry about that.  I promise we did more than just the Ren Fair, it was just the major highlight and deserved it's own post.

So anyway, after the fair, we heading back to Dallas to check out the city.  This was my first trip to Dallas (other than layovers in DFW), so #1 destination on our tour was Dealey Plaza.  

As you probably know, Dealey Plaza is where JFK was assassinated.  With the recent release of The Kennedys mini-series on Reelz, I couldn't pass up the chance to see this historical location.  (Did y'all watch that?  Was I the only one that thought Katie Holmes was absolutely the most awful Jackie O in the history of acting?  For shame.  But the guy who played Bobby Kennedy was brilliant.  Yes, it was a "bit" skewed (Bobby was no saint, Reelz Network), but all in all, I thought i was pretty good.)

Anyway, back to Dealey Plaza.  So, it's pretty morbid, no?  Taking photos of a place where someone died?  Maybe?  Morbid and yet fascinating.  It's history, so I guess that makes it ok.  Sure as heck didn't stop me from whipping out my camera and taking a million photos of the X on the street.  Really, how many photos of that X do I need?  Apparently 367 of them.  Then again, there were all kinds of people milling around, taking photos, standing on the X, sitting on the grassy knoll (which, by the way had a giant plastic sign on it that says "GRASSY KNOLL" in huge red letters, just in case you didn't know), so I didn't feel too bad.

For the sake of brevity, I'll only post one X photo.

The infamous book depository.

Which is now a museum.

No siree bob, Katie Holmes could never be a Jackie.

Across the street from the X is the rest of the plaza.

There are a bunch of buildings and flags and stuff...I don't know, I was too focused on the X to really care.

This is the old courthouse, I remember that.

Gorgeous, no?

After driving all over Dallas (seeing Downtown, the Lake, the parks, cute neighborhoods, SMU campus, the house where Hansel and Gretel live, etc.) we headed back to Ally's house to get ready for our big night in Cow Town!  

Yee haw!  

We knew we'd officially arrived in Cow Town when we had to share the street with these guys.

After a slight detour through Fort Worth, we arrived at the Stockyards.

We did a bit of walking around and checking out the shops.

We were "this close" to going to the Wild West Show.

But instead we walked around a bit...

checked out all the local sites....

did some serious people watching....

met John Wayne...

did some window shopping...

thought about buying a saddle...

and MORE boots...

and had a beer and the best burger I've ever had in my entire life.

For serious.  

Best burger ever.

EVER!

I'm still dreaming about that burger. 

After dinner we made our way over to Billy Bob's, the largest honkey tonk in the world.

Holy shit.

That place blew my mind. 

Complete sensory overload.

I'm not sure I said a word for at least an hour as we walked around and took it all in.

I didn't even take any pictures because I was too stunned.

I'm decided I'm moving to Cow Town.

There were rooms full of guitars.

About 90 pool tables.

A giant photo booth with a enormous stuffed bull you could ride and get your picture taken on.

A gift shop.

A restaurant.

An amphitheatre for concerts.

Slot machines.

They even had a bull riding ring inside the bar. 

Yes, INSIDE the BAR!

Bull riding.

I'm not kidding.

I know everything's bigger in Texas, but really?

Bull riding...in a bar.

Of course we went!

This was too good to pass up. 

By the way, bull riders are very cute and VERY young.  

Like 12.

You will go to jail.

Be careful.

After bull riding, we headed back into the bar to see Pat Green perform.

You guys, I'm so embarrassed to say that I had no idea who Pat Green was.

Never heard of him.

I know, I know.

I thought Ally was going to defriend me right then and there.

But then I went and did the unthinkable.

I asked her who Miranda Lambert was.

I will never recover from the look of horror and disappointment on her face.

I vowed right then and there to load up my iPod with all the country music I could to avoid losing more friends.

I'm sorry Ally.  

I know better now.

The next day we went to the Dallas Arboretum.  

It was spectacular!

I've already posted 9,000 photos of flowers from that day HERE, if you're interested.

The weather was perfect.  Bright and sunny, but not too hot or humid.  Which made me extremely happy.

The fish were also happy.

The giant rabbits were happy.

But then it was time to go.

Eventually I had to catch a flight back to St. Louis.

I cried and cried and begged Ally to let me stay and move into her guest room and be her maid and dog sitter, to which she agreed, but I figured my pups would miss me too much, so I reluctantly got on the plane.

And it was sad.

But I'll be back!  

Thank you Ally for an amazing weekend.  

Thanks for inviting me down and driving my ass all over the state.

And thank you for being my friend, even though I didn't know who Pat Green was.

And thank you for letting me hang out with your pups and feed them way too many cookies.

And thank you for having cash and paying for everything while my credit cards were on strike.

I owe you BIG TIME.