New Living Furniture (Rice Village)

I happen to be running some errands in the neighborhood and saw this neat little shop with a small workshop next to it off of Kirby in Rice Village.  I get a quick peek at some of their furniture through the window and decide I need to check this place out!  I have to say, I really loved it!  It was really neat shop.  A concept I have never seen before.  You know me, I love rustic meets contemporary.  On top of the fact that everything just looked cool and interesting, they are also very environmental conscious!

 

If I had seen this place a couple of months ago, I probably would have purchased our bed frame from here.  They do a lot of custom work.  I am looking for some night stands, so when I get some time, I am probably going to check out their services.  Isn't their warehouse/storefront cool?  I love it!  I'll post once I find out what the costs are like and if I get a finished product.

 

http://www.newliving.net/

Southland Hardware

Ok, so this post may or may not be useful to you right now, but at some point it will be.  In the past, I have had several wall hangings end up tragically with cracked glass and never really knew what to do with them, especially if I still really liked the art.  I had one still hanging over my bed, it's one I really liked.  Well, I happen to be at Southland Hardware store and noticed they have this glass replacement station!  That is exactly what I needed!  I took my art there and got it replaced.  It was less than $10!  How awesome is that?  I know, pretty awesome, right?  Ok, that's it....happy glass replacing!

Engagement Photos Are In!

Special delivery from NY!  Love the packaging, so cute!  Photography by Cly Creation (Matthew) in Central Park, NY.  They do beautiful photos and I thought the photos came out great!  clycreation.com.  A few sneak peeks below.

 

M+S Wedding Tips - #3 Tradeoffs

The weather is just beautiful!  Days like this get me into the holiday mood.  There's just something really romatic about this time of the year.  Janice and I went by Liscomb yesterday and they already had holiday candles out!   I love the holidays, but I also like to enjoy each month's festivities.  We're in October and to me that means, I still have 2 months of wedding planning, yay!  Thankfully, my bridesmaids are really helping with a lot, so I have very little stress.

Now back to wedding talk...early on, I realized you can't have everything.  I received so many tips from married folks, who are so great at helping and giving really useful tips...but something I just learned on my own is that you really have to prioritize early on what is most important to you.  We talked about 3 things we each felt were important to us.  Combined they were, we would have a spectacular time, that our guest would have a great time, and that the wedding would be beautiful...ie, the atmosphere.

From the very beginning we had some difficulties staying within our budget so that our guest would have a great time, like increasing the alcohol budget, entertainment budget, etc.  Trading off the band for the dj was a big hurdle for me.  But, in the end, it was either the band and some other high ticket items, or we get married next year.  That just seemed ridiculous, so we made the tradeoff and now, it's not really a big deal anymore.  I think once you start letting go a little bit in exchange for what you really want...it makes your decision making a little bit easier.

Something a few married folks said to me was, "it's just one day".  That is probably one of the wiset things I've heard.  You often think, well this is my wedding day!  And that's normal.  One time, we were fitting Matt's son for a tux and Ethan said, I don't like that...and Matt put his hands on Ethan's shoulders and said very nicely, "son...this is my day, you will wear what I tell you to wear."  I thought to myself...even men think it!  Anyways, on getting together with one of my married girlfriends, now with a second child, said that she couldn't remember a lot about her wedding anymore, and that day just seemed so unimportant given the stage of life she was in now and that spoke volumes to me.

Before, I really cared about the details, and I still partly do.  But, I'm getting to the point where I'm just like...I don't care if this is a typical wedding or if people are bored to tears, let's get this over and done with!  So, what I'm saying is, yes it's your wedding...it's your day...it's finally here...but again, it's just one day and after some time, you won't even care about all those things you swear you thought you were going to include in your wedding. 

Oh, one more thing, DIY (do it yourself) projects...unless you're saving a ton of money, I would highly recommend you not consider doing these projects, unless you're a master at crafts.  Often times, I am finding you do not save that much money, from the time and effort that goes into putting the pieces of something together, getting all the necessary pieces, paint, etc...it's just not worth it!  Just buy it.  Unless...you are saving quite a abit of money...whatever that is to you.  To me, saving $100 on a card box may be worth it, but saving $30 is not.  And sometimes, the work that goes into it, really is just a pain in the butt...to me, definitely not worth it.  But, I had to fail at a few projects to realize this.

Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Macy's, Payless Shoes, Nordstroms, Minted, and Etsy have been awesome places to shop at!

Purchased - Vintage Ball Mason Jars from Etsy

DIY - card box (supplies from Hobby Lobby & Home Depot)

DIY - Ring box (supplies from Michael's & Home Deopt)

Purchased - Table no (supplies from Michael's & Home Depot)

M+S Wedding Tip #2 - The Venue!

The most stressful period about wedding planning for me was the very beginning when we were trying to figure out dates, guest count, reception venue, ceremony venue, wedding party, dresses, suits, honeymoon, etc.  But, once you've figured out your budget, try to stick to it as much as you can.  I realized early on, there are things I have no idea how much they cost, but a tool like theknot.com will help with rough estimates.

Now that the budget is set, it's time to select a date and venue!  I know, you already have your date selected, but really some venues may not be available.  The date and venue are really one item that needs to be figured out together, which brings us to tip #2 - finding a venue for the date.  Looking back, I thought finding a venue, for a specific date, was the most stressful task.  Your guest count needs to be considered and to also be able to hold a ceremony and reception was also not easy to find.  I knew I wanted an outdoor wedding, so I googled for weeks, hashed out dates, considered the budget and found 1 possible venue.  Then, I realized I wanted a garden and after surfing and calling around, 3 weeks later, after considering a few others, we finally settled on Ouisie's Table.  It is the perfect spot.  Not only did it have a outdoor garden for the ceremony, but it also was a very charming restaurant for the reception.   They also have great food, can hold up to 200+, and they provided vendors and had an in-house florist, baker for the cake, an events coordinator that will help with a lot of the planning.  If you need additional contacts for a live band, photographers, musicians, djs, etc, they also have.  Although, I did find my own photographer and dj, it's nice to have the resources.

So I realized through all of this, I really love one stop shops.  It is so convenient and if you're on a fairly short time line like we were, it's so helpful and such a relief!  I might be paying a little bit more for the in-house florist and cake, but in the end, it was minimial for the benefit of allowing the venue to handle it.

Beautiful isn't it?  Ok come back and visit for my next tip on weighing options and tradeoffs.

Also, other places I considered but due to unavailability and some other uncoordinateable details, we bypassed...but for someone else, they would be the perfect spot.

Tiny Boxwood's - beautiful, my most favorite, but guest count was 85, and they were booked for 2013.

Houston Zoo - I saw pictures of a wedding done here and it was gorgeous!  But, due to the season, they would have festive lights in the trees, no ceremony accomodations, plus they had a $5000 rental fee on top of the typical fees.

Veranda - loved this spot initially, but then realized I really wanted a garden surround.  Veranda is a semi-outdoor venue.  I've seen really nice weddings done here as well.  And they provide a free room for the couple.

M+S Wedding Planning Tip #1 - Tools!

If you hadn't noticed, I have been a little absent from blogging about my life in the city...since I've been a little preoccupied by other things, like planning a wedding!  If you're like me and thought planning a wedding would be fun, fun, fun...well, I'm going to share some of my realities of planning a wedding from now till the day, which hasn't been so much fun, fun, fun as I thought.  But, not to scare you all, but hopefully, this will be a fun series to follow and learning something wouldn't be so bad either.

First, a little background, Matt and I got engaged early August of this year.  Based on reception availability and weather, we decided November 23 would be the most optimal and it is also our 1 year anniversary, which was a meaningful date for us.  That gave us 4 months to plan, which is a little short, but definitely doable, by my married friend's accounts.

The hardest thing is knowing where to start, so that brings us to my tip #1, get on theknot.com!  It is a one stop shop and will really help you prioritize your timeline and tasks.  The first thing you should do on theknot.com is to set your budget.  I think it's good to talk to friends and others about their thoughts to get a good idea of where to set your budget.  It's a big reality check when you start talking finances with your significant other.  It can definitely be a source of harmony, contention, or frustration.  Pictured here is our website that we created through theknot.com.  They also provide quick tools to create your own domain for your knot website.

This will be the only tip that is unrelated to the city specifically, but I think it's a very important one.  I will mostly highlight tips related to Houston that can or may help with wedding planning.  In an effort to make each post readable and doable, I will only post one tip at a time.

Ok that's it for now...

Nail Time (Yale)

On venturing out from my usual nail salon, Parkview Nails on Studemont, I'm now trying Nailtime.  My first time to Nailtime on Yale, in the same shopping strip as Walmart.  On walking in, I think, nice salon.  As I'm looking at nail colors, I'm realizing wow, they don't really have anything I'm in the mood for at the moment.  I've been into fluorescent colors. After too long of deciding, I finally decide on a color and sit down at a very nice massage chair.  My girl is very nice and friendly.  Overall great service, but limited on nail colors, at least in my opinion.  It's pretty slow inside as well.

Citris Nail Salon (Yale Shopping Center)

Citris located in the new shopping strip across Walmart on Yale.  Citris reminds me of Polished Nail Spa in Vegas, see previious post.  It's a very nice nail salon.  They are a month and a half old, so there were two other patrons, but still very empty.  My nail girl was nice, but not very talkative.  I think she even saved the flowers after the water drained...that's really gross if they reuse that.  I had a special design request, white with the black dots, and it came out pretty nicely.  It cost $45, which I thought was kind of steep!  At Polished it was only $30 and others I've been to maybe high $30s.  I might not go back for designs here, but maybe a polish for sure.  She did a great job though!

Piney Point Oral & Maxilofacial Surgery

My dental surgeon gives away free sonicare toothbrushes to clients!

A & J Auto Repair

A & J are awesome! The owner Arnie is super nice and had my car repaired and ready in 1.5 days!

That white paint on my car...gone! Car looks great and priced well too!  Super great experience!

Dogtopia

Although, I really like Deogi and their customer service, I decided to take my dogs to Dogtopia too, to mix it up, but mostly because they have a webcam!  I have access to it on my iPhone as well, but, you have to pay $1.99 for the Online Doggie app.  It was so much fun watching them play.  They really don't play, they mostly just walk around, but isn't it so cool?! 

 

It's $32 for the first dog, 10% off for additional dogs.  It's much more expensive than Deogi, which is $25 per dog.  Also, Dogtopia has a much bigger facility and the staff generally seem cool.  It's not as personal here as it is at Deogi, I have to say.  But, this is probably a bigger operation and more dogs.  Dogtopia does have more medium sized dogs mixed in the room, as the really big dogs are in the gymnasium room.  But, I think it's both good and bad.  It's nice because it exposes my dogs to bigger dogs, but it's nice at Deogi too, where they only accept small dogs.  Either way, it works out fine.  See my cute little babies?  It's so much fun watching your dogs on their webcam!

Deogi Doggie Daycare & Spa

I’ve been taking steps to socialize my dogs more. My girl dog, Lola, has become extremely unruly around other dogs. My clients Jan and Frances had mentioned they take their dog to daycare to socialize him. I thought, what a wonderful idea! So, I did some research and came across Deogi.  It's the phonetic spelling of the word D.O.G.  I call them, they confirm I will need records of all vaccinations and also Bordatella and the Influenza shot.  They also require, like all doggie daycare shops, a temperament test, which I think is highly necessary for Lola.  So, I dropped them off this past Monday for their temperament test and first day at daycare. Cody who is the laidback, friendly one was extremely rattled with all these little dogs around him sniffing and barking. He was squeezing his little face into the baby gate trying to get out. It was both so cute and heart breaking. When Lola went in, I was sure she was going to attack, as they all rushed over to her at once and sniffed away. But nope, she did not. They closed the door and I left thinking...this must be how parents feel when they drop their kids off at school for the first time.

When I picked them up, the staff said they were both totally fine and they will be very tired when they get home.  When we left the daycare, they ran to the first sighting of grass and pottied.  It made me realize, they might not take them out, since I didn't see much grass.  When we got home, they ran to the water bowl and both slurped down a ton of water, making me think, they must not give them any water.  Other than those two things, the experience was great.  The young man, Salvadore, who works there is extremely helpful, friendly and spent a lot of time with me to make sure that me and my dogs were comfortable there.  He was excellent!  Can't say the same for the young man at the receptionist desk at Dogtopia.

ATM Station (Upper Kirby)

This is the coolest thing ever! It's an ATM station and has a variety of ATMs for different banks. This location has Frost, Wells Fargo, and Chase.  This is just the smartest thing I've seen! Would that be so cool if every ATM station had access multiple banks or what? This station is located in the same shopping square as Lupe Tortilla off of 59. Hope they start popping up everywhere!

Smells Like Christmas!

My first real Christmas tree purchase! Houston Garden Center has a huge lot full of trees starting at $39.99. They'll cut the bottom for $2.00 and apply it to the stand and mount it on your car. It smells like Christmas in my house!

Merry Christamas y'all!

Isn't She a Beauty?

In with the new, out with the old.  I think that's been my theme for the year.  My D70 will be going to a new home...to Las Vegas with my dearest friend Denyse Burgard and her family to capture the wonderful moments of her little ones early years.

I'm excited about my new camera, D90 is a 12 megapixel versus my D70's 6 megapixel.  Just a slight step up so the settings look similar so there's a very small learning curve.  Much bigger screen, can't wait to use it!  I also got a new lens a Nikon 50 mm for those nice close ups with burry backgrounds, only $145 brand new.  These are hard to find used.  I'll try my new lens and post them soon.

My two camera stops are Camera Exchange (Richmond/Fountain View) and Camera Co/op (Durham/Washington).  Quang at Camera Exchange and the guys at Camera Co/op are the coolest!  Very helpful and willing to spend as much time with you as you need....and I needed a lot.  They have brand new cameras, which I stay away from, and used for amazing deals, lenses too.  If you need camera help, I'd highly recommend one of these shops, they're amazing!

South Beach Auto Spa (Midtown)

I called the boys at SBAS about tree sap again.  Last time, SBAS fixed me up when I had serious tree sap issues all over my white suv.  They did it for 4x less than what Mister Car Wash quoted me.  They told me to swing on over and I did.  Everytime I go over there, I always think how nice and cool these guys are.  They also told me that with weather conditions like what we're experiencing now, in 100 degree plus weather, if I let it sit, it'll bake into the paint.  That's pretty common sense, but I just didn't think about it and I'm really glad he emphasized it.

They told me it was going to be an hour job, so I'm kind of bummed, that's a  long time to sit in the waiting room with nothing productive to do.  I walk into the sitting room, Hallelujah!  I forgot they have a computer!  I can do some work.  I'm looking around and it's a really nice set up for customers.  Computer, massage chairs, tv, gourmet coffee, water, etc.  Above and beyond the average car wash shop.  They really did think of everything.  I jumped on the computer, got a client phone call and 30 minutes later, they tell me my car is done.  Sweet!  They said it wasn't as bad as they thought.  I am very happy with my experience and highly recommend them!

Tell em Soo sent ya!