austin and such

over the weekend, the hubby and i had a mini-vacation in austin. we had mini-adventures, reunions, and celebrated my godfather, lee's birthday. 

ever since josh saw "the salt lick" on the food network he has been dying to visit. so since we were in austin, i knew where we HAD to eat on saturday afternoon :)

they are known for their bbq and apparently wine as well. so we ate some great bbq and picked up a bottle of wine called "hill country blend". so fitting :)

eventually josh and i want to put a pergola in our tiny, quaint backyard and we saw this and decided to snap a pic for inspiration. you can't see it very well in the pic but i LOVE the glass spheres above the table for outdoor lighting!

our second stop was to visit the restaurant: oasis.
when i was in college it was still being rebuilt due to the fire back some years ago.
net-net: absolutely gorgeous, but the food was "eh".
recommendation: if you want the same view but better food/drinks go next door to billys bbq - they have an awesome beer sampler :) 

the cute hubby :)

the view at oasis:

unfortunately the lake is still very low. everywhere there is light dirt - there should be water :( 

so that night we were supposed to go see ester follies show (kinda like snl) but we were too late, so we made our way to a bar on 6th street

this was on the band's song request sheet and had to snap a pic :)

one of my old friends, isabel found out i was in austin and had us meet up with her at red7. 

cloud nothings was the band playing and they were amazing! so amazing in fact that i am still regaining my hearing and hope to have the ringing in my ears go away soon. ha :) 

isabel and i :)

on our way out, we had breakfast at this super cute place called "snack bar" and this was the sign outside. it was such a good shot with all of the colors, i immediately regretted not having my camera. but as the saying goes "the best camera is the one you have on you"

FOOD:

since going paleo, i have been craving spaghetti super bad, but fortunately, i found this great recipe for paleo "spaghetti". instead of noodles, you julienne zucchini and it was actually better than regular spaghetti! paleo ftw!

word of caution: in order to "julienne" zucchini, you will probably need a mandolin. 

mandolin = sharp blade. 

sharp blade = slit finger (ow)

oh! and i got this inexpensive ipad kitchen holder! let's just say josh was not a fan of seeing the ipad next to the stove with cooking oils accidentally getting too close 

(and possibly getting the the screen)

it even comes with a pen so you never have to touch the ipad!

another paleo friendly snack i tried out were kale chips! super yummy and seriously satisfies cravings for chips :)

its just olive oil and a touch of salt in the oven at 350 for 12 mins!

another cool thing with starting the new paleo diet is that we got rid of all of the processed foods and any sugar/beans/wheat products and got to donate it to our local church! whats kind of bothersome though, is how there was pretty much nothing left besides tea and seasoning. makes you kinda think about how many processed foods we're (or we) eating

here is all of the food we donated :)

oh and the most exciting thing about this post (at least to me) is we got our new microwave installed today! we have probably gone the last two months without one. we had just been too busy to order one until last week! :)

 so today (actually in about one hour) i will be starting at washington gym. its the same gym that josh started about a month ago. we'll see how it goes the first day, but after knowing how josh's first day went - lets just say i'm equally scared as i am excited haha

new gym = excuse to buy new shoes, right?

 i did a search on pinterest and i found these bad boys. after searching and searching multiple stores for these, i realized they were customized :)

mine will say "mrs monkey" 

(between the tongues on the shoes)

SIDE NOTES:

i got my order in from the impossible project! the impossible project finds and restores vintage polaroid cameras and additionally reproduces film with different filters on it. so excited to use it!

 so i decided, that when i have a vision for a different part of the house, i am going to photoshop my rough ideas/decor. that way its easier for me to keep track of things and also to see if i will  even like it. better than buying and then taking back!

below is our guest bathroom, which it very outdated and BLAH.
for the most part, i am just wanting to create some color contrast in the bathroom. as you can see its all one tone. plus the lighting in the bathroom is horrible and makes it have a yellow/drab cast.

for the items above the toilet:

the print is some lyric art that i made that says:
"don't do nothing because you can't do everything. do something. anything"

as far as the flowers: they will be "faux" peonies. white peonies were our wedding flowers
and the two black and white images next the flowers?: one is a sunset of cabo (where we got married) and the other is the houston skyline (where we live)