Land of Enchantment

I absolutely LOVE New Mexico.  My bf and I recently took a weekend trip to the southern part of the state, which I'd never visited before.  Last year my brother moved to Santa Fe to work at an art gallery there, so I advantageously visited him four times.  The food, the art, the breathtaking scenery, the afternoon storms that roll in...  It was heaven to me, but for my brother who was 24 at the time, it was boring, as the average age of a Santa Fe resident is 70.  He had some incredible opportunities to work with local artists such as Forrest Moses.  It's no wonder Santa Fe is  home to so many creatives.  The surroundings are inspiring and I believe there is something otherworldly that draws people to the Land of Enchantment.  Here are somethings I adore about Santa Fe.  Let's starting with the Great Outdoors.  On one visit, my mom, brother, and I hiked the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument...

Exploring OKC

This weekend I made the drive to Oklahoma City to hang out with family and attend my ten hear high school reunion.  (The bf got a pass since he was in conveniently in Denver for a bro weekend.) My high school career was... interesting.  Let's just say I enjoy grown-up life much more.  The reunion was a trip.  I'm in favor for calling it what it is: "Popular kids meet at the bar." 

I met a friend across the street at this dive for a pre-reunion drink.

The night started out just like my first day of high school, with my mom dropping me off and quickly taking a pic of me before anyone driving by could realize what a huge dork I am!

Even though I did not hang with the cool kids in high school, I had a surprisingly good time at the reunion.  Everyone was really nice and this time around I felt confident enough to talk to anyone.  I just asked them about their kids and then they did all the talking.  In my real life, most of my friends are not married and only two friends have kids.  These people have wasted no time making babies!  I was part of the 5% in attendance who were unmarried.  Which explains why a couple of the jocks were hitting on me towards the end of the night.  They were drawn to my unadorned wedding ring finger like moths to a flame.  I didn't take any pictures at the reunion because it's going to be another decade before I see these kids again and if I really need to look at any them there's always Facebook stalking.

Faux Comfort Food

To state the obvious, fall is here!  This is how I know:  #PSL.

via

I've never been a coffee drinker.  The taste of burnt dirt was never appealing to me in the past, but since I work from home I like to spend some time out of the house around other humans, and that inevitably brings me to coffee shops.  Recently I've started to acquire a taste for plain, black coffee.  It still takes willpower to not order a cafe mocha when I approach the counter, but I've been clean for months.  Today I visited a new (to me) coffee shop in my new-ish hood.  I saw "pumpkin chai" written on their chalkboard under "Specials" and I ordered it.  Not because of the pumpkin, but because of the chai- I was expecting some decaf earthy tasting tea (like the chai tea I have in my cupboard at home).  I realized my mistake when I took my first sip of the sweet, creamy concoction.  It was a pumpkin spice chai latte!  I accidentally ordered a PSL!  Ugh.  Now I have to tell you all the reasons I love fall...  Just kidding.  :)  Once the drink was in my hand, there was no turning back. I drank the whole thing.  All 354,782 calories.  And. it. was. so. good.  

New Mexico Get Away

This weekend the bf and I made a quick trip to Southern New Mexico to spend some time outdoors.  (This city girl usually counts brunch on a patio as an outdoor activity.)  We left early Saturday morning and flew to El Paso, Texas, picked up our rental car, and made an hour drive to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  We stopped for breakfast in a cute little cafe called Josefina's Old Gate in the town square of Old Mesilla.  I was so hungry, I didn't even photograph my food.  For your viewing pleasure, here is a pic of the place, courtesy of the interwebs.

With our stomachs full (the "bowl of papas" is divine) we were ready for a hike, so we drove another half hour to Dripping Springs.  I read some good reviews on Trip Advisor about this place, but my boyfriend and I were both blown away by the beauty of it.

That time I was a total sucker

Since we moved into our new house, we've been getting a ton of junk mail.  Like pounds of it.  Junk mail is one of my pet peeves.  A weird one, I know.  I can't believe companies spend money on direct mail pieces (my employer included)!  I spent a few minutes every morning this week calling companies and asking to be removed from their mailing list.  One of the pieces of junk mail I received (addressed to "Resident") was a shiny, colorful piece of card stock from a local car dealership telling me that I may have won a new car, $15,000 in cash, an iPad, or a Wal-Mart gift card.  Enticing, I know, especially the last prize.

I called their main line and simply asked to be removed from the mailing list.  Standard procedure.  Now, I have to give major props to the girl on the other line.  She asked which mailing piece I received, and I described it to her.  She then said, "Don't you want to claim your prize?"  Um, what?  She then proceeded to explain that if the number in the scratch off box matched the number printed on the paper, I was eligible for a prize, and to claim it I needed to make an appointment and come in.  I told her, Sorry, I'm not in the market for a car.  She said it's no problem, but I should come in and retrieve the prize that's rightfully mine.  I'm embarrassed to say that I made an appointment for 12:30pm that day.

I told my bf about this via text.  Surprisingly, he did not discourage me from going.  I would almost say, he encouraged me to go.  Probably so he could hear about how I awkwardly showed up at a car dealership demanding to be given the grand prize.  Well played, sir.

During my lunch break I drove to the car dealership on the other side of town through rush hour traffic, nervous that I'd look like a schmuck or a freeloader, or a wicked combination of both.  I arrived at the dealership and was welcomed by a super nice sales guy, whom I told, "I called to ask to be removed from your mailing list and the girl on the phone talked me into coming into claim my prize", as I proudly flashed the mailer to everyone in the show room.  "My appointment is at 12:30," I told him, thinking he'd bring me to a room behind a velvet rope where the prizes are kept alongside chilled bottles of champagne.  Instead, I sat down at his desk and he filled out a form with the info from my driver's license.  So now I'm probably on their permanent mailing list. Awesome.

"Now we'll walk over to The Board to see which prize you won!" he tells me, and parades me over to "The Board", which is in the back of the showroom, so everyone can laugh at the girl who came in to claim her prize.  I hate to admit that during this time I was thinking about all the house projects I could complete when I win the $15,000 grand prize.  I'm such a loser sometimes!

To win the good prize, the special number on your mailer has to match the number next to the picture of the pile of cash.  Mine didn't match that, or the new car, or the iPad... But EVERYONE is a winner at this dealership, so I won a Wal-Mart gift card in the amount of $5 to $25!  YEEE-HAW!

At the end of the day, I spent an hour of my time to drive to some obscure car dealership.  I came away with a Wal-Mart gift card and a purse full of business cards from the sales guy to pass out to friends.  The moral of the story: Direct mail really works!

Now I'm off to Wal-Mart to spend my gift card.  We're low on Funyuns.

Shelves: Splurge or Save

I just loooove online shopping.  Not for clothes or shoes- I have to try everything on.  But for household items and gifts, it's the best.  The bf and I use Amazon Prime and it has saved us bundles of money on shipping.  Need a bed frame for the guest bedroom?  Shop around on Amazon and BAM!  Two days later it's at our doorstep.  In our new place I decided we had to have a pair of shelves flanking the TV in the living room.  I'm not a fan of traditional TV stands.  Our TV is now mounted on the wall above an antique sideboard we found at a thrift store.  I wanted some open shelves on either side to add some height to the wall and to display some chotchkies from our travels and our books.

I found these in the Pottery Barn catalog for $349 each...

After hunting around on Amazon, I found these for $62 each.

I'm sorry to say this is a teaser post.  Did you think I was going to show you how they actually look in our coral-colored living room?  Well, I'm sorry to say it's not ready for the big reveal just yet!  If I showed you what our living room looks like right now you'd think we're hoarders.  The moral of the story is: Amazon Prime is worth it (and no, I'm not affiliated with Amazon, although it would be awesome to get paid for saying that, if anyone at Amazon wants to throw a few bones my way after the fact).

I'll try to have some real house pics to share soon!  :)

Summer Scrapbook

It's Monday and I'm a little sad that the weekend is over... and so is summer.  As the smell of Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes fills the air (and pictures of said drink overload my Facebook and Instagram feeds), I start to get reminiscent of the summer that's passed.  Just for fun, here are some highlights of this summer of 2013!

We went to a beautiful wedding in La Jolla...

Followed by a gorgeous wedding in Oklahoma City...

We rode the mustache train to Fort Worth...