Artsy Fartsy

I apologize that the next few posts will be from happenings in the past few months.  I am attempting to catch up and record major things that have happen here in good ole Texas without getting too far behind from the present.

So one Saturday in October Jarrod and I had a decision to make.  Go to the Greek festival and do nothing but eat and people watch, or head downtown and go to a huge art festival and still be able to people watch. After weighing out options for a few minutes (and yes we were on the fence for a good minute or two) we decided to head downtown for some art.  I am very glad our decision went that way because the photographs, sculptures, pottery pieces and other medias we saw were AMAZING!  We wished we could have purchased so much more than we did, perhaps one day when we're both rich and famous... We did end up buying three photographs of trees taken mostly in Georgia and North Carolina.  They're all in black and white and we have plans of hanging them in our bedroom.  We also met a jewelry maker named Matt Smith who's jewelry was really awesome as well as totally affordable.  I really wanted a specific color and so Matt Smith offered to make it custom and get it to me within a few weeks.  It came out awesome!

Enough talking...show us the photos!

 Glad to be at the Art Show...clearly

This is done with chalk... right on the sidewalk!

 Bronze Humpy Dumpy Eggs... They came in all sizes and attitudes :)

Buddha Egg

This was the pond in the park the art show surrounded. It had all sorts of floating pieces of art in it.

Still can't figure out how to rotate... Downtown Houston at dusk :)

After the Art Show we ventured further into downtown and enjoyed some AWESOME mexican food at Cielo's.  The chips and dip alone would have sufficed.  

 This is my dinner.  Enchiladas... that's Spanish for Holy Moly Guacamole!!

This was dessert.... You can gather your own fabulous description from the picture alone.

This was the random chicken we encountered on our way into the city that afternoon.  Was there a farm nearby?  No, a law firm... so Im not totally sure what that says about that law firm :)

Back from the Dead on the Dead of the Dead

TA DA (which is short for Da Dada Daaaaaaaaa) We're alive!!!  Shout out to my Nana for being concerned over my lack of blogging, everything is ok, Jarrod and I are doing well, we just can't seem to find time left in the day any more.  Even as I sit here now I am torn between blogging and relaxing on the couch with Jarrod and the pup.  So to ensure people know we are alive and well and still fit in a few minutes of cuddle time with my husband (: I will give you a preview of what blog posts are to come!

 Jarrod Comes Home!

 We Go To An Amazing Art Festival

 New (Empty) Apartment!

 Texas Renaissance Fair

Not So Empty Apartment

Happy Halloween














Stay tuned for the details! :)

Home is Where The Heart is?

I feel like I have blogged or facebooked about this topic before.  Apparently I (and Jarrod) are not very good at selecting apartments.  When we realized we were moving to Houston we decided it was best to have a semi permanent place to land.  We didn't want to explode all of our stuff at Jarrod's uncle's house and so we enlisted the help of Jarrod's cousin to check out places for us while we were still finishing up in Maine.  We found the apartments on craigslist ourselves and asked her to check them out.  Out of the 2 she looked at, she said this one was the best since the other one had a "home made AC unit". We agreed and were so happy to find something that appeared to all of us as a good place and so we contacted them and put down a deposit.  We had a place to land, it was 2 bedrooms and it was in an area we thought would be great...

It's amazing the situations that make you realize it's time to grow up.  One would think getting married would help with that realization, but honestly it was more excitement and fun, than maturity enhancing.  But living in an apartment that makes me dread coming home, has made me realize that sometime it does not make sense to save.  Sometimes the money you put in, really equals the quality you get out.

We are definitely getting what we pay for here in our current apartment.  I would dare argue that we are actually paying too much.  Though I am not going to list the various areas of frustration with our current place (this is the internet, this is a public blog and I don't want to hurt our chance of leaving...) I will say that the only good thing that has come from this apartment is the realization that it is indeed time to grow up and part of growing up is not jumping into decisions.  That part of growing up is parting with the hard yearned money we make to ensure that their is a happy, healthy environment to come HOME to.

I will say that luckily enough our landlords have agreed to release us from our current lease if we can find someone else to take it.  Unfortunately there is not much we can do to make that happen.  We do not know many people here in Houston (at least not people looking for an apartment) and craigslist has become so secure that they will not allow us to post our own apartment because our post appears too similar to the one we responded to 2 months ago. We can not hang a "For Rent" sign on the complex gate and if we use a finder site, we have to pay an extra month's rent to leave.  So in reality, our landlords are being helpful because they know it will be impossible.

You live, you learn, you grow up.  Hopefully Jarrod and I will grow from this decision and we will find ways to ignore the physical home we are stuck with for the time being and realize that our home is in our puppy's panting tongue, or in our cat's whine.  Home is going for a 3 mile walk only to return and realize your keys are at the park you just left and having to do those 3 miles again.  Home is planning for the future and realizing it's ok to say you've made a bad decision and you're happy you can learn from it. Growing up is not always easy to do.... Maybe we'll do it eventually :)

All In One Place Now

Finally after a month and a half (or so) Jarrod is here in Houston.  He and his mom drove here 2 Thursdays ago and made it down in time for Saturday morning.  There was much unloading of extra stuff we couldn't take the first trip and then it was sprucing up for Houston's first Wine Festival!

The wine festival was not the most amazing festival ever, but in fairness it was the city's first.  They had vineyards mostly from Texas, which was nice, and we were able to taste almost all of them.  It was quite hot out and not much cover so I think for next year we will go once the sun has gone down.  Hard to enjoy a sip of wine when all you want to do is chug some water.

The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind of visiting with Jarrod's mom and family and getting ready for school.  Hard to go back on Monday when Jarrod had the whole week off.  Good part was he got to spend much missed quality time with Portland.  They even found a new dog park with a pond in the middle.  Portland still refuses to go in the water.  He even hates to go in if his ball has landed in the water.  Apparently the well being of his toy matters not.

Back to the original idea of this post... It's good to have Jarrod home, now to just find us a decent home.

My Hubby Got Skillssss

While Jarrod was here he had an interview with the company Praxair.  They run a hydrogen pipe line (yeah I didn't know we had pipelines for Hydrogen either) here in Houston and while it didn't seem like the best job at first, it was a chance to practice his interview skills and learn more.  Since I was at school the day of his interview I ask Jarrod to take some photos of himself all gussied up :)  Here's what I got...

Full view...

Close up... Not bad aye? :)














Maybe it was his suit, maybe it was his charm, but whatever it was the interview went extremely well and Jarrod was offered a job this past Thursday!  Can you hear the choir singing HALLELUJAH?! The job turned out to be pretty good and a great place to start here in Houston.  The hours will be a little funny, but we'll make it work since after all it gets us in the same place.

Thanks to everyone who sent all the positive thoughts our way, it has been a long tough month and we're glad the search is over.  Jarrod and his mom will be driving down in 2 weeks with the last bit of our stuff and then Ellen will fly home on the following Tuesday.  Hope these 2 weeks fly by so I can see my hubby again :)  Can't wait for him to finally be home!

Here Comes the Fried Asparagus Part...

Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself with the title of the last post.  While Jarrod was in town we were lucky that Houston extended their restaurant week and we got to try two really awesome restaurants for only $35 bucks per person for 4 courses!  AMAZING!

Saturday night was the Hearsay Gastro Lounge.  Americana type food, very yummy, and a really cool location and atmosphere.  Jarrod began with a crab dip and I had... FRIED asparagus!  It was really good, though a little strange when you got to the end of each grit.  Here is Jarrod after the first course... 

Of course one good photo deserves another...

2nd course was a salad for me and a tortilla soup for Jarrod.  He then had the fish and I had the lamb chops.  Each of our dishes came with risotto...MMMmmm Risotto!  We both love it so much!  Last but not least was dessert.  Jarrod had his favorite Creme Broulee

And I had a frozen soufflé... divine! 

The next night we went to a restaurant called the Melting Pot.  They have them all over the place and it's basically a fondue party for two..or three...or.. well you get the picture :)  Quite amazing food followed by probably the best dessert I have ever had in my life.  The atmosphere was quite romantic with low lighting and small private booths and the wine we had was wonderful.  Probably one of the best meals we have had in some time!

 the pot

 Thanks Waitress!  

 Always like taking our own though...

 artsy fartsy while we wait...

 Mmm Wisconsin Cheddar!

 Fonduing...

 In heaven with the dark chocolate fondue 

 hahahaha

Fabric, Furniture and Fried Asparagus... OH MY!

After the cross country meet was over, Jarrod and I took Portland to the dog park for a bit so he would ware himself out and thus sleep while Jarrod and I ran around doing things that afternoon.

Our first stop was a store called High Fashion Home Goods...LOVE IT! Check it out on the web  It is quite the store with home fabric and furniture.  Most of the things there are way out of our price range, but they are wonderful to drool over and imagine having one day when we both make it rich and famous.  Here is one find in particular that we both loved...


(I apologize for these being sideways, not sure how to get them to flip, they're not flipped anywhere else on the computer...suggestions??)

Though it's technically a piece of patio furniture, very large patio clearly, we thought it would make a really cool bed :)  How fun?!  The only problems would be the very thin mattress, Jarrod's long legs, and the cat climbing the sides.  But other than that it would be awesome!




After perusing so possible apartments to move to and checking out the area they were in, we got really hungry and decided to get some wings!  They were clearly not as good as the ones in Buffalo, NY, but they were tasty, the beer was cold, college football was on and we got to take home the glasses :)

Go Longhorns!














When we got home from our adventures we were greeted by this fella... craziest squirrel I have ever seen... Oh Texas!