Word Wednesday: For the love of F

Yes, the letter F. It's a fancy letter and because of it, beautiful words are created. I thought I'd share some of my favorite F words with you:

I've been fascinated with Feathers lately.
They're so beautiful and whimsical.
Perhaps my next tattoo will be of a feather.

What girl doesn't like Flowers? My absolute favorite are sunflowers. They brighten a room and make me smile. Frolicking in a field of sunflowers is on my bucket list.

In case you haven't noticed, I love Film.
I've always enjoyed capturing moments
in time with a push of a button. 

The fancy Fox. I've fallen in love with
them. They're breathtaking to watch
and so smart. Plus they always look like
they're wearing little black socks.

It may sound silly, but I've always wanted
Freckles. They always make a woman look
so dainty. And a dark skinned girl like myself
could shine for days with freckles.

Forts! I'm not gonna lie, I've always wanted
a tree fort. I think I could live in a tree and
be content with life. I hope someday this
 will be my room.

Take some time today to think about your favorite F words. Make it PG though. Nobody likes a foul mouth :) 

Love and light

Adrienne

Third week in March

I can't help it! I like taking photos (and sharing them). So enjoy yet another week of my Project 334.

15th: I got to spend some quality time perusing around my home town, Las Cruces. I really miss the mountains and the incredible colors the sky produces.
16th: Oh man! I got to drive my old car. I got my third used car my senior years in high school. I stayed with her throughout college, and she moved with me to Austin, but after a couple months of living here we got into a wreck, but she was fixed and given to my grandfather. She was a simple but sweet ride.
17th: Mmhmm, St Patrick's day. With so little options on where to go in LC, the friends and I picked the one place we knew would be hoppin', Dublin's.
18th: Back on the road again. The 'rents drove my sister and I back to Texas. 10 hour drive and not much to see. What a drive.
19th: The whole family stayed in my little 2br apartment over the weekend. It was cozy. The blowup mattress was a big hit.
20th: Mom, Max, Phil and I went to a nearby vineyard (Mandola) for a classy dinner and wine tasting. We spent the hour wait with a bottle of wine and calamari. It was a beautiful landscape and the wonderful food topped it off.
21st: Back to the daily grind. The 'rents left to NM, and Phil and I finally filled our cabinets with food. To celebrate, we partook in a bit of bread and oil with a glass of wine before dinner. Delish!
22nd: Spent most of my morning on campus in search of future employees for the store. Stepped into a library for the first time in years. Ugh! I truly love the smell of old books. Takes me back.
23rd: Had the day off, and decided to go to the gym for the first time in weeks. Spent an hour on cardio, an hour in yoga class and and hour lounging by the pool. Feeling the burn, but it was much needed.
24th: Found out I have a very low vitamin D intake. Figures since I don't like milk or eat fish. Noticed a huge difference after a single use though! (*note to self: don't leave gel capsules in a hot car, they melt into one).

Nearing the end of the month, and I'm excited to see what other adventures it has in store.
Love and light,
Adrienne

On Holiday at home part 2

Wednesday the 16th was an awesome day. My sister and I slept in a bit and got all dolled up to take photos. It was our mission during this week to take pretty photos for updates on our blogs. Unfortunately, she took the photos with her camera and insisted that they were her property. She's posting wednesday's photos on her blog as a little feature on me. So, keep an eye out for that post.

After the photoshoot, the three of us went to Las Cruces and dropped off my sister at her friend's house. My mom had plans for me as a birthday surprise. We met up with my mom's bff, Dela, who I have always considered another mother. The three of us went to Old Mesilla, a quant little town known mostly for it's association with Billy the Kid. It holds a lot of history within the old adobe buildings, and if you let yourself explore, you can stumble upon some great little restaurants and nooks.


That's what Dela and mom did. They found the cutest little wine tasting/tapas bar. They served wines from all over New Mexico. The best part about New Mexican wine is that's there's always some kind of spice to it, perhaps it's because we mexicans like it hot... The building itself had such a southwest rustic feel to it. The tables outside were community seating, so it was a great place to meet new people. If only this place was around when I lived there, who know's the memories that could've come from it.

The three of us had a great time chit chatting. I hadn't seen Dela in over a year so we did a lot of catching up. Three hours flew by quickly.

Only a handful of my friends from high school and college chose to stay in the enchanted lands of NM. It's lucky for me they did--that way I have someone to hangout with when I go visit. I got to catch up with two of my favorite homies, Amaru and Raul (who came to Austin last year and made an appearance in my blog).

I met them at my second favorite mexican food restaurant in LC, Si Senor--they have delicious salsas and amazing stuffed sopapillas. I've known these guys since my sophomore/junior year in high school. We lost touch during college, so it was really great reminiscing. After we stuffed our faces we decided to share a pitcher at High Desert Brewery. Of all my legal drinking years, I'd not once been there. Tasty drinks and continued great conversation.

We wrapped up the night with a quick stop at Dublin's, it is one of 3 maybe 4 bars in LC. It's just across the street from the university, so it was pretty hopping. It was evident that we were three of the oldest kids there. But it was still so much fun. I really enjoyed the day.

Thursday was our last day in New Mexico. It was lovely because we got to see my beautiful grandparents and aunt and uncle. I hadn't seen them in awhile too, and we easily spent a few hours just catching up. I couldn't get enough of my grandma. She's the prettiest little lady ever. I unfortunately didn't take any photos during our visit, but just to show you how sweet she is, here's a photo of her from my last visit.

After our quality time, I ended up sticking around in Las Cruces for the evening. Seeing how it was St Patricks day, I thought I should celebrate a bit with my friends before I left back to Austin.

I met up with Amaru and Raul again. We had dinner at El Sombrero, my third favorite restaurant. I had a food baby by the time we finished eating. We thought Dublin's would be pretty happening for music and conversation. It was fun, but I was very thankful that I live in a bigger city by the end of the evening.

I had a great week long vacation, lots of r&r, tons of delicious mexican food, and beautiful time spent with my family and friends. I couldn't ask for a better time.

Love and light
Adrienne

On holiday at home part 1

Though the beginning of my vacation started out full of stress and frustration, it's blossomed into a great time. I've spent a lot of quality time with my siblings and my mother. We did what we do best: created memories.

Sunday the 13th was my mom's birthday. We woke up way too early so we could make it to church. My mom and Max left an hour before us to go to their bible study class that they teach. After sleeping an extra 30 minutes, my brother, sister and I got all snazzied up and drove the 40 minutes it takes to get to our church.

The service was good, and it was fun seeing a bunch of familiar faces. For mom's birthday lunch, we went to Andale's, which is hands down the best place to go for green chili enchiladas. As stuffed as we were, my brother, sister and I still made a little pit stop for some delicious frozen custard at Caliches. It was so very tasty. I had a strawberry cheesecake. To help our food babies pass, the three of us, mom and max laid around and watched Morning Glory, with Rachel McAdams, who's so pretty.

The movie finished just in time to pick up my younger stepbrother, who's been staying with the 'rents, from work. None of the siblings wanted to go because it was midnight and we were tired, but my mom assured us it wouldn't be long. Silly lady just wanted to spend more time with us. His work is a 45 minute drive from our home and when we got there he wasn't officially off. So since we hadn't had enough carbs and calories in one day, we went to Dunkin' Donuts for a midnight snack. Great conversation was exchanged. I love deep conversations and debates with family.

As far as events go, nothing insanely awesome happened on Monday. We all slept in. It was about that day that I started realizing how hot and dry New Mexico is. I woke up parched and with a headache. I guess I was used to it when I lived there, but it took some getting used to not having visited in a year.


My mom, sister, brother and I went to El Paso to run some errands. My brother left back to Albuquerque around 6pm and the ladies and I decided to do some perusing at the outlet mall. With truly no intention of buying anything we walked into the Coach store. I ended walking out with my very first designer bag. She's the prettiest thing, too! I had every intention of buying the purse myself, but my madre and Max insisted on buying it as my bday present. I'm not gonna lie, I got a little teary eyed. I don't deserve it. But, when in Rome...I ended up getting myself a pretty little wristlet to go with it.

Tuesday was way less eventful. With my brother gone, it was just me and my sister. It was by this day that I started to really feel like I was back in high school. The biggest problem with going back home to visit is that "home" is 30 minutes from town. We live on a farm in Anthony, where if you sneeze, you might drive right passed it. We had no car and were somewhat at my mom's disposal.

She dropped us off at Starbucks in Las Cruces in the afternoon. Because our house is so far out, we can't get internet there. We very contently spent four hours blogging, facebooking, and huluing till lunch time. After lunch, we stopped by Boba Cafe (my favorite cafe) and got chocolate bubble tea. They're too fun to drink, and I annoyed my sister by chewing the bubbles obnoxiously loud. Afterwards, we watched most of Whip It while sitting outside in the Walmart parking lot. Now, some may laugh at how ridiculous this part of my vacation seems, but it was the norm growing up. "Get as much done, while in town, as you can." So, it was nice reliving that and spending some quality time with my sis.

Melisa brushed Molly to pretty her up

When we finally got home, mom made calabasita for dinner (squash stew). It was so delicious. We watch a Lifetime channel movie as we ate dinner. It's one of my mom's favorite channels (that and HLN). We humored her and didn't complain, and it turned out to be pretty entertaining. Dim Sum was the title, if you're interested in partaking in some bad acting and ridiculous plot watching.

Love and light
Adrienne

The airport debacle

Since I started my career in retail, I haven't been able to visit home often. Every year, I've made it a point to make it back to New Mexico for my first vacation on the year. It always falls during mine and my mom's birthdays. 


Last Saturday was my first day of my vacation. It was the longest and by far the worst experience I've had with flying--keep in mind that I've been flying since I was months old. I made the mistake of flying with a buddy pass during spring break/mardi gras week. In my mind, I was saving money by using the pass and I'd be able to share the price of my sister's ticket to help her out. 


I made my first flight, but my connecting flight was over booked and had 13 other people flying standby ahead of my name. That was the last Southwest flight of the day. I was stuck at the Love airport in Dallas! My sister was flying out of DFW though. She and her mr picked me up and booked it to the other airport. She ended up missing her check in time and had to pay extra to get on the next flight. In the midst of that, I realized I left my id in her mr's car and couldn't get a ticket. Finally got it back and ended up having to purchase a $280 ticket from a lady named Mrs. Chinchilla. We got to the gate and had three hours to kill. I bought a can of almonds and cut my finger on the lid. It took forever for it to stop bleeding. 



I truly thought the day couldn't get any worse. I spoke to soon. Once on the plane, I ended up sitting in front of two very loud, very annoying teenagers. To make matters worse, my seat was in the exit row and was asked four times whether I was "able and will" to perform the duties of sitting there. This only freaked me out more when as the plane was pulling out of the gate all power was lost suddenly. The captain came on over the speaker and announced that the belt that started the engine came loose and needed to be pulled back to the gate. I started to wonder whether I really was able and willing. Fortunately, 15 minutes later we were able to proceed to the runway, by that point I wasn't sure if I wanted to be on that plane anymore. 


We made it home safely though. My mom, stepdad and older brother picked us up at the airport. We went straight from their to Cappeto's, a cute little italian food restaurant in El Paso. It was around 10:30pm when we got there and we were all so very hungry. 


I felt bad for all the chaos that took place. Saturday was my mom's and stepdad's 12 year anniversary, and they had to postpone the celebration dinner because of the flight fiasco. But we enjoyed dinner, shared some great conversations and most importantly, got to spend the evening together.  

Second week of March

Here's a look at my second week of March. Not gonna lie, it's been a good month so far.

9th: It's been years since I've had a physical. So, I found a family doctor and got some blood drawn. I felt healthy.
10th: I had every intention of going to the gym before work, but when you have two cats laying on you, it makes being productive impossible.
11th: We had fun taking photos at work. I had the new guy try on clothes and strut his stuff.
12th: First day of my week long vacation. Went to NM to celebrate my mom's and stepdad's 12 year anniversary.
13th: The whole family was in town for my mom's birthday. Went to church, indulged in the best enchiladas, got to spend time with my older brother and little sister, and celebrated my mom's birth.
14th: Stopped by the outlet mall for funsies, and left with my very first designer bag. My bday present from the 'rents.

I'm as happy as a bug! I feel blessed to have such an amazing family and good fortune. If I could sum up my feelings at this moment in a song it'd be with Zooey Deschanel's version of Sugar Town.
Love and light
Adrienne

First week of March

Continuing my project 334, here is another week in the life of Adrienne. I know there are a few pictures that I've already shown you all. I'm aware I need to take more photos, or at least not blog with the picks of the day, but that's how you know they're really good photos.

1st. I went to a kick butt concert at Stubb's bbq. First concert this year. I watched Matt Pond and Rocky Votolato with my mr.

2nd. I went on a shopping spree in preparation for my birthday dinner and birthday weekend. Those are my new Zara boots and my new overnight bag.

3rd. Although I should have been upset with this little prank (because it took 30 minutes to clean up), I was reminded that I need to smile even in the craziest and messy situations.

4th. My birhtday flan during my birhtday dinner with my friends. It was a night of celebrating my last few days of mid 20's.

5th. A perfect day for a wonderful little getaway. The mr and I drove to San Antonio for the weekend.

6th. We did some remembering of the Alamo, sightseeing downtown and spent four hours at the SA zoo. 

7th. My Birhthday!! After work, I asked Phil to order pizza and pick up some wine, and he got me a bouquet of roses. That was how we celebrated, and I couldn't be happier.

8th. Today I went recruiting on campus for future associates. While on the lookout we came across trees with sweaters. What a sweet sight indeed.

I'm 27.

Yes, it finally arrived, and not a moment too soon. Happy birthday to me!

This was the first time I didn't request my birthday day off, but I was all partied out by the time it arrived, I had no problem working. And it turned out to be a really great day.

The calls I received: My mom thought it'd be awesome to call me super early and sing me happy birthday (although really cute, it was too early to truly enjoy). My dad was awesome enough to text me to ask if I was awake before he called (very thankful for that). I got a phone call from my sister while at work. Our conversation consisted of random words, whoops, and whinnies (really good times). I also got a sweet voicemail from my older brother before he had to go to work. I love my family!

The kind jesters I received; A couple of my associates from work were super sweet and surprised me with birthday cupcakes and a singing birthday card. My kids are the coolest. I also received 42 kind birthday wishes on the good ol' facebook wall. Thanks for the recognition peeps! Starbucks gave me a free drink of my choosing. Thank you very much for the venti soy misto! I also received a plethora of texts from family and friends. And my pretty little cousin handmade me a birthday card and drove 30 minutes with a friend to hand deliver it to my store. I felt loved.

As for the rest of the day: The mr is not much for surprises, but he's great at doing what I ask. I told him how I wanted to night to go, and he did an awesome job at making it happen. All I wanted was to have a night in and to overeat. And that's what happened.

Phil ordered a pizza for dinner--half spinach, tomatoes, and mushrooms for me, half sausage and onion for the mr. I'd been really craving the carbs and calories of a pizza lately. He brought home a couple bottles of red wine--not all to be had that night. He also bought me a pretty bouquet of roses. It was an awesome night in. We watched a movie, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't finish my half of the pizza. It was tasty.

He actually did end up surprising me. It wouldn't be a birthday without a birthday cake. And though it may not have been a traditional cake, it completed my night. He got a couple lava cakes with a candle in one.

It may seem cheesy to some, but it's the little things in life that make me smile.

love and light.
Adrienne

Last week of being 26

I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of dreading it. I know it's not a bad age, but I'm going to officially be in my "late 20's." That's a big step in life, right!? So I'm going out with a bang. I've taken the whole week to really celebrate the last year of my "mid 20's."

On the 1st of March, my mr took me on a fantastic date night. After work, we went to Dog Almighty--I love their veggie dogs and veggie chili. So delish! Dinner was followed by a concert of one of my favorite artists, Rocky Votolato, at Stubb's. It was such an awesome show.

Rocky is an incredible artist. He plays the harmonica like it's an extra appendage. The opener was a really great band, too, Matt Pond. I loved them because not only was the music great, they also had a cello in their music. I love cellos. It's such a dramatic and powerful instrument. The whole show was super, but was somewhat disturbed by a couple of crazy drunk girls who thought it would be a good idea to shout the words to every song and "woo!" at any possible opportunity. Things totally evened out though. After the show, Rocky did a meet and greet with all his fans. I bought a shirt so he could sign it, and took a super cute photo together. I love concerts.

On Wednesday, I went shopping with my handsome friend, Boomer. He helped me pick out outfits for my birthday dinner on Thursday. We spent a couple hours at Forever21 and a short detour at Zara, which is one of my new favorite stores now. For some reason I always seemed to pick out the most expensive items there. Apparently, I have expensive taste now. I guess it comes with old age--that's what I'm telling myself (I'll look at it as a perk of getting old). Regardless of that, I found some great deals on two dresses, heels, belt, wristlet, overnight bag, and boots.

Thursday I made plans to go out with a group of friends for really trashy drinks, then downtown to a classy rooftop bar. That was the plan, but didn't quite end that way. Half the guest list didn't show, including my mr. He ate some bad chicken and it "revisited" him after work, so I let him sit this one out.

Me, my couple friends Michelle and Cade, my bfgs Boomer, Chris and Joey, my pretty lady friend Latricia and my awesome friend Kyle (who was also assigned the dd job) went to dinner and drinks at Baby Acapulcos. Fare food, great company and everclear margaritas was a recipe for a good time. Dinner was followed by dancing at Rain. Ugh, I'm no longer allowed to consume alcohol like that, and I have absolutely no problem with that. It was a great night, but took an entire day to recover. That's how I know I'm getting old.

The best part of the week was this weekend. Phil and I had the weekend off and took an overnight trip to San Antonio. Friday afternoon we headed south to SA. We made what was suppose to be a short detour in San Marcos at the outlet mall. We were just going to get the mr a pair of jeans, but it turned into 3 hours of shopping and perusing. He got me a few items of my choosing, but the funny part was that he ended up buying more for himself. It was his first visit to an outlet mall so I think he was caught off guard at how inexpensive things were.

When we finally got to SA, we checked into our hotel and lounged around for awhile. We both didn't realize how hungry we got from shopping and made a mad dash toward the Riverwalk for a taste of downtown. I'm still not entirely sure what was taking place this weekend, but every restaurant we went to on the Riverwalk was packed. A few places stopped taking names because they were so busy. We finally found a mexican restaurant (Rio, Rio) to grub at. Of course we ordered queso and margaritas. The food wasn't bad, but terribly over priced. We payed for the view though, and it was a lovely one. We were both so tired from the day we went back to the hotel after dinner and fell asleep watching The Wolfman.

Today was such a lovely, fun filled day. We had breakfast at the hotel, and I remembered how much I enjoy oatmeal. Mmm. Check out was at 12, so by noon we were making our way to the Alamo. Once we made our way through the crazy crowd downtown, we found out that March 6th was the last day of battle at the Alamo, and to celebrate there was a recreation of some of the battle that went on that day.

After we remembered the Alamo we walked around downtown San Antonio for a couple of hours, passing by the Majestic, Ripley's believe it or not, Tussaurd wax museum, and had lunch in la Villita. Once we had food in our bellies we made our way to the SA Zoo. The zoo is ranked one of the best in the nation. It was huge, too! There were over 3,500 animals to look at. The mr and I are partial to big cats, and favored the Africa animal exhibit. They used every inch of space to put animals in. We saw everything from green mamba snakes, to hippos, to bald eagles. I always enjoy looking at the beautiful animals that God's created. Though it makes me sad that the animals' lives in captivity are a little less glamorous than in the wild, they're safer and well fed.

We ended up closing the zoo down. It was a great time, and would for sure go back to revisit the next time we're in SA.

As fun as San Antonio was, it felt really good to get home and lay in my own bed, and love on my own big cats. I had a grand and over the top last week. I think I did a great job at merging into being 27. Now, all I want to do on my birthday tomorrow is have pizza and a glass of wine. That sounds like a good time to me.
Love and light.
Adrienne

New Look

Spring is pretty much upon us, so I need a new look. As soon as I take some more springy photos, the blogs turning green, literally. Till then, I'm giving it a warm feeling to coincide the weather here in Austin. Sorry for all the changing. I'll find something I can settle with soon. Promise!
love and light.
Adrienne

Last week of February

This may be my favorite sets of photos so far. They're pretty much all a view of my feet. I'm giving you all a feeling of what it's like to be in my shoes. Enjoy!

On the 24th, it decided to rainy really hard for about 30 minutes. Then it got really windy. Just long enough to dirty every car that wasn't in a garage. Oh Texas weather...

Oh man, the 25th was the best. I got a pedi at the spa at my gym. They went all out with lavender scrubs, oil massages, and stop-sign-red nail polish.

I opened on the 26th and got off at 6pm. All I could do when I got off was slip into pjs and vegetate. The mr put on Daybreakers. Not a bad movie.

Ugh, the 27th. Inventory night at my store. I got there at 4pm and found out that only two employees showed from the company we hired to do the counting. What should've taken 8 hours, took a whopping 17 hours. My shift: 4pm-9am. Stayed up for 24 hours that day.

The 28th is a photo of me trying to get comfortable in the couches at work. I was hungry, tired and cold. I was not a happy camper.

So that was my February. It was a really lovely month. Lots of shopping and pretty, new things. Lots of family and friend times and strange weather. And lounging whenever possible.

I can't wait to see what happens in March. Things to look forward to: first concert this year, my bday celebration, bday weekend getaway, my vacation back home, and hanging out with both my brother and sister for the first time in a year and a half. I can not wait!!