Updated Dining Room, i.e. No patience

 Last night Joel and his buddy brought our new table in and took the old table out. 

The new table was even more gorgeous in person than I remembered but as I suspected, it desperately needed a rug underneath,

 I can't handle un-done projects so as soon as I woke up yesterday I hit the streets in search for the perfect rug. I left Homegoods and World Market empty handed, but Target turned out to have the perfect piece.

I went with this 7x10 size and while it may be just a wee-bit too big for the room, it's in perfect proportion to the table and should carry well into future houses. 

I'm pretty smitten with the whole look.

And....

Happy Halloween!!

Our work in progress dining room...

Our dining room has seen quite a bit of progression over the last year. 

We started with this:

 

I found a much needed wall hanging which helped warm up the space

And then, we added two accent chairs to the mix

 

And now, we need to start all over again.

Yesterday we scooped up this table set.

 

It's not the most ideal set for our space, but we got it from a friend and it's in near-perfect condition so I'm going to make it work. 

I'm keeping our accent chairs, but I need a new rug and a way to make this long rectangular table work in our long rectangular room.

I'd love a navy blue and white graphic one, but I don't want it to fight with our chairs.

 

Here are some inspiration images I'm trying to use

 

I'm hoping to find something before the weekend so let me know if you have had any luck recently in a local store.

Best Weekend Recap, ever.

 So, Saturday was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had.

Friday night we found out that Joel's company had a few extra tickets to attend their VIP Zac Brown Band event.

We arrived to the Hollywood Bowl at 4pm and were escorted to a pre-sound check happy hour. We had a beer and then 50 of us sat front row at the Bowl and watched Zac Brown prep for the concert. 

They didn't allow pictures, but it almost doesn't matter because it's something that I'll never forget. It was a very intimate experience and after they ran through a few songs, all of us - including the band - went back up to the cocktail reception.

Zac and the band went around and introduced themselves to every single person in the room. A young girl asked Zac how he learned to do something on the guitar and 2 minutes later, Zac grabbed his guitar and started to teach her. 

We took pictures with the band - ours didn't turn out, but apparently a professional one was taken and is being sent to us. 

After the meet and greet we joined about 100 other people and sat down at their famous "Eat and Greet"

 

Zac Brown is a chef, and owns a restaurant in Atlanta. They travel with a kitchen and chef and host a private dinner before every one of their shows.

As if that wasn't enough, they served it to us too. 

 

The food was mind blowing. Southern comfort food at its finest. Every bite was spot on - and the dessert, a peanut butter bread pudding was easily one of the best desserts I've ever tasted. 

 

I will say too, Zac Brown and his entire band are some of the kindest people I've ever met. They were so appreciative, sincere and grateful - to US! They truly are stand up men and I am an even bigger fan after seeing firsthand how truly good they are.

After dinner, we had a box decked out with cheese, wine, crackers and chocolate. I mean....I was in full blown heaven.

 

The concert itself was BEYOND. They played every one of their most popular songs and kept the crowd on their feet for the entire 2 hours.

 

Words honestly do not do the night justice and I'm still pinching myself that I was able to attend. 

run forest run

Something that you may not know is that I actually love to exercise. It's one health habit that has always come easy for me and has been a part of my everyday life for 10 years now.

My current week includes two SoulCycle classes, 2-3 runs, tennis, and an occasional hike.

I am at the point where I need to exercise almost everyday in order to feel like myself.

--and side note, exercise does nothing for me as far as weight loss. It does allow me to maintain my weight, but if I ever want to lose so much as a pound, I need to watch the carbs I put into my body, simple (and sad) as that--

With SoulCycle, and this California weather -and hills- I've been becoming a much better runner.

I'm running 3-4 miles on any given day and this week I got below 10min/miles TWICE.

That has honestly never happened to me!

I run a few 5ks and 10ks every year, but I'm wondering if maybe I could do more. I've always played with the idea of a half, but I've never committed to seeing it through.

For the next few months I''m going to stick with what I'm doing and slowly build mileage. I'm hoping to get up to 6 miles before Christmas.

If I'm there, I think come the New Year, I may actually do something crazy and run 13.1 miles....

Me Time

  

Thankfully Joel doesn't have to travel super often for his job, but when he does, I secretly don't hate it.

When I have a night all to myself, I love nothing more than indulging in every minute of it.

I got off of work early yesterday and quickly reintroduced myself to single Tess.

I finally put up a few wedding pictures around the house and although I still have quite a ways to go I just needed to start.

I've been saving all of my magazines for these next few days so I have lots of heavy reading to do.

 

Does anyone else feel like Self has really sucked since their magazine re-design. I will not be renewing. 

If you follow me on twitter, you know that I bit the bullet and bought the ever popular Old Navy sweatshirt, and dang am I glad that I did. It's super comfy - and was $8 dollars. It's perfect for lounging in and wearing out. 

 

I also love not having to worry about cooking dinner or cleaning dishes, and is there anything better than crackers and cheese?

 

After rolling through my DVR of all of the shows Joel hates to watch, I got to sleep with the dog - which is a rare luxury, and off we went.

Even though my day and night didn't consist of anything wild and crazy, it's sometimes just what the doctor ordered.

Halloween Throwback

Why am I even sharing these with you??? 

Ohhh, I may seriously regret this.

Below, take a little sneak peak at my silly Halloween costumes during college.

Oh, future daughter (or Nellie), please don't do this.

It's not cute. 

I promise!

Freshman Year

Sophomore Year

Junior Year

My first year out of college, I got smart and went as a more demure "social butterfly"

We have taken a few much needed years off from dressing up, but this year we are getting back in the game.

There is no way in hell that I'm wearing the itchy, slutty, super unattractive costumes-in-a-bag that I once obsessed over, so I've been researching fun adult costumes and check these out.

Miss Universe

You could easily turn those two into super cute adult costumes...

Grapes....Wine....duh!

And, of course, celebrities kill it, naturally....

Nicole Richie

 

Emma Roberts

Michael and Kelly

Are you dressing up? What are you favorite costumes?

Friday's 5

1. I have really been drinking the blogger koolaid and bought this sweatshirt from Old Navy.

I don't feel too bad about it since it rang up to $7 bucks, but who would have thought that I'd be obsessed with sweatshirts and graphic prints lately? I feel like my 8th grade self again.

2. Santa Barbara is my newst obsession. It's like 90 minutes from our house, so it's great for a day trip. They have the cutest wine bars all in walking distance from each other, they call it the Urban Wine Trail, and they're all dog friendly.

My favorite spot - Corks'n'crowns

We went up with a friend, spent the entire day totally enjoying life and drinking lots and lots of wine.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be forcing Joel to make this a monthly tradition.

3. I find @Chrissyteigen to be one of the funniest people on the interwebs and she just posted this pic of her updated kitchen on Instagram. It's not what I would do, but I can't stop staring at every detail. Her designer killed it.

4. Tonight we are going to see Gravity. Have you seen it? I'm a little nervous it's going to make me feel anxious (and out of breath), but I've heard only good things so I'm hoping I agree.

Plus, I have two extra cans of Sophia that are dying to be enjoyed, so that should make it extra fun.

 

5. Have a great weekend!