city lights - tonight!

i have never been happier to live downtown than i am right now.  holiday season is the best! tonight they are unveiling the neiman marcus holiday tree and windows, and shortly after they will light the official downtown holiday tree in pegasus plaza.

here is some more information from the downtown dallas site:

Neiman Marcus Downtown and City of Dallas are thrilled to host another exciting year of City Lights on Friday, November 14, 2008! Join us beginning at 6:30 p.m. for this street-wide extravaganza and kick off the holidays Downtown, in the heart of Dallas. Festivities begin at Neiman Marcus Downtown, 1618 Main Street, then extend throughout surrounding streets all night.

On this special evening, the grand spectacle of the legendary lighting of Neiman Marcus Downtown extends throughout the Main Street District. Retailers and restaurants throughout the area creatively light their storefronts, keep their doors late and invite all of Dallas to celebrate the season. In addition, the Downtown holiday tree will be lit at Pegasus Plaza (Main @ Akard) by special musical guest, Eddie Coker!

Throughout the evening attendees are encouraged to shop with promenades led by street performers, and enjoy extended holiday hours and in-store promotions at each participating retail and restaurant location. At 7 pm, Neiman Marcus Downtown will light the store and unveil the Neiman Marcus Holiday Windows and one-of-a-kind Holiday Tree, the ideas of which have been in secret vaults for months…then keep an eye out for a special visitor from the North Pole, who will most certainly steal the show!

here is the schedule of events:

6:30 p.m.: Activities on the streets surrounding Neiman Marcus with music and refreshments; entertainment, face painters, street performers and much more!
7:00 p.m.: Lighting of Neiman Marcus Downtown; unveiling of the Neiman Marcus Holiday Tree and Windows; arrival of a special visitor from the North Pole; promenade down Main Street led by the Hardin Simmons Cowboy Band!
7:30 p.m.: The lighting of the official Downtown Holiday Tree at Pegasus Plaza, 1 block west of Neiman Marcus at the corner of Main and Akard; performance by Eddie Coker!
ALL NIGHT: Special activities and discounts at participating retail and restaurant locations.
Click here for a list of specials!

i am SO excited to see this!  it’s like our own little version of the rockefeller center tree…minus the cold weather, ice skating and al roker…

national protest against prop 8

as i mentioned before, i am very much against prop 8 and now there is something we can do about it! this saturday, november 15 at 12:30 pm (central) there is a national protest against prop 8.  proposition 8 eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry and is an initiative constitutional amendment.  i won’t get into how wrong it is, just know that i believe that equality is a basic right, not a privilege that the government gets to pick and choose who gets it. i will be participating in the protest in dallas - it will take place in front of city hall at 1500 marilla dr. if you are in dallas please, please join me and many others to show that in EVERY state it is not OK to discriminate so blatently against our friends, neighbors, brothers and sisters.  maybe this will have such an impact that we can make this a change in many other states, and eventually make a huge national impact.

for my tulsa readers, they are also trying to get a group together.  read about it here. if you are elsewhere, a list of states and cities participating along with contact information for organizers can be found here.

please also remember that this is a peaceful demonstration.  thank you for the support! and for those who don’t support, i appreciate your silence =)

i’m in love

with this bookshop

from zach schrock.

and this calling tearsheet

from bliss.

and of course

he makes me smile so big.

halloween cookies!

i tried my hand at cutout cookies for the first time last night.  i got these super cute fall/halloween cookie cutters from target for $1! stephen got a rolling pin for me so that i could try sugar cookies, but i just couldn’t resist the chocolate recipe.  i’ll do sugar cookies another time…

here is the recipe from allrecipes.com:

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
powder

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 egg

DIRECTIONS:

i think they were pretty good for my first try - tonight i’ll make some more and probably cut them a little thicker than the recommended 1/8 inch.

thriller!

stephen, being the amazing man that he is, bought me this yesterday:

the thriller album. on vinyl! mint condition. i can not even express how exited i am about this - you should have seen my girlish giddiness when i saw it. so, last night we worked on a little art project and listened to the album. oh don’t kid yourself, i got up and danced around our loft.  i did the thriller dance and stephen was like “how do you even know that?” i just do. and of course, flip the record and there it is: billie jean. this makes me incredibly happy. yes, i know, i am very easily amused…and a huge dork. but that’s ok, cause i got my thriller record! if you wanna come over and practice the dance, i’m in.

october concert extravaganza

i am so excited that today starts my concert adventures for october.  i’m hoping that it will roll on into november, but we’ll see.

tonight, stephen and i will go see the kooks at the house of blues. i love this british rock/pop band and their fun, quirky songs.  the whigs will be opening for them - haven’t heard much of their stuff but i’m looking forward to it!

this saturday (10/4), the feds and fair to midland will be playing at the downtown festival series by granada.  remember, it’s free if you go before five.  details here.

next saturday (10/11), after OU/TX of course, is ghostland observatory at the house of blues.  now, i’m not absolutely certain that i’m still going to this, but i will try my darndest. the 11th show is sold out, fyi, but they are doing a special late night show on friday the 10th for those who were not able to get tickets for the other show.

october 21st (which just happens to be my birthday), the beautiful celina bought tickets for us to go see girl talk at the palladium ballroom.  if you are ready for some dance, dance, madness, you should really check this out!

october 25th, my lovely sister is coming in town and we will go see moby play at the lizard lounge.  this is the 10th annual meltdown, and it should be pretty crazy awesome.

last, but certainly not least, kings of leon will be at the palladium ballroom on october 29th.  this is not one to miss - especially in this type of venue, considering that their other shows on this tour are in more theater/seated venues that are a bit larger and less intimate.

i know there are tons and tons more shows going on, and though i’d love to go, well, i don’t need to tell you about the economy…

to quote my lovely, incredible friend rachel, “sucks we’re both so young and awesome but our checkbooks can’t keep up!” so true. see you at the shows!

flowers & pumpkins

i got to take home these lovely flowers from an event on tuesday.

and stephen surprised me with this little pumpkin yesterday! his name is george.

oh fall, please let the weather catch up with the days…

four music festivals in downtown dallas!

that’s right! not one, but FOUR music festivals will be held this fall in the heart of downtown dallas.  the granada theater has put together these festivals with new, alluring rock bands; or as granada calls them “some of the most relevant rock bands of today.” and that’s not even the best part! the shows are free if you come before 5 pm!! otherwise, tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the gates.

my favorite on the list has got to be louis xiv - their performance at lollapalooza was great and i can’t wait to see them again. if you’re not familiar with some of the bands, click in the flyer to go to the site, you can click on each band name to hear their music.  this is so exciting for the downtown community, and really for dallas as a whole.  come out and support local music ventures and your downtown community!! i hope to see you there.

farmer’s market adventures

roxy and i took a little walk this weekend to the farmer’s market and picked up lots of goodies! some of my favorites:

and i just had to share this gigantic mango i found!! and at $1.50, it was a steal. i took a photo of it next to the ipod just to express how big it is…

i noticed and abundance of new potatoes, mushrooms and green beans  so i got some of those as well. for dinner, i pan fried the new potatoes and roasted fresh green beans with grape tomatoes, all covered with pepperjack cheese:

deeeeelicious!

television

stephen dug up our “rabbit-ears” antenna from storage (mostly because he really really wants to watch the olympics). and so, for the first time in 5 months we watched tv last night. it was so awful. we watched most of “greatest american dog” which was ok. but then ended up going down to the store and renting “be kind rewind” and i thought it was so cute!! anyway. i got to watch letterman, and i’m happy about that. maybe it will be better once the “real” shows come back on?? probably not.

photo taken from dhammza’s flickr.