Nashville - Anniversary Trip

Jake and I decided that each year for our anniversary we were going to plan a long weekend getaway to a new city. We each write down 3 cities and pick one. Well, when you both pick the same city....it's pretty much a done deal.

It also made things easier that our good friends Boston & Janelle live there, and hanging out with them is always a good idea! Obviously, Boston and Jake had a terrible time...

We played lots of games, learned how to play Canasta, shopped and ate at some of Nashville's best restaurants. We drove up and down Music Row, but I'm not going to lie, Jake and I are not the "going out" types. So we didn't do the classic bar hopping that some might do in Nashville.

Before I get into the details of our trip, let me share with you a great website I stumbled upon when researching our visit. Nashville Guru is a site that breaks up the city by neighborhoods and tells you about their happy hours, restaurants, shopping, hotels, etc. I mainly used it to map out our shopping and a few places to eat. Seriously though, it's a very informative site...every city needs one!

We ate at the VERY popular (I'm talking 30 minute line out the door, been on The Food Network kind of place)  The Pancake Pantry. Go. It's worth the wait!

We got cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection. Trust me when I say you need a sweet potato cupcake. STAT!

My favorite place would probably be The Pharmacy though. Best burger, hands down. Also, their homemade cream soda was the bomb dot com. 

  

Sorry this is getting kind of food porn-y, but when you're on vacay you just go for it! :)  We also went to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams for the first time. Ice cream isn't my favorite dessert out there...but Jeni's takes ice cream to the next level. They have so many different options (ie Brown Butter Almond Brittle and Sweet Cream Biscuits & Peach Jam). It's good, it's fancy, deal with it. 

 

One morning Jake and I went out on our own and had brunch at Pucketts. It is smack dab in the middle of downtown, so we walked around and did some great shopping afterwords. Pucketts had a great brunch buffet!

Our last night there we went to Edley's BBQ . 

Here are a list of some of the shops I liked: KORE, Castilleja (Edgehill), Green Hills - plus they have an awesome mall. Two Old Hippies, Urban Outfitters (Gulch). 

We watched the OU game surrounded by Vanderbilt and Florida fans. 

The only thing that I wish were different (besides that outcome of the OU game) was that I would get to go to the Bobby Bones Show. I tried...but it just didn't happen for me this time. 

So, that pretty much sums up our Anniversary trip. Great, long weekend with friends.

Bishop Arts District

Last weekend Molly and I made a quick trip down to Dallas to visit our sis Hillary. We indulged in Rosa's, discovered the Dubsmash app and explored Bishop Arts District.

Bishop Arts is a funky neighborhood that was plucked straight from a hipsters dream. Its cute, trendy and right outside the ghetto. You can park your car and just start walking to some pretty quirky shops and restaurants. 

We ate at Oddfellows and grabbed dessert at Emporium Pies with our mom and our friends Courtney & Debbie. I can't get enough of these types of neighborhoods. All of the boutiques are very reasonably priced and each one is different than the other.

I also started (and finished) Serial this past weekend. ADDICTING. I just love any sort of crime drama, and this one does not disappoint. I'll do an official review of it in another post. 

 

Mutt's Amazing Hot Dogs - Aprils New Restaurant

Last week I told you guys about my Intentions for this year, and one of them was for Jake and I to go out and try a new (to us) restaurant every month with friends. This month we went with our great friends, John & Katie and their adorable bebe Adeline, to Mutt's Amazing Hot Dogs.

It's located on (the uprising) 23rd St in OKC.

Food was delicious. I ordered the Club Dog, following the advice of Katie.... to get anything with the Pink sauce on it. Take my word...do it! Pink sauce was the bomb! We also ordered fried pickles and french fries fried in duck fat. Sounds weird, but again...I don't question things that taste great. They reminded me of one of my fave burger places in Vegas: I Love Burgers's Parmesan Fries.


Pictures from our wedding with John (one of the best Instas from the wedding) and my bridesmaid Katie! Seriously LOVE these guys!

Intention

Being Intentional, to aim or plan. I think this year so far has been full of intention. I would say it is one of my many unwritten goals of the year. My intention for this year is to spend more time with friends, plan and throw more parties, deepen my spiritual growth, blog more, go on trips with my hubby, take classes and workshops to deepen my creative knowledge and then to aim that creativity toward something worthwhile. 

Jake and I have decided that once a month we are going to try a new restaurant. It can be anywhere, so out of town counts. We rarely eat out when it's just the two of us, we both really enjoy cooking (Luckily!) so we just tend to stay home a lot. So when we go to the new restaurants, we will do so with friends.

{I'll try to keep track of the different ways we are being intentional over the year and write more on the subject!}


We started in March when we went to Dallas. We met up with our friends Jordan & Cody, Keith and Julian. We actually knocked two new restaurants off the list while there! We went to Twisted Root Burger Co and The Rusty Taco. Both were good food with fun atmospheres.

Here are a few pics from the weekend, the good ones courtesy of Julian Mancha Photography, of course!

I felt like this sums up a lot of people!

We went the the Dallas Museum of Art where Julian, Hil and I tested our drawing skills

 

Jordan and Keith dueled over who is better friends with me :) 

And just had a fun weekend with some of our Texas friends!

BTW Cody and Jake were here...just never pictured :)

How are you being intentional with your year? I'd LOVE to hear!