weedend recap

this past weekend was one of the best, most productive ones i can remember having in a long time & i'd love to share what composed of my eventful, history-making, life changing, inspiring last couple of days:

beginning our saturday at coffeehouse cafe with a doubleshot latte swirled into perfection

i love being surrounded by "feel good" items, such as this old (but working!) coffee "syphon" of sorts, newspapers & exposed brick

breath-taking views from my friend's balcony.

jaw. dropped.

 dallas skyline from the "oakcliff side" of town

this beautiful, whimsical thing is margaret hunt hill bridge.

my friend, Lo, & i participated in "yoga on the bridge" hosted by all out! where they were trying to set a Guinness World Record for the world's largest yoga chain. it was a super cool experience!

 surreal surroundings

so dek & i bought a new car this weekend!

i loved dekel's car so much that he gave me his & he is the proud owner of this cute little car below. 

 sunday morning was spent enjoying brunch with a view of lake lewisville, my mom gifted us a groupon to sneaky pete's back for christmas & we've been meaning to go! it was buffet style, delicious and a great way to start our drizzly day. after brunch, we went to check out at home's lewisville location. the store is beautiful & really has everything you would ever want or need PLUS more! little insider scoop: our average customer spends 2+ hours in our store shopping, so take your latte with ya when you go ;)

 after home decor shopping, i met my partners at starbucks for our weekly coffee master meeting, where we compared two reserve coffees, french pressed, side by side. we paired each coffee with a different pastry, but i love the compare/contrast element of our tastings, as only by doing so am i able to describe what i taste. and really, when you pair coffee with food, it makes a world of difference! 

 me at marshall's trying on some professional looks, slowly but surely adding sophisticated pieces to my wardrobe so i can dress the part as marketing coordinator! loving it!

ps- this jacket came home with me. in love.

thanks for reading & have a wonderful week!

share some highlights of your weekend below, i'd love to hear!

we ascended to ascension

dek & i ventured to a new-to-us coffee shop in the middle of the beautiful dallas design district yesterday and loved it! it's on oaklawn and they specialize in craft espresso beverages and pour-over coffees. they are serious about what they do and passion is the name of their game. the vibes were great and the coffee phenomenal!

with the first sip of my latte, i was able to taste the sweet micro-foam with hints of lemon and deep espresso. it was delicious! we both had lattes, but next time i will go crazy and order their cortado. 

weather outside was freezing, so i was all layered up in my peacoat, scarf and booties, but we had a wonderful saturday. hope you have a great weekend, as well!

peacoat: h&m, scarf: charlotte russe, jeans: forever 21, booties: target

thanks for reading!

we had a "snow day" in dallas

...so this is what we did...

played around with our 35mm lens

capturing the beauty in nature

debuted my new haircut; 5 inches gone, baby!

 headed into astoria for a pick-me-up, dek went for his usual latte & i opted for a frozen coffee beverage (java chip!) with an espresso shot :)

have a great week!

i start my new job on monday and am super excited!!

i have some news...

barista life no mas.

beginning march 2 i will merge into the corporate world and join the 'at home' marketing team. fka (formerly known as) garden ridge, this company has undergone a major re-branding transformation to become 'at home' (you can read more about that here!) & i am so excited to be a part of the thriving marketing team and face new adventures & challenges. 

i will dearly miss my starbucks partners, they are really like a second family to me. knowing and working with them has been such a pleasure! honest and creative people work at starbucks and i was privileged to have gotten to know some of these people i speak about. i will miss the amazing coffee (not to mention the endless flow of espresso), the customers i have come to know & enjoy catching up with, multi-tasking like crazy (it's definitely an adrenaline rush working there sometimes!) and also getting the hookup at chipotle, since we work right next door :) i plan to continue attending coffee master meetings, a few of us baristas took it upon ourselves to delve into coffee knowledge and begin the process of becoming a "coffee master." this is a paid, self-paced program you can go through at starbucks where you master five levels of training on how coffee comes to fruition, bean to cup, and everything in between. we are on our 3rd meeting and currently covering the 3 major coffee-growing regions (which are latin america, africa & asia/pacific) and i plan to continue along with my partners in this journey. while i will be attending as a customer in these future cases, it will keep me connected to my passion (coffee!), while giving me a chance to see & sit with my partners (score!).

just for fun, here are some pretty pictures of coffee cherries/beans:

this is an unroasted, unprocessed bean in a coffee cherry.
red means ripe.

 via
coffee cherries on a branch

 via
sooooo many coffee cherries!

via

cheers to a new beginning at a new job!

home tour

dekel & i have really made this little apartment of ours feel like a home.
we have personalized it, added our touches of our own, cooked here, we've cleaned (luckily it only takes about 15 minutes max!) and we love our neighborhood. chillin here with the windows and patio door open is amazing & we love that we're up on the 2nd floor so we have privacy from down below. also our whole place gets so much natural light, which creates such a bright & cheerful atmosphere. 

here are photos of our home, if you would like to see:

colorful flowers from my mom in a weizen glass  on our bar

beautiful bar stools, found here.

 i wanted to create a designated place for our keys, sunglasses a random things we grab out the door or need to set down right when we walk in. (or to remind me to grab my phone on the way out; i'm always forgetting it!) i found this double-decker mail holder at genesis benefit thrift store and spray painted it with black chalk paint with the intention of changing up the sayings/ reminders every few weeks :) we also needed to put up some hooks so when we drop off our coats/my purse it doesn't end up on the couch or bar stools. we found these at ikea and they keep our coats hidden behind the front door. perfect. if you are wondering what the brown little hanging sack is by my our keys in the photo below, it is fresh lavender & i've become obsessed with this scent & placing little sachets all around our apartment/ in my car, etc...

 
the kitchen area

as previously mentioned, i really wanted to keep things off the floor of our apartment as well as off the counters, clutter reduction was in full effect when we decided to find a way to hang our utensils and knives in the kitchen. these were also found at ikea, i love the end result & i LOVE that very little stuff "lives" on our counters.

we lined each cabinet with black lining for a more firm grip for dishes and mugs + it just looks nicer!

storing items in my dishwasher?

how sex & the city of me!

entrance to our bathroom with a positive mantra; this sign was found at an estate sale for .50 cents! i spray painted it with black chalkboard paint & love the result. i think i love chalkboard home decor. 

you can call me obsessed. 

simple shower curtain, $7

 amazing wooden towel rack with hooks that we scored here, $8

now, my closet is still a work in progress, as i own waaayyy too many accessories and clothing items and really need to do a full closet clean-out, like this one, before summer rolls around. but in my opinion, i found some creative ways to utilize this one small closet that we share. i took over the left side and hung my jewelry & accessories all over the place. my thought is "if you don't see it, you wont wear it" - so of course i needed to make it visually appealing. 

necklaces + lavender

 i hang extra purses on the back of the closet door & belts hangout next to our super cute laundry bag (from here!) with my craft supplies stacked neatly behind them. 

 shoe rack found here.

the living area

view from the patio

our dining area;

coffee bean sack found at lulu b's, gifted from my sister as a 'housewarming' 

our bed & bedside tables floating shelves 

(i have found that keeping items off the ground is key when working with little space)

this is a little corner of our living room behind the couch, where we added some more floating shelves to create a stacked effect. (& again to keep things off the floor!) i wanted to showcase some cute bronze camels from a market in jerusalem, a photo of me & dekel on our wedding day which always overwhelms me with emotion when i look at it & a photo of my mom, grandmother & grandfather bathing me, in awe of me. one of my favorite photos of all time because it's like now the tables have turned and i am in awe of them. a style book by lauren conrad also resides on these floating shelves for outfit inspiration or shopping guidance, when needed.

this game lives on our coffee table! have you tried it? 
it's so vulgar, so fitting for my family- ha!

 

last but not least, is our beloved patio area. dek & i love sitting outside talking, so it was a necessity that we at least have a small space to put two chairs. 

our view is of railroad tracks which i have already been drawn to

walking path beneath our patio

hope you enjoyed this home tour :)
for home decor and organization accessories, i would highly recommend popping into ikea, at home & world market. these places seriously have some amazing things going on right now.

thanks for reading!

treasure hunt adventure

today is our three year anniversary.

our wedding day was so amazing, i love going back and reliving it.

we are more in love at this point in our relationship than we probably thought possible when we married. marriage is a funny thing. i really do fall more & more in love with my husband everyday. he never ceases to surprise me or make me laugh (usually about some dumb joke), he supports me in every way possible, he's truthful even when its hard to hear, but important to know, he's loyal and worships me, reminds me how beautiful i am several times a day. he is caring and will be an amazing father one day and i love thinking where our relationship will go in future years. 

i had to work today, but when i got home at noon there was a bouquet of beautiful pink & purple wild-looking flowers with a note on them that was the beginning of a treasure hunt around our new neighborhood! how cute is that! i had no idea he was planning this nor was i expecting anything because we mutually agreed not to get each other anything or do anything crazy today, but he really went above and beyond to make me feel special and loved and to create something fun for us to do. 

i'd love to share some photos from my little treasure hunt adventure, if you would like to see! dekel followed me around capturing my confusion. some of the hints needed a little further explanation, let's just put it that way- haha!

gorgeous bouquet. husband did good.

clue no.1 

 i found clue no.2 pretty easily, behind a 'parallel parking' sign

in search of clue no.3

 found clue no.3 & a little friend

 clue no.4!

 looking for clue no.5 by the "blueprints" sculpture at the circle

clue no.5 led me north, past polk-a-dot bakery, to find a park bench with the number 825 on/near it

 found! clue no.6

 clue no.6 6 led me southwest from where i was to another park to locate a black light post. do you see how many black light posts are in the below photo? there were tons...guidance was necessary!

 clue no.7 led me to some trees under the addison water tower, where my treasure was waiting for me! dek sneakishly got my favorite kind of white wine, Gewurztraminer, and printed a sticker label with a photo from our wedding day on it. really special touch! funny note: the wine was in a bag with a note on it explaining that it was a valentine's day gift and to please not touch, since it was sitting out in a public area, haha!

 he even brought glasses! we sat in the park and reminisced about where we were 3 years ago and how far we've come and where we want to go. i love making plans for our future and being so aligned with him.  

 after the little treasure hunt, we decided to grab a bite to eat at a place by our apartment, the lion & crown. it's an english pub located on a corner with an amazing wrap-around outdoor patio that we sat on to enjoy the 70 degree weather! 

my handsome husband

 for him: hoegaarden from the tap, for me: melon fizz 

 dek had the french dip sandwich with au jus & i had the brat on a bun with stoneground mustard 

 neighborhood kitty we call "fat cat," i want him to be my friend so bad but he doesn't trust me yet. 
it will be a love like this one, i can already tell. 

thanks for reading!

happy valentine's day & have a wonderful weekend!