pearl in your cup

hiiiiiiiiii, good morning! 

wanted to share some photos from a few mornings ago when dekel & i ventured up the street to pearl cup coffee. 

we love shady's and sweet firefly, which are in the same shopping center, but we've never wondered into pearl & being a barista myself, i wanted to give it a try and see what they had to offer. they did not disappoint! super cute, friendly, neighborhood-y vibe and their menu includes almond milk (i'm sold!), home-style baked goods & a special 'pearl latte,' which has a secret ingredient (i think it's vanilla bean ice cream, but i could be totally off). we enjoyed the warm sun during these morning hours and sat on their adorable patio with our pup, peanut, but there is also a good amount of seating indoors, plus their espresso machine is see-through, which i couldn't stop staring at! (how did i not snap a picture of that?!)

anyways, have a fab day loves!

i'm off to work!

the pearl cup coffee sign

enjoying my 'pearl latte'

 latte art

 peanut in the city at pearl cup

patio area

looking through the lens

since receiving this camera for my birthday i've really been trying to expand my photography knowledge and actually understand what the different manual settings mean and do, without 'messing' with them and 'accidentally' capturing a great shot. so a few weeks ago i scooped up my notebook, a pen, my camera and lens and took a 4-hour beginner photography class here ($50 groupon, baby!) which was really informative, but now that i have some basic knowledge, i'm ready to practice in order to improve. 

luckily my sister, who i am usually always with anyway, loves modeling for me and in the photo-shoot below we wanted to showcase some new necklaces we acquired at the jj pearce pacesetter bazaar this past weekend. we took this one to our front yard and i focused on adjusting the aperture and exposure in my attempts at capturing some pretty shots. i love a good blurred background, which requires a wide aperture (low f-stop) so i did my best with my kit lens. 

tell me what you think!

mirelle's new turquoise, white & gold spiked necklace

bracelets made by us

 turquoise earrings: street vendor in mexico

 my new necklace, imported from guatemala

  mirelle's new boots, from target, similar

thanks for reading & i would love to hear any photography tips you have! :)

set your own pace

this past weekend, the sour melan was at the 35th annual jj pearce pacesetter bazaar, along with 200+ other vendors. it was an amazing experience and the artists and vendors were so cool, we basically just wanted to shop the whole time. there were beaded things and hand-woven goods imported from guatemala, homemade teas, beautiful handmade jewelry, customized yard signs, clothing, gift wrapping, baked goods, etc... but we worked it, sold some product and met great people. since mirelle & i both work around the area of the school (me: starbucks, her: a hair salon) and this bazaar is such a big annual community event, we even saw a few of our own customers! 

this was a "blowout" event for us, we will be terminating the sour melan business, as we both agreed this handcrafted product is more a hobby to us, as opposed to a business and it turned out not as profitable as we had expected. but opening a small business was a huge learning experience for me and i will always have an entrepreneurial mindset; it was a pleasure working with my sister and husband on this amazing adventure we had for the past year+ and here and there i will continue to sell jewelry and body chains, i will continue to craft and create things by hand and also i am always on the hunt for unique pieces to share with other jewelry lovers. but for now, i am focusing on selling through our on-hand inventory of headbands and flowers, while working on my photography skills and writing more on this little blog of mine.

here are some photos from this weekend, if you would like to see:

*sorry for the crappy photo quality*

mirelle setting our booth up, in the shiner flowerhalo

ready for the day! booth #220

first customer of day #2 was our vendor neighbor, joann from texas tea house. her & her husband richard were so sweet and we traded them a halo for 2 bags of tea :) i love bartering!

 we love & support the jj pearce pacesetter bazaar!

 taking a sitting break, hiding out huge mcdonald's cup behind our earring display, ha!

drinks to celebrate a fun event at houlihan's in addison

with my hubby!

& rocking jewelry that i purchased (& bartered for!) at the event earlier that day

#heartandstonetx

oh, snap!

dekel & i wondered over to snider plaza a few evenings ago to try snap kitchen. 

my friend, andrea- of loubies & lulu- made my mouth water with her recent post & i decided to go check it out for myself & try something yummy, healthy and fresh!

the choices were grand, think delicious options for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, cold-pressed coffees, juices, etc & the place impeccable, from a sleek, modern design to super friendly staff. the whole experience was amazing and fun & i walked out with a few things to try. it was hard to choose, but for my first snap meal i went with the asian chicken salad & almon-ccino, which is filtered water, organic ethopian harrar dark coffee, almonds & sea salt! yum! the portions are pre-packaged so all you have to do is pick out a meal that speaks to you and decide if you want a small, medium or large portion. great if you are feeding a family (or want leftovers for tomorrow!). my salad is "one size," but it will definitely feed me for days, it was huge! 

what i'm wearing: 

necklace- forever 21, peach bralette- aerie, coral tank- h&m, rose kimono- random shop at the mall, pants- 'the diva' skinny khakis old navy, shoes- target mossimo 'kali' camoflage pointed toe flat 

 i thought it was funny that such a healthy concept kitchen is located right next to a donut shop :)

 so many selections!

 i'm trying this watermelon juice next time, for sure!

legit

fresh goodness

 my new babies

i've been in bed with a stomach virus for the past 2 days (insert 'thumbs down' emoji here), but finally coming around to feeling like myself again and working on getting my energy level back up, maybe i'll strap my new nike's on and take a walk.

on that note, have a wonderful weekend!

twice in two days

dek & i love coffeehouse cafe, this past weekend we went twice in two days! 

we go for their delicious double lattes and end up sharing something amazing from their super unique menu, like the challah french toast sandwich, their lemon ricotta pancakes or fred's flatbread, which is flatbread topped with spinach, turkey bacon, aioli, tomatoes, eggs and mozzarella cheese...it's amazing! they even offer a pet-friendly patio so we took peanut for a little day trip with us :)

on saturday (tx/ou game day), greenville avenue pizza company celebrated their 7th year of business success with pizza & beer specials, live trivia and karaoke, which we went to be a part of and support. dek & i split ate most of our pepperoni, green olive and onion pizza and we washed it down with a fireman's 4 and a modelo. we sweat their pizza and meatballs, go try them if you haven't already...

here are a few photos from the past few days, if you'd like to see:

sunnies: ebay, purse: vintage neiman marcus, jewelry: market finds from israel, tank: target, jeans: delia's 'liv', shoes: target mossimo 'kali' camouflage pointed toe flat

enjoying my double sugar-free vanilla latte (& my view!)

peanut in the city

fred's flatbread (which i accidentally ordered as "fled's fratbread, ha!)

headed to coffeehouse cafe again in my new tank that one of my besties, chelsey, gifted me for my birthday, necklace: sam moon, purse: MMS, skeletal ring: forever 21, jeans: old navy 'rockstar',

same setting, different day

took our little nut on a walk around the neighborhood, which he loved 

#shareacoke

flashing our PIE shirts at gapc to show support for their 7th successful business year. cheers to many more to come!

have a wonderful week!

the great texas tradition

you know it's fall when the state fair of texas opens up!

we literally had the best weather over the weekend so we headed down to fair park with some friends, my sister & her bf to drink some beer and try some fried food :)

dek & i have been the last two years, but the first time we went we got there an hour before it closed, so everything was lame and it was the "end of the day" fried food, gross! & the second time we went we got rained out, like poured on, and had to head home after only being there for an hour! so, our texas state fair experiences recently have not been so pleasant, but this year was amaze. 

mirelle & i at the state fair of texas

  selfie with big tex

it was pretty crowded, like a "where's waldo?" moment..

 we tried the fried bluebonnet, a mix of cream cheese-filled blueberry muffin / scone mix, fried and topped with whipped cream, white chocolate morsels and blueberries. yum!

 group photo at the state fair 

have a great week, ya'll!

my mexican fiesta

i was on a high all weekend from such a great birthday!

it literally panned out exactly as i had wanted, so many thanks to my mom!

we got lots & lots of bbq from ten50, we had two margaritaville machines going, mixing margs with fresh squeezed lime juice and agave sweetener. we strung handmade decorations and wore sombrero hats. we even recreated this diy photobooth where we had some fun in front of the tripod that was set up. it was an amazing day lounging on blankets in the green grass under a sunny sky. seriously one to go down in the books for me! 

here are some photos from sunday, if you would like to see...

also, i will post pics from our photobooth soon!

getting all set up, our friend dandi came over to help & brought loads of mexican-inspired decor for us to use

a traditional kitchen pic with grams before the party got started

beautiful sunflowers from my friends diana & johnny

photobooth fun!

relaxing on the patio

  diana & johnny

 we brought peanut (back) and our friends katelin & philip brought their mini dachshund clare (front) for him to play with

 too windy for candles..but i didn't really feel like putting 29 individual candles on there anyway!

 opening gifts and cards;

thank you guys so much!!

dekel got me us a new nikon 5300 dslr, which we have been wanting needing for a while to replace our little digital camera that we felt was not satisfying our photography needs. so in love with it and i haven't even played with it yet! 

  baby isla under a sombrero, photo from marli

isla wearing a flower headband we made for her :)

sweet little cheeks!

sister pic  

 after the party, we hung out with our bestie molly and then went for pizza at her & her husband's pizza place, gapc, for some slices and beer

 basil & green olives

 after dinner we walked across the street to have a steel city pop, they are unique flavors of ice or cream-based popsicles and they are so yummy! i got strawberries & cream and mirelle got sweet tea

hope you enjoyed the post!

happy hump day!!