Dreamy Library-Inspired Bar

Hey Y'all!

This past weekend was so much fun! We had a great friend, Lindsay, come visit us for the weekend. She was invited to a style blog conference here in Dallas and we got to host her for the whole weekend!! You should totally check out her amazing style on her blog Pink and Navy Stripes.

While she had various events during the day learning blog-licious skills, we could hang out at night and show her around town! We had so much fun that I forgot to take more pictures! So sorry but I know Lindsay took some, so check out some pictures on her blog coming up! 

While Lindsay wined and dined with her fellow bloggers on Saturday night,  Andy and I checked out a super fun bar in Uptown called the Standard Pour and watched the Wild playoff game. Complete with leather couches, old wooden tables, an outdoor patio with open doors (of course) and floor to ceiling wall of just whiskey behind the bar (see photo below). It was super cozy and reminded us of old bars in Europe. There was even a ladder on a rail for the bartenders to reach the "top shelf" whiskeys like in those dreamy libraries. 

Their menu featured mainly delicious, uniquely-named cocktails of many varieties (not just whiskey) and only one tap (Stella). Normally Andy and I would hit up a place that prided themselves on the wide assortment of beer taps behind the bar and we'd try a new local craft beer, but tonight it was about the cocktails. Actually, it was pretty hilarious when we would hear someone try to order a Bud Light (remember the craft beer scene is still growing here). The bartender would just say, "We don't have that." The customer would then say, "What other light beers do you have?" Response? "We don't have light beers." Touche bartender, touche. They actually have Stella on tap that I would consider light, and quite a variety of bottled beers, but the bartender just said no. I agree. Life is too short to drink crappy beer, and if you are in a place with this much whiskey on the wall, just ask the bartender their favorite one and I guarantee you'll enjoy it. 

You can see me here with a Moscow Mule (vodka, lime juice, ginger beer, and mint) in its signature copper mug. It is so refreshing! It's kinda like a mix between a mojito and a gin and tonic flavor-wise without the pine needles. De-lish! Andy ordered the "Standard Pour" which is their own version of an Old-Fashioned and may, just may, be the best Old Fashioned I've had. 

We sat at the bar because there was no open tables but we got to witness the bartenders do their magic. We watched one make fancy drink after fancy drink and then.....the Gringo in a Pine Box. Yes that is the actual name of the drink. I don't know everything in it but between burning a twig of rosemary with a mini blow torch and letting it smoke inside a glass before adding the numerous flavors of bitters, whiskey, and, yes, absinthe, it was one cocktail for the adventuresome. 

They apparently have a pretty amazing weekend brunch (think fried chicken and waffles covered in ancho-jalopeno gravy, breakfast tacos, and apple pancakes! mmmm!) and dinner menu so we will definitely be returning again. If we go for dinner, you will see me in a dress and heels because if we go for that Gringo in a Pine Box, you gotta do it looking good! 

Love ya!

Betsy, Andy, and Lincoln

Will you be my (Pi) friend?

I am so glad that I didn't continue to work and finish out the school year before moving down here with Andy. I cannot imagine either of us doing this major move without the other and having each other to lean on. We are so happy to be doing this adventure and it really has been a ton of fun, but in the end we truly do miss our dear family and friends in Minnesota. We mostly miss the ability to call up someone and meet for a latte or for lunch, our weekly Sunday night dinner with family, or grab a beer at Groveland Tap down the street from our house with a friend at a moments notice. We know we can still do those things but only when we are visiting.

We've been trying to meet friends in our neighborhood, at church, at the gym, and elsewhere since we've moved here. Everyone is so friendly and you constantly get a "Yes ma'am!" and "How can we help ya'll?" while around town but we haven't had any luck making any long-term friends yet.

A community and group of people you trust and feel a part of truly does make a place feel like home. There is no way that Dallas can compete with what we have in terms of community in Minnesota but we are working on trying to make it feel more like home. In order to do this, we have been working on meeting new people and trying to make friends.

One day about a month ago I discovered a funky, tree-lined, boutique-y neighborhood called Bishop Arts District. I went during the day while Andy was at work and perused the stores in and out, making mental notes of what I wanted to show Andy later on. I got sooo excited about this area because it was the first part of Dallas that reminded me of the "old town" feel of St. Paul and Minneapolis. There were little boutiques with adorable Texan sales girls greeting me with a "Hey Y'all!," an eatery called Eno's Pizza Tavern that paired unique pizza with unique beer, a funky floral shop called Dirt, and a sweet pie shop called Emporium Pies based out of an old Victorian home with a huge front porch and picnic tables in the yard.

As I was walking around I saw a huge line leading from the front door of this house going all the way down the sidewalk. I thought, "Why the heck is a pie shop so darn busy at 2pm on a Friday??" Well, I'll let you know it happened to be Pi Day. Yep, March 14 or 3.14. DUH! Well I made another mental note to return for dessert that evening and went home. 

Andy and I ended up going to Oddfellows for dinner and sat on their patio (with Lincoln too!) and had a great meal! We walked the streets, listened to a live blue grass band playing on a different patio, and I told him about the amazingly cute pie shop up ahead.  We get in line and are wondering if we'll even get some considering the place had a constant line out it's door all day. A baker from the shop came outside to tell the line that there may not be enough pie for everyone because they are going to run out....gasp! 

In front of us in line was a couple about our age who suddenly began telling us how great the pie is and how it is definitely worth waiting for anything left. We continued chatting and it turns out the guy happens to work for a company based out of Minnetonka (small world right?) and in the same industry that Andy works in. As the boys talked finance mumbo jumbo I talked with the girl and we totally hit it off. 

NOW, let me preface this by saying that making friends outside of college or high school or work is like dating all over again, especially in a new city. If you don't have a mutual friend to introduce you, you pretty much have to just start up a conversation out of the blue then ask the other if they want to get lunch sometime which is totally nerve-racking. Honestly I was getting increasingly excited about this girl I was talking to. She was fashionable, nice, interested in where we came from, and excited to share fun places to go in the area. I just knew we could be friends....yay!

(How cute are these to-go pie baskets??)

As we got closer to the check out line to order our pie, I am totally wanting this girl to be my friend and I am wracking my brain to figure out how to get her number before she leaves forever! Yes I was that weird about it. Suddenly she turns and asked for my full name so she can friend me on Facebook and says, "We should get lunch together sometime!" My heart honestly almost skipped a beat and I think I had the most embarrassing, shocked look on my face ever. I probably looked ridiculous but I calmed down enough to say, "Wow! Thank you so much! I'd love that!" I nearly jumped in the air for joy.

We exchanged our information, paid for our (amazingly delicious) pie, said goodbye (she said, "see you soon!") and we went on our separate ways. I had no idea how much I had been missing/craving meeting people and making friends until a kind, outgoing girl asked me if I wanted to be her Facebook friend. 

We love our amazing friends and family at home and nothing could compare to the love and community support we feel when we see you all. However we've realized that it is important to develop a community here too and if asking random girls at pie shops to get lunch is the way to do it, then so be it. 

We have since had lunch together at a mediterranean restaurant and had a great time and have plans to see each other again. She even introduced me to another one of her friends so now I know two girls in Dallas. 

So in the end, I am grateful for her taking a chance and wanting to hang out with me. In the future, if you meet someone who is new to the area, think about extending an invitation to them. Although it may seem strange, that act of grace may just make their week and give them hope there there are pretty cool people out there to connect with.  

 

PS- The cute girls in the photo above are two of the bakers from Emporium Pies. And yes they wore aprons and handkerchiefs on their heads that night while covered in flour and frantically making thousands of pies for the city of Dallas on Pi Day. When you come visit, I'll promise to take you here! If you go to the website, we ordered the Drunken Nut and the Lord of the Pies that night. Next time I want to try Strawberry Fields....yum city!

Love,
Betsy, Andy, and Lincoln

Our New Digs

Hey there! I'm sorry it has been so long since I've posted! We've been busy with so many different things from vacations to Mexico, a visitor from MN, a trip to Princeton, NJ, and hiking in Austin! I've gotta catch up so look forward to some of those posts later on! I've also made some headway on the job front so that has been taking up my time too.

I thought I would fill you in on where we live nowadays. When we first came to Dallas we were in corporate housing (aka: free apartment in Uptown!) until the end of February. We pondered with the idea of buying another house since everyone told us how much "more house" you can get for your money down here. Well this motto is true but only if you live 30 minutes outside the city in the burbs. With Andy's job in Uptown and not having a darn clue where to start, we decided to rent for a year to catch our bearings, see how we feel after a year, and explore the area. We have no idea how long we'll be down here but it feels good to not commit so quickly to buying a house if this whole shebang doesn't last too long.

We found a nice town home community about 10 minutes from Andy's work, 3 miles from the nearest (only) lake, our favorite grocery store a 10 minute walk down the block, and away from the noisy night clubs and bars that Uptown graced us with for two months. It isn't as walkable as our last neighborhood in Uptown but it actually feels like a neighborhood.

We are still missing some things in our living room but we feel pretty settled in the rest of the house. The community is nice, quiet, and has lots of dogs and a fenced in dog park on the property. Not to mention a pool we can use at our leisure on days like today when its 82 degrees!

So without further ado, I promised a tour of our new digs.These are the same pictures I showed you before but imagine more green and that bush to the left that is brown in the picture? Yep thats bright pink with flowers now! Happy Spring! We have 3 levels: 1st floor is office, foyer, laundry room, and garage. 2nd floor has dining room, living room, kitchen, and that balcony you see there. 3rd floor there are two bedrooms each with a bathroom and a linen closet! It fits more than you think although we had to be creative with storing things because there is no basement.

Walk into the front door into our foyer and see this....

A closeup....

To the right there is a small room we use as the office/dumping room for our extra stuff....not pretty I know....

But seeing this below makes me happy when I am working/job searching/blogging at the desk!

You see that floral print on the top of the desk?? That was a super easy, cheap DIY project that I was so excited about! This is my old college IKEA desk which had a shelf on the back with drawers. We tried to make it work but the drawers just took up too much space. So I ripped off the shelf, sanded it down, found this ADORABLE fabric at Joann's and covered it with a piece of plexiglass from Ace Hardware. Total spent on project: $35! New desk! The chair I found at a garage sale back in St. Paul and painted it orangey/coral. LOVE. The rest of the office will live to see better days when I figure out a gallery wall for the office. 

 Okay moving on....

We have a coat closet behind the entryway table and our door the garage at the back of the house. At the base of the stairs there is a small laundry room with a tiny window....

Moving upstairs we have our one and only KEGERATOR - all of you who have tasted Andy's home brews know this was coming with us. It found a home right here next to our kitchen table. 

Across from our table is the kitchen which we love because it has so much space and storage. We were able to fit ALL of our kitchen appliances and "extras" (like a large electric pancake griddle) in it which used to live in our basement in St. Paul. We love the natural light but since we don't have an end unit we only have windows on the front and back of the house. We'

We also love the massive island (with bonus storage underneath!). Here you can see next to the kitchen is the partially-done living room. 

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We left a ton of our living room furniture in St. Paul which is why we have so little here.  It was great furniture that has loved many a living room, but they had been lent to us and we felt like getting our own "grownup" furniture to start fresh. I'll tell you what, furniture shopping and living room designing is not a piece of cake. 

We got this awesome classic, neutral couch from West Elm on sale (oh yeah!).  I don't have a picture but across from the couch is our TV on an old bookshelf....nothing too special. I know it's hard to see with the blinding morning sun coming through the windows but I was so pumped about these throw pillows.  I found them at a local mother/daughter owned shop called Uptown Country Living and they were....what?....$9!! The mirror above the couch was a steal from Home Goods and that too-small, soon-to-be-replaced rug was from Target in St. Paul. Good ol' Target! 

Our plan for the living room: 8x10 rug and two armchairs on either side. 

To the right of the windows is the stairs to go up to the third floor where you'll find our bedroom and the guest room, each one has a full bathroom in it. We love that we can offer our guests their own bathroom for once! 

Now we are on the third floor in the master bedroom! See that little teddy there? Andy gave that to me when we were in high school....awwww! :) By the way we LOVE those Pottery Barn lights for reading at night. 

For the first time we can keep all of our clothes in our bedroom! In our last place we had clothes spread out all over the house in different closets and dressers....this is definitely nicer. We have this nice walk-in closet which actually fits all our clothes and some nice storage up above. 

This is our wedding program that Andy framed for our first wedding anniversary (the first year gift is traditionally paper)! I love looking at the painting on the cover and seeing all the amazing people who stood up with us on that special day.  

We also have this hanging for a fun reminder from our friend Shel Silverstein. :) 

Here it the guest room bedroom we put together! FYI I made that headboard....let me know if you want to make your own because I'd love to help! It was sooo easy! 

To the left of the bed is a full walk-in closet. Although don't get too excited if you are going to come visit that you can bring your whole closet on down.  It is currently out of closet commission and stuffed from floor to ceiling with all my teaching materials! If you are a teacher or have ever lived with one you know that this is a LOT of stuff.  I didn't dare take a picture. It's a mess...and actually a miracle we can even open the door! Once I get a job and a classroom that will be emptied and functional as a closet once more, and your closet is more than welcome to stay there too. :)

FYI - any guests are welcome to jam on Andy's guitars. 

PHEW!! I don't even know if anyone cares to see our new digs but there she is! We are liking it so far and love sitting out on our balcony for dinner in the nice weather and going for runs in the neighborhood. 

I'll have a few more blog posts coming up to catch up on some trips and my job search journey. 

Love you all!

Betsy, Andy, and Lincoln