Visit On a Whim

Last Thursday evening, Sean and I went out to dinner with his parents.  On our way home, I got a text from my friend Lauren (college roommate, sorority sister, and bridesmaid.  I was her maid of honor!) asking me what I was doing this weekend (i.e. last weekend).  Turns out, she and her husband Jonathan decided on a whim to come to Dallas for their anniversary.  They originally planned on staying in Dallas, but after a little sweet talking, I convinced them that Fort Worth was way cooler and they should stay here instead :) 

Jonathan wanted to spend his afternoon at Cabela's and Lauren wanted to shop!  So, Sean worked in the yard all day, Jonathan played at Cabela's all day, and L and I shopped till we dropped!  We spent a lot of time at a few stores that she doesn't have back home in Shreveport, like Anthropologie and Sephora.  Next, we headed to TJ Maxx Home Goods.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  Lauren is the best person to go to this type of store with.  We walked around it at least 15 times, each time finding a new treasure! Check out what I found...

The table runner and large wooden bowl!  It is exactly what my table has been needing!  I really have to give the credit to Lauren because she had the eye for these.  And to be honest, I wasn't convinced about the bowl...but once I got it home and on the table with a few of my things in it, I fell in love!  I totally trust Lauren and her design skills.  After all, her house is pretty flawless....

When we got home, I mentioned I had been looking for the right thing to hang on one of the walls in the dining room...

I few months ago, I thought about doing old china plates.  I have a nice collection of them and could spare a few to hang on the wall.  SP has never liked this idea. But, when Lauren said it, we convinced him otherwise.  I think it takes a little push sometimes for him to see my vision!  And I mean, why does he care?  He's a guy!  Aren't they supposed to not care about these things?  Not my guy!  But regardless...Lauren helped me lay them out and come up with the design.

So now I am just hoping my mom isn't freaking out knowing all these plates she bought me as a wedding gift are now going to be displayed on my wall :)  Don't worry mom, I still have plenty to go around! Except for the small ones.  I am out of those now!  We have something new to hunt for again :) My goal over the weekend is to get these darn things hung up!  Sean informed me yesterday that he is sick of stepping over them, whoops!

So after shopping and a bit of r & r, the 4 of us met back up in the Fort Worth Stockyards!  We took them to Joe T Garcia's, which is a FW staple!  Jonathan went to TCU for a little while so he had been before, but Lauren was a first timer.  It was a hot night, so thank goodness for fans!

The view out West

After dinner, we took them downtown off W 7th to Bar Louie.  We lucked out by getting 4 seats...right by some misting fans!  Lauren and I were cracking up because it was almost impossible to take a decent picture with those darn misting, high blowing fans constantly on us!

It was such a fun day, and I'm so glad they came in town.