saturday date day!

blakey & i had a super fun saturday - great friends, great food, great date.

 

for lunch we headed to a neat upscale market & cafe, v richards.  they have a fabulous selection of meats, cheeses, breads, & wines that you can purchase & eat out on the patio.  this cold morning kept us inside, but we will definitely go back when it is warmer.  amy & ogden had a friend from college in town, so the five of us had a marvelous time.  an extra plus was that urban's prior chef & friend of mine now works at v richards, so we got to chat & i got the scoop on some fabulous feta.

we continued on our day with a little more happy hour & then pedis!  blakey was so kind to drop me off while he did a little browsing at our favorite packy store.  my toes are now very cheery with a valentine's hot pink.

blakey & i had an afternoon coffee at urban with my favorite work friends before we headed to a so very delicious dinner.  GianMarco's is a little neighborhood italian restaurant that tops so many people's favorite birmy restaurant list.  we have been reluctant to go, as we hardly eat italian out.  but we had a large appetite and decided to give it a try.

this place is really neat.  it's nestled in a quaint neighborhood that you would never happen upon without looking.  the restaurant is small - one side is a cozy, warm bar and the other is the restaurant & kitchen.  with no reservations, we chose to sit at the bar {& talk about what blake's man cave will someday look like...} 

the wine list had plenty of reasonably priced bottles - we went with an italian pino grigio, of course.  good choice.  the highlight of the entire meal might have been our appetizer: marco's cheese torta with layers of mascarpone, pesto, & sundried tomatoes with balsamic & evoo, served with crostini.  so so good.  for dinner, blakey had linguine carbonara - these people know how to make pasta!  & i had the veal marsala - the veal was a bit chewy for my taste but the sauce was divine.  dessert was absolutely out of the question, especially since we had a lovely tiramisu sitting at home that i made in class this week. 

a wonderful day with my husband.  i couldn't ask for more :)

hope your weekend was marvelous!

 love love,
kjp.

happy friday!

{my favorite picture from my trip to italy in 2005}

as the rain pours down here & the snow continues down in oklahoma, i remind you that the sun will shine again. 

happy friday, friends.  make the most of it.

love love,

kjp.

thankful thursday # 5.

{via love & brunch.

via oldshellsoul.}

my friends' blogs have been so very uplifting & awesome lately.  for them, i am thankful.

one friend mentioned a wonderful read that i have already ordered & am excited to start enjoying very soon:

another friend had a fantastic quote from this book.  seriously, you should go read the quote {here}.  barnes didn't have it yesterday, so i will definitely be ordering it soon as well too.

a wonderful sister of a friend & thus a friend always has something positive to say, something wonderful about someone else, something funny.  & i just love reading it.  it is inspiring.

so, thank you, blog friends!  i am grateful for you today.

love love,

kjp.

wedding wednesday # 25: bridal party gifts!

the one & only decision i made all on my own for the wedding was the bridesmaid & house party gifts.  & to be not humble at all, i did a fabulous job.

the bridesmaids received beautiful kate spade swirl glitz ball necklaces!  picking out colors for each bm was fun.

 

 {i HAD to get this one for myself :) }

my super house party girls received kate spade idiom bracelets!  in addition to the different colors, each bracelet has a little saying, or idiom, on the inside.  my favorites were: tickled pink, sing a different tune, as good as gold, & creme de la creme.  so unique!

{& they even come in a pretty little package!}

let's play i-spy-the-fun-gift!

 {cari marie at the rehearsal dinner}

 

 {jess & megan at the wedding}

{shannon at the wedding too!}

24.

love love,

kjp.

pastry school lately.

some of the beauties we have been working on in class lately...

entremenets are short (less than 2") cakes with a lot of layers.  the word means "between courses" in french.  here is the chocolate one:

{the inside layers}

& the citrus one:

baked alaska:

{there is an ice cream surprise inside!}
{note: once a kappa, always a kappa.
i designed the tuile :)}

frozen souffle with a macaroon & candied lemon on top:

ice cream cake - raspberry sorbet, vanilla, & chocolate & a passion fruit sauce:

frozen mousse with poached pears in a tuile cup:

a chocolate box - we tempered the chocolate, patterned it, constructed the box, & made the cute decoration on top:

a sample of jess & my petit fours:

it is february & you know what that means... it is my BIRTHDAY MONTH!!  what kind of cake should i have for my birthday?!

25.

love love,

kjp.

a lazy sunday.

after a super awesome, warm saturday afternoon full of urban, the dog park, margaritas on the patio with alpha & omega, & a marvelous dinner at bettola, blakey & i had a most amazing lazy sunday.  

we slept in.  we went to a church & worshiped & listened to the "you are beautiful" sermon.  we ate a very delish middle eastern lunch from makarios.  

then we fell asleep on the couch watching the thunder game. 

it was wonderful.

i did a little more baking training at urban.  we discussed plans for our spring vacation & our 90s party.  {yeah, you're excited to hear more about that.}  we g-chatted with julie byrd & benny boo!!

lovely lovely weekend.

remember: you were created in God's image.  you are beautiful :)

love love,

kjp.