Photos from the Week and the Antique Drapery Rod Co Giveaway Winner!

This past week was a very intense but rewarding one for our family, like so many others who saw tragedy and then the outpouring of love and moments of hope that come after.

I happened to be working in the disaster field on our recent Texas tornado outbreak when I first heard the news of Moore, and it was chilling. It is absolutely certain that disaster will strike at any time, and I am happy to know so many volunteers who jump to answer the call (with far more enthusiasm and courage and much more often than me). I am also proud to have such wonderful friends and family members, who know my affinity for this cause and always come out of the woodworks wanting to know what they can do and the best way to help.

I was working in Fort Worth and in the field in Granbury:

My sixth day of working tornado madness yesterday I was getting ready to sign off the job, which is always a mix of emotion, and got wonderful news from Markus. He passed the PE exam! I was thrilled and it was the bolt of energy I needed to get me home, my head covered in dry shampoo and on a patio for a short but happy celebration. We will certainly be doing something more formal to toast such a big accomplishment this weekend.

I have been so tickled by how blog friends have asked me about his test since I mentioned it here, and were behind us while he studied and I painfully tried to busy myself as a solo gal about town. From my awesome mom to our cashier friend at Whole Foods Preston/Forest who saw Markus wheel his books in with a shopping cart because it was too many to carry and go study in their upstairs bistro area for hours, people have rallied around our very small but time consuming cause. It was such a wonderful feeling! We are so happy and can't thank you enough.

Here we are yesterday at Blue Fish on Greenville, the same spot where we celebrated our engagement more than four years ago (cray):

Do you think I could make it as a food photographer? The Hawaiin roll here is my favorite, and they have gluten free soy sauce! 

We also had to stop by our happy place, Pokey O's, for ice cream sandwiches with their gluten free cookies that were right out of the oven! I chose butter pecan as my flavor this time and it delivered.

Markus took this picture in disbelief that in just one bite of my sammy I had managed to get this much chocolate on my face, including by my eye? I don't mess around when it comes to inhaling these ice cream sandwiches!

And without any further wait, it is time to announce the winner of the Antique Drapery Rod Co giveaway! I am so excited about this one and can't wait to see what the winner does with their hardware to transform their bed into major dream space.

The winner is: Amanda B! I hope you love it! Let's get in touch so I can get the good folks at ADR working on your fabulous new bed hardware and shipping it over to you. 

Who has awesome Memorial Day weekend plans? I can't wait to relax!

Design Files: Cornice Bed Loves and a Giveaway from Antique Drapery Rod Co!

One of my bedroom confessions (of the design kind) is that I am a total sucker for a canopy bed. My baby sister is only 18 months younger than me, so I was transitioned to my big girl bed and forced to graduate from my crib a little early. My parents decided to entice me to move up in the bed world with a cherry wood, four poster canopy bed with a perfect, unicorn print topper and dust ruffle all the way around. It was a little girl dream, and I've loved canopy and four poster beds ever since.

Lately I have really loved cornice beds and canopied day beds as a fun alternative to the four poster and an easy way to make a big statement in the bedroom if you are renting or still building your furniture collection like I am. If you follow along my home board on Pinterest, you know this already! Here are some of my favorite examples of how a bed really becomes striking with some hardware and fabric:

The mix of pinks here is perfect!

via Chinoiserie Chic

 I really love how adding canopy hardware changes a daybed from a random piece of furniture to a statement:

via Frances Schultz

...making the perfect sopisticated hideaway for a child's or guest room:

via The Boo and the Boy

Antique Drapery Rod Co, who makes and sells the natural bamboo curtain rods in my bedroom and the recycled aluminum rods in my living and dining rooms, is answering the call to all things cornice with new hardware made specifically for turning standard beds into amazing canopies!

Since our bed is already four poster, I'm spinning my wheels on how I can use some of this great new hardware, made in Dallas to the same standards of sustainability as their other products, on a new project at our home. I already have some top runner favorites in the collection.

This one is a given if you look at my favorite daybed pins!



I also love this simple cornice that would be easy to add some curtain panels to for a dramatic effect, maybe with a sunburst mirror over the headboard area to make it more contemporary:

If you're working on a nursery, their smaller coronas are perfect for the effect on this crib:

Antique Drapery Rod corona on DecorChick.com



There is also tapesty hardware in the new line if you want to hang a statement piece in a bedroom as art or a different twist on the standard headboard, like in my (real life!) friend Evan's Dallas apartment, featured last month on Apartment Therapy. I love how he decorated with a gorgeous blanket that is a little warm for Dallas and a masculine and modern take on a tapestry hanging!





Not only do I bring you some decor eye candy today, Antique Drapery Rod is letting you in on the fun of transforming your bedroom with a FREE giveaway from their new bedding collection! The winner of this fun giveaway will recieve all of the hardware to complete their bedroom design fantasy. All you need to complete your look is a little fabric and creativity!

To enter the Antique Drapery Rod Co. bedding collection hardware giveaway:

- Visit AntiqueDraperyRod.com to view their new bedding collection and leave a comment on my blog below with your email address and what hardware set you'd like to have

- For an additional entry, like Pancakes and Beet Juice on Facebook and leave me a comment here letting me know that you've done so!

Best of luck to all the entries! Winners will be announced on Friday, May 24. 

What is your bed preference - platform, sleigh bed, canopied styles?

Anything that you always love to see in a bedroom design?

Texas Travels: Caddo Lake State Park

I am going to make a shocking revelation in light of current pop culture events: I was never a huge Gatsby fan. So much decadence and what was there at the end? I mean it's a suspenseful read, hard to turn away from like a 1920's Real Housewives series, but I get so sad to realize how little the characters really had in life.

My favorite read in high school English was actually "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau. A certain few lines tend to still ring in my head when I realize it's time to stop the glorification of busy and get away for a bit...

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
My modern translation: Freaking go outside and play, people. Life is short and there's stuff to do besides laundry and going to the mall (two things that often seem to sneakily overtake my weekends).

Caddo Lake State Park is Texas' own Walden Pond. I first heard of it on the Texas Monthly Texas Bucket List (I am now 34% completed with the list following this weekend trip!), and I am so glad we finally made it out to this gorgeous, natural haven last month.

Caddo Lake is split between Texas and Louisiana, a two and a half hour drive from Dallas. We reserved our cabin online (cabins reserved on Fridays also have to be reserved for Saturdays, just a heads up) and headed out after work on a Friday night. We arrived after the front office closed, but got settled into to our cabin, which was unlocked for us with the key on the breakfast table, and had a great night's sleep in the woods and just completed out visitor paper work the next morning.

I loved our morning view from the gorgeous cabins, built by the Civilians Conservation Corps in the 1930s. We were in Cabin 3, which happened to be ADA accessible.There are also campsites and RV areas if you tend to crunch it up more than us. This is definitely our threshold of roughing it, and it was perfect and blissful.

The front of trusty Cabin #3!



Comfy beds and pretty rooms - can you spot our beloved family dOHm machine?



Each cabin comes with it's own private chef, if you are lucky enough to be married to a great cook like I am!

The website said to bring our own linens, and while there were ones on the beds when we got there, it was nice to have our own pillows and big blankets. The kitchen also has a small refrigerator and double stove top, so we brought groceries, a frying pan and plates to make our meals at the cabin. There is also a charcoal grill outside each cabin for night time cookouts, and we loved using it to make s'mores!

The state park has an little area of gorgeous hiking and walking trails that I think are about a mile long all connected. We started and ended our days on them, talked about things we want to do more of and less of as a family and found frogs and lizards and stuff.

I really wanted to canoe on the lake to see the gorgeous cypress trees up close and so Markus could blast his pecs and basically so we could look like Noah and Ally paddling along in the Notebook. This simple activity turned out to be more of an adventure, since when we walked down to the rental spot on the map of the park and it was boarded up. We drove to Uncertain to the where people said there might be canoes, but uncertain was kind of how we felt when we pulled up to the spot and did not see any canoes outside and weren't totally sure about the vibe. We ended up calling another place in Jefferson, and the woman said she wasn't there but would give us the gate code and we could put our $20 in her mail slot.

Soon enough we were out on the lake. This part of the lake was victim to being overgrown by foreign plant life, which starts growing like crazy and almost chokes the lake. It slowed down our paddling a little, which doesn't really seem to matter when you have nowhere to go. I felt a little guilty for how beautiful I thought it was despite the harm it is causing to areas of the lake!

My rookie lesson is to head out to the State Park with a canoe ready to go from REI rentals or something similar. The docks and boat drops in the park are great and it seems like it will be a ton easier to drop it in there, even though our inaugural Caddo Lake canoe trip was equal parts gorgeous and hilarious.

I also wanted to fish, so about a month before our trip Markus took me to Bass Pro Shop and I picked out a pink fishing rod. We stood on the dock as the sun went down on Saturday and cast out our lines. It was really relaxing and fun!

As we were leaving I turned to Markus and said, "That was so fun! I wasn't expecting to catch anything anyways."
He replied, "Uh, yeah! I was hoping not to! I don't know how to release a fish!"

City kids foreva.

If you are looking for the ultimate peace and quiet getaway in Texas, Caddo Lake is my new favorite recommendation. We were in a two room cabin and the whole time I thought about great friends I would love to come back with, and I look forward to trips out here in the future as a bigger family (although Little Child might have to stay behind since there are no pets allowed in the cabins). My biggest suggestion is to pack that car like a champ and bring everything you might want with you to the park - food, linens, canoe and gear. The towns around Caddo are friendly but small! I already can't wait to go back.

Cafe Momentum: Great Food + Great Cause = The Best Meal in Town

Last Sunday I had the honor of enjoying one of the best meals I'm sure I will ever have in Dallas (or anywhere!). Like all cool things in Dallas, it was brought to my attention by my very in-the-know mom who, I must admit, is often the one telling me about cool things in Dallas. If she had her own blog, I would be toast.

For the past few years my mom has quietly been involved with The Youth Village Foundation, a non-profit in Dallas that provides support, mentorship and vocational training to male teens that are serving time in the city's juvenile reform program. I say that she was quietly involved because although I heard of Youth Village's awesome programs from her all the time, from the P.R.E.P dog training (where young men train rescue dogs so they can be more easily adopted while the trainers benefit from the discipline and love of raising an animal) to Cafe Momentum (the pop up restaurant series that teams students in Youth Villages culinary program with top chefs in Dallas for incredible meals) she never mentioned what she did as far as donating her time or money to the program.

As I came to learn, the young men need white button down shirts to look their best at Cafe Momentum and go on job interviews once they finish their program. Something as simple as a white shirt can be difficult to come by for a young man whose financial background is likely a strong contributor to the fact that he is serving time in the juvenile program. My mom has bought new shirts for the graduating young men for the past three years - without telling any of us! The cat was finally out of the bag when Youth Village offered her two complimentary seats to Cafe Momentum, which she promptly passed to me since she eats like a bird.



I brought my favorite food blog friend Shannon at Feed Me Dallas as my special guest, and we were both blown away by the food and amazing stories of transformation and accomplishment from such strong young men throughout the night!

Cafe Momentum is run by Chad Housler and Janice Provost of Cafe Parigi, but the location of Cafe Momentum changes for its monthly dinner depending on the lead chef. Former Cafe Momentum chefs have been Dallas greats such as Steven Pyles, Dean Fearing and others. I was thrilled when our celebrity chef was Tiffany Derry of Top Chef fame and previously of Private Social! I love Southern food and was excited to see how she might add some elements of her Beaumont upbringing to the mix in her menu.

Speaking of menu, I would like to add that I had heard about Cafe Momentum for a while and was eager to see and support such great work in action, but ye old gluten free issue and set menus by incredible chefs kept me from getting tickets. I finally got the nerve to email Chad and ask if there was any way they could make accommodations for a gluten free plate, and he was extremely enthusiastic, accommodating and friendly in his response. I thanked him at the dinner when I met him in person at Parigi, and he went on to say that he loves when special diet (gluten free, vegetarian, and others) come to Cafe Momentum since it helps the students learn how to take care of special guests. So not only did I not feel at all guilty for my dietary needs, they made me feel like I was gifting my chefs with an extra education!

Ok, on to the glorious food pics! My camera lens was a little scratched, so you would be remiss not to catch all of Shannon's amazing pictures at her write up on Feed Me Dallas.

Our menu for the evening:

First course was modern ceviche. The fish was meaty and the key lime juice had such a perfect flavor!

Next up was a grilled romaine salad with pickled tomato, blue cheese, bacon and a champagne drizzle. Blue cheese and bacon are the Bert and Ernie to my palette. A perfect pairing every time!

I had never tried pork belly before last Sunday, and I can't believe what I was missing. All Shannon had to do to get me on board was explain it was "like a big piece of bacon." The sauce it was in was tomato and okra based and I slathered it on every bite of my pork. You'll notice on Shannon's post that this dish was served with cornbread croutons, which were kept off my plate to make it gluten free.

The last course was a decadent banana pudding! I love banana pudding but have not been able to enjoy it while out to dinner since I had to stop eating gluten. This recipe was divine and since the wafers were added on top, I got to enjoy a big dollop of banana pudding for the first time in years. The fresh fruit was a perfect complement and the banana slices had a sugar crusting to them like creme brulee.

While it will be a long, long time before I forget any of the food from this incredible night, the real take away was meeting the young men who are getting a leg up from the Cafe Momentum program. When I arrived at Parigi for the dinner, they were each dressed perfectly, standing at attention with a napkin folded neatly on their arm. So poised and professional, it took me a second to realize that these were the young men of Youth Village. At a second glance, though, I noticed in their faces how extremely young these boys were.

I've been open about my mistakes in life, and what I've yet to mention is how hard it is socially to come back from a wrong turn you might have made as a youth. I've spent plenty of time excited about a new job opportunity and then nervous about a background check, and know that moving forward can be difficult when there's a stamp on your past trying to hold you back. Sometimes it's something on a piece of paper that shares more about your past than yourself, and sometimes it's your own confidence after feeling like you'll amount to nothing because you made a mistake. So much of my success was from having many opportunities to focus my time on and a strong family that I could lean on. What about the young men in Dallas who may not have that support? I am so thankful that Youth Village and Cafe Momentum are here, giving these young men a creative release and needed confidence through great food that is also prepping them for a bright future.

While I don't know their "before" stories, the young men at Cafe Momentum were unlike almost any teenage boys I know. Chef Tiffany Derry came out at the end to thank her sous chefs for a great evening. She mentioned each young man by name and listed one of his accomplishments from the night. There were smiles on each boy's faces like nothing I had ever seen on a teenage male before. The boys would high five and hug each other as the room of happy guests erupted in applause. One of the leaders of the group said, "We'd like to thank you for this opportunity. When I got ready tonight my goal was to greet each of you, thank you for being here and introduce myself by my first and last name."

Seriously, when does any teenage boy say something like that? Especially one that's been labeled by our court system as trouble or at-risk? Cafe Momentum is changing the lives of male youth in Dallas. You have to go see it for yourself. The feeling I left with was indescribable, and it wasn't just from the banana pudding.

To learn more about Cafe Momentum and hear about new pop up announcements and ticket sales, like them on Facebook. To make a donation to Youth Village or see what's on their wish list (white shirts are called for, but I'm sure you'll find something just as fulfilling!), click here. 

How to Leave a Party Early

I am kind of a recovering party girl enigma. I don't really enjoy bars or clubs, but I have a really hard time staying awake and energetic at house parties. Especially ones where you know the sweet hostess but not as many of her other friends.

My girl Ruthie throws the best house parties, and I'm now infamous for being the early drop by girl. Determined to make it late[r] into the evening this time, I fueled up on some fried rice at one of my favorite restaurants, Asian Mint. While we enjoyed dinner and espresso, Markus filled me in on how you leave a party early without looking like you bailed.

1. Arrive promptly so you have one on one time with the host as guests arrive (no hard feat for me, since I am chronically early).
2. Take a picture with the host or hostess to commemorate your appearance at their party.
3. If possible, do something memorable that people will be talking about after the event to stamp yourself a part of the experience.

Little did he know just how well I would heed his advice and knock my Cuatro de Mayo Fiesta driveby out of the park.

Start time was at 8:30 p.m., and here I am at 8:27 with the gorgeous birthday senorita:

You would think pictures next to pretty girls like this would talk me into wearing eye makeup, but I haven't for the life of me figured it out.

For good measure I also took a crowd pleaser photo with Markus, the Lefty to my Pancho:

Early arrival and photo ops secured, I waited for something memorable to happen.

I might be known for my spontaneous dance outbursts at my office where the hostess and I work together. Since Ruthie loves my dancing, she requested a birthday dance and I kindly oblidged. Her dog, however, did not approve of my flailing masterpiece coreography and when I bumped into her went into attack mode and bit my leg.

Thankfully dear husband, who is even more social media obsessed than I, was rolling Vine (a social media app that takes 6 second videos) the whole time and got some great footage of my dance and counter attack. Notice that there is no dropping of the iphone and coming to my rescue...

Click the white text below to see it all go down for yourself:

Adding drama to the drama is the fact that I have a rather aggressive phobia of blood, needles and basically the human body in general. Trying not to panic in front of a large group of people I did not know, I nervously laughed while fighting back tears and asking informed questions like, "I don't want to look at it, but can you see my guts coming out?"

Thankfully one of the party guests is an emergency room doctor who said I would be completely fine and did not require stitches. After a complete inspection he did recommend a spray tan and leg wax. Note to the party people: shave close, for you never know who may be holding and inspecting your calf.

Accomplishing all of my goals, I headed home early and cried the fear of God out of me and tears of thanks that my guts indeed had not spilled out of my leg as I had imagined. Needless to say, thanks to Ruthie's sweet yet startled pup and Markus' video skills, my attendance at Cuatro de Mayo 2013 will not soon be forgotten.

Recovering with a Gonzo the Great bandaid, I ventured out the next day to our Sunday spot at Kyle Warren Park with Little Child, feeling pretty badass to have survived such a ruthless attack the night before while not forgetting to the hair of the dog that bit me.

Do you like to party all night or pop in and out?

What are your tactics for bouncing from the club a little early?

Have you ever survived a dog attack?

Back in the Saddle [One Leg at a Time] and the dOHm Giveaway Winners!

I have a funny thing where I don't really believe in apologizing for a lack of posting. As a writer, I believe the first lines are the hook, and while apologies are endearing they don't do much to get me excited to read on. And I don't really believe a blog should be required to write at all times and through all seasons. But here I am a natural rule breaker, writing a [poor excuse for] a lack of blogging apology.

As I've shared a few times before, my job entails responding to disasters. In the past year I've worked tornadoes in my hometown, Hurricanes Isaac and Sandy and, this week, the explosion in West, Texas. It is a job that brings a lot of uncertainty and late hours to my life along with immense gratitude for what I have and honor to be the arms to reach out to someone else when they are going through what will likely be the hardest times of their lives.

It is an honor of a job that also makes me a "bad" blogger. Lots of things to share, exciting people to work with and other blogs to enjoy when suddenly I get swooped up from my fun Internet world and dropped into disaster bizarro world. As a blogger, I love writing about the pieces of beauty and joy I find in the every day, and I love coming here to document my growth and thoughts or take something I'm going through here as a catharsis. Both of those are hard to come by when I'm in the middle of or coming back from a disaster. I can feel guilty finding joy in things that usually make me smile because I'm thinking of the people I just met who still have nothing. I don't feel right bringing my disaster experiences here because the most powerful stories aren't mine to share.

As soon as I'm ready to come back I start questioning if what I share here is worth sharing at all, if I'll ever make as big of an impact as other writers who can post every day, guarantee deadlines to people they work with and know where and when to link up all over the cyberweb. But my quality internet friends always bring me back. Seeing Town and Country Mom's daughter with her new puppy made my week! And I realize it's about quality, not quantity when it comes to all good things in life.

So instead of an apology, this is more of a thank you. For being patient through the life that is the most bizarre but rewarding job ever. And a very special thank you to my family (Mom, Markus, Sistah, Little Child +) and friends who get it. My job proves it's not about stuff in life. That can all leave you in a second: from precious photos to the home you picked the perfect tile floors for. Life is about people. And I feel like I'm surrounded by the best of the best.

And now it brings me great pleasure to announce the winner of the dOHm giveaways! My dOHm came with me to West and I would not have survived in a country cabin with no hot water without this little guy. Michelle and Kelsey and Taylor! Please email me your addresses at lillycneu at gmail.com and I will send you out your new life saver!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway and to the best blog friends a girl could ask for! I'm excited to be back to my usual quasi-normalcy next week!

[Another] Out of Office...

Dear blog friends,

I am off on another volunteer adventure for a few days. Please continue to keep the people of West, Texas, in your heart. Their strength has amazed me!

Looking forward to sharing a special trip that we took this past weekend when I am back soon!

Lilly