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A John Hughes Halloween

It was so much fun to be in Chicago for Part of Halloween weekend! I loved walking around town and seeing a random person walk by in full costume. On Saturday Markus, our good friend Joe and I went to the Art Institute as part of our trip. Ferris Bueller's Day Off has always been one of my favorite and most influential movies, so in the spirit of John Huges and Halloween we dressed up in our best Bueller attire for our visit.

A lot of the art in the Impressionist and Modern wings where the movie was filmed had been recurated, but we saw the pieces and took a few reenactment shots as well. I was shocked that web were stopped multiple times thorough out our visit by people who wanted to take a photo with Salone and Cameron! I've decided that there is no better way to see a museum than in full costume.

To see the clip of Ferris, Salone and Cameron's visit to the Art Institute, click on the video below!

T.G.I.F. - Chicago Edition

We've had a great morning in Chicago so far! Began our day with a walk through the stunning Millennium Park and then went on to the Museum of Science and Industry. My favorite exhibit there was Smart Home - a model modular home that is the greenest home in Chicago. We learned lots of easy ways to make a greener home and save money on utilities!

Below are some of our photos from the park and in front of the Smart Home. How are you celebrating this weekend? Hopefully with a Rangers victory party!

Lunching at Lauren

Markus and I flew in to Chicago yesterday to finish his birthday week out with a bang. When we landed I told him the whole trip could be his itinerary besides one small detail. I had made a reservation for our very first meal in town to be at RL, the restaurant at Ralph Lauren's flagship store in Michigan Ave.

My all time favorite restaurant is the Mermaid Bar at Neiman Marcus' Northpark location, and since then I have loved eating at the dining rooms at department and fine retail stores. There is something about the visual and perfectionist environment of a department store that always translates perfectly to their restaurants. RL was no different and absolute perfection. Our meals choices are below: tomato bisque, spinach salad, Brussels sprouts, espresso with lemon rind and a special birthday crime brûlée!

Such a perfect way to start a trip. What else do we need to experience while we're here?

Drinking with my Witches

My best friend/former college roomate is known for her fabulous theme parties. First it was pirates, then an Irish St. Patrick's Day fest and last year she hosted an alien-themed night complete with a black light room. When her and her sisters sent out an invitation for a Witch's Wine Tasting at their parents' house I was so excited to RSVP. Below are some of the hosting highlights!

Our wine table that was quite full by the end of the night!

Wine glasses for each girl with glitter spider ring tags.

The always amazing snack table at Sarah's theme parties.

"Bloody" pot roast for cocktail sandwhiches.

Seven-layer spiderweb dip. Sour cream as the top layer with a black bean puree spider web!

Fondue cheese in a fresh carved pumpkin and a cauldron of my favorite spinach dip from Market Street.

Homemade red velvet cake with black fondant bats and mini spiced bundtlettes.

We told Sarah's nephew that Spiderman had been by to hang this rope web. He couldn't believe it!

Wine bag favors that the Beard ladies made for us with their sewing skills.

Some of the girls enjoying the festivities! I was the Karate Kid and Sarah (middle) is missing her witch's hat but was a fabulous witch and hostess.

Another one-of-a-kind party thrown by the Beard ladies! What are you doing to prep for Halloween?

Is it time yet?

pop christmas by lilly-neubauer on polyvore.com

I am counting down the minutes until it's time for Christmas decorations. I love Halloween, but Thanksgiving does nothing  for me and if there's a chill in the air I might as well be hanging tinsel and drinking cocoa. Christmas is when I really unleash my inner kid (oh wait, I'm sorry, that is every day of the year). We bought this old school Peanuts display last year for the yard and I've been staring at this Dylan's Candy Bar advent calendar since 2009. After 27 years of being a practicing Catholic/Advent calendar enthusiast, I think I've truly found my match in its color scheme and design. And I love that you can use it every year whether or not you've been able to make a pilgrimage to the greatest store in the world.

So this is what I dream of when I think Christmas: aluminum and tinsel and all things merry and bright. What are your favorite ways to get your home ready for Christmas?

London Sole Giveaway

Friends and fellow flats aficianandos:



Just wanted to direct your attention to What Kate Wore so you can enter their London Sole giveaway! You do not want to miss this!

Moves Like Jackson

I have a lot of resistance towards traditional exercise. As in so much resistance that I have not run in  four years besides one time that they had Drumstick samples at Costco. I am a class junkie and always interested to find anything that will inspire me to move or sweat for up to an hour. So a few weeks ago when I drove by a shopping center in my neighborhood and saw the bright and cheerful sign for Preston Hollow Dance, I heard it speak to me. I heard it say, "Lilly, Google me when you get home. I might be able to help you fit into your pants without making you want to die a slow death first."

A lover of spontaneous dance (perhaps you remember the Neiman Marcus flash mob), I could not believe my eyes when I read that Preston Hollow Dance not only offered classes for adults but one of them was Michael Jackson night! I was able to attend Thriller Part 1 last night and it was a great workout with lots of stretching and movement but also an amazing opportunity to get some personal instruction on one of my favorite dances. Markus rolled film on one of our practice videos below so you can get an idea for how it all goes down behind the scenes. Try not to be too fearful of our dancing zombie apocalypse!

Could not recommend this class more to anyone who is looking for a new way to work out while also being able to impress their friends and a party or the club, if you know where the club is these days. Knowing the moves to Thriller is a life skill that I am so happy to now claim! If you're *dying* to see more, I can't tell you when a zombie takeover will take place, but I've heard they like to hang at the Step Up Lounge the Wednesday night before Halloween!

For more information about Preston Hollow Dance and their awesome classes for adults, follow them on Twitter at @phdance!

Wordless Wednesday

Click here for the Kermit the Frog pumpkin template!

When Markus was pulling long hours finishing school and I was in Dallas working I took a cupcake decorating class to fill in some evening time. It's turned into a mini-ministry and now I love trying new ideas out for friends. If you are a former Tumblr follower you might remember the lions that I made for my sister's best friend (and my friend as well), Melissa. Melissa works as a stylist assisting on shoot for The Book and Cusp as Neiman's, so she had the great idea of doing a butterfly cupcake to match the iconic NM logo!

I remembered this idea for butterfly cupcakes from Hello, Cupcake! and also used a great post on Annie's Eats about the design for assurance that real humans can actually make these. I did The Cake Mix Doctor's strawberry recipe (Melissa is a fellow strawberry cake lover...always utmost respect for a fellow strawberry girl) with a cream cheese icing, hoping that a thicker icing would help anchor the wings. I used a butter knife to marble the melted chocolate so it would be more abstract and left off the antennae since the NM butterfly is more of a silhouette. I was so glad I tried this out even though the idea of making these fragile wings was intimidating and I'm looking forward to trying it again with a toothpick to get a more focused wing design!

Ourboretum

After an early mass and brunch on Sunday, Markus and I drove over to the Arboretum for a post-pancake stroll. My mom got us a membership last year as a gift and it has been a great place to decompress on the weekends!

I loved the white-on-white with these pumpkins and elephant ears.

There were more kids here to see the pumpkin village than I would imagine at the New York Macy's to see Santa. The moms must have known that this was the last chance to be the first person to put their "toddler with a pumpkin" photos on Facebook for optimal likes! Since baby watching is a competitive sport for Markus and I, this only added to the fun.

Cinderella's carriage!

I was really into the spillage factor on this.

If I had an unlimited fall decorating budget, there would be a pumpkin path to our door for easily confused trick-or-treaters and/or postal workers.

I got a little jealous of the kids so I plopped myself down on this jumbo for a photo op.

All the gorgeous landscaping inspired us to make good on some outdoor projects we've had on our list. First was mulching the lawn. This was pretty revolutionary as we've lived in our home for two years and purchased our mower six months ago. The previous owner of our house had some gorgeous landscaping with native plants that required little upkeep, but it's time to start getting involved so we can continue his gorgeous vision and fully enjoy our home! I wanted the greenest mulch possible that would just naturally enhance what little we had going on. After reading this article I scratched rubber mulch off my list and went with Texas Native: grown locally in Cedar Park, TX, and organic. I also learned today cedar smells amazing and is a natural insect repellent!

A newly mulched flower bed.

The mulch made some of our empty beds look a lot better until we figure out a plan!

We've also been wanting to make a little portico to get our beloved chiminea off the wood deck. This was an hour long, $20 project and we've already made use of it with an outdoor fire!

First we dug a hold about the depth of two garden tiles.

We layed a 60 lb bag of gravel for 4 sq ft x 3 sq ft of tile.

Smoothed some sand over the gravel...

and started laying tile. Engineer boy used his trusty level a lot to get an even surface.

After filling in some of the dirt we have a new sitting area in our backyard in addition to the deck!

I love this new little space and hope to make another one soon for a grill. What kind of fall activities are you up to?

Le Peep's Le Pancakes

Markus and I have always loved Le Peep. His first job was hosting at a few now-closed locations. When Markus was in Dallas at SMU and I would come in and visit from Lubbock, going out to Le Peep for brunch before I headed back was always a special treat. I used to joke that I wanted to get married somewhere on a Saturday morning with some of our family and just get a big table at Le Peep to celebrate. It is seriously that good to me.

My original favorite menu item was the blueberry granola pancakes (I am assuming the title of this blog does not allow for this fact to shock you in any way), but after going gluten-free that changed. For the past year I've always been able to create a breakfast at Le Peep that was gluten-free (they are phenomenal about substitutions) but when they announced that they were rolling out a gluten-free menu Oct 1, I was thrilled! We printed out one of our Groupons and headed over to the Las Colinas location to explore the new menu.

This picture is to show how much Markus loves their endless carafes of coffee and water for each table. It is so nice to be able to pour our your own cups instead of waiting for a refill. The hazelnut coffee has no equal.

Cutting into my Gluten-Free Blueberry Pancakes aka The Moment of Truth

I was actually really in the mood for French Toast since I haven't had them once since going gluten-free, but they were sadly not a menu item, although advertised as a menu item (?). I went with my second runner-up, blueberry pancakes. I cut into the pancakes in the photo above in hopes that you would see the mega-plump juicy, real blueberries that were used. Really brought the flavor! You will want butter for these but after a little dressing up these pancakes were very fluffy, tasty and non-belly ache inducing. I added two scrambled eggs on the side and was a happy camper. 

I was extremely impressed with how Le Peep handled my gluten-free order. You could tell they worked really hard to roll out a gluten-free menu that was celiac safe, free from cross-contamination, which sadly is not always the same thing. In fact, the only downside of the experience was that I heard our waitress apologize to both tables by us for any hold ups on their order and explained "someone put in a gluten-free order and it's just really time consuming because we have to use special utensils, cutting boards...everything."  I was glad she understood the concept, but I kind of picked this restaurant because you are accepting of special kid diets! Made me want to play a Christina Aguleria ballad to myself for the reminder that I am perfect as I am, but my digestive system was too happy to allow for any wallowing. 

Overall: highly recommend it and look forward to trying their other locations! Have you brunched gluten-free lately? I want to hear your recos and reviews!