St. Patrick's Day Fun

St. Patrick's Day is one of the best days in Dallas! The weather is usually nice and the whole city it seems like comes out to celebrate on Greenville Avenue. Greenville is a street in Dallas that has a lot of restaurants and bars on it. They block a part of it off and make a big "block party".  It is great people watching and gets crazy! People that live in the surrounding area, the "M" streets also have big house parties. This is also one day that Eric actually likes to go out! He and his buddies have always done the Greenville Avenue thing since college, so it is a tradition for them to all get together. The past couple of years since moving into our house, we have hosted a brunch for everyone before going out. It is important to eat a good breakfast if you are going to be doing a lot of day drinking! We kept the brunch pretty simple with a breakfast casserole, waffles, bacon, and fruit. Oh and of course mimosas! Usually we have two parties to go, but Eric's coworker was not having his this year, so we headed to what is usually Party #2 for us, one of Eric's friends from college.

The girls - Karla, Me, Alba, and Connie

I love all of our different shades of green!

This is the first of the newly engaged couples! We have so many friends who are getting married this year! Connie and Ben are getting married in May in Lake Tahoe. I know it is going to be a beautiful wedding! We couldn't be happier for them!

This is my friend Karla and her fiance Steve! They recently got engaged as well and are planning a Spring 2013 wedding! Knowing Karla, this wedding is sure to be a good time!

Alba and Pete - Alba is from Madrid! They are not engaged, but I would LOVE to go to a wedding in Spain! Hint hint! :)

The newest engaged couple, Jason and Alli! They weren't engaged in this picture, but Jason popped the question that next week. They live in Houston and will have an October wedding. Eric will the best man! (Jason was his best man also!) So excited for them!

Our turn!

I am wearing my green Pippa necklace from Stella & Dot! It went perfectly!

Fun day!

Usually we go to the block party, but when we walked down to try to get in, the lines were ridiculously long, plus it just looked like a mess! We went back to the party and then decided to go grill hamburgers at Brian and Kim's (I just realized I have no picture of them!). We all headed up to their house, grilled, sat around the pool, and had a good time! It was a long day though, let me tell you!

End of the night!

Katie and Jason's Housewarming Party!

Okay, I am playing catch up for events that took place in the past couple of weeks! My good friend Katie and her husband recently bought a gorgeous house in Frisco, a suburb north of Dallas. They had a house warming party a couple of weeks ago so we made the drive up there one Saturday to celebrate with all our friends! There house is so nice! It was a new build, so they were able to completely customize it. I have to admit that I was a little jealous of the brand, new pretty everything when I think of my 1956 old, little house. (Don't worry - I love our house and we are not moving to the burbs anytime soon!)

The Hostess with the Mostess and I

(I am wearing my Leona Pendant from Stella & Dot - love it!)

Katie had fun mustaches and a picture area set up. We defnitely took advantage.

Here are the two mustache aficiandos, Kate and Lauren. They have a thing for them. :)

Katie, me, and Kate, posing with the Orchid I gave them for a housewarming present.

I also brought my yummy corn dip. Katie had cute little chalk board signs to label all the food. So cute! This dip is always a hit, served with Fritos.

Kate works for a food broker, so she is able to get tons of free food and got Katie stuff for the party. Thoughtful Katie wanted to let everyone know Kate provided the food so she made this frame.

Even their boxer Stoney got in on the mustache action. Such a good boy!

Our Aussie friend Nicole and Kate

Katie and "Harrington" as we call her - Loved her shirt!

As you can see, we clearly had a lot of fun with these.

 Thanks Katie for the cup on my head!

 Thanks Kate for the bunny ears!

 And yes, here is where the fun starts. We decided to do a cheer leader pyramid. Not sure who's bright idea this was. Pretty sure I ended up with a bruise on my chin because of this. I will spare you the sprawled out on the floor pictures when we fell. And the pictures of me trying to put Kate on my shoulders. And the pictures of me wrestling with Stoney. And the pictures in the bathroom where we pulled down the shower curtain somehow. Yes, we had a good time.

And yes, Eric was there too!! I managed to sneak in a mustache picture with him. Yay for being a good sport!

Thanks to Katie and Jason for a fun party! I love your new house and can't wait for the next festivity!

Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Macaroni

I love macaroni. As a kid, when I did not like what we had for dinner, it was always Velveeta Shells & Cheese for me (I never liked Kraft, still don't!).  We had leftover Velveeta (you know the lovely, long block of it) from another recipe that we needed to use and chicken. So I took to the Velveeta website and found this recipe for Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Macaroni. It was really good! In fact, I am having leftovers for lunch today!

Not the prettiest meal or photograpy, but hey instagram (ebase83) makes it look a little better...

Here is the easy recipe:

2 chicken breasts, cute into bite size pieces (salt and peppered)

1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth

2 cups noodles (I used whole wheat shells.)

1/2 lb (8 oz) Velveeta, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (I used 2%)

1 package (16 oz) frozen chopped broccoli, thawed

Cook the chicken in a large nonstick skillet on medium high heat 5 to 7 minutes until done, stirring occasionally.

Stir in broth and bring to boil. Stir in noodles and cover. Simmer on medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes or until the noodles are tender.

Add Velveeta and broccoli and cook 4 to 5 minutes or until Velveeta is melted and broccoli is heated through, stirring frequently.

It makes a lot, so if you like leftovers, this is a good meal for you! I feel slightly better eating macaroni when it has broccoli in it, right??



I had a Stella & Dot trunk show last night and wore one of my favorite statement necklaces, The Marchesa. I love the turquoise and multiple strands. Definitely dressed up my plain black tank!

Did you read about how I am raising money for Autism Speaks with Stella & Dot? Read about it here. I would love to take a preorder for the Shine bracelet for you!

Also until the end of March, all shipping (no matter the order) is $5.95. Now is a great time to grab a pair of spring earrings to add to your wardrobe like the Serenity Drops or Capris! You can check out the full line at www.stelladot.com/emilybase!

A beautiful day for a happy hour...

Yesterday afternoon, I went to happy hour with my friends Casey and Amy. We met up at Gloria's, which is a local chain in the Dallas area. We went to the location at Lemmon and Douglas and sat on the patio. It was perfect patio weather. Their happy hour is pretty good. The house wine is $5 for a large glass and the margaritas are $4. And the best thing about Gloria's is the bean dip they serve with their chips and salsa. We seriously went through like five bowls of it!

 Casey posing with the bean dip and chips and my wine

 Amy and I being goofy and "cheersing"

Me and Casey - It is crazy we have known each other since we were around three or four years old in Corpus Christi, we both ended up in Plano, went to UT Austin together, moved back to Dallas and now we own homes four streets away from each other. You gotta love life long friends!

We didn't have dinner, but their food is excellent! I highly reccommend Gloria's if you are looking for some good Mexican food! There are locations everywhere now it seems like!

Weekend Recap

We had productive weekend! I kicked it off seeing the Hunger Games with some neighborhood gals.

image {via}

I loved the book and I liked the movie. I know it is hard to make a book into the movie. I am probably being too critical. Jennifer Lawrence was perfect as Katniss. I just felt like they changed some stuff that didn't make sense to me as to why they had to change it. Someone posted the link to this article and it is spot on. 31 Differences Between The Hunger Games Book and Movie. It is worth the read.

I did come home to cake though so that made it better. You never know when Eric is going to get the itch to bake!

And Ollie.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed to Lowe's. On the agenda, yard work (Eric) and house cleaning (me). We took Ollie to Lowe's with us and he had a good time and got many compliments.

When we got home, Eric worked his butt off in the yard. Mowing, edging, and planting flowers. (I am hosting a baby shower for my friend Ashley here next week, so the house has to be in tip top shape!) Here are the fruits of his labor!

 Petunias in the hanging baskets we already. We recently added the decorative lighting and I love it!

 

 Ollie kept stepping on them!  This is temporary until they get stronger and bigger.

 This little area still needs some work. The plants in the back will grow nice and big this summer and we have two little trailing rose bushes on each side. Hopefully they will do well this spring and summer!

 The knock out roses are starting to bloom.

 Freshly mowed grass! Yes, major landscaping needs to be done back there. But that is Ollie's tree. He goes and jumps at it and gets the squirrels.

 Enjoying his yard.

 Front yard flowers flanking the front door.

 Our ferns have done AMAZING. They have thrived since spring got here!

Our lovely home :)

I worked like Cinderella all day inside! Windexed, dusted, cleaned baseboards, swept and mopped! It is amazing how dirty our house was. I blame the dog. Saturday night, Eric made a pork tenderloin in the pressure cooker (still loving it!) and his wonderful home made risotto. Seriously rivals any restaurants. We tried to watch a movie, but I kept falling asleep...

Sunday, we went to the Dallas Auto Show because I got free tickets from my work. It was downtown at the convention center, so we parked at Eric's office building across downtown and walked. It was nice to take a leisurely walk through downtown. Downtown Dallas is really not somewhere we go very often. Unfortunately, Dallas' downtown is mostly for business and there is not a ton of things to do on the weekends. It was fun to do something different.

 Cattle drive outside the convention center

 Eric really liked this Challenger... ehhh

 Pretty shiny Lexus

 Oh one day I would like to own a Beemer again...

 Classic Mustang

 A Dallas landmark, The Adolphus Hotel

Thanksgiving Tower (so high!)

So if you can't tell I have become a little obsessed with Instagram. Find me: ebase83. I need more people to follow! Sunday night, we went to a last minute dinner at Olive Garden with the Romo's. It was so nice to catch up with them and hear all about their plans for little baby Katherine!

Today is another beautiful day! I am off to happy hour in a little bit with Casey and Amy. Should be wonderful!