The Big Painting Project

Wow, this weekend has been super busy! Friday kicked off our kitchen facelift, whoo hoo! We are in the process of getting the cabinets painted, updating the appliances, and installing new hardware. Hopefully the painting will be finished tomorrow and this weekend we can get to the island top. Stay tuned for before and after photos!

Barnes and Noble

One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is go to the bookstore and dig through the bargin books. Usually I will find a great little treasure but this time I found a kids book for my psudo niece's 1st birthday. It's a fun story about the tickle monster and if you get the kit it comes with furry mittens to wear while reading the story, soooo precious! 

HBO

Since Sunday was so beautiful Kenny and I went crusin' in the bitchen Camaro with the windows down while listening to the Cowboy game on the radio. They won finally! Then we had dinner at our favorite little mexican restaurant and got home just in time to watch an all new episode of Boardwalk Empire on HBO.

Oh, and just to comment quickly on DWTS... I am rooting for Jennifer and Audrina, keep it movin' ladies!

Pleasanly Yours,
Pretty in Pink Tights

Let's Get Personal

 Take peak inside a few of my favorite obsessions ...

H. James Hoff Studios

Audrey Hepburn ... I've always wanted to be like her!

You too could be in Edward's arms, Ha!

Twilight Saga ... I finally finished the books! Now it's the long wait til November 2011.

"Happy Chic"

Jonathan Adler ... I love his accessories and use of color and pattern in his designs!

^ that's him!



Pleasantly Yours,

Pretty in Pink Tights



The High Pointe of My Week

Ballet Photographer

As many of you know I have been dancing since it was called creative movement and I still love it as much as the first day! Every Thursday I slip on my pretty pink shoes, pull my hair back with a million bobby pins, and prepare for my favorite hour and a half of my week. As life gets more and more hectic I would encourage everyone to take 90 minutes a week to be selfish and do something that is completely YOU.

Pleasantly Yours,
Pretty in Pink Tights

Fall to Pieces

Fall will officially be here in a few hours, and it happens to be my favorite time of the year. Check out my list of 8 pieces that make my Autumn Pie complete.

1. Fall Boots. I've always been a high heel girl so this year I am going to try out the equestrian style with skinny jeans and a slouchy sweater.

Anthropologie

2. Pumpkin Spice Latte. Nothing is better than a good book and a P-Spice! Right now I am reading        The Art of Racing in the Rain.

3. The Leaves, They are a changin! My Mom and I love it when the trees change colors at the farm.

Autumn Tree

4. The Hill Country. Kenny and I try to make a motorcycle trip to the Hill Country once a year. We have already gone to Fredericksburg once over Labor Day weekend to celebrate our anniversary and have another trip scheduled in October!

5. Dallas Cowboys Football. I still have faith we can make it!

Game Day T by VS Pink

6. Thanksgiving Feast. This year will be our first year to host Thanksgiving, wish us luck!

Handprint Turkey Art

7. Cooler Weather. If you live in Texas you can't wait for Pete Delkus to say "Today's high of 80 degrees!" All you need is a light cardigan.

Anthropologie

8. State Fair of Texas. Because I have to eat a Fletchers Corny Dog with a giant lemonade every year, then Kenny has to go to the car show, then we have to visit my brick, and end the day with an Imax movie!

Pleasantly Yours,

Pretty in Pink Tights

There is no PLANet B!

I thought it would be fun to post a green article once a month, and even more fun to use the articles my Mom wrote for the McKinney paper. Enjoy!

The Paper Trail

I like to think most of us still do have jobs and spend a great deal of time in our place of work.  Rather than focusing on green ideas in the home, I thought this week’s ideas could help turn our offices into lean, green, recycling machines.  At the very least we could tackle just a couple of changes in behavior that would impact our environment and here’s why:

Frankly, my dear- You should give a hoot since seventy-seven percent of paper waste is recyclable. Recycling one ton of paper saves up to 6.7 available cubic feet in a landfill. (That amount frees up space slightly more in size than three large bags of mulch from the garden center). Forty percent of all trash in the landfills is commercial and residential paper.  Eliminating this paper would nearly double the lives of current landfills. The production of recycled paper uses less fuel and more importantly, fewer trees.

What would the German inventor Herr Guttenberg think -The products you use to print on paper have wreaked havoc in our landfills.  350 million laser toner cartridges and over 86% of all inkjet cartridges are thrown away each year.  Nearly three ounces of oil are used to build a small inkjet and over 3.5 quarts of oil are needed to construct a toner cartridge. Worst of all, it will take 1,000 years for these plastics to completely decompose. Much of this plastic is being incinerated overseas causing hazardous smog and posing a health threat to unsuspecting nations.

Meanwhile, back at the office- It only takes a few simple actions to curb the overflow of paper and plastics multiplying in the landfills.

1.     Recycling office paper can be twice as nice.  You can put the used stuff in a recycling bin.  Better yet, take the unused back side of a printed document and put it in your fax machine to receive all those junk faxes for insurance and vacation offers. Voila. You have just recycled a piece of paper that can now go into your new recycle bin.

2.     If not already offered, contact your landlord and ask that a recycle dumpster be provided to dispose of your cardboard (another evil-doer in the landfill) and paper waste products.

3.     Since recycled paper saves trees, water, and energy why would you want to buy anything but? Look for recycled paper and paper products at you local office supply store.  The more the demand, the more that will be in stock in the future. 

4.     Take your used inkjet and toner cartridges to a store that refills and remanufactures cartridges.  Remanufactured inkjet and toner cartridges work as well and last as long as the originals. Not to mention your office will save a lot of money on printing costs using recycled cartridges. Placing brand name cartridges in those handy “green” envelopes does not always guarantee the product is being reused.  And even if it is…why do the national cartridge manufacturers still charge full fare for their products made with old parts? (This seems like a good time for the obligatory plug for Rapid Refill Ink! We are located in the heart of McKinney at your favorite intersection of 75 and Virginia just south of the Post Office.)

5.     I thought I would never admit to this, but choose your printing jobs carefully.  E-mails are the perfect communications tool for inter-office chatter.  So is the phone! Hellooooo…..

Ovetto Recycle Bins

So there you have a suggestion or two that is easy and cost effective.  There are many more ways to green up our offices without a lot of effort.  For more information just Google “recycling in the office”.

Trudy and Bill Whitney are the owners of Rapid Refill Ink, an independently owed retail franchise that refills and remanufactures inkjet and laser/toner cartridges for office and home printers. In an effort to encourage recycling, empty cartridges are brought to the store that can be reused many times.  Sustainable and recycled products were utilized in the build out of the shop located in McKinney.  For more information call 972.548.9393.

Pleasantly Yours,

Pretty in Pink Tights

Poker Face Part 2

Thanks to everyone who donated, volunteered, and came out to the event last Saturday! It was a great success, lots of fun, and a great amount of money was raised for the Cumberland Children's Home! Check out below for some of the event pictures and you can see more at our facebook page Cycle Center of Denton Facebook . We will be having another great event with great food and deals in the very near future so stay tuned! And don't forget about Thursday Night Dinner Rides!

- Scraping Pegs

Peaceful Sunday

It's tradition for our anniversary to dine at Del Frisco's, and just like every year it was just a delicious as the first! But the best part about the wonderful signature steaks, the "you shouldn't eat the savory add 3 pounds to your thighs creamed spinach" spinach, the doused in butter sauteed mushrooms, and the fluffy sesame bread, is that you get to eat it all over again for Sunday morning breakfast! Which is exactly what we did, Yumm-o!

Del Frisco's

After flipping back and forth watching the first season of Weeds (we are addicted now) and the cowboy game (was that a game?), I happened to glance over at my kitchen and saw my kitchen aid mixer just calling my name. "Yes kitchen aid mixer, what do you want?"

The Veta Dog loves to help cook in the kitchen, and peanut butter cookies are Kenny's favorite! I hope everyone had a lovely and peaceful weekend!

Pleasantly Yours,
Pretty in Pink Tights

The Color Purple

It all began with the great unicorn costume debate. I wanted purple, she wanted purple. Of course we couldn't wear the same color, so what are two little girls supposed to do???

Growing up I never knew anything different than homemade Halloween costumes. I had absolutely no idea you could actually go to a store and buy a costume. It was always around this time of year my Mom and I would go to Joann's fabric store and spend hours looking through the pattern books to find the perfect trick or treat get up. This happened to be the year of the unicorn. Then came the question, who would wear pink and who would wear purple? Somehow I ended up in pink and she won the purple and we were so gosh darn cute I wish I had the picture to post. But the "not so homemade" pottery barn kids costume will have to do for your imagination.

Pottery Barn Kids

It wasn't until today that I can totally understand why she wanted that purple unicorn costume so badly. Today I attended the most beautiful wedding, with the most beautiful purple bridesmaid dresses, the most beautiful purple orchids, and the most beautiful meaning behind the color purple. Here is a little tidbit from the wedding ceremony program...

Something New

"[The Bride] is wearing purple shoes, a favorite color of [the Bride] and her Mother. Purple stands for good judgement, happiness, trustworthiness and spirit. Purple is the mixture of red and blue. Red and blue, representing female and male, mixed symbolizes the power of creation, which is and attribute of God."

And so I proudly take the pink and forever forfeit the purple. I wish you and your new husband a wonderful and happy life together. Cheers!

Pleasantly Yours,

Pretty in Pink Tights

Poker Face

If you don't have a good poker face, no worries, we won't be able to tell underneath your helmet! Cycle Center of Denton and the Blue Nights are hosting a poker run this Saturday the 18th benefiting the Cumberland Presbyterian Children's Home of Denton. Registration is at 8am $20 per rider/$10 per passenger/$10 for children 5-11/under 5 is free. Kickstands up at 10 and the prizes will be awarded at 1:30. Come out and enjoy free food, great deals on merch, and raffle prizes all day long!

- Scraping Pegs

Cycle Center of Denton

Pho Real Friday

Today I had a real Asian experience with my good buddy Maike. But before he got there, I found myself shopping at the lazertrek music and gifts store because I was determined to find a money cat! Even though, after I showed Maike my so called "money cat" (he politely informed me was not) I still think it is cute and cheerful to have at my desk at work. Turns out it is actually a lucky cat that is supposed to bring safety and health. I guess if I can't have money, those are the next best things! Anyways, he promised to pick me up a real money cat during his trip back home to Taiwan.

After my lucky cat find ,we had an authentic Chinese lunch at Genroku. He had to order since he knows what to get and it was helpful that he spoke the language too. We had delicious green pepper beef, some kind of chicken noodle dish, eggplant, and tofu with vegetables. And of course all was consumed via chopsticks!

After lunch we made a trip to the supermarket where I picked up some green onion pancakes to pan fry tonight for dinner. Those are my favorite carb treats to order at Jeng Chi, another restaurant on the strip.

Green Onion Pancakes

As we were walking back to our cars, he asked if I have ever tried pearl tea. Pearl what? So apparently this tapioca express place is like Starbucks for Asians! I have to say it was pretty tasty, and a fun place to hang out and chit chat.

Pearl Tea

We said our goodbyes and as I was making my way back home listening to XM BBC radio 1, a song came on that I haven't heard in a very long time, Beastie Boys Intergalactic. Kind of strange that it was played on the BBC channel but I still shouted out "Stir fry you in my wok!" Mainly because it's the only part of the song I can keep up with, but it had it's place within my Asian day!

Pleasantly Yours,
Pretty in Pink Tights