things i love - august

It's always around this time every year that I am juuuust about over the hot weather and begin craving cool breezes and falling leaves. Too bad I live in Texas and I don't have that to look forward to for at least another month.
In anticipation for Fall, I bought a bunch of sweaters, hoping Mother Nature would get the hint and accommodate me. It dropped to, like, 67 degrees one morning! It's a start, ya'll.

This month alone, I've crossed something off my 30 Before 30 list AND my Dallas To-Do List.
For my 30 Before 30, I crossed off: Take a cooking class.
I went to a Central Market Knife Skills class and learned so much! I loved it so much, in fact, that I'm actually taking another (baking this time!) in September. Highly recommend.
Then I got to cross Restaurant Week off my Dallas To-Do List. This is something that I'm glad I did, but maybe won't do again. We went to 2 different restaurants and it was like night and day. It's hard to say which one is the norm, but before we went to our first, I'd been reading some articles about how restaurants hate this event and, therefore, treat patrons as such.
Either way, I had some really great food at a really great price.

Other great things about this month:

bearded dogs who snuggle sleeping babies,

more and more commonly occurring meals with people I love,

delicious coffees that serve to remind me how blessed I am,

sweaty trips to the arboretum and brilliant colors,

faux-fancy meals from the comfort of my own home (recipe here),

smiling pups who love to play,

catching the sunrise before I start my workday.

Finally, other things I love, in no particular order: that my nephew is due ANY day now, this incredibly eye-opening photoblog about addiction and homelessness (warning: not for the faint of heart), and this sweet blog of a creative college friend!

-e.