city series: pretty houston

Yesterday after running a few errands and having a little sushi date, we decided to ride on over to the Galleria and check out the Water Wall. I've been hearing about this thing for years but I had never seen it and decided that.. yesterday was as good a day as any to see what it was all about. Its located behind the Williams Tower, which at 64 stories and 900 feet it the3rd tallest building in Houston, 4th tallest building in Texas. We roamed around the grounds for a little while (it was a really pretty day) and took these photos. Nice little park...

not to be like.. "oh, i'm all awesome" and stuff.. but

...this was one of the best gift-giving scores. Back in January, I came across Muji's New York in a Bag on the Museum of Modern Art site and I wrote myself a note in my planner: "Amy b-day May 7". Amy lives in Brooklyn and I knew she'd love this little set (which is now currently sitting on her shelf as it was delivered in amazing supersonic speed). I found London and Paris in a bag, but I do wish they made other cities - I'd love to have Houston in a bag.

Check it out the Muji shop, though! The "cities in a bag" are really cute, prices are great and they make really good gifts for travellers.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Feliz Jueves!

Aside from yesterday being the blogiversary, it was Cinco de Mayo, a holiday that commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Living in Houston, a city lucky enough to be influenced by so much Mexican culture, we celebrated appropriately, meaning a little tequila may or may not have been consumed, fajitas were cooked over an open flame, the Bandera de México was flown outside the house, and the icing on the cake/pastel were the mariachi tunes on the good ol' digital music channel (gracias, comcast!)

Dinner was delicious and as if stuffing our faces with fajitas wasn't enough, Ryan and I walked over to La Mexicana and grabbed an order of sopapillas to seal the deal. SO GOOD. Add a little vanilla bean ice cream? PERFECTION.

Was a very delicious Cinco!

Ryan hanging the bandera

FAJITAZ!

Grillin' up chicken

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And today I've started a new little project- this stag stitched with only french knots. It's going to take a pretty long time I'm sure, but I figure it would make a decent father's day present. Anxious to see how it looks completed!

Happy Thursday!

1st giveaway! OOOOooohhh So exciting!!

OH HAAAYYYY! Giveaway? What's exciting? Why?! Because today marks Notes from the Republic's first blogiversary and.. you can't have blogiversary without GIVE!

Do you like baby bears, birds, bluebonnets or all 3 at the same time? Do you like free things? If so.. ooohh it may your lucky day.

Up for grabs is this little bear embroidery on light pink and white polka dot fabric. This little guy is on a 6" wooden hoop and was made with love! I found the great pattern on this flickr set by the crafty lady at Badbird and added a few of my own little touches.

Think this guy would look cute on your wall? Here's how you can win:

Leave a comment with your name, your city and tell me what you look forward to or love most about summertime!

Do you go on a road trip? Visit the beach? Stay indoors with the AC cranked and watch movies? Do you go to a music (or some other kind of) festival?

I can't even count all the things I love best...beach trips, grilling, lake trips, beers on patios, extra hours of daylight, suntans, chlorine.. so much to look forward to!

One winner will be chosen randomly and I'll ship him off to his new home. Giveaway ends this Friday May 7th at 11:00 am central and I'll announce the winner shortly thereafter.

It's only been a year, but I've really enjoyed having this little corner of the interwebs. I've been introduced to some extremely crafty and talented ladies and I'm constantly being inspired. It's been fun chronicling my little adventures and sharing fun ideas and I can't wait to see what next year will bring!

Thanks for coming over!

workin' on...

New embroidery!

Other countries/ states too perhaps? Maybe...

- FR: keep calm and have an éclair.
- DE: keep calm and have a bratwurst.

and so forth...

it's beach season y'all. my lobster-tinted skin knows it.

be inspired to cover yourself in coppertone and visit this amazing flickr set.

Birthdays, Sunburns and Burgers

Shame on me for not taking my camera out more this weekend! It was an absolutely gorgeous one and I only have 3 shots to prove it.

The weekend started Friday at noon with some lunch at home a little grocery shopping and then a little napping. That night was Lindsay and Eric's 30th birthday extravaganza at Patrenella's, a great Italian restaurant off Washington converted from an old house. It was a pretty cool communist dinner, meaning the 20 people at the table all shared appetizers, salads, and 4 different entrees. The food was fantastic, as was the bottle of Pino Noir Ryan and I shared. After dinner everyone went to a bar called The Black Swan for a few cocktails, but ultimately Ryan and I called it an early night. Maybe the Italian food (and the fact that I stuffed my face so hard paired with the wine) made me a little sleepy.

We got up Saturday with plans to visit the Houston Zoo (which I've never seen despite living here for 14 years..) We bought our tickets (save 2 dollars per ticket if you buy @ a Fiesta grocery store first!) but then proceeded to drive around the parking lot for 40 minutes. Obviously on a beautiful Saturday afternoon the Zoo is packed. Seriously, uncomfortably so. We eventually decided quit...we have our tickets so maybe we'll go on a Friday afternoon when it's not as crowded. We headed over to Cedar Creek to sit in the sun and shared a salad and a few pints before calling it a day.

Sunday morning we got up early (ish) and drove into Galveston! We packed up a little lunch, some snacks, threw some chairs in the back of the car and we're relaxing on the beach before noon. I left my camera in the car so only managed to snap this one photo on the way out, of the Texas Heroes Monument ("built in 1900, the 72-foot monument honors those who fought and died in the Battle of San Jacinto to win freedom for the Republic of Texas from Mexico...")

Driving back into the neighborhood, I spotted a bit of Guerrilla/ Urban Knitting/ Knit Graffiti. LOVE THIS. The stop sign pole on the corner of Taft and Welch is covered with a long colorful knit sleeve, definitely making street art a little more warm and fuzzy.

After getting back home, we had a hankering for a big juicy burger cooked over an open flame... and didn't really want to go inside and call it a day yet. We sat on the back patio, read a bit and grilled up some REALLY good hamburgers.

I like mine covered in sauteed mushies! MMMMmmmmm.. gah, they were good.

There's so much to look forward to this week and the upcoming weekend! Today Ryan and I have haircuts and then maybe heading over to porch swing to see that their trivia night is like. Wednesday is Cinco de Mayo so there may be some fajita grilling and Tecate drinking at the house. OH! It also happens to be this blog's 1 year anniversary! I may have a little giveaway-blog-birthday-party sort of thing here, so come back and visit on Wednesday!