Good morning! Here's a little recap of my journey to Houston this past weekend:
Friday night I enjoyed dinner with friends at Dry Creek. It's BYOB and they have fried pickles. Needless to say, I ate well! Afterwards, Ellen & I headed back to their house to have a final night cap of wine and discuss our strategy for the next morning. We woke up early - like, earlier than I go to work, early - and headed to Empire Cafe for some morning fuel. Empire Cafe is conveniently located smack-dab in the middle of the antique stores in The Heights, so it worked out perfectly. We sipped our coffee as we watched all of the antique-rs start to open their shops and pedal their goods. Unfortunately, most antique stores don't like to get an early of a start as we do, so we were forced to go to Forever 21 downtown to kill some time before the antique shops opened at 11am. We headed back to Westheimer to see what deals we could score. Sadly, everything fabulous we saw was severely out of our price range -- and none of the antique stores had heat, so I had lost feeling in my hands and feet. We then headed further down Westheimer to Highland Village, where they pedal new wares and have adequate heating. We hit up West Elm, Z Gallerie, and Mecox Gardens. At Mecox, I picked up a turquoise lamp (obviously), that looked exactly like one I bought from Home Goods. I always like to compare prices at other stores to see what kind of deal I got. Low and behold, this lamp cost $1,990.00. No, that wasn't a typo. I'm being very serious. For that price, the lamp better have a freakin' genie in it that tells me I look pretty/skinny/blonde every day. I immediately told Ellen to drop whatever she was looking at, that we had to leave.
We then decided it was time for some good ol' cheap shopping. We headed down I-10 to Home Goods and Pier 1. I found some sweet deals at Home Goods: 2 turquoise ceramic urns ($24 each), a $6 orange frame, and a $39.99 distressed white side table for my...somewhere. Ellen snagged a great chest from Pier 1 that was on sale. Getting all of our finds in my Wrangler was a task, but we made it with only one casualty. The $8 serving plate I found at HomeGoods met it's demise on the concrete. RIP plate. I'll take pictures of my finds later and post them, hopefully!
I then relocated to Amy's house, where we snacked on some Kroger sushi and wine before heading out to a birthday party. Sunday morning, we went to our ritualistic breakfast joint in the Heights, King Biscuit. If you've never been -- GO. It's kind of a hole-in-the-wall, hard-to-find joint, but it's certainly worth it. $2 Man-mosas, hummus and pitas for breakfast -- can't beat it! After some coffee and California eggs benedict, I headed to another HomeGoods, where I found a smaller matching table to the one I previously purchased for $29.99. Then I hit up the mother land of IKEA. Going to IKEA on a Sunday morning was not my brightest idea, but I forged through the crowds and managed to find some goods. Such as this floor lamp for $39.99, and this frame - which I'm going to spray paint white. If that goes well, I might go get a couple more and hang them in a cluster above my TV. Also of note at IKEA, they have all of their Christmas wrap/bows on super sale (we're talking $.99-$1.99). None of it looks very seasonal, so it's great for all year round. Texas Tech-ers: Most of it is black/red/white - so if you're looking to wrap your "Sorry Coach Leach got fired" gift, IKEA's your place. After IKEA I hit up Forever21 at Memorial City Mall and then headed west on I-10.
That's all for now. Have a great Wednesday! Modern Family's on tonight -- oh happy day :)
