Wishing I was in Margaritaville

Happy Wednesday to you all! I hope you had a fabulous holiday weekend. We worked on finishing projects around the house and just relaxed. Sprinkle a few BBQs in and you have the perfect recipe for a heavenly weekend : )

I've been itching to try out some new margarita mixes that I've discovered on pinterest. We have a birthday celebration this weekend and I know that a margarita will go perfectly with the theme, but my issue is which one do I choose?! Ha ha I know I have such horrible problems ; ) I have listed  the three of them below. Hopefully you feel inspired for one this weekend too! 

Strawberry Basil Margaritas

original recipe found here 

 makes 1 pitcher, or about 8 servings

1 can (12 ounces) frozen limeade concentrate
10 strawberries (or 12 if you're using smaller ones from the farmer's market or your backyard.)
8 basil leaves
2 to 2 1/2 cups tequila (gold or silver)

Empty the limeade concentrate into a pitcher. Add 2 1/2 cans of water and 1 1/2 (18 ounces, or 2 1/4 cups) cans of tequila (or a bit less, if you don't want your drinks to be quite as strong).

Hull the strawberries, slice lengthwise, and add to the pitcher. Crumple the basil a little in your hands (this will help the basil flavor release into the drink) and add it to the pitcher, too. 

Place the pitcher, covered, in the fridge overnight, or for at least four hours.

When you remove the pitcher from the fridge, your margaritas will be a lovely pale pink color. Now all you have to do is serve them and wait for the compliments to pour in.

 Pink Grapefruit Margaritas

original recipe found here

Makes 4 drinks

    1 cup ruby red grapefruit juice

    1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (about 4 limes)

    1 cup triple sec orange liqueur

    3 cups  ice

    1 cup silver tequila

    1 lime cut in wedges, optional Kosher salt.

If you prefer to rim the glasses take a lime wedge and rim,then dip in salt, if you do not like a salted rim sprinkle a touch of salt ineach glass, the salt really brings out the flavor.

Combine the grapefruit juice, lime juice, triple sec and icein a blender. Pour into a large pitcher (or just keep it in the blender) andpour in the tequila, stir. (I personally just added it all to the blender- Ilike slushy, that is totally up to you)

 * Just as a note: it is important to use Ruby Red grapefruitjuice, it is much sweeter than regular and it has the lovely pink color.  

Spicy Watermelon Margarita

originally found here  

Crave more spicy heat keep seeds in tact.  Be warned this margarita begins cool and ends warm.

2 cups watermelon juice

1 serrano sliced in half, seeds removed

1-2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

salt

lime wedges

1 cup tequila

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup Cointreau

ice cubes

In a saucepan add watermelon juice, serrano, salt and 1 cup sugar. 

 Steep over love heat until sugar dissolves.

Taste and add more sugar to your preferred taste.

Remove chile, add to pitcher and allow to cool. Place in fridge to cool until ready to use.

On a small plate spread salt.  With lime wedges moisten rim of 6  ounce glasses.  Dip glasses into  salt.   Place glasses into freezer to chill.

In a pitcher add to the watermelon juice the tequila, lime juice and Cointreau. Remove glasses from freezer and serve margarita mixture over  ice. Garnish with lime slices.

Happy Hump day & update!

Good morning :)

 There are some big changes happening in my work life right now, and thus keeping me away from blogging. I swear I'm going to get more in soon! Last weekend we headed to the coast with a bunch of friends to celebrate the beginning of summer/ graduation for our friend Katie.

Friday didn't start out too hot for me. I was getting people lost, losing important paperwork for Chloe's boarding, and seriously losing my patience with myself. When we finally arrived to the house I was ready to relax and enjoy the weekend. So I acted like I was back in College that night. I drank with friends and lost at a variety of different card game, ha ha. I met some new lovely ladies -Becca and Paige and hung out with the wonderful Anna and Katie as well.  It was fun, but reality hit me on Saturday morning : ( 

 I didn't  pick up a drink for the rest of the weekend, lol. All in all we had a blast with everyone, and can't wait to do it again!

View from the top of our boardwalk

The house we stayed at. It has three floors and sleeps around 10-12 people.

The cute little neighborhood it was in.

How our Friday night got started : )

The guys grilling out dinner. 

Jimmie made awesome massive ribs on Friday. He is trying to finish the last one in this picture. We had crazy amounts of awesome food. There was definitely not a shortage of chefs this weekend!

Griffin and Sam in a jam session. Griffin is playing the violin here, but he also brought his banjo. They were awesome.  (after a little while of Griffin playing the banjo though- I started feel like I was on Splash Mountain at Disney, lol )

crazy birds on my walk Sunday morning

the beautiful boardwalk we used to make our way out to the beach each day

Sunset view from the top sundeck

Have a great week! Luv-Di

Another Jam packed weekend!

Afternoon everyone : )  This past weekend wasn’t suppose to be busy, but now looking back it sort of became that way ( accidentally of course) .

On Friday night we headed out to the bowling alley with some of our friends for a couples bowling night @ Westgate Lanes. This place is only a few blocks away from our house- I hate to admit it, but this was the first time I had ever been there. It was a blast!

Michelle and I at the bowling alley

  

 On Saturday morning Anna and I tried to take the dogs to the greenbelt for a nice long hike, but with all the recent rain there was just way to much mud. We were slipping and sliding all along the trail. The dogs did get some good swimming in though!

The greenbelt on Saturday morning

Ricky and I had a few errands to run, and decided to try out a new Vietnamese sandwich place in north Austin. I definitely recommend it if you find yourself it the area : )

 It was called the Baguette House, and was located in the heart of the Chinese district of Austin.  It happens to be next to a large Asian market, and my curiosity got the best of me . I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It was definitely interesting.

That night Ricky and I attended a surprise graduation party for our friend Katie. She is now a licensed Architect with her masters from the University of Texas : ) It was a fun night of just hanging out and catching up with friends I haven’t seen in a while.

Katie so surprised : )

On Sunday morning Ricky got up very early, so that he could head out to Houston and spend the day with his Mother. I unfortunately was not able to go with him since he was staying the night for a meeting with a client the next morning. Instead I had brunch with my dear friend Becca who was in town visiting from Hoboken, NJ.  It was wonderful catching up with her; she is a little pixie hippie- LOVE HER!

Mi Madre's is right next to East Side Cafe, and this is their garden.

 It was such a gorgeous day on Sunday. So after coffee and brunch I scooped up Chloe, soaked myself in some sunscreen, and headed out to Lady Bird Lake trail downtown. While I was letting Chloe swim under the bridge, I stumbled upon a few people playing kayak polo. I know it’s nerdy, but I found it pretty cool.

This was happening under the north bridge on Lady Bird Lake.

Lastly, last night I was invited to dinner for our friend Bob’s birthday at La Condessa. He had reserved the downstairs tunnel room for the night.  This dinner was absolutely delicious!! This place by far is my favorite in town, and I’m a huge fan of almost anything on menu. The family style meal here was new for me, and I’m not sure if I can revert back to the normal menu now that I’ve had it ; )

View of the table before we sate down

I missed my mom tremendously on Mother’s day yesterday, but she knew my heart was with her in Florida. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Hopefully I will get out of this weekend update funk and start posting more (cross your fingers!). Have a great week!

Another week has flown by!

I feel good, oh I feel so good-yea! This little chant seems to some up my Monday morning believe it or not. I am borrowing it from the local radio station I listen to religiously throughout the week.  They always play this game around the same time I’m heading into work, and if the caller wins then they are asked to chant this little mantra in their own way over the radio.

This past few weeks have been flying by, and this past one was no different. On Thursday, Ricky’s dad came into town for the Rodger Water’s concert. These tickets were a Christmas gift for Jimmy. I on the other hand had a beautiful wedding to attend on Thursday evening for Mr. & Mrs. John Tuley. 

Mrs. Kate Clark ( soon to be baby Charlie) and I

My girlfriends Katie Lake and Anna Bull

Mr. & Mrs. John and Heather Tuley (sorry for the bad pics but of course I only brought my i phone, ha ha)

The bride had these cute shirts made for her nephews so when it came time to party and they threw off their suit jackets they would still stand out : )

On Friday night we decided to go out dinner, but then called it an early night since we had a big "work day" planned for Saturday.

My father in-law's family ( including himself) lived in New Orleans for many years before Katrina hit. He is a sucker for a good poboy ; )

This is such a cool little hole in the wall restaurant with some of the best Louisiana cuisine in central texas (only my opinion, but I have a lot of true Louisiana friends that will back me on that!)

On Saturday the guys started on construction for a new breakfast bar off the kitchen, and I became  knee deep in red mulch. Ugh I hate mulching, but the frozen yogurt afterwards was soooo worth it : )

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around Austin and checking out a few places his parents have never been before including Barton Springs Pool. 

Only a small peak of the overcrowded pool on Saturday. I looked to be a least a 45min. wait in line on Saturday afternoon, but who could blame them when it was 98 degree outside!

We ended up hanging out at the house for remainder of the weekend since Ricky’s sister was studying for her college finals on Monday. We had great quality time, and now it’s back to the 9-5 work grind. I hope you all had a great weekend too! I’ve got a few updates to share with you this week so stay tuned to the blog! Luv- Di

Christina Visit!

Wow I feel likes it has been way too long since I last wrote on here. Sorry guys : (

I wish I had some awesome long story about this crazy adventure we just went on, and that is the reason why I have neglected to share with you for a while, but that just wasn’t the case. We were traveling for a while, and then had a few jam packed weekends this past month. So my week days have been super boring filled with general house hold chores like cleaning, laundry, and just plain ole relaxing. I hate to say it, but I have a feeling this next week will be the same. But to hold you over until I get out of this week day boring funk I have a big post about my past weekend with my best friend from childhood Christina D.

I have been super blessed to have had Christina in my life for the past 22 years; we have known each other since we were in kindergarten. She is more family than a friend: ) We love like sisters, and definitely bicker like them too, ha ha. We have survived being college rivals ( yes she is a lame gator but I try not to hold it against her), and every other major life event in both of lives up to this point, and we have the kind of relationship where no matter what happens we will be there for each other for every future event too.

Ok but enough of how important this woman is to me ; ) Let get to the fun trip she had visiting this past weekend. Right off the plane on Friday night we headed to the east side of Austin where we grabbed a drink and hit up a late night snack at a food trailer. Then on Saturday morning we woke up bright and early for a hike with the dogs (I was also baby-sitting Nola this weekend) around the Greenbelt. Then we rushed back to make it just in time for the Live Oak Brewery tour, and  met up with our good friend Jimmi. This tour is only done twice a month and while it is free- space is limited. So I was thrilled to get in, and to try something different since this was new to Ricky and I as well.

Christina sitting pretty in the brewery

Once that was over we headed over to an annual festival here in Austin called Eeyore’s birthday.

*Fun fact this festival was started by a professor from UT as a way for his students to have a break before finals week

This festival was interesting to say the least, and I think this was my first and last time visiting. There are many things that I found ridiculous and hilarious at this festival, but I just can’t post them on here publicly ; )

Yes that is correct, this festival had a huge drum circle going at all times lol

Of course if drums weren't you thing then go for the hula hoop circle

This was weird because it was just in some random spot, but also kinda cool in a Cierque du Soleil style

add unicycle flag football and you officially have what makes Austin so wierd

 That night we ended up hanging out together at the house, and opting for early shut eye since we had church in the morning.

On Sunday after we headed out of Church we decided to do a little retail shopping for Christina’s around the world in 11 month mission trip. She will be traveling to 11 different countries spreading the word of God, and contributing to poverty stricken areas along the way. I am very excited to see where this path she is taking will lead her : )

Ricky and Christina on their way into the massive store

Since South Florida is lacking in camping specific stores we decided she should look around at Cabella’s , REI and Whole Earth Provisions to try and knock some stuff off of her list. Well if you know Christina, then you already know that shopping is not the easiest thing to do with her. Poor Ricky was a great sport though, and definitely learned the hard way, lol. After 4 hours of physically testing and re-testing sleeping bags and travel backpacks, we found what she needed! We then dropped Ricky off and headed downtown to Barton Springs and decided to get a little kayaking in on Lady Bird Lake. This will honestly be one of the best memories I have of us as friends. We were able to really talk and connect on that beautiful afternoon. It was just a great time, and made me really wish I could see her more often.

Where we were Kayaking 

a large park in downtown Austin next to Lady Bird Lake

Once we finished with that we rushed home to change clothes, and then headed out the door to a concert venue called “La Zona Rosa” for the Say Anything concert.  I like the band, but Ricky LOVES THEM! So we went really for Ricky, but had an awesome time rocking out the music.

the Say Anything concert

Christina and I in the venue

She recently purchased "Chacos" for her long trip, and I was constantly teasing her about them. She wore them proudly at the concert, ha ha.

Finally on Monday, Christina did the rest of her shopping while I was at work . I wasn’t complaining to be at work for once, ha ha. Don’t worry I met up with her afterwards and still put in a few more hours of camping shopping ; ) 

We wrapped up the awesome weekend with a nice slow paced dinner at one of Ricky and I’s favorite restaurants called, “ La Condessa”. Sadly I dropped her off early this morning in true Christina and Danielle fashion (lol, cutting too close to take off of course).

If you made it through this whole post please give yourself a big ole pat on the back because it’s a dozy, and now you can see why I’m  exhausted. I’m going to be lying low this week and catching up on a little rest before John and Heather’s wedding! Also Ricky’s family is coming into town so lots of more clean to do, yay ……    

Just kidding ; )

Have a great week y’all and talk to you soon!

Luv- Di