Mayor's Business/Arts Initiative

I have been blessed enough to have the opportunity to represent the Dallas Symphony's Young Strings program many times. When I was a senior in High School I got to go to the nations capital to accept the "Coming Up Taller" award given to YS by the National Endowment of the Arts. I have participated in several workshops, and played at alumni recitals many times. In early June I was featured in the YS 20th anniversary book, and was recognized at the celebration held at the Meyerson Sympphony Center.

Yesterday, I was presented with an amazing opportunity by Mr. Jim Keyes (former CEO of both Blockbuster and 7 Eleven) to attend the Mayor's Business/Arts Initiative as an example of someone whose life has been changed because of business involvement in the Dallas Arts. It was quite the experience.

After an almost nervous breakdown from Dallas traffic and arriving 25 minutes late, I hurried up to the Crescent Club and entered a room full of CEO's and business leaders in Dallas. I had a conversation with the former mayor of Colleyville, and Mr. Tramell Crow himself, among many others. It was a room full of very important people, and I was one of the subjects of why they were all there! Mr. Keyes was to fill in for the Mayor and speak about the importance of business involvement and sponsorships needed to keep programs such as Young Strings alive. He talked about how he was saved by the arts when he was young, and how he knew he was doing something great when he decided to sponsor YS back when he was CEO of 7 Eleven. He got to the part about me and I definitely had to fight back tears because he introduced me and listening to a room full of Dallas' top businessmen clapping for me, was unbelievable.

Before the speech, a beautiful soprano, Jennifer Youngs, sang Puccini's O Mio, one of my favorite arias, the most beautiful I have ever heard it be sung. I've actually played the piece with 2 student orchestras in the past so it was a real treat to listen. Here is a picture I snapped of the both of us

All in all, it was an incredible experience. Hopefully the attendees will pledge some serious cash after hearing my story :)

On the 17th floor of the Crescent, sorry you cant see us :( but you can see how pretty Dallas is!

~Mrs. S

Dallas Top Blogger Awards

Last night was the Dallas Top Blogger Event at Tootsies and it was FABULOUS!

The whole evening was a blast, plus I found out the winner Jen Smith lives down the road from me!

If you would like to follow any of these bloggers, go to the contest website and check them out

http://tootsies.com/dallas/blogger-contest/

Tootsies sure knows how to throw a bloggers event!

Winner, Jen Smith

            

Amy Espinoza, one of the hostesses

Fabulous selection of skinny jeans!

My partner in crime for the event, Miss Natalie!

My goodie Bag :)

Did you attend the event?

Hope to hear from you,

~Mrs. S

A Cake and a Game

Yesterday was Mr. Simmonds and I's 2nd year anniversary!

We had agreed that the Coldplay concert tickets would be our anniversary gifts, but it turns out Zac had a little surprise for me...

Our wedding cake (which I loooooved) was made by a bakery in Dallas, Romano's, and I had expressed several times to Zac how I wished I could have just one bite of our wedding cake. Yesterday when he got home from football, he had a little box with a mini-cake from Romano's Bakery!!! 

It was French Almond with buttercream frosting, just like our wedding cake! Simply delicious, and oh so thoughtful. It was one of the best surprises Zac has given me, ever! Y'all know the way to a girls heart is through her tummy! I felt very loved. 

I had a slice before we headed to SMU to ride the bus over to the game.

As mentioned in my previous post, we decided to join the SMU Young Alumni for a day at the ballpark to watch the Rangers beat the Detroit Tigers. Great seats!

Turns out Nolan Ryan and his wife Ruth were also celebrating an anniversary, their 45th!

So much fun...

Josh Hamilton before he hit a home run to make it the final score 7-4!

It was a lovely day of smiles and good fun. 

Next up is a fabulous event tomorrow that a local boutique is having where Dallas fashion bloggers will compete for "Tootsies Dallas Top Blogger" award. Click on the link to RSVP! The nominees will be walking a runway where they will be wearing items from the boutique, such a fun idea!

I am so excited to see and hopefully meet Krystal Schlegel, Amy Havins , and Jacklyn Welsh! And of course, I cant forget about my friend Amy who is hosting the event. She also has a fabulous fashion website that you must check out here! 

Post about the event coming soon!

Hope you are all having a fabulous week!

Love, 

~Mrs. S

2 Years Ago Today

2 Years ago today, 

The hubs and I became, 

Mr. and Mrs. Zac Simmonds

Since Zac played ball at SMU, we figured it would be fun to get some snaps at Ford stadium

Walking down the isle, doesn't Zac look dashing?

First dance laughter, not sure what it was about...

Literally, my (almost) entire immediate family...

From Left: Esmeralda-S,  Marbella-SIL, Billy-B, Nathan-N, Jaylee-N, Dad, Madelyn-N, Mom, Me, Zac, Abigail-S, Nancy-S, Sebastian-N, Veronica-S, Genaro-BIL. Missing, Julio-BIL, Julian-N, Juanito-N

N's being nephews and nieces

*Love must have been in the air being that my sister Veronica and SIL Marbella both got pregnant during these days because they both had a baby 9 months later...

Dancing the night away

I would do one one of those weekly long post series about everything leading up to the wedding, but I think those will come in time...

Hope you all enjoyed :)

Tonight, Zac and I are going to a Texas Rangers game with the SMU alumni association. I know, I know, not the most romantic thing to do on an anniversary, but actually it sounds like a ton of fun (last year we went golfing!) I will post pictures of the game tomorrow!

Love, 

~Mrs. S

COLDPLAY

Zac and I learned about this Coldplay concert a year ago and though it would be a great anniversary activity, so we were kind of disappointed we had yet to find the right deal on tickets, until..... 6:59 when we got a guy on Craigslist to sell us his SUITE tickets (the concert started at 7:00)! They were a fab price and it included free parking. 

LOVE CRAIGSLIST!

We both have loved Coldplay for quite sometime, and it was a great concert to cross off my concert bucket-list. 

Here are some of my favorite snaps from the concert, which was..... ahhhhmazing!

Confetti bomb at the beginning of the concert

The famous neon graffiti piano

With as much jumping around as he does, there's no surprise he took a little break at the end of the song!

Everyone was given lighted wristbands at the entrance that lit up with the rhythm of the songs!

He played the end of the concert in the middle of the crowd, sooo cool!

Leaving the AAC, I forced Zac to take a pic with me :)

I get chills thinking about how exhilarating the whole experience was, and it made me so grateful that I am a music teacher. I believe the power of music is greater than most people think, and this concert was a perfect reminder that I love teaching kids that maybe one day they can be like Coldplay or other amazing musicians.

What are some of your favorite concerts you have been to?

Thanks for stopping by, 

~Mrs. S 

Toile Project

My in-laws came to town yesterday to celebrate Father's Day, and to visit the wonderful place we have all come to know as IKEA :)

I love IKEA and would get excited about going there when it first opened in out neighbor city of Frisco about 7 years ago, but after so many trips when we moved in recently I had decided to give it a break...

We went out there yesterday to get my Bro-in-law a bed and I found some beautiful toile pillow cases that I really wanted to get, but had no use for... I decided to get one and recover the stool that sits under my secretary desk After a trip to Lowes for staples and a can of white spray-paint, I got my dainty toile print stool :)

Before

After

My first upholstery project :)

What do y'all think?

Love to hear your thoughts!

Love, 

~Mrs. S

Why I love blogging!

Hello everyone!

I love blogging for many reasons, but one of the greatest reasons is because get to share my life with such amazing ladies who inspire me in so many ways, whether its to dress cuter, make the Simmonds home nicer, or even just for entertainment, I know (from my blogger dashboard) that there are people out there reading my thoughts and every time I get a new follower I get really excited. I also love knowing that God is connecting me to great people whom I would never get to communicate or share my life otherwise. Today during church, although the sermon was mostly about fatherhood and many other awesome subjects, I realized that much like listening and reading the word of God, I also like reading your words and knowing that you like reading mine... Anyway, enough about me, lets get to the good stuff

First off, I know at least 99% of my readers are female so I don't have to bother telling YOU happy fathers day, but I do wish all of your fathers, FIL's, your brothers who are fathers, your grandfathers, your own husbands who are fathers and anyone else in your life in which fatherhood applies to, a HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

My father and I have never had the best relationship, but I do love him and wish him a Happy Fathers Day. This is my dad,,,

He is working in New York these days, so I didn't get to spend today with him.

Yesterday we celebrated Father's Day with my FIL and husbands family at Fogo de Chao, a churrascaria restaurant in Addison that serves delicious meats and has a killer salad bar. For those of you who are unfamiliar with churrascarias, waiters basically come around all the tables in the restaurant and serve you unlimited cuts of meat. I am not a huge meat eater, and its half the price to just eat at the salad bar so I opted for that. Here are some pics,

When you walk in, they have these slow cooking ribs that are almost torture to watch as you wait for your table, yum!

This was the first salad bar plate I made...

Zac's family :)

Another reason I love blogging is the fun giveaways that happen all the time! I have read Southern Belle  for a while now and when I saw she was doing a J Crew bubble necklace giveaway I figured I'd give it a shot. I have entered giveaways before completely not expecting to win, but this time I WON this beautiful necklace!!!

Can y'all believe it! You have to enter as many giveaways as possible, because you WILL win at some point, there is hope!!! BE sure to check out Southern Belle, asap!

One last thing!

I have a couple of new followers that I want you to explore...

Pancakes and Beet Juice is another Dallas blogger I have been following for a while and she recently became one of mine! I was really excited :) Mrs. Pancakes has a super fun blog about her adventures in Dallas and everything in between. I am inspired by her commitment to healthy living and her posts about the city I love, DALLAS!  Check her out!

Another fun blogger who is now following is Ashley over at Ashley the fashion guru, her blog is about everything fashion, click the link, now!!!

Hope you are all having a great end of the weekend and fabulous Father's Day :)

Love, 

~Mrs. S 

DALLAS

About 6 years ago, Zac and I became obsessed with the show DALLAS! The channel SOAP played two episodes every day, and we began watching it from the first season all the way to the last! Zac even  left his Senate job to pursue a career in the oil business! 

Pamela is the one in the blue dress...

Needless to say, we were enthralled by the shows characters (Pamela Barnes Ewing, being my favorite) and the historical portrayal of my hometown of Dallas in the 80's.

The show even had a couple of episodes at my Alma Mater, SMU, where Lucy (in the red) attended!!!

There were many elements to the show that kept us interested including the character you love to hate "JR", the flashy lifestyle of the rich Ewings, the beautiful landscape of North Dallas (Southfork is actually not to far from Mckinney), and of course the 80's fashion, the Ewing clan had real class and style!

Last night the season premier was beyond my expectations. JR's character is still evil and hilarious, Bobby is still "trying to do what's right" and Sue Ellen, although 71 in real life, looks as fabulous as ever. The new characters are kind of "blah" for now, but I am sure I will eventually like them. I do however like the evil John Ross and love how they twisted the plot for him and JR to be enemies. This will make for some real entertainment. I can already tell the story-line is going to keep me on my toes about what happens next and I can't wait for next Wednesday night! 

What did you think of the new DALLAS?

Love to hear your thoughts!

~Mrs. S

  

Magazines I like

Got my new issue today.

Blooms, Smores and Grills

Our Crepe Myrtle finally bloomed, and its pink !

Aren't they pretty :) CM's bloom all over McKinney, there are thousands!!! 

Sat. night, my niece and mom came to spend the night, we made smores in the microwave, delicious!

I got this chair from a garage sale advertised on Craigslist, it is in our master...

next to the TV

I got these for my B-day from my MIL a few weeks ago, and hadn't posted yet, super comfy in my guest, but will soon go in my master...

Found this cool lamp for my guest room, it matches the walls!

Zac finally got the smoker grill he had been eyeing at wal-mart and we are now waiting for the brisket he has been smoking for 5 hours already :) we still have to wait 1.5 more hours...

How did your week start?

Love, 

~Mrs. S