Maserati Event at Aria Stone Gallery

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

This past weekend was one of the busiest I have had in a while. October is always a busy time of year for me from school concerts and auditions, to fun parties and tailgating at SMU for home games. The fall season is always a great time of year in the Simmonds house.

Last Friday, I was so excited to attend a party for the unveiling of the new 

2014 Maserati Quatroporte Q4 at the Aria Stone Gallery in the design district near downtown. 

Attendees sipped on custom cocktails, and noshed on a variety of small bites as they enjoyed tunes by the M Event Group Company. 

We had such a great time checking out the beautiful new models of Maserati's and Ducati motorcycles.

Here are some snaps from the evening

How hot is this car?!

Delicious and pretty custom cocktails

I want this granite stone for my bathrooms!

Cool stone

Fabulous party on a beautiful night,

thanks for the invite Culture Hype!

Mrs. S

Go Cowboys (Stadium)!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I had such a great weekend myself with a successful orchestra concert at school Friday night, and Saturday morning, I helped with the High School All-Region auditions.

Saturday evening, The Mr. and I attended a fundraiser dinner for his school at the "AT&T Stadium" better known as "Cowboys Stadium" 

As we walked on the the field, a camera showed us on the 60 yard jumbotron! 

We carpooled with the Mr.'s coach friend and his girlfriend Kursten 

The dinner was literally on the field, the stadium looked huuuuge from down there!

Dinner was delicious and I totally regret not taking one of those cool cups!

The evening entertainment was a discussion with 4 former NFL and Cowboys legends Chad Hennings, Jay Novacek, Bill Bates, and Randy White. 

The were all great speakers, I laughed, I cried, I learned, very cool.

After the presentation, we got to go to the Cowboys locker room, so of course I took a picture in front of Tony Romo's locker!

We also got to tour the press room, as you can see the Mr. was amazed :)

Such a great night!

Once in a lifetime photo.

On the way home, I was so happy to see reunion tower was displaying SMU since they won against Memphis yesterday.

Go Mustangs!

And, Go Cowboys! 

Thanks for stopping by,

~Mrs. S

Weekend Update

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend. 

As you all know, I am a live music junkie! From going to the the Dallas Symphony, to the amazing acts that come to Dallas throughout the year, I am always up for live music. 

In June, I received an email from AmEx about early purchase dates for The Eagles concert in October. Of course I took advantage of it and bought my tickets as soon as the date arrived. 

I LOVE The Eagles.

I grew up knowing "Hotel California" as the one American song my mom actually liked.

In college was introduced to more of their songs and now I consider my Eagles Pandora station as my "driving to Dallas" station and listen to them all the time. In order to be prepped for the concert, I watched the Showtime Documentary "The History of the Eagles" and it was amazing! I learned so much about the band members and was surprised to learn that so much of their music was written about things that were going on in their lives at the time. The music was like a journal of their lives and described the culture of America at the time so perfectly. I felt so inspired and could not wait to go to the concert on Friday!

I never take selfies, but I do when I am with my rockin' ma, too bad we got photobombed by the crazy lady in the back!

Don and Glenn, such musical geniuses 

Don rocking out on the drums

The Eagles!

Tim Shmidt 

The American Airlines center was packed!

The Eagles, and my mom :)

One of the best voices in American Rock and Roll history

Saturday, I decided to participate in our annual neighborhood garage sale and sold a bunch of stuff that was just sitting in the garage. I felt so much better when the garage was finally clean!

Saturday night, we joined the Mr.'s coach friend and his girlfriend for a double date at his place.

He made grilled shrimp and cherry tomato pizza, it was so delicious! I was quite impressed.

For lunch today, we tried The Rusty Taco since we had not been to Mexican in months!

Then we headed to Trader Joe's. I mentioned to Zac how I was planning on just browsing, but we ended up getting so much food! One of the items that intrigued me was pumpkin bread.

I made it earlier and it was delicious!

I actually used my Kitchen Aid mixer :)

Yummy pumpkin bread, perfect for this gloomy fall weather!

How was you weekend?

Thanks for stopping by!

~Mrs. S

Dallas Symphony Orchestra Gala 2012

Hello Readers!

Last night, I was lucky enough to attend the DSO's annual Gala with guest artist and world renowned soprano, Renee Fleming. I was able to attend last year, and I had so much fun, there was no way I was going to miss it this year. 

When I received the invite, I decided to go with a long black dress since the theme was "Old Masters"

I already had a dress that I have had since my senior prom 11 years ago! I actually had the chest area tailored, but other than that, I loved the way it fit. I have always loved this dress, and purchased it at one of my favorite formal attire stores in Dallas, Terry Costa.

I decided to invite Michelle as my date since Gala's aren't really my husbands thing, and Ashley decided to come at the last minute. They both looked AMAZING!

When we arrived at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, I immediately saw my Young Strings student Diana who looked adorable (and so grown up) in her gown! 

We walked around for a bit and found a photo frame booth where we snapped some fun pictures with these incredible masks

Before we headed to our seats and were able to get some beautiful pictures of the seated dinner area, the Meyerson looked so "old world" chic!

When we finally got to our seats, we were ready for a performance by the DSO and Renee Fleming, which was amazing! The orchestra began with an Overture to a Rossini opera, then Renee sang a couple of classical Italian arias including "O Mio Babbino Caro", my favorite. 

The Second half of the program was more contemporary music, "The Sound of Music" "West Side Story" and "Summertime" of Porgy and Bess, and of course the symphony closed the night with Ravel's Bolero which is the ultimate build-up piece that is long, but worth the wait at the end with the whole orchestra blasting the theme. 

Wonderful performance, but we were ready to party at the After Party hosted by the DSO's conductors daughter Anna Sophia Van Sweden, and I am so glad I went with these fun ladies. There was dancing...

And deserts everywhere!

There was even foot massages for people, right by the dance floor!

Oh, and little Chips and Guacamole never hurt anyone :)

We had the best time dancing and people watching all the best dressed Dallasites, and returned to the masque booth before we headed out for one last picture...

A fabulous night, with amazing music, and friends. 

Can't wait till next years Gala

 Save the Date September, 15 2014!

~Mrs. S

Neiman Marcus Cusp Event

Hello Readers and welcome to The Simmonds in the Suburbs!

I love to see live music as much as I can and when I heard that Neiman Marcus was hosting an event at Northpark to celebrate the opening of their new and improved Cusp store with a live performance of Wild Belle, I jumped at the chance to RSVP. 

The event was a nice midweek surprise and all of Dallas's fashion elite were in attendance.

The night began with a party at the patio of LaDuni restaurant,

then we were treated to a live performance by Wild Belle, and it was amazing!

Wild Belle mixes so many chic musical styles to make a grungy, reggae, rock sound like no other.

To say I enjoyed every song would be an understatement.

The band is a brother-sister duo so they each got a chance at the mic.

Obligatory Cusp Wall photo (and you can see my Philip Lim for Target bag I snagged a few weeks ago)

The night continued inside at the new Cusp store at Neiman Marcus, it is massive!

I saw my Vivaldi friend Morgan, and of course you can't miss Michelle who was my date for the night.

There was a prize machine where you could win all kinds of items including Kendra Scott jewelry, I was not lucky enough, but Michelle did win a beautiful necklace.

We had to get a shot in the photo booth!

I came home with quite a bit of fun swag including bags of popcorn, Cusp cookies, and an adorable guitar teddy bear (not pictured: Bobbi Brown lip gloss, the new issue of Vogue, and a set of purple headphones)

Neiman Marcus sure knows how to throw a party!

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to follow me on Instagram @catsimmonds for up to date photos!

Mrs. S

Plano Balloon Festival

 Hello readers!

Yesterday, my sister invited me to tag along to the Plano Balloon Festival.

The weather was beautiful and it was loads of fun.

There were so many pretty balloons

Like, lines and lines of them

Obligatory balloon shot

My sis and her boy waving to the balloons taking off

Fam photo, the sun was shining so bright

There were rides for the kids, and of course Benjamin had to get on the slide

I am glad I went to the festival, thanks sis for inviting me!

~Mrs. S