DIY: Bulletin Board

 Ever since I got my new job and an office that finally had walls, I've been wanting to do a bulletin board. My walls are a bland beige, so I wanted to kick it up a notch. After pinning things on Pinterest and gathering ideas, I finally pulled the trigger this weekend.

I found a great fabric and got started.

One cork bulletin board (which I got 50% with a coupon at Michael's), batting, fabric, and a husband with a staple gun later, voila!

Less than 20 minutes and $20 later, I had a big piece to jazz up my office.

It definitely made for a happy Monday morning hanging it up!

Valentine's

I hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

I had a great and busy one, starting with a day that flew by at work. When I got home, these beautiful flowers and a sweet letterpress card were waiting for me.

 Paul wouldn't tell me where we were going for dinner, but I had a hunch. I ended up being right - Walker's! It's maybe 500 feet from our building and one heck of a restaurant.

For Valentine's Day, they had a four course dinner menu, which was out of this world. Paul and I decided to go pescatarian for Lent (essentially, eat no meat from an animal that has legs) and Walker's was the best place for that.

 We started with appetizers - Paul with Lobster Mac and I with a Bread-less Crab Cake. We moved on to Lobster Bisque, Redfish Anna (topped with crab), and dessert. I ordered the Chocolate Bread Pudding (our favorite) and P ordered Chocolate Cake with Coffee Icing. Ooof.

We had such a great time and really enjoyed ourselves.

If this wasn't a night to enjoy our neighborhood, I don't know what was. After dinner, we kept on walking down the street to Duling Hall for a concert by one of our favorite bands, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors.

The magazine helps sponsor these concerts, so it's always exciting to see more and more people at them. This is the third time this band has been to Duling and every time the crowd doubles. It was PACKED! We had fun dancing and singing along to the music.

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day too!

Perfect Day

After some really busy days and weekends, we decided this was the perfect weekend to get away. That, and the fact that Paul had been signed up to run a half marathon this weekend, but weather and work got in the way of training and he didn't feel prepared to run it. So we decided to take this opportunity to take a day trip to our old stomping ground: Hattiesburg.

We started with coffee at The Bean next to our place, of course.

 I've always said it and it's still true - for some reason, Hattiesburg has some of the best shopping. We scored some great deals at Hudson's, including a deeply discounted expensive suit jacket and pants for Paul and a sweater for me. We went by United Apparel Liquidators and I scored two pairs of cropped black work pants I had been looking for all for a total of $14. Pretty happy about that.

One thing I turned my husband on to in Hattiesburg is Glory Bound Gyro Co.

They have some of the most incredible hummus flavors, including a jalapeno cilantro that I'm crazy about. But what it really comes down to are those pita chips. There's nothing like it.

 After exploring downtown (which is really exploding these days with two breweries and lots of new shops), Paul suggested we go to the Hattiesburg Zoo. I have to admit, even living right next to the Zoo, I never went. We had so much fun.

The capybara says hello.

We even rode the train. It felt like being a kid!

 I also was interested in visiting my alma mater to see the building they have been renovating to move the journalism school. It looks beautiful!

Of course, campus hasn't changed that much. Especially working at a college again, I really miss mine sometimes.

 Coming back home, we decided on sushi. I was in heaven.

Perfect end to the day. Hope you guys had a good one!