P-Dubs!

P-Dubs, aka PW, aka Pure Wow (my personal favorite), aka Pioneer Woman came to Houston last Saturday. When I found out she was coming out with a cookbook I was on top of the world! I love this woman and anything she does seems to be a huge success so I was pretty pumped. I woke up bright and early that morning to assure prompt arrival to Lauren's house. All the boys were going "camping" which entailed them going to Austin, staying in a hotel downtown, and sitting at multiple bars until the wee hours of the morning. Not what I imagined when they said they were going camping, but it gave us girls a weekend of fun, so I'm good with it! Lauren and I left her house and made the trip to the book signing. It was held in a very unique location. Kind of like a little market for organic foods. Totally random for a book signing. We walked in and were told we needed a ticket in order to get her to sign our books. Kind of like a golden ticket I guess, except ours was lime green and it put us in 11th place! No bueno. There was approximately 20-25 people in each color group and we were color 11. Hmm, I immediately whipped out the iPhone and started calculating....25 people in each group x 1-2 minutes of chit chat x 11 groups = A LONG TIME! We were looking at anywhere from 4-6 hours. In line. For a book to get signed. Hmmph. We took a moment to pull ourselves together after PW talked and re-evaluated our priorities and shopping ranked #1. Sorry P-Dubs. :(

So we went on to our next adventure and hit up Highland Park to get some Christmas gifts bought. We had a complete blast. I bought/spent way too many/much ornaments at Crate and Barrel. Good thing for that separate account I still have or A would have killed me! Sorry honey :) It was the perfect day. So cool and crisp. Before we headed back home we stopped at PF Changs for a little afternoon cocktail to re-energize us for our night ahead of baking!

After sifting through the beautiful glossy pages of PW's book, we felt inspired to make something! I think the wine had a little something to do with our new found love of baking as well! We decided we'd attempt sugar cookies. How hard could they be, right? Boy were we wrong! The rolling of the dough, cutting out the shapes - especially when the dough you're rolling out is not 1/4" thick like the recipe says, *coughs*, Ski, *coughs* and don't even get me started on the icing part. "What were we thinking" crossed our minds a few times that night, but then we would have another sip of wine and just laugh. I have to tell you the funniest part of the night is when Lauren handed me her sugar jar and the sugar had somehow crystallized and hardened inside of the container! She then lets it slip that she's had this sugar since she got married....over 2 years ago!! I was dying! It was so funny watching her dig it out over the trash can. It was stuck in there good!

Cheese! I love you

Don't ever let me wear an apron over a cable knit sweater again. Thanks.

2 year old sugar!!

might be a little thinner than a 1/4" thick ;)

comfiness is key

Whoops, wine spillage. Now that was funny!

PW!!

When all was said and done, we had a pretty amazing weekend. Our cookies weren't the prettiest, but as Lauren said (about 50 times that night :)) "It's not how they look, it's how they taste."

Thank you Lauren for letting me stay with you!! I had the best time. And thank you boys for going on your "camping trip" so we could have a fun girls weekend :)

Also, head over to Ski's blog and check out her post and extra pics!!