Winter LOTD for A Charlie Brown Christmas in ICE

Happy December to you all! :)

I thought I would share the lovely time I had at the Gaylord Texan this past week - since I am a huge fan of Snoopy & the Peanuts gang, my boyfriend took me to see the Charlie Brown Christmas in Ice exhibit.

I never miss an opportunity to get dolled up in new cute winterwear - nevermind that it was 65 degrees outside!

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My outfit in layers:

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With the Juicy vest on

...Purchased last year from Yesstyle.com...

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With the Juicy hood on!

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Juicy Mittens

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Close up of the logo button - which decided to fall off and get itself lost *grumble grumble*

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After getting ripped off with the $12 event parking, we wandered around like lost lambs for at least 20 minutes on foot. My coworker said it was off in a separate tent, I had no idea it was inside the hotel itself!

The complex is HUGE - it sits aside a decently sized lake and has a ton of different hiking/jogging trails.

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I wanted to model my outfit some more :)

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The staff did a great job of getting the place jazzed up for the holidays - tons of decorations both inside & out

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My boyfriend said these were Juniper berries - I had never seen them in person. They look like mini-blueberries to me :)

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The Gaylord is a string of hotels that features an indoor arboretum - tons of trees, plants, and a little mini-creek that runs throughout

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Finally found the exhibit - it usually is super busy but since we went on a weekday in the middle of the day, we almost had the whole place to ourselves. :)

Before you enter the exhibit, they show you a short film about how they made the artwork - importing 2 million pounds of ice and those amazing ice sculptors from China that put up the ice city every year...

They shower you with snow after the film is over!

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I like how the entrance features yellow & black draping - just like Charlie Brown's classic shirt!

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It's super cold inside the exhibit tent so they make you put on these parkas that make you look 150 lbs heavier. ;_; So much for dressing cute! I begrudgingly put mine on, but turns out it was quite useful...(9 freaking degrees inside)

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Very first display was Charlie Brown & SNOOPY! I was so excited ~ Love his giant pile of bones next to the house, all in ICE!

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Charlie Brown's usual chat w/ Linus on the fence - love the bright colors & the pink fence :)

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Ice-skating!

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Peek-a-boo view through an ice wreath

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Snoopy getting ready to decorate

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What could be in here?

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...The Auditorium where the Christmas play took place & a giant ICE SLIDE!

(We rode it, lots of fun - the parka came in handy)

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Charlie Brown picking out his famous Christmas tree

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Snoopy's House - First place!

I thought Snoopy would be inside - no such luck :(

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Singing around the Christmas Tree!

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Lots of amazing work and pretty neat that it was all done in ice - it went too quickly!

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Afterwards, we wandered around the hotel - and marveled at how ginormous it was. Lots of decorations, tons of families walking around, and at night the whole place lights up! It smelled like gingerbread everywhere too

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They used old gun casings for the Chrismtas lights - so very Texan :P

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The carpet also has a decidedly Texan theme

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So basically saved you guys $20 USD/person ticket and $12 parking lol. (plane ticket too for those outside of TX) You can thank me later, early Merry Christmas :D

Hope you guys had a great weekend!

♥ Irene

Sushi Robata & KidRobot!

*Pic heavy post*

I have been way too busy lately...I love those days where I can rest knowing that everything is well and taken care of -- just had to wrap up a few loose ends before being able to relax this week!

My boyfriend surprised me yesterday by planning a little outing for us! Normally we just lounge around on our days off (which is actually really great too in its own right!) - but today, he had a whole game plan! ♥

We started off a little late since I was rushing around trying to get things done before we went out. When we finally left, we headed out for sushi ~ Sushi Robata! I thought the name was really cool -- apparently, Robata is a special Japanese charcoal grill. :)

What a pleasant surprise! Domo welcomed us at the entrance



I loved the decor inside - it is kind of hip with nice touches like the cherry blossoms painted on the wall in one area and the unique lighting fixtures



Glass privacy wall



Cool fan shaped light!



The sushi bar

We got there for early lunch and started off with salad & Miso like most Japanese set lunch. I ordered a sushi combo & my bf ordered the Chirashi sushi.

We also ordered one spicy tuna roll - I LOVE spicy tuna, one of my indulgence rolls!!! This one was really melt-in-your mouth delicious with creamy avocado.



Sushi combo - so many choices of Nigirizushi! The waitress was kind enough to explain what each one was -- I had no idea it came with squid sushi! She instructed us to eat the Tamago last since it is sweet, almost like a dessert! Also comes with Tuna & cucumber Hosomaki.


From top L-R: White fish (flounder?), Salmon, Yellow tail, Tuna.
Bottom L-R: Surf clam (YUM), squid, shrimp, tamago


Darren had a tasty looking Chirashi bowl heaping with different types of sashimi! I liked the sweet little shitake mushrooms in the rice



We recognized most of the sashimi in the bowl until we ran into this:



We didn't know what it was and were curious so we asked - apparently it is raw scallop! We never had it before, so Darren cautiously bit into it - he says the taste is actually delicious (a tiny bit sweet) but the texture is like raw chicken!!! O_O

We finished with a nice little green tea throat drop (too full for dessert!)

I must admit, this place had some of the best tasting sushi I have had so far in Dallas! It is fresh and reasonably priced + guaranteed you will be full!!! Next time I will try out their specialty Udon bowl!

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Next we headed to Mockingbird station - they have a train stop there along with a lot of nice trendy shopping. It is a really wealthy area...

It was such a nice day today with big blue clear skies and relatively warm weather! We did some light shopping at Urban Outfitters and KidRobot!

KidRobot is a specialty store that sells a lot of vinyl toys in special 'blind boxes' - since you never know what you are going to get, the items are huge collector's items!

These bunny-like toys look vaguely like "Miffy" the bunny

Image from www.bbc.co.uk/

They like to stick mustaches on everything! For example, these sticky buns:

The Simpsons series



Expensive but very collectible Storm Trooper



♥ Darren checking things out ♥

My first visit to the store!

Darren got me the kitty version of the DIY Munny for Christmas - Trikky! (He bought himself the Munny) We'll be painting these together soon! (haha it would be fun to DECO-Den one too!)

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I had a really great day - I feel so lucky and blessed to be alive and well and completely spoiled by the poeple that love me. :) Will post the second part later (Dallas Museum of Art and my attempt at Sophia's pancakes!!) but now I have to get back to work (also workin' this weekend!) Plans next weekend maybe to visit the Rodeo in Houston, not sure yet though!

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Thank you for everybody's super sweet comments! I admit I have been bad and lazy and haven't replied ASAP as I should, but I promise I will be better! ;_;

NQNJU is such a crazy super sleuth and actually knew the Pho restaurant I went to based on the bowls alone. Hello to another Dallas beauty! :)

Also LOL @ Jessica Mai - I would love to get my ears pierced but now I am feeling too lazy to wear earrings. My parents said I couldn't get them pierced until somebody could afford to put real diamond studs in them! :P

@ Vanillabeanlatte - Oh goodness, the camera is lying because my lips are usually so gray. I actually don't have anythhing but Aquaphor ointment on my lips, that stuff is the best! Keeps your lips protected & hydrated all day!

Finally, a hello to Ms. Nikka (check out her blog, I love the name NERDORK!), Dandelion Pastime (love her layout!), Prrfect girl, Stephanie (her latest post made me sooo hungry!), PeachPoison, Charlotte C, asndivana, Vivien Y, and Mindy C :)

♥ TGIF to everybody, hope you all have an awesome weekend!!! :D ♥