Monthly Archives: July 2012

Internet, it hurts my pride to write at 10:58pm realizing that my day got ahead of me. I never blogged a preview this morning of Caroline & Christian’s wedding reception this past weekend and it was a beautiful celebration. That’ll come on Thursday! Until then, I’d love to share a preview of one of Bella Flora‘s most recent projects at the Crescent. “Christmas in July” was tonight and the designers really knocked it out of the park.. like home run on all-bases loaded for the one-run win.

I also saw tomorrow’s local wedding resource among the attendees which was a fun surprise! But this is just a quick post to maintain daily weekday blogging and get back up on the horse tomorrow morning. You can relate, right? It’s like missing your morning workout and jogging two miles before going to bed. This is just one of FOUR rooms designed by Bella Flora tonight. I cannot wait to share the whole theme and other designs next week! Good night for now!

For the longest time homework has come from a text book or lesson plan. The last time I made it a point to go down the magazine aisle in the grocery store or Barnes & Noble was when I was set on a 1999 two-door tahoe, LS-sport with Z-71 separation, and used ‘Car and Driver’ and the print version of the Kelley Blue Book to arrive at that conclusion. Yes, when I was fourteen. Now the magazine aisle contains more than aspirations, but ideas for work. It contains vision, goals and little bit (or a lot of) hope.

A goal of mine since traveling to Seattle this past April is to be published this year, or, given print publication schedules, to have at least one of my 2012 weddings published in 2013. To make this goal all the more realistic and attainable, I am maximizing every wedding I photograph editorially.

To recoup a few man-points whilst blogging about wedding magazines, I documented the current stack on top of a smoker, and not just any smoker– the Big Green Egg. The brisket this guy smokes tastes in-cre-di-bull. (Yes, I know how to spell incredible, and the pun was intended).

I’ve recently partnered with The Brides of North Texas and with D Weddings and am excited to be a constituent of these two publications. In coming home to Dallas, I am also tucking away a few reminders for the years to come to maintain enthusiasm for submitting my work to be published. This is exciting right now. I know that for some who have been here for years or even decades this may be old-hat, but I have got the drive to be at the top of my game.

Having gained some incredible friends and contemporaries in Dallas since coming home, and having learned much from them, I really feel like I am competing with myself to continually raise the bar. The goal and honor of having a wedding featured is first for my client, and secondly would then be to be alongside good friends in reputable high-gloss pages. I cannot wait to reference this post when it is no longer the 100+ degree July heat of Texas, and when this goal has been met… cannot wait!

With its wall of glass windows Mi Cocina is filled with natural light in the afternoon. It takes on an entirely different face later in the evening, and I realize that I was fortunate enough to arrive during its siesta. It is a rare break in the afternoon to not see every table full and the booth in the foyer lined with waiting guests.
It’s one of the best parts about dining at Mi Cocina, inevitably you will see someone that you know. Maybe even Troy Aikman if he’s not on the Katy Trail.

I really enjoy it when a client suggests an early dinner prior to their engagement shoot. When I met Patrick and Cori here this past Wednesday before their engagement shoot, it only took looking at the menu to talk with John, Mi Cocina’s manager, about coming back another day to photograph the restaurant for the next Friday Local Favorite blog post. 

I look at the menu to feast my eyes over the chance to indulge a different entree, but I rarely get the gumption to sway from their chicken quesadillas with grilled onions.

I’ve always wanted to sit at a table overlooking the main floor of the restaurant during prime hours. You get not only a view of the restaurant, but Mi Cocina has some really unique details  like these chandeliers from that second-story vantage point. 

Upstairs they have a bar area that overlooks the South side of Highland Park Village. It is one of the best places for happy hour in the afternoon, or if you are just craving their chips & queso rather than a full meal. 

If you happen to arrive when Mi Cocina is not quite this empty, taking a stroll through Highland Park Village is an incredible way to pass the time looking through the different window displays. Work up an appetite while waiting on the pager to go off letting you know your table is ready. They keep the chips-and-salsa fresh and full!

It’s probably because I am writing this in the morning and craving breakfast, but I just had a thought. If Mi Cocina served breakfast tacos… it might completely revolutionize my mornings at least once (probably four times) a week. A uniquely up-scale Tex-Mex favorite of the community, make sure you grab one of their blue mints when you walk out the door.