Our Dallas trip to meet The Barefoot Contessa

Last week Becky emailed us to inform us that Ina Garten was having a book signing at William Sonoma at Northpark in Dallas on Monday November 8th. Emma was OVER THE MOON because she loves the Barefoot Contessa. She immediately began lobbying to make the trip to see her. I immediately said no way. After a day or two of coaxing, and a conversation with John, I changed my mind. So, we threw our stuff together and left Friday night for the D. Traffic was awful, the music was questionable, Caitlin's music tastes don't mesh with mine, but we made it safe and sound. It took about two seconds to get into the Dallas mode of driving as I found myself speeding right along with everyone else. Olivia had the map thing open on my phone at the moment I looked down and saw I was going 80 and when I said, "I'm going 80!" Olivia said, "Well, that's why the little dot on the map (that was us) is moving so fast!" Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. So we speedily made our way towards cheesecake, met Carrie for supper straight away and then arrived at hotel Becky and Keith late but ready for our meetings in order to have a "plan of attack" for Saturday.

The next morning blasting people out of bed and the house proved to be more work than I imagined, but finally after all the primping and blow drying were finished, we were off and running. We decided to buy our Ina books first thing and it ended up being a brilliant decision since the store ran out of books on Monday. Saturday included a flurry of shopping by my girls and Rebecca sandwiched between many food stops. First was Pei Wei and apparently, for my daughters, Dallas trips are a mixture of frenzied shopping and a food crawl. I'm still full right now from last weekend. After Pei Wei we traversed Knox Street from end to end and then moved on to Northpark so the girls could try to spend every dime they had earned over the fall.

Now Olivia always starts off slow because generally all she's looking for is shoes. I never would have picked Olivia to be the one with a shoe fetish but the girl loves a flat or a converse tenny in any color. She currently has lime green, brown, purple and black and is constantly looking for more colors. This past summer I told her she needed some "college shoes" like flats and stuff to scoot around school and since then she's bought about 15 pairs of shoes! I told her last week....I said buy some shoes......not ALL the shoes. But when Olivia's on a Dallas trip there MUST BE a stop at DSW, the shoe store. Other places visited....not in any order....Crate and Barrel (2 of them), Sur Le Table (2 of them), Restoration Hardware, Marshall's, Fernando's, Steak and Shake, Galleria, Northpark multi times, Sample House, Gap, i Fratelli's, Sprinkle's.

And even though Emma didn't buy any shoes, she was determined to buy each and every other item in the metroplex area stores. And may I say, the girl gets an A for effort. Most Dallas stores spent the rest of the week restocking after "the plunderer" Emma finished shopping. I have a pictures of her with her most treasured purchase, a Michael Kors purse.


Olivia looks a little intimidating in this picture....as well as a little like a state trooper.


Caitlin was involved in increasing her wardrobe as well but she tends to shop alone and therefore her purchases debut as she wears them. I bought 2 small bowls, and a baking dish. Most of my money was spent on gasoline and food. Neither of those look cute on me.

When Emma was shopping in J. Crew her "dressing room girl" kept calling her Emily which amused us greatly but annoyed her immensely. So the rest of that night we called her Emily as well. She was not amused. Carrie took on the role of Grandma sitting in the car lots of the time because of a bad back situation....please heal her back Lord. We also rode around and looked at fancy houses and ate gelato and Baskin Robbins. The word diet didn't come up one time during the entire trip.

And then it was Monday and time to go to William Sonoma and become best friends with Ina. I have NEVER stood in line for a book signing and to be honest I did it for Emma and not so much Ina. The book signing was from 12-2, we arrived at 10:30 and the line already had about 300 people in it.

On our way to the book signing.


Caitlin loves to help with photo documenting.


Olivia was much more enthusiastic.


Emma was as well.


Waiting....


Still waiting...


But as fate would have it, the most obnoxious people ended up right behind us in line. Should I have expected anything else? These are not so much pictures of me as they are documenting these people that amused Olivia and annoyed me with their pretentious talk and ridiculous chatter. They were skipping work to get their book signed. The lady in black was surprising her husband with the book signing. He didn't know anything about it until she called him and told him to meet her outside Northpark. If I ever "surprised John" with standing in line for an Ina book signing it wouldn't be good. We don't have a picture of their friend who was wearing gold shoes and the guy in the gray commented on them and she said....and I quote..."These were made by the people that make all the French ballerina shoes." (Picture me with my finger in my mouth gagging.) I was all like WHAT THE HECK DID YOU JUST SAY? What a pretentious little snit! From there on out, even when the husband arrived and seemingly could have cared less, I did my best to tune these people out. And if any of them ever run across this blog and see themselves here, then yes you annoyed me greatly. Remember that always.

Also even though my bottom lip looks HUGE. I didn't get whatever people put in their lips to make them fat. These sunglasses I'm wearing are old as Methuselah yet they've held up quite nicely to the brutal treatment I give eye wear.


Now back to the real story...while Carrie sat in her car, the rest of us took turns sitting with her and changing out in line....all except for Emma.....she continued to flit and shop right up until the last minute. Finally, we got the word that Ina had arrived and soon the line began moving. The excitement was racing through the line (not really....no offense to Ina). We moved at a decent pace and finally made it inside the store. The first lady to greet us was Ina's friend we've seen on her show. She was very nice and thanked us for coming. Like a dork I pointed out my 3 girls to her.

This is her....don't know her name.


Then we saw Ina. Olivia and I pulled out our awesome conversationalist skills and meekly said, "Hi!" And we were done.




A William Sonoma worker offered to take some pics of us. He did a good job. I however look like a creepy stalker.




Then it was Caitlin's turn and she proceeded to have a whole conversation with Ina. She asked Caitlin if she cooked and Caitlin said my whole family cooks and that her grandfather had owned a restaurant in Monroe. Ina then said, "Well I hope your family enjoys the book." That was it. It was her wish for each of us to come stay with her in Connecticut. I heard it with my own ears.












Ina signing....which is what she came to do.


We made it in and made it out. Emma was very pleased with her signed copy of the book. We all were. I don't care who thinks I'm a dork, I really like Ina and I'm glad we got to see her. She was VERY kind and gracious. I think it was worth it.




But when we checked the photos after we got back to the car, Emma saw there were no pictures of her with Ina so Carrie suggested we go back and "try again." Olivia took my camera and she and Emma went back in the store and gave it another go. And the following photobombing ensued.

Who is that way back there?


I think I see her.


Yep that would be Emma.







Ina might not be pleased with these photos but we were.

We learned that George W. Bush was signing books the very next day in Dallas. We were so bummed we couldn't go to his as well. We love George. But it was not meant to be. Maybe another day.

All in all we had a fantastic trip. Dallas is always fun and exhausting.

I hope we make lots more in the years to come.