Happy Hour at Imperia and Tribeza Fashion Show

House Edamame with chile, lemon essence and salt

It was a busy night and my only wish is that there were more hours in this day.  After I got home from work, I enjoyed a nice run with cool weather. What a great change, I'm really enjoying this time of year!  Then Brent and I hurried to get ready for a quick Happy Hour at Imperia to visit with our friend on leave from Iraq.  We then hurried off to the Tribeza fashion show.
It was great to see our friend Josh, he looks great and we can hardly wait for him to come home in December.  We hadn't know him for long before he left and he made quite and impression on us with his kind heart and constant smile.  I look forward to getting to know him better upon his return.  Him and his gal, Jessica, just bought a house! I'm really excited for the both of them and all the good that I am sure is to come their way.

My wasabi bloody mary... it could always be spicier but was tasty.

Imperia has a reasonably priced happy hour with 2-for-1 sushi rolls, $5 sharing plates, $5 specialty cocktails and $3 beers.  The house edamame is really good! I like the hot and sour with the lemon oil and red chiles it's definitely something that keeps me coming back for more. The bloody mary was ok.  I think the salt was rimmed on the glass with something sweet; that gave it a weird mixture of flavors, so I just decided to finish it with my straw. I do love the cream cheese stuffed olive... who wouldn't though? My sushi was nothing to write home about, in my humble opinion. Next time I think I'll just get a double order of edamame. Brent wanted their oysters but unfortunately they were out.  Those are really awesome though and I highly recommend them (I used to eat them before I gave up fish).  He liked his scallion pancake and duck. I had some of the pancake and it was pretty tasty.

The Q-cumber roll.

Scallion pancake and duck

Brent's dynamite shrimp

Then came the Fashion Show!! This was something that I have really been wanting to go to, but wasn't certain if I wanted to pay $35 per ticket for us to attend.  Brent lucked out and the day of the fashion show happened upon 3 free tickets. Yea!  Now, don't be jealous.... this is the picture of the view of the catwalk from our seats.

Vanessa was Austin Urbanisms 'lucky' winner of our third ticket since she helped promote our site. Thanks, V!

I'm not generally one to complain about something that's free and by all means I really enjoyed the fashion show.  I think the models did a great job, their hair and make-up was way awesome, and the catwalk set up was super cool under the big tent in front of the long center.  The fashions were fun to see and really inspired me to try some new things with my wardrobe.
Admittedly, I haven't been to many fashion shows.  The only one I have to compare it to was the event at the AMLI that I blogged about here. Granted, the Art Alliance fashion show was a smaller production but they were able to procure vendors for Bombay Saphirre as well as some tasty food treats.  Tribeza did have tents set up and there was food before the event that we didn't get to go to because we really wanted to see Josh, so I can't speak to that portion of the event.  I was a little put off though that we were expected to pay $35/ticket and couldn't even get free water.  That was a little annoying.
Please understand, I also appreciated being able to attend for free and in that I did enjoy the show.  However, if I had paid for the seats and had been seated where we were, I would have been miffed.
Overall, the fashion was good, the set up was a little "off" for my taste.  I am entitled to that although I am sure other people had a great experience and differ with my view.
On a bright note... here are some super cool shoes I spotted at the event.

These leather beauties belong to Corine. She bought these shoes just for the event tonight... what a great pick! I found myself staring at her shoes as we ran into each other at different spots at the event. I love the contrast between the very open front and the completely closed off back!

Caitlin was one of the models for the fashion show. She was so cute and bubbly and was super excited to talk about her shoes. They are Michael Antonio shoes and she got them for doing the show. Way worth all the strutting on the catwalk.

These cuties belonged to Prachi. She's had them for six months and finally had a chance to wear them tonight!

My favorite part was the cute detailing on the front. These shoes went awesomely with her dress and I definitely had to take a second look to take it all in, super stylin!