Easter

This weekend we had a nice time spent with family, my 90 year old Grandmother actually came in town from Jacksonville (drove up here on her own!). A relaxing weekend actually kept us pretty busy...

Friday night Ryan and I went to early bird dinner at a place near Peachtree Battle in Buckhead called Taqueria Tsunami. It was so cheap and good food, very laid back. I recommend the short rib nachos and short rib tacos. We both overate and being that we were done eating by 7ish we weren't quite ready to head home so we went to my favorite store, Homegoods. I confess, when I get stressed or need to unwind this is one of my favorite places to go. Something about aimlessly looking at random house stuff in there is therapeautic. Unfortunately, we didn't have any good finds but Mr. Hubbs did manage to get himself into trouble when I turned my back...


The next morning we got up and wanted to get some Vitamin D so we headed to our friend's pool. I needed some color to look my best on Easter Sunday :)

That night we headed to my parents house for a yummy dinner. We had a honey baked ham, hashbrown casserole, spinach salad, broccoli casserole, rolls, and kalua cake for dessert. It was all soooo good, I wish I had a pic, especially the dessert! Even our french bulldog Max ate too much, he was in a food coma...


Husband is on a kick of taking candid photos of me lately (much to my dismay), this is one of my new shirts from that boutique Akira in Chicago. It's a peach and hot pink color block, paired with my J.Crew Bubble necklace knock-off from H&M last summer.


I found some more of these necklaces in different colors at the boutique chain in Atlanta called Fabrik last week. The only thing is that the chain is much shorter of them so they sit higher up right under your collarbone. They were cheap and had tons of colors, I wonder if you could lengthen the chain with some DIY action?

The next day, was Easter, this is my favorite church holiday right in front of our church's Independence Day celebration and you are about to see why....


The week before Easter is Palm Sunday (which I accidentally referred to as Psalms Sunday last year and will never live down), they have palm branches everywhere, we get palm leaf cross bookmarks, and we have a parade before service with a donkey(he even walks the aisle)! The next week on Easter everyone brings flowers in the morning and nails them to the cross, it's so pretty and really special. If you are in Buckhead on Easter, this really is the hotspot for your pictures. This sanctuary inside is already gorgeous on it's own but it has extra flowers for Easter...


An hour or so later we got out of church and waited around for pictures under the cross, here is Ryguy and I:

I made sure to dress him like an Easter Egg with yellow pants, a bright green tie, blue shirt, and blue blazer. I loved looking at everyone's Easter outfits yesterday, young and old. I didn't really have anything new to wear except one of my staple dresses from Banana Republic outlet in a coral red with cut-out back and my beloved turquoise imposter necklace. You can't see but I have some fun BCBG turquoise shoes paired with it for some zazz.

After church we went to eat at a cute little cafe in Peachtree Battle Shopping Center. Then we headed towards our house for some strawberry cake and a home tour for Grandma. I love my strawberry cake recipe but don't make it often since it seems more summery so I was excited to whip it out. I'll post below but first a confession.... I actually screwed it up a bit... when I made it wasn't paying attention and didn't save my egg whites when I separated the egg yolks so it wasn't as big and fluffy but still tasted great. Typically this recipe is a 3 layer because there is a lot of batter but mine was only 2.


I also meant to slide that cardboard out from it but oh well... that cross is actually the palm tree bookmark they gave out the week before in church. I decided it looked better on my Easter cake than in Ryan's bible (that's rosemary at the bottom).

Amy's Strawberry Cake: Set oven to 325 degrees
1 box of white cake mix
3 tablespoons flour
1 small box strawberry jello (use only 2/3rds)
3/4 cup oil
1/2 cup water
4 egg yolks, *save* the whites :)
1 10 oz. box frozen strawberries, thawed, drained and chopped *Use only HALF*

Mix dry ingredients together then add the oil and the water. Beat at medium speed 3-4 minutes. Add yolks one at a time, then add strawberries. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites at the end. Bake in 3 greased and floured 9 inch cake pans for 35-40 minutes.

Amy's Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing
-1 8oz. package cream cheese softened
-1/2 cup butter softened
-3 cups sifted confectioners sugar
-1 teaspooon vanilla
-the leftover part of the jello mix from the cake
-the other half of the strawberries *make sure they are well drained or pat with paper towel

Blend all together, I usually refrigerate my icing before I put it on the cake. It can also tend to be runny so this helps, I also try and keep the cake refrigerated before and after eating it.

Anyways, after eating cake and the family had left Ryan and I walked to the park in our neighborhood and played some tennis. All in all a great Easter spent with family.

This week I am planning to post the rest of the Chicago trip. I am also hoping to get down to Scott's antique before we head to Nashville for a shower and a party Saturday. If I get down there I am anticipating some good finds/pictures to share...

Chicago Part 1

Where do I start? I used to say that my favorite big cities were 1. Boston 2. Chicago 3. A tie between NYC and LA. After the past couple of weeks Chicago is giving Boston a run for it's money. As I said the other day, when you are in Chicago during warm, perfect weather it is amazing.

A few of my favorite things about this city is not only it's walkability, cleanliness, the river but also the pretty buildings and architecture. On the flipside I love Boston for it's history and cool neighborhoods. I haven't been to DC in a while but I am pretty sure if I went now and in the Spring I'd really like it too. Have I mentioned Cherry Blossom tress are my favorite? NYC and LA are just cool because you might see a celeb and I love celeb spotting! :) Anyways, I took a lot of pics of Chicago so get ready...

Of course I had to see the iconic Chicago sign....


One of the next big stops: TopShop! Can we say obsessed!? Ladies, don't bring your hubbs here, way more fun without. I'm already saving for my next trip here in May :) I got a really cute coral fit n' flare dress for summer and a tie-dye caftan top plus some jewelry...


Mr. Hubs got in town late so the next morning we got up and grabbed some brunch at Yolk, this place was AWESOME! Our hotel sent us there and because of that we got in VIP with no wait, we felt really cool skipping past a tons of people waiting. Definitely check this place out:


Then on to walk around, pit stop at Northwestern, here is RyGuy in front of their School of Law:


After this I somehow dragged him to Akira in the Water Tower Place Mall. I got a really fun Gold Dress and a peach and fuscia color block top. Love this store, almost everything is under $50 and they hand out coupons plus have a check-in discount on FourSquare.

We then walked around some more, sightseeing and trying to burn off that huge breakfast at Yolk. Chicago has some pretty churches but I have to say that NYC wins this category. All the tulips were in bloom too!


We had to find "the bean" where you always see pictures of people in Chicago standing in front of. My husband referred to it the whole time as "the giant nut" not sure if he was kidding or serious.


Walked around some more... went into All Saints, such a cool store. Seriously, the person/firm that designed this store did an awesome job. Very industrial but very cool. I wasn't allowed to shop here according to my finance manager (AKA: Ryan).


Us in front of the river... you would never know but there was a Muslim protest going on right in front of us, that didn't stop us.


Went by to see Marilyn... and yes that is my immature husband in the picture on the right... busted...
























I think this is the Chicago Athletic Club building but I loved all the quatrefoil and moorish tile look/design in this old architecture.


This is part of the Chicago Tribune Building which was a really pretty building, I wish I had a picture of it to show the whole thing.


The buildings here are all so unique and different, I think this is a huge part of the charm of the windy city (well besides the food and shopping). It made me wish Atlanta had more old buildings like this, and a river running through the city (but that's for more selfish reasons). The crazy thing is the great Chicago fire was in 1871 and Atlanta was burned by Sherman's army in 1864. Why DON'T we have all the pretty buildings like Chi town? If they could do it, why couldn't we?



Anyways, this was a really long post that was full of boring buildings. My next post will probably be about the same because this is when Ryan and I went on the Wendella Architecture Boat Tour but it will include some pics from my friend's bachelorette party to keep things spicy.

Skirted Table

The other day when I was talking about my skirted table with the speaker in it, I'm not sure it really made sense... So I'll break it down...

You see that huge "subwoofer" that resembles a mini fridge from your freshman dormroom? I left my husband at home with the TV/Audio Installation guy, I later came home to that big, black box sitting in my precious living room space. Mr. Hubbs seemed to think nobody would notice it in the corner once we filled the room with furniture... Ugh, really? As my mom says: "Men!" They really don't always get it but God Bless 'em.

After a minor freak out since it couldn't be moved, I took action... I had a carpenter come out and build a round top table over and around the box.


Now I'm so excited to see my skirted table once it's all finished that I'm kinda happy I had this problem to start with. It's the perfect little place to rest a lamp, some books, and a cocktail tray. Now I keep going around the house trying to find other things to build around and make look pretty...

I've learned one other lesson... don't let your man decide on TV/Audio entirely. If it was up to my hubs we would have 4 other speaker boxes freely standing around the room, thankfully I made him concede to in wall speakers. A small price upgrade but 100% worth it. I did lose on the speaker right under our tv, maybe our next house I'll win that battle...

The weather is here...

Ok, I have not completely fallen off the bandwagon, I actually have a great excuse!...

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

Yes, you heard it right... I started the month of March with my birthday. Shortyly after decided it was time I treat myself to some beach time. Luckily the In-Laws make that easy and accessible since they live there... So off to Florida I went... The weather couldn't be more perfect, seriously, I could get used to that life.


My in-laws are in the process of building their dream home here but meanwhile live in their condo. Since my husband is too busy with work I figured I should take it upon myself to visit and check out the house progress myself. I am happy to report back that the house is looking great and can't wait to be in it for summer vacations...


I seriously don't know if there is a more gorgeous beach property out there... On the left of this picture is my husband's grandparent's beach house and on the right side is a national wildlife preserve. i.e. nobody can build on that side, ever. While I was down there I was hoping to get to some of the great little stores in Seaside but never made it, I spent every minute soaking in the sun.

After this trip, I came back to Atlanta for some St. Patrick's day fun, which entailed lots of yardwork (that's green right?). Then I packed 2 (heavy) bags for a couple weeks in the Windy City... CHICAGO. Woo Hoo.


The first week I was there the weather was in the 80's and GORGEOUS, I was ready to pack up our Atlanta home and move. I've been to Chicago 3 times before this and each time it was rainy and/or cold. After this trip, I now know why people live here, when it's sunny it's perfection. Ry even came up for4 days and even that Southern boy loved it! I can fill in more on that trip later... it deserves it's own post.

Since I've been out of town the past few weeks I haven't made much progress on the house besides some yard work outside. I did order my fabric for my skirted table in my living room, it's a table built around hub's huge speaker/sub-woofer/"thing that goes boom". Right now it's got a skank piece of burlap thrown over it to hide the speaker...

I think this will be really fun against my Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue walls with some books and a mercury glass lamp on top. Those are the 2 samples I have... I chose the Calico Corners fabric with a more cream tone. I may do a pillow in the Forsyth Fabrics one that has a bit of metallic to it. The coral is perfect and balances my dining room across the hall almost exactly.
(Anyone notice my craigslist adirondack chair in the window? They turned out great!)

Another pic of my fabric in my dining room... the solid coral is for the piping/cording along the hem of the skirted table.

The only other exciting purchase in my life is some J Brand Jeans off of the sale rack at the Anthropologie near my house. I've been eyeing colored jeans but was a bit scared to take the plunge. I found 1 pair of these babies in my exact size for $89! They fit like a glove, don't stretch and come in the most wonderful red-with-a-hint-of-hot-pink color ever!

I wore mine the other day with a white tunic, nude heals, and a leopard scarf for a little zing. I wore them out sightseeing another day with a white long tee and a leopard print cardi. I don't just do leopard with these pretties, I also love some nautical stripes for this warm weather. I also don't do black shoes either... if you know me, you know I "don't do black shoes" unless I have to :)

Anyways, more to come on Chicago later...

Craigslist Finds 1.0

I have a confession... I, Amy, am obsessed with looking at furniture on Craigslist.com.

I lay in bed at night on my ipad searching furniture on craigslist to see if I can find any good deals. I rarely act on them but it still gives me such satisfaction to see a good deal on items that an owner can't see potential on or just wants to get rid of. You know what they say "one man's junk is another man's treassure."

The reward is huge when you score something off of here, the risk is your LIFE. Ok, kinda kidding but it is weird showing up at a stranger's house. My in-laws are convinced I will be a victim of the Craigslist killer.

Anyways, here are some things I found on craigslist in Atlanta yesterday.

These chairs could be really fun with their geographic design maybe painted in a lacquered white, black, navy, grey, really any color. I'd also update the cushions fabric as well.
CL Chairs

Ok, first, ignore the figurine on top... Think of this either stained dark or painted and distressed in a creamy white. This could be a pretty buffet or tv stand for $100.
CL Buffett

After posting my adirondack chairs on yesterday's post, I saw these chairs for $50 each or $180 for 4. Not a bad price for brand new & assembled adirondack chairs. (Most store bought adirondack chairs aren't assembled.)
CL Adirondack chairs

This is a zinc-top farm table. If you haven't seen a zinc table basically it means metal topped table. I am a HUGE fan of metal top tables. I love how durable they are and how they add another texture or element versus a regular wood top table. Industrial furniture is so popular right now but I think that even if your style isn't industrial-chic you can still mix a metal table in and for $495 that's a steal! Scott's Antique has a lot of these tables too.
CL Zinc Table

A couple tips too for staying safe with craigslist ads:
1. Never put your full name in the email
2. If you get the heeby-jeebies from the poster when you email or talk on the phone, go with your gut and walk away

3. Try to meet in an open neutral place, avoid homes if you can
4. If you do meet at the home, see if they can just bring the furniture outside
5. Bring a friend (I prefer hubs/male) with you to meet the poster
6. If you meet at a house, let a friend know the address and what time you are meeting and make sure you talk to the friend afterwards to let them know you have left the house and are ok.
7. After you email the poster the first time and they email you back from their personal email, search facebook with that email or their name to see if the person looks semi-normal... I know, I know... a lot of scary people in this world don't look scary, they look normal but still it doesn't hurt!
8. Avoid bad areas of town, if a poster lived in a bad part of Atlanta, I'd avoid them or make them meet me somewhere else in a safe + open area of town.
9. Pay Cash

Thankfully I've always had good success with craiglist. When we sold our furniture on craigslist after we bought our house we were nervous about letting people come to our house to get furniture. Surprisingly, everyone that bought from us was great, good nice people, funny enough every single one of them went to Andy Stanley's Buckhead Church too.

Good Luck and remember you can bargain with craigslist sellers too!

Charleston

Hubs and I went to Charleston over the weekend for a little getaway and to attend a wedding... I've been numerous times but hubs has only been once. He was flying on a small plane and they had to drop someone off there so I don't really even count that.

I was so excited to show him around and see all that Charleston has to offer... unfortunately storms were headed our way so it was really windy Friday night and then it rained, slash that, POURED on Saturday. Thankfully our friend's wedding was covered and beautifully perfect!

I was hoping to have some time to walk around, go to different boutiques and home stores, take pictures of all the beautiful architecture there but none of that happened. We did however catch a ghost tour Friday night, kinda fun (but kinda cheesy too). Here are a few fun pics from over the weekend:

This is on the Charleston Harbor near our resort we stayed at... loved looking at all the sailboats and yachts :) I already figured out how many wills my husband would need to do for clients so that we can buy one... a girl can dream right?

This is in downtown Charleston as the sun was setting... not really sure what it is but I do know that it's a beautiful courtyard!

Here are hubs and I at the wedding. It was at the Cotton Dock at Boone Hall Plantation, a really pretty plantation house and really neat site for weddings and events.

That is most of the pics I have of Charleston that are the least bit interesting besides all of my ghost tour pics of little round "orbs" that are supposedly ghost/spirits...

This week I have a couple of projects for the house, the first is my Master bedroom headboard...

This is a picture of it when I bought it was a random flea market... it was a brassy gold that needed to be touched up... I went home and painted it a pretty gold. After that I took some Minswax gel and wiped that over the creases and such to give it definition... I actually thought it looked pretty good at that point (wish I had a picture). Then I got antsy and decided to paint grey over it... not a good move... it now looks straight 90's airbrush grey... yuck. Hopefully this week I can paint it some more to get it looking good again.

Another project I have is these babies that I scored off of craigslist for $50 total!

There are 2 adirondack chairs, 2 footstools, and a folding table. The previous owner never stained or painted these so they are weathered and definitely need some TLC. I have been wanting adirondack chairs for our front porch but they're so dang expensive.

I have big plans for these babies. I have sanded everything but the table, after that I will prime them and then paint with a clean and crisp white paint outdoor paint similar to how I did my planter boxes below. I think they will end up perfect even if my husband thinks I am crazy in the meantime!

Eventually I hope to complete the porch with a 1 person swing that I'll also paint white. You know southern girls, we love some good porch sittin'!

Nashvegas

As a Tennessee alum a lot of my good girlfriends moved from Knoxville to Nashville after school. I however decided to go against the grain and move to Atlanta. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I hadn't moved here and had gone to Nashville instead. I know one thing, I wouldn't have met my darling husband so I guess I made the right decision. However, I do miss my college girls but luckily Nashville is a quick 3.5 hour drive.

Anyways, this past weekend I left for Nashville bright and early for a bridal shower that morning for one of my girlfriends. "Bagels with the Bride" to be exact, very cute! It was a great shower and my dear friend received lots of pretty things for her and her soon-to-be husband's new home. After the shower and a quick wardrobe change my friend and I headed to downtown Franklin for some antique and home shops. I've driven through this area but I've never actually walked around so I was super excited!

Me and the Bride out for dinner and drinks at Tavern in Nashville (my fav)!!!

When I told my husband that I was going into these stores his response was "won't things be marked up in a store?" Yes, I've trained him well, ha. In all actuality the prices were pretty reasonable but this could also be because things tend to be more marked up in Atlanta. I really didn't get anything that exciting, my friend got a pretty gold bar table for $99 though (wish I had a pic)! I did get some fun books that averaged about $7 a piece and are all dated from late 1800's to 1940's. Here are a few of my favorites:

Ok, this is Amy Vanderbilt's etiquette book. When I saw this I pretty much died on the spot for this book.

1- My name is Amy too!
2- I love old etiquette books
I mean who doesn't need to know things like proper attire for their yacht? Or how to arrange the living quarters for your staff members? My friends and I got the biggest quick out of her using the word "shant"... Ex: "You shant think I am silly about getting this excited over a book, there's a lot of useful knowledge in here."

I must say after flipping through it, I am going to make the assumption that Amy Vanderbilt was a wee bit pretentious. I might be wrong but that's just how I perceived her from the book. Either way, she sounds like a fun friend to have with all of wait staff and yachts, right?
p.s. Amy also thinks it's unnessesary to send Christmas cards, spending hours addressing hundreds of cards takes the spirit out of Christmas.


These 2 books are for hubster. He loves historical books about America, wars, etc. The other is an ethics book for young people. I consider Ry a very ethical person and I think he is probably convinced at his wise, old age of 30 that kids these days weren't brought up the way he/we were. It made me think of him...

These 2 books are larger than the others and pretty. The red one in the background has a really cool cover and is about all the different big city capitals the world at the time (1893). The other is from 1940's and called "A Treasury of Early American Homes." It has tons of pictures of gorgeous homes around the US like this one in Charleston, South Carolina.

Other than books I got some mercury glass candle holders and votives for $3-$5 a piece at a store. I am planning on getting some more in other shapes and sizes for my mantle. I am having a hard time decorating that space when there is a HUGE tv taking up 60 inches of the space and an ugly black speaker box underneath (ugh, sigh, boys).... I'm thinking of loosing the topiaries and doing large vases on each side full of cotton branches, what do you think?

Here's a final picture of a few of my good friends out in Nashville... aren't they all so pretty? They are all equally as lovely on the inside too! We had so much fun and I can't wait till my next trip there in Nashville for the one on the far right's bridal shower. Hubs will be in tow for this couples shower so it should be fun, maybe I'll even take him along to downtown Franklin :)