Pinterest



Since my last post, I’ve become addicted to Pinterest. That’s right, addicted. I keep it up all day and as I get a chance, I browse through all the wonderful recipes and outfit ideas people have.

My favorite part has probably been the recipes. I always struggle with being too lazy to write a recipe down and started saving them in my email, but this is much more convenient! Most evenings, my roomie and I sit down to decide what to try next. It’s also helped with my grocery list, because I can better plan out everything I will need in the days following.

All of the crafts I want to attempt, clothes I want to try on, and books I want to remember to read are all in one place. This may not be as exciting to other people, but this is an answer to prayers for me! If you need to find me over the next few weeks, you can probably find me stuck on Pinterest.

The Closer

The time I spend with my family is time that is most treasured to me. Losing my great-grandmother in 2006 taught me that life is fleeting. Sure, I had lost loved ones before, but this was the first person that I truly loved, looked up to and had a great desire to make proud.
Her loss showed me that I need to be spending as much time as possible with the people that I love, which is why moving to and staying in Atlanta is a constant internal struggle for me. I've come to the conclusion that I had to move in order to be truly happy and that means that I'm going to miss out on some wonderful bonding moments with my grandparents, all four of which I am very blessed to still have in my life.

I end up going home a fair amount to spend time with everyone, attend the birthday parties and try to make it to the occasional softball game of one of my nieces. However, I really love when my family takes the time to come see me and the world in which I live. The Sunday before last, my Dad brought his parents up to do just that.

It just so happened that a family reunion was happening right outside of Atlanta, so it was the perfect excuse for a visit. Sunday they were occupied with the festivities (or rather my grandmother was occupied by reliving her childhood and telling stories of her precious mother, the aforementioned great-grandmother).

While I worked on Monday, Dad took them to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke. After work, I jetted over to Turner Field to meet them for an evening game against the San Fransisco Giants. I love baseball, mostly because it reminds me of my grandmother, but I still love it.

I ordered copies of this photo for everyone.

The intimidating Brian Wilson walked out just in time to close the game and leave with a win for the Giants, but luckily the Braves pulled through in a dramatic 9th inning that left my grandfather quite entertained.

The game got me thinking about life, in that it starts off great, you make some great hits and you suffer some embarrassing outs. You might even make the occasional home run, but in the end, you hope to walk away with a victory; leaving behind lots of love and memories with the ones you care about the most. That's what my grandparents will one day leave me with; thoughts of sewing mini bean bags on my grandmother's old Singer, fishing in the trecherous swamp with my Grandfather and pretending to not be grossed out by the bugs everywhere because I wanted him to know I was tough enough to hang with the boys, and baseball games where we shared hotdogs and ice cream.

It was such a nice way to spend time together, even if it was for only a short 3.5 hours. It's times like these that I'll never forget.

For a laugh, see this video.

It's My Party

My birthday has come and gone, and I'm another year older. Birthdays have always been a big deal in my family. It was an important time where the entire family set aside time to get together and celebrate the life of someone we love.

It might be because of my childhood that I still get so excited about birthdays. Every year, I start planning a month in advance. I need to know what I'm going to wear and where I'm going to wear it. Due to not-so-favorable circumstances, I wasn't as excited about my birthday this year. I never found a new dress and I wasn't in the mood to celebrate. But, the day came and it got better...

This year,  I woke up to some pretty nice surprises; my roomie had a glitter banner, card, my favorite sweet treats and an amazing gift laid out for me.

Then she took me to enjoy brunch at West Egg, where I had mimosas and the Westside Pileup (it was delicious and I can't wait to go back).

I decided to start out with dinner at Aja. It's a part of the Here to Serve Restaurant Group, which I love. All of their restaurants are fabulous. I had yet to try this one, but have had an abnormal craving for asian cuisine lately, so I knew this would be perfect.

After dinner, we had plans to visit my go-to bar in Buckhead and then venture to a place that lots of my friends have been, but I had not yet visited. It ended up being a crazy night where we didn't get home until 4:00 a.m., but it was fun and I'm so appreciative to the people that came out to celebrate. It's nice to know that even when I'm not in the mood to party, I have friends near by to make sure I have a good time.

A couple of pics from the evening:

Happy Traveling

Growing up, my mother's idea of a family vacation involved a rented condo at a beach in Florida so that she could lay on the sand from sun up to sun down. As long as she was frying her skin, she was happy. My father's idea of a family vacation involved a trip to Disney World, where we would ride Dumbo and It's a Small World at the Magic Kingdom, eat at Rainforest Cafe and pick up our yearly Christmas tree ornament in Downtown Disney, and see a laser-water show at Epcot. Every year we did both. Thus, we didn't travel around much.

While in college I had the opportunity to attend conferences in Philadelphia and Detroit. I spent a long weekend in NYC with a friend and went to San Juan, Puerto Rico with my roommates senior year. Since college, I haven't been able to go anywhere (except for Charleston for the lovely Megan's bachelorette party).

Well ladies and gentlemen, I have exciting news. Thanks to work, I will be able to start traveling a bit. I know I won't have much time to take in these cities, but I'm excited to just soak it all in.

Scheduled this year I have 4 trips. The first is in 3 weeks and is in Amelia Island, FL (back to Florida, my second home). In October I get to go to San Diego & Montreal and in November I'll be in Grapevine, TX.

So I turned in my passport application (can't wait to get a cute cover) last week in hopes that lots of traveling is in my future. Someday soon(er than later) I foresee trips that will help me to be a better person. After all, I believe the most exciting thing about traveling to be the opportunity to take in someone else's culture.

Stay tuned for my tales and some pictures!

The Countdown Has Begun

"Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed " - Carrie Bradshaw

So the blogging has slowed down. Maybe that's because my life has slowed down.

I landed this amazing job and imagined I would be high on life by now, but unfortunately I am all but that. The job turned out to be a bore, but I'm trying to stay positive about it all.

I got a raise, I'm working with an amazing company and there are awesome opportunities ahead. Or at least I hope.

Socially things have slowed down as well. I've been trying to save money, although that hasn't exactly worked out either.

Regardless, my birthday is now 16 days away and I couldn't be more excited. To me, my birthday is the most important day of the year. It is my ultimate goal to eat good food, drink good drinks, go fabulous places with fabulous people and potentially end up doing something that will keep us laughing for years!

I still haven't found a dress (although I have a back up), I still haven't decided on the restaurant for dinner (although I know I want tapas) and I haven't decided where we will pregame (although I have somewhere in mind). I do know that we will be ending up at a dance club in Midtown, so that should be exciting.

If you're fabulous, then you are more than welcome to come! If you are not, then you are more than welcome to read about it in a couple of weeks.

Personality Test

Has anyone ever told you about “the cube?” While sitting on a patio under the beautiful sun and drinking delicious cocktails, one of my crazy friends told me to close my eyes because she wanted to try something. At first I was creeped out. Then she started directing me to picture things and answer questions.

Picture a cube. How big is it? Is it on the ground or in the air? Now picture a ladder. How close is it to the cube? How tall is it? Now flowers. How close are they to the cube? How do they make you feel?

Now picture a horse. Is he moving towards the cube or away? What’s his personality like (I struggled with this one the most because I couldn’t imagine a horse with a personality, except for Mr. Ed of course)? Now you see a storm. How bad is it? Is it moving towards or away from the cube?

Then she proceeded to tell me what my answers meant, and for the most part I agree with the reflection this had on my personality.

My cube was quite large, which corresponds with my self-image and ego, meaning that I am confident and think a lot of myself (I think we all knew this). My cube was on the ground, which means I am grounded and practical.

The ladder was leaning against my cube and represents my life goals. The fact that is was so close to my cube means that I am very focused on my goals right now. It was tall, meaning I have a lot of ambition.

The flower was close to the cube meaning that my friends mean a lot to me. The horse represents my ideal lover, which can explain why I had such difficulty answering questions about him. He had a shiny brown coat; that is all I know. I do like tall, dark and handsome guys.

The storm represents problems in my life. My storm was large, which means I have some issues to work through.

While I didn’t have an “ah ha moment” as Oprah calls it, it was a fun activity. Try it out on a friend and see if it works for you.

I want to walk in 10" heels. Just once.

"I try to push the silhouette. To change the silhouette is to change

the thinking of how we look."

-Alexander McQueen

I can’t even begin to express how badly I want to experience Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. From my very first fashion merchandising project that focused on his Spring 2008 Ready-to-Wear line, I was in love. The exaggerated hips, the admiration of the shoulders – this man was out to change the way we think about ourselves. He had a way of making the female figure look powerful while maintaining strong sensuality.

He was an artist in every sense of the word. His collections were about far more than making textiles drape the female body in a flattering way. His shows transcended the clothing itself. He calculated everything: every move the model would make, the light that would shine on the garment, every spec of makeup that was painted on the faces, and every inch of the heel that was placed on the feet (Oh God, the shoes).  Models were no longer humans when they marched his catwalk. They were canvases whose sole purpose was to portray his vision.

Maybe I’m looking for the “McQueen” in things, but I still see the influence that the first line I ever studied has.

The fact is that McQueen’s last few months of life broke our hearts, and his death left us empty. Watching his final collection being shown just a couple of weeks after his passing, something didn’t feel right. While I truly believe it to be his best collection ever, it was spawned from the darkest of his days. You can see the loneliness he must have felt just a few short months after his mother’s passing.

We may not have Lee (as he was known to his closest of friends), but atleast we'll always have The Horn of Plenty, Sarabande, and the ever infamous Dress, No. 13.

I only have a month to make it up to NYC to see the exhibition. Since I have a strong feeling I’m going to miss out on it, I’ll have to settle for this. Should be on my door step in 5 days. If anyone wants to join me for a quick weekend trip to the Met, let me know!