Sunday Happenings

Happy Sunday!

It's been beautiful weather in Atlanta this weekend and we've tried to be outdoors as much as possible soaking in the glimpses we've had of spring being around the corner.

Friday morning, Houston said he wanted us to both look forward to a date night on the patio when we got home from work! So we both came straight home from work and we sat our on our porch and shared some cheese and crackers and Banshee Pinot Noir wine that was really good.

I recently discovered this amazing playlist on Spotify called "Coffee Table Jazz" and we turned the playlist on and enjoyed a wonderful, relaxing night at home. I highly recommend it!

Houston cooked us some yummy steaks on the grill and we caught up on some of our TV shows and called it an early night!

I woke up early yesterday morning for my final Pure Barre training and I'll officially start working the front desk at the studio next month, I'm so excited! Sat out on the porch in the afternoon soaking up some Vitamin D and grabbed dinner with some of our friends at 1KEPT.

We have a pretty relaxing Sunday planned with brunch at Red Pepper and church tonight at 5:00.

Here are a few Sunday Happenings for you lately...

We have a nephew on the way!!
What I'm most excited to share is that we have a little nephew on the way!! My sister Betsy and her husband Michael told us over Christmas that they were expecting their first and two weeks ago I was able to fly home to Orlando for the Gender Reveal Party and found out it's a baby boy!!

I thought it was the perfect way for them to announce the gender - both Betsy and Michael are big golfers and they found a golf ball on Etsy that would explode pink or blue when they hit it!

Our family is overjoyed and already love this unborn baby boy so much - we just can't wait to meet him! Open to any and all auntie advice :)

Below are a few pictures from the Reveal Party:

 

Healthy Recipe Inspiration

I found this article on Facebook, this woman lost 100 pounds in the last year and shares some of her favorite go-to, healthy meals. Here's a link to the BuzzFeed article.

The Smoked Salmon Cucumber Rolls and Brussel Sprouts and Sweet Potato Noodle Bowl 

look amazing and actually doable!!

5k for Atlanta Mission
Last weekend we had the opportunity to run in a 5K to support Atlanta Mission which is one of our very favorite organizations in Atlanta supporting homelessness. We love the mission they stand for and all the great things they do for our city and homeless community.

Now I'm not much of a runner any more, so the 5K was certainly challenging for me but I was impressed we ran more than I was expecting. Some friends of ours were able to join us and we had so much fun running through downtown Atlanta together.

 

J.Crew + NB Workout Clothes

One of my favorite bloggers, Carly from The College Prepster recently shared that J.Crew teamed up with New Balance on some adorable workout clothes. So many cute fitness clothes I want to try now!!

They have the cutest pink crops that I want here.

Hope you have an awesome week and we have more of this spring-like weather!

xox, A

2016 Favorite Atlanta Restaurants

One of my favorite bloggers, Luisa from Peaches to Pearls, is here in Atlanta and she recently posted her favorite restaurants from 2016 and I thought that was a fun idea!

A few of Luisa's top choices have definitely made their way onto our list this past year, especially her #1 choice of Colletta at Avalon in Alpharetta - AH-mazing. Also Bartaco and Smokebelly BBQ would be on our list of top Atlanta restaurants.

Here are our favorite Atlanta restaurants of 2016:

1KEPT
Hands down our favorite restaurant this year has been 1KEPT. If we've had friends or family in town, it's our go-to dinner option. It was tough to find the first time we went
(you park behind the building off of Peachtree)
and is around the corner from us so it's also a great date night spot for us.

We love the atmosphere and the food is tough to beat!

They have some delicious cocktails or sometimes we'll bring a bottle of wine to share.
A lot of Atlanta restaurants will let you bring your own wine and just charge you a corkage fee
(we typically call ahead to be sure it's okay) and typically saves us money on our bill.

As far as appetizers, a few of our favorites include the pimento cheese board, deviled eggs, meatballs and black truffle popcorn. Their flatbreads are also easy to share for an appetizer.

Houston and I used to play rock, paper, scissors for who got to order the Chicken Schnitzel for dinner and whoever lost would just eat the other's chicken. So we gave up, and now we both just order it.
Seriously you won't regret ordering it!
Don't get me wrong they have other amazing dishes, but I'm yet to find one I'd rather order over the chicken.

We typically don't order dessert when we're out, but we had an awesome waiter there one night who earned our trust quickly with his recommendations and he talked us into the pecan pie, and I think we've gotten it every time since.

So there are our top 10 for 2016. What are some of your favorites we should try?
xox, A

Christmas Cookie Exchange

This year, I hosted my second annual Christmas Cookie Exchange.

For 25 years, my mom hosted her own cookie exchange for friends and she has passed the tradition along to me! 

My mom and sister Betsy flew up from Orlando to come to the party which was so special to me to have them here with me.

I used Postable to mail out invitations for the party making it super easy!

(Also used Postable to send our Christmas cards this year)

I asked friends to bring 3 dozen cookies to share. I made homemade Nutmeg Cookie Logs which are a family staple for us at Christmas. They certainly take some time to make but are SO worth it!

It was also helpful to have ladies bring some food to help me, which was a lesson I learned last time.

I had some Christmas music playing in the background from a Spotify playlist I created. When ladies arrived, I had them sign the guestbook (I'm hoping to keep the guest list going each year), then we mingled in the kitchen for a while. My sister helped me make 

a simple and delicious Champagne cocktail which I shared the recipe on the blog last week. 

Then we took our food and sat in the living room while I read the Christmas story out of the Bible in Luke Chapter 2. I enjoy getting to read it at the Cookie Exchange with friends, I rarely get to hear it myself except during church on Christmas Eve so I loved sharing it.

Here are a few pictures from our fun night together!

So special to have my mom and sister Betsy fly up from Orlando just for the Cookie Exchange

Champagne cocktail recipe here

I love hosting and enjoyed having such special friends over!!

xox, A

30 Before 30

I recently turned 25 and I think it's time to retire my "25 before 25" list 

and work on some new goals for the next 5 years!

I blogged a few months ago with some goals for the 2016 calendar year,
but this goes beyond just this calendar year!

So here we go, here are 30 goals I hope to accomplish before I turn 30 on May 19. 2021:

1. Write a list of 30 goals and encourage others to do so (Please comment me a link to your own list!)

2. Read my Bible more, as well as faith-based devotionals

3. Start our own company

4. Attend a blogging conference

5. Send my mom flowers out of the blue

6. Learn calligraphy and use it!

7. Have a picnic with Houston in an Atlanta park

8. Get a puppy!!!! We just need to agree on a breed we like first... stay tuned!

9. Read 5 books cover to cover

10. Work at meal planning... so we stop making 5 trips to the grocery store each week ;)

11. Have friends over for a blind wine tasting

12. Successfully plant herbs (and keep them alive) in our backyard

13. Consistently workout and more importantly be content and happy with how I look

14. Get our porch updated and hang Edison lights outside

15. Run (and walk) a half marathon

16. Travel abroad with Houston

17. Cook a big meal and host a dinner party for friends

18. Watch a meteor shower

19. Go on a couples vacation

20. This is a stretch - learn to speak another language. Hopefully French! Oui oui

21. Then we should probably travel to France to use that French language ;)

22. Join Junior League of Atlanta

23. Spend time serving the homeless in Atlanta

24. Take a golf lesson. How proud will Houston be of me?!

25. Unplug for an entire weekend. I should do this at least once a year.

26. Invest in real sunglasses. No more $5 sunnies.

27. Get better at budgeting, especially when it comes to groceries

28. Become a Pure Barre instructor - I have fallen in love with Pure Barre and would love to teach classes if the opportunity is available!

29. With our recent interest of wine the last few years, go to Napa Valley with Houston

(Maybe for our 3rd wedding anniversary trip?? Yes please!)

30. Throw a huge birthday bash for Houston's and my 30th birthdays!

There it is! I'll keep you all posted on how my goals are coming along by posting to a separate page as well. You can find it at the top of my blog under the "30 Before 30" page.

Thank you Business Insider for some inspiration!

It's fun to think about where Houston's and my life will be five years from now. Where do you see yourself in five years? And what do you hope to accomplish?

xox, A

July Journal

I can't believe it's already the last day of July! This summer is flying by, but we've been able to do a lot of fun things with family and friends this month. So I thought I'd share a little journal of all the things we've been up to this month and of course some pictures.

4th of July Weekend in Highlands, NC

We drove up to Highlands, North Carolina for the 4th of July weekend to meet up with my family who came from Orlando. The first night, we got dinner at one of my all time favorite restaurants Canyon Kitchen in Lonesome Valley. The view is breathtaking (especially in the fall when the leaves change!) and the food is amazing and creative.
A lot of the food coming straight from their garden out back.

High Hampton Inn is an adorable place to stay that we like to visit while we're there. We went for lunch the next day and the guys played golf while the girls went shopping in Cashiers, the nearby town to Highlands. 

High Hampton has llamas that golfers can use to carry their golf bags!!
I'm not kidding. How cute are they?!

The next morning we went hiking at Whiteside Mountain. I think it's a nice level of challenging but not overly exhausting - my kind of hiking! It was a little foggy when we got to the top, but still beautiful! 

One night we went to this precious church for a hymnal sing, it can't seat more than 40-50 people. It was a wonderful and much needed vacation with family and nice to get away for a few days. And the drive from Atlanta is so easy - I highly recommend it! The main street in Highlands is so cute and I love that there is hardly any cell phone reception in the town. The perfect getaway!

Wine Tasting at Savi

We went to a fun Pinot Noir wine tasting with our friends Kristin, Colin and Jules at the beginning of the month for a little "Wine Down Wednesday," hosted by Georgia's only Master Sommelier, Michael McNeil. We got to taste 6 amazing pinots and they had fruit, meats, cheeses and crackers to compliment the wine as well.

This is the list of delicious Pinot Noir wines we tasted. My favorite was the second on the list,
2008 Domaine Serene "Evenstad" Reserve from Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Savi Provisions in Buckhead hosts several events a week in their wine tasting room. Some are free and others have a cost. If you're in the area, I'd highly recommend giving them a try. We've enjoyed trying a few so far, and have learned a lot more about wine from the ones we've gone to. Savi does a really impressive job! Great balance of education and great wine! Here is a link to their upcoming events calendar.

Wedding Weekend in Naperville, IL

Houston and I flew up for a fun weekend with friends to Naperville, outside of Chicago, earlier this month. Houston was a groomsman in the wedding, one of his best friends from college married the love of his life and the wedding was stunning. One of the most fun weddings I've ever been to! 

Several of our friends from college were there - the boys were in the wedding so us girls had a mini girls weekend and we enjoyed exploring around! Ashley and I tried Bar Method to sneak in a barre workout one morning and met up with the other girls to get our nails done afterwards. I liked trying a new barre workout, lots of similarities but always interesting to see how different studios work. 

Then we got ready for the rehearsal.

On Saturday, us girls got some breakfast while the boys got ready for the wedding. We laid out by the pool to get some sun before the wedding and headed to the church. The reception was stunning. There were so many little things throughout that night that were extra special - the father of the bride, best man and MOH speeches were all so heartfelt (and tear-jerking!), the first dance was super sweet, the food and music were amazing and the evening was complete with a flash mob!
We loved celebrating our sweet friends!

Hillsong United Concert

I surprised Houston and took him to a Hillsong United concert at Lakewood Amphitheatre. Hillsong is a Christian band that has written countless of the popular contemporary songs we sing at church so it was really cool to get to see them sing live. They are so talented and it was an inexplainable feeling to get to worship with nearly 20,000 other believers.
Absolutely amazing and I hope we get to see them perform again someday!

Tybee Island Weekend

Last weekend, I went to Tybee Island with the girls in my Bible study. I had never been to Tybee Island so I enjoyed visiting after hearing about Tybee for so long. I loved getting to know the girls in my group better and always love a beach weekend. I'm so thankful for these new friends of mine and growing in our relationships with the Lord through our friendships.

We stopped in Savannah on our way home for brunch at Huey's. Has anyone had those beignets before?? I hadn't been back to Savannah since my bachelorette 2 1/2 years ago, so it was fun to be back even for a few hours. Would love to spend a weekend with Houston there soon!

#PowerCoupleWedding2016

Wrapping up the month of July, we had a blast at a wedding last night for some great friends of ours here in Atlanta. Great friends, great food, great music, it was an absolutely honor to be included this weekend to celebrate such sweet friends! 

It was a formal wedding and I wasn't sure what to wear so I rented a dress from Rent the Runway, which was a great experience. I've rented from them twice before and I think it's the best business idea. Get $30 off your first order and I'll get $30 off my next one if you use my link here.

I went with some of my closest friends to get our hair done at DryBar beforehand for an updo. After getting all dolled up we headed to The Georgian Terrace Hotel for the ceremony and reception. It was absolutely stunning! We are so thankful for our special friends we've made in Atlanta.

It's been a busy but memorable month! Ready or not.. here comes August!

xox, A