Monthly Archives

October 2014

BLUE RIDGE, GA

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Last weekend was spent in North Georgia with Dustin, his cousin and her husband.  They have three kids and wanted an adult-only weekend in the mountains taking in the changing leaves, sipping pumpkin beers and chilling out. We gladly accepted the downtime! We even got to sleep in, which is always amazing since a lot of weekends we get up naturally early or have to be somewhere. Saturday while we were hiking around the backyard I snapped photos of the surroundings.  The backyard was STUNNING! There was a big creek, man made waterfall and water collecting system, several porches and bridge. We didn’t have to go far to feel like we were way up in the mountains!
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After exploring on Saturday we went to downtown Blue Ridge to check out the cute little town.  The only photo I took was of this train that does a scenic tour of the mountains. We climbed aboard and peeked in but didn’t ride it since it didn’t seem to be active at the time. While in the city we grabbed some locally brewed beers, German pretzels, played corn hole and popped in a few shops. Adorable!

If this post didn’t get you in the Fall spirit – I don’t know what will!

Have a great weekend, hope it’s filled with pumpkin patches, spiced apple cider and sweaters!

Cirque du Soleil AMALUNA + a GIVEAWAY (closed)

DATE NIGHT
Sunday evening we were invited to check out the new Cirque du Soleil act in town called Amaluna as media.  I had been to the Totem performance back in December of 2012 and was excited to check out a new act!  I was excited to learn that it was Cirque’s 30th anniversary because I knew they’d probably go all out with this act-and that they DID! 15348969338_9043cb39a4_k
What I wore: TOMS shades, H&M jacket, Rag-O-Rama dress (sorry can’t remember the brand!) Ali Sage necklace and Nine West booties. When I asked Dustin to jump in front of the camera he was such a good sport. Adore him! What Dustin wore: a shirt from TJ Maxx I saw and loved and surprised him with, we both like the arrow details in the pattern. Gap jeans, Clarks oxfords.
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Without giving too much away…the story line of the show goes something like this:  a young woman living on a mysterious island that is governed by goddesses is being given a coming-of-age celebration by her mother.  A storm lands a group of men on the shore leading to the main character, Miranda, meeting one of the men and falling in love. They face many trials and obstacles before they can trust one another and properly be blessed by the community.

Here are some stills to give you an idea of what to expect, though it’s so much more magical in real life!
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Cirque du Soleil Photos by Pouya Dianat/Allied Integrated Marketing

The actors show just how much the human body can really do!  With a cast of 70% women this particular performance is unlike any others in years past.  Even the band is made up of all women, pretty cool!  I especially enjoyed the quirkiness of the “ring leaders” who kept the crowd distracted and involved in between acts.  At one point during the performances I thought to myself, “this is like being at a REALLY eclectic gymnastics meet” and when I told Dustin this thought, he agreed.  At the Q&A we learned they actually cast gymnasts and brought in some aspects that had never been done, like the uneven bars, so I was pretty spot on!  That “pool” you see above was another never-been-done-before part of the show. Well, it had never been done for a traveling show.  It’s filled with water and is actually being filtered and heated to 98 degrees.  It took four hours to fill and so they don’t drain it until they hit the road to the next city-that’s why it has a filtration system. Also, it’s SO HEAVY they can’t remove it from the stage-so it’s integrated into the set for each performance.  The Q&A at the end was so interesting, I could go on and on about all the stuff we learned but I want to get to the exciting part of this post-

THE GIVEAWAY!
To win a pair of tickets to see Amaluna, Tuesday Oct. 28th at 7:30 all you have to do is comment here with how you follow along the blog – is it through Facebook, Instagram or Twitter? If none-then you better get to liking/following to be entered to win! :) I’ve got 2 sets of tickets to give away-a total of 4 tickets!! Include your email as well so I can get you the PDF tickets. I’ll pick the 2 winners on the 21st. Good luck!

Twitter: @cirque, #Amaluna
Instagram: cirquedusoleil

SLOW FOOD ATLANTA

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On Wednesday Slow Food Atlanta hosted a series called “The Drunken Snail” and partnered with chef Jennifer Booker, Concrete Jungle and Mercier Orchards for a night at Little Vinyl Lounge sipping and snacking on an apple-themed menu.  My good pal Katherine helps run Concrete Jungle so I went to support her efforts as well as get a taste of Fall and find out more about Slow Food. Here’s what I learned, Slow Foods USA is a non-profit organization that believes in slowing down, enjoying good HEALTHY food and taking time to learn about where your food comes from-among many other food related things! It’s national, member supported and has events everywhere. They aim to get you to reconsider the fast, most likely unhealthy, options and consider how that food will affect you and the environment. Like I said, they believe and care a lot about all things food- from growing to educating to eating. Read more here.
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What I wore: Vintage top, Target button down, Citizen for Humanity jeans, Yellow Box moccasins, Madewell tote, TOMS shades and locally made necklace by Ali Sage.
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Little Vinyl Lounge is under Star Bar. In case you’re wondering it’s always been there but has now become a separate venue rather than just being the place you retreated from the loud and smokey upstairs.  It’s been revamped and is smoke-free! They have a huge jukebox that’s filled with 7″ vinyl records from local bands. The owner, Susan, was telling us that at the end of each month they tally up which record got played the most and that band is rewarded a $100 bar tab!
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The featured drink of the night was cider from Mercier Orchards  of Blue Ridge mixed with bourbon and some Autumn spices-so yummy!
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Apples were the theme so even the meat was paired with apples. Chef Jennifer made her own bourbon bbq sauce and made these apple and chicken skewers-very tasty. Not pictured were the zucchini and apple fritters and apple pancakes. All of it was delicious and paired very well with the featured cocktail.
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This photo screams Fall-love it!  That little fruit is called a flying dragon fruit and was picked by Katherine. The bar juiced 4 pounds of these little guys and used them in a spritzer. It’s taste is citrus with piney, earthy notes.  She gave us one to take home, the cats have been sniffing and curious about this fuzzy little fruit!

Speaking of all things Fall, we are going to the Blue Ridge mountains this evening until Sunday. We plan on having lots of fires and making smores, going hiking, cooking a little bit and maybe going to the Mercier on Sunday if there’s time. Have a good weekend!

CAMP FALL SUPPER

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Remember this post recapping my experience with the CAMP Summer Supper? It made such an impression on me that I had to attend the recent Fall Supper!  The venue was the same as the last supper but this time around they transformed it into a cozy Autumn hangout.  Sun in My Belly fits the vibe of the group of folks that host and show up so nicely, it’s a perfect fit!

The motivation of this event is meeting and mingling, so most of the night was nibbling on food in between talking to new and old friends. So I mostly stuck with the easy finger food options, my favorite was the appetizer pork tacos, I could eat a taco any season of the year! Check out my photos from the low-lit evening —

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What I wore: H&M dress, Gap chambray shirt, Sam Edelman boots, Ax and Arrow necklace, Madewell tote and Stetson hat.
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There was a Smile Booth, fire pit, and a really great raffle of the above prizes (more not captured in this photo.) I was crossing all my fingers and toes for that Atlanta stamp made by Yes Ma’am Paper Goods!! Sadly I didn’t win anything but I did leave with a great time and some new gal pals! Thanks for another great time CAMP!

ATLANTA BOTANICAL GARDENS

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Unsure how I’ve lived in Atlanta for five years and not been to the Botanical Gardens but somehow it happened..that was until last Friday I took a half day and visited the gardens with Dustin and his old college friends that were in town visiting.  We had brunch at Flying Biscuit and then set out to oohh and ahhh at pretty flowers and plants. Even though it was late September, there was a lot of stuff in bloom!  They also have several green houses so you could technically go year-round and see plenty. At first I wanted to dress real cute and get a blog post at the gardens, then I decided to dress really comfy and concentrate on taking photos of the wildlife. Maybe another time when it’s just Dustin and I we can get an outfit post out of it. For now, check out all these amazing plants!
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The highlight of the experience for me was the Dorothy Chapman Fuqua Conservatory which housed plants in tropical and desert environments which means cacti (my favorite!) I chatted with one of the conservatory keepers and mentioned that I noticed that most every plant in there had spikes to which he casually said “yea, and they’re pretty poisonous.” Glad we didn’t touch any! Maybe some signs with this information would be helpful :P

Have a good day yall! Lots of posts in the works so come back real soon!