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SPAIN TRIP | GAUDI AND BEYOND

I survived my first trip overseas with my in-laws! I kid, they are a breeze to hang around.  Dustin, his parents, youngest sister and I had a fantastic trip exploring Madrid and Barcelona for six days!  Since Rebecca Joy’s Spring Break fell a little earlier than we could make it out there, they went ahead to explore Seville for a few days then met us in Madrid late Monday night.  We landed around 9:00am and went straight for the hotel, which wasn’t ready yet but we dropped off our luggage and sleepily walked what felt like 399 miles all over Madrid until we were let in to sleep a few hours and get cleaned up. That night we joined up with the rest of the gang and went to a really nice dinner near our hotel.

The following morning we had tickets to tour the Royal Palace of Madrid and then a private tour of the Prado Museum. I would recommend the palace tour (I mean it’s a palace, can’t go wrong with looking at past royalty’s belongings) but the museum I could have done without.  I feel a little bad about saying that especially since it’s been said to be the best single collection of Spanish art but the European 12th century – early 20th century art just isn’t my jam.  One thing that did stand out that I enjoyed was The Garden of Earthly Delights because not only is it risque but our tour guide spent about 30 min (or more, no joke) just covering this one painting and the result was pretty hilarious though one or more of the Winchesters felt pretty uncomfortable..I think if I only went in there and saw all of Hieronymus Bosch‘s art I would have been just fine. However, Dustin and I have a friend who’s an art history buff and loves the place so do some research and see if it’s up your alley.

After a full day and one night in Madrid we hopped on a high speed train to Barcelona.  We bought some wine to bring with, sipped on that and checked out the sights till we all fell asleep. Then we were in Barcelona!

Spent that evening getting our bearings on our neighborhood which was just North of the Gothic Quarter and then walked down to explore that area and get dinner. The next day was all about Gaudi!

First stop was Park Guell.  When we arrived it was raining so we bought some cheesy tourist umbrellas, cause ya know, we’re prepared like that and set out to learn all about Gaudi and Eusebi Güell‘s attempt at a gated community turned municipal garden. You didn’t know it was originally supposed to be a high-end neighborhood either? Yea, that was news to me too! Apparently they couldn’t get investors and the construction just sorta stopped after only two houses were built. neither of which were designed by Gaudi but he did end up buying one.

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WEST ELM | SHOP LOCAL

When West Elm asked if I wanted to curate a local pop up at the Atlantic Station location I lit up! After all, it is West Elm we’re talking about here and they are my favorite home decor brand but also because I personally know lots of awesome local artists and makers I immediately thought of to include.  Hard to pick favorites, but these six are up there on the list!

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Neva Opet

Rachel and I met at a pop up shop a few years ago and hit it off immediately-actually went out for drinks that very night! She’s a self taught designer and leather worker who makes some seriously rad bags and accessories. I bought a fun limited edition necklace from her recently but after browsing her site, MUST OWN THIS BACKPACK!

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Charlotte Smith Studios

Just take a second to look at those minimal beauties….ya. She really nails ceramic chic-which I may or may not have just made up.  She mostly makes cups but every time I’ve visited her booth at Root City Market she’s explaining that they can double even triple in use: cup/bowl/catch-all/planter!

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Cameoko

Is a resin jewelry line featuring materials like gold flake and gemstones to create one-of-a-kind pieces that are unlike the average resin jewelry you’ve seen. Camille’s pieces have a vintage vibe but with modern boho designs. I’m most fond of the crescent moons and triangles.

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A Sensible Habit

Is the brain child of Brandy, who’s got her hands in lots of various medias from ceramics, textiles, paint and probably something new tomorrow! When I met her in real life (first was through IG) I snagged the littlest, most adorable plate, just look!

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KMM & CO

Had to throw a guy in the mix!  Kyle is another very talented leather maker. His styles offer both feminine and masculine touches. I have the above bag and matching wallet. They are sure to last a very very long time with how durable the leather is and how they’ve gotten even better with age!

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Melting Sun Apparel

Lauren, another gal that does it all, has been creating everything from jewelry, tapestries, to recently branching out to clothes and believe it or not TATTOOS! She does the stick and poke method and I can personally tell ya, they’re good ;)

Hope you all can swing by tomorrow from 1-6!

Additional deets:

Free event
Free 2 hour parking
Free Locally made WHOOPIE PIES!

Kindly RSVP here https://westelmlocalatlanta.splashthat.com/

MUSEUM DATE NIGHT

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A couple of months back Dustin and I bought a membership to the High Museum because we wanted to get in the habit of doing more diverse outings around town. You know, instead of just hitting up parties and dinners, but real talk…who doesn’t love those!?

On Friday we didn’t have plans and thought it was the perfect time to finally use our membership and hit up our friends-Cristi and Derek-way last minute and they were also into going.  We love us some double dates!

Originally we wanted to see several of the exhibits inside but after arriving we quickly got distracted by the performance happening around the Sifly Piassa (ps it’s free and open the public so you could make a night of just hanging around there)

The distraction was the vibrant Los Trompos exhibit by contemporary Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena.  It’s the High’s second large-scale interactive outdoor exhibit and definitely my favorite!  The colorfully woven hut-like creations were so fun and everyone from small children to sweet older couples were enjoying them, including us! Dustin spun me around a few times as I held on to the exterior for dear life (seriously, my guy is strong!)

We happened to go on a night when local sound and composer artist, Ben Coleman, was performing his reaction to the exhibit called “Zoetrope.”  It created a “playground for happy eyes and ears”  (via High.org) and made us feel like well-dressed kids playing in public! Pictured here are the “tame moments” haha, hope you like Dustin’s creative vision of tonights outfit post!

Side note: this Billabong coverup is one of my favorite pieces in my closet! And just between us, it was way to hot to wear it, sorta dying here!

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My outfit includes a Billabong kimono, Free People tank, TOMS sunglasses, Mother denim jeans, Madewell necklace and Naya sandles.

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We really did have a blast. There was another area inside with live music, multiple areas you could purchase drinks (though you couldn’t bring into exhibits so that kinda sucked) and overall a really rad date night out. We concluded with hangs at The Lawrence and deviled eggs. A Friday well spent in the A-T-L for sure!

And lastly, I’ll leave you with a gif of Dustin having fun spinning with his cocktail by the talented Sarah “Slaw” Lawrence!

 

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SNEAK PEEK: WEST ELM PONCE

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Last night I had the pleasure of attending the opening of the newest Atlanta West Elm, the 14,000 square foot Ponce City Market location!  The above photo is the living wall backdrop of their cashwrap. Nicole, the Director of PR for West Elm, explained to me that there’s an irrigation system installed in the reclaimed wood. Living artwork, how cool!

They salvaged the original floors and columns of the first tenants, Sears Roebuck. Read more about the history of Ponce City’s building on the trusty Wiki page here.

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Local artist, Britt Bass, painted the art in the front window displays. She’s one of my favorites and definitely has West Elm vibes so her work fit in perfectly with the merchandise.

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Can’t beat natural light and high ceilings!

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The decor I favored most were the deep shades of navy and crisp whites. As it so happens, these are our wedding colors too! Additionally, we are registered at West Elm. Just putting that out there, heheh.

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This location will be the third of it’s kind in the US with it’s Market that will brew local coffee as well as sell Market will include a coffee shop and an extension of West Elm’s kitchen, personal care, homescent, gifting, food and bath assortment.

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One of the many many reasons I love West Elm is their support for local talent. In this shop alone they feature and sell 15 Georgia artisan’s goods. To see the full list, click here.

This store may be huge but since the merchandisers cleverly packed all 14,000 sqft. it makes it feel cozy and not like you’re perusing around a big, empty warehouse. Everywhere you turn, there are different vibes sure to please anyone’s style!

Hope you enjoyed my little preview of the store! Get over there and see for yourself!

675 PONCE DE LEON AVE NE
ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30308

STAMPSHOP

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Leela of Native Bear held a stamp workshop on Sunday at her new studio space in Candler Park that she shares with the ladies of Indie Craft Experience.  The day was rainy and grey but since the front of the studio is all windows, there was still a good bit of natural light for photographing the event – while also participating.  My friend Amanda joined in on the class with me and since I actually know Leela personally it was like just hanging with friends being crafty!
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Leela shared her story about how she got started and grew her business and then gave a run down of how to safely carve and then we began sketching out our designs.  I had jotted down some ideas of what I wanted to carve but hadn’t actually sketched anything yet.  Amanda, who’s the in-house artist at Whole Foods came prepared with some drawn out ideas. We both liked the bird and sun sketch the most so she put some finishing touches on it and decided to go with that as her stamp.
16724424621_617dde69c6_k16699776686_07278343a5_kWe had the option of doing one big one or several littles and I went with doing a few small ones to later do patterns.  I drew, traced and carved out a teepee, cactus and wishbone.  16539550349_bb323938ab_k
For printing there was card stock, tea towels and canvas fabric. I first went to the tea towel station and made two towels for our kitchen using the teepee stamp and cactus stamp.
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Besides the folks I knew, the class as a whole was a really great group of people, which helps when you’re doing something creative!  Several ladies did their company’s logos and others went with carvings like mine to make patterns.  Everyone did such a good job, so much talent!
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I was so happy with how everything turned out!  We’ve been using the towels in the kitchen and I’m really liking the fabric and size. Thinking I’ll get some more and make gifts for friends because they are so much better than using paper towels.  I printed enough cards to have a complete set of stationary which is fun because I love snailmail.  Amanda did something really creative and combined two inks to make a fade in her design (lower left hand corner) that turned out really cool!

We all had so much fun learning, creating, laughing- I can’t say it enough how good of a job Leela did hosting this workshop! I love her work so much that she has made our save-the-date stamp and will soon be making our invite stamp for our wedding. I’ll share those with you after they’ve been sent out.

She hasn’t announced the next class but if you follow her on Instagram, @NATIVEBEARATL, you’ll be in the loop.  Big time recommend!