Sunburnt!

I had a lovely weekend, and I hope all of you did too! I spent Friday night catching up on a marathon of The Hills and Say Yes to the Dress (love both of those shows...and I hadn't watched the Hills since college--major blast from the past). Obviously it was very busy and exhausting-not! Saturday I did even more lounging around because it was very rainy and dark outside. I woke up early and managed to get a nice walk around my apartment complex in before another downpour started. So, I watched tv and enjoyed the rain.

In the afternoon, I finally gave into my permanent Bojangles craving, and drove down to Forest Park to pick up a tailgate special on my way to John's house. Up until this point, it had just been raining. The moment I got into my car and headed toward downtown ATL, the bottom fell out. I'm talking monsoon--torrential rain. It did this for the whole drive. But did I let this deter me from Bojangles? Absolutely not. I drove approximately 40 miles per hour through Atlanta to Bo's, picked up my (phenomenal) tailgate special and drove it to the park in Fayetteville to have a lovely rainy picnic--my favorite! It was under a very nice covered picnic area, and the rain had subsided a little by the time we were eating. We had the whole place to ourselves (except for a possible drug deal that we witnessed...), and it was great.

Sunday was the day of the Renaissance Festival. Oh, yes. I had never been to one before, but it was actually a lot of fun! Highlights included: jousting, a birds of prey show, comedic acrobats, petting zoos, turkey legs, a museum of torture and truly some of the best people watching I have ever experienced. Unfortunately for me, I was burnt to a crisp...ok maybe no that bad, but still pretty red. Overall, Renaissance Festival definitely gets two thumbs up. If you're in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend it. The festival is 8 weekends in Fairburn, GA, and you can buy tickets at Kroger before you go and get $2 off! Photos of the old time fun will be posted later this week :)

And in other excitment, I have a few countdowns:

Raleigh for the weekend--3 more days!
Jekyll Island beach weekend--32 days
BSB concert!!!--38 days (Atlanta friends, I'm sitting on the lawn if you'd like to join!)

What are you looking forward to? Happy week!

Mental Vacation

Oh my goodness, I wish I was in this photo at this very moment. Travelzoo popped up with a 6 night London trip for $799 last week too. Coincidence? I think not. I may consider this one very seriously...

Home Re-do

I've realized lately that my obsession with reading design blogs--just check the right side of this page...there are quite a few that I read daily--has translated into a need/want to change up something in my apartment. My apartment right now is a mix of slightly homey and just plain functional. I have lots of photos of my friends on the wall, which I think is a throwback to dorm life. Granted, at least now they are in nice frames and not just taped up on the wall, but I still can't decide if I have a picture overload. I have one frame collage that also has a couple of postcards and photos of places I love mixed in. Is it a good idea to mix and match? Should I just suck it up and downsize my friend photo collection on display? Any thoughts or opinions are appreciated :)

I'm not sure exactly what else I want to re-do, but I really wish my apartment offered an alternative living room setup. I wish I could move around my couch and chair and tv, but alas, its pretty much stuck as is.

Does anyone have any quick (and cheap) ideas for me to change up my place?

Happy Monday (for real!)

So, yet again, I have been neglecting the poor blog. But I promise that it is for good reason. Last week I was out of town for work (and very, very busy), so there was no time for any life musings or updates about my general fabulousity (ha!). And then early Friday morning--as in midnight--I was stricken with the plague. Still not sure what was wrong, but it was neither fun nor pleasant. Thank goodness for my coworkers who drove me back home and put up with my grossness for the ride back. Once I made it into my bed around 2:30 pm, I did not get back out until around 8:30 the next morning. Luckily, I'm back to normal now :)

So, there's not much to update on as of late. I have not made any fabulous purchases, or crafted anything, or reorganized my house at all. Although, I started on a closet overall/shoe organization effort last night. Maybe if it turns out really well I'll post pics when I'm done. There's nothing like a well-organized closet to brighten up a day. There are a few things on my current wish-list, which include a very cute mint green cardigan from J. Crew,

tickets to Avenue Q for John's birthday, and something else to get him as a gift. Still unsure about that one...feel free to leave comments if you know any guy friendly gifts! I've also been wanting to go back to the wonderful consignment/thrift shops in Chamblee that I posted about a few months back. There might be some treasure waiting to be found. And lastly, I planted a very cute flower pot of petunias (which I got for free!) about a week ago, and I need to pretty up the plain clay put that I bought. Time to bust out the sorority craft supplies, I guess.

One more current goal (which is always a current goal)--be healthier. I've actually gotten a jump start on this because I didn't eat for, oh, about 2.5 days with the sickness. So I'm automatically eating less now, and actually have a reall interest in seriously controlling my portion sizes, and buying healthier, fresh groceries. A trip to Trader Joe's is in order. I even went for a nice walk outside in Piedmont Park today at lunch. Not exactly a workout, but definitely better than just sitting at my desk. I want to start doing that much more often. Any little bit helps!

un-famous 2nd verses

Cute article about the 2nd verses of some of our favorite little kid songs...who knew?

Pollen, California & spring in the South

This week has been the perfect example of spring in the south. The week started out as hot as Hades. Seriously, it should not be 90 degrees during the 1st week of April. But, such is life. Today it was a mere 50 degrees when I walked out of my apartment to work. WOW it felt cold. Especially since I've been sweating to death first thing in the morning for the past few days. Thankfully, we had a little rain yesterday to help wash away some of the outrageous pollen thats been piling up all week. Yay! So now I'm looking forward to an honest-to-goodness spring-like weekend of 70 degree weather, sunshine, eating outside, sandals and shorts!

The week has been a busy one, but also a slow one too. I guess that's what I get for being out of the office living the fabulous California life for two weeks straight. And believe me, it was fabulous. Here is a little recap for you all:

My first week in San Francisco was lovely. I was by myself there for work related training. I had a glorious time! I met some great people in my class, and luckily had some free time to explore beautiful San Fran. I bought pretty jewelry at a street fair, went to a specialty cheese shop one night (and only had cheese for dinner..yum!), explored Fisherman's Wharf, ate amazing seafood at a restaurant overlooking the bay, toured Alcatraz (scary, but amazing views!), rode a cable car up the very, very steep hills, and even drove across the Golden Gate Bridge! It was a great week overall, and I feel lucky that I got to really take full advantage and see lots of things around the city.

For the second week, my parents flew out to meet me and we spent the week driving down the Pacific Coast Highway from San Fran to L.A., and stopping at all the fabulous little spots along the way. LOVED the drive down the coast. The road is literally on the side of mountain cliffs that drop right off into the ocean for a lot of the way down, and the views are spectacular. Northern California is a truly gorgeous place, and I highly reccommend it to anyone who gets the chance to go! As we made our way down, we stopped in Monterrey, Santa Cruz and few other surf spots. We spent a night in Santa Barbara, and then made our way to Hollywood. I really enjoyed Hollywood. We stayed in a hotel right off Hollywood Blvd, and of course we saw the handprints outside the Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater where they host the Oscars, and all the stars lining the sidewalks. We saw the Hollywood sign, we went to Beverly Hills (heavenly!), I shopping on Rodeo Dr. (dream come true!), drove around looking at big, beautiful (and i'm sure celebrity-owned) homes. We did a tour of Sony Pictures Studios which was a lot of fun. I even had my celebrity spotting there--Jason Biggs from American Pie walked right by! Of course we also visited a couple of presidential museums and also the Getty Center while we were there. Lots of stuff packed in, but we had a great trip!

It was so nice to be back home last weekend and hang out with John. We went to the Dixieland Funpark in Fayetteville, GA. I'd reccommend this place to anyone who is a fan of mini-golf, crappy rides and 90s arcade games. We actually had a lot of fun there! We also made an Easter meal together on Sunday since we were both Easter orphans, and it turned out really well.

Hopefully this weekend will be just as relaxing and fun. I'm hoping to do a little shopping, maybe see a friend or two, and hopefully go to Park Tavern at Piedmont Park at some point. I'm just glad its Friday :)

I'm back!

Yes, I have finally returned from the west coast, where I was for the past two weeks. I had a FABULOUS time. Really and truly loved it (except maybe for LA proper..but I still enjoyed Hollywood). I've been pretty busy at work today, so I'm hoping I'll have time for a full recap tomorrow. I know, you're left in suspense. But I'll give you a little teaser of pictures to tide you over :) I hope all of my blog friends have been doing great over the past couple of weeks. I've missed reading what you have all been up to, and I look forward to catching up this week! Enjoy!

View from my hotel in San Francisco...heaven.

Driving over the Golden Gate bridge!

Pebble beach.

Gorgeous coast...I love the ocean!