Your wish is my command! A taco desktop download for everyone! Just thought we could have some fun this month. It's not a calendar, but I wanted to see what you preferred. Do like the calendar or something a little more simple? Let me know!
The Optimist Restaurant is this gorgeous new seafood restaurant by Ford Fry here in Atlanta. It just opened this summer and has been the talk of the town! Almost every time I run into an old friend, we end up talking about the restaurant and the beauty it is.
My friend, Alvin Diec, is the mastermind behind all of the design work for The Optimist. He designed the gorgeous site, made the brand and identity of the restaurant, and even went as far as making those gorgeous matchbooks. And you know I loveeeee matchbooks.
And it's just as beautiful in real life! Another example of why budgeting for design really makes a difference. Check out their tumblr for pictures and videos of the restaurant being put together! If you're in Atlanta, definitely stop by and take a look (and eat an oyster!). This gem is over on the West Side close to Octane.
1. This week I was introduced to the wonderful photography of Caroline Petters. She's based here in Atlanta, so I'm proud to share another one of this city's gifted creatives. She has some great work, and a stellar tumblr blog!
2. Like many of you, I'm deeply in love with this wedding invitation by Lisa Hedge. It is simple and also simply gorgeous.
3. On of my friends, Duncan Shirah, is a very talented sculptor. He is having a gallery show next week to showcase some of his more amazing wood and metal sculptures. But calling them sculptures doesn't quite give them enough credit - inventions is a better word for them. He created that beautiful flyer for the show which depicts one of his inventions. It is a terrarium that squirts water into the terrarium section when the trigger is pulled. Genius, right?
4. In love again with Parker Fitzgerald's photography. This is one of the images for the latest issue of Kinfolk Magazine. I love the dark setting of the photo even though it is used for summer. You can still sense the outside warmth even though it's not bright and sunny in the photo.
I just wanted to gush and share a project that has totally inspired me. Matt Stevens is a graphic designer and illustrator living in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was one of the speakers at the Weapons of Mass Creation Fest and Tim couldn't stop talking about Stevens' latest project: JJ's Redhots, a NC hotdog restaurant.
Stevens was hired by the owner, Jon Luther, to not only create an extensive brand identity for the restaurant, but also help design all the elements of the space, right down to the handles on the doors. The amount of work and foresight put into this project is incredible. It really shows how amazing a restaurant (or brand) can be when the company adequately budgets for good design.
Not stopping with the menu, He branded each hotdog option with a badge and turned it into a rewards program. After a guest tries every hotdog and acquires all the badges, they get a JJ's Redhots Tour of the USA t-shirt.
I could go on and on about this totally comprehensive project, but I'll let you get all the details from Stevens himself who blogged about the entire process. Do check it out and see all the amazing photos of the neon signs, wallpaper, and more. And while you're at it, grab some hotdogs & cheap beer and celebrate the 4th!
I hope you have a great time with your families during this long weekend. I wish I could be with my folks, eating my dad's AWESOME turkey and stuffing, but I'll have that soon. As a tradition, every time I visit my parents in Tampa, our first meal together is a Thanksgiving meal. I can't wait! But for this weekend, I'll be with Tim's family, and it will be wonderful. His sister and her boyfriend are coming down from New Jersey and I look forward to seeing them again.
Next time you hear from me, I'll be 20 pounds heavier. haha. (I HOPE NOT)
My friends and I had a Friendsgiving on Saturday. I loved it. Everyone brought a home cooked dish and we were able to put a real Thanksgiving dinner together. At one quiet point while everyone was eating, my friend Kim said, "I think we're adults now, I can't believe we all did this." (or something like that.) And I think everything was thinking the same thing. I can't believe I'm growing up and hosting Thanksgiving dinners. It was a perfect day. :)
So Blogshop was on Thursday, so it wasn't really the weekend, but it sure did feel like it. Here are some of the Smilebooth photos from my fun time with Blogshop. The last few pictures were from the mini Smilebooth set up at HD1, a hot dog restaurant where everyone met up after class. Tim stopped by for a minute and we got a few pictures together. I hope you enjoy these really silly photos. haha
I'll have more of a weekend update later on today. Stay tuned!
Did you know about Drinkify? Plug in what you're listening to, and it will suggest what delicious boozy drink you should have with it. This makes me happy.
This weekend was a lot of fun. It was just what I needed - a little bit of fun, a lot of rest and relaxation. The video above is a collection of scenes taken from Flux, the art event/public art happening that I mentioned in the last post. The majority of the stuff in the video I witnessed first hand, and it was all amazing.
The opening and closing scenes show the dance, "Livers" by gloATL. The smoke and music made the whole experience just bewildering. You felt as if you were in another realm seeing something you weren't supposed to.
One of my favorite art demonstrations of the night wasn't shown in the video. It was an iron pour - which I had never seen before. It was commenting on the similarities in the way that humans and bees work. They heated the iron, pour the molten metal into molds, and out came a still glowing, very hot, bee. The molds were quickly reset and more bees were made. Poles were inserted into the bees and they were paraded around in a bee dance. Beautiful and fascinating to see molten iron in a modern and very removed society.
In other highlights, Tim & I tried a new restaurant, HD1 (Haute Dog One) that just opened up. When in doubt, pinkies out for gourmet haute dogs. (and maple glazed waffles fries, OMG, I KNOW!) Delishhhhh. And for brunch on Sunday we went to the Flying Biscuit where I got a salmon and cream cheese egg scramble with creamy dreamy grits. My fav. There was also a in-store show at Criminal Records, where Young Rapscallions played. AKA the drummer is McLovin' from Super Bad. (But don't call him that!) I didn't want to pester him for a picture or anything, but I did stare at him for a while. haha. We also stopped by our favorite vintage shop, Highland Row antiques. They were having their monthly market sale, so we got to see a bunch of new stuff. yay!
We also watched another episode of Pan Am, which I might dedicate a whole post to. It's just that bad. SNL with Melissa McCarthy was better than I hoped. Goodness, she is just hilarious. Side splittingly hilarious. And I watched another Woody Allen film, Zelig, which I'll talk about later also. My mother told me that she had seen the first episode of Terra Nova and loved it, so we gave it a shot. Honestly, it wasn't so bad. The dinosaurs could look a whole lot more realistic, but hey, it was the pilot. Hopefully it will get better.
Here's some homework: Go watch the Melissa McCarthy SNL Hidden Valley Ranch clip and get back with me. You will never see ranch the same way again - and it's a good thing. :)
1. That video above.
2. My mom texting me multiple times saying "Happy Birthday to you!".
3. Tim's wall post on Facebook, "Happy Birthday to my lovely Ciara Sames! It's sad she's sharing her birthday with Google because obviously Ciara is much cooler."
4. Wearing a beautiful dress that my friend Alana gave me on Saturday.
5. Free tickets to tomorrow night's Wilco show from my friend, Fray, who is a DJ at WRAS 88.5.
6. Dinner plans at The Vortex tonight!
7. The Reese's peanut butter cup I'm about to eat.
I had a very lovely weekend. This was the first Sunday I haven't had to work in probably 5 years. I am working full time at my day job now and don't need my silly Sunday morning at Ruby Tuesday anymore (thank goodness!). That job was just a headache and I never made enough money to make it worthwhile.
So what did I do on my first Sunday off? Well, I ate at Grindhouse Burgers for the first time. I ordered a delicious burger with blue cheese spread, sauteed mushrooms and a fried vidalia onion. YUM. Then I got a new nose stud in titanium with an opal setting. Yay! I wanted to get a ring, but my nose needs to heal a little more still. Afterwards we finished season 3 of Mad Men and headed over to his parent's house for dinner. BAKED ZITI followed by STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. delicious.
Also during the weekend I went to my first hip hop show in East Atlanta Village. That was fun. And I took Tim to our favorite restaurant - Panahar Bangladesh Cuisine. MORE YUM. I could eat that delicious korma dish every single day.
Some really rad travel videos from Rick Mereki. Doesn't it make you want to go? The videos were shot during a 44 day trip for Mereki and two friends that went through 11 countries and 38,000 miles. That is so amazing.
woke up.
pet chloe.
took her for walk.
got ready.
drove to work.
found ipod in rental car!
ate delicious curry dish my co-worker sara made.
dropped off rental car.
got ride back to work.
waited for danny fluker to pick me up.
danny picked me up.
we went to walmart.
bought awesome goodness.
ate a philly cheesesteak with danny.
talked to naomi.
danny dropped me off at home.
took chloe outside for a walk.
cleaned up the apartment.
hung my clothes in the closet.
charged my new ipod!
talked to mom.
claire came over.
we watched "love & distrust".
it was horrible. we cringed.
she left.
took chloe out again.
we went to bed & snuggled. :D
Day Three: My favorite consumptions. I love anything different. Spicy. Foreign. Ethnic. I'll try anything once...or twice or for eternity. I love food. So it's hard to narrow down my favorite dish. For example, last night I had Duck Dulce Maria at this Cuban restaurant called Salsa Havana. It was delicious. I even had yuca "fries" with it. Yuca is a white root - very Cuban, very ethnic. I grew up on that stuff. Thanks mom!
Anyways, so besides my mom's Cuban food, I'd have to say that Asian food is my favorite. Please do not confuse "Asian" with Panda Express. I really don't like the American take on Chinese and the whole industry of "orange chicken" drenched in some gooey unhealthy sauce. I prefer family owned restaurants. Thai food is my favorite (seen above is a Thai panang red curry beef dish), but I also enjoy Vietnamese, Indian and Korean. And you can't leave out sushi. But I love curry more than sushi. YUM!
As far as beverages, Delirium Tremens is my favorite beer. It's a Beligum ale and I adore it. High gravity too, so you need to be careful! Definitely try it if you can get your hands on it.
OMGSH! KING OF POPS! Thank you, Lord, for creating such a thing as POPSICLES, especially the ones here in Atlanta. King of Pops is an exclusive popsicle supplier around specific locations in Atlanta, and they are so fabulous. It's more than just chocolate, strawberry, and grape, we're talking salted chocolate, raspberry lime, banana pudding, grapefruit mint, and various other flavors.
Pictured with me is a grapefruit mint. YUM! Can't you see how happy I am? :D Gosh I love them.
Come to Atlanta Let me give you a tour Eat a Pop
photo on left is mine, photo on right belongs to renee brock
photos by 
