July 30, 2010

I swear it's my shoes, not me!

Happy Friday everyone! I don't know about anyone else, but this week has just been dragging along and I am THRILLED that it is finally the weekend. I've only been at work about an hour so far, and I've already had quite an embarrassing morning. Why you ask? Well... I bought these Banana wedges a few weeks ago, but have only worn them a couple of times out at night (most likely a loud bar or restaurant). They are pretty comfy wedges, so I decided to wear them to work today for jeans Friday. And, um... apparently when I walk, some sort of awkward suction is created, causing a.... farting noise!!! I tried to walk slower, and tried to walk differently to avoid it, but it is inevitable. I'm going to have my whole office thinking I ate beans for dinner last night, but I didn't!! It's my shoes!! This is going to be an awkward Friday. Yeesh.


Retiring these bad boys after today!


What is everyone up to this weekend? I'm spending all day tomorrow on the lake for a friend's birthday! Fun stories to follow next week! Have a great weekend!


July 29, 2010

New Product Alert!

Hello everyone! I found a new product that I wanted to share, because I absolutely LOVE it! I was looking recently for some sort of hair/scalp treatment when a friend of mine told me about this new Yes to Carrots line. She uses the moisturizer, so when I went to the website to check it out I came across this treat:
Hair and scalp moisturizing mud mask!
The selling points to me right away were:

1. Sold at Target (where probably half of my salary is spent)
2. All natural products, and no sulfates (hello, there are carrots in it!)
3. Reasonably priced at $12.99

Since I love trying new products, I gave it a shot. Let's just say I'm now obsessed! It made my hair SO soft and moisturized for a couple of days after! All you do is leave it in for 15 minutes and rinse, and poof! Shiny hair. The line also has a bunch of other products, and has been featured in a bunch of magazines. I think I may need to try another product soon, since this one was a big success. Enjoy!
"Conditioner is better.. I leave the hair silky and smooth"


July 27, 2010

Reunited and it feels so good..

This past weekend I got to see my besties from Clemson. We met freshman year in the dorms, and were inseparable the rest of college! Sadly after graduation, we each ended up in different cities: me in Atlanta, AL in Greenville, and KL in Charlotte. Not too far away, but it is still tough to work out our busy schedules to see eachother. Since it had been just about a century since the Triple Threat was in action (yes,we made that name up in college - don't judge), we decided to squeeze in a quick visit to Greenville, even though we could only do one night.

I have giant heels on, and I'm still so dang short!
If you haven't ever made a trip to Greenville, you should definitely fit it into your schedule sometime. Their downtown is absolutely adorable, and there are so many boutiques, restaurants and a beautiful park to walk around in. It's definitely an up and coming city, and only a little over two hours from Atlanta! On Friday, we started the night off at a tapas restaurant called Stellar Restaurant and Wine Bar. We wanted to go to a tapas place so we could share a few items and still be able to button our pants afterwards. Between the calamari, beef scallopine, vegetable baklava and spinach salad, we were quite content! Oh, and of course it isn't a meal without some wine, so we tried a merlot, called Cypress. I have since tried to find it after I got back to Atlanta with no such luck. Sigh.

Downtown Greenville is beautiful!

After dinner we walked to a bar downstairs called Rey's. To my great surprise, one of our favorite bouncers from Tiger Town Tavern at Clemson was working there (Clemson ppl, you probably recognize him)! Needless to say, we were pretty excited to see Brody, as he always gave us the special treatment by letting us to the front of the line during busy game weekends. Luckily, he is still working the game weekends in Clemson, so looks like we've still got our connections :)

Unsure who the guy in the pimp suit is, but we let him in the picture simply bc of his outfit...

The rest of the night was filled with bar hopping, running into a few old friends, and the best cab ride ever. Greenville has GOLF CART cabs... Wait, I take that back.. Golf cart LIMO cabs. It was pretty much the greatest way to travel around downtown, and only $2 a head. I'm thinking Atlanta should invest in some of these, even though I'm not sure they would survive one night on Peachtree St...
Golf Cart Limo Cab thingie = genius.

The next morning, we woke up feeling... well, let's just say less than ideal. So we headed out to grab some greasy food downtown, followed by a little Blueberry Frog fro-yo, and some much needed pedis. I was so sad to leave my buds so soon, but still glad we got to hang out even for just one night. It always feels great to pick up right where we left off when we graduated. Love you guys!!


July 26, 2010

For the Monday Blues...

Have you guys seen this? It CRACKS me up!! These guys are ridiculous...



"It's totes the best hun cal fro yo"

Happy Monday!


July 24, 2010

Bootcamp is No Joke, People.

In order to get out of my insane workout rut, my roommate and I decided to do a four week bootcamp together. We found the deal on Groupon (aka the website that dictates my social life these days) which was about $40 for four weeks – a steal I tell you! The only crappy part is, it is Monday thru Friday, at 6 am. That’s right, before the sun even comes out, SHG and I are dragging our butts over to Chastain Park to get them kicked by two ex college football players. Are we crazy?

As scary as it sounds, it is actually fantastic! We just finished survived the second week, and are definitely feeling good. Well, aside from the sore muscles here and there, and the fact that we feel like old ladies going to bed at 9:30 every night… The workouts vary daily, so we do just about everything. Sprints uphill, total ab days, arm workouts with dumbbells, jogs around the baseball fields and many more grueling tasks. I must say, now I see how celebs can stay in such great shape. This is basically their ONLY job – get a personal trainer and have them literally kick your ass daily. If my company paid me to be in shape, I would do bootcamp year round. Hands down.

I could totally take him right now. I'm just sayin'...
Anyways, wish us luck as we finish the second half of getting in butt-kicking shape. I'll be sure to report back at the end!


~E

July 23, 2010

All the beers you can handle... Oh, and some baseball too

A couple of weeks ago, we went to an all you can eat and drink Braves game. A friend of mine set it all up, and got a huge group of people to join in the fun. The cost included the tickets, pretty decent seats, and all the hot dogs, BBQ, cookies, chips, and cheap draft beer you can handle (Keystone Light I believe - gross). Of course, going into this, we HAD to get our money’s worth… so, needless to say, we visited the beer man quite often.

Beer and baseball are a DO, unless you are this guy.
This was a particularly perfect day for sports, because USA happened to be playing in the World Cup that day as well. We were able to go into Turner Stadium two hours before the Braves played, to enjoy the amenities, so we parked ourselves in front of the lobby TVs, vuvuzelas in tow, and watched the USA game.


These loud things almost got us booted from the stadium!

Let’s not even discuss the sadness of losing that game, because we ended up having a great day! We wore some USA and Braves gear to support the teams. Right after the World Cup game, we went outside to our seats to watch the Braves game. At least they won!
vuvuzela!

The rest of the day seemed to fly by pretty quickly, as we spent a lot of time in the beer line and the food line, but it was a pretty great day. I would definitely recommend trying the All you Can Drink seats at the games, especially if you plan on drinking a lot of cold brews on a hot summer day. Those beers are normally $8 a pop!
Uncle Sam cheering for USA! USA!


~E

July 20, 2010

J4 the Triathlete

A shoutout to my brave brother, who did his first triathalon last weekend. He has been training for the past 6 months or so to do the Nautica NYC Triathalon! Unfortunately, I couldn't be there to witness the glory of him finishing the race, but my parents and a ton of his friends were there to support and take as many pictures as my dad's camera can hold. After swimming in the Hudson, biking for 25 miles, and running a 10K, he finished 890 out of 3,500. Not too shabby, I might say!


My pops was laying on the ground like a pro photographer to get this shot... No, I'm not kidding.

Swoll Patrol.
~E

Nashvegas

So, I know this is technically an Atlanta blog, but I just got back from Nashville and want to share the experience! Nashville has been on my personal bucket list for quite some time now, so the bf and I decided to go for the 4th of July this year. Let me just say, what a fantastic city!




Broadway Street

There was so much to do in Nashville, so we hit the ground running the second we got to our hotel. Of course, we hit the the Honky Tonk strip bars first and foremost. All day, those places are hoppin'! My favorite place was Tootsies, which had the best bands AND the "Holler and Swaller". You can probably figure that one out on your own, but basically the band will have the whole bar raise their glasses, everyone hollers, and you take a big swig of beer! That pretty much sums up what we did all afternoon each day.

Best Band at Tootsies!


At night, we tried some restaurants that we chose after thorough online research. The first one was Whiskey Kitchen. The drinks and food were both delicious. I settled for my usual wine, while bf tried a New Fashioned, which is an Old Fashioned with apples and cinnamon in it. Delish! (Well, for those bourbon fans out there at least…) The second night we went to Sunset Grill, which was even better! We split a bunch of appetizers, a hummus platter, a seafood platter, some polenta cheese fries… SO much food! Definitely recommend this place if you head to Nashville soon.



To be touristy, we visited the Ryman Auditorium (original Grand Ole Opry) and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Now, I love the “pop country” that you hear all over CMT, but I’ll admit that I don’t really know old school country (Hank Williams, Tammy Wynatte, etc…) so some of the exhibits were a little over my head. Still great museums though! We did get to go backstage at the Ryman to see the dressing rooms, so we saw the rooms that people like Johnny and June once got ready in.



Being tourists on the stage at the Ryman

Tired of the ridiculous tour group we were forced to walk around with, we decided to do something a little more "us", so we found a local Nashville brewery to visit. It’s called Yazoo Brewery, and it was so fun! They just relocated to a larger building, because they are starting to gain some serious street cred. Before the tour began, which is only $6 and includes heavy samples, we got the beer sampler which contained 6 different Yazoo beers.


All the Yazoo brews!

Then we went on the tour and got to see where all the beer is brewed daily. It’s pretty cool, because a lot of it is still done manually. That will soon change as they keep growing as a company, I’m sure. The best thing that they offer is beer in a giant container, called a Growler. All of the locals were coming in with their empty containers to get refills for the weekend.


Growler o' Beer

The last day was geared towards 4th of July celebrations. They had downtown Nashville flooded with cheesy festival stuff; water slides for the kids (or drunk adults), food vendors, live music, and a beer garden. So we spent the day weeding through the crowds and drinking some beers before settling down on a statue of some sort to watch the fireworks. We ended up having perfect seats, as the phenomenal fireworks were right over our head! I’ve never seen fireworks so fantastic in my life; it was a site!


Happy 4th of July

All in all, a perfect trip to Nashville. I came home about 10 lbs heavier from beer alone, but that’s the price you pay for a great Fourth of July with great company :)


~E

A little about E...

Hi there!

I'm so excited to start my own blog. I love reading blogs from all over the country, so I decided to give it a whirl and see what I had to offer. A little background: I grew up in the 'burbs, so never really experienced any of the greatness that the city of Atlanta had to offer. After I graduated from Clemson University, I moved to Buckhead, and have been living here ever since. I absolutely love how there is something new and fun to do every single weekend in this city. I love trying new restaurants, working out, going out with my boyfriend and friends, and traveling. I am also very close to my family. My parents live on Lake Lanier, and my brother, J4, lives in NYC. It's pretty ideal to have a free place to stay anytime you want to visit the big city... not that I'm using my brother for that or anything..


So, hope you enjoy some of the stuff I have to share! Here goes nothing...



~E