Weekend Recap

We had a very eventful weekend and we are of course sad to see it go. Friday's weather was cold and rainy, so Thomas and I went to a local favorite for some comfort food; cheese fries and pizza. Let's get one thing straight, these cheese fries aren't just any cheese fries. I'm sure you are thinking fries with runny cheese dip poured over the fries that then turn soggy before you even get your hands on them. Not these cheese fries! The Whig's cheese fries go a little something like this: a large bowl full of fries with a variety of shredded cheeses melted on top with a side of ketchup and ranch. Can we say comfort food heaven?

Saturday night we attended a couples stock the bar shower for our friends Christi & Jake who are tying the knot this May! We had a fun time celebrating with them as well as fabulous time at the party with several of our friends who came in from out of town. Saturday night brought back memories of being in college and all of us being in the same place!

My camera was MIA all weekend, which is unfortunate since I really meant to take a picture of the gift we gave Christi & Jake. Before Christmas I found a cozy faux fur wine/liquor bag from Pottery Barn that I knew would be perfect for their shower especially since it was during the cold winter months and these napkins at a local boutique back home in Baltimore.

We filled the faux fur bag with a bottle of liquor and I wrapped the napkins in clean cellophane with a ribbon and used the tie from the faux fur bag to attach the napkins to the bag. I love giving gifts and I think the best gifts to give are the ones you want to keep for yourself!

Thanks to Bess, Lindsey, Katie, & Kelley for hosting a wonderful shower!

An the icing on the cake was watching the Super Bowl with some close friends and seeing the Packers W-I-N!!!!!!!!

Happy Monday y'all!

Two Delicious Dinners

Friday night Thomas and I tried a sushi restaurant we had never been to before, but heard a lot of great things about it! This restaurant isn't what you would expect from its location or by the building itself, but after all these years and not knowing any better, we re-learned an age old lesson: you never judge a book by its cover. And I'm so glad we finally gave it a try, because it is without a doubt is the best sushi I've ever tasted and I think Thomas would agree.

Take a look at this...a picture says a 1000 words.

Saturday night we had dinner reservations at another restaurant in town, Garibaldi's Cafe. The restaurant is one of our favorite places and was absolutely jam packed Saturday night. It's restaurant week in SC, thanks Bess for informing me! and even though Garibaldi's wasn't participating, I think everyone had cabin fever from the snow storm that hit us earlier in the week so everyone was out and about over the weekend.


I can say our meals this weekend surely didn't disappoint and as Thomas said after dinner on Saturday night, "I wish we could eat like this every night!"

Girls Weekend!

Last weekend my Mom came in to town and we had so much fun together as usual! We went to lunch Friday at one of our favorite spots, the Gourmet Shoppe then spent the afternoon shopping in Columbia . We have several favorite shops we like to go to from antique stores to locally own boutiques. Shopping locally has a lot of offer not to mention you avoid the crowds of the chain retailers and they offer one of a kind gifts. Friday evening we met Thomas for dinner at Cantina76, my Mom was craving Mexican so what better place to take her! We had a very enjoyable dinner together enjoying drinks, appetizers and of course our meal. Once we got home we didn’t stay up much later because we decided it would be best to get some good sleep before our big shopping trip the next day.

Saturday morning we were up and off to Charleston ! I know many of you have heard me say before; Charleston is one of our favorite places. We were so excited; we could hardly stand the 2 hour car ride! It has been a chilly week or so here in the Southeast and last Saturday was no different, thank goodness we were planning on going in and out of shops all day long to stay warm. For as many years we have been visiting Charleston , we had never been at Christmas time. So this was a real treat for us and seeing the Charleston Place all decorated was exciting!

Train Garden

Christmas Tree

After taking in some of the Christmas sights, we started our day of shopping, but not before stopping at Starbucks for a caffeine fix. We spent most of the day going in and out of the shops that line King Street . We did take a break for lunch to refuel. We usually go to Blossoms for lunch, it’s our favorite lunch spot in Charleston , but since it was winter time and couldn’t sit outside we decided to go to Sermet’s Corner on King Street . The place was packed but we were lunch enough to get a table for two right by the front window! My lunch came with an order of sweet potato fries topped with Parmesan cheese, oh my goodness were they delicious, we couldn’t stop talking and we still can’t about how good they were!

After lunch we did some more shopping and stopped for a praline as our afternoon treat. That evening we rested up since Sunday was our last day together. Sunday we went to church and had lunch, frozen yogurt with lots of toppings to be exact, it sure was tasty! We went to a few more shops around town before it was time to leave for the airport.

Miss T and I hate when the weekends she comes to visit come to an end, we always have so much fun together! The nice part about saying goodbye this time was that we will be together again for the holidays real soon!

Weekend Recap

Let me just start by saying, aren't weekends fabulous? I think they are so fabulous, I wish they lasted all week long.


1.) Friday night Thomas and I saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert. One word to describe: A-MAZ-ING! Seriously, everything about it was just awesome not to mention the concert was 3 and half hours long, talk about getting your monies worth! If they are coming to a city near you, go check them out, I promise you will enjoy every minute!

2.) Saturday morning I went to our local Junior League Holiday Market. It was my first year attending and it was neat, but nothing to rave about. Although I did find one vendor from Georgia that I absolutely loved. You will just have to wait to find out more about her, I can’t give away all my secrets (at least not yet)!

3.) Saturday afternoon we went to one of our favorite lunch spots, DiPrato’s and had the most amazing pimento cheese and pita chips. YUM!

4.) How about we just don’t talk about the rest of Saturday? My Gamecocks lost in the SEC Championship game to Auburn . Auburn-walked-all-over-us, YIKES! Despite the lousy game and terrible outcome for the Gamecocks we did have fun watching the game with a few couples one in which we hadn’t seen in a long time and it was nice to catch up!

5.) I wrapped all the Christmas gifts we bought for the child we adopted from a local children’s home. Thomas’ work makes the arrangements with the children’s home and then all the employees adopt an individual child to buy gifts for. I had an absolute blast shopping with Thomas for our 8 year old boy, Daniel and today is the BIG day; he gets to open all his presents this afternoon!

6.) I decorated my house for Christmas and of course put up the Christmas tree! Thomas and I decorated the tree after dinner Sunday night. Side note, I have another delicious recipe to share with y’all from Men’s Health. Who would have ever thought they would have such delicious healthy recipes that are easy to make? Not I!

7.) After all the decorating was done, I love nothing more then sitting on my couch with just the lights from the Christmas Tree and the candles in the window. I love this time of year!

Steals & Deals

1) I am huge fan of Groupon even though we have only had it in Columbia for a couple of months. How Groupon works is you sign up, select cities you are interested in receiving deals from, and you’ll get e-mails daily with the “daily Groupon” for that city. Some days they even have side deals which usually last longer then one day. If you have an iPhone there is an app for Groupon. The Groupon app makes it very easy to search deals in other cities and take advantage of the savings! Groupon has coupons for everything from restaurants, things to do around the city, salon and spa services, entertainment events, and the list goes on! Sign up here! Trust me in no time flat you will be hooked just like moi.

2) Have you heard of Ebates? If you shop online, you MUST sign up for Ebates! How does Ebates work? You sign up and log in to your Ebates account, you search for the store you are going to purchase something through and you connect to that website through the Ebates website. Once you make your purchase you will be credited a certain amount to your Ebates account. For example, purchases made at Ann Taylor through your Ebates account result in 6% back. Another neat retailer on Ebates is Groupon, so not only will you be getting a great discount through Groupon, but you’ll get a 6% rebate on your purchase from Ebates! I don’t think it gets much better then that! The “rebate” or percentage of cash back can be used in addition to the website discount codes and most of the time Ebates will tell if there are any active discount codes at that particular store. You can receive your rebate money through Paypal or paper check every few months. Sign up here!!!

3) Are you a Starbucks fanatic? If so, you are going to love this deal! All you need to do to sign up is text 12DAYS to 29943 to receive a daily offer from Starbucks now through December 1st! See you at Starbucks!


What are some of your favorite deals? Please do share!

ATX

Goodness, can you believe it is almost the end of the September? I sure can't! Let me catch you up on what I've been up too...

I spent Labor Day weekend in Austin , TX visiting my good friend from college, Ellie!

Remember this post when I mentioned I was planning on visiting her sometime soon? Well, shortly after that visit, I booked my plane ticket! I thought what better weekend then a 3 day weekend which I turned in to a 4 day weekend by taking Friday off of work to go visit Ellie and see Austin . I was lucky enough to find a reasonably priced airline ticket to fly to Austin out of Columbia . For those of you who aren’t very familiar with Columbia , it is the Capital of SC however, we have struggled attracting airlines to Columbia . Which means it’s usually very costly and takes lots of stops to get to your final destination. Well thankfully that was not the case when flying to Austin because the drive to Charlotte is very boring.

Back to my wonderful trip! I arrived in Austin Friday afternoon, Ellie picked me up at the airport after work and we headed to meet some of her friends for happy hour at Dogwood. The bar had a great a great atmosphere and it was nice to meet her friends. We had dinner reservations down the street at a Mexican restaurant, Z'Tejas. We got to eat outside and enjoy the hustle and bustle of the restaurant while sipping on some strong margaritas and delicious corn bread and of course our main entrée. I was starving, what else is new, so I devoured my entire dinner and it was tasty! After dinner we enjoyed one more very strong cocktail before heading home. You can say it, we’re lame, but really Ellie had just started a new job earlier that week and we were exhausted. By midnight we were sound asleep!

Saturday morning we slept in just for a little bit and then woke up and headed right out to start our day. Our first stop was to an amazing coffee shop not far from Ellie’s house called Caffe Medici. I told Ellie to order me whatever she was having (as I did with many of the places she took me in Austin) and can I tell you this iced coffee was amazing. In all seriousness it was probably the best I’ve ever had.


We passed a farmer’s market on our way to brunch so of course we had to stop. Experiencing the farmer’s market made me miss living in Florence , Italy . Ellie and I studied abroad in Florence for a semester in college and loved every second of it. I would do anything to go back, I know Ellie would too! After touring the market, we were starving, so we headed right for Taverna for $1 Mimosas. Don’t judge, I’m on vacation. I ordered Belgium waffles with fresh fruit, they hit the spot and the raspberries, blueberries, were so fresh and sweet, they just melted in my mouth.

After brunch we went to Whole Foods, did you know that Whole Foods corporate office is in Austin, TX . Let me just tell you this is unlike any Whole Foods I’ve ever been to and of course made me wish even more then I already do that they would open one in Columbia. The whole purpose of stopping by Whole Foods was not to look around even though we did, but to pick up some stuff to take to a friends house who was having a get together to celebrate recently being single and to watch the UT football game of course. Although it was a little overwhelming being in a house full of people you don’t know, I had so much fun talking to friends of Ellie’s and experiencing life in Austin.

We left before the game was over and before the party really got started because we had plans with Ellie’s roommate, Meg to celebrate her birthday. Meg spent her birthday sky diving with her friend Holly; they both survived of course and had an incredible experience which they say they would do again! We went to Perla’s for dinner, absolutely delicious. Ellie and I shared the Ahi Tuna which was unbelievably good. The atmosphere at Perla’s was very distinguished. After dinner we went to a bar down the street and sat at a table outside. We all enjoyed one another’s company while celebrating the last hours of Meg’s birthday.

Sunday morning we woke up earlier and went for a walk around the lake. It was so neat to see everyone out exercising with their dogs. That is one thing I noticed about Austin , it seems to be a very dog friendly city, which I of course thought was neat! After our morning workout, Ellie took me to Torchy’s Tacos an eatery in a trailer park (not a real trailer park, a trailer park full of eateries). Torchy’s is known for their tacos and of course did not disappoint. As I was eating all this amazing Mexican food all I could think about was Thomas and how he would be in heaven. To say Thomas loves Mexican food is an understatement!


After lunch we went to went in and out of the shops along South Congress Street or SoCo as the locals call it. Darling shops with so many neat things, we found Ellie two purses and two pairs of shoes and I didn’t spend a dime!

How crazy are their street lights? I've never seen any thing like them before!

How cool is this cupcake shop?

On our way home I asked Ellie if we could go to Anthropologie, one of my favorite stores, but unfortunately they don’t have a store in Columbia , so whenever I go out of town I always try and find one. Our afternoon of shopping wore us out, so we headed home and relaxed for a little before we got ready for my last night in Austin, tear.

Ellie made reservations at Justine’s a fabulous restaurant on the East side of Austin . The restaurant was so quaint and charming; I fell in love the minute we pulled up. We shared a salad and an entrée of scallops for dinner, so we could order dessert. The chocolate pear tart, or whatever it was called because I just made that up, was absolutely divine. I still wanted more after the last bite, isn’t that always the case? It is for me at least. After dinner met up with some of Ellie’s tennis friends at a fairly new bar called Clive’s, yet again great atmosphere and we were able to enjoy sitting outside. I thought it was time to head home but Ellie had a different idea. She told me we had to stop at some wild and crazy bar (that’s my description) because it was packed in everyone in there seemed wasted, but we grabbed one drink each, made a couple rounds around the place and then left. That was an Austin experience in itself!

Before I left on Monday afternoon Ellie took me to Walton’s, Sandra Bullock’s lunch restaurant. Can we talk about how darling this place is? Inside was like a breath of fresh air. It was a completely different feel then the rest of Austin , so much so it reminded me a lot of fabulous lunch spots in Columbia or Charleston . Lunch was absolutely delicious and Ellie surprised us with two amazing desserts!

My long weekend in Austin was unbelievable, I had so much fun with Ellie as I always do! I hope to plan another trip to see her again soon, may be this time we will meet in Seattle, Idaho, San Fran? The possibilities are endless!

If you are reading this Ellie thanks for making my Austin experience so special! xoxo

My Birthday in Review

So as some of you might know, I work for a fairly small company here in Columbia, SC and wouldn't you know that myself and two other employees share the same birthday? This wouldn't be so unusual if our company was much larger, but considering the small size, I think it's pretty neat! One of the ladies in the office had cookie cakes made for each one of our birthdays. The cookie cake was delicious, so soft and chewy it melts in your mouth!

Thank you Eagle!

For dinner, Thomas took me to Baan Sawan, a Thai Bistro on Devine Street to celebrate my birthday! We both have been wanting to try this restaurant for awhile and my birthday was a great excuse!

The bad news is, I forgot my camera. Needless to say, I was very upset with myself. I needed a a glass of wine fast to get over it. I ordered the only glass of Riesling they had on the menu because Rieslings are usually my favorite and as it turns out this one is now top on my list. It was the perfect combination of dry and sweet and it was ice cold which made it that much more enjoyable on a hot summer evening. For the curious, the wine is Richter Peisporter Michelsburg 2008. I can't wait to find a local store that sells it and stock up for special occasions since it is on the more expensive side at $35 per bottle.

To start we ordered calamari to share, it was prepared crisp and drizzled with plum-ginger sauce that was out of this world y'all. The calamari was delicious, both Thomas and I were remarking how we had never seen such thick pieces of calamari. Delicious!

After a tough decision, we finally decided on our entrees. I ordered the pad thai, rice noodles tossed with their slightly sweet, tart and salty pad thai sauce with bean sprouts, ground peanuts, onion and scallions. You had the choice of adding chicken, tofu, or shrimp, I chose chicken. Thomas chose one of the curried entrees. Step 1 you pick from chicken, shrimp, vegetables, tofu, sliced sirloin, duck, or fish of the day. Step 2 you choose a curry. I won't go through all the different types of curry, but Thomas settled on the red curry which is described as medium bodied.

The atmosphere at Baan Sawan is very laid back and relaxing. You feel as though you are enjoying dinner in someone's home with no rush. Our entrees arrived a short time later and both did not disappoint. Warning: be extra cautious when ordering the spice level of the curry. Thomas enjoys the hot hot hot flavor of spicy foods, however the hotness from curry is measured on a different scale.

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying one another's company before heading home. My birthday celebration will continue for a few more days, as I am celebrating with my friends tomorrow night and with Thomas' family sometime over the weekend or early next week.

Until next year thank you to my family and friends who made my birthday very special!

Lauren Visits! Day 1

My Memorial Day Weekend was a fabulous start to summer! So fabulous, I am sad it is over. My cousin Lauren came all the way from Baltimore to visit me for the weekend. Our weekend together started with lunch on Saturday at the Gourmet Shoppe. The Gourmet Shoppe is one of my favorite places for lunch in Columbia. Lauren and I enjoyed walking around the store while we were waiting for our table. We share a love for baking and in my opinion there is no better place in Columbia to admire bake ware then the Gourmet Shoppe.

For lunch, Lauren enjoyed a plate of shrimp salad over a bed of lettuce while I ordered one of my usuals but favorites, a plate of pesto pasta with a side of fruit. Note: During my parents recent visit and lunch at Gourmet Shoppe, my Dad informed me that the shrimp salad at Gourmet Shoppe is missing a key ingredient, Old Bay seasoning, therefore it just wasn't the same. Being a fellow Baltimorian and knowing these things, I had to warn Lauren that the shrimp salad at the Gourmet Shoppe isn't made exactly like how me make it in Baltimore. However, Lauren was agreed it wasn't the same, but was just as delicious.

After playing catch up over lunch, it was time to hit the ground running doing what girls do best, shopping! We started on Saluda Ave in Five Points and worked our way to Harden St. and finally up Devine St. We had a wonderful afternoon strolling in and out all of the shops! Lauren was able to enjoy what I refer to as "shopping locally" to support locally own shops and boutiques instead of spending your money at big box stores.

Our afternoon ended with a ride through Shandon, where I hope to buy a house one day, a tour of the Greek Village. Lauren and her husband Brian are saving their money to sell their house in Baltimore City and move to the County and I thought it would be neat to show her my favorite neighborhood in Columbia.

Lauren attended college at the University of TN where she was a member of Tri-Delta. She is the reason I was involved in Greek Life at USC and was amazed by our Greek Village.

An afternoon in Columbia is not complete until you have made a stop at Cupcake. We ordered two cupcakes: German Chocolate and Black Bottom and shared them both. After our sweet treat and brief break at Cupcake while the storm passed, I took Lauren to one more shop in West Columbia.

Evening was on us, so we returned to my apartment to freshen up before our dinner reservations at Blue Marlin. Thomas joined us for dinner and our evening was full of delicious food, wine and hours of delightful conversation!

Stay tuned as our adventure continues in Charleston...