reason no. 138 why I love my husband:

after almost three weeks of working in california, robert racked up quite the stash of aveda products from his hotel. he thoughtfully stashed them away each day so the cleaning people would keep replacing them. then he smuggled them all back for me in his luggage. thanks to all of these work trips, I haven't had to buy a single bar of soap all year!

{aveda shampoo, conditioner, lotion  & soap}

sublime doughnuts

my sister took me to the most delicious breakfast on friday in atlanta: sublime doughnuts and they are just that! we met the chef kamal grant, who is “trying to go for someone’s last meal on death row” with his delicious donut flavors. gotta love that.

we ordered the fresh strawberry n creme, ying yang twist, oreo & the dulce de leche- all were spectacular. I really wanted to try the nutella flavor. oh, and the frosted crossiant. and the reeces penut butter cup... but they were out. you snooze, you lose. you've gotta check out this place if you're ever in atlanta.

{some of sublime donut's flavors. image from here}

little treasures

I picked up these two pairs of earrings & this cute little pin at an estate sale this past weekend. I love finding little treasures.

sew cute

sorry.. couldn't resist the title. I was at an antique shop in dallas last year & spotted this. what an adorable way to display vintage thread, buttons & measuring tapes. oh, & the lamp is covered in a sewing pattern. now if only I could sew...

china hutch

I've been looking for quite awhile for some sort of china hutch to display all of our ben seibel & eva zeisel pieces. I wanted something simple & mid century-looking, with glass on top & a cabinet on the bottom. so one weekend robert & I hit up literally every thrift store within a 25 mile radius. the last stop on the map was the house of transitions (created so that ex-prisoners on parole could “transition” into their first job). the place was covered in junk. and I don’t mean “another-man’s-treasure” kind of junk. like, crap. after walking through, I was made a bee-line for the door when robert spotted this piece of furniture. I honestly didn’t even notice it because it was covered in stuffed animals & fake flowers. but once we moved all that out of the way, it was beautiful. and we talked the guy down to only $75! it appears to be late 60s/early 70s, but it looks absolutely perfect in our home.

so moral of the story: don’t judge a thrift store by it’s crap. there’s always a diamond in the rough somewhere.

npr story: googling yourself is fun

for the price of $6, a guy named alec brownstein scored himself a dream job as a copywriter at a big ad agency. you can listen to the npr story here, but basically, he purchased individual ads on google that would pop up when his choice creative directors googled their names (talk about vain) & would take them to alec's website. it worked. now that's brilliance. just goes to show you that in a tough economy, a little creativity & effort can really make you stand out.

here's a video alec made explaining what he did.

tweet treats

I am definitely going to have to pick up this "tweet treats" cupcake set from urban outfitters. so cute!

summer kabobs

nothing says summer like kabobs on the grill. I marinated some chicken in a little olive oil, red wine vinegar, lime juice, paprika and s&p for a few hours. we threaded skewers with green peppers, banana peppers, onion & my favorite, pineapple & threw them on the grill. they were delicious & so easy.

the next morning robert cooked up some omelets with the leftovers.

customized monopoly game

we wanted to do something really special for our favorite family, the xides, for their anniversary. gust is a pilot for delta, so the family has done a ton of traveling together. I came up with this idea to make a customized monopoly board, with all the spaces & properties being places they have lived or traveled to together over the course of their marriage.

 my extremely talent husband worked for days re-drawing the board & creating all new pieces. the chance & community chest cards are all based on events or funny things that have happened over the years (I enlisted the help of a few of their friends for some memories). I changed the railroad spaces to bridges that they have been on & changed the tax squares to their real-life expenses, like "greek lessons" & "library fine". I have to say, the result was quite fantastic. I hope this is a gift that they can play together as a family & laugh at for many years to come.
 

{the box. robert covered the sides with "xidesopoly" as well}

{the whole new board}

{the xides own two volvos, hence the "free volvo parking"}

{since they have visited alcatraz, john (7), has decided he wants to be a prison guard there}

{so maybe they have a chunk of mt. etna in the backyard. maybe.}

{having a daughter in girl scouts, they tend to really "support" the organization during cookie time}

{robert made all of the property cards in the original size- not the lame new small size that they sell now.}

* monopoly® is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc &we have not profited in any way from this game.

georgia's wassaw island

hope everyone had a nice memorial day weekend. we spent a few days in savannah at the xides 15th anniversary party. they took us on a boat cruise up the bull river to wassaw island on saturday. the island was so desolate & beautiful. we just wandered for hours & took lots of photos.

{we collected tons of perfect sand dollars}

{they call this the "boneyard"}

{we also found lots of starfish}

{amazing how god creates the fiddler crab to blend perfectly with the sand}

{we walked for miles down the beach}

{this reminded me of a mini stonehenge}