Auburn Recap

We had a very nice trip to Auburn despite the heat. The Toomer's Oaks did not look good at all and I'm afraid they may be lost for good. To give you an idea of how sick they look, below is a picture of one of the trees in August 2010.
 

And I took the following photos this past weekend.
 

On a brighter note, we had some free, highly entertaining antics from my friend's cat, Albus. Here, he's gone incognito on the back porch.
 

Back to Birmingham

Last weekend I visited a group of friends remaining in Birmingham after our fellowship with Time Inc. ended. I hadn't returned since moving out in December and it was a wonderful feeling to return to my 2010 home.

The first place I stopped was at Olexa's to have lunch with two of my friends. Diane Olexa, the owner, started her business as a wedding cake caterer. Olexa's is still famous for its buttercreme cake but their cafe offers really great lunch food.

Swanky Gardens & Atlanta Braves

This weekend was very busy for me. On Saturday I went on the self-guided Artful Garden Tour with a family friend and had the chance to peek in the private gardens of some very nice homes in the West Wesley Road, Ansley Park, and North Druid Hills areas. I also attended my first Braves game of the season. The weather wasn't great but it's always an adventure at Turner Field!

Car art...no, really, somebody glued this stuff to their car.

 

My favorite garden, off Habersham Road.

Handmade Birthday Card

Today is one of my very dearest friend's birthday, and instead of purchasing a card from the store, I decided to make one for her.

I've been very inspired by the current trend of using birds on cards and stationery. I also thought it would be cute to forgo the usual "Happy Birthday" and use another image to convey that sentiment.

I have lots of craft paper and card stock around from other projects, and I knew that would be a great place to start. 

To make things easier on myself, I traced patterns for the speech bubble and bird, traced them onto the paper, and then cut out the shapes.

On the back, I cut out white card stock with paper edger scissors with a scalloped pattern.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Tuesday was a friend's birthday, and she was ever so clever and decided to have a theme party. She and Audrey Hepburn share a birthday, so she chose a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" theme.

Amy hosted the event at her apartment and rented the movie for us. She also requested that we all bring one breakfast item and dress up in either pajamas or Holly's famous black dress and pearl combo.

When I arrived, Amy was cooking up some turkey bacon and eggs. I'd made z

ucchini bread and set it out on one of the plates Amy's roommate had set up for the occasion. In honor of our theme, she decorated the table with black and pink cloth.

Our group has always produced some delicious potlucks, and I was again impressed by the food. Fresh fruit, cheesy grits, lemon-poppyseed pancakes with strawberries, french toast casserole with blueberries and cream cheese, eggs, hash browns and bacon rounded out our meal.

To drink, we had an assortment of juices, and one of the girls brought champagne to make mimosas.

Now, about "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- I'd never seen the movie before, and it was nothing like I expected it would be! I thought it was alternately bizarre and hilarious. I do think my perspective was biased because I keep expecting older movies from that era of film to be much more reserved, and as a result, I found the movie to be much more shocking than I thought I would.

In all, I had a lot of fun, and I commend Amy for choosing such a good theme. I even had some zucchini bread left for breakfast the next morning.

Athens Twilight Weekend

This past weekend was the my first weekend in Athens in about eight months, and I felt good to be back in my college home.

I went with a group of fellows and we stayed at the lovely Foundry. I used to work there, so it was fun to stay as a guest. We weren't there much, but the beds were super comfy and the price tag was just right. There was a wedding there the same weekend, and the hotel was definitely full, but I didn't feel like we experienced a lot of noise.

I'm sad to report that Saturday was rainy and cold! We had lunch at Doc Chey's -- yay! -- and shared the lettuce wraps and I had Chinese Lo Mein with fried tofu. I can't believe how much I missed Doc Chey's, but I inhaled my noodles.

Amy and I took Lisa and Ashley on the usual round of shops, ending at Junkman's Daughter's Brother before heading back to the hotel. Then I headed over to Terrapin with Lisa and Ashley to partake in some delicious Athens brew. The one in the picture is the Pumpkinfest. It has a full flavor, but it's not bitter at all. Oh, and you can really taste pumpkin and spices. Yum!


Afterward, the three of us raced back downtown for dinner at Last Resort -- we even had to climb over some barricades to get there! It was worth it, as always. I had the shrimp quesadilla and garden salad with the jalapeno honey mustard.

It started raining again as soon as we left Last Resort, but we headed over to the race course just as the women's race began. I stayed for a bit, but decided to head back to the hotel as I wasn't exactly dressed for the weather and didn't want to get sick!


For brunch on Sunday, we stopped at The Grit. I opted for the veggie omelet with grits and biscuits. Claire ordered a couple of their "sausage" patties, and I don't know how they make them, but they are delicious, and taste almost exactly like real sausage.

To end our Twilight weekend and take advantage of the gorgeous weather, we gave Ashley and Lisa a tour of North Campus, Tate and the stadium.

Playing Hostess in B'ham Part II

This weekend three of my best friends (really, they're like my sisters) came to visit me in the B'ham. Yay! You'd think after spending college away would make it easier to be separated again, but after spending the last half of '09 with them, it was really hard to not see them all the time.

But, we totally made up for it! To be able to host them in my own place was very fulfilling as well. Almost as if I am a grown up now -- wait, what?

The weather was beautiful on Saturday, so we ate lunch on the porch at Mudtown (I had the Monte Cristo again, yum!) and they really liked the food.




After, we headed downtown to explore Sloss Furnaces to explore. It's free to explore on your own, and Sloss provides a map to help you get around. There are eleven spots around the property with plaques that describe the work at Sloss during its heyday. We took a good amount of time to explore each spot, and we spent over an hour there.

I usually enjoy visiting places like this, but I have to say that a lot of Sloss creeped me out. There is something sad about the furnaces and dusty, grimy machines left behind.

I was especially uneasy in the blower room, and it the whole experience certainly makes me think hard about place, and how the people who lived and worked there have affected it.

Afterward, we headed to the Birmingham Botanical
Gardens and hit the biggest gardens. The azaleas, Lenten roses, honeysuckle and jasmine are in full bloom, and I'll be happy to go back and see the roses and hydrangeas when they bloom! I was very happy to see a small group of poppies in a side garden.

My favorite area is definitely the Japanese garden. There is a beautiful wooden bridge spanning a large pond. There are turtles, large koi, and a couple of geese. I think we spent twenty minutes on the bridge and watching the water!

By the time we wrapped up there, it was time for dinner...at Cocina! Guen and I split the fish tacos -- so yummy. Oh, but we weren't done yet! I took the girls over to Vulcan and we braved the windy evening to view the city from the observation deck.

As you can see, it was worth it. Perhaps a little too thrilling (terrifying) end to our sightseeing, but I'm glad we took the time to go up there.

On the way home, we stopped at Yogurt Mountain, because really how else should you end a beautiful spring day?

We let our yogurt digest for a bit before primping and heading to Rare Martini downtown. Have to say, wasn't that great of a night, and I was disappointed at the entertainment. Ah, well.

The next morning we woke up late and made our way to Five Points South to have brunch at the Original Pancake House. I had the bacon and eggs (scrambled) which comes with three, perfectly sized pancakes. About half the size of normal restaurant pancakes, I could actually finish them and most of my eggs and bacon without feeling awful. The food was good, but I wouldn't say what I ate was better than IHOP. Sorry, die-hard Pancake House fans!

Yummy Funky Fish Fry

The weather this weekend was gorgeous! Amy and I headed over to the Funky Fish Fry at Crestline Village. It was organized by the Alabama Bar Young Lawyers and benefited the The Autism Society of Alabama, Mitchell's Place and Studio By the Tracks.


We had the catfish, hush puppies and coleslaw from Ezell's Catfish. It was very tasty, as you can see from my half-empty (soon after empty) plate. There was also gumbo, but I was personally too full to eat anymore food!


There were also several bands playing and a silent auction.


It was really nice to have some time to sit outside with a friend, catch up and eat yummy food.

Playing Hostess in B'ham Part I

Julie came to visit me yesterday -- hooray! She's the first friend that's been able to visit me since I moved here, so I was not only excited to see her, but also to play hostess.

It rained a lot on Monday, and it was supposed to rain again Tuesday, but God smiled upon Birmingham and it was a nice overcast day.

We had lunch at Bottletree Cafe, and it was pretty good. I had the Thunderbird sandwich with turkey, a red pepper mayo, Havarti cheese, tomato and lettuce on sourdough. This is probably my own doing, since they are known for their vegetarian items. But it sounded good! I chose the sweet potato fries as my side, and they could have been crispier. Julie had the veggie and rice burrito, and she really like it.

We headed over to What's on 2nd? which is a junk store downtown. And I don't mean junk as in trashy; it's an eclectic, overwhelming treasure store of all the things that people collect. They have an impressive collection of old postcards. I think every state in the U.S. was accounted for, and there were dozens for each one. They would be great to use for collages and decorating containers, table tops, etc.

The other items that caught my attention were the personal photos. There are several boxes of them all over the store. I found photos recording weddings, vacations, parties and just days of hanging out. It struck me as very odd that there were so many, illustrating so many intimate details of people's lives. How did those photos get into a junk shop? Did someone not want them? Wasn't there some family member who could keep them?

Afterward, I drove around and showed Julie around my neighborhood, and we spent part of the evening at the Summit. We spent some time in Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, and I of course I wanted to buy most of each store. And then it struck me how many items I could recreate myself, or find elsewhere. Oh, brand brainwashing, you are so devious!

We had dinner at FLIP -- yum -- and went to Yogurt Mountain for dessert -- another yum. They sell frozen yogurt and your choice of toppings for 45 cents an ounce! Believe me, you get a lot, even for $3. There are 16 rotating flavors of yogurt according to the website, and a couple dozen toppings from cereal to candy to fruit.

I had a really good time Tuesday, and it was a little -- okay, very -- hard to go back to work. Taking the day off make me think it was Friday/the weekend. So, thanks Julie, for giving me a Tues-weekend-day!