Weekend Recap

 I'm so grateful that last weekend was a busy one, but incorporated lots of down time!

On Friday evening, after a stressful work week, I went to my favorite Zumba Toning class and then came home to make a delicious dinner: eggplant parmigiana and sauteed spinach. After dinner (and a nice, long shower), J + I spent a quiet night in. It was really nice!

On Saturday morning, breakfast included a family favorite: scrambled tofu (I love me some nutritional yeast, despite how gross it sounds LOL) with sauteed spinach, guacamole, and some fresh salsa. I also had a bowl of papaya, honeydew melon, and strawberries from the farmers market.

After breakfast, I went to pick up Natalie so we could go to the zoo (her request on her birthday). It was a little chilly but at least it was pretty sunny outside. My favorite animals were the giraffes, lions, panda bears (the twins!), and the elephants. I love all of the birds too! 

Really appreciated the sign above - about how people are the world's most dangerous creatures. Although I'm not a huge fan of zoo's and animals in captivity, Zoo Atlanta did a great job of calling out the bad and tragic animal practices that occur every day. For instance, they had the cages used to hold sun bears in China for farmers to get the bear's bile for profit and stressed what a horrible life those poor bears experience.

The twin sister pandas were adorable. They are currently being weened from their mama so they spend a lot of the day away from her, but we got to see them move into the pin with their mama at the end of the day. They were so lovable!

Such a fun day! It's so insane to see how fast Natalie is growing up. I wish I could stop time sometimes!

After the zoo, we headed to the park to celebrate Townes's 6th "birthday." We got him 4 years ago exactly and since they said he was 1-2 years old, we just said he was 2 then...therefore, we're calling him 6! He's such a joy and I can't imagine life before him. We're so lucky to have him! To celebrate, we bought cookies for him (his is a fancy dog treat so not a true chocolate cookie, despite the appearance) and a massive cookie (sugar cookie with sprinkles) for Natalie!

On Sunday morning, we took a nice long walk before the rain came to the nature preserve in our neighborhood. We're so lucky to be able to enjoy the creek, marshes, and bamboo forests. 

We ended the day at the playground before having to take Natalie home.

Like most of the country, we ended the weekend by watching the Super Bowl. We mainly just used it as an excuse to make spinach + artichoke dip and our infamous BBQ tofu sliders with coleslaw on hawaiian rolls.

Hope your weekend was a great one!

♥

Friday Favorites

Happy happy Friday!

How incredible are these 11 beautiful bodies of water? I'd be happy to see all of them in my lifetime.

This article describes what your pet says about your personality. Pretty interesting! Apparently you can even tell if someone is liberal vs. conservative based on their breed of dog. 

This Thai butternut squash, sweet potato, and carrot soup with roasted honey siracha seeds recipe looks incredible! Definitely on the meal list for next week! 

A quote that hits hard for me. I always say that I feel the pain of the world, but I just started reading  a book, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, and it is a necessary, but hard read regarding the fate of our Earth. Stay tuned for more on that.

 Interesting article about how to lose a woman for good. Men, take note. These 9 tips are pretty spot on.

Google Fiber is coming to Decatur! Such amazing news for Atlanta and the surrounding cities. 

This new Netflix series, naturally!

This weekend will be spent having a sleep over with my niece Natalie and most likely going to the zoo (her request and who am I to deny a little girl who loves animal a trip to the zoo?) and doing crafts.

Despite not being a football fan, we'll probably watch the Super Bowl since J has requested that I make his favorite spinach + artichoke dip!

What's on your radar for the weekend? 

xo

Favorite Holiday Gifts

So this post of my favorite xmas gifts is late (how has it been a month since the holidays already?), but I figured it was better late than never!

I had a hard time making a wish list this holiday since there was/ is nothing material that I needed. Thankfully I got some great gifts anyways. Oddly enough, my favorite gifts were the coloring book (it truly does help relieve stress), the Clarisonic Mia 2, and the Birchbox subscription. My coworker introduced me to Birchbox while we were on a business trip in NYC and we went to the Soho location (the only brick-and-mortar location). I loved it so much that I even got the subscriptions for my mom and my MIL for Christmas. It's definitely the gift that keeps on giving! I had seen a bunch of art therapy coloring books in the Parisian department stores and wished I had bought one while in France. 

I know it's been over a month ago (where does the time go?), but what were some of your favorite [material] gifts from the holiday? 
xo

Weekend Recap

This weekend was a great one - laid back, but with a bit of adventure thrown in. 

That's usually my favorite kind of weekend honestly!

Victor and J have been doing 5 AM hikes for a few years now, but typically it's boys only, but since the group was a bit larger this weekend for Victor's birthday, I asked to tag along. It worked out well since there was plenty of room and even Townes got to come. We went to Rock Island in Tennessee (about an hour north of Chattanooga, TN). As soon as we parked the cars, we got to see these incredible falls! The gorge hiking trail was closed sadly due to high water levels. 

I couldn't get over the green color of the water! It was so beautiful.

We weren't planning on a long hike so I left my hiking boots behind; however, this ended up being a bad call since we hiked through some small falls to get to a hidden waterfall. Despite the cold, wet shoes, it made for quite an adventure! Even the stairs and railings down to the falls were covered with dripping water! The various colors (water, rocks, and moss) of all of the nature and the sounds of the rushing water made me feel so grateful for days like these.

We were going to make one last stop before heading home, but we stopped at the visitor center and I decided to ask the rangers if they'd suggest any other spots before we left. Thankfully they told us about Twin Falls that is just across the river. We didn't have time to do the 1.6 mile loop along the river, but we definitely loved the falls and lingered on the rocks to enjoy the sunshine and rapids.

Townes has a new thing where he barks incessantly at the water when it hits the rocky shore. It's bizarre because this bark is totally different than his typical bark. Watch the video for a good laugh :)

Happy birthday, Victor! I'm so glad to have gotten to celebrate with you!

We got home pretty late on Saturday, so we basically just stayed in and watched "The Interview" on Netflix. It was pretty much what I thought it would be. :)

On Sunday, after a nice breakfast and a long walk with Townes, we enjoyed some time in the backyard before I headed over to my parents' house to celebrate my niece's 10th birthday. I can't believe Natalie is now in the double-digits!

Since the weather was so perfect, I actually got in the hot tub before the party started (it was so nice and relaxing). Natalie had a few of her friends over for pizza, laughs, and cookie cake. I'm glad I got to spend some time with her and the other little girls.

Can you tell she likes cats? :)

The whole gang - with rock candy! I'm sure their parents loved picking them up with sugar highs. Haha.

Hopefully you had a lovely weekend and if you're up north, stay safe and warm!

xo

Featured Artist: Cat Coquillette

It's been a while since I've looked into buying art. To be honest, I have so many great pieces that I've yet to hang in my house so first things first, right? However, I just got moved into an office at work (complete with awful florescent lighting) so I've been trying to make it feel more cozy and lively.

With that being said, Cat Coquillette's bright artwork is seemingly perfect to fit the bill. 

Here are some of my favorite pieces... 

Maybe it's just me, but I've been really into gold print lately!

To check out more of Cat's work, go here. 

♥

Southern Gothic Playlist

Hey strangers!

I can't tell you how many posts I've started to write in the last few weeks that are still not complete. After a long, relaxing holiday, I came back to work going a million miles a minute. The good news is that I finally have help again so things should start to level out soon!

In the meantime, I've had my head down in my office getting as much done as I can. I figured I'd share a playlist that's been helping me stay in the zone lately. The only down side to the playlist, is it makes me miss "True Detective!"

What's been on your playlist lately?

Happy Monday!

xo