Weekly Tiny Home: French Cabin

This lovely cabin in Dordone, France is pretty magical. A perfect weekend getaway with 2 bedrooms to bring friends and an ideal spot on a private lake.

I love this bedroom! The wood beams and headboard make the room feel so quaint and inviting.

Imagine cooking for your loved one over some wine, sharing laughs and gazes across this table...

 Read more about the Poacher's cabin and you can book this serene cabin here.

xo

Weekend Recap

It's just another manic Monday...or so it feels!

Last weekend was pretty low key, but productive. On Friday, the office was pretty quiet since many people worked from home or left early to avoid the Outkast concert traffic. They were playing 3 nights back-to-back at Centennial Park (each night was sold out). This was my view from my office about 2 hours before the show was set to start.

For lunch, I went with my favorite ladies, Beth and Jenny, to lunch at Dua Vietnamese on Broad Street. Their Bun with spicy lemongrass tofu is amazing! The weather, food, and company made for a great start to the weekend.

On Friday night, we were going to go to dinner and a movie, but we ended up missing the movie (oops). I had read about a new vegetarian restaurant right down the street from our house called Go Vegetarian and it was incredible! They are still in their soft opening so it took a little longer than usual to get our food, but we were told it would be worth the wait and they were right! I wish I had gotten pictures of the food, but I was starving by the time we got it. They make everything from scratch (including the meat substitutes) and have very strict policies in place to ensure everything is fresh and preservative-free! So stoked to have this restaurant so close by - we will be regulars I'm sure. We ended up coming home and watching Neighbors. 

On Saturday morning, we lingered in bed for a bit before taking Townes on a walk at the Clyde Shepard Nature Preserve in our neighborhood. I fall in love with the bamboo path every time. The tire swing was also pretty awesome! :)

We met up with Victor and Anna at Bell Street Burritos for lunch. YUM! The weather has been to-die-for in Atlanta lately. 

 After lunch, we did some errands and saw all of the Fall items out at every store - including these mammoth pumpkins at Whole Foods! The picture does not do them justice!

We spent the evening in making a lovely dinner - mashed sweet potatoes, asparagus, cornbread, and vegan crab cakes from Whole Foods. We don't usually buy these vegan cakes, so it's always a nice treat when we do!

 I ended up making some handmade gifts for some friends and finished this huge scarf that I'd been putting off. Not I just have to sew the ends together to make it an infinity scarf - just in time for colder weather!

 On Sunday, we slept in a bit, made a nice breakfast, and then watched the documentary, Maidentrip, on Netflix. It's about Dutch teenager, Laura Dekker, who was the youngest person to sail around the world alone. It was pretty inspiring!

I'm trying to enjoy the lovely flowers before they are succumb to old man Winter...

 Sunday evening was spent with family celebrating Nana's 88th birthday! 

She's quite the knock out, hey? 

♥

Friday Favorites

How awesome are these flashback photos of Decatur, GA? 

This is the old train depot where Kimball House is today!

I may be a bit biased since I live in Decatur and some of these buildings are right by my house, but I always love any insight to the past. It's always incredible to close your eyes in a spot and try to picture it during different times throughout history!

Woah. This article is an interesting read on being able to determine people in your life who want you vs. need you. A good read for anyone in a relationship.

I want to go to there. Anyone up to meet in Portofino, Italy? Ideally via sailboat!

Loving these 12 quotes that share the secret to happiness...so many truths!

This print should be in all households. Especially those with children, I imagine! :)

My love of spinach, eggs, and polenta are perfectly combined in this recipe. Would be perfect with some sourdough bread!

I can't wait to see this movie! It could be fun to take my brother along...

Happy weekend! 

Make the most of the first Fall weekend - fire pits, crackling leaves, and cozy light sweaters!

♥

My Week So Far

With Fall finally here, I feel like I could post a million things I'm loving this week, but I'll try to limit it to my absolute favorites.

I had a random call from my lovely friend, Elizabeth, when leaving work the other day. She just happened to be in Atlanta and wanted to hang out when I drove right by her! She ended up catching a ride with me back to Decatur. We ate Indian food at Bhojanic and then she spent the night. So fun!

The thalis platters at Bhojanic are so good! $12 for 3 vegetarian thalis, rice, bread, salad, and  yogurt! 

I love having fresh flowers around the house. These are on my dining room table and make me smile each time I pass them.

It's officially time to switch out the Bath + Body Works candles to the Fall scents. This scent smells like a mixture between leaves and apple cider!

Every day when I come home, I sit on the back porch steps to just relax a bit and take in the fresh air. Townes always comes and sits next to me with his paw on my lap. He's quite the charmer!

Orange and blue must be a la mode right now. :)

Since I had some bananas that were too ripe to eat by themselves, I decided to make my go-to low fat banana bread recipe. It's vegan too actually! The cinnamon and nutmeg made the house smell wonderful and cozy! I did add a few chocolate chips though :)

What are some of your favorite things from this week?
xo

Nothing Good Gets Away

I am a huge fan of John Steinbeck and Letters of Note so when I read this letter from John (written in 1958) to his son a few years ago, it instantly became a favorite. I figured it was time I share this piece of advice to anyone who has fallen or will fall in love....

Dear Thom:

We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.

First—if you are in love—that’s a good thing—that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second—There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply—of course it isn’t puppy love.

But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it—and that I can tell you.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

If you love someone—there is no possible harm in saying so—only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.

Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.

It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another—but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.

Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it.

We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.

And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens—The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

Love,

Fa

Pretty amazing and insightful, isn't it? 

I love that John isn't trying to decipher his son's feelings, but is just celebrating life and love (in love's various forms).

If you have someone you love, live it up!

xo

Read more letters here and here.

[photo]

Wise Words

This is such a powerful quote.

After going to volunteer orientation for Stand Up For Kids last weekend, it's got me feeling very fortunate. Fortunate to have had a fair shot for a happy life - a loving family, a great education, a successful career, and supportive friends. Sadly, not everyone is as lucky.

SUFK is a non-profit that provide life-saving and outreach services to homeless, street kids and at-risk youth. They have a few different programs: school mentor-ship, street outreach, and a center available 2 days/ week that provides basic necessities, food, hygiene, showers, medical help, resources, and mentor-ship to homeless kids. They are still very a very grassroots charity and I love that 95% of their donations go straight back to the kids (and is not spent on high salaries). My awesome, inspiring friend Jennifer works at SUFK and I'm so happy that she asked me to get involved! 

I'm going to be paired with an at-risk high school student (we will meet 2x/ month) and I'm also going to try to volunteer at the center on Wednesday nights.

It feels great to give my time to such a worthy cause...it's just a shame that any child has to live on the streets and worry about shelter and survival.

If you'd like more details or want to get involved, I can help point you in the right direction!

Weekend Recap

 

Last weekend was nice and peaceful - just what I needed after one of the most stressful work weeks I can remember last week! We started our weekend early on Thursday by a night out. We shared a salad (fried goat cheese anyone?) and a signature pizza with tomato, mozzarella, fried eggplant, Parmigiano-Reggiano drizzled with honey and aceto balsamico at La Tagliatella. YUM!

After dinner, we headed to the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Every Thursday is their "Cocktails in the Garden" event. They have some great exhibit going on: Imaginary Worlds and Four Seasons (sculptures based on paintings by Arcimboldo).

I love all of the intricate details and plants used to make each creature. My only complaint is that since we arrived around 7:30 PM, it got dark so quickly and therefore we couldn't see the sculptures as well. Good thing we're annual members! :) 

 We can't wait to go back for Ogre-tober with the various scarecrows!

 On Saturday, I had volunteer training for Stand Up For Kids from 9:30 AM - 5:30 PM. It was really great and informative - it also didn't hurt that it ended early (around 1:30 PM) so I got to enjoy the beautiful weather!

Instead of the normal yard work and cleaning, I insisted that we take it easy and just enjoy the nice weather and time together. We spent lots of time in the hammock and backyard! We ended the night grilling out. Not a bad way to spend one of the last official days of Summer...

On Sunday, I went with my sister, her boyfriend, and my niece to the Braves game against the NY Mets. The weather was awesome and it was nice to have some seats in the shade. Thanks to Jim for taking us and for the tickets!

 Natalie was my partner in crime! We had a lot of fun doing the tomahawk chop together. :)

I got lucky and managed to find a veggie dog! I looked all over for a veggie burger to no avail, but the good news is that the veggie dog vendor was right by our seats. I had to load it up with onions, relish, ketchup, and mustard, because after all, it's still a ballpark veggie dog! Haha.

 I am so grateful for these two! It was so nice to spend some fun time with them. We definitely need to plan more girl time together (mom/ Nana included)! Love them! <3 p="">

 On Sunday night, we spent time with J's grandparents and family. It made for a very long day, but it was nice to be surrounded by loved ones.

Back to the grind this week - another busy week, but so far, so good!

xo