also loving this....

blows my mind

...seriously...

...that's a person...actual...
found here...you need to read about this alexa meade character...

Jefferson Theater

We've been so good at going to concerts recently! I've been wanted to see more shows, but can never bring myself to spend the money. We have been to the Jefferson Theater twice in the past couple of weeks. We decided to see Stephen Kellogg (we saw him last year at Fry's Spring Station when Charlie won tickets on the radio) and he was awesome! The acoustics and the mix were phenomenal and I was really impressed. Then last weekend, we took my little sister to see Ingrid Michaelson. Her openers, the Guggenheim Grotto, were really good and again, the Jefferson impressed me with the sound. I really like all of Ingrid's songs and was super excited but ended up kind of disappointed in the show. The energy was kind of funky. They used tracks. And the mix was off for some reason. Ingrid is still very talented and I still love all of her songs, but maybe not live.
I do greatly appreciate living so close to such a quality concert venue...

apple picking at Carter Mountain

My parents were in town this past weekend and we took a quick trip up to Carter Mountain for some apple picking, donuts, and fall air. The donuts are worth the trip alone. We did get some delicious apples too. I generally have no idea what apples I end up picking at orchards as I get so excited to find apples that are ripe, beautiful and ready for plucking, but they ended up all being delicious. We did end up with mostly granny smith apples (which are my personal faves) and I will have to make some loaves of apple bread to freeze (or eat, whichever comes first).

trader joe's kettle corn...

...is absolutely delicious and could be my new favorite snack food.

charlie and i stopped by the trader joe's in richmond on the way home from the beach and picked some groceries including this kettle corn. let me tell you that it will be bad news bears when trader joe's opens in c'ville (hopefully soon). i have a feeling our grocery bills could go way up!

fellini's

charlie has played here a few times, but neither of us has ever eaten at fellini's #9. across from skylight studios on the downtown mall, fellini's offers a non-stuffy atmosphere with really hearty pasta. 5 of us enjoyed dinner on friday night. we all opted for pasta even though fellini's also offers entrees (like salmon, eggplant, chicken, etc.). the best thing is that the restaurant offers half-portions of most of the pasta (which is more than enough). my favorite pasta of the night: Orecchiette - “Little Ears” pasta italian sausage and rapini with vodka cream sauce 14.95 1/2 order 9.95.

i've heard good things about the bar as well..so we'll be checking this little place out again!

new things all weekend

we just pulled in after a day at the beach.

a one day trip to the beach? in september? why yes, we just pulled in after a day at sandbridge beach near virginia beach.we discovered the beach last weekend. i told charlie that the day was one of my favorites. ever. it was so nice to get away - like really away - for the day, catch some sun and listen to the waves. the weather could not have been better. the beach is about a 3-3.5 hour drive east on 64. there is free parking after labor day, a public restroom and a market right nearby and i am a huge fan. charlie mentioned today that it's probably a good thing we didn't discover this sooner, or we would be total shut-in beach bums.

part of what made today so lovely, was the busy busy day we had yesterday. phyllis, a wonderful lady who works over at t&n printing (printed our wedding programs and could not be more helpful when i need something printed for work), and her husband own the korner restaurant and invited me and charlie to stop by for breakfast. the place is a little hole in the wall on the corner of 9th and cherry, that we have driven by often and never stopped in. word is they have some killer bbq, but it isn't a regular menu fixin' so you have to know when to stop by. charlie had a western omelet that was huge and came with home fries and biscuits. i could have eaten these biscuits all day, friends. they were delicious! i had an egg with some bacon, home fries, and of course more than my share of biscuits. the plates are around $5 and it is a whole lot of food. we'll have to check back for dinner. the menu had burgers, hot dogs, and sandwiches listed and we loved the vibe. i felt like an insider just being in the place!

after breakfast, we drove out to ashlawn-highland, the home of james monroe. after a $5 resident ticket fee (sweet deal and you get in for free if you bring a guest), we joined a short tour of the house. charlie says this is now one of his favorites as it wasn't pretentious at all and it felt so accessible. there are no ropes on the furniture and the tour guide mentioned that ~80% of the furniture in the house actually belonged to the monroe's.

charlie decided on a whim to swing by blenheim vineyards (owned by the matthews family - i.e. dave matthews) just to see it. our nuvi took us the back way through a very rough looking part of town, so we were extremely surprised to see the beauty of the property when we arrived. the view of the area is absolutely stunning!

being the non-wine drinkers that we are, we ended up not tasting any wine ($5 for a tasting), but instead just admired the building and view. we'll have to go back and actually drink some wine. it was pretty pathetic if you ask me!

on the way out, we passed simeon market. i had driven by the market a few times and was intrigued by the quaint little place and it's funny name (my dad's name is simeon). it ended up being quite the find and the roast beef sandwich we split was delicious! my dad will be asking us to stop by the next time he's down i'm sure.

to round out the day, charlie and i decided to check out a couple shops we hadn't been to before. we drove down 250 to the barn swallow. i had seen the place on my drives out to crozet and was always intrigued by the rustic looking building and the sign touting artisan crafts. this may be one of my new favorite shops in c'ville. they had the best assortment of pottery, artwork, jewelry, furniture, accessories...i loved it and have my eye on a few things (...charlie...).

we also stopped by ivy corner, by the post office in ivy. this place was really cute! they have some great plants (at good prices) and really nice gift items. apple trees were half price and were very tempting.

and last but not least, we finally made it to and george! i loved just about everything in the store. it felt like a luxury just to walk in and i admired every knick knack, cup, vase, candlestick, and chair in the place. i especially loved erika jack's stationery.

it was a busy weekend and i'm feeling much more in the know about c'ville!

j crew warehouse sale in lynchburg

while sitting at bodo's saturday morning, charlie and i decided to take a road trip down to lynchburg. i've been having the shopping itch (much to charlie's delight) and wanted to check out the j crew catalog store (and possibly covesville antiques). our friend dao tagged along for the adventure. as we pulled into the warehouse parking lot, my heart started to flitter just a bit at the sight of all those cars. we stumbled onto a warehouse sale without even knowing it! i'm sure charlie was cringing, but he was such a trooper. after a long wait in line and hours of tearing through boxes and boxes, i found charlie loaded down with clothes. he did quite well for himself. and dao made his first j crew purchase (not sure how this is possible). we ended up having a blast and snagged some amazing deals.


all for $120!!!


*those shoes are listed for $159.99 on the jcrew website and i grabbed them up for $30!

new friends

so i've been needing some new blog friends post-wedding. my regular blog cycle is all off since all i was looking at were wedding blogs.

here are some new friends that i'm enjoying:
swiss-miss
poppytalk
a cup of jo
dress design decor (not new but rediscovered)
coco + kelley (not new but rediscovered)
black eiffel (not new but rediscovered)

let me know if you have any that i should add to my blog roll.

would you be your own friend?

I was reading my most recent edition of "Glamour" magazine and there was an interesting article posing the question "would you be friends with you?".

Valid question.

i love everything about this...

my dear friend alison is fabulous. she's one of those people who always looks cool and put together, is beautiful, smart, and fun, and has amazing taste.

i just discovered her tumblr account and i'm obsessing.

amazing

don't you wish your life had this soundtrack and the pictures to go with it?

evolve

i needed a hair cut pretty badly after the beating my hair took from the wedding (growing it out and then all that hairspray) and the sun this summer. i usually go to bristles but saw this post on the scout charlottesville blog about the brand new evolve - eco friendly hair design studio right near my office. willow (barbara) was able to fit me in pretty quickly due to a cancellation and i'm enjoying my new do. i asked willow to give me a healthy trim and if she wanted to do something drastic or exciting, i would be open to it. my hair looks much the same as it did when I went in, but much healthier, a little shorter, and better shaped. she recommended we brave some bangs on my next visit.
the salon is beautiful. very sparse and open and quiet - new for a hair place. the geranium oil head massage after the shampoo was quite lovely and i'm sure would be even better after a long day of work than before the day begins.
i do love bristles, so i'll have to see how i feel when i'm due for my next hair cut, but evolve is definitely recommended for a good quality hair cut. standard cuts run ~$55.

some additional vendors

There are some additional people/vendors from our wedding that cannot go without a review/recommendation:

Instead of little knick-knacks as wedding favors, we figured people might want a little bit of deliciousness at the end of the long evening. I contacted Spudnuts in Belmont (blogged about here) months ago to see if they could make enough donuts for all of our guests. Lori, who I think owns the store with her husband, was so lovely to work with. The store actually wasn't open on the 3rd, but she came in early in the morning to bake us 130 donuts and have them ready for our big day. The donuts came out towards the end of the reception and were a huge hit! We had Clifton put individual donuts in wax bags with a sticker saying "Enjoy". People grabbed them up as they were leaving for the night (or grabbed about 20 and brought them down to the pool area). Spudnuts was fabulous!

When I was working at rockpaperscissors, I fell in love with Heather Rolfe's calligraphy. Heather Rolfe of Heather Belle Ink does some of the calligraphy for Monticello (or did at one point) and was able to print escort cards for our wedding. I met Heather down at Caspari and gave her the list of names and the cards. She could not have been sweeter and was even able to print out the text for our program covers. They were beautiful!!!

I had a lot of trouble deciding what to get Charlie as a wedding gift (and to be honest, considered not getting him one). Amy, over at scarpa, has the most amazing painting of her late dog Bruiser. I've been admiring it for quite a while and finally figured out that I should get Charlie a painting of Bayley. The painting of Bruiser was done by Sharon Shapiro. I love her work and contacted to see if she could do the painting of Bayley. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford a Sharon Shapiro painting, but I remembered that my friend Erin knew Kathryn Barton of Skylight Studios and actually had just received a painting as a wedding gift from Kate of her dog, Suki. Kate was so wonderful to work with and the painting of Bayley is awesome. Charlie saw it and fell in love (he may have cried a little).

announcing betsy and charlie murry in charlottesville

charlie and i were married (finally) 3 weeks ago in charlottesville and the celebration could not have gone better. everything was beautiful and we had such a blast.

the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception took place at clifton inn. we've written about clifton inn before and their spectacular food and the wedding was no exception. the food was delicious! the design of the cake was not spectacular (and not close to what we asked for), but it tasted fabulous! the staff was on top of every detail and really took care of things for us. i really could not recommend the venue more especially for a wedding. our guests loved taking advantage of our exclusive use of the property. some people went on hikes around the grounds, played croquet, tennis, and horseshoes, and almost everyone went swimming at some point during the weekend.

our flowers were provided by couture design (formerly patterson's) in crozet. they did an awesome job and for a great price. the roses were spectacular and they even provided the peaches and apricots we used so that charlie and i wouldn't be running around before the wedding. unfortunately we didn't end up with some of the flowers i requested - the boutonnieres were not the correct roses and the cake flowers were wrong, but couture design could not have been more accommodating and ended up doing more centerpieces for us and included them into the negotiated price.

we used john garland as our dj. he had guests up and dancing before dinner even started. granted my friends are absolutely nuts, but regardless john did a phenomenal job. the coordinator at clifton even commented about how on top of things john was in terms of transitions, announcements, etc. he is a super nice guy and we really enjoyed him. highly recommended.

t&n printing printed our ceremony programs and they were perfect. i work with t&n through my job and i love each person who works there that i have had the privilege to meet. they could not have been more helpful, friendly, and wonderful. they even folded to programs for us!

by far, our favorite vendors are unfortunately not local. the parsons photographed our wedding from start to finish. we invited them to our rehearsal dinner as guests so they could get to know our guests and we could get to know them. halfway through the night, charlie came and found me holed up in my guest room with two of my favorite people, meg runion, erin white (formerly known as erin mcdermott), and the parsons rather than hanging out with our other guests. we had a blast with ashley and jeremy and cannot wait to see our pictures.

fry's spring station

my new favorite place in c'ville. fry's spring station opened up across from durty nelly's recently and i had heard great things about it. the pizza is delicious! charlie and i didn't have any of the appetisers or even the beer, but everything looked awesome and we're ready to go back for more.

definitely a regular in the rotation!

l'etoile

we are so behind on posting...

for charlie's birthday earlier this month, we went out for a nice dinner at l'etoile - just a hop, skip, and a jump from our house. it was very nice. charlie started the evening with the foie gras that was garnished with cherries and was rich, decadent, and delicious. i was having trouble deciding between the goat cheese gnocchi (i have heard they are awesome), the scallops, and the tenderloin. on the waitress' recommendation, i had the tenderloin. it was very good. well cooked and nicely flavored, not too rich, and the garnishes were perfect. charlie's duck breast was so delicious that he is de-throning zocalo as the best duck in charlottesville. check out the menu and don't forget that l'etoile has a $30 chef's menu available on wednesdays and thursdays - awesome deal that we will be checking out later on.

Cazon Tropical

Last night we visited Cazon Tropical on the recommendation of a friend. There was no one in the restaurant (off 29 north behind Kohr Brothers) and only 1 more person came in while we were eating. The menu seems pretty authentic - but not being from El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, or Honduras, I don't think I'm the authority on the matter... Their website says "Come and feel like you are eating at any grandmother's house in El Salvador, The Dominican Republic or Honduras, right here in Charlottesville, or just come and feel like you are on vacation, either way you will enjoy fresh natural food with the flavors of ours homes. We take pride in the tropical taste of our cooking and we just want to share with you ." and I feel like this is an accurate description. The food definitely tasted home made and there was nothing fancy or stuffy about it. As a heads up, they don't serve any alcohol, which was kind of a bummer. I would have loved a cold Corona with my dinner. Charlie enjoyed some authentic Pica Pollo and Tostones and we noticed that there weren't many vegetable options on the menu at all. Overall, a fun little discovery.

bashir's taverna

the econ dinner club was at it again this weekend. we haven't met for a while, so charlie and i called an "emergency get together" at bashir's taverna on the downtown mall. number one - i really love when it starts to get warm here and everyone is out on the downtown mall - including the musicians (good or bad). number two - bashir's is a fun place to eat. i think our tables tasted almost everything on the menu. charlie loved the lamb. the moussaka special looked delicious and comforting. the couscous trio served in a tagine looked colorful and delicious. the ham (raved about in the new york times, apparently) was melt-in-your-mouth tasty. not cheap - but the belly-dancing is free!

ten

ten out of ten in my book for ten on the downtown mall. this is some seriously good sushi. some friends of ours wanted to go out one night the other week and were delighted to stumble up the stairs into the high-ceiling'ed, mirror-walled, hip urban decorated restaurant. the seaweed salad - awesome, and the rolls were really really delicious - super-fresh, and light. i'm a big fan.

scarpa - take 2

with rockpaperscissors under new ownership, i've started working at scarpa part-time (very part-time and only on random saturdays that aren't already consumed with wedding appointments or other crazy to-dos). i have to say that the stock amy has right now is so fun! there are so many great sandal options for the warm weather. i bought myself a pair of the kelsi dagger colleen sandals:
and a fabulous lemlem scarf:

the jewelry is killer and i wish i had more parties to go or i actually wore the high heels that i have so i could buy more.

really - there's a lot of good stuff! check it out

rockpaperscissors

the new owners of rockpaperscissors have done a wonderful job with the shop. the new location on the downtown mall is wonderful (and a walk from my office). maybe i'm a a little bit nuts, but walking into the store was so soothing - it really was a breath of fresh air. the walls are a calming blue, the store is so clean and bright, and of course the products are too much fun. i love love love paper goods and the new inventory is lovely!

congrats dani and heather! i can't wait to stop in again soon!

mas tapas

After over a year and a half in Charlottesville, I finally went to Mas. Betsy has been there a couple of times. For those who don't know, Mas is essentially the foodie mecca of Charlottesville (maybe along with C&O), which I think is saying a lot for a town filled with great restaurants. One of the things about Mas is that you can't make reservations. We got there at 6pm on a Friday and got a seat right away, but a little later in the night there was a long line out front. We got a lot of food and most of it lived up to the hype. The thing that impressed me the most was that for all the hype, the food or the service did not seem pretentious. For instance, the chorizo was just that, a plate with three patties of homemade sausage (I probably would only recommend this dish to accompany a cheese plate). Mas is a true tapas place in the sense that its food is certainly Spanish. Seafood, goat cheese, Manchego cheese, cured pork, and other traditional flavors are prevalent on the menu.

Some of our favorite dishes included breaded halibut with grapefruit, Monte Enebro goat cheese with apricot preserves melted over brioche , and lamb chops with a mint mojo sauce.

I am not sure any restaurant is worth an hour wait, but this is a place that I would like to go back to. I feel like we barely touched the menu. Maybe all of the offerings are what get people coming back.

Belmont BBQ

We finally visited Belmont BBQ the other weekend. It was a beautiful day, so we got the food to-go and had a little picnic. The food was great. I got a rib a sandwich. Betsy had a pulled pork sandwich and we shared some french fries. The BBQ is delicious. The style of BBQ is definitely Virginian. The pork sandwich was a little juicy with a thicker sweet sauce. They also have spicier sauce options. The rib sandwich was very "wet." Generally I prefer more of the North Carolina style BBQ (which is an option too), but I really thought the BBQ we had was great. One option I think we'll have to get next time is a this bucket which they put essentially all of their kinds of BBQ in with a side. The french fries were good, but maybe a little too flavorful. In short, this is definitely a place we will be going back too. The best BBQ I have had in a while.

spring may be on her way

it turned out to be such a beautiful weekend here in charlottesville and charlie and i wanted to make the most of it. after a restful friday evening (definitely needed), we decided to check out monticello. just an fyi, they have resident discounts and student discounts, so make sure to check out the deals. monticello really is such a cool place and jefferson is a fascinating individual. we walked around the grounds and i was thrilled to see some tiny purple crocuses popping up all over the lawns. what a beautiful site! while we were driving up to the visitor center, i realized how beautiful charlottesville is and how many amazing things there are around here.

we stopped to get our favorite market sandwiches on the way back and decided that we wanted some trader joes goodies for our pantry. too bad the closest trader joes is in richmond, but we made the trip and it was really fun (rumor is there are plans to open a trader joes around c'ville soon). charlie and i haven't really explored richmond since we moved here and will have to do so soon.

today we enjoyed the sunshine with bayley and some burgers with friends.

can't wait for warmer weather!

taste of china

on the recommendation of one of charlie's professors, we decided to check out taste of china in the albemarle square shopping center. the place was packed and i was extra excited to see a large group of chinese students in the back corner of the restaurant, clearly loving what they were tasting. there was a steady stream of diners through the evening and i understand why. the food was delicious. the restaurant lures you in with the cheesy neon light outside and the wall of menu photos right inside the door. the decor is minimal and the restaurant is really just a large room with as many tables as can fit. we tried the crispy beef, some dumplings, and a duck pancake dish. they were all great but we'll have to go back so we can taste some more of the options.

the chef, peter chang has quite the disappearing act and has attracted a devout group of followers who have followed him from tennessee to georgia to virginia - anywhere they can taste chang's food. no one knows how long he will stay in a location, so once located, people flock to his restaurants.

rumor is to ask for the authentic chinese menu!

tavola

our friends, dao and sarah, wanted to go out to dinner in belmont the other week. we focused on mas since charlie had never been. it turned out there was a super long wait at mas - which is a pretty standard occurance, but we were hungry. so we made the walk up the road to choose between tavola and the local. we ended up at tavola and it was fantastic! tavola makes their own pasta (delicious) and i have an awesome red beet risotto with huge sea scallops. it really was perfect. really great atmosphere, great wine, amazing food. definitely a nicer restaurant - but it comes highly recommended!

escafe

new fun hang out spot!

last night, one of our good friends asked charlie and i to join him at eloise to see kiki slaughter's work (part of the first fridays series in c'ville). first of all - how cool is the name kiki slaughter?! kiki's work is beautiful. very textural. i'm definitely a fan and hope one day to be a millionaire art collector with a beautiful house with so much art that some is leaning against walls rather than hanging.

anyway, after the art "gathering" and after admiring the ever lovely collections of clothing and accessories at eloise, dao, his lovely friend sarah (who i thoroughly enjoy), charlie, and i meandered across the downtown mall to escafe. charlie and i have never been and were very excited to try something new. apparently sarah and her lady friends from darden are frequent visitors and for good reason. i had a bison burger (based on sarah's recommendation) and it was delicious! the sparkling wine was enjoyable as well. what's fun about escafe is the laid-back atmosphere. they have awesome specials including 1/2 price wine bottle deals and a 20% off food discount for students!

what a good night.

The Southern

One of my new C’ville friends invited Charlie and I (really just me, but Charlie tagged along) to a free show at the Southern to see Charlie Mars. The place is actually pretty cool. The bar area and stage area are separated by a small entryway. The bar staff was very friendly (not a ton of drink choices) and the bar menu looked really good (sweet potato biscuits with apple butter – yum!). The show was really good too. There weren’t too many people there, but it was a fun night with some new music. Good job C’ville on opening up a new music venue after so many have closed.

C&O Restaurant

Charlottesville started hosting Restaurant Week last year. Charlie and I were fans of restaurant week while we lived in DC and unfortunately missed out on Charlottesville’s inaugural year last year. We’ve been meaning to check out C&O for a while now and figured this was a perfect chance to go. We met up with friends, Joe and Patten, on a super cold Thursday the other week. The restaurant apparently used to be a stopover for the train passengers and the wooden beams and bricks and crackling fire when you walk in are so comforting.

After sitting down, each of us chose our three courses off of the preselected menu.

First Course: Charlie was the brave one and tried the pate. Patten and I had the mushroom risotto (I can’t turn down risotto especially with mushrooms) and Joe had a beautiful salad. 4 stars all the way around

Second Course: I was the loaner on this round. Charlie, Patten, and Joe all selected the well-known Steak Chinoise (we have heard great things about this C&O classic) and I braved the trout. Let me tell you that the potatoes that accompanied the steak were to die for! So rich and creamy and could warm even a hypothermia victim. Really awesome! I was not so impressed with my trout. In fact, I barely ate it. The first bite I took had me crunching on some serious bones that were big enough that I needed to think whether they could belong to a trout. The starch was a mixture of black eyed peas and some grains. It was definitely a home cooked taste, but not my style. Bummer. 4.5 stars out of 5 for the steak – Charlie adds this to the top five list of things he has tasted in C’ville (along with an zucchini amuse bouche from Clifton, duck from Zocalo, halibut from Clifton, and ribs from Maya). No star rating for the trout.

Third Course: Joe and Charlie finished off the evening with a chocolate espresso pot de crème (“good…real good”). Patten had gingerbread with apples – smelled divine, and I had some vanilla ice cream with a chocolate dish and raspberry sauce. I think I struck out again. The chocolate dish was not flavorful and the ice cream just wasn’t very delicious.

I understand the appeal of C&O and how many people claim it is one of the best restaurants in C’ville. I am giving them the benefit of the doubt and saying that because they were swamped and it was restaurant week – maybe not the best showing. We’ll have to try it again.

in preparation

I just spent almost 2 full hours at the grocery store along with the rest of Charlottesville. I didn't even think about the predicted snow storm and what that would mean for the lines at Kroger. Instead of getting frustrated, I figured that Charlie and I should share some of our snow fun from December's big storm.

zinc

Considering this place is right up the street from our house, it is amazing to me that we haven't checked it out until now. I invited the "dinner club" to join us at Zinc tonight for some good company and good food. It did not disappoint. Our waitress was great and very patient with the 14 of us. She recommended 2 plates per person and highly recommended sharing to get a taste of everything. It is not easy to share! The food was delicious! There were rave reviews of the cheese platter, the chickpea fritters, the brisket, sardines, and mac and cheese. I tasted the escargot - really yummy, the frites (my favorite food group), and the steak tartare. It was all awesome! Charlie mentioned on the way home that we should head over more often and share a plate of something and some drinks. Good thing it's so close!

Bizou

Charlie has been hoping to eat at Bizou since we moved to Charlottesville. I'm not quite sure what sparked his initial interest. Was it a review he read? Was is the sign over the door? We've attempted to eat there a couple of times, but both attempts were made late night and service had stopped.

Our good friends Nate and Joey were in town the other week and Charlie's dream of eating at Bizou came true. The walls of the restaurant are lined with old and obscure movie posters and the restaurant feels a little like Miller's but cleaner. Joey had a delicious looking veggie stack. Nate had some sort of steak. I had a cod fillet with some sort of bacon cream sauce and Charlie had the meatloaf (apparently referenced as a "must have" in Food and Wine from 2004". The food was very good and definitely was filling. I didn't love the cod. It seemed heavier than I expected it to be. Charlie did devour his meatloaf though. Nate mentioned that the sauce on his steak - for some reason, I'm remembering barbeque sauce - was overpowering the flavor of the meat.

I'll have to get an official verdict from Charlie, but I think Bizou may not be our favorite find in Charlottesville, especially with all of the other fabulous restaurants here. I don't know though - we could be swayed...