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).