Braided Baskets

Love these braided baskets from Colonial Mills available on One Kings Lane today.  The problem would be picking which color!

Off to Wine Country

I'm off for a little vaca this week in wine country.  So very excited!  Back next week.

via AmeliaKayPhotography

Farm to Table

Last week I finally got to try Empire State South.  The restaurant issue of The Atlantan magazine claimed it to be the 'Best Restaurant,' so when a friend let me pick the restaurant for our dinner out, I jumped at the chance to go.

image via The Daily Beast

I just loved the interior design, and the bocce ball court outside - and the food was amazing!!  We started out with the In Jars - which were small canning jars filled with spreads.  My favorites of these were the pimento cheese with bacon marmalade and the boiled peanut hummus, which you can find a recipe for here.

Next we had the Soft Poached Farm Egg - so delicious I wanted to lick the bowl.  For entrees, I had a grouper special, and my friend had the Plow Point Farms Chicken Roulade - both of which were divine.

It was definitely the best meal I've had in a while.  I can't wait to find a reason to go back!

My Kind of Pool House!

Forget pool house - I could certainly live here full-time...

via Architectural Digest

I hope you all have a nice relaxing weekend!!

A Little Surprise

One little thing I forgot to share about our trip.  My sister lives in the tiniest of railroad towns in Indiana.  There's not much there - even their grocery store has closed.  What IS there is the cutest coffee shop, and boy is their coffee good!  And how cute is that decor?  I love the tin roof, wall of windows, and chandelier!

Food Truck Night

On most weeknights, the family and I eat at home - so it was a fun departure this past week when we decided to check out one of the Atlanta food truck nights.  We chose the one in Buckhead, and loved it!!  The food was fantastic, the atmosphere was fun - the only thing missing was tables.  We hopped around to most of the trucks, trying all sorts of yummy things.  We will definitely be going back to try more!

My delicious pork filled arepa from WOW

Some of my other favorites were the tacos from Yumbii, the cheeseburger slider from SliderU, and of course our desserts from the King of Pops and Honeysuckle Gelato.

Honeysuckle Gelato also won the cutest food truck category in my opinion.

The one in Buckhead happens every Thursday in the parking lot of the Buckhead Theatre from 6-10.  I'm not certain where the other locations are, but I've heard they happen all over the city during the week.

Have any of you checked out a food truck night?  What are your favorites?

A Heartbreak

My heart goes out to the Vickers family who lost their dear Laura on Saturday after a 4 year battle with breast cancer.  She left this world on her birthday at 41 years of age.

Rest in peace, Laura.  You will be missed by so many.

Happy Friday

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

image via Country Living

Don't forget about the sale in my shop!!  Use coupon code CIJ15 to receive 15% off until the 24th!

Dream Shoes

I'm loving these wedge moccasins that I originally saw over at Simple Song.  They seem like a fun update on the classic, and make me think of Fall, sweaters, and tweed skirts.  Can you tell I'm OVER the hot weather?  They are on sale, but are still sadly out of my price range.  One can dream, right?

A Shopping Experience

Hmm - I think I could enjoy an afternoon of shopping at this new Restoration Hardware store in West Hollywood...

Isn't it pretty?!  You can see more pictures of it at RestorationHardware.com

A Quick Post About Our Trip

FINALLY a post about our trip over the 4th of July.  

First we hopped around Indiana visiting family and celebrating the holiday.  It was wonderful to see everyone, and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins.  I swear there is nothing better than evenings with fireflies!!

We then took a whirlwind weekend trip with my sister and brother-in-law to Chicago to visit my niece who moved there after college last year.  We hit several of the touristy spots like the bean, the Crown Fountain (see the face behind the picture of my son?), and Navy Pier.  We even did an architecture cruise on the river, which would have been lovely if my son hadn't been screaming the entire time!  We also had some super great meals at The Purple Pig, Lou Mitchell's, Mon Ami Gabi and The Rosebud.

It was a great trip, although I seriously don't think I'll get on a plane again with my son until he's 16 or so.  I'm truly surprised the airline didn't ask us to get off the plane. It was that bad...

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Back to School Soon

My daughter will be heading back to school soon, so I've got school lunches on the brain.  I try as much as possible to only pack her lunch in reusable containers.  I even include cloth napkins - she's never thrown one away yet!!

Here are a few things that have caught my eye.

I love these reusable snack sacks.  This one is from the Etsy shop WasteNotSaks.  There are a lot of shops on Etsy that make this type of sack, and you can find a wide variety of fabrics.  I've also bought the sandwich size bags.

This one is for you crafty types out there.  It's a pattern for a reusable lunch bag from Etsy shop agreensleeve

This is the Laptop Lunch Bento Box available at Amazon.

Pottery Barn Kids has all kinds of lunchbox options like this one called the Fairfax.  They also have all kinds of containers to go inside:

Kleen Kanteen water bottles

stainless steel storage

Finally, these enamel stacked lunch boxes are pretty cool.  They are available from VivaTerra.

Of course, some of these would make great lunch boxes for work too!!

For Indoor Gardening

Hi Folks!  I'm still having a super hard time getting motivated to update this blog, so I'm sorry for the scattered posts.

I did get an ad in my e-mail from Terrain advertising their vertical gardens.  I just love shopping at Terrain on-line.  Unfortunately I've never been there, but I've heard it's fabulous!

Their terrarium reminded me of this one I've seen on Etsy:

from seaandasters

and how fun are these:

from mudpuppy

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  Next week I hope to be back in the swing of things!

Christmas in July Sale!!

Hi Everyone!!

I'm joining Etsy's Christmas in July promotion, and will be offering 15% off everything in my shop until July 24th.

Use coupon code CIJ15 during checkout.

Back Home Again

Hi Everyone!  We're back home again and I'm having a hard time catching up.  You know those vacations where you come home more exhausted than you left?  That's how I'm feeling right now, so the blog has been pushed to the side a bit.  In honor of how tired I am, I thought I'd post this picture of a nice relaxing bedroom.  If only I could crawl inside of it!

Hopefully I'll be back in the swing of things soon.  In the meantime - just look at those floors, and that blue door!

courtesy of Martha Stewart

Sleeping Porch

I dream of having a sleeping porch one day....

via Atlanta Home & Lifestyles

A Beach Bungalow

Mmm - pretty, right?  Can you tell I'm in vacation mode?

via Architectural Digest

A Summer Boathouse

Hi!  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! I'm supposed to be on vacation so posting will be light this week - mainly some random pictures I love.

Today it's this boathouse at Lake Burton here in Georgia.  I've only been to Lake Burton once, but man was it beautiful!!  The whole house was featured in Country Living.

I just love the punches of red!

Happy Fourth!!

Happy Fourth of July to all you Americans out there!!

via Country Living

Headed to the Country

via CarolynCochrane

Happy Friday!!  I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend.  What do you all have planned?

We are headed to see family in Indiana and then Chicago for some nice relaxing summer days, and then some site seeing!

Serena & Lily love

Got the summer Serena & Lily catalog in the mail a few days ago.  Some of my favorites....

Coral Herringbone Throw

Starboard Sconce

Turquoise Moroccan Leather Pouf

Lacquered Tray Side Table

Louise Chair in Pewter Leather

Yummy Summer Food

Like most, we have been grilling a lot this summer - a lot of burgers in particular.  I thought I would share a couple of great summer recipes in time for 4th of July menu planning.

I must confess that we haven't made this first one exactly like the recipe yet, but it sounded so good it inspired our first attempt at a Southwestern Burger.  This was in the June issue of Country Living courtesy of reader Ellisa Bryden of Mounds View, Minnesota.

We were inspired by this recipe to try chopped fresh jalapenos in our burgers, and it was sooo good!!  I don't even usually like spicy food, but 1 jalapeno for 2 pounds of beef was not too spicy.  We'll actually probably try more next time.  Find the full recipe here.

I've been making this next recipe for years.  It's super easy to make, and always gets great reviews.  It's Karin Calloway's Quick Cooking corn pudding.  

Ingredients

1 8.5-ounce box corn-muffin mix

1 16-ounce can corn, drained

1 16-ounce can cream-style corn

1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

1 cup sour cream

3 eggs, beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and pour into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until lightly browned.

The Good Life

Hi friends!!  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend (and Monday)!  We took a quick trip to visit family and had the best time!!  On Saturday we went out on a boat and docked at a small island.  It was so beautiful there!

We even found some fun sea life.

My daughter was soooo excited!  We put everything back in - even though it would have been fun to decorate with it all! ;)

Friday Wishes

from butterflyfood

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.  We are off for some fun in the sun (hopefully).