Saturday, February 26, 2011

Dining Room Inspiration

Here are few shots that I’m digging…

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Loved Michael T’s comment on the last post:

Think "Jonathan Adler". Get the bamboo chairs. paint them white. Replace the fabric with a bold black and white print. Then get yellow, bright yellow drapery panels. That will make the dining room everything you want...chic,clean,bright,fun and classy. Just a thought. Michael T.

Thanks for the insight!  Any other tips out there for me??  Have you seen any great rooms that fit in my “chic, clean, bright, fun and classy” category?

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

More fun in Atlanta

So after hitting that fun strip of shops we headed across the street to Room & Board.

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I had never been to a Room & Board before so I was super excited to check out their goods!  It’s mostly larger items (sofas, beds, casegoods, etc) not a lot of tchotchkes. 

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Good looking stuff – although it’s a bit expensive.  But a 95% of their items are made in America!  Customer service was excellent as well.  Cindy actually picked up the pillow in the first picture – for her guest room!  A perfect match!

Then we headed to CB2remember I told you that Atlanta was getting a one them a while back. 

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Love this acrylic console table – they have end tables and the cocktail table in same style.

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Oh and this marble topped cocktail – yes please!!

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And that rug is purty too!

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Love the simplicity of grey and whited duvet but a super cool pattern!

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And how cute is this votive holder!  It’s actually three different pieces that can be used together or separately.

We had a great day of shopping – checking out the stores that aren’t currently in our Queen city.  We also had some yummy eats on Saturday as well.  We stopped at a little hole in the wall for an Asian/Latino fusion – called Hankook Taquieria.  They had all kinds of fresh ingredients with interesting combinations!

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And for dinner we headed to:

They have some really yummy food!  We started with the White Bean Soup that had amazing flavor!  I had the 1/2 chicken – described as “almost boneless – duck fat crisped fingerling sweet potatoes, brown butter chicken jus”  YUM!  Cindy tried the Fish of the Moment (cute way to say fish o day) EVOO poached Trout heirloom tomatoes, brown butter local cauliflower, toasted hazelnuts.  She said it was good but not great.  We were somewhat disappointed that they didn’t have any truly healthy options.  I wasn’t trying to stay on the healthy track so I was definitely looking forward to some uber yummy dessert!  Cindy went with another glass of wine for dessert while I surveyed the dessert menu. The options sounded really good – but I settled on the Rum Sopped Coconut Cake.  Think Tres Leche with rum – HELLO!?!?!  What could be better?

We ended this great day with meal and I have to say this was picture perfect day for hanging in the ATL!

We had plans for brunch on Sunday at Local 3 but unfortunately we found out late on Friday that a family member had passed, so we needed to head home first thing on Sunday for Joe and I to get to Statesville for the funeral.  But even though we only had a day + a night it was a great girls weekend getaway!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Direction in the Dining Room

I have been itching to update the Dining room for some time now.  My challenge is I can’t seem to focus my “wants.”  I’m all over the place – chic – clean – bright – fun – classy  - AAGHHH!!  Someone stop me!
So to make sure you where we are starting here’s the most current picture I have of the dining room:
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The items I know for sure… Wall color – I still love the green and it goes in the kitchen as well which creates a nice crisp effect with the white cabinetry.  The chairs - my sweet mother in law has 6 bamboo-esque chairs from the 70’s.  Their current yellow – speckley finish will need to be updated but how cool to have vintage chairs for FREE!!!  This is what they look like:

We also recently changed the light fixture out to CB2’s Eden Pendant:
The table we have is actually a family piece that was my grandmother’s.  I really like the table because it’s a pedestal and has four leaves.  So you can make it seat 12!  Which is great when we have family here but for every day we leave it with just one leaf so it fits the space well.
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So…  I have those components that I know are a “for sure.”  Now where to go from there?
Any great dining rooms that you are loving?  Would love to hear any input! I will post a couple of my favorites soon!

** I was just browsing through the blogs I follow and came across Danielle's giveaway Danielle Oakley Interiors is giving away an Online Design Board!  What better way for me to figure out what to do in this space than to have a fellow designer help out!  It's hard to work in your own space and I would love for this talented chicky to give me the direction I need!!  **

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Shopping in Midtown

Back to our little trip to Atlanta – Saturday was a fun filled day with lots of fun shops!

We started in Midtown West @ Savvy Snoot, a very impressive consignment shop.  They are very particular about what they choose to consign.  Good looking stuff!  Check out the sampling…

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How cool is this light…  Made from an old potato chip can.  They had all kinds of different ones – would be so cool in funky kitchen, a media room or a man cave!

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Loved these candlesticks and the chandelier was uber cool!

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Loving this sideboard!  Can you say G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S.  It’s actually 3 separate pieces.  Cindy said she thought it was Global Views but not 100% sure.

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This is a great cocktail table with the clean simple lines.

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Cindy was dying over this console!  Sorry for the dark picture.  It was behind a chair so hard to capture.  The lines are really good looking and you can’t go wrong with a marble top.  This would have been coming home with us if we could think of a home for it in Cindy’s house – but there’s just no open spots!

After Savvy Snoot we headed to the next little store in the strip.  A super cute Frenchy store, Terra Cottage, that had rugs, bed linens and housewares. But my favorite thing in this store was this tableware.  It’s made in Italy.  Each piece is hand stamped with your monogram.

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These were beautiful.  A little pricey for my checkbook but if you can afford I say go for it!!

Next stop was Bungalow.  This is a great shop.  The floors are covered in seagrass and the store is open and bright with skylights letting lots of natural light in the space.  They had some beautiful pieces.

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Really nice stuff, huh?

This is an awesome strip of shops.  And there’s an Anthropology at the end but we had more important stops to make…  like ROOM & BOARD!!!  I’ll share the rest of the day with you later. 

I told ya we were some busy chickas!!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Flip Burger - Atlanta

Last weekend my friend, Cindy and I headed down to the heart of the Peach state for a little shopping, exploring and eating.  All the things I love!  We’ve been to Atlanta multiple times together and we make a great pair because we are all about trying new things and finding new spots!

Friday night we got into town late which was the perfect time to head over to Flip Burger Boutique to see what Richard Blais was whipping up.  Do you know Richard Blais?  He’s been on Top Chef two different seasons and he loves mixing things up and playing with molecular gastronomy.  I’ve never really experienced any of that up close and personal so I was excited to see what it would be like. 

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Flip Burger is a cool concept – all kinds of funky burgers (beef, lamb, chickpeas.)  Which there are a lot of different restaurants playing with this concept (Cowfish Sushi Burger here in CLT is a good example.)  You can check out the Flip Burger Boutique menu here

The décor was pretty funky.  Mostly all white with splashes of color – the back wall of the restaurant has a large mural that is hard to make out exactly what’s in the picture but that’s fun – you can kind of play “where’s Waldo” while waiting for your table. It’s not a real large space – which makes of course for a loud environment.  Are there any restaurants anymore that aren’t loud??  The bar is sleek and long with simple little stools lined up in front of it.   Flat screen TV’s are in abundance behind the bar with big chunky ornate frames around them painted white.  I really like this look – although watching a Dave Matthews concert of the TV with some kind of techno music playing over the sound system threw me off a little.

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On the wall opposite the bar they have banquettes.  Can you see that in the picture below?  They created these by putting booths on top of each other.  The literally stacked the booths to create a “nook” of sorts.  Pretty cool idea and I would think a lot less expensive than having it custom built. 

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Here’s a shot of the “mural.” They incorporate this image in their website as well which I thought was a nice touch – keeping things cohesive.  You can also check out the expo area. This was also a bar of sorts that you can sit at and eat.  I really enjoy eating at the “window” of a kitchen – gives you a front seat to the action.  And you can also see all the different dishes coming out of the kitchen.

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We opted for a seat at the actual bar.  We were also right beside where they make the milkshakes.  And they have some funky milkshakes – for instance Foie Gras milkshake???  (That’s the kind of creation I was referring to with Blais.)  They also have a Krispy Kreme milkshake but the one that was calling my name was Nutella and Toasted Marshmallow.  She toasted the marshmallows on top of the shake with a torch.  It looked REAL good!  They used some liquid nitrogen to give the cool effect of smoke as it was being delivered to your table.

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So enough about the décor let’s talk grub…  I went with the special of the day – Country Fried Chicken Burger – curry pickles – pimento cheese – Duke’s mayo – pepper vinegar with a side of Zucchini Fries

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The sandwich was good – not great.  The chicken patty was a little strange.  It was circular in shape which we all know chicken isn’t round.  So they had created this patty of chicken which unfortunately reminded me of McDonalds.  The flavors were good a combo though.  I like the tang of the pickles and the ooey gooey of the warm pimento cheese.  The bun was really good – nicely toasted.  The zucchini fries were a BUST!  I was so tempted to send them back because I truly hate paying ($3.50! ouch) for something I’m not going to eat.  They just tasted like grease.  Even the parmesan cheese didn’t help and I wasn’t really impressed with the gremolata mayo.

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Cindy’s goal was to find a healthy option on this menu and it was a little harder than you would think. She decided to go with the “Faux-lafel” – fried chick pea patty, arugula, cucumber, red onion, pickled beets, red pepper & feta cheese spread.  This was a nice combination of flavors (thanks Cindy for letting me try yours!)  The seasoning of the patty definitely gave you that Greek feel.  We were a little disappointed the patty was fried – kind of killed the whole healthy concept – but you are a burger joint – so I guess you can only expect so much.  The Beet & Goat cheese salad was super yummy and fresh.  Nothing overly unexpected but good.

So overall I would have to say I wasn’t flipin’ out over Flip Burger – so a little let down but glad we went and to check it out for sure!  Have you been to Flip Burger?  Did you get to try one of those shakes?? 

Monday, February 14, 2011

Sharing the Love

What a perfect day to announce the giveaway!!  Happy Valentines to everyone!  It’s been a good day fairly “normal” day for us.  But I’m in my favorite place – sitting beside my sweetie watching our shows.  It’s good stuff – you should totally try it.

So on to the WINNER!!  We did this SUPER fair…

Wrote everyone’s name down and put them in a jar…

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And then Joe picked the winning name…  (we are very technologically savvy)

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And the winner is…

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So Liz – your CD will be in the mail tomorrow – keep a lookout for some SUGARLAND!  You must check back in with us and tell us what you’re favorite song is.

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How did y’all spend your “love” day?