Beautiful Blueridge!

I am not going to lie. I have vacation depression right now. After 10 glorious days in Blueridge, I am having some serious sadness about returning to work. I sure am going to miss all of this:





Waterfall sightings:







Daily Sunset Booze Cruises:



New pontoon boat:



Getting chauffeured around:





Sidenote: Mom decided to repaint the adirondack chairs on our landing and spruce up that area a bit. Here is yours truly in the process of spray painting the formerly green chairs to red (each of us was assigned a chair to paint). I will try to take some pictures this weekend of how they turned out!



THIS:






Good thing we're heading back up there for the 4th of July in just 5 short days!!

Thanks, Griffins!

Thanks again to Maggie and Dave for hosting us this weekend - I had so much fun lounging in the boat and soaking up sun! Can't wait to do it again soon...

Me and the boys...



Thanks Mr. Boat Driver!



Little brother Asa was so fun! I love him!



Cuddled up - it was cold at first, but turned out to be beautiful!!



XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Soon-to-be Mrs. Pennington!

Guess what...I'm BACK! Haven't posted since February and now I need to catch up big time!

Last weekend we hit the road around noon on Thursday and high tailed it down to Rosemary Beach for Ryanne's last fling before the ring! We were very pleased to see the townhouse we had booked was amazing!





Thursday night was Cinco de Mayo so we hit up the Mexican restaurant, which was a 30 second walk from our townhouse. We sipped on drinks (%50 off that night!) and waited for the other girls to get there.

Both Friday and Saturday we spent the day on the beach. We ate lunch both days at Wild Olives, which was a great little market type lunch place. Highlights of the beach time included running into Charles Kelly of Lady Antebellum and getting to see multiple beach weddings on Saturday!

5 out of 8 of us:





Both days looked like this...PERFECT:



Gorgeous beach wedding Saturday night...



Friday night we gave Ryanne a lingerie shower and then headed over to Bud and Alleys for dinner and after dinner drinks. It was so fun!

Cute Bride and Groom cookies with their initials:





One of the more racy items she got!







Cute drink umbrella topiary as a centerpiece!



Lots of gifts!



The whole group at dinner.



The three of us got martinis...oh no!









Saturday night we left the beach a little early to come in and watch the Kentucky Derby (most of the girls were from Kentucky). We all bet on who would win! My bet was for "Comma at the Top" but unfortunately, he did not place. In honor of the royal wedding and derby, we all made "fascinator" headpieces to wear out that night. That was such a cute idea and we all sported them the whole night!

Hayley making her hair piece!



Hayley and Atlanta Design Chick



My "fascinator" (pre glue gun)















We walked over to La Crema, an adorable fondue and tapas restaurant in downtown Rosemary Beach. I loved it! The fondue was amazing and it was the perfect way to end such a fun weekend!










Looking forward to the Pennington nuptials in Atlanta on June 4th!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

DESIGN...(for a change)

Okay so let's be honest, my "atlanta design chick" blog is not so much about DESIGN and more about ME/the DESIGNER (ha). But while working on a project this morning, I stumbled across this amazing decorator and had to share!

Jamie Beckwith

We are using one of her products for some high-end speculative office suites over at a prominent building in Atlantic Station, but I couldn't helpt but notice that her stuff would look FABULOUS in my future home. I'm going to start following her blog and you should too!

Here are some items I adore:

I love this amazing combination of colors in this up-close detail.



This floor is what isnpired me. How cool would it be to have this Moroccan wood pattern in an entry-way in your home?



Love it!



Fun bowls for anywhere!



Bathroom by Candice Olson featuring a beautiful wood block wall by Jamie (this is the product we are using here at work):



I need an excuse to visit her showroom, shown below - GORGEOUS!



I love these purple chairs on a neutral background:



My future living room:



XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

It's Greek to Me!

This should actually be titled "Adventures in Ethnic Hole-in-the-Walls Part II".

I profusely apologize for my lack of posts lately. We are CRAZY busy at work and on top of that, I am in the midst of studying for the NCIDQ exam. In my spare time these days, I am more likely reading a chapter in my book about construction drawings and not so much blogging about what I have been doing lately! Boooooo....

Anyways, last night (after a VERY long work day), I went immediately to meet up with Grant and Ryals at a restaurant that Grant has been dying for us to go to - Cafe Agora. Aside from it being right down the street from his condo, it offers inexpensive Greek fare.

When I pulled up and went in the restaurant, I was a little hesitant. It was pretty sketchy-looking and could have doubled as a pawn shop in a former life...HOWEVER - it was PACKED and we actually had to wait about 20 minutes for a suitable table.



Once we sat down, the Greek owner of the restaurant came over with a complimentary appetizer platter for us (Grant says he does that for everyone so I didn't get too excited). While we snacked on our apps, Grant and Ryals had a Turkish beer:



A few minutes later, I see the Greek guy run out in the street. He comes back into the restaurant and tells me my car is getting ticketed! Ahhh! He ended up paying my parking ticket for me - how nice!

As my entree, I got a traditional Greek sampler platter with pitas. I couldn't even eat half of it - I boxed it up for lunch today. The owner grabbed my to-go box and filled it up with even more food for me to take home!



Grant and Ryals both got the Mixed Grill aka Carnivore's delight. It was so yummy!



We had a great time and to top it off, we got free baklava! My meal came to a grand total of $10. Much better than Mykonos Tavern that we tried that one MNGD!




XOXOXOXOXO