A Wknd In Ft. Lauderdale + Store Obsession

This weekend I visited one of my best friends in Ft. Lauderdale. We spent the weekend paddle boarding, beaching it and scooting around town literally on her scooter. Being on the water is such a nice change of pace to city life in Atlanta. Chances that I'll be trying to ditch my car for a scooter instead are high, but unlikely. (I am a bit of a wuss, I blame my cautious lawyer mother).

In other news, I am newly obsessed with Club Monaco. The store first caught my attention in New York when I was recording about 3 radio spots a week and had to walk by the store in Flatiron every time to get to the studio. I finally went to the store at Lenox and tried on some clothes and loved these 3 pieces. From left to right they are perfect for night, day and wedding season.

 I am also obsessed with ASOS's Salon this summer. Interesting floral prints that are great for summer weddings. 

I can't wait for the July 4th weekend. Friday, I am going to be running the Peachtree Road Race for the 9th time, and celebrating my Dad's 65th birthday. Following our family tradition, I'll also making these delicious Coca-Cola Baby Back Ribs - a must have for the July 4th weekend. Recipe here.

Apartment Spotlight - Katherine Vo's Home Tour

Do you read The Everygirl? It's one of my favorite lifestyle sites. The other day I was talking about how there just isn't enough time in the mornings to do everything I want to do. Maybe this is a blogger thing because there is a lot of pressure to get posts out before 9 AM when people are doing their daily read of the blogs they follow - flash forward to me Instagram stalking The Everygirl last night and finding out they are encouraging readers to wake up 30 mins early everyday to see what you can do with it. ESP? I told you they were good.

My favorite thing about The Everygirl are the home tours they feature. Different people's small homes across the U.S. are featured and these spaces are truly amazing and eye catching. The latest home tour I love is Katherine Vo's home in Orange County. This girl's got mad style. She knows how to pair color and patterns in an usual way making it really hard to find anything I would change in her home's decor.

source - The EveryGirl

Follow Katherine on Instagram

Hump Day Life Makeover

Today's Hump Day Home Makeover is going to be different than the usual (hence the title). I am in a particularly great mood today. CT and I are going to a foodie event tonight that I am so excited about. It's a food panel with some of Atlanta's top chefs like Ford Fry from St. Cecilia, The Optimist, King + Duke, and Kevin Gillespie from Top Chef and Woodfire Grill. Follow me on Twitter for live tweeting! And this morning somehow I managed to pull myself out of bed earlier than my usual 3 snooze routine and ran my fastest mile yet -7:49! Peachtree Road Race here I come. Hump Day - 0, Corbin - 1. 

In other news, I have been in full speed the past few weeks. If you noticed, last week on vacation I blogged my butt off. I just couldn't shut it off. That trend has continued this week, and I have started painting again. Growing up, I was really into painting and did a lot of it during high school. My latest is a colorful abstract I'm thinking about putting over the sofa. 

My new dresser finally came from One Kings Lane. I absolutely LOVE it! It is much taller than I expected, but lovely. Compared to the MALM IKEA dresser I had in New York whose drawers would sag with my winter sweaters, this one is made from white oak (real wood! woohoo) so it's nice and sturdy.

Last week, CT and I started wedding planning! We went to the venue for a jazz night, which happened to be in the same spot we will be doing our wedding ceremony. Isn't it beautiful? 

The other week I also went shopping at World Cost Market. I thought this sushi set was awesome - how cute are the fortune cookie soy sauce dishes?

I ordered 3 new pairs of shoes from Sole Society and literally love every single one, and they came last week. I'm trying not to be mad about the fact that they are all on sale now! Good news for you all, because these shoes are awesome. The one on the right I'm trying not to order this week (it's on sale) but love them for summer.

Hope you're all having great Wednesdays!

It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere - My Most Favorite Cocktail

Sometimes a girl just gotta have her favorite cocktail. Mine is a bashful maiden.

For me that means I'm pretty SOL since my favorite cocktail is a pretty crazy speciality one from a bar/restaurant called Macao in Tribeca. (New York readers - please go there and drink this drink for me!) For the two years, it was in the perfect location  - right across from my office. So this vacation, I was dying to make this drink and treat everyone to pretty much the best freaking drink I've ever had. As it turns out, New York really is ahead of the speciality cocktail game.  Bashful Maidens require Velvet Falernum, which is not a usual liquor or one people in South Carolina have never heard of - I don't blame them because until I looked up the cocktail I had no clue I had been drinking it. It's a sweet syrup that's used in tropical drinks and is a mix of almond, ginger, clovers, limes and vanilla. 

Ingredients

Recipe from Macao Trading Co.

Yields - 1 drink

.5 oz (1 tbsp) gin 

.5 oz (1 tbsp) St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur 

.75 (1.5 tbsp) Velvet Falernum

.75 (1.5 tbsp) Lemon Juice

1 oz (2 tbsp) Cantaloupe puree

First things first after you've collected the ingredients is to make the cantaloupe puree. This is actually really easy and just requires you have a blender. Once you puree the cantaloupe mix all of the ingredients together in a cocktail shaker and add two handfuls of ice. Shake for about 45 secs-1 min. Use the strainer and pour into a cocktail glass or in my case...a wine glass. 

One of the funniest parts of ordering this drink at Macao is the first time you order it. You're sitting casually at the bar with some coworkers talking about the day, and clap! The bartender claps the mint spring in their hands to garnish your drink. In true Macao fashion, rinse and pat dry your mint, and clap the sprig between your hands - this releases the herbs aroma making every sip smell fresh and minty.

Enjoy! 

Deck Out For Summer

As of Saturday, summer is officially here! And while I wish this meant I got another 'summer' vacation since mine was last week when it wasn't technically "summer" yet...I can still deck out my home with summery items to celebrate the season.

ONE || TWO || THREE || FOUR || FIVE || SIX  || SEVEN || EIGHT || NINE || TEN || ELEVEN

Small Cool Contest Favorites - Apartment Therapy

Every year Apartment Therapy hosts a contest to find the "coolest" small space under 1,000 sq. feet. The things people do to personalize their small spaces are truly incredible.

The winner this year was - Tiffany and Alan's Brooklyn home that fell into the Tiny Teeny category aka 350 sq ft! Their space they had to work with alone is absolutely beautiful having once been the parlor of an old ship captain's home that was built in the 1800s. Check out those details! I love the mix of artwork and modern chairs they combined together for a sophisticated look.

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And how they made the bedroom feel separated from the rest of the room with the makeshift canopy.

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Here are some of my other favorites from Vancouver to Petaluma, CA to San Francisco to Alexandria, Virginia.

In this design, i love the mixed matched chairs at the dining room table and the split-leaf philodendron. 

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I think I must have a thing for bucket neck chairs. I love how this decor juxtaposes their modern style against a rustic, natural wood coffee table.

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This neon light love sign I also thought was a really cool touch to the bedroom.

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Get The Look:

The gallery wall and dark moody colors in this room got me mixed with that really cool leather chair, and of course the happy kitty. 

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I also like this girl's priorities - she lives in a small space - 650 sq feet and she's got an awesome place to store all of her shoes.

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 Last was this uber modern apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. I love the monochromatic and sleek modern pieces with the shag rug.

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Designer Spotlight - Caitlin Wilson Designs

This beach week has been amazing so far. I have loved catching up on recipes and actually having time to blog. I came prepared for the week with more than my fair share of home decor magazines and have loved flipping through the inspiring pages. I came across a designer, Caitlin Wilson, who I have seen before, but was reminded how much I love her style. She mixes bright colors and patterns and  to give you an idea of her color palette she considers coral a neutral. Love. The spaces she creates are lovely and complex.

She also has a textile business that I admire. I have always thought how fun it would be to have a textiles based business and be able to travel the world to find new materials and patterns. Here are some designs that use her textiles that I would love to live in.

 

Source: Caitlin Wilson Designs - Portfolio + Lookbook

Easy Snow Crab Recipe // Faking Fancy

A lot of times for Father's Day, I like to treat my dad to something different from the usual tie, new music album or clothes he is used to getting - like cooking a nice meal. The hunt for the perfect recipe is always difficult. My mom is an amazing cook and they enjoy eating at restaurants, so finding a recipe that feels special, grand or is a meal they don't usually eat can be really hard to do. In the past I have gone for intricate and labor intensive meals like a seafood risotto with lobster and crab, but this year I found the perfect meal to 'fake fancy' - snow crab legs in just 6 minutes.

CT had made snow crab legs for me the week before Father's Day, and when we were sitting at the tab shamelessly dipping crab into obscene amounts of butter, I couldn't help but think 'What did I do to deserve this." We started talking about the meal and I couldn't believe how easy it was to cook such a delicious dish that can be pretty pricey at restaurants. 

So I'm sharing the secret with you today, and you really only need 4 ingredients - one of which being water!

Ingredients

2 clusters per person - (a cluster is a group of legs attached to the main body)

1 lemon

1 stick of butter for dipping sauce

1/2 inch of water to cover the bottom of the pan

Cookware

Stock Pot - or a pot large enough to hold the crab your cooking with a lid on

Nice-to-Have: Crab Crackers 

Instructions

In a pot large enough to fit all crab with the top on, heat 1/2 inch of water with lemon wedges over medium-high heat until it boils. Once it boils, add crab and cover. You want as little crab as possible to be in the water. It's helpful to position the crab legs on the lemons so they aren't in the water. If some of your crab is in the water, it will just overcook what's in the boiling water. Cook for around 6-8 minutes. Snow crab is caught and cooked on the spot. It is then frozen and shipped to groceries all over, so you are trying to heat the crab up thoroughly without overcooking. 

Once crab is cooked to your liking, I like to serve each pair of clusters with a small bowl of melted butter for dipping. We served our meal with corn and an arugula, parmesan salad.

Enjoy!

5 Tips For Getting Back Into A Workout Routine

Once you're out of a workout routine, it's amazing how difficult it can be to get back into it. Your usual workout is all of the sudden a lot harder than you remember it being, and you realize really how out of shape you are. For me finding the motivation to get back into it has been hard, so I've pulled together 5 tips that have made it easier for me to get back into it.

1. Pick A Motivating Playlist
Just how music can bring back a memory of a feeling during a moment, it can have a lot to do with your energy during a workout. A beat you can match a running pace to or something that you want to dance to can go a long way. Two of my favorite apps for this are FratMusic - a user-generated playlist application, and Pandora's Running station.

2. Try A New Workout
If I stick to the same type of workout in my routine I get bored, so a new workout can help you feel entertained and more willing to workout. Right now, I have a lot of friends who are really into Barre classes and FlyWheel, so both are on my list to try. If you're not into classes and like to run switching up your location helps too!

Barre- is a workout built around a ballet bar that mixes stretching and strength training movements to target different muscles in your body.

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Fly Wheel - is an indoor cycling experience lasts 45 or 60 minutes and includes climbs and descents, while working arms with weighted bars.

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3. Download A WorkOut Application
I've found this helps motivate me because at the end of the workout you feel an accomplishment knowing how far you went. It also stores your workout information in one place letting you track you progress. I just downloaded the Nike Run application, and loved it's sharing feature that overlays your route, location and distance over an image of your choice. Here's mine from my last run at the beach.

4. Buy New Work Out Clothes
It's amazing how new work out clothes can help motivate you. I have a pair of LunarEclipse running shoes from Nike that when I got them I was so motivated I joined a running club. 

5. Find A Workout Buddy

This one is really a great trick, and chances are you have a friend who is trying to stay motivated too. Planning a workout with a friend makes it so you can't skip if you're not feeling up to it. This is something I've tried doing and what I liked most about it is how working out with a friend pushes me harder than I would by myself.