I Am Not A Car Person

but I will admit that the antique car show we attended this weekend somewhat changed my thoughts. I may really, really want an antique car now.

 Our anniversary is in two weeks. Think I can work on him in the next fourteen days?

 Yea...me neither. 

My parents came down on Friday night so we could celebrate Father's Day with my dad and since he is a huge car lover, it was the perfect plan. The weather cooperated and gave us an absolutely beautiful day. Could not have been better. 

All of the shops were open in downtown and there was plenty of food and live music. My mom and I took a slight detour and moseyed our way into one of the antique shops. I want all of these things!

We ended up leaving there in the early afternoon and heading over to the farmers market. You can read more about that on my food blog. 

After my parents left, I met up with my friend Nicole(she actually also writes a blog, you can check her out here) and we had margaritas and went to see the movie Fault In Our Stars. And both bawled our eyes out. Nothing like matching bestie puffy eyes and snotty noses;) 

Three to the Six

Today is my mister's birthday. The one day each year that he once again becomes my elder. I am super grateful that of all the eggs his mom had, his is the one that hatched. But for reals, momma b!

Last year I wrote a post listing my 35 favorite things about him. I have no plans to do this again, but please feel free to read it as it is actually one of my favorite posts. I did reel myself in a rather nice catch.

I will just add a new addition to the list this year...

Thanks for supporting me in my endeavour with the blog this past year. In the beginning I drove you crazy by making you wait to eat while I staged pictures of food and such. But when the Rachael Ray show came calling, you dropped everything and took the day off of work to play camera man. And then you paid for me to go to my first blog conference. You have even started "staging" plates and such for me and I don't even have to ask. Your support means everything. I have really started to like you most of the time;) Except when you don't "let" me use the flash in a restaurant. Stop it with your manners.

Happy Birthday. Thanks for being born and also thanks for being sexy. Rawr.

Happy 36th!

I Got Schooled

This past weekend I went to my first blogger conference. I set off from Raleigh at 8:30 on Friday, full of nervous anticipation and excitement (and also apparently pee or so my three pit stops in an hour would suggest) I had an ETA of 1:30 and I promptly arrived...at 4:45.  For all the f@&ks sake, get it together 95. Once there, I was warmly welcomed by everyone and immediately my nerves began to calm down as I settled into my room and waited for my infamous roomie, the one Amy "f@cking" Mayo to arrive. (I may have bided my time with mustache selfies.) 

I could go into numerous rambling details about this experience but I will mainly let my pictures do the talking (for that very reason) I will just emphasize that I made the best possible decision by attending blog U. I ascertained much more than I had anticipated and the ideas I had going into this weekend were solidified by this group of women.  I think I discovered that the only things that have been holding me back are my own fears and self doubts.  I need to kick them in the bum and get to getting. 

The other main thing I will take away from this conference is that in blog land, I am not as short as real world land. This is a big deal. and also, bipolar is apparently more common in bloggy world. Who in the hades knew this, as I sure as heck didn't. It is like I am all of the sudden "normal". I am trying to coming to grips with this knowledge. I heart it all kinds of hard. 

I cannot thank the ladies enough for putting this shindig together and the amount of work that went into the whole process.  I just have one suggestion...step stools for the beds next year. Once I was in bed, I was there till the morning light for fear I could never get back up;) And I am most excited about a burgeoning bestieship with the wonderful Megan from Fashionista Momma.  I have a plethora of other stories I could share...but you will nod off. If we shared laughs, you know who you are! Wine. And makeup. 

Mainly I am just sad for everyone that I "bailed" out of Retro Prom before they played "I like big butts". Because this rump was made for shaking. Such a crying shame. 

and as a last side note, thanks to the mister for sending me on this and trusting that it was a game changer for me. He flew to Boston on Thursday and left me with his car to drive. He got a fresh oil change, filled it with gas and had the tire pressure checked. it's the little things. (well, I mean, in case he reads this, big things are still welcomed. Don't get any ideas)

North Carolina Blogger Meetup

This past weekend I was able to attend a blogger meet up with some ladies in downtown Raleigh. It was nice to see a few favorites and to catch a ride in with Angela and catch up on chatting. This was the first blogger meet up I had been able to attend since the blogger buzz meet up last November. 

It was held at Busy Bee downtown and was put on by Madison from wetherills say I do and Kathy from Up To Date Interiors. We all chatted for a bit before enjoying a delicious meal and then listening to Linda from lindamendible.com speak about building your follower engagement and a few other topics.

We were gifted some awesome swag from local ladies and businesses. I loved the presentation of the boxes, very cute.

Can't wait till the next blog meet up! If you ever have one in your area, you should definitely go! It's a lot of fun to meet up with differing bloggers in and around your area.

The swag sponsors for this event were

Mindful Skin Therapy {lavender lip therapy}

Sara Does {greeting cards}

Morgan Alexander {whatever is lovely print}

Hardin Studios {print}

Laureling Studio {$15 gift certificate}

Carolina Charm Wreath {NC vinyl decal}

Queen B's Busy Work {wine cork key chain}

Essential Lines by Erin {lighthouse print}

A Jaunt Through the Triangle

We were actually home this weekend which was nice. We had no set in stone plans, other than the blogger meet up I had on Saturday morning at Busy Bee in Raleigh. And so we used our time to stop in some of our favorite places and check out a few new ones. 

Friday night was Tony's late night and I tried my hand at my first zucchini lasagna. And oh, my word, it turned out so fantastic! You have to spend a little time dehydrating the zucchini and and sauteing it beforehand to expunge all the water,

Saturday I was up early and headed to meet Angela from Head to Toe Chic and the two of us rode in together. It was nice to see a few bloggers I have hung out with before and also getting to meet new friends. The food just made it that much better. 

Afterwards, Tony met me downtown for an afternoon of drinks and exploration. We started out at Joule, one of my favorite coffee and dessert spots downtown. Their dinner menu looks amazing but we have yet to try it out. I got the affogato and it was lemon vanilla ice cream. Pretty much incredible. If you know me, you know I am not really a coffee fan. Mix it with ice cream and suddenly I am a groupie. 

We ended up in some shops downtown that showcase local times. Tony got me a head band from high cotton, and it is super comfortable. I really want this sign from Deco!

Then we capped our afternoon off back at Busy Bee for some rooftop cocktails! The weather was gorgeous and the drinks were perfectly refreshing. We had to be home by 7 due to the fact I am still somehow crazily exhausted from this surgery and going to be early every night. But he did stop by the ABC store to grab me some bourbon. And he got me a favorite! I made some cherry soaked bourbons with it. 

Yesterday we headed into Durham to do some shopping and we ended up eating at Ted's Montana Grill. We are not big fans of chains ( and I may be even less of a fan of Ted himself) but their food is spectacular. 

And then, I spied these mint chocolate chip cookies. And I wanted them. And I passed. How sad.

This was our weekend. We had a great time. Some of my favorite moments are ones spent locally! We rarely have them!

What did you guys do this weekend?