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Three Things Thursday: February 4, 2016

I borrowed this concept from the lovely Nerd in the Brain, who encourages you to steal this “exercise in gratitude” with “wild abandon” by sharing three things that made you smile this week and “fill your blog with the happy.”

This week’s Thing 1:  Being in an amazing place.

We had another lovely, extra-long weekend due to our traditional celebration of Burn’s Supper with our family and a few close friends at a truly fabulous home in the North Georgia Mountains.

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The weather was beautiful, the views were mind-blowing, the internet was down (ACK!!!) and the cell phone signal almost non-existent (AARRGGHH!!!!), so I went “off-line” for a change and actually enjoyed sleeping in, taking tons of pictures, enjoying long chats with family and “catching up;” cooking (I made Friday night fajitas for 12 people! – first time recipe!) and basking in front of the roaring fire with a book, watching the light and clouds dance across the skyline.

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It was soooooo wonderful.

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This week’s Thing 2: Filling up my soul with  vast vistas and soaring flights.

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IMG_2390Red-tailed Hawk air shows!  Daily!  No charge! (2-drink minimum)

This week’s Thing 3: Friends who are family and family who are friends

Enjoying the love, companionship and camaraderie while celebrating what is becoming my new favorite annual tradition, Burns Supper.

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And there you have it!  Three things that made me smile and brought joy to my week.  Thanks as always, Nerd in the Brain, for the inspiration!

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Three Things Thursday: January 28, 2016

I borrowed this concept from the lovely Nerd in the Brain, who encourages you to steal this “exercise in gratitude” with “wild abandon” by sharing three things that made you smile this week and “fill your blog with the happy.”

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Thing 1:  Kicking this week off with a lovely, extra-long weekend due to a storm “fake out” that got us released from work half a day early on Friday and seemed to add just that soupçon more of playtime to the rest of my time off.

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And there was French Toast!  ‘Cuz what else do you do with all the eggs, milk and bread!

Thing 2: This month’s “Taste of India” fundraising dinner hosted by the Learning Tea and Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party.  I know I wrote about it yesterday, but it did bring some solid fun and warm-n-fuzzies to my Monday.

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Thing 3:  The most exciting of all!  We’re celebrating Burn’s Supper this coming weekend! Most of the last two days have been a whirlwind of packing and planning  after work, trying to cover all the logistics needed to host a weekend-long dinner party for twelve people at a home in the North Georgia Mountains.

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This includes loading up our alligator butler, Jeeves, so he can “buttle” the festivities.  He’s really quite handy.

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The best part is that we’ll spend four long, lovely days with my parents and eight of our good friends in a dreamily-divine house on top of a mountain, enjoying incredible views and food (and drink), with lots of downtime for reading, blogging, talking and just enjoying life.

Can’t wait!  Just one more day to go!

And there you have it!  Three things that made me smile and brought joy to my week.  Thanks as always, Nerd in the Brain, for the inspiration!

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Instant Grat Instagram: Catching up

I warned you that I had a new topic I would pull out whenever the writing genes wouldn’t zip up all the way.

I call it Instant Grat Instagram. {Lamely} bringing you my favorite moments from what is currently my favorite social media platform in a more or less thematic effort. 

Hope you enjoy!

This week: Catching up – some recent memories brought to you courtesy of my occasionally trusty phone.

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A crazy-beautiful sunset at work.

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My baby orchid ($10 at Trader Joes!) is kicking out some gorgeous blooms! Second round since I bought it back in November.  Hmmm. Maybe I am the orchid whisperer.

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The debilitating dusting of Snow that shut down Atlanta last Friday.  I had a highly enjoyable half-day off work hanging out with the hubs.  No complaints. 🙂

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Sunday brunch with my bestie at Venkmans.  Live jazz, bottomless mimosas and finally a chance to get up to speed with all that’s been going on with each other – I haven’t seen her since November!

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Monday night’s Taste of India Dinner at Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party. This is a monthly event to raise money for their non-profit, The Learning Tea, that provides homes and college scholarships for young women in India.

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As always, Taste of India was an awesome evening of great people and delicious food and an opportunity to hang out with another close friend that I haven’t seen in a bit, Dana.

It’s been a fun and fabulous last few days and a wonderful chance to catch up not just with dear friends, but now with you guys as well.

Once again, made instantly grateful just by looking at the ol’ Instagram. I find it a very helpful attitude adjuster, especially as I’m facing Wednesday morning.

::aarrghh, Wednesday::

Wishing you a happy and picture perfect week!

 

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Weather or not…

The city of Atlanta is shutting down for the weekend. Whoo hoo!

“Why?” you ask, innocent of the wide-spread hysteria that accompanies the mere mention of a snow flake in this Southern burg.

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Rain

Because it’s raining and the temperature could drop below 30 degrees and we could get flurries.

Sometime after 10 p.m. tonight.

In prospect of this possible weather apocalypse, five hours from now, they closed the public schools around noon. All of the grocery stores have been wiped out of bread, milk and eggs in what must be mass anticipation of a day of French Toast making.

Yes, a mere day because the high tomorrow is forecast to be around 40 degrees and the high on Sunday nearing 50, so doubtful that anything with any potential to ice over will survive past Saturday afternoon.

Unless it’s that bottle of vodka in the freezer, and that might not make it to Sunday anyhow.

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Just plain rain.

I could be wrong.  I certainly don’t profess to be a master of meteorology.

Just in case, we’re stockpiled with booze, groceries and the makings for a huge breakfast.

My incredibly cool boss (who’s from Chicago and thinks Southerners are  ridiculous when it comes to cold weather) told me and my sales assistant to take off early and “get ahead of any stupidity.”

So I’m at home, curled up with my computer and a glass of wine, waiting to see if we will get a little “wintry mix,” and enjoying my pretend Snow Day.

Awesomeness.

Hope you are warm and happy wherever you are!

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Weekend Coffee Share: Sunday January 3, 2016

#WeekendCoffeeShare was created by Part Time Monster. I’m so happy to participate again!  I made an extra pot and I hope you’ll join me.

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Actually, I feel pretty rotten that I haven’t been able to make time to grab a cup with you and fill you in on everything that’s been going on!  December’s a rough time in the event/hotel/restaurant business and it took everything I had to get my work done and squeeze in vital moments with my family and close friends.

I had a lot of grandiose plans this year: ice-skating, holiday parties, a fabulous anniversary celebration with my husband and trips to Birmingham for Christmas and New Years to visit my family, as well as giving the loft a serious cleaning, signing up for some on-line classes and cleaning out my closets and make donations to Dress for Success and local clothing drives.

Would you like another cup?  I am so addicted to this Sumatran Roast. And how about a Christmas cookie?  Please, take two. These are my husband’s absolute favorites.

Typical for me, I had a lot more plans than I had actual time, but I am more than content with all the lovely things we did get to do and most importantly of all, the happy and relaxing six or seven (alas, non-contiguous) days we spent with my family in Birmingham.

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One of the biggest highlights of our holiday was attending the Dahlonega Christmas parade, in the North Georgia mountains.  Our friends Sam and Betty participate in the parade every year with their four enormous Huskies pulling a dogsled filled with gifts.  It was our first time to see the event (although not our first visit to Dahlonega) and we enjoyed the simple charms of the small town: families and neighbors sharing holiday joy amid the festive lights and decor, the beautiful mountains and crisp wintry air.

My last day of work was the 21st, with two whole weeks off!  I’ve never in my life had a vacation that long and I was so incredibly thrilled to finally have some “me” time (and “we” time with my husband.)

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John Driskell Hopkins and the Atlanta Pops Orchestra

David and celebrated our 3-year anniversary a day early (the 21st instead of the 22nd) at a friend’s holiday CD release party and performance with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra.  The music was incredible, we had a nice dinner at the venue, Venkmans, but the best part was catching up with old buddies from my days in the Atlanta bar and music scene.

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David’s Mom, Linda, came up on the 23rd from her home in Augusta, and spent the night so we could get an early start for our drive to Birmingham the next day.  It’s not a bad trip, about 2 and 1/2 hours, but the first part was through a torrential rainstorm.  Thankfully, it cleared up after about 50 miles and we had blue skies and an easy drive the rest of the way.

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Being home in Birmingham was wonderful.  My 91-year old grandmother, Jessie, is visiting this month from Oklahoma, so we had the full family gathered at my parent’s home.  It was awesome playing Santa Claus, wrapping gifts and enjoying a delicious Christmas Eve dinner my husband cooked for us all.  Christmas day brought my sister, her husband and my niece over, along with my foster sister Wendy and her daughter Alexis.  We had another huge dinner, exchanged gifts, watched classic Christmas movies and just enjoyed being with each other.

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Christmas Eve Crazy Hat Party. This is one of my husband’s family traditions we’ve newly incorporated into our combined family. Unfortunately, we’ve only turkey and Santa hats, so there’s not a lot of variety at this time. We’re working on it.

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Yay! Christmas!

We went back to Atlanta for a few days between Christmas and New Years and I actually did do a lot of cleaning and donated a bunch of clothes to a local charity.  I planned to do much more, but honestly, I was happy just to do a thorough mop and vacuum, dust everything and clean all the counters, the fridge and the bathrooms.  Oh, and I signed up for my on-line classes (more about that to come.)

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New Year’s Eve brought us back to Birmingham to celebrate with the family. My Dad’s recovering from shoulder surgery so we needed to keep things a little chill for him.  We planned a big, swanky dinner at my folk’s house, with hors d’oeuvres, an Italian-themed dinner, champagne and sparklers for midnight!

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Oops, I should have warned you that too much caffeine makes me wildly chatty.  I hope I haven’t “talked your ears off!”  Hmmmm. Maybe I should switch back to water.  🙂
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It was a memorable, magical holiday – everything I hoped for – and I’m so grateful I got to experience and share it!

Your turn!  How were your holidays?  I truly hope you have lots of love and wonderful memories from your celebrations and I’d love to hear about them.

(Ok, just one more cup of coffee – let me top yours off, too – so I can toast to a happy New Year with you!)

Here’s to 2016 being filled with love, blessings, prosperity, happy surprises and being the best year yet for all of us!

I’d also like to thank Nerd in the Brain – I’ve enjoyed her “If We Were Having Coffee” posts so much, it inspired me to brew up a pot and join you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!

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Tree Things Thursday: December 3, 2015

The concept of Three Things Thursday was borrowed from the lovely Nerd in the Brain, who encourages you to steal this “exercise in gratitude” with “wild abandon” by sharing three things that made you smile this week and “fill your blog with the happy.”

I put up my Christmas tree last night, which filled me with “the happy,” so in the spirit of all things glittery, festive and filled with light, I shall modify “Three Things Thursday” to “Tree Things Thursday” and share my lovely little Tannenbaum with you.

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I gave up on real trees a while back, due to extreme work hours and my propensity to forget to turn off the tree lights ( tree lights left on + at work all day = torturous visions of house fire).  I have a little 6′ Home Depot artificial tree that’s just big enough for my motley collection of ornaments, while still rendering unto us the holiday feels.

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Ahh.  My Tardis ornament.  It’s the gatekeeper of “coolness” in my world.

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My hand-blown glass “Galileo” ornament.  It has old-timey constellation-y,  kabalistic-y looking stuff all over it and it was a sweet and expensive gift from an old boss years ago.  It’s very fragile and very special.

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My “Dr. Seusse” fishes.  I snapped up 4 of them on an after-Christmas clearance sale and have managed to keep them intact the past ten years, which is amazing considering I have two “grown-up, adult” cats who, in effect, are actually giant kittens and love to swat randomly at anything on the tree particularly beloved to me.  I love their charm and whimsey.

The fishes’ charm and whimsey, that is.

I’m completely over my cats’ charm and whimsey at this particular moment.

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My little white owls, or “Wols,” as I call them.  They’re made of some kind of sisal (?) but they have the cutest faces and hey, they’re wols owls.  Also, they look somewhat like Hedwig, Harry Potter’s owl, so that makes them just a tiny bit more awesome, and a lot more magical.

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My “Knight in Shining Armor,” a Christopher Radko ornament given to me ages in the past by one of my besties, Tara.  It’s a lovely ornament and it proceeded my actual Knight in Shining Armor, my husband David, who didn’t rescue me from anything, but did sweep dramatically into my life bringing a tremendous amount of love and happiness.

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And although I professed irritation with them earlier, the best sight under/in/around/on top of my tree are my little fur kid’s faces.  The delight of the season seems to affect them as well, although they may just be looking for treats/and or attention.

Thanks, as always, Nerd in the Brain, for the inspiration!  May all of you out there have the very best insert winter holiday of your choice filled with overflowing and fabulous joy!

 

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