on the road again

This weekend, a subset of my family and I went to Tuscaloosa for my friend's wedding. Elizabeth and I have been friends since I was 8, and even though she has moved around a few times since then, our families have always stayed close.

Our trip started out on a stressful note, when we locked ourselves out of our house, tried to break back in and realized our safety glass is too strong for baseball bats. But with our house so safe we couldn't get in, we started our drive...

Things picked up in Birmingham where we ate a WONDERFUL meal at Bottega . It was very popular and there was an hour wait, but a table opened up after only a few minutes! From the moment we sat down they showered us with Southern charm - we started our meal with cucumber mojitos and ended it with a complimentary bag full of cookies.

The next day we went to Elizabeth's beautiful wedding. The folds of her satin dress were breathtaking, her groom couldn't stop smiling and dancing and shrimp and grits at the reception were the perfect ending.

I hope you're having a happy Memorial Day weekend too!

meandering and munching

Today my brother Misha left for camp, and I'll be in New York when he comes back, so we went on a little date to Yeah! Burger. I had some time to kill before he got out of school, so I stopped by Anthropologie and stumbled into a consignment furniture store called Savvy Snoot (snooty brands for savvy prices).

I expected everything to look old and worn, but instead it was beautiful and artfully laid out. I wandered through nooks and corners under the light of chandeliers, and I took lots of pictures for inspiration in my little Athens house.

Then Mish picked me up and we headed down the street to get burgers...

We always go to Flip Burger together, but today we decided to try something new. At Yeah! Burger you create your own, so I ordered a bun-less turkey burger with sunflower pesto, sprouts, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions, and it was delicious.

Flip Burger is still my favorite, because they have the best milk shakes, but I had fun with Misha and we both left stuffed and satisfied.

blast from the past

Today my sister Kate and I went to Value Village, our friendly neighborhood thrift store, to buy her some clothes for camp. She only needed overalls for hill-billy day... but we got a little side tracked

by rainbow sweat pants

and neon jackets

and baby shoes.

It was fun and I will miss her so much when she leaves next week! The past few days have been filled with lunch dates with friends and buying clothes that are not so neon and sparkly for New York. I'm getting so excited to go, but I sort of still don't believe it's real. Until then, I have many more days and dinners with my family to enjoy!

coffee craving

This morning I woke up at 3:45 to drive Jonathan and our friend Sadie to the airport. We got there before traffic started, and I was home eating breakfast with my mom by 7:30. I've been enjoying a coffee high all morning, so instead of napping I went to Starbucks with Kate.

She has to study for exams, but I eagerly joined her so I could keep reading The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. It's a modern day mystery about an obsessed artist, and I can't put it down. Read it. And after that read her other book The Historian. It's next on my list, and I hear it's just as good.

I took these pictures of Misha and Kate when we went on an evening Starbucks run last week, but I love the first one! so I still wanted to post them...

summertown

On Thursday afternoon I headed up to Chattanooga for the weekend. Jonathan's leaving for Italy early Monday morning to study abroad for the summer, so I came up here to see him for a few more days.

Last night we went to eat at Nino's Pastaria for his dad's birthday. Nino's is a deliciously authentic Italian restaurant near Jonathan's house, and the owner sat and talked with us for the better half of our meal. We brought a our own bottle of red wine, and I ate a pasta dish with mussels and a white wine sauce.

After dinner we went to the Mountain Opry...

Every Friday night local bluegrass musicians play at an old opry house in Jonathan's neighborhood, and people of all ages stop by to watch. Their voices are soulful and sincere, and their banjo picking is incredible. We sat in the audience, but anyone can walk on stage, sit behind the musicians or dance if they feel like it.

Today we've had a lazy Saturday with Jonathan's parents. We went on a 5 mile walk in the woods in the morning and have been sitting outside reading ever since.

I hope your weekend has been sunny and relaxing too!

suzanne's kitchen

One of the best parts about being home for the past two days has been eating my mom's delicious dinners. On Monday night she made sage limeade drinks (above), mushroom stuffed pork tenderloin and chocolate-banana ice cream pie for dessert. Just by the names you can tell it was all incredible.

Tonight we had this loaded chopped salad (below) and herb soup with crab. Both were even better than last night's meal, and right now we're making strawberry blondies to top it all off!

Not everyone knows this about my mom, because she usually keeps new recipes to the privacy of family dinners, but she is an incredible cook. Rather than make the same dishes over and over, she has made something new almost every night of my life. She just goes through magazines and cookbooks, recipe by recipe, and tries every one that looks good.

I think she's the best cook in the entire world, and I hope someday I can be as good at cooking and as adventurous with recipes as she is.

drivin' to d.c.

Yesterday at 12:30 am, my little brother Matt and I got home from D.C. Jonathan and I left early Thursday morning to pick him up from Georgetown, and even though we drove almost as long as we were there, we loved every minute of our trip.

On Thursday we ate fresh fish at Teaism in Dupont Circle, and on Friday we woke up early to explore.

We made it to the Museum of Natural History...

the monuments

... and the National Gallery

That night we ate a delicious platter of middle eastern appetizers at Neyla in Georgetown, and finished it off with VERY strong Arabian coffee. Then we wandered around campus and through quiet streets lined with row houses.

The next morning we were up bright and early again to move Matt out (imagine an obstacle course where people put barriers in your way as you move TV's and piles of dirty clothes down multiple flights of stairs and you'll feel like you were there). So when we finished that around lunch time, we stopped by Baked and Wired for some hard earned cupcakes and headed back down South.

I hope your weekend was full of little adventures and delicious food too!

goodbye for now

For our final night in Athens and our last night together for three months, my roommates and I wen to dinner at Your Pie and went out to Magnolia's (where we ran into two of our best friends from spain!). We also spent an hour or two trying on outfits and deciding what to wear, and in the end everyone but Kaiti had on someone else's clothes.

(In this picture I'm wearing Sarah Beth's cute dress)

That's one of the best things about my house. We all merge wardrobes on a daily basis, and i'm not sure what i'll do this summer when my clothing options shrink to a fifth of what they usually are. More than their clothes though, I'm going to miss my roommates so much! I love them and I loved our annual goodbye breakfast at Mama's Boy this morning.

I have had a wonderful evening at home though. My mom made a delicious dinner, and Tyler came over for my dad's famous Old Raj martinis. I love being here with my family, and I can't wait to relax and see them for more than a weekend visit!

while i was not studying...

This weekend was FULL of studying, and my head is so full of communication law cases I think it might explode. But before I secluded myself at a coffee shop, Emily and I went to the Athens Indie Craftstravaganza...

A few times a year local artists set up booths in a parking lot downtown and sell jewelry, pottery, spices and all sorts of things. I bought some earrings from my friend Olivia, and Em bought this pretty vintage bow after I modeled it for her...

(Hopefully she'll let me borrow it, because it made my messy, not-that-clean hair look cute!)

We also got mother's day presents and ate the perfect pre-procrastation meal at Mama's Boy . I had my favorite breakfast in the world - a biscuit, coffee, cheese grits and goat cheese/veggie scrambler.

I just finished my last final this morning, and I'm headed home tomorrow! It's a little bittersweet, because I have to say goodbye to my roommates who are leaving for far away places like Paris and Nicaragua this summer.

Jonathan and I are headed to D.C. on Thursday to pick up my little brother from college, so get ready for lots of road trip pictures - cause I'll have many, many hours in the car to upload them.

Happy Summer!

caught mid-jump

Right now I feel so close to being done with school for the year, but I'm not quite through yet. I still have a paper and two finals, and getting motivate for them is going to be tricky. Last Thursday Jonathan and I went to Chattanooga for his brother's wedding. It was in a small church in the woods, and it was beautiful! Pictures will come soon I promise. We came back for our last day of class on Monday, and my roommates and I went to the lake to celebrate all day yesterday.

The weather was supposed to be "fair," but it was perfect - so perfect that we all got a little sunburned. In this picture Brit and I are about to jump off a rock in to freezing cold (but very refreshing) water.

The past six days have been a wonderful break, but they're going to make leaping back into finals a little bit harder. I'll be finished next Tuesday though!

Happy almost summer!