High Five for Friday!

It's high five for Friday, but today I have six! Sorry, just too much to talk about.

1. I got a new Essie nail polish color I'm obsessed with: Miss Fancy Pants. Paul said it suited me just fine. I'm not sure what he means by that...

2. This past weekend the neighborhood had Millsaps Day for all of the new students to come experience the neighborhood right outside the campus. A lot of the businesses were having discounts for students. Some, like Fondren Art Gallery had discounts for everyone. We got an original Richard McKey (a local artist and owner of the gallery) for 50% off. It's five feet long and is going to look amazing over our bed. We are thinking about painting an accent wall behind the bed this weekend. I can't wait to show it to you!

3. Paul surprised me this week with Bean Fruit Coffee's latest roast: espresso. I'm loving this right now.

4. As you may or may not have heard (if you were living under a rock) about Hurricane Isaac this week. We got rain and wind yesterday and we lost power for a few hours yesterday. Our office was closed for the day, so we lounged all day. We made a big breakfast of wheat pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, turkey bacon, and lattes. It was wonderful.

5. Since the weather dissipated, we went to Jaco's Tacos for Charity Night to benefit the Jackson Zoo. They were walking about with animals, like this owl named Honey.

6. I was glad to have the sun pop out. I was tired of rain!

I hope you have a great weekend!

High Five for Friday!

High Five for Friday! I feel like every week is a crazy week around here, but it's been a fun one, nonetheless.

1. This week we had PM Pizza at Sal and Mookie's with Parlor Market. They made tons of different pizzas normally not on the menu. Paul got the AM Hangover which was full of breakfast sausage, eggs, maple syrup, orange zest and more. I just couldn't handle it.

2. I got the Veggie Terrorist, whichwas full of roasted veggies like sun dried tomatoes, red peppers, eggplant, and goat cheese. It was seriously the gift that kept on giving because I think I ate this over four meals this week!

3. I may be crazy, but it feels like the weather may be turning. We've been leaving the french doors open to let in the air and it's so nice. Bad thing is, I think we may have frozen our AC! We're having someone come look at it today.

4. One or twice a week, I get coffee at the shop next door. This morning, the local locksmith and friend of mine bought my coffee. Talk about starting the weekend off well!

5. While we were on our trip this past weekend, we stopped at a flea market on the way home. We only needed one piece of furniture to finish off our apartment: a hutch or a sideboard for the hallway for extra storage. We found the perfect piece for only $100. When we got it in, Paul said, "It's almost time for us to do a professional photo shoot!" Once we're done with the place, we'll be doing a photo shoot not only for you guys, but for our building to have new photos to show off for future tenants.

It's going to be a busy weekend, but here it is!

Fall

I may be dreaming, but I felt a taste of fall in the air last night. 

The air was cool and I knew I wanted to open the doors in the apartment. It was just too pretty.

While Paul had a photoshoot on the roof, I made dinner and got the living room ready for a little dinner party.

Green beans, salmon with terriyaki and quinoa with garlic and onions.

So perfect.

I love having the doors open, the lights on, and soaking up the sounds of the neighborhood.

Vacay

It feels good to get away! I'm actually off work today and it feels good. Paul and I decided a week or so ago to take a trip to the coast and have fun along the way. We had intentions to go to New Orleans on Sunday, but a massive storm came in, so we decided to skip it. There's nothing worse than New Orleans in the rain.

We started our adventure early Saturday morning, making our way to The Depot Coffee Shop in Hattiesburg. 

 After driving around the city a bit and visiting Paul's college campus (he went to a small private school in Hattiesburg), we made our way to Gulfport for a quick jaunt at the outlet mall and then on to Ocean Springs.

We searched online and found Leo's, a wood fire pizza place. Great patio!

 We ordered a jerk chicken and pineapple pizza that was out of this world.

 We headed down towards the beach and Shearwater Pottery. 

 We also went by Realizations where we got a great big print for our place.

It was a drizzly day, but we did make it out on the boardwalk in Biloxi.

 It was windy!

 Here is a Katrina memorial built by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

 People were able to donate things found from the aftermath of the storm for the memorial

 While driving around, we also found the original bottling shop of Barq's!

That night, we visited The Shed in Ocean Springs. I was excited to see my first pumpkin beer of the year there!

 The name says it all... it really is a shed!

 The next morning, a big storm was brewing, so we decided to head north instead of going into New Orleans. Since we had a little time that morning, we walked around the campus of my alma mater, USM in Hattiesburg.

 It's interesting how just a few years can make such a difference on a college campus! So much construction and new buildings.

One thing I talked about the whole trip was visiting one of my favorite restaurants close to campus, Old Athens Grill. We found out once we got there that they are trying to franchise the restaurant, so they had to change the name.

The food was INCREDIBLE. We need one here, stat! 

It was so good to get away for a day or so. Here's to a great week!

High Five For Friday

High Five for Friday! It's been a week of recuperation after a crazy week last week. I've tried to take it a little easier and I'm ready to have a fun weekend out of town starting tomorrow.

1. On Monday we went to our local independent bookstore, Lemuria, to hear our friends play music during a book signing. It's such a nice place to relax among the shelves of books and neat artwork.

2. I've had the prettiest roses on my desk this week, a gift from my boss for my hard work last week. It's a nice feel like someone appreciates what you do.

3. I had an amazing crab cake sandwich at Basil's Belhaven this week. There's nothing like it.

4. It was a friend's birthday this week, so our office celebrated at Mr. Chen's. Kung Pao Shrimp with mushrooms and zucchini. Say no more.

5. Last night we attended the Summer Concert Series in our neighborhood for the season. It's a little bittersweet to know the summer is coming to a close, but I'm ready for fall! Scarves, dark colors, and this time next month the symphony will be playing on the same lawn. It's one of my favorite events of the year.

Product Placement

I'm not a big product placement person, especially about... soap. But, browsing the aisles of Fresh Market yesterday, I happened upon the section of Mrs. Meyer's cleaning supplies. Over on Pinterest, I had seen pin after pin about how to make this liquid soap yourself out of one of their bar soaps, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why everyone was so crazy about this soap.

But, I got a whiff of the Basil scent and I knew EXACTLY why people were out there trying to recreate this cheaper at home. At $4.99 for a 12.5 fl oz bottle, it's not the cheapest soap available, but the smell is incredible. OH, that scent.

Lucky for me, all these soaps had a $1 off coupon, so I was able to walk about with the bottle for $3.99. Now, I've just got to figure out how to justify paying $16.99 for a bottle of Mrs. Meyer's laundry detergent in this scent...

[Off my soap box now!]

Cypress Swamp

Man, it's been a week. I'm sure one day I'll be able to look back at this week and laugh, but I'm definitely not there yet. Let's just leave it at I had to work/produce a big festival for work and I couldn't be any more thrilled that it's over.

After it was all said and done, I hopped into bed last night and slept like a log. I had to tie up some loose ends this morning for work, but I hoped it would be a chill day otherwise. My family had a reunion I had to miss, which I was sad about, but I just couldn't make it under the circumstances.

Paul suggested we go have lunch somewhere since we didn't have any groceries since this week had been so nuts. After a great meal at Julep, we decided to go see The Campaign, which is worth every penny. I hadn't laughed that hard at a movie in a long time.

Afterwards, we stopped by a yogurt shop for a little taste.

I had the coconut flavor with cheesecake bites (Paul had to ask if they were croutons), almonds, and strawberries. Really good. I have to laugh when we go in this place, because Paul can't stand the employees, because they're required to tell you to "Have a smiley day!"

On a whim getting back in the car, we decided to go drive on the Natchez Trace until we wanted to stop along the way. We drove up to the cypress swamp about 15 miles up the parkway and walked the trails.

 It was so pretty and calm. Just what I needed.

We made it back home late this afternoon and I'm watching Paul make dinner as we speak. It's been the day I really needed to recharge after this last week.

Here's to a great week!

Cheers to the weekend!

We've had a great weekend so far! Last night, we went over to our friends', Justin and Kevin, house. Kevin had an itch to make pork tacos and make a party out of it, so we all brought things to go with it.

 I'm telling you, this stuff was excellent.

 Kevin also made homemade tortillas, even taking them a step further and then frying some of them into taco shells. Justin made watermelon margaritas (blended watermelon, tequila, triple sec, and lime) which made for quite a combo!

This morning we headed out and went to the farmer's market. It's high season and everyone's produce was in full force today!

 Now that we have a farmers market about a block and a half from our apartment, we don't go to this market as often because it doesn't make sense. But, this is where we go for coffee (from Paul at Bean Fruit, which I wrote a story about recently), truly free range eggs (you can even see the fields and chickens that laid the eggs on their Facebook page!), and flowers, which I couldn't pass up. Mamaw, zinnias always make me think of you and the flowers in y'all's backyard.

 Yes, the flowers come in a Miller High Life can. Paul told the man he must have fun every week getting ready to bring the flowers.

 Even a man there making pottery and showing the kids how to sculpt out of clay.

 Egg man!

Right down the block from our place, Nick's launched a new brunch menu, so we knew we wanted to try it out today. We just grabbed coffee in the morning in preparation for our big meal and ended up at the restaurant about noon. It was worth the wait.

Their brunch menu is incredible and fairly reasonable. There are some really clever menu items that I can't wait to try.

 Coffee came out with rock candy as sweetener.

 Paul and I always order and split whatever we get, so one of us got Chicken and Beignets.

I got the Breakfast Burger, but asked them to scramble the egg instead of sunny side up. The burger was good, but I'd definitely get the chicken dish again in a heart beat. We had a great talk with their new director of operations who's taking the restaurant in really good directions.

Now we're back at home and the baker is creating Cary's birthday cake for our family celebration tomorrow. He's very excited about this cake!

High Five for Friday!

I'm doing something a little different on the blog today... a blog challenge, if you will. Taken from From My Grey Desk Blog, here's just a little mash up of things from this week (High Five for Friday!).

1. This week I was asked to come to one of local bed and breakfasts to eat lunch for a photo shoot a magazine was doing about their restaurant. I had the salmon with this amazing lentil medley underneath. I'm already thinking about going back and getting it again.

2. As some of you may or may not know, when I moved, my cat Kitty Witty went to live with my roommate. Long story short, she wasn't comfortable in our semi-noisy apartment set up (neighbors with dogs that barked during the day, adjacent laundry room, street noise) and she's in love with her new digs. My former roommate called me this morning and told me that KW had discovered the fireplace over night. She woke up this morning to find KW at the end of her bed covered in soot (she's a pretty much all white cat, mind you). We had to laugh.

3. One of my friends, Katie, had a sweet baby boy this week named Taylor Reed. We went and saw him and he's precious!

4. I'm still so happy with these chairs. It really feels like our apartment is coming together. We are already scheming a profession photo shoot of the place once everything is done.

5. After a long day at work and with all the fast food controversy this past week, Paul and I decided the only place in town to really get a chicken sandwich was Julep. It also happened a good friend of ours was working, too, which always helps!

High Five for Friday!

Chairs

We got our chairs in yesterday! I'm pretty excited about them.

They are so versatile and work in so many ways in our place. Can't wait to really test them out!

[See more about our chairs here]