Floating Butterflies @ Home

I learned this summer that my husband does not like floating butterflies on the wall or butterflies, period.

I know it’s not for everyone, but I have been envisioning butterflies framing the television for awhile now.  They are white against an off white wall, so they do not pop.  They are just enough to draw your eye to the wall.  What I consider a little detail even though Luis sees it as a huge detail.

I love them and his family did too! He is out numbered, so they stay =)

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Number 53 – The Alpine Village of Helen, Georgia

Helen is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Chattahoochee River. I have it on my list of things to do while we are in Georgia, even though I really want to enjoy Helen during October when they celebrate Oktoberfest.  Because who doesn’t want to sit in a beer garden eating wursts
and drink beer from a glass boot?

Helen is known for tubing during the summer.  While we were there we saw hundreds of people tubing, so it was more like bumper tubes.

The place is kinda cheesy and reminds me of Epcot in Orlando, but I love these kind of places. Places like this makes me feel like I am very far away, and not just an hour outside of Atlanta. Poor Luis was not enjoying himself and was dying from all the Polka music.

Excited to go back for Oktoberfest.

Dumpling Party @ Home

Putting together a dumpling party is the best way to fill up three hungry guys after they have come from the gym.

I bought assorted dumplings; shrimp, veggie, pork, and chicken, along with a side of red cabbage slaw marinated in a honey ginger dressing.  I steamed some and pan fried the rest. I think the pan fried were the best.

It was a nice night with great people.

Happy Day of Birth Brunch

Today is my husband’s 28th birthday.  We celebrated with friends, over a brunch made with love by me.

Overnight blueberry french toast.

Strawberry and Rhubarb tarts made the night before.

Luis woke up to this…

Around 11:00 a.m. his friends started to arrive.

Happy Birthday doughnuts from Sublime Doughnuts, two types of french toast; peanut butter and banana stuffed french toast, and  baked blueberry french toast,
maple sausage, turkey bacon, tortilla, hash browns, and sunny side up eggs with mimosas.  Who says men can’t drink mimosas?

His birthday present.  A Trek Wahoo, Gary Fisher Collection.

Along side, is my freshly tuned up vintage Gary Fisher.  His new bike is so much taller than mine, and his wheels are gigantic! Kinda makes me want a new bike, but I love my booger green Gary.

At this moment, we are going to the kick-off Georgia Tech Spirit Day at Atlantic Station.  Which is suppose to get us ready for the first football game this Thursday against Western Carolina.  Fall is going to awesome!

Number 16 on my 2011 List

During the summer, I took advantage of Georgia Tech’s library being less crowded and finally checked out the library. Yes, my first time stepping foot into the library even though we have been living here for almost a year already.

Number 16 on my goals for 2011 was to join a library and check out books. My other goal was to read at least three books a month, but that hasn’t happened.  I haven’t checked out a book from a library in years.  My Kindle just makes it too easy.  The library is free, so why am I wasting my money?  Or maybe I just wanted to enjoy an afternoon and browse aisles of books and skip through pages to see if a book catches my interest.  I love to read and I love the excitement (yes, i said excitement) of hunting for a winner to take home and read.  Finding an entertaining book out of thousands of books feels like a accomplishment or is it just me that feels that way? Oh, and another odd and nerdy fact about me, I also love the smell of libraries; yellow worn pages + old smell = love!

Mary Mac’s Tea Room @ Ponce De Leon

I’ve heard many people talk about Mary Mac’s Tea Room since we moved to Atlanta, being one of the best southern restaurants.  While Luis had his family here visiting us we decided to try the place out and put all these rumors to rest.

I love the little room we sat in, which I guess I could call it the bar room, since from what I saw was the only room with a bar in it.  The place is divided between 3 sections or rooms. The section/room we were in felt very cozy and relaxing. Our waiter asked if it was our first time there, explained how to fill out the make-your-own menu form and then went to get our drinks. When he came back he served us collard greens and corn bread as a starter, which I loved, and is given to first time customers. I love the south!

The place had a line out the door, but thankfully we didn’t have to wait long.  I was a little nervous since the last place we went to because everyone told us how great it was and also had a long lone which turned out to be a two hour wait for a table, was awful. Mary Mac’s however, was delicious and would probably wait two hours to eat here if I had to. The prices on the menu are awesome and our waiter was very helpful.

My little brother and I were in love with the bread selection; cornbread, mini cinnamon buns, and some other goodness that I didn’t try because the mini cinnamon buns kept calling my name.

Old school cream soda, yum! And just look how adorable my little brother is!! Stop growing up!! I miss his face!

My mouth is watering.  I had the chicken with stuffing and cornbread dressing, fried green tomatoes, and sweet potato soufflé. So good!

And now for the desserts, which we went a little over board with ordering…

Those last two photos were a little shaky because I was rushing to put my camera down and dig in, plus not everyone has my same excitement for taking pictures of food and would rather just eat instead of patiently waiting for me to take the perfect picture while their fork/spoon is waiting up in the air in position to dive right in once I give the okay to take a bite.  Sorry and I love you!

Thank-you mom, dad, and little brother for making our first visit to the infamous Mary Mac’s so wonderful.

Flashback – Kyoto, Japan

Kyoto is our favorite place.

We stayed at a Ryokan (a type of bed and breakfast) called Shiraume in the historic area of Kyoto, where geishas, now called geiko study, live and work.  The area is like stepping back in time, so peaceful and elegant.  One morning we even woke to a chanting Buddhist monk walking the streets.  I am not sure if it was the area or the amazing service provided to us by the owner of Shiraume, but we never wanted to leave.

As soon as we walked into Shiraume Ryokan we were greeted with cold green tea and a jelly treat to help cool us down from the summer heat. The owner started a bath for us in one of their two natural spring tubs.  After the bath we were given yukatas while she made our bed for us in our Umemi room.  After the long train ride all we wanting was to relax and take a nap before our dinner.  We were served the most beautifully plated eight course meal I have ever had.  Some items on the menu were very interesting. I could not eat the raw shrimp or jellyfish but, it was an experience, and I enjoyed every minute of it and all the pampering we were given.

Just so you know, I still dream about the ice cream above. It is homemade black sesame, and I have been looking for it everywhere. I have tried other black sesame ice cream, but it is no where as good as this one.  So good and I can’t find it anywhere. It makes my mouth water just looking at the picture, so sad.

In the morning we tried out the other natural spring bath tub and enjoyed another delicious meal, breakfast to prepare for our adventure to feed some wild monkeys on top of a very high mountain and visit a few shrines.

Before we left the owner gave us a parting gift as a thank you for staying at Shiraume and for good travels. How did she know that I love flip flops?

Oh, and thank you ANA Airlines for making our trip to Japan even more amazing when you upgraded our flight home to first class and gave us back $800.00 in cash, a sleeping pod, slippers, a robe, the noise canceling head phones, 17 inch T.V. screen, unlimited food and alcohol, and for our attendant who greeted us upon our entrance to the plane by our last name before we learned her name.
We heart you ANA Airlines.

Did I tell you that neither of us slept on the flight home because we were too excited being in first class? Yea, we’re dorks but, we enjoyed every minute of the 13 hour flight.