New Year, New State

Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!

We went down to Florida to spend Christmas with my mom and two sisters and we had a great time! We all had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you did too! We came back to Atlanta to celebrate the New Year and Matt and I had a wonderful dinner out at Pricci (one of our favorite restaurants in Atlanta) to celebrate and it was delicious.

With the New Year brings some big changes for us. First of all, we're moving to Nashville, TN! My hubby got a great job opportunity there and now we're relocating. Matt and I have been a whole three times in our entire lives, two of which were for his interviews and one to house hunt last weekend. It's been a whirlwind. The whole process began back in the beginning of October! They brought us over twice for him to interview, and then made him an offer right before Christmas and he accepted a few days later! Whew! So far I know where the two best malls are (sounds a bit lame, but one of the days he interviewed for nine and a half hours and I was by myself all day wandering around Nashville, so, yes that is how I spent my time alone!), some great restaurants, cute shops, Vanderbilt and that is about it. Last weekend we had a tour of downtown Nashville and the surrounding areas so we learned some more about the city. It is going to take a little while. We are very excited for this change in our lives! It is always a bit intimidating to move to an unfamiliar city and also in our case, an unfamiliar state, but 99% of the people we have spoken to about Nashville really love it and we think we will too!

So, back to December when this became official, I surprised Matt with a very nice dinner. I cooked him a porterhouse steak, and that was the first time I have ever cooked steak in my life! I went to a butcher in Buckhead and bought a 1 1/2" thick porterhouse and used an epicurious recipe that you can find here, if you would like. I cooked these mashed potatoes as a side dish along with asparagus. I bought some rolls that he did not even touch because the steak was the size of a basketball and he had two side dishes to go along with that...it was a lot of food, but I had planned out the whole menu and bought the ingredients before I got to the butcher and saw how enormous the steak was! I was so nervous about messing up the steak, but Matt promises it was the best steak he ever had! I feel like I set the bar a bit high though, I mean let's be honest, I am not going to be cooking him porterhouses on a regular basis here! My husband is definitely a meat and potatoes kind of guy and he had a permanent smile on his face that whole meal. It was so fun to see how excited he was...I mean, he was giddy...I am not kidding!

I told you it was a lot of food! The steak was huge! He ate the entire thing though, just not all of the mashed potatoes and he could not eat any of the bread (understandably)!

Mixed cherry tomatoes are not really in season, so I just used all red, but I don't think Matt had a problem with that!

This is now my husband's favorite meal and he talks about this darn steak a lot!

I don't eat steak, so I had chicken instead. I have to say that the mashed potatoes were really good, if you're looking for a new recipe you should try these.

Well, we have a lot going on! It looks like we are headed back up to Nashville tomorrow to continue our house hunt (we did not find a place last weekend) and we're keeping our fingers crossed that we find a place because Matt starts his new job in the middle of next week!

oxox,
lauren

Summer in the City

I hope everyone had a fun & fabulous Fourth of July! We stayed here in Atlanta (we contemplated going down to Florida, but decided against that because it probably would not be much fun since I still had all of my stitches in). We went up to Matt's parents house in the mountains on Saturday and visited with his family which was really nice. My sister-in-law, Amanda's, birthday is on the third, so it was a little birthday/4th of July get together. The weather was amazing and we had a lot of fun. On Sunday, the 4th, Matt and I enjoyed a couple of margaritas and then got together with Amanda and some of her friends in Buckhead for the fireworks at Lenox, which were especially good this year!


Matt & Me waiting for the fireworks :)

Yesterday I finally got all of my stitches out! It took over an hour since there was so many. Whew, glad that is over! I am feeling really great now. :)

Now, time to enjoy the weekend with Matt!

oxox,
lauren

A Visit From Katie!

Katie & Me

Matt & Me

Two weekends ago (the weekend before my last surgeries) my amazing and adorable sister Katie came up to visit! She arrived Thursday night and stayed until lunch time on Sunday and we had such a great time! Katie is one of my very best friends in the whole wide world and we are very close...we talk at least every other day on the phone and we see each other as much as possible! I absolutely love when Katie comes up to visit Matt and I, but time always flies and it feels like she just got here when before you know it it's time for her to leave...boo.

So, on to our trek around Atlanta...on Friday we went to The Grape in Vinings for lunch and a glass of red wine sangria, which was delicious. After lunch we did some shopping in the area. For dinner we made some great Mexican food and margaritas at home and talked and talked a lot!

On Saturday, while Matt stayed home and watched the World Cup, Katie and I went out. We started the day off with Souper Jenny (my absolute favorite little lunch spot in Atlanta, known for their soups, hence the name!) for lunch, which is a given because every time Katie is in town we go to Jenny! Everything is made fresh daily at Souper Jenny with local ingredients and the menu changes every day (which I love because I am all about variety!) Katie had a turkey pita (the pitas are even made there on the days they're on the menu!) and Greek style coleslaw and I had a cold black bean salad with avocado, corn, tomato and diced jalapenos (mmmmm!) with some yummy fresh fruit. We were then off to one of my new favorite garden & gift stores, Boxwoods, in Buckhead. Katie and I were obsessed! The store is deceivingly small looking from the outside; it is an old house converted into the store and and it feels like it goes on for days, which is wonderful because I loved everything in there! They have beautiful furniture and lamps and home decor (which I am obsessed with all of the items I just listed and could look at them forever!) Boxwoods also is a lovely florist and they feature some beautiful flowers and plants in their greenhouse and garden. I managed to have self control and I walked away with just two adorable planters, but I am already planning a trip back! Now we're off to Jake's Ice Cream store and market, which I had read about, but this was my first visit. Ummm, what was I waiting for? I mean this is the best ice cream I have ever put into my mouth! Katie had the Key Lime Piescream (How much do you love that name?) and I had the decadent Holy Cannoli (of course, it is made with homemade cannolis!) Every bite was delicious! We loved Jake's and will for sure be returning! :)

Welcome to Jake's!

Jake's fun road sign

Inside the shop

Mmmmmm!

Our next stop was the Inman Park/Virginia Highlands area and as if we were not already on a big enough sugar high, we stopped at the lovely Cacao Chocolate Shop. Well, let me tell you that Cacao is The. Cutest. Chocolate. Shop. Ever! Everything is made in house and is so pretty. We got some homemade vanilla marshmallows (if you have never tried homemade marshmallows, you must, because the consistency is soooo much better than store bought, they taste so light and so good!) and a box of assorted salted caramels which were absolutely delectable...we took these items home to save for a treat later!

The sign on the outside of Cacao

The adorable sign next to the entrance

How cute is this place?

Such pretty displays

So much fun!

We then window shopped some of the adorable stores in Virginia Highlands. Next, I took Katie to Decatur because that is the one part of Atlanta that I really enjoy to go to that I had not taken her to see (why? I don't know) and we drove around the cute downtown area. And now it is back to Buckhead and exploring Lenox mall once again. Finally, we decided it was time to go home to eat some good Italian food and drink lots of good red wine. We ordered Alfredo's in for dinner (Matt went to pick it up for us). Alfredo's is this little Italian hole in the wall restaurant, but the food is really good! Sunday morning we got up and I made homemade cinnamon rolls so Katie could try them (I made my first batch months ago and have been making them pretty frequently ever since (and I have to say, they are pretty good))! Katie loved the cinnamon rolls and then it was already time for her to go...

She says that she will be back up to visit soon though and I can't wait!

oxox,
lauren

A bit about me

My hubby and me on our honeymoon in fabulous Kauai, Hawaii



Us enjoying the amazing Napali Coast...I want to go back!

Hi, I am Lauren and I live in Atlanta with my husband. I have been married to the best man I have ever met and my best friend for one year and four months to the day, actually! :) I am one lucky girl to have been blessed with my amazing husband, Matt, and I think of that every day with a smile on my face! ;)

I have many interests and aspirations and I have learned a lot about myself up to this point in my life. I love love love to decorate...any room really. We recently moved to a different part of town and I have thoroughly enjoyed decorating our new home! My favorite things to wear are sundresses...I wear them all summer long. Peonies and ranunculus make me happy. My two favorite colors are Porcelain or Robin's Egg blue and Kelley green. I love to bake and cook...I have been baking and cooking a lot lately and I am really loving it. I miss my family (in Florida and Mississippi for the most part) and my best friends (mostly in Alabama) often, but enjoy when we visit each other or catch up over the phone, which happens frequently. I am the oldest of my two incredible sisters, Katie and Meghan, who are two of my very best friends. My mom is also one of my very best friends, we have a great relationship and talk all the time! I am in love with the beach and I miss it dearly...the recent oil spill makes me sick to my stomach. I pray for a miracle to prevent the all gorgeous beaches along the Gulf Coast from becoming destroyed and for all of the families who will lose their livelihood for years to come.

oxox,
lauren