i love food!

I am not ashamed of my love for food. I love to eat pretty much anything. Cooking is ok, but I'd rather have someone else do the hard work and I will enjoy the literal fruits of their labor.

So on my recent trip to Charleston I was very happy to have some awesome food.

First up was The Boathouse on Isle of Palms. We started the evening at the bar on the roof of the restaurant, where we watched the sunset over the intercoastal waterway.

The food was as good as the scenery. Fried green tomatoes with homemade pimento cheese and chow chow, followed by parmesan-crusted tilapia with sauteed vegetables and smoked gouda mac and cheese. I wish I had a picture but I ate it too fast.

The next night we ventured into Charleston and got a recommendation to eat at Fleet Landing. It also overlooked the intercoastal waterway, and once again we started at the bar. They served the Jack Daly, which is sweet tea vodka and lemonade...yum.

For dinner I had shrimp and grits, a Charleston classic. It was delicious—creamy grits and a slightly spicy sauce. Also of note were the (free) fluffy biscuits with honey butter. Most notable about this restaurant though was the decor...the building was used by the Navy for years so they played up the sailing theme, from rigging separating the booths to anchors on the wall to signal flags covering the ceiling. I loved this life jacket wall too.



No trip to South Carolina would be complete without a trip to Maurice's Bar-B-Q in Columbia. My good friend McCabe introduced me to Maurice's years ago and now I stop whenever I am in SC. My friends were in awe of the 1960s Confederate flag decorating scheme and the original booths (with movie-theater style vinyl seats). If the South rises again it will start at Maurice's.


They loved the food, although there was some hash left over. But the hush puppies, slaw, and barbeque were delicious. There is nothing like that mustard sauce.


I even brought home some of Maurice's sauce and marinated my chicken in it last night, and it was almost as good as the real thing. Maurice claims his bbq makes you happy, and he was right.

i love vacation

I went to the beach last week with 3 friends for a much-needed rest, relaxation, recharging, reenergizing, reprioritizing, readjusting-the-attitude vacation. It was a spontaneous trip so I didn't plan anything (for a change...usually I plan my trips down to the minute) and had no expectations.



So I had 3 days to sit on the beach and stare at the water. I did a lot of reading, relaxing, photographing, and even some painting. I laughed and ate great food and had good conversation with friends. The mini-vacation far exceeded my expectations and refreshed my soul.





I need to do this more often!

I am at the beach and I love it...we've had perfect weather: the sun is shining and the breeze is cool. I've read, painted, and lounged by the ocean for 2 solid days (after today, 3 days). I think my life purpose is to sit by the ocean.

nostalgia

I have been going through a lot of my grandmother's pictures and memorabilia...she saved EVERYTHING!!! I love looking at it and knowing about the people that are part of me, learning what they loved and who they were. And Nana and I would look at all of her memories a lot together, so I have unofficially declared myself the family historian.

This weekend I stumbled upon these gems:



This is when Nana was interviewed for a profile in her company's newsletter, and she talked about all her antiques...




and from the photographer's contact sheet...




I love contact sheets. Reminds me of the good ol' days when we used film and I spent hours in the art department's darkroom.





The man on the far right is my great-great uncle Oliver Vasgaard. He came to America from Norway around 1900. I love that in this picture he is holding the American flag...its a little snapshot of the melting pot that is America and my own family's journey.


much more to come...

rock me mama

Last night I finally got to see Old Crow Medicine Show live...a show I had been waiting to see for a long time. They were joined by Dave Rawlings Machine, Gillian Welch, the Felice Brothers, and Justin Townes Earle, and they all rocked out for a solid 4 hours. whew. Amazing.

The show was outside at Riverfront park, and i LOVE being outside on a summer evening. Tonight did not disappoint...perfect temperature, light breeze, and green grass. And some rainbows (obviously well-loved).



I am also a big fan of bluegrass and folk music, a love I attribute to my years spent in East Tennessee, where bluegrass has radio stations dedicated to it and is played on the street corners...bluegrass is to east TN what country is to Nashville.



Tonight was also an awesome night for people watching...from the old man with hairplugs filming his wife's butt as she danced, to the drunk guy who got on stage and fought his arrest, to the dude with a flower behind his ear hula dancing to folk music.



And as the night wore and the beer kept flowing, the people watching only got more interesting.

Thankfully the music did, too, and Old Crow was amazing...well worth the money and the wait. They played like we were in someone's basement and they were just jamming...no attitude or anxiousness to leave.



I am glad I stayed up and out past my self-imposed work night curfew and joined the hippies, preppies, and girls wearing dresses and cowboy boots (literally every other girl) for this show!

Where the genius happens

In honor of today being Monday—aka the first day of the work week, when you return from fun-filled weekends and try desperately to remember what you were doing on Friday at 4:45 before you left for the fun-filled weekend—I am posting some pictures I took of my desk. Yep, my desk. In all its messy, dimly-lit, gray-walled, closet-sized glory.

I had my camera at work last week to take pictures of a charm bracelet I made for a cover (one of the more unique things I've done lately) and while I had the camera out I took some "artsy" shots of the stuff I look at all day and then when I got home I decided to compose them in an "artsy" arrangement, much like my design school assignments of yesteryear.

Anyway, here's my random tribute to Monday:

my blog: the beginning

I have been toying with the idea of a blog for a while now, but couldn't settle on a topic that would keep me excited about posting. I tried to post thoughts about life and God, but unfortunately those were too sporadic. I read a ton of design/craft/decorating blogs, and don't want to be a copycat. And I'm not one of those people who has some really unique living circumstance, so that rules out a generic "my life is cool because" blog.

Then I turned 29 (sob) and started my second quarter-life crisis (the first came during my John Mayer phase at 25...which turned out to be an awesome year). And my thoughts turned to where my life is going and what have I done with it so far and how badly I don't want a 3 in front of my age and how long can I pluck out the gray hairs before I get a bald spot and what if I look back on my life and all I remember are the gray walls of my cubicle? And if I had to list my hobbies and interests on an eharmony questionnaire (which I may or may not have done) what would I put? I mean I have a lot of things I like and enjoy, but do I really spend any time doing them?

So, that is my blog...a collection of things I love. I'll just write about what I love doing and then I can see how much of my time I spend doing it. And maybe through this exercise I'll gain a little clarity on where I want to steer my life. At the least I will stop focusing on what I don't like.