Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Today I am @..........

......my desk.

I don't know about you but there is a lot to do before I leave town next week so first things first!


I hope you can join me this month for 

NETWORKING HAPPY HOUR 
at 
November 29th from 6-9 P.M.
18 East Andrews Drive
Atlanta, GA  30305

I just dropped off some new jewels yesterday too!

I also wanted to show you the label from my latest Brash Coffee order.
   
When is the last time you actually learned something about the farmer responsible for your coffee?

If you are serious about your coffee you should try this coffee.

I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing you on the 29th at Scout For The Home!!!

Friday, September 28, 2012

Last night I was @.......



What a blast last night's event was!  I want to thank everyone who came and for those of you who couldn't make it, I totally understand and I will start planning next month's event.

My biggest thanks is to Bill Kaelin and the ladies at Bobby Berk Home



Someone else everyone should meet is Winston...

Bobby Berk's greatest ambassador!


Here are some other pics of last night's event.

 The Bobby Berk Showroom

 Furniture, Bedding, accessories!

 Baby furniture and accessories too!

 I would not mind a pair of these chairs!

 Duncan, my husband, Gerry Varela in the center and Mike DeCarlo on the right.

 Thomas Davis on the left and Jason Schnock on the right.


My great friends from LG Squared, Chris and Jodi, who looks good even with her eyes shut.  Sorry Jodi!


I was so pleased to meet some new people last night and as always, feel free to bring a friend to any event.

Stay tuned for the next Happy Hour.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Today I am @.......

......the voting poll!!!

Get out and vote for Bellwether Landscape Architects so they can win the Ad Space Giveaway for the Beacham Series!!!!!!

Click on the link below and vote!!!


Also, don't forget to come to my Happy Hour at Bobby Berk Home next Thursday, September 27th!!


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Today I am @......

............the perfect temperature!  Is this weather fabulous or what?


I am attaching a link to a post written by some friends of mine, Chris and Jodi Laumer-Giddens of LG Squared, who recently completed an Energy Star Certified home in Grant Park.  These guys really know their stuff.  If you or anyone you know are interested in making your current home, or a soon to be built home, more energy efficient, be sure to contact them.  All of their info can be found in their post below.

http://lgsquaredinccom.ipage.com/wordpress/www.lgsquaredinc.com/energy-star-certified-home-in-grant-park-atlanta-ga/

A more urgent matter is the Beacham Series annual ad space giveaway, sorry Chris and Jodi.  Bellwether Landscape Architects are in the running and I am asking you to click on the link below so you can vote for them to win the ad space giveaway.  Bellwether Landscape Architects are very talented and have a great portfolio of work so they definitely deserve to win.


Once you have hired LG Squared to improve the energy efficiency of your home, you can call Todd, Missy and Sarah at Bellwether to design your dream garden.

Thanks to wireless, I was able to enjoy my day outdoors while still working.  Here are my assistants:

 Shorty
 Splash
and The Twins.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring more of the same.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Today I am @......

.....My coffee maker.

I know it is 4:25 in the afternoon but I can't wait for tomorrow morning.  Do you remember a post I did, back in February, about Matt Ludwikowski, the coffee aficionado?

Well I will jog your memory.  He had just won the Southeast Brewer's cup, coffee not beer, and had been traveling to and from El Salvador working along side the farmers there, creating his own coffee.



Matt

It has finally paid off and he has his own business, Brash Coffee, going strong.  I received mine today and it is fabulous.  Matt's goal is simple: to produce higher quality coffee, better prices for farmers, better ecological practices and happy coffee drinkers.  I am definitely one!
Order on line at www.brashcoffee.com, also be sure to follow on instagram - @brashcoffee, twitter - @brashcoffee, and facebook - http://www.facebook.com/mattlud,  to see where he will be selling his coffee. It might be at your Saturday farmers markets.

I am attaching my original post I wrote about Matt as he was just getting started.

From February 2012:

I have a story I want to tell about coffee and I am going to do it in a few segments.  I really hope you find it as interesting I do,

Coffee Talk Part I:  The Farmers

Do you know the origin of your coffee and better yet do you know who actually planted it, harvested it, roasted it and put it into your mug for you?

A few months ago I met a coffee aficianado named Matt Ludwikowski.  He has to be one of the most infectious people I have met in a really long time.  He is a Barrista at Octane Coffee and recent Champion of the 2012 Southeastern Brewers Cup, coffee not beer.  What a lot of people might not know about him is that he recently returned from El Salvador where he picked, dried and roasted his own coffee.  Those are only three of the steps a coffee cherry goes through before it enters your cup.  I will cover that in another segment of Coffee Talk.

Matt in El Salvador

A lot of us are concerned about the treatment of animals on farms where our meat or poultry come from or the use of pesticides on the vegetables we eat but there isn't a lot of emphasis on the people who actually grow these vegetables or take care of the animals on these farms.  Companies like Inteligentsia (www.intelligentsiacoffee.com) actually live and work along side their farmers 365 days a year.  Their intention is to ensure better pay for farmers, better working conditions, sustainable farming practices and a better coffee product for you and me.

Did you know that the farmers of a lot of the mass produced coffee are paid just a few cents for their labor while a single pound of coffee is sold for $12?

Clearly Matt got my attention and I have been on a coffee tasting binge.  Here are my favorites so far:  One Thousand Faces Coffee, purchased at Whole Foods, I think the name of the roast was "Aromia" my dog chewed up the bag.  Another one I have been enjoying is Batdorf and Bronson "Skye's Mountain Blend".  They have a shop in Decatur.  www.batdorfcoffee.com

I have been trying to drink more coffee at home in order to support more humane coffee companies and I am really enjoying it.  There is an occasional latte purchased from one of the chains but nobody is perfect.

Go look at the Intelligentsia Website and I really enjoyed Counter Culture's website too, www.counterculturecoffee.com.  Also be sure to go see Matt at Octane Coffee on Northside Drive but don't ask for a "Frappucino" or a "Caramel Machiato", there is no such thing there, and that's not a bad thing!  Branch out.

Stay tuned for the next segment.






Saturday, September 15, 2012

Today I am @......

....College Gameday (via my TV)

As I do a little work on the side I thought I would share my invite for the upcoming networking happy hour with you.  I am attaching the invite and would love to extend an invitation to anyone interested.  Feel free to bring friend but.........let me know that you are coming!!  Shoot me an email, comment on facebook, call me or comment below.


I also have a favor.  I am attaching some links to facebook pages for people I am working with.  Would you follow the links and like their pages?







San Marco USA


Phoenix Millworks



Enjoy your Saturday!!!!!!!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Today I am @..........

.......My Desk.

It doesn't sound very exciting but it really is.  I have a lot of great things going on but I thought I would share some pics from my summer vacations.

I was in Jackson Hole for a week and this summer my niece and nephew were there with us. That made it even more fun.  Here are some of my pictures:




check out the eagle on the top branch, I didn't even see it until after I took the photo



cat tails at The Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve


Charlie and Evie


Phelps Lake


Phelps Lake, water and mountains, can it get any better?


Normally we have moose all around but this visit all I saw were deer, deer and more deer which is still great.  Duncan stayed another week and wouldn't you know........


Is that amazing or what?

I also just spent a long weekend in Santa Barbara with my friends Chris and Caroline.  What a beautiful place and the weather was wonderful.  We rode our bikes and walked everywhere.  One of my favorite things about the whole trip was their Farmer's Market.  There was an abundance of everything.  All of the flowers and produce came from from farms right around us.









I would definitely be a vegetarian again if I had access to all of this fresh produce.

The Grand Finale......



I had the best summer and I hope you did too!  Stay tuned for the next post about the upcoming happy hour.


Monday, July 2, 2012

This week I am @........

.......Wimbledon, well not physically but my dial is locked in on ESPN.

While there has been plenty to talk about this summer, the pace has slowed down considerably.  Maybe it is all of the holidays we celebrate, the pool, vacations.  I'll take it!!

Work has definitely been keeping me busy but thank goodness for the pool.  How many pictures have you received of the temperature reading in someone's car?

All of my chicks are growing up and hopefully there is only one rooster yet it is not the bird we suspected.  We typically name our roosters Roosevelt, at least until we find them new homes.  Roosevelt has started to find his voice, an adolescent cockadoodledoo that sounds like they have a sore throat but this morning Duncan and I realized something.  That cockadoodledoo was not coming from Roosevelt after all but our lovely, petite Sylvia!  My sister in law just told me that we are failing at gender assignment.  Needless to say, Sylvia is now Sylvester and lets see if Roosevelt finds his voice or is just an unattractive chick!

I have been working on jewelry a good bit this summer which has been a lot of fun.  Here are some new pieces.







I will be adding these to my website but I also need to add some things to Scout For The Home so maybe these will go there.

This is an unusual 4th of July so I hope you all are doing something fun.  I am staying close by and cooking out with friends.

So long for now!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Yesterday I was @.....

.......the Modern Atlanta Home Tour.

What a great time I had on this tour.  I have never embraced modern or contemporary architecture, I have always associated modern architecture with cold, sparse, uncomfortable, hard lines.  I have learned over the past few years that there is so much more to this architectural style .

The first home we visited was Frances Zook's home.  Zook is the business partner of Alan Clark, and they are Clark and Zook Architects. Alan Clark is a friend and past co-worker of mine and I love being a cheer leader for him, and now Frances.


The home is nestled in it's surroundings, pretty far back off the street, discreet and unassuming.


Once you walk up the drive you can enter the house in a couple of ways, both very welcoming.  Alan Clark was a fabulous tour guide and let us know the changes that had been made.  There were also some pictures of the before so you could actually see the changes that had been made.


I am sorry I don't have any interior shots, I just felt too invasive taking pictures of people's private spaces......until the end.

Frances's home had some traditional furniture pieces mixed in with the more contemporary details of the house which gave it a very comfortable balance.  The walls in the living room were covered in wood in a pattern like that of a Mondrian painting yet painted white.  The old kitchen made a comfortable dining area and overlooked the paneled living area.  One bathroom had a beautiful Hermes orange paint color and the updated kitchen would make anyone want to prepare a meal from scratch.  

If you walked out on to the patio off the kitchen and sitting area you were led back around to the front by plantings and a path with raised gardens by the garage.

The interior and exterior were very peaceful.  I hope I did the Zook residence justice, I loved it.

We moved on to 9th street near Piedmont Park.  This house was immaculate with a beautiful art collection, amazing fixtures and materials but I was afraid to touch anything.  White!  I did take 2 pictures, one of the roof top garden and one descending the staircase.  I was still a little nervous to snap away.



Our last stop was awesome.  Located in the Lower Fourth Ward on East Street, this house had so much personality and the owners were so interactive with the crowd that I felt no guilt taking photos.  Here are my photos upon the entry walk.


Awesome abstract bench.





Collection after collection from masks to religious folk art.  I could have spent hours looking at every piece and they covered the walls, even in the laundry room!!!



Off the kitchen was a lap pool and a beautiful water feature with Koi.  Latin music poured outside the open doors.

We went upstairs to the bedrooms and the master had a beautiful headboard.


Next, up to the studio of the owner-architect, fabulous bookshelves full of beautiful books.


The Loggia.



The floor was covered in square panels made from recycled tires, there was a sample out so you could see what it looked like underneath.


One last look at the pool and it was time to go.


I hope everyone had a great weekend and a great Monday!!!