The Happiness Experiment: Sweetwater with Mr. Macking

Thursday's weather was just perfect. Perfect for some Sweetwater and friends. And the best thing was that it wasn't even crowded. Look how happy we look...happy with beer!

Love spending some quality time with Mr. Macking: 7 out of 10

50 States: Arkansas

The Happiness Experiment: Counting My Blessings

Last night my goddaughter gave me such a beautiful rosary, which she got during her trip to Italy. It's hard to tell in the photograph, but each bead was hand blown with strings of glitter on the inside.

This past year, I've been sponsoring my friend, Jessica, who is converting to Catholicism. I haven't always been a religious person but it has definitely been an eye-opening experience that has made me grow closer to the Catholic Church. And I'm blessed and honored to be a part of her journey. She will be joining the Church this Easter.

Happiness Rating: 6 out of 10

50 States: Arizona

Again, not the official state food, but a piece of fish you can catch, cook and eat in Arizona!

The Happiness Experiment: Danny's celebratory meal

Because the Red Lobster across from the Augusta jail wasn't good enough for him, we went to French Market Grille to celebrate Danny getting out of jail for free with some raw oysters and some tequila shots!

7 out of 10

The Happiness Experiment: Mr. Bentley

Mr. Bentley makes me so happy! We were reunited after a long absence from each other. We spooned the whole night, so I'm pretty much giving this reunion a 10 out of 10!

50 States: Alaska

Not the official State food, but I think the name says it all.

A State of Design: Alabama

The first of a series of postcards representing state foods. Each postcard is supposed to be designed in a certain amount of time, every day.

Alabama: Pecans

What does a girl have to do to keep a blog going?

It seems my efforts in trying to keep up with posting have failed me! ugh! BUT there are some new and exciting projects that I think will help me show some love for my blog. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with both of these projects in the next month or two!

My first project is a collaborative design challenge: A State of Design. Three girls and 50 states. The three of us will be designing a postcard for every state, every day. We each have a different category: food, animals and insects.

The second project just came recently to me (as recent as 10 minutes ago!). A high school friend started doing "The Happiness Experiment." She captured every happy moment every day for a month and gave it a rating from 1-10. It's a good way to appreciate the good times and to not take every moment for granted. Check her out!

Stay tuned folks!

Falling in Love Fridays

Bathing suit season is just around the corner. I love these swimsuits from anthropologie. Hopefully I'll be ready enough to fit into at least one of these!

Parched Desert Maillot / Golden Days Bikini / Maine Event Bikini / elephant Ears Maillot

Toulouse Lautrec

Some of my favorites from the Toulouse Lautrec exhibit at the High Museum.

Simply Sublime

If and I do say IF I was a student at Georgia Tech, I would have gotten even fatter than I did when I was at Georgia because I would be at Sublime Doughnuts hungover every Sunday... okay, okay...every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And maybe Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday...

I guess I was either hungry or I didn't feel like choosing just one doughnut out of all the different flavors, but I definitely got a dozen. You would have gotten a dozen too if you were looking at their menu. It's so hard to pick just one or two but I got the following:

A-Town Cream

Dulce de Leche with Caramel Icing

Strawberry N Cream

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

Raspberry Filled Heart

Chocolate Banana Fritter

Cheese Danish

Smores

Nutella

Oreo

A-Town Mocha

Black and Tan

Each doughnut (yes I've already tried all of them in the same day!) was so light and fluffy that I didn't feel too bad going back for more! I think my favorite (and it's hard to pick a favorite out of this group) is the Strawberry and Cream. I just love the fresh strawberries!

So, what are you giving/taking up for Lent?

Pancakes for a rainy day

Waking up to a rainy day on the weekend is no bueno. As I laid in bed Saturday morning and my stomach growling, I thought that this would be a great morning to make chocolate chip pancakes with bacon and maple syrup on top! Well...maybe just the syrup since my bacon was no bueno as well. :(

I love making pancakes because they're so easy and you usually have all the ingredients in the pantry!

Click on the image to get a larger view of the recipe! The recipe doesn't include chocolate chips, but I usually put in at least a cup.

Shoya Izakaya

I'm always in the know about new restaurants popping up in the ATL, but when it comes to Asian restaurants I stick with the uge (short for usual. Just watch I Love You, Man and you will know what I mean).

Friday night, my friend Maggie took me to Shoya. She had gotten a gift certificate for her birthday from her Asian boss :) He described the restaurant as Japanese street food and said to order the ramen noodle soup. I'm not an expert in Japanese food, but ramen...I mean I love me some ramen.

As we were making our way to the restaurant, I realized that it was in the same shopping center as Super H! So I told Maggie that her and her dad were going to be the only white people in the restaurant and that I wanted to stop by Super H after dinner to buy some tofu. So Asian.

After we sat and looked over the menu, we realized that it was a "tapas" style restaurant. She of course asked me what I wanted (I'm thinking she had no idea what to order, but she did point out one or two items that she wanted). I'm glad she trusted my judgement on what to order because everything was delicious. The menu for the night:

Edamame

Koebi Karaage (Crunchy fried baby shrimp with sea salt and lemon)

Seaweed Salad

Georgian Roll

Pork Belly Kushiyaki (skewers)

Japanese Conch Kushiyaki

Saba Shioyaki (Grilled marinated mackeral with dashi soy sauce)

Asari Butter Yaki (Manila clams with soy butter sauce)

Unagi Kabayaki (Grilled eel with BBQ Sauce)

Tan Tan Ramen

It was a lot of food, but it didn't surprise me that it was just enough food for 3 people. Well, I guess 2 because Maggie and I ate most of it...

Who wants to join me and Maggie next time?

Falling in Love Fridays

This Friday I'm falling in love with the one and only Adele. First of all, I didn't know she was 21 (hence the name of her latest album). She definitely has the soul of a woman who has lived a life. Sometimes I like to listen to her music to fall asleep at night...maybe I'm hopeful of a good night's sleep with sweet dreams.

All Aboard

I love making kid's birthday invites because it allows me to to be playful with my design. I've had the privilege of creating invites for Henry ever since he was born! This year Henry turned 2 and is infatuated with everything and anything transportation. Happy Birthday Henry!

Big Bucks, No Whammies

Remember when Atlanta was snowed in for almost a week back in January? As I was sitting at home looking on my computer, I wished for warmer weather and knew that if I wasn't on the beach at some point in the next month or two, then I would probably die of frostbite.

It just so happens that a good friend from college is stationed down in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico for the Coast Guard. How convenient! So that same day, I booked a flight down to Puerto Rico over Valentine's Day weekend with a co-worker. We like to joke that we are in a relationship although she won't confirm our status on facebook. I have to put a "JK!" here because in my past experience my sarcasm doesn't come through and people believe everything I say.

Puerto Rico was just delightful! It's like an international vacation but not since we didn't have to use our passports and the flight was only 3.5 hours non-stop.

We arrived in Puerto Rico to 80 degree weather, fried food, blue waters and flowing Medalla!

PS. Another plus about Puerto Rico is that they have casinos. I won $20 after being down $60! Big Bucks, No Whammies!

Belle of the Ball

This past February one of my good friends commissioned me to do a dog portrait of his girlfriend's dog, Belle. It was going to be part of his Valentine's Day gift for her. What a perfect Valentine's Day gift that she'll remember forever!

With that being said, I've officially opened up my own etsy shop for custom dog portraits! Visit my shop!