Saturday, August 17, 2013

the locale.

so.

here's the thing.

Chad and I thought we would make a new year resolution type commitment at the beginning of the year. and I thought it could be something I would blog about so the family could see what we were experiencing. we're sort of doing well with it, but sort of failing at the second part.

I haven't blogged about it once, ha.

we decided to try one new local restaurant each month. we've been here for two years now (what!) and while we had experienced a bit of the culture, we couldn't stop hearing how AMAZING the food is here. but in all honesty we hadn't been too impressed. so we thought we would try harder to find local spots and try some of their cuisine. so far, we've found some gems but also some not-so-gemmy (?) places.

I know it's kind of late in the year to start, but I still thought I'd throw some of the places out there, even if just to make myself feel better.

january. our first stop was Katie's in mid-city. probably our favorite so far. if you go, you should to try the garlic feta fries. if you're into that (probably horrible for you) kind of thing. we find ourselves randomly craving those fries. we went back when Chad's parents were visiting in March and everyone loved what they ordered.

february. we had Breakfast at a little place in uptown called Couli. hasn't been our favorite (we love The Ruby Slipper and Surry's, which are both hard to beat as far as breakfast goes), but could have just been an off day, so maybe we'll try it again sometime.

march. the Milk Bar. they have a couple locations and we've only been for lunch, but we thought it was great and really good for a quick, casual place to eat. strangely enough, we haven't tried a shake, but I hear they're delicious. also, in this month we stopped in a cute place called Manhattan Jack in uptown with Chad's parents. good coffee, really good treats and a nice place to take a break from all of our adventures with parents. we've been again since and now I for sure want to be there right this minute. ( :

april. this is where things get blurry. we signed our lease for the house and were crazy with moving and going back to Michigan to get the rest of our things and all of that fun stuff. so I'm a little bit unsure of where we went. I will say, somewhere around the March/April time, we went to Crêpes à la Cart on Broadway Street for a nice treat and we had never been there before, so that counts. ( :

may. again, not so sure, as this is when we moved. I think we stopped in to Parenton's Poboys because our landlord told us about them and they're pretty much in our new neighborhood. kind of a little hole in the wall that looks like a house, so you can almost miss it, but the owner takes great care of her customers and takes pride in how fresh her food is. bonus. we had probably the best po-boys (overrated sandwiches in New Orleans) we've tried so far here, so that's saying something, I think. definitely worth a visit for you locals, so look it up!

anyone hungry yet? I am.

I'm really not sure what happened in June and July. we went to The Blue Tomato at some point, which is right around the corner from our house also. they serve just about every kind of food, which made me question the place at first, but it wasn't bad actually. we also went to Cafe Navarre recently and had really yummy breakfast foods.

we've still got some time in August, so we'll keep you posted on this month, and I'll hopefully finish the year off with monthly updates. by the way, this is just a glimpse at some of the restaurants here and doesn't even begin to list all of the great ones we had already been to. these are just the new local ones we've tried. let us know what you think if you try any of these places and if you have any recommendations, we'll take them for the remainder of the year!
love..

Thursday, August 08, 2013

heat advisories and a baby shower.

I have a harder time finding the silver lining, or whatever you want to call it, here than I did in Michigian. I'm trying. before we moved here, God had me in this place of loving any weather that Michigan brought to the table (which is kind of a big deal if you know anything about Michigan weather) and it was beautiful thing. and I try to keep it positive and full of gratefulness on here, but I think August is my rock and a hard place. the air is just so thick here. does that make sense. it's just really really thick. and I always feel so gross. like I can honestly say I would rather have to put on a sweater any day than feel the need to change my clothes/shower half way through the day because it feels like it's over one hundred degrees and the humidity is through the roof and our cars don't have air (seriously, you can check weather.com.. not exaggerating.. heat advisories all week here? that's hot). can I just not be a southern summer person even though I live here or do I have to find a reason to like it? can't I just say I'm grateful I don't have to drive on icy roads all winter? oh, well I guess that's my silver lining. sorry. end scene.

in other news.. a friend of ours is having a baby in September and some of us had the pleasure of planning a baby shower for her. she is waiting to find out the gender, so we wanted plan something not so girly but also not so blue. (: I saw this honey themed shower online, and then found out the mom-to-be loves honey, so we thought we'd just go from there! so we can't take all of the credit, but we did try to make it a little different and special in our own ways. it was so fun to be creative and celebrate Sarah and her honey as they wait for their new little honey on the way (so much cheese there I know). I wish I had a photo with the rest of the planners, but once again I was not any good at getting lots of photos while thinking about everything else. next time that will be delegated. (: at least I got one with Sarah.



trying to keep with a yellow and grey theme (like the baby's room) we filled the desert table with lots of yellow and grey candies, had some summery deserts and a berry salad with a honey/lime dressing. so delicious. we also had cans of lemon san pellegrino and tea and water in a couple of bee hive beverage dispensers, which were a perfect addition the the decor (thank you Brittaney!) and everyone left with a cute little jar of honey.

a special thank you goes to Chad, who I worked like crazy the week leading up to and on the day of. and he did it all with a smile on his face. and to Lauren, Emily, and Brittaney.. I think we pulled off a pretty successful shower. (: you're all wonderful. praying Billy and Sarah were blessed and felt all of the love I know everyone there has for them. can't wait to meet the little babe!
love..