Korean Aquarius Throw-down!

This past weekend was both Paul's Birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL!!!) and Chinese New Year!  Our friend Trapper planned a get together for the Chinese New Year and we naturally thought it would be a great opportunity to bring our friends together to celebrate Paul's Birthday as well.

So our evening started at Tofu Village Korean BBQ in Marietta, GA. Yes, we celebrated the Chinese New Year with some Korean BBQ! Paul and I have had Korean BBQ before, but it was a new experience for a lot of our friends, and we are definitely glad that so many were open-minded to the experience!

There was options to order entrees or to order BBQ where they cook the food on a grill in front of you. They also have an array of unique veggie and meat options like Kimchee (love it!) and cow tongue (never tried that...). Paul even had some rice wine (Gluten free!!!)!

After dinner, we headed over to Melody Karaoke, where we had a private room for our group to cut loose and sing! It was the first time Paul and I had done the private karaoke room, and it was awesome! Definitely an evening of experiences! The music was Korean-esc, with reverb  microphone effects and an Asian twist. There were flat screens around the room that displayed anything from Asian Music Videos, to floral scenery and more...

It was surprising how many music options they had, and with the bar just outside the door, the beer and Saki were flowing! Some of the crowd started to trickle out and we then decided to move the party somewhere where everyone could dance! Luckily there was a bar called "The Place" in the same strip mall, and we decided to check it out!

It was actually a great option, as they had plenty of dancing and obviously plenty of drinks to go around! The party just kept going, and everyone was dancing and having a blast. I was surprised it was so easy to find a good option so close by! "The Place" it totally was "The Place!" haha (see the site and you'll understand why...)

Our crowd slowly fizzled out and we decided it was time to soak up some of the alcohol with Waffle House! While this didn't get everyone sober, it totally hit the spot. After the awesome service and food, we took some time to get our friends home safely and then headed home ourselves to crash.

It was an awesome evening, thank you to everyone that came out to experience the Chinese New Year and Paul's Birthday at Tofu Village, Melody Karaoke, and "The Place." It was a blast to see everyone and celebrate!


Sushi, Shopping and Crafts with Yarden

The other night I met up with my friend Yarden for Sushi, a little shopping, and crafts! I always get these coupons from Victoria's Secret, so it was a reason to make this girl's night a reality. We, of course, enjoy these little girl nights and when crafts are involved, for some reason we always get carried away and absolutely lose track of time, and life in general.

We started our evening with our favorite, SUSHI! We had a delicious dinner at Happy Sumo in Norcross, it's close to the forum, and it was just what the doctor ordered! I had my usual Bagel Roll, and their special Volcano Scallop Roll, and it was fabulous! And of course Yarden got her usual California Rolls as always (so predictable)!

After leaving Happy Sumo, we headed over to the Forum at Peachtree Corners for a little shopping. First stop was VS and I had some decisions to make, it wasn't too hard and I used my coupon for some more leggings! The PINK Leggings are the best, I absolutely love them! And luckily I hit it at the right time and get a PINK Dog with my purchase, that was perfect, cause not only was I getting something for me, but I also was able to get something for CHUNK!

Yarden had to stop at Barnes N Nobel for a book, but after that it was onto our crafting! YEAH! So I must start this with the fact that I am a very good and thorough researcher, part of me feels like I should have been a researcher. Anyway, when searching through Pinterest, I stumbled upon a crafting website I had never been before, and I was in a new craft heaven! This website is called Craft Gawker, and it's like Pinterest, but as you can tell by the name, it's just for crafts! So after stumbling upon this, I found a super cool, and fairly easy project for to work on for the evening.

Adorable leather bow bracelets! How fun are these?! Next stop Jo-Ann Fabrics... luckily they are open until 9PM! So the items we really needed to complete this project included.

  • Leather Scraps (you can use pleather if needed)
  • Button Snaps
  • Thread
  • Super Glue

Yarden had the thread and Super Glue at the house, so all we needed was the Leather Scraps and button snaps. Yarden and I each bought a bag of leather scraps, and shared our button snaps. You could do this project for $15 or less, and end up with 5 or more bracelets...

So you first start with the leather, cutting out an oval shape measuring about 8-8.5" in length and 4" wide at the middle. Depending on the size of your wrist you can adjust this up or down.

Prepare some thread to be able to wrap around the center, you'll need this once you have leather folded. It was nice having Yarden's help to hold the folded leather, but if you don't have help, you can always use a clip or rubber-band to hold it while you wrap the thread around the center.

After you have the center tied, you will need to sew your snaps on. First test it around your wrist and get an idea of where to best place each snap button. Notice, one snap should be on the front of one flap and the back of the opposite flap.

Once the snaps are attached, you'll want to cut out your rectangle strip to wrap around the center. Again test it out and see what thickness you like and make sure it's long enough to wrap all the way around before you do your final cuts and gluing. After you have your strip ready, you can glue it! I started with a dab of super glue in the center and stuck my bow down in the center and then added some additional glue to the strip as I wrapped it around the bow. Let it dry for a bit and viola! You now have an awesome bow bracelet that totally makes a statement and it doesn't take forever to do! We love crafts!

I made a few extras... I even did a Navy one with a chocolate-brown center strap! So cute! And lucky for those that comment on the post, you will be entered into a drawing to get one of these adorable bow bracelets compliments of Perdueosity! So be sure to comment!

The winners (yes we will be selecting two) will be drawn on January 25th, 2012, and we will contact those winners via email and mail them their bracelet!

I hope you enjoyed this post and I leave you with Chunk enjoying his new PINK dog! He's so cute!


Good Times with Good Friends: Skate Night and Wild Wing Cafe

This past weekend we went back to our childhood with some old school fun! We went to one of the local Skating Rinks for a fun night of skating with good friends! It's been about two years or so since Paul and I have been skating, and probably closer to 10 or more for some of our friends.

We went to Slapshot Family Skate Center in Cumming, GA. It had all those old school things you remember from your childhood skating rink...

It's definitely different then when we were kids. I guess as you get older you tend to have more fear, and a lot less balance! But thankfully once you get out there it's kind of like riding a bike again and you actually start to get into it! While I think we were all a little unsure about it at first, we ended up very happy with our decision to go skating, and I'm pretty certain everyone that went would be willing to go back again.

After we wore ourselves out skating we decided to head over to Wild Wing Cafe for some good eating and live music! The food is of course always great, but we were pleasantly surprised with how awesome the band was! It was the first time Roshambeaux had played at Wild Wing, and I am totally hoping they will come back cause they were amazing!

They played a mixture of everything from Collective Soul, a remixed (alternative style) of the Cupid Shuffle, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, John Cash, and their own stuff. Their style of music had a very bluesy feel, with various improvised moments from each member from guitar, bass and drum solos. We were thoroughly impressed and will definitely keep an eye on how they progress.

In any event, the evening was awesome. We had a great time with all our friends and I hope that we can plan an evening like this again soon!


My Virtual Makeover! It's Amazing What You Can Do!

So, I have decided I'm going to try to grow my hair out. I don't know what has gotten into me because I always have short hair! ALWAYS! And I think I look good with short hair, so it's not a bad thing, but the biggest challenge with having longer hair is growing it, and patience to wait for it to grow out!

Anyway, I decided to try out some new "do's" online! It's amazing what you can do on a computer. I searched around and found a fun Virtual Makeover site that actually does a pretty amazing job at making not only alternate hair styles look realistic, but also make-up! I went from a picture with no make-up or style to a gorgeous masterpiece! haha

You start by uploading a picture... and it gives specs. Then you mark areas of your face with dots to let the program know where things should be, etc. Then onto the make-up application!

First you start with foundation... And you can even choose the make-up you use by brand! Or maybe you want to try out a different make-up to see how it would look! I use Smashbox foundation, so I figured why not go with what I already have...

And then you move onto blush, eyes and lips... I noticed the biggest difference with the eye make-up! Very cool options for shadow application (one, two and,three color application) as well as eye liner with a very broad spectrum of colors!

You can even play with contacts... check me out with green eyes! Oh YEAH!

But for real, I was very pleased with the outcome! Check out the difference, I really look like I put on make-up and I was surprised how different and good I look with some extra makeup. I need to start wearing more eyeliner I think, and maybe curl those lashes!

Then on to hair... I am seriously going to try to grow my hair out, and I actually found something that I think I would actually look decent with! You can play with the dots to adjust the hair to fit your face better and you can play with color and everything!

For a digital makeover this wasn't bad! I'm going to plan for a Sophia Bush do! So check me out, hopefully in a year or so, if I can actually last long enough to grow it out... I could look like this! Oohhh La La!

Nothing a little vitamins, and curling couldn't work out... and if worse comes to worse I can try extensions! Hahaha Not really, but I will try to GROW IT OUT!

I couldn't finish this fun without some experiments with other options. This is when it gets fun! I don't think I would ever go for a dramatically different color, but it's fun to see what I could maybe look like!

If you want to do your own makeover check it out online for yourself HERE! This was so fun!!


The Bachelor is Back... and the Drama Begins!

I watched the Bachelorette with Ashley Hebert and have been watching the Bachelor and Bachelorette on and off for years! It's one of my meaningless pleasures. I don't watch too much reality TV, but this I do partake in!

So when Ashley didn't choose Ben I was definitely disappointed because while he seems to be like a best friend, he seem to be the kind of guy a girl should marry! I think in more cases than not, friendship should be the true bond of a relationship and everything else is a perk. Don't get me wrong, I do believe in sexual attraction and passion, but I think that only grows more over time with a true friend and will fade with someone that truly isn't a friend!

Anyway, I was very excited when Ben was going to be the next Bachelor! I think he is a good guy, and he seems down to earth and respectable, but this first episode left me wondering what the show will be about. It started out with a lot of drama! Which is to be expected, but I honestly feel like Ben has slim pickins when it comes to a quality lifelong love!

I will definitely be interested to see how things unfold and hope that it isn't a women's bitch fest while Ben is clueless in the background. I think that is how the sneak previews portray him. But I could be wrong which is of course why I will continue to watch it! Reality TV truly does have a way of making you think things are much more dramatic than they may be...

So these girls... making interesting impressions from the start. I just have one person to say bad things about... although I'm sure I could say more about others. I would rather make this about my favorites and hopefuls to be Ben's match!

So first we have Monica, I'm disappointed in this selection. She seems to be there to push people's buttons and to increase ratings. And I'm sure she will. But she does piss me off, I mean she is giving my name a bad name here! I think she is a little devil and she is just trying to play the game of screwing with people... not a fan. Now don't get me wrong, my friend Ashley and I (in college) thought it would be hilarious to be on a show like this just to cause trouble, cause who would ever really want to fight for one man among 25 other catty women! Not to mention knowing he is kissing and God knows what else with each of them. It's really kind of sad... but it's nice to dream that you can win the heart of someone... and it is certainly upsetting to know someone like this girl Monica is just there to screw with you and others! Not Cool! So hopefully Ben will figure this out and boot her!

Ok now onto my hopefuls! There aren't many because like I said I wasn't very excited about the options for him this time around! But here it goes...

My third runner up is: Brittney! She seems really sweet. Now it was a little odd that her Grandmother came with her, but in any case she still seems very sweet. So if she moves along I won't be upset!

Second runner up! Emily! I liked her cause she seems really down to earth and she totally rapped for him! And it wasn't just some rap, it was like this long elaborate rap and she totally pieced it together and had cool movement and everything! I really think she will add a little character and humor to the show and possibly Ben's life... here's hoping Ben will keep Emily around!

And my first choice......... drum roll please!? It is Jennifer! I don't know why, she seems cool and I just thought she is a likely choice for him. She didn't seem to be involved in drama, laying low but made a good impression! She would be my first choice if I was betting on who will be there in the end!

Well that was a lot of talk about a silly show, but I enjoy it so much... and hope these ladies make it to the end! I may continue to post about the show and what's going on as things progress... who knows... but consider this me placing my bet for these ladies!

I hope at least one of them makes it to the final three... we shall see!


Happy New Year!!! 2012 Is Already Looking to be a GREAT Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve and New Years Day 2012 with some great friends this year at Sheer Atlanta's NYE 2012 Celebration at Shout in Midtown Atlanta. Thanks to our good friend Matthew Levine, we got hooked up with a great party and Paul and Matt were able to "WOW" Jonathan Sheer and his guests with some awesome photos!

For a good part of the evening Paul and Matt were all over the place snapping shots, from the red carpet entrance to the party inside. Luckily I wasn't alone while they worked! We had a lot of great friends join us for the evening.

We rode down to Shout with our friends, Stephen, Frank and FUN Ron! Met up with Ashley Cash and her 30th Birthday Entourage (Shane, Susan, Kendra, Kendra's Husband, and Kim) and I was also joined by some new friends Gina and Kristy! What a fun party!

The evening started off with some red carpet shots... I missed out on this part... but it's all good, we got plenty of other photos elsewhere. I think I may have been chowing down on my New Years Eve dinner (Sushi Sushi Sushi! I love Sushi!).

As people started to file in, the party just continued to get better and better! This is by far one of my favorite New Year's Parties yet! Here we have the Birthday Girl and her hubby Shane, and the rest of us getting warmed up by beverages on the outside veranda!

Things just get better and better as everyone gets their drink on! Ashley's group chipped in on a cabana inside, and luckily it wasn't half the price they quoted her in advance. It was honestly pretty reasonable split among their group! Ashley definitely had what I would consider to be a great 30th birthday!

I was surprised how quickly midnight rolled around and I had to find Paul for our midnight kiss! Gina accompanied me downstairs to find him with no luck! I totally thought it was possible that I wouldn't get my New Year's kiss, but luckily Kristy found me and brought me to my man and we started our New Year off just right!

I got my New Years Kiss! YEAH!

We ended up closing down the bar... I was chilling by all the equipment when I heard the announcement for last call. I couldn't believe we were there ALL night!

After the guys packed everything up, we headed out and couldn't end the evening without the customary morning drunk meal so we stopped at the Georgia Dinner in Duluth, GA where I got Challah Bread French Toast with Crispy Bacon!!! It was amazing... YUMMMM!

We all had such an awesome time! Thank you to all our friends that celebrated with us, we are looking forward to an AWESOME 2012! Hope you all had a great NYE Celebration!!! Oh and Thank You Matthew for driving, that made the entire evening that much better!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


What Are You Doing New Years Eve??

Came across this and had to share! We love Zooey Deschanel, and Joe Gordon-Levitt is pretty cool too!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSq1cez_flQ]
 

What are you doing New Years Eve??


Gonna Get My First TOMS! Help Me Decide Which...

So, I've decided to treat myself to my first pair of TOMS, and I'm torn about which to get! PLEASE HELP!!!

I've been eying the cords for a while and would love those for the winter... but can't decide on color. And if that's the issue, I feel like I can't go wrong with grey... but it's in canvas! Of course a pattern could be fun too. What should I do?? Please let me know what you think!


Homemade Christmas Ornaments: Favors for Our Christmas Breakfast

I know this is a little late coming, but we wanted to post it anyway. Better late than never! As you may read in the previous post, we have an annual Christmas Breakfast, and what's a party without some memorable favors!

I'm a very crafty person and have always loved to be able to give friends and family something to remember when they leave a happy gathering such as the Christmas Breakfast! So this year, I found the idea for the Color Swirl ornaments, and they turned out great! Everyone was very excited to take one or more home with them!

What you need to make them:

  • Clear Glass Ball Ornaments (I got mine at Garden Ridge)
  • Acrylic Paints (an assortment of colors - I got a mix of shimmer/pearl paints as well as solid)
  • Ribbon (for hanging)
  • Card Stock Paper (for tags)

It takes some patience, but all you need to do is remove the metal tops, and pick a few colors you like together and drip the paint inside. Enough to coat about a quarter to a third of the ball going in, and then swirl it around. It also helps to add some water to the paints as they will swirl better, but not too much or you'll have to do multiple coats. Swirl the paint around inside the glass ornament until it is fully coated and then you can turn them upside down over a cup to drip excess paint out (make sure the lip is narrow enough that the ornament will stay at the top). If you don't allow it to drip, it will take a LONG time to dry! You'll want to let them sit for about 24 hours before you put the metal top/hook back in (it's ok if there is a little bit of wet paint in there still).

And repeat for all the ornaments! It's great for kids, or to do with a glass of wine and some good friends! I had the help of my friends Desi and Elaine, and we knocked out 36 ornaments in no time! And they were a hit at the Christmas Breakfast!

Check these beautiful ornaments out! This isn't anywhere close to all of them, and we had some gorgeous ones that got snatched quick!

Can't wait for next year, I'm already thinking of ideas for favors! The ornament idea is always nice and people can start to collect them over the years, but I also saw something cool that could be used all winter long! We shall see... I'm sure I'll be collecting ideas throughout the year!


Christmas Breakfast Went Off Without a Hitch!

Paul and I have been celebrating the Christmas Holiday with our friends and family for three years now, and this year was by far the biggest! We had more people and more food than ever before (over 30 mouths to feed)!

I'm honestly not sure how the Christmas Breakfast tradition got started, I think it may have started as a friend gift exchange where we decided to include breakfast and then slowly but surely it grew bigger and better each year! I remember the first year we did it, the stove only had one eye that was working and we were miracle workers getting everything knocked out.

This year we had a mix of new and old friends as well as family! And it certainly went off without a hitch! Check out some pics from the festivities!

We had a total of 10 different breakfast casseroles! A mix of different egg casseroles, a couple hashbrown casseroles and a couple Apple Cinnamon French Toast Casseroles, not to mention all the other great fixing like bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, corn-beef hash, our favorite cheesy grits, fruit, and mimosa for everyone!

We all enjoyed the great food and the happy Christmas cheer and atmosphere. And of course the Christmas Breakfast wasn't complete without the White Elephant game! Luckily this year people were nice and didn't steal too much, and everyone seemingly left satisfied!

What a fun day we had! All of our friends and family got to take home some homemade ornaments, compliments of Desi, Elaine and myself! Everyone was excited about that!

After everyone left, Paul and I totally crashed! But all the work that went into this Christmas Breakfast was well worth it! Thank you to all of those who came and we look forward to another gathering next year! Merry Christmas EVERYONE!