Living

I’ve been wanting to go to Asheville forever. Last fall we had a reservation to visit during one of the peak weekends, and unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t want to play nice and it rained the weekend we were set to go.  If you don’t know anything about Asheville, know the rooms don’t come cheap, especially in the fall. In lieu of wasting what would equal a month’s worth of groceries around here, we decided to postpone the trip and reschedule for another time when we could fully enjoy the city. Fast forward to last weekend, we decided an Expedia deal and our upcoming 13th anniversary made for a great opportunity to go on a quick weekend getaway.

You know how you have an idea in your head of how you think a place would be? Well, Asheville was totally different from what I expected but I loved our weekend getaway there nonetheless. My love for little kitschy boutiques is borderline obsessive and Asheville didn’t disappoint. Adrian was even cooperative, every store I ventured in he took a seat and waited. Giving his honest feedback on items I tried on while watching football on his phone.

We passed on visiting the Biltmore as neither of us was really pressed to visit, and when we discovered the tab for both of us to just get on the grounds was going to be $140 we decided to postpone that part for another time.

Asheville is definitely a foodie town and even when we weren’t hungry we felt like we should eat. So we did. Our first stop for lunch was at Village Wayside. The tagline was, “Slightly dysfunctional people pleasers,” I vibed with it. Situated on a railroad track, it had grape kool-aid on the menu and was soundtracked by old Motown tunes.

Yes.Please.

Adrian has this thing about barbecue. I don’t get it, but he dug out his phone and located a well-recommended joint called Buxton Hall. Barbecue is aight, I’m not a huge fan so I had a fried catfish sandwich and Adrian had typical barbecue fare. Cheerwine is apparently big there, so I had a Bourbon & Cheerwine slushie. Let’s just say your girl was feeling good after that slushie, and if you ever go there make sure you get one. Since we were eating all of the things I finished off my dinner with a Black-Bottom Banana Pudding Pie.

We stayed at the Residences at Biltmore and I couldn’t recommend this place enough. It’s a different concept, people buy condos in the buildings, but it is run like a hotel. It was the cutest little spot.

Saturday morning, we were up and trying to move before 8a, on our getting old ish! Checkout wasn’t until 11 so we forced ourselves to chill. When we finally got out and moving we ventured off the touristy, beaten path and slid into a cute and quaint little doughnut shop that I found on Pinterest.

Hole, was just that. It was literally a little “hole” in the wall doughnut and coffee shop with a line out of the door. It wouldn’t pay me any good to be a neighbor to this place. They’d know me like a Cheers situation, and I’d weep on Tuesdays, when they are closed.

SO. GOOD.

They make your doughnuts when you order them, then it takes just enough time for you to start staring at folks eating theirs, and tapping your feet in anticipation before it’s your turn. They call you by name to see where you are in the rather small establishment and walk over, with a smile  I might add to hand you a very hot doughnut. We were lucky and found a seat, but others had to stand. Favor ain’t fair.

When I say hot, think of a hot chicken wing straight out of the grease, hot. I may or may not have burned my tongue after the lady told me to let them cool. Whatever. We enjoyed our doughnuts and coffee before throwing the peace sign and moving on to our next adventure.

I love graffiti walls for some reason, so I pulled out old trusty Pinterest to look for the hotspots. We found many in the River Arts District, which they call (RAD) for good reason. Lots of street art and murals along with showrooms of local artisans. I didn’t really get any photos because sometimes you have to just live in the moment. The people there seemed so free, if you’ve ever been to Austin, that was the vibe but a little more hippy to me. Quite an eclectic mix of people and things. I was digging it.

We left there and headed out to the Asheville outlets. I had already done my homework and knew they had a few outlet stores that we don’t have like a Restoration Hardware and West Elm. Bruh! My intuition is mostly right and I nailed one h*ll of a deal on a little sofa for my mom cave (update on that coming soon unless you follow me on IG stories!) The sofa was the end piece of a sectional that was marked down from $750 to $99.97, AND some pendant lights for the kitchen that were normally priced at $140, had been marked down to $70 with an additional 50% off. Do the math, that was $35 per pendant.

Sis, no typo!

I grabbed a pair of sneakers and a dress from Gap before we rounded back to West Elm to gather up our steals and put our loot in the car and by put, I mean stuffed. We headed back to Atlanta feeling good, feeling great!

Growing up, my parents took me on lots of little weekend getaways and I fondly remember those moments. I ‘m looking forward to more small weekend getaways with the kids. We’re heading to the beach in a few weeks and I might be more excited than the kids for the opportunity to get out of town again.

I managed to gather a few video clips to put together a short vlog of the weekend, it’s my effort towards bringing them back on a regular basis! Hope you enjoy.

Where are some of your favorite weekend getaways? I’m making a list of places to visit and would love your input!

This post was sponsored by Wendy’s as part of an Ambassador Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own

Working at home definitely has it’s perks. However, one of the things I’ve discovered is I am now less likely to spend time outside of the house during the week unless I’m schlepping my kids around or running errands. My day can easily turn into a mash up of my professional and personal life if I don’t intentionally make an effort to get out of the house. Stepping out to grab lunch solo, or with my husband, who also works at home often serves as a way for me to get some air and mix in a little lunch date.

As to not get my mind completely out of work mode, I tend to keep my afternoon excursions close to home so I can get back and finish my day in time to get the kids off to their activities starting at 4p. Wendy’s is one of the establishments I head to for something quick. The location near my house is literally around the corner, and has been recently remodeled. Depending on what’s going on at work,  I’ll either sit in and use their WiFi and make it a working lunch, or I’ll take my order to go. My quick go to lunch, usually consists of cutting up a six piece chicken nugget over a side salad, and adding in a cookie for a little  sweet afternoon pick me up.

Most days fresh air really does something great for my mood. I’ve recently been diagnosed with low Vitamin D so a little sunshine is always a good thing. Setting  a work life balance really takes intention when you work at home, and something as simple as getting out to have lunch or run an errand can help break the monotony of your week.

I have a list of places I frequent to change things up when I start to get restless, I’ll continue to share some of my favorite places to work from when I’m tired of being in the house. Stay tuned for more in this series of me transitioning back into full time, work at home life!

I started this blog as a means to connect with the outside world when I found myself being a SAHM, something I never saw on the radar for my life. However, there I was, at home with two small children feeling a sense of loss and trying to fit into my new life. One of my best friends, Erika (you might know her) was in the beginning stages of building her interior design business and mentioned she was starting a blog.

What’s a blog? After her explanation, I decided I wanted one too. On August 10, 2010 I hit publish on my first post and eight years later, through a brand change and all, I’m still here.

When I started in this game, the love and connection was genuine, and there was little money to be made. I met mothers all across the world that I’ve laughed, rejoiced and cried with over the years. I’ve nursed a sleeping baby while pecking comments with my free hand during late night/early morning feedings. I’d be remiss to not say, I’m not sure where my life would be had I not discovered this community on a crash course with Blogger one night in 2010.

Over the years, this platform has afforded me graphic design, back end coding and all sorts of technical skills I never went to school for. I’ve learned the intricacies of social media and what it takes to build a connected audience by just being genuine. It’s allowed me to stay home with my kids during their formative years while earning an income. There was no mistake that I stumbled into creating and building via this little space on the web.

The game has changed, and I’ve decided not to play it by inauthentic rules. I tried it for awhile, and realized I came through when we valued what this space meant. It was (and still is for the most part) a place for women to connect in whatever stage life has them in.  I wonder if people starting in the game now, wanting us to covet their expertise and  beauty and travels and fashion while portraying their “perfect lives” and “perfect homes” and “perfect everything” for likes and opportunity really understand that the underbelly of this thing is powerful when you use it to connect and inspire folks by just being you.

Will I continue? Absolutely, so much of my personal growth has been documented here.

My outwardly struggles to make peace with my purpose, buying our forever home, the chronicles of trying to build a business, and my children’s milestones amongst a gamut of fashion, food and life posts all live here. They are documented and stamped in history, embellished by written words and photos that were my life at the time.

In essence I chronicled my raw, uncut life without really trying, and in the process connected with people I will cherish until I leave this earth. No perfect Instagram feed, or earnings will ever make up for that. So, I will continue to come here, albeit not as often as I used to, but often enough to make an attempt at bringing back the essence of why I started this place eight years ago today.

Simply put I want to connect, inspire and be inspired by you.

Thank you for continuing to come here, thank you for connecting with me, and thank you for allowing me to be me all of these years. Last year, I did a post outlining some of the milestones I’ve shared over the years, complete with photos and links to the special moments. You can find that post here!

As for the future of this space? Before, there was a plan about how I had to have these pictures and post this many times. I’m throwing caution to the wind and just being me moving forward. As my girl MJ put it, I’m putting the blinders on and doing what feels right to me, and not what is poppin’ in these blog streets. I can’t worry about the next person, I’ll do what comes natural, and that is mind my business.

I hope brands value my authenticity, and I will continue to only work with brands that matter to me, which in turn I hope matter to you.

All I can hope is that you continue to support, and share this space with your respective communities in anticipation that it continues to grow in an authentic manner. We all have a voice, and experiences to share, this is the medium I’ve chosen.

Again thank you for your support. Cheers to another year!