Happy Friday!

Hey there!  It's finally Friday!  I'll leave you with a picture from last summer from D's and my trip to Croatia.  If you have never been - you really should go!  We spent some time in Dubrovnik, which is a gorgeous Medieval town on the Adriatic Sea.  It's extremely picturesque and calm.  While, it is also a European tourist hub, it's definitely a place worth seeing.  The city is full of history and is beautiful itself.  I will say, you need to be in decent shape though because the entire town is full of steps and there are no elevators!  There are a few hidden bars in the walls of the city which overlook the ocean.  Plus there are some gorgeous islands surrounding the city that are perfect for relaxing.  This shot was taken from the island of Kolocep.  The pink boat is what we used to island hop for the day.  If you're interested in the tour we took, send me an email and I will send you the tour company.

Have a great weekend!

Juice to Health

So with celebrating my birthday for 3 days straight, I was feeling a little sluggish on Sunday.  I decided that it was time for a quick cleanse.  I've done a few in the past but wasn't 100% satisfied with the ones I had done previously.  I popped by Roots Juices in Buckhead to pick up 2 days worth of cleansing juices.  This was my first time to this juice shop and it was a great experience!  The shop is small, but they don't need a huge space.  There is a bar right in the middle with a cooler behind with all of the juices they offer.  On your left is a wall with all of the juices, descriptions of the juices and of course the cleanse options and prices.

So to get started the girl working at the juice bar asked what I was interested in, how long and what my experience with cleanses was.  We decided the intermediate version was best since I had previous experience with cleanses but the advanced was too much greens for my taste.  So next step was to taste the juices to make sure I'd be able to stomach them.  Success, most of them were good, but I will admit there was one that tasted more green than I would have liked.  The store numbers your juices so you know when to drink them and gives you instructions so you know what to do.  They even pack the juices up in a nifty reusable bag.  So now onto the good stuff - the actual cleanse.

Day 1:

First juice of the day was Skin Glow, which contains apple, spinach, celery and lemon.  The juice tasted alright, but I apparently didn't shake it well enough because it only tasted like celery until I was halfway finished.  About 2 hours later, I started on the second juice, Cold Kicker.  The Cold Kicker is a juice of orange, green apple, kale and lime.  This was definitely tastier than the first juice.  It went down easy and tasted great.  Another 2 1/2 hours later I went on to the third juice, Hydrate.  This one was cucumber, lime, mint, apple and ginger, tasty but had a strong cucumber flavor. By 4:30 pm, I was ready for the fourth juice, Heart Health.  I won't lie, I was excited to drink something that wasn't green.  This juice contains carrot, cucumber, celery, tomato, apple and cilantro.  I never tasted the cilantro, which was something I was nervous about.  The carrot and apple flavors were the strongest in the juice, which was much appreciated.  After the fourth juice, I went onto the aloe water, which honestly tasted like regular water only somehow more refreshing than normal water.  About an hour after the water, it was time for the juice I was most dreading - the Green Goddess.  This is a true green drink - kale, apple, spinach, celery and cucumber.  It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, so that was a pleasant surprise.  I had previously done the Dr Oz 3-Day Detox Cleanse which included a green drink similar to this one but I had to choke it down, which definitely was not the case with this juice.  After the green juice, I went onto the Chlorophyll h20.  This one also tasted just like a regular water, just the color kept throwing me off.  The final drink of the day, and the best one in my opinion, was the Health Nut which I opened up around 8 pm.  Seriously, this drink is amazing!  It's like a healthy dessert - which I always told myself did not exist.  The juice is almonds, dates, vanilla bean, sea salt and filtered water.  I was looking forward to this drink the entire day.

Thoughts on Day 1:

For one, I wasn't starving all day, which sometimes can occur while doing these cleanses.  The juices were flavorful and buying pre-made juice was much more convenient than waking up even earlier than I already get up in order to blend up some juice.  I felt good all day and unlike many Mondays, I didn't feel tired later on in the afternoon, which is always a good thing.  Also, I didn't go to sleep hungry which is even better!  I even slept harder than usual, it was almost tough for me to get out of bed on Tuesday.

Day 2:

Started the same way as day one, with the Skin Glow juice.  No issues, the juice tasted good enough.  Around 8:30 am I had my second juice, Cold Kicker.  This one still was pretty good, I had no issues with it.  The lime flavor was a little stronger than I remembered from the first day, but I don't mind citrus flavors so that was OK with me.  Around lunch time I started on Hydrate, which today was a little tougher to drink than the day before.  For some reason the cucumber was extra strong this time, which was reminding me slightly of the awful green smoothie from the Dr Oz 3-Day Detox Cleanse 
that I hated.  So I choked it down and followed up with water.  I mixed it up a little bit today and went for the Aloe Water next.  This barely has a flavor so it's basically like drinking water.  Around 4, I went for the fourth juice, the Heart Health.  This one is a completely different flavor than the other juices which makes it much easier to drink.  Still feeling good and not hungry yet, so that makes me happy.  The next juice was around 6, which was the fifth juice - the Green Goddess.  Somehow, today this juice wasn't as hard to drink as it was yesterday.  It doesn't taste bad, it just tastes like you took a bunch of green veggies and made a juice out of them.  After I finished that juice I went for the Chlorophyll Water.  Like the Aloe Water, the Chlorophyll Water tastes like water with just s slight flavor but nothing that you can really pinpoint.  Around 8:30, it was time for the last juice of the day, and my favorite one, the Health Nut.  This one is seriously so good!  It tastes like dessert!

Thoughts on Day 2:

Today wasn't bad at all.  In the morning, when I first woke up I felt a little hungry but once I drank the first juice I felt much better and the hunger feelings went away.  I never had an issue with feeling hungry all day, which is a worry about drinking nothing but juice all day.  The juices for the most part are tasty.  And the ones I wasn't really fond of, didn't really taste bad, they just were too strong in some flavors I'm not so fond of.  It definitely does not feel like a punishment after 2 days, and maybe next time I could do 3 days.


Overall Thoughts:

On the third day when I woke up, I had lost 6 pounds and felt great. No tiredness and I didn't even feel hungry.  My goal of the cleanse was to detox from a weekend of drinking and eating too much and I definitely think that the cleanse did what i needed it to.  I felt much better, as if I had spent the weekend eating healthy and working out rather than the reality.  I don't think I could ever keep the cleanse going for a week, but for 2 days it was not bad at all.  I'd do it again. 

Fashion, Smashion

As Regina George said, “On Wednesdays we wear pink.”  But for real, for this first outfit post I’m going to show you what I wore this past weekend to celebrate my birthday.  For better or worse, part of this blog means putting myself out there, so here I go!  

For Friday night, D took me to Capital Grille to celebrate classy!  Capital Grille is one of those classy places that never goes out of style, even with all of the new trendy steak houses opening all over town.  It also has a lot of importance in our relationship - we have celebrated some of the most important events of our relationship there.  For instance, our first year anniversary of dating was celebrated there, along with our engagement, which is a great story that I may need to tell you at a later time.  So back to this previous Friday... It was starting to cool off slightly, so I opted to wear a light jacket over my dress to keep me warm - which was a good idea since the air conditioning in the restaurant was pumping! The dress is Aqua from Bloomies.  I bought it last fall and it is the perfect dress when you want to get dolled up but don't need anything fancy.  The jacket is an oldie from Anthropologie but comes in handy so much!  The shoes are Steve Madden, and truth be told are not the most comfortable and were bought last year, but they always offer them.  The purse is a Hobo International clutch and is great since it has a strap that goes around your wrist.

On Friday night D was looking very Joseph Gordon-Levitt like.  He wore a purple striped button shirt from Express.  With that he wore a black Kennith Cole tie tucked into a charcoal vest from the Top Shop department at Nordstrom.  His watch is a G Shock, that he got during the fall preview sale at Nordstrom.  D's jeans are 7 For All Mankind bootleg.  His shoes are grey Sperry oxfords with yellow soles.

On Saturday night, we went to dinner with some friends at a local sushi/tapas restaurant (which I will review later) and then on to a fun filled night of Karaoke!  Here in Atlanta, we have multiple options for Korean Karaoke bars.  If you have never been, I highly recommend it for an awesomely hilarious evening with your pals!  For these style karaoke bars, you get your own personal room with your own remote that you can pick your songs from.  The location we go to shows hilarious music videos that have nothing to do with the song you're singing but add to the hilarity factor.  Since it was a pretty chill night, I opted for a classic black peplum top and jeans and threw in pops of color with my accessories.

 The top is from H&M last fall.  The jeans are older bootcut "A" pocket 7 For All Mankind jeans.  The shoes are Report wedges in purple.  They are seriously some of the most comfortable high heels out there and due to the wedge are easy to walk in.  The bag is a purple Michael Kors cross body bag that was from 2 seasons ago.  My watch is also Michael Kors from last fall.  My cocktail ring and purple bracelets are from the boutique Luna, which I think are only located in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland.  If you do live near one, I highly recommend you check them out.

Also, I had my hair done at a new local blow dry bar called Glow Dry.  I'll review them later on, but a hint that it is a great place and will really give Drybar a run for their money!  Do you get all dolled up to celebrate your birthday also?

Welcome!

Welcome to my new place!  Please, wipe your shoes off before entering, just kidding!  This is my first venture out into the World Wide Web and I’ll be posting about all my favorites here.  I love fashion, art, decorating, food, travel and my absolute favorite of all, my dog Riley.

Since this is my first post, how about I tell you a little bit about me?  I’m currently living in Atlanta, the Hollywood of the South, or at least that’s what the local news keeps calling it so I’ll go with it.  My favorite color is orange. Now don’t get all crazy about this – it’s not the traffic cone orange color, but more of a peachy orange.  I love cheesy 80s music, boy bands and any other music I should be embarrassed to listen to.  My favorite nighttime activity is karaoke, but then again whose isn’t?  I can never say no to cookies, especially if they’re chocolate chip!  I am a college football fan – but only if the FSU Seminoles or Georgia Dawgs are playing.  In June 2010 I married my best friend, we’ll call him D, that’s what all of his friends call him.  Lastly, as I mentioned before, we have a dog, Riley, whom we adopted July 4, 2007.  She’s a rescue dog, and we believe she is one of the cutest dogs around.  She’s a mutt, which is definitely the best type of dog, in my opinion.  

So now that you know a little about me, you must be wondering what is the point of all of this?  Well, a lot of my friends are always asking me for restaurant suggestions, fashion questions, what is going on this weekend, etc., so I figured I would put it all in one place for everyone to enjoy.  I’m going to tell you all about the outfits I’m loving that week, the food I’m eating, what’s going on, and of course where to go that weekend. It will be fun, I swear! If there’s ever anything in particular you want to read about you can leave a comment here or email me at the weekendwishlist{at}gmail{dot}com.  

me on the Great Wall in China!