Thanks a Latte

My favorite kind of shopping is sipping and shopping. Give me a latte, wine, beer, lemonade, punch, whatever, and let me shop. I had some fun a couple weeks back at one of my favorite stores on earth, Thanks a Latte in Holly Springs. It's owned by the most adorable family, is also a coffee shop (reminding me of my childhood days at 21 Union Street and Smelly Cat in Concord), makes the meanest pumpkin chai latte and has all of my favorite gift brands under one roof - Kate Spade, Half United, Thimblepress, Rewined, Rifle Paper, Ban.do, Emily Ley, etc. Two weeks ago they held their second annual holiday bash, and it was all levels of merry and bright. 

All of that was in the swag bags! From the cutest 'I love you to the fridge and back' towel to a Rifle Paper card and Barr & Co. soap, I could not have been happier. I even won a gold sparkly ornament from one of their 28 drawings. My SIL Amy and I held it down from open to close, and I'm pretty sure we'll both be there for the third annual. If you live in the area, Thanks a Latte is where it's at / worth the trip.

Local Happs

Hank and I tried a new restaurant in town, Full Moon Oyster Bar in Morrisville. Some nights you want to belly up to a bar for a chill meal, and this is the place to do just that. Why? The entire restaurant is bar after bar after bar - no tables. Oysters and bubbly, please!

Bentley attended his fourth Down by the Tracks at Seabord Station in Raleigh. It's always a fun block party filled with food trucks (pumpkin pie milkshakes!), beer, bands and all that jazz. Bentley and I won the 'Best in Selfie' contest thanks to sweet people who gave us a little likety like. Bentley even got to bring a friend - his cousin Lennox - so he was all levels of doggon' happy. 

Mom and I celebrated her birthday early at cooking school at Southern Season in Chapel Hill for brunch with Chef Sara Moulton. We enjoyed smoked salmon on crispy potato pancakes with horseradish cream and picked onions as our first course. Then we had a delicious breakfast casserole dubbed toad in the hole Italiano. The last savory dish was an arugula salad with aged Gouda, pecan praline and mustard vinaigrette. We finished the meal with chocolate stuffed French toast with raspberry sauce. There were two wine pairings, and my favorite was the red, Meinklang. 

I give each of these happs two thumbs up. Highly recommend taking your dog to DBTT next year, and a cooking class at Southern Season makes a great gift.

Rock the Vote

Hank and I voted it out before work this morning. There were actual candidates on the ballot there to greet us outside of our polling place - what a welcome. And the sticker... Always a treat. Two thumbs up for excerising our right to vote today.

Halloweekend

I had some fun costuming at work for Halloween. May and I were pineapples. I made the headpieces from this Studio DIY tutorial, and I was pretty much obsessed with our 'get up' all day long.

We co-captained our work's holiday committee and had some fun setting up this candy bar for our coworkers.

We even made my favorite punch dubbed 'witches' brew' (sans cherries) when it's Halloween otherwise known as 'grinch punch' for Christmas. Recipe is Paula Deen's Lime Sherbet Punch. So easy: Ingredients 2 quarts lime sherbet, 2 liters ginger ale, 1 (46 oz) can pineapple juice, slices of one orange and one lime for decoration. Directions In a punch bowl, add 2 quarts of lime sherbet. Then add ginger ale and pineapple juice. Decorate with lemon and lime slices (and some maraschino cherries instead of the orange at Christmas time). 

Witches' brew was served in the below cutest witch cups by Meri Meri. The Land of Nod carries Meri Meri's holiday line, and they truly have the most adorable holiday party decs. I wiped out their entire New Year's Eve line last year, and if you're looking for photo booth props, theirs rock (their new year's party props may have already hit my Christmas wish list). 

May and I won most hilarious. Yay!

After work it was off to the lake where I ate candy by night and watched Hocus Pocus.

Hank, my Dad and I spent Saturday morning in Charlotte. We grabbed lattes at Amelie's, made a stop at NoDa Brewing for a special release beer, chowed down on tacos at Cabo Fish Taco and shopped it out at one of my favorites, Blacklion. 

We spent the evening at a neighborhood chicken stew on the prettiest backdrop, fall at the lake.

On Sunday, we left with some of this most wonderful curry chicken salad with cranberries masterpiece my mom created via Southern Living. 

October came and went; the weekend came and went; whew, time flies. Live it up, people. I just shipped out my first Winedeer of the season so I'm just saying, if you want some, come get some. He'll look fab on your bar cart. Happy Week!

Mummies and More

Last night I came home to a surprise in the mail which is always delightful. My Aunt Kimmie painted this ceramic mummy and shipped him to me all the way from New York. He arrived just in time for Halloween and pairs perfectly with my witch. Note: Take time to randomly send someone something nice in the mail - it's the best feeling to receive something unexpected and know a sweet person was thinking about you.

I spent the evening 'skulpting' my signature skelly trophies for our costume contest at work tomorrow. Best in Show definitely deserves gold glitter. These are broken down and reconstructed from Dollar Tree garland then spray painted, embellished and placed atop dominoes. {Tags by May of All She Wrote Notes.}

Tonight I finally carved my pumpkin. Hank cut the lid (with a knotch of course!) and cleaned out all of the guts for me. I went with a goofy fella' and that's that.

Tomorrow it's all about hopping into costume, candy and watching Hocus Pocus and maybe some pumpkin spice s'mores (traditional s'mores but with pumpkin spice marshmellows by Jet Puffed - I found mine at Wal-Mart). 

Happy All Hallows' Eve EVE.