Lauren's Bachelorette Party at Lips!

Saturday was Lauren's Bachelorette Party and little did we know that this past weekend was also Pride Weekend in Atlanta!  We celebrated with the fabulous Mr. Charlie Brown and the lovely ladies at Lips!  You know me - I love me some Lips so I was super excited when Lauren suggested it for her party :)
Please excuse the horrible iPhone photos - I forgot to bring my little point-and-shoot.  It was a rough week, y'all :(


My new beauty inspiration: the super gorgeous Violet Chachki


Lauren and the legendary Mr. Charlie Brown!

 

We had such a blast!!  The night was full of dancing, singing (my favorite was a super sexy performance of Drunk In Love) and drinks galore!  Everyone had so much fun and I'm so glad Lauren enjoyed her night!
With all the Bachelorette fun, we didn't experience any Pride festivities :(  Oh well.  Maybe next year?

How was your weekend?

Maid of Honor Duty: Crashing President Snow's House!

Saturday, I felt like I did some hardcore Maid of Honor stuff: I got to attend the dress fitting with Lauren and her Mom!!  It was awesome!  The dress is gorgeous and I can't share it right now (for obvious reasons!) but I want to so bad!  It's gorgeous!!  :D

As a treat, Lauren's Mom treated us to lunch at the Swan Coach House.  It was definitely an experience for me!  I wanted to take photos of the dining space but I thought that would be in bad taste, so I kept my phone locked in my purse (for the most part).  The fun part came after dessert when we went to check out the Swan House grounds.

You might remember the Swan House from a little movie called The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  That's right - the Swan House was used as President Snow's house for the film so it was only natural that we tour the grounds, right?!  Luckily for us, they were having an open house, which meant we could enter...FOR FREE!!!  What a pleasant surprise!  Too bad we weren't expecting it or else I would've had my Nikon at the ready for photos galore!  Instead, we used up what little iPhone battery power we had left to take as many photos as possible!

The Swan House was like a mix between the Henry B. Plant Museum and The Biltmore.  I definitely need to go back with the old man so we can take proper photos.

Later on, Lauren, Chandler and I played the craziest game in existence: Dicecapades!  Arm wrestling, push-ups, sit-ups, drawing, math problems...you name it, it's in there!  It's definitely a lot of fun but after a few cocktails, the last thing you want to do is a math problem!

How was your weekend?

Check out my best Victor's pose here!
Check out Lauren's photos here!

Happy Monday!

#SAVEWRAS

If you're from Atlanta, you're familiar with WRAS 88.5 - the 100k watt student voice of Georgia State. Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) is trying to take that away from us.

Last night, I attended the #savewras benefit show - which was a last-minute thing...with a HUGE turnout and I was so happy to see so many people there to support their local community.  Selfishly, I went for support and to see my friends, Book of Colors, play and they killed it, as always!  

The Q&A session at the beginning of the night was pretty informative but you can get more details concerning the GBP takeover here.

I think it's important that we keep the student voice alive.  I have so many great memories with WRAS and I'm hoping more kids get to make and keep great memories with them, too.  Without WRAS, I never would've discovered so many of the bands I know and love today and it's always a joy to hear my friends' music on the radio.
I remember one of their Friday night rave shows (can't remember the name but maybe it was the early days of Subterranean?) and my sister recorded one in particular (to cassette) of Supa MC TC Islam in the studio for 2 hours and it was the greatest cassette tape in my collection (besides all The Number Ones stuff, of course!) and we try to listen to Subterranean whenever we can - at least I know I do!  Fridays are the best because I get to relive my teenage years with I Don't Care - their weekly punk rock show - and they have so many other great programs that it would be a shame to lose them!

Ways you can take action:
SIGN THE PETITION
Make some phone calls
Use the hashtag



Happy Friday, everyone!
Tune in to I Don't Care at 4PM EST!!

Instant Adventures #5

I think I might've went a little crazy with J, my "man muse", apparently.  What are ya gonna do?  #sorrynotsorry

1: J's secret love letter (to someone else)
2: Trapping J in a mime box
3: I've got lightning bolts coming out of my hands!
4: My lightning bolts appear to have trapped J
5: My wall o' J.  I was feeling very street photographer-y yesterday and I think it was because J was wearing a pretty nice outfit.  Naturally, I had to take lots of shots.
6 - 8: Cotton Mill Lofts
9: Atlanta

Hope you're having an awesome Saturday!

Instant Adventures #2

1, 2 and 4: Cemetery in Decatur
3. One of the Living Walls installations.  It says "Never give up".  I'd like to get instants of all the Living Walls walls!  Check out the artist, Eme, here and here!
5-6: Barns in Alpharetta

We were supposed to head up north to Helen, GA this weekend but the rain put a damper (heeeyyyyooo) on that...so instead, we explored the delights of Kirkwood and Decatur.
Yes, the old man and I went down to have some Vegan treats at Dulce Vegan and check out what Kirkwood had to offer and while we were waiting for Burnt Fork to open (for some delicious BBQ treats - yes, even Vegan ones!), we did some urban exploring at the cemetery.

I had to throw that Hipsta shot in there because I was so happy that my Hipstamatic app was cooperating with me on Saturday!  The same could not be said about Sunday's adventures but once I got it to cooperate long enough, I got some neat shots of a barn that my old man and I found.

 

This weekend was full of LOTS of adventures!  How was yours?

Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt 2014 - City Explorer's Kit

As I'm typing this, I'm exporting the video portion for the Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt!  I'm so excited about the cute little minute-long video I made just for this project!  I thought it would be appropriate since I'm a video editor / motion graphics artist, after all...I can't share it just yet but I will be uploading it to my YouTube channel for those of you who are interested in seeing it (besides my pen pal!)

Yesterday, I gathered the most important items for the City Explorer's Kit.  Check it out:



Chandler was very generous with the Batdorf and Bronson goodies (there is another sticker that's not pictured), I went by Only You Tattoo and picked up some post cards, business cards and stickers (some of those are missing from this photo as well), Chandler also went by Octane yesterday and picked us up a couple of cappuccinos - I had an extra cup to share (hooray!), I'm spreading the Fresh+i+Am love by parting with a Roxie sticker and finally, I went by The Varsity (the one by me) and picked up a paper hat!  Very Atlanta.

I hope my pen pal likes it!  I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to assemble everything.  The cup is throwing me off with the City Explorer's Kit right now and I think I might bundle the Batdorf & Bronson pen with the Writing Kit.  Hmmm....decisions, decisions...

How's your Monday going?

How about some coffee?

After our coffee adventure a few weeks ago, I was inspired to make a "Patterns"-related video to contribute to hitRECord and it's based on the everyday pattern most people experience: wake up, get coffee and go on about their day - but I added a bit extra with the footage of the beans roasting because it's such a neat process.  I have way more footage (of course) but I couldn't put it all in the clip below.  I want to make an much longer documentary where I can showcase more of Chandler and his amazing roasting and barista skills but I think I need to plan that one out a little more than this quick little one.  Once I get more done on the preproduction end, I'm hoping I'll be able to get that process going.

I had so much fun putting this video together!  While I was filming and editing, it reminded me why I want to keep doing what I do.  I felt really accomplished when I came up with this concept and was able to execute it rather quickly and it turned out exactly the way I wanted!  I'm feeling a bit of a creative boost and I'm hoping it doesn't stop!

I hope you all enjoy my video!




Happy Monday!

Wavves!!

Yesterday was quite possibly the weirdest day ever.
It started with my mandatory reporting for Jury Duty.  When I got the original jury summons last October, I had to have it rescheduled because of Cassie and Mark's wedding.  The rescheduled date wasn't a problem until we had to reschedule a mandatory software training at work in January.  I reported for that date but I informed the staff that I had mandatory training at work but I showed up because of the reschedule.  They told me I could reschedule again but I HAD to report or else!  Just kidding - but I really did have to report or else I would've been in trouble (apparently).
Lo and behold - my jury duty was scheduled the same day as Wavves!  So I made a day of it in the city.
I had anticipated being at the courthouse all day but I was luckily let go at lunch time so I rolled around Atlanta - stopping at Cameli's for pizza, killing time at UO (getting a wardrobe update for that night and good thing I did because it was hot!) and meeting up with Michael for some coffee talk



And then it came time to hang until showtime.  I settled in to the parking lot of Book House until they opened (getting my eyebrows wrangled next door) and once the doors opened, I planted myself at the bar and had a few dark and stormies.  Lauren was kind enough to meet me once she got off work and I entertained myself by talking to this guy who had his California driver's license on the bar.  I asked him where in Cali he was from and he told me that he was actually from Hawaii and we started talking about island living and all that fun stuff and I honestly had no idea it was the lead singer of FIDLAR that I was talking to.  WHAT



So - that was crazy.  FIDLAR was AMAZING.  So were the Cheatahs.  I wish I had more cash so I could've bought CDs from each but I spent most of my cash on booze and some Wavves goodies.

Wavves was INCREDIBLE.  The energy was so much better than last time, I have to admit.  Last time was awesome, don't get me wrong but this time was even more awesome because this happened



I was able to get way better photos than last time (despite having to crop out some guy's ridiculously large and obtrusive afro - which you can see here) and overall, it was just fucking awesome!!  I mean, we all know how much I LOVE Afraid of Heights and experiencing those songs live was pretty amazing.

I also ran into my most FAVE BLOGGER EVER - Matt T.  He let me know they were hitting up the Clermont - which you can read about here.  I kinda wish I had stayed but I was really exhausted since I got up so freakin early for jury duty...All in all, it was a great fucking night!  Thanks Wavves, FIDLAR and Cheatahs!  You guys were great!

Check out more Wavves photos here!