there was a beautiful sunrise this morning in downtown atlanta! here is a view from piedmont park.

– ryan

the summer heat is right around the corner but luckily the king of pops is back with his handcrafted popsicles! we stopped by the other day for our first ones of the season. we had the green apple lemonade and arnold palmer (sweet tea & lemonade), which were both awesome.

you can be find the king of pops in the highlands at the corner of north ave and north highland ave from 3 – 7 pm on weekdays and 12 – 7:30 pm on weekends. he also lists his daily menu on twitter. today’s menu is: orange basil, raspberry lime, pomegranate margarita, banana puddin’, grapefruit mint, chocolate sea salt and mango, papaya & lime.

– ryan & gub

king of pops

1079 north avenue ne
atlanta, ga 30307

our royal empress tree is blooming these days! the purple blooms are way up there though, so it’s hard to get any close photos. the royal empress is often billed as the fastest growing tree in the world and it totally lived up to its name. ours grew like it was in jack and the beanstalk!

– ryan

we had big ambitions for this weekend, but things went a bit slower than we had hoped… it always seems to work that way.

anyway, we did manage to tackle the shelves. ryan installed them several years ago, but the paint on the brackets needed to be touched up and they hadn’t ever been sanded or finished. so, that’s what we worked on… here are some “in progress” shots. they are still drying, so installation shots are forthcoming.

– gub & ryan

check out our week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5 and week 6 nursery posts!

after talking about it for ages, we finally bought ourselves pairs of TOMS shoes! we were impressed with their ambitious cause and kept hearing how comfortable they were, so we couldn’t resist. abbadaba’s in little 5 points had a huge selection. gub grabbed sweet red ones and i found some blue corduroy ones!

in case you haven’t heard of TOMS before, they started a one for one movement where they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair they sell. so you get a pretty cool pair of shoes and feel good knowing a child in need is also getting a pair of shoes. TOMS also requires that their “factories operate under sound labor conditions, pay fair wages and follow local labor standards.” sweet deal! the shoes also come in recyclable cardboard boxes with a sticker and flag to help promote their cause.

read more about the TOMS movement here.

– ryan & gub

i recently found myself at the home depot in kennesaw, ga and spotted this amazing old rainbow apple sign! i’m not sure if there was once an apple store here or maybe just a computer shop, but the vintage sign is really awesome. i’m impressed and a little surprised the sign is still standing, way to go kennesaw! currently there is a chiropractor and hair salon in the shopping center. i’m sure they could care less about the cool sign towering above.

– ryan

the recent pains of being pure at heart & twin shadow show at the earl was super fun! twin shadow was a killer opening act and nearly stole the show. their debut album forget is really solid, you should check it out if you haven’t already.

the pains of being pure at heart was also awesome! i am a big fan of their s/t debut but hadn’t really listened to their latest album, belong, too much before the show. the new songs were great live though, i will definitely have to check it out some more. they played a good mix of new and old, making it fun for a guy like me!

– ryan

check out this great oversized construction barricade! it’s the entrance sign to the bo phillips co. on lawrenceville highway in tucker, ga. it’s the best of both worlds; a great roadside sign that is also ginormous! don’t you love oversized versions of everyday items?

– ryan

ps…i saw my first firefly tonight, how exciting!

this was a particularly productive week, as we are rapidly approaching the due date with just nine weeks to go now. we said a sad goodbye to the green sectional sofa. hope it finds a happy new home via decatur estate. we selected a paint color and painted the nursery!!! special thanks to gub’s mom and stepdad who came in for the weekend to help make it all happen. the color is called ‘retiring blue’ and it’s perfect. seems more of a robin’s egg to us. very calming… we love it!

we also tackled a second kitchen project with the help of gub’s handy stepdad… update on the new kitchen bar and shelf coming soon…

– gub & ryan

check out our week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4 and week 5 nursery posts!

i just tried strawberry harvest lager by abita beer out of abita springs, la. i’m not always the biggest fan of fruity beers, especially ones with artificial tasting flavors, but i can definitely go along with a springtime ale featuring a natural fruity taste though.

with bottle rocket brewing, we brewed an orange cream ale in the spring and a watermelon wheat in the summer with fresh pureed fruit. they totally hit the spot on warm afternoon and the results were always awesome!

so to say the least, i was intrigued by abita’s new beer brewed with fresh louisiana strawberries. in the end, i’d say it was just all right though. it didn’t knock my socks off, or maybe i just had high hopes. it was fairly mild, but not as natural as i thought. i don’t buy fruity beers that often, so i doubt i will buy it again. if i’m craving fruity, i’ll probably go with sweetwater blue, which really hits the spot.

– ryan

abita beer

21084 louisiana 36
abita springs, la 70433
985-893-3143