i had a blast at record store day 2011! i went to decatur cd, which worked out perfectly. they had all of the records i was looking for and lacked the long lines i would have dealt with at criminal records, where i went last year. there were live bands, free beer, community q bbq, king of pops, contests and a ton of cool vinyl to be had.

i heart record store day!

i ended up grabbing architecture in helsiki – places like this on pink vinyl and an of montreal 12″ from polyvinyl records, as well as a new franz ferdinand covers 12″ on orange vinyl from domino records.

i have to admit i’m a little disappointed that record store day is becoming so reissue heavy though. here’s to more new releases on future record store days!

– ryan

don’t forget tomorrow is record store day! there will be lots of rare vinyl treats up for grabs, including items listed here. in atlanta, you can hit up criminal records and wax ‘n’ facts or wuxtry and decatur cd in decatur.

see you there!

– ryan

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!