what i did today

Becky has been singing the praises of Amelie’s Bakery, even Pioneer Woman has sung the praises of Amelie’s after her visit to Charlotte but Melissa and I finally made it to Amelie’s last night.  It’s a 24 hour bakery in NoDa made for the young and hip.  Well, I don’t know if it was made for the young and hip but it certainly is.

The bakery is almost as much about the experience and environment as it is about the yummy French pastries.  Off the main bakery room there were several lounge rooms were many people were ensconced in laptop work or group chats.

I was shocked to find every single table and couch full save one two-seat table at the door that Melissa and grabbed and spent the next 2 hours chatting away. 

I had the salted caramel brownie and wow, it was delish!  I loved the thin crunchy layer in between the two very moist and chewy chocolate and caramel layers.  PW agreed and recreated the recipe after returning from Charlotte.

I couldn’t go to Amelie’s and not return without something for the family so this is what I got: Lexi got the salted caramel brownie, Emma got the mixed berry tart, I got a cream cheese puff for breakfast and I got Scott the raspberry chocolate tart.

OK, I have to be honest here and say while the salted caramel brownie knocked my socks off, I wasn’t very impressed with the cream cheese puff.  I found the whole thing to be a little dry and lacking in the cream cheese department.  The raspberry chocolate tart got thumbs up from Scott and the same from Emma’s berry tart.  Please don’t ask me to rate any dessert that has fruit in it.  However, ALL of us raved over the brownie.  I’m declaring that our winner!

If you’re in the Charlotte area or ever visiting, make sure to check it out but be sure to plan lots of time to hang out an enjoy!

So I’ve tried to give myself some space to blog about this concert on Friday.  No need to sound like a raging fangirl at 32.  But you know, space…

hasn’t

really

helped. 

In fact, I’m not sure what can help.   Probably another post for another time. 

The fact is, Danny and Tim blew me away in concert.  Danny’s voice gets better every time I see him (which is, let’s see, 4 times now).  I will argue until I’m blue in the face that he has the chops to do what he is doing.  He’s a legit guy and deserves whatever comes his way.  We were able to talk to him at a meet and greet before the concert and an autograph signing afterwards.  If you super-duper details, please hop over to my recap on the site.

Tim surprised the heck out of both Dani and I who were first-timers.  I knew and loved his music but I had no idea he sounded exactly like that in person so much so I had to listen and watch very closely to see if he indeed was lip-synching.  Something caught his funny-bone about 3/4 through the concert and he laughed.  The fact that the singing stopped and the laughter came through is the only thing that convinced me he wasn’t.  And he certainly has entertaining on a stage down to an art.  Which pretty much means he just has to stand there and all the women are entertained.  I mean, just sayin’.  I’m sure if Faith was up there the men would say the same.  Speaking of, we kept hoping she would show up on stage and were still disappointed at the end of the night when she didn’t.

All in all, a super great, very fangirly fun night with Carla and Dani.

Oh. my. That’s a lot of candles.

Someone might have to help blow all these out!

Here goes nothin’

Someone get me some oxygen!

The fire alarm might go off…

Happy 3-2 to me. 

Lots more posts coming but thought I’d take my birthday off before jumping back in…

We’re at a local Dunkin Donuts, the closest place we can sit and enjoy free Wi-Fi.    I can see on the blog that my Top Ten Tuesday post didn’t post from my WordPress app.  It was all the things you want to do or do more at the beach that you normally wouldn’t like dig holes and swim with sharks.  Oh well.

We’re having a great time here.  Lots of shopping, eating and beach time.  The kids are loving the ocean and sand and they’re all at the age we don’t have to be on top of them in the water.  We watch them like hawks but it’s nice to be able to do it from a chair.  Scott and I are enjoying morning bike rides.  It’s just been a very enjoyable visit so far.

Hope you’re all having a great week!  Check out the first round of pictures here.

We are beach-bound this morning.  Internet was scarce last year and I expect the same this year.  If I don’t blog this week, have a great week and expect lots of posts next!

I’ve been selling several of my books on Amazon.com and have made trips to the local postal store.  Every single time I can’t take my eyes of the baskets of handmade coffee cozies and every single time I want one but can never decide on a fabric.  The had they name of the company Pink Gasoline on the tag and I was sure I’d remember that.  But I couldn’t the first several times.  Finally, I was able to remember it by thinking I got to the post office with gasoline and I’m a girl so it’s pink.  Is it scary how my brain works?

I finally made it to their page and OH. MY.  My decision-making process, which is already quite faulty, just got a lot worse.  I mean, how am I supposed to choose between this:

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this

and this

I mean, seriously?  Do they expect me to go to Starbucks 9 times a week to keep them in heavy rotation??

Which one would you get??  Which one should I get?

We had a beautiful wedding weekend in Pennsylvania.  Mornings were spent around our hosts’ pool and the evenings at The Hayloft where one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve seen took place.  If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve heard me beg you to look at the pictures but if not, please take a moment and look at the photographer’s set here.  You can see my set here where you can take a sneak peek of my purple dress I mentioned Thursday which you will not care about at all as you drool over the wedding.

Other random notables from the weekend:

• My infection cleared up and I could finally talk with a normal voice on Saturday.
• Lexi threw up at  Friday night.  Yay for cleaning that up in someone else’s house with no help at 2am.
• Emma got sick during the rehearsal dinner.  Thankfully it was only a fever and thankfully it was at the groom’s parents rental house and she was able to knock out on the couch.
• Our host had a July 4th party that we crashed while we were there.   They sure know how to throw down some food.  Ribs, shrimp, scallops, pies, etc, etc. 
• Our host got up before we left on Monday morning and made Scott an entire blueberry pie since he couldn’t make it to their party.  The look on his face when he got it was priceless.
• I thought we might be missing on the July 4th fireworks but the display at the wedding was spectacular!  I was legit ooh-ing and ahh-ing, particularly at the finale.
• My cousin was so gorgeous.  I just can’t stop saying it.  I think my favorite part of the whole wedding though was the horse and buggy bringing the girls in as the groomsmen walked the aisle.  The clip-clop of the horses seriously took my breath away.  A close second was the father-daughter dance at the reception.  Or the bridesmaid’s toast.  Seriously some good stuff.
• All that said, we did over 20 hours of driving this weekend.  I don’t want to take a long trip for a long time!