NUMBERED

Another fabulous ETSY find....Custom napkin rings from BROOKLYNrehab via Black.White.Bliss.

Bistro Niko Review

The newest of the Buckhead Life Restaurants opened in Atlanta: Bistro Niko. Loved the atmosphere and the place was packed. A bit awkward to have to walk through the middle of the entire restaurant to get to the bar, but the bar has a great scene. Moderately priced and you can wear jeans...always a plus for us!

We started with drinks and tried the signature cocktail which I believe had champagne, club soda and maybe citron. Definitely a gal's drink and I could have drank the entire carafe of this speciality myself! Off the menu, we ordered light Gruyere cheese puffs and a pizza with sauteed mushrooms, onions, Gruyere cheese and fontina cheese. Definitely skip the puffs and go straight for the pizza. I could have eaten the entire thing! We all opted for big meat meals and I would definitely recommend the two beef tenderloin entree. It has extra pepper and was cooked just right! Mr. Townie got the slicked sirloin steak which was good, but the tenderloins were better.

This would be a great place to go with your parents or couples. There are so many great restaurants in Atlanta, hard to know if we'll ever make it back. But, I do think we should have one of our small CEO work dinners there in the future.

The Office Thanksgiving Party

Do you all have office potluck's at Thanksgiving? We do each year and the sign-up sheet comes by my desk today and what am I going to bring? I don't have the recipe that everyone asks for each year and everything else seems to be covered. I did a pea salad one year and no one ate it....I don't even like peas...why did I make that? So, I opt for a salad with pecans and blue cheese. Should have taken some more time to look around. There are some great recipes on BHG if you have a potluck coming up and don't know what to bring. I'll do better this year! Good luck if you have an office party!

All in Good Fun!

A couple weekends ago, we headed down to Jacksonville to watch the Gators smack up on our Dawgs. We had a great time despite the outcome of the game. In the midst of tailgating, I started to observe some real fashion disasters with the UF fans. You know UF fans are made fun often for wearing jean shorts...so we took a couple photos of the classy-ness just for fun! Don't be made at me Gator fans...this is all we've got!!!

Here we are before the game...all smiles before the tears!!!

Preppy Stationery

Check out these super preppy note cards from Courtney Sue. It's like Vineyard Vines on a note card!

Wedding on Wheels

Check out the video for all the details of the wedding chapel that can come to you. Definitely different!

Help with Wine Selections?

Need help selecting the perfect wine for dinner or an event? The Loews Hotels Wine Line, which allows the public to ask questions of the hotel chain's experienced sommeliers, is up and running. The free service was designed to give users advice in the all-important task of beverage selection. E-mail wineline@loewshotels.com with your question and check out the FAQ's as well.

Happy Halloween from the Hackett's

Have fun on Halloween! We are in Jacksonville for the day to watch the GA/FL game. Go Dawgs! Hope it's not too embarrassing this year!

BOO!

Make these for the front yard! So cute and it seems so easy!

Treats

I think this would be my Halloween goodie for the trick-or-treaters this year if we weren't going out of town on Saturday. Kids might actually think it's a trick, but in Smyrna, GA, our city tag line is the "Jonquil City." Jonquil's are yellow flowers that you plant as bulbs and they pop up in spring and are all over our great little town. I think it would be so great to hand each trick-or-treater this cute little burlap goodie with a Jonquil bulb wrapped inside. The parents and kids could plant it together and see if it grows next year. Parents might like this a bit more than candy!!! Maybe I'll do this next year!

Weekend Re-cap

Of course Mr. Townie and I had a great weekend together to celebrate our 5th anniversary, but would we got back to the Ritz in Naples you ask....definitely not. I won't go into detail because not many people could understand how and why we didn't enjoy the hotel...I mean it's a Ritz-Carlton...what could really go wrong? And, you all might think we are high maintenance so I'll leave it at that!! We definitely did still have a great weekend with gorgeous weather, the Gulf Coast beach and playing both golf and tennis on Saturday.

R & R

Mr. Townie and I are getting away for a few days to sunny south FL. Happy Weekend!

GORGEOUS-NESS

Today a colleague shared a site, Bridal Bar Atlanta, that her daughter is currently blogging for and I got lost looking at the pictures for quite a bit I also found Christine Gallagher's site who posted this gorgeous fall wedding. Be sure and check out both sites for some major eye candy.

TOWNIE THOUGHTS

Here's a video to create those "hills and valleys" on your buffet table (minus the xmas lights and fake greenery). This is really good if you are doing this for the first time.

Note This

Know we all love ETSY so thought I'd share some note cards I scored this week.

inkOBESSIONSDesigns Dingbat Press

Happy 5 Years!

10.16.04 - I love you!

Atlanta Needs Your Help

Atlanta is in the running (1 of 27 cities) to potentially host a FIFA World Cup™ match should the USA win the bid to host the Games in either 2018 or 2022.

As such, the USA Bid Committee has launched a national promotional campaign on their webpage: goUSAbid.com to serve as the nerve center of the campaign’s efforts, both national and local. You will see the tagline, “The Game is in US.” The theme is a call to action for soccer fans across the country, regardless of their club and country loyalties, to get behind the effort to bring the FIFA World Cup ™ to the United States.

On the site there is an online petition in support of the bid that offers fans an opportunity to get involved immediately. One of the Bid Committee’s initial goals is to secure 500,000 online signatures – as quickly as possible – to demonstrate to FIFA, the United States and the entire world that we are serious about wanting to host the FIFA World Cup™ in 2018 or 2022. They are challenging each of the 27 cities still in contention to secure 50,000 online signatures!

As of this morning Seattle is leading with 12,841 petitions and Atlanta is in second place and closing fast with 10,500.

But we need to win this! Please sign the petition and then forward to your family, friends, business associates etc.

Halloween Treats from Sunset

Sunset Magazine has some really cute treats and good ideas for Halloween.

It's All Yellow

At the beginning of the week, I was all about orange, now everything fun I'm seeing is yellow. Maybe it's just fall colors seeping in the skin.

Houzz

MadebyGirl, a fab blog, just had her place featured on a very cool site, Houzz. I can tell I'm going to spend hours on here finding new ideas for the house. You can upload your own photos and share with the world and put pictures you like into your personal ideabook. This is really going to help save space on my computer so I don't have to save everything I like!

Loving Accents of Orange

I love bungalows and I'm really loving splashes of orange these days as well. This photo gallery of a gorgeous bungalow with orange everywhere really jumped out at me. Everyday Mr. Townie and I go back and forth on selling vs remodeling so we can create the perfect bungalow. We've got a cute cottage now, but it's not perfect yet! I wish I could just move in here.

Lonny Magazine

I think my two week blogging hiatus is over. Life is getting back to normal. Did I lose any of my 15 readers??!?!? Hope not!

Have you seen this? Lonny Magazine...it's a new online magazine that seems like a combination of Domino and Cottage Living. It doesn't replace having an actual magazine, but I'm happy to see it!

Blogging Hiatus

Adios!

I'll be back in a week...until then...this is part of the room where I'll be living in the Riviera Maya! Oh...and this is for work so don't be too jealous!

St. Regis = Love

Hosted a dinner last night at The St. Regis in Atlanta. It's a new hotel and oh so gorgeous...so elegant and beautiful! We hosted a breakfast there this morning too for about 300 people. The service was impeccable. Definitely a great new addition to Atlanta!

The Green Bean Exchange

Where has the time gone since my last blog post? Work is crazy right now and I'm planning to be out of town all next week. Ahhhh! But, I did want to share a place I peaked my head into last week in Canton, GA called The Green Bean Exchange. It's a place that re-sells old furniture and collectibles and was so fun to browse. While I didn't have my camera in my purse (lame), I saw some great pieces of furniture that were fantastically priced for under $200. So, if you are out that way, it's worth a stop inside.

A little delayed

It's taken me a few days to get this post up....a little exhausting of a weekend for sure!! Stillwater, OK was a super small town in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma, but the people there were some of the nicest people around. Literally these people were saying, "thank you for visiting Stillwater"..."so nice to have you here" etc. The drive from Wichita to Stillwater was filled with fields of sunflowers, the miles of farmland and working oil riggs (not sure if that is the proper name of those things) throughout the miles of flat roads. We hit up the local college bar, Eskimo Joe's, which is actually one of the top 3 college bars in the nation for the pre-game festivities. It was packed with Dawg fans and despite the outcome of the game, we did have a fun time! And, to top off the weekend, my Noles lost last night too. Not a great outcome of the Hackett family football teams to say the least. Here are our highlights!

This is random, but in the Wichita airport....made me laugh! Oh, Mr. Townie!

It's almost Saturday

The most awesome time of year is upon us when college football kicks off. I grew up being a big FSU fan and went to FSU when we won a National Championship. I had so much fun!!! I have now been fortunate enough to marry someone who loves college football too and lucky enough his team wasn't a rival of FSU. Our time on Saturday's in the fall is spent in Athens, GA with the UGA Bulldogs. I love it! With season tickets and a fun group of tailgating friends, the excitment is almost overwhelming.

This year we are mixing it up a bit with a season opener in Stillwater, OK against top ranked Oklahoma State. Mr. Townie and I leave Friday a.m. to head out to the heartland of the country. It's going to be a battle, but UGA will be victorious and start the season off right! It's Saturday!!!

Is this my high schools stadium? Not like the stadiums in the South is it?

Flower Favors

Saw this idea in Brides magazine today and thought it was a really cleaver idea for wedding favors.

Have your florist set up a “flower stand” toward the end of your reception, offering several colors and styles of stems, plus paper and twine. Guests can choose their favorites and wrap them up to go.

Punch Around the Page

Has anyone used Martha's Punch Around the Page system? It looks so fun for invites, menu cards, gift tags or place cards. Would love to know if it is really easy to use. I'm really not really so crafty with the hands....the "N" I received for "holding scissors properly" in kindergarten still haunts me. :)

Great weekend in St. Simons

Mr. Townie and I met our friends Leigh Ann and John on St. Simons Island, GA this past weekend. Leigh Ann and I have been friends forever...literally almost every high school memory includes her. And, oh do we ever have some memories!!!!! It was a laid-back weekend filled with beach time for the ladies and golfing on the swanky private Seaside Course at Sea Island for the guys. Thanks Leigh Ann and John for a fun weekend!

I'm so blogging this...

Found this on MadebyGirl. It's from Forever 21 and I really should have this because I know for sure I've seen something and said this!

Color Me Pretty

Found a fun site that can help you create color palettes for design, events, decorating and even fashion. It's COLOURLovers and it's filled with palettes, trends, a blog and great photos. This will be a great source for designing and creating events if you struggle putting colors together or even just want to think of something different. The entire site can be searched by trends, popular etc so you can really see what's out there.

Loving Shabby Apple

Remember the other week when I was so excited that I won a great dress from Shabby Apple on Simply Grove. It has arrived and now I'm even more excited because it fits! What is even cooler is that Shabby Apple is helping women worldwide. They donate 5% of its net dress sales to support work in India. Be sure and check it out! What is better than looking great and helping others at the same time!

And, for some more greatness, Shabby Apple is offering Smyrna Townie readers a 10% discount on their site. Simply enter smyrnatownie10off in the "coupon" box at checkout. Offer good until September 21st. Thanks again Shabby Apple and Simply Grove!



This was the story of who my dress helped!

A Treehouse Wedding

If you think this picture is gorgeous, wait until you see all the photos of Hollin + Eric's Treehouse Wedding. The photography by Ben Blood is amazing. It has this vintage glam thing going on that is out of site. Thanks to a great blog, Marta Writes for posting. Kim--you were right, her blog is awesome!

Shower Invites

My good friend, Brynee, is having a baby boy and I'm one of the lucky gals joining her closest friends to throw her baby shower. I was also lucky enough to be put in charge of handling the invitations and had a lot of fun putting these together. The idea was to incorporate her nursery colors and decor. They were custom designed and printed by Kim Lewandowski. I definitely recommend her and you can email her at Kim.Lewandowski@ihg.com if you have any invitation needs coming up. She was so easy to work with and gave us three concepts in less than 24 hours. Talk about hitting the nail on the head immediately. This girl is good! The picture isn't really showing off the shimmer brown paper, but in person, it really shines!

Another Great Weekend

Mr. Townie and I headed up to North Georgia this weekend to spend the day on Lake Blue Ridge with our friends Mark & Kim. They just bought a great mountain house so we spent the day on a pontoon boat and toured around the gorgeous lake. Then we grilled out and spent the night at their new house. The sounds of nature were so loud on that great rocking chair back porch! Thanks guys for a fun weekend!

Our host, Mark...just chillin'

The view from the rocking chairs above.

Whoopi Goldberg's loft in NYC is on the market. I'm not a fan of hers at all and I refuse to watch The View because of her, but I do like the style of her place.

More Folding Pages

I found out today via Haven and Home, that Southern Accents has gone under as well. It's no secret I am saddened everyday about the loss of Cottage Living, then Domino, Country Home and on and on. My magazine collection will soon be shriveled to nothing. It's just so sad. But, according to the AJC, it looks like a website will still exist.

I WON!

Thanks to one of my favorite blogs, SimplyGrove, for hosting such a fun giveaway. I am now the owner of this cute Navy Sailor Dress from Shabby Apple. Thank you SimplyGrove!

TOWNIE THOUGHTS

Baking cupcakes is so fun, but I do get bored with basic cupcake papers. Bake It Pretty is now the solution for taking those cupcakes up to the next level...so cute for almost any occasion!

Weekend Recap

After a few days in Raleigh, NC for a convention, I headed straight to Birmingham, AL to watch Mr. Townie's USTA team compete in the Southeastern 4.0 Tennis Sectionals. The team beat Tennessee and Louisiana, but Kentucky stopped the victories. Although it should be noted that Mr. Townie won his match against KY while no one else on the team did and he played awesome!

We hadn't explored Birmingham too much until this weekend and we really enjoyed it. We stayed in Homewood, at a newer Starwood brand of hotels called ALoft. The concept is similar to the W brand, but not as fancy. We ate dinner both nights in Soho Square and while the food was quite basic, the Cookie Dough Egg Roll was fantastic Saturday night at Jackson's Bar & Bistro. And, the shopping in Homewood was way fun...cottage shops everywhere!

Twizzler Crayola

Ooh la la! I am in love with our new chairs recovered in fabric with the most fun name, Twizzler Crayola! I couldn't find a great "Before" picture, but you can get the idea from the picture with Riggs. These chairs sadly became Riggs' favorite chew toy as a little pup, but we had to save them because they were from Mr. Townie's great grandmother's.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Easy Cottage Style

Last night I was surprised with a little gift. Someone knows me well...I've been eyeing a number of books by Liz Bauwens and am happy to have one to start what I think might turn into a collection of her books! Thank you!

Pop the Cork

Thanks Kim for getting the gals together for bottles upon bottles of bubbly and entertaining conversation with good friends, Kim A., Julie and Lara at the fabulous Moose Lodge. What is more fun than pushing the envelope on political views, supporting each other through tough times and learning all those things about babies that people don't normally share! And, as I write this at 8:45 p.m., I'm still officially feeling the effects of all those beverages! Great times!

Reuse and Recycle Friday

I just love to find uses for random things. While at work today, I get a call from a co-worker who was at the Georgia Power Company loading dock and was curious if I might be in need of any wire spool...I mean who isn't, right? She texts me a photo and we're immediately thinking table for the patio. Well...heck yeah...load that thing up....and a new table was born! Thank you, Cecile for thinking of me!

A New Look for Smyrna Townie

Special thanks to Alan Brubaker for creating the Smyrna Townie header! I'm loving it! Thank you so much!

Something Chic at Michael's

One of my favorite sites, MadebyGirl, has pictures from her birthday dinner. I loved the pom poms and you can get them at Michael's. Super cute. Her blog has lots more photos from the dinner so you can check out the menu and see everything else.

Sunday Night Blues

It's back to the real world tomorrow...vacation is officially over. Man, oh man...the Sunday night blues are bad right now! Here are some photos from the annual Hilton Head vacay.

The Hackett Brothers

The Hackett Family

Patches

In this month's issue of Country Living, there was a gorgeous New York Farmhouse and I fell in love with a chair that was reupholstered with an old quilt. Doesn't seem like a new idea, but I really like it. So cozy! Wonder if we should have done this with our two chairs that are being reupholstered now (will share those hopefully next week!). Anyway, went Internet searching for one I might need to buy instead and found a ton of chairs with the same style.

Sources: First Board Left to Right: Fres Home, Baobab Tree, Egbert57 Flickr and the Minouette Flickr

Second Board Left to Right: Egg Chairs, SunshineSyrie's Flickr, Urban Outfitters and Tallulah Patchwork Chair

It's the 4th of July!

Have a fabulous day!

South Carolina Days

It's off to Hilton Head for the Annual Hackett Family Vacation! Brad and I are getting a head start today to stay in Beaufort, SC and explore some of the outer islands of SC we haven't been to before. Then, Saturday it's onto HHI for the week. Have a great 4th of July and next week!

First Visit to the River

Yesterday afternoon, our friends Brynee, Marc and Callan invited us to meet them at the River and let the dogs run around in the water. Wasn't sure how this one would go for us considering Riggs has never acted as though he likes water and he gets a bit over-excited around other dogs, but I really wanted to try it. Besides the fact we were too nervous to take him off the leash for fear he'd bolt like he's done a few times, I think he had fun. Hopefully next time, we'll be brave enough to let him go.

Brynee, Marc and water-loving Callan

TOWNIE THOUGHTS

With my favorite holiday just a few more days away, I'm getting excited for fireworks by the beach in Hilton Head. Not having an official party, but if I was, I really like these invitations.

Source: KMThomasDesigns, delightdesign ,

Stylish Coorespondence, Nichole Heady

Something New

Checking out new places is something I love to do. Last night for a co-workers 40th birthday, we ventured out to 30 Tables, the new Concentrics restaurant concept. 30 Tables is located downtown at The Glenn Hotel in the space that was once the horrible Maxim Prime and the even worse failure of BED. Other than the hot temperature of the inside of the place, the food was really good. I had the tuna and enjoyed the Mexican corn, fingerling potatoes and peas as sides. The prices are great and there isn't even a corkage fee when you bring in your own wine. Read here for an official critic review.

Then today, had lunch and toured around the new, hip Midtown spot: Hotel Palomar. Super chic and trendy boutique hotel and includes all the amenities you would expect except that the hotel is pet friendly. All pets of all sizes are welcome....birds, cats, dogs etc...no size limits. Might have to check this out sometime with Riggs!!! The highlight and I do want to go back drinks at Alto Rex....the rooftop bar with lots of glam.

Vote for Riggs

Help Riggs be a star in Atlanta Magazine! Vote for him as Pet of the Month by giving him a high rating here! Thanks!

Savvy Snoot

Small detour during lunch yesterday over to the Savvy Snoot, a high-end home consignment shop in the Westside Urban Market area of Atlanta (Howell Mill area). My boss worked with Savvy Snoot to design her home and it's gorgeous! These were some of the fun things I saw:


What I liked about this display of pictures was that the photos are actually square picture frames but turned. Why have I not thought of that? I saw a ton of these same pictures at Scott's this weekend and walked right by. The insides are like dried leaves or something like that. Had I seen this...then...I might have come home with some.

I love old buckets so this was fun. I'm thinking you could put some lights in each of them and have some a great display.

This metal shelf was cool also....only $350.

Found it!

After much searching for a black + white stripe rug, I've found it and it's on sale at Williams -Sonoma Home!!! Of course, I didn't go into any stores because of my love for shopping (sarcasm), but can't wait to put it all together. It will be a while for new pictures, but exciting update nevertheless!

Attention Mom's on Summer Vacation

For just $1 at participating AMC movie theaters nationwide, kids and adults can see G- and PG-rated movies every Wednesday at 10 a.m. from June 17 through August 5. First up: Horton Hears a Who. Proceeds benefit the Will Rogers Institute and the children’s charity Variety.

Staying on Top of Technology

Everyday it's some new technology from Twitter to Skype to Pandora to Lulu and today it's TuneUp....a way to figure out tracks that are listed as "unknown artist." Do you use this?

If figuring out who sings “Track 1” on your best friend’s Summertime Mix is driving you crazy, this downloadable software is for you. TuneUp uses iTunes and the Gracenote Global Media Database to figure out the “audio fingerprint” of mis- or unlabeled tunes in your MP3 music library. Then the program automatically fills it in and adds the corresponding album artwork. Try 100 song “cleans” and 50 album cover adds for free. If you’re hooked, upgrade to a $30 TuneUp Gold membership for unlimited cleans and covers.

Black and White Stripes

I'm really needing help finding a black and white striped rug for our master bedroom. Ikea has one, but it's too small....Ballard Designs has one, but it's a bit pricey......and the Nate Berkus rug that is all over all great design blogs is sold out. Help me please!!!

Fun in Downtown Decatur

Had a fun lunch today with 2 fabulous gals from the lovely Four Seasons. We went to downtown Decatur and had a great lunch outside at Parkers on Ponce. Then, had a few extra minutes on the parking meter and buzzed over to Heliotrope. Oh...so much fun! Here are a few highlights!

Inside the store, Night Owl Paper Goods, Sugarboo Antique Wooden Signs, Hedgehog Mobile

Then went over to Boogaloos...such a cute boutique. I walked out empty handed...a bit overwhelmed by so many things I wanted to take home with me!

Laughed Out Loud

I laughed out loud when I saw this today off of a Daily Candy Link to Pyscho Baby...just had to share....I don't know why except I'm feeling like I want to give this to some adults today!! Happy Friday!

Gorgeous, Gorgeous

We just hosted a party last week at this gorgeous home. It was a simple reception around the pool and this picture really captures how stunning the home truly is. Not too shabby, huh?!?!!?

Photo Source: Carroll Morgan with Buckhead On-Site Photography.