Girls' Day Out

This weekend, while my parents were living it up in New York City, my sister and I got to spend some time together getting to know Atlanta a bit more.

Ordering at West Egg!

I had been wanting to spend some time with my sister in the city since I moved into my new apartment, but things got so busy right out of the gate that neither one of us really had the time. This weekend's timing worked out perfectly.

We basically spent the day shopping and visiting some of my favorite places around Atlanta. I took her to the thrift shop mentioned in my previous post, Eclectia (one of my favorite decor shops), Matter Boutique, and Crafted Westside. We also ate lunch at my favorite place in Atlanta--West Egg.

My favorite store out of all of them had to be Crafted Westside--1) because it was their grand opening and I got to have free King of Pops and 2) because it was like walking into Etsy in real life. Basically Crafted Westside is a place where Atlantans can sell their handmade goods instead of relying solely on online spaces like Etsy.

Look at dapper Mr. Deer, here! All hand made bow ties!

I didn't want to leave and was completely overwhelmed by how beautiful everything was (a word my sister said I overused that day). Poor Katie was dying because she was hungry and I couldn't stop looking things over (she had to resort to hovering around the grand opening's refreshment table).

I wound up leaving the shop with upwards of 10 business cards from the various crafters and an awesome card+gift combo for my mother's birthday this weekend (she's turning the big 5-0!). I also bought a cute postcard to send to Daniel and a gorgeous leather tassel keychain for myself.

I have officially updated my keychain from that of college, all the while joining the ranks of janitors everywhere with the amount of keys I need to function.

I can't wait to go back and visit again to check out more inventory brought by these amazing crafters of Atlanta. It was also just an inspirational space--it makes me want to start on all the projects I've been scheming up with my sewing machine for the past few weeks!

Do you have any local stores that you fell in love with at first visit?

National Bike Month

In honor of National Bike Month, I have officially become a bike owner! 

I really wanted to start biking to work this summer since I live close and it would save me money on gas, so I was in the market for a city bike. I had a list of needs however: 1) fenders 2) women's bike, and 3) rack in the back. I also didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for it. 

If you remember my post from last October, I talked about Public bikes. 

I absolutely fell in love with their Public C7 bike.

But with a price tag of $479, it's way over what I could pay. So the hunt was on.

I checked Starter Bikes on campus first--they sell refurbished used bikes for great deals--but unfortunately they didn't have any recent donations of bikes that were any good. Next I tried Criagslist, but nothing quite fit what I was looking for, and when I happened to find a bike that did, it had been sold already. So then I decided to see exactly how much new bikes cost, and found out that if you look in the right places, they are affordable!

I found the most gorgeous bike at Walmart for $139. It's a 700c Schwinn Admiral--and I think I'm in love.

It even looks like the one from Public that caught my eye to start with, but at such a better price!

I can't wait to ride it to work tomorrow--especially since tomorrow is National Bike to Work Day. Looks like I picked the perfect time to become a biker. 

(Safety first! I also bought a matching helmet)

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

Something I'm trying to start doing this year is to discover Atlanta and to accept the culture this beautiful city has to offer. I'm so afraid that I'm going to have to leave this city when I graduate, so I want to get the most of it now.

That being said, I'm still only a college student with a part-time job. However, I've discovered the beautiful world of Groupon, Deal Chicken and Scoutmob. They all offer wonderful deals on events and food to help make them more affordable. Scoutmob is especially awesome because it offers advice on free coupons or free things happening around Atlanta. 

Last week while purusing my Scoutmob app, I found that there was Grand Opening on Wednesday from 7-10 pm at Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams where they were giving away free ice cream! Considering it was 8 pm and Daniel & I had no other plans for the night, we decided to go check it out.

It was absolutely amazing. We waited for 2 hours in the cold for a cold treat but it was absolutely worth it.

First of all, the store is probably the cutest ice cream shop I've ever seen--the menu was handwritten in chalk, there were paper decorations hanging for the grand opening, and there were cute decorated tables to sit at. And the fact that it's in Westside Provisions makes me love it even more. It's such an up and coming area of Atlanta and I just fall in love with every place I go to over there.

But the atmosphere of the shop aside, we can't forget the main attraction--the ice cream!

I had Black Coffee and Queen City Cayenne in a waffle cone. The Black Coffee was made from beans roasted in Atlanta and had the beans roasted in cream instead of water so it was amazing tasting. The Queen City Cayenne is a milk chocolate based ice cream with cayenne flavors that kind of sneak up on you, which made it delicious. Oh, and we can't forget that the waffle cones were made in the store; Daniel's was actually still warm when he got it handed to him full of ice cream!

There is no doubt that this will become my go-to ice cream shop in the city. I'm so excited to have stumbled across this gem and hope to continue to expand my horizons in Atlanta before I graduate.