FOJ Always Wins

One of my favorite games in life is to give people two options and make them pick between them.

Beach or lakehouse?

No peanut butter or no dairy (for the rest.of.your.life)?

You get it.

This spring, I went to a wedding with my friend Austin and spent the majority of the ride from the church to the reception making him pick between holidays.

Although I threw a few curveballs his way (Christmas vs. my birthday - !!) as well as a few gimmes (Arbor Day vs. Thanksgiving), Fourth of July was largely a winner.

And can you blame us!? It's so wonderful!

The one and only Katie Z. is flying in tonight, and I am crazy excited to celebrate with her.

I will report back with pics and stories, but until then, Happy Fourth of July! I hope your day is full of sunshine and sparklers!

the truth always comes out

You may have noticed that last week on the blog, things were a little sparse (see fake birthday and arm party posts). This is because the one thing I can think to blog about is exactly the one thing I don't want to blog about.

You see. I went vegan.

I know.

I love chicken! And I've long since admitted that I'm not technically an animal lover (minus puppies).

I didn't want to blog about it for those reasons, and because I feel somewhat bandwagon/poserish.

But, many of you also know that for the last ten years I have struggled with some major digestive issues and as much as I love chicken, what I'd love even more is to feel better.

So, last month a doctor suggested I try a vegan diet. It's been a few weeks and, although I am missing my favorite protein sources (chicken, eggs, Greek yogurt and cheese. OK. And FroYo.), I am off to a good start. Last year, for the same reasons, I gave up all grains and sugar, and the fact that I can now fully add those items back in is making the transition significantly easier.

This is certainly not going to become a vegan blog because (1) there are already so many resources out there dedicated to it, (2) I'm far from being a SME and (3) after trying so many different remedies, I am not yet buying in that it will work. A little jaded, I admit. But, at this point, it's better not to get my hopes up every time.

However, I did recently try my first dedicated vegan baking experience with these chickpea chocolate chip cookies. They taste slightly less sweet than traditional cookies, but are still pretty great. Mine took 20 minutes to cook, not 10 like she said.
I'm sure I'll dabble in some vegan posts as I continue to embark on this new lifestyle. If you have any tips, feel free to send them my way.

So that's that. Now you know what I've been hiding :)

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&a happy thursday it was

If you can't beat em, join em, which was exactly our mentality last night. We knew we couldn't beat the heat (106 today through Sunday!), so why not just dive right in? The entire evening was spent outside and I loved every minute of it.

Melissa, Lindsey and I ventured to Atlanta's Food Truck Park. It was very happy, particularly because I tried the Happy Hippie from the Happy Food Truck. You can't even deny that much happiness!




After that I journeyed over to the Goat Farm for my sweet friend Savannah's going away party. It was only my second time to the farm, buuut I kind of love it there. 

I'm really sad, for myself, that Sav is moving, but after seeing her last night - from her excitement around her new job, to the way she glowed when she talked about being with her family - I can't deny that this is a great move for her. I will miss her very much, especially her Sunday night dinners and our afternoons by the pool with King of Pops, but I am really excited for her to begin this new adventure. <3


And now, it's Friday. Which is the perfect way to wrap up a lovely Thursday night, if I do say so myself.

Ain't No Party Like an Arm Party




Post fake birthday blues? Nothing a few bangles won't cure. 

Lately I've been really into mixing ridiculously mismatched bracelets like peach&grey + gold + teal&brown. Whether or not it works is debatable, but for someone who once had a strict no bracelet policy, I think it is a lovely change. 

I hope you had fun pretending it was your birthday and possibly popped some champagne. I'm honored by how many people wished me happy fake birthday. 

I think I should do this more often.

But seriously. 

This could get out of hand.

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