{girls brunch}

Sometime in December as my regular brunch date approached with my friend Elise I thought -- "You know, I should have people over for brunch one day."  So I got a small list together of a few girlfriends {hopefully I can have another one soon and invite a different set of my favorites!}.  I wanted to invite everyone but my house isn't huge and I was doing all the cooking.  Also, budget is tight so I wanted it to be a number that was comfortable and fit those categories.  It worked well and I am happy to report I got to have quality time with everyone there because it was super small!   

I had a great time and made The Housewife come over and take pictures with her fancy camera.  Mainly so she can practice for the wedding stuff early in the day before I meet up with my photographer, amiright? 

Not magazine worthy but I thought I did a pretty good job. Didn't break the bank and didn't spend my entire week worrying about it or setting up for the big day. And it really was super fun.  Thank you Housewife for being the best photographer sister ever.  

 lemon ricotta bruschetta with honey and basil

//recipe here//

I also made some homemade cinnamon rolls, popped some baby quiches in the oven (house of Target), and made a fruit & cheese plate.  I also had a lot of mimosa supplies.  

I made a chalkboard menu...but my handwriting is not the best.  "A" for effort though.  I mean what is that little dorky try at drawing a champagne glass? I'll wait for you to find it.  

stripey straws courtesy of Homegoods. 

See -- in the real world we don't wear shoes when we host Brunch.  Just socks.  The scarf is prob not the best idea when cooking. Fair warning because that just screams "fire hazard" to me.  

Thanks 3 Putt for sending me a bunch of photos of flowers at Kroger and letting me pick them out virtually while you paid for them and brought them home.  I love that. 

All in all a fun day for the five of us! Maybe I will be braver and try more people the next time.  The dogs were also really well behaved! I was very proud of them especially since so many new people were there for them to be excited about.  

Was this post totally boring? I hope not. We all like pictures right? Enjoy these because I'm going to make 3 Putt take like 3 million of me if we are able to reach the Eiffel Tower while we have our layover in Paris in two weeks.  Prep yourselves now. 

love you. mean it. 

~the single gal~

Vacation Re-Cap Part II

Saturday started innocently enough.  It took us a while to get up, get ready, pack up all our shit, and take a 10 minute cab ride to our new hotel.  I grabbed this room off Jetsetter and I was pretty in love with this venue. We stayed at The Hudson -- seriously right by Central Park.  You know how sometimes you worry that it won't really look like it does online when you actually see it in person? Well, this place looked just as amazing!  Just spend most of your time in the city or the lobby and bar areas -- because your room is tiny. 

Entrance @ The Hudson Hotel NYC

Lobby @ The Hudson Hotel NYC

Also -- while I was checking in I asked the guy at the front desk for a brunch recommendation.  He did not steer us wrong.  He sent us to the very trendy looking East Village area from what I can tell when I Google this place.  Peels  is apparently the place to be for Brunch.  It was so beautiful inside and so delicious.  They aren't playing around with those biscuits.  And that's saying a lot coming from this southern girl.  I want to go every weekend!  

source for pic here

Anyway, down to the nitty gritty of Saturday....because some people just can't handle Vegas New York. 

Blogger and practically part of my family Lindsey (read here) read about my dilemma of being stood up for the rest of my weekend.  Even Little A was going to come back into the city from Long Island to watch the game with me if she could.  Lindsey hooks me up with B {total stranger to me} as a good friend of hers that she hasn't seen in a while that just moved to NYC.  B seems nice.  So nice that he texted me and was willing to take out a complete stranger to watch hours of football.  

Long story short Little A and her husband didn't end up going to Long Island. So we went to brunch. And then they went along with me and B to watch the game. 

I truly don't know what I was thinking that day. Brunch before The Big Game is apparently the equivalent of a Roofie. I bet no one admits to inadvertently doing this to themselves.  Except for me.  It was just too much. Last full day of vacay, SEC championship, and the joy of Saturday Brunch.  Pounding 4 cocktails with champagne and vodka over the course of the meal and racing back to change for the big game where buckets of beer went round and many shots were taken and no dinner was ever eaten. {ewps}  

When one makes numerous rookie mistakes like this things are bound to happen that you didn't plan. Like blacking out at halftime. {That's right. The best and most exciting game UGA plays in years and I have no idea what happened. Seriously. Can't tell you a thing about it}.  So the short and legal version of that night was - B was super fun.  We all apparently went back to the hotel bar {The Lodge} and had even more fun later that night.   

I meant to be a great tourist and to conquer my fear of wandering around NYC alone.  I meant to look chic while cruising MOMA. Get fresh air in the park and hop around Columbus Circle.  Except Sunday morning found The Single Gal blocks from her hotel throwing up in B's bathroom.  And later begging Air Tran to let her stand by for an earlier flight. OK. Maybe it wasn't that dramatic. They listed me no probs, I finally managed to eat a $10 sandwich and I was able to leave early.   And while nothing feels better than coming home it really was a great trip.  It was expensive and accompanied by the worst hangover I have had in years but in the end, I wouldn't change a thing .


Love you. Mean it. 
~the single gal~

{Empire State South}

Life's too short not to have 4 hour brunch dates with your best friends.  And life is definitely too short for you to waste any time in stopping by Empire State South {ESS}.  I had dinner there last year and loved this place so I was really excited to drop back in to try brunch.  

I love that you can grab brunch here Saturday OR Sunday and the fact that they also take reservations for brunch gives them like 3 million extra points (side note: almost no restaurants in Atlanta take brunch reservations -- which is incredibly aggravating to me).  ESS is nestled in the downstairs of the huge 999 building at the intersection of 10th and Peachtree.  If you can't find neighborhood parking they will comp your ticket from the deck.  They have a wonderful, quaint courtyard with bocce ball and tables outside for dining.  Did I mention how gorgeous the inside of this place is? I fall over every time I go in there -- whoever {whomever?} decorated that place can come re-do my house anytime.  

{as usual, people don't pay us or give us any kickbacks to endorse anything on this blog unless otherwise noted.} 

**note all images above found online and do not belong to me**

For all you UGA/Athens people these digs are Hugh Acheson's -- we can all thank him now for 5&10 (also amazing) in Athens.  From what I can tell (since we aren't friends and all) he is a really passionate foodie and can put together one hell of a restaurant.  ESS serves breakfast daily, brunch all weekend, and of course -- lunch and dinner.  They also offer little lunch baskets/buckets for carry out which I would be very interested in trying -- they look adorable and are probably incredibly delicious. 

Unlike at The Optimist, I was able to take many instagrams of our trip! Yay! 

peach & beet salad

selection of three pastries:
 cherry cake, blueberry pie thing (can't remember what it actually was called),
& coconut chocolate chip cake

peach bellini - perfect summer brunch drink. it was almost like a
champagne slushy.  i also enjoyed a flight of 3 different Rieslings as seen in the background. 

adorable koozie for your iced coffee in jar. not gonna lie, i wanted to steal it. 

The food was exceptional.  It wasn't crazy crowded.  They didn't try to kick us out even though we stayed past 3.  The pastries were to die for.  I think Elise and I thought we were just going to sample them but we ate every single bite.  We split a breakfast sandwich entree with eggs, bacon,  & ham {had to have room for those pastries}.

But...

{Are you preparing yourself for my one complaint? I know you knew it was coming.}

I did have a few small issues with our server.  It was not crowded and at one point I had to search for him because I was trying to order one more glass of wine before 3 (don't judge).  Also, when we asked for recommendations of which 3 pastries to choose all he initially said was "They are all good" and then we had some empty air between us.  Almost like he was offended that we would are try to discriminate between any of the said pastries.  So, I asked him again, nicely to try to pick 3 out for us anyway as we obviously couldn't try all of them.   

For some odd reason I just got the feeling that he really didn't care for us -- and I am not sure why.  I'm willing to give bro the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe Sundays aren't packed and he was tired. Maybe he had a raging hangover and wanted to be anywhere else but there and it wasn't personal.  I do want it known that in giving the benefit of the doubt and in light of the delicious food, I went ahead and tipped him just over 20% even though the level of service wasn't there because I have waited tables before and I get that it's not always rainbows and butterflies.  But that being said -- I am not hard to please. I don't send dishes back or anything like that.  Keep the wine coming and be decently cordial and we won't have any problems.
  

Love you. Mean it. 

~the single gal~

Wordsday

Judging from the stats "Wordless Wednesday" isn't all that popular...except this week has been stressful and hard already so it's a good thing we run a dictatorship here on this blog and not a democracy. I kid. But seriously, y'all are getting mo' pictures today.  And mo' words on Wordsday...get it???? OK I'll stop now.

This weekend I was strolling through Target and these drew me right in.  I spent $20 for 6 blooms which is not typically my flower budget, but I had a $25 gift card and they were just too gorgeous.  I am overwhelmed with their happy, pink, joyfulness every time I walk into the house. Totally worth the price!  

Saturday afternoon was spent at the pool with The Housewife and #1. We took turns dipping her into the pool and swimming her around. Then, it was back to my place for pizza! {Except she had some crackers first...hence the spot on her sweet face!}

I took the words "Sunday Funday" to heart and had a wonderful three hour brunch with Elise at Varasano's in Atlanta. It's located at the bottom of a giant condo building on Peachtree which meant that we had complete shade and a light breeze on the patio until 3 p.m. I had wine, but I will have to return since they have $10 bottomless mimosas, bellini's, and Bloody Mary's on the menu.   I also ended up heading home...and the to PURE with 3 Putt for margs and dinner. Needless to say I was quite toasted by the end of the evening and fell right to sleep. {Big thanks to 3 Putt for a lovely meal and for fixing all those fuses that blew during the storm.}

In other news I have been pretty down and grumpy this week. I am trying my best to have a good attitude about being the main person assisting with files that belonged to a rep that quite my office...but, I am SO over getting yelled at because of things that person never did or returned calls that person never made.  And, I am over fraud training classes that are 1 hour each. Stab. My. Eyes. Out. I have also just been stressed about my car and trying to get it repaired so it will pass emissions before my birthday. It needs a lot of work which equals a lot of money out of my small savings account. 

But...the UPS man made a surprise visit to my house today and I was overwhelmed with a generous gift from Little A.  I felt so much better and it reminded me that if nothing else, I have great friends who will listen and support me in these hard times and you can't really ask for much more than that.  Even so, a little kate spade doesn't hurt! 

Love you. Mean it. 

~the single gal~

Birthday List

As The Housewife and I approach the big 28 (read: inch that much closer to death thirty) I thought I would do the world a favor and post some prezzies I'm very intersested in receiving for my birthday.  I know times are tough and the economy is a real bitch, so I will of course be accepting love and undying admiration from my family and the general public as well.  We all know I will probably buy these fun items for myself eventually anyway...

1. The Longchamp - I've wanted one for so long! This one is my current favorite - the large Le pliage. 

2. The Kindle -- I finally gave into technology, even though I will always love the feel of a real book.  These are just too cool and instant tolive without! Even more awesome--the new price of $114! 

3. All gift cards to the make-up mecca, Sephora will gladly be accepted. 

A few other things on my wish list--to see all my loves ones, have a fabulous brunch sometime in June, a fabulous dinner in the city, all the fro-yo my heart desires, and to celebrate the entire month of June without judgement.