An Evening with Friends

It's sad that we have friends only an hour away that we see only about once a year. But with both of them working full time, and raising two young boys, their schedules are jam-packed. But tonight was one of those yearly events. We went to their house, where we grilled out, sat in the spa, and swam in the pool all evening. We had a great time!

We also got to meet the newest addition to their family--Henry. Henry is the cutest dang thing ever! Even if he does still pee on the floor and chew up the coffee table. Who could resist that face? It's the Power of Cute.

Thank you, Facebook!

Thank you, Facebook. Once again, you have made it possible to re-connect with an old friend. On December 9, 2008, I found my high school friend Julie on Facebook. We messaged each other and got 'caught up' with each others lives. She lives on the west coast, near Seattle, and doesn't come back here to Nashville very often. But she arrived here yesterday for a family wedding this weekend! We made plans to meet for lunch, and had a great time remembering different people, catching up on where they are and what they're doing, and talking about our lives now. It was so great to see her! I hope to go out to Seattle again someday soon, and see her and meet her family.

What a Lovely Surprise!

One of the dear girls from the Two Peas in a Bucket Photography forum sent me some great Happy Mail all the way from Hawaii! Elizabeth has an ETSY shop where she sells designer camera strap covers. She sent me this beautiful strap cover as a gift! I just love having so many friends all over the world and being able to stay connected through Facebook and internet forums and message boards!

Vintage Betsy Johnson

This is Parrish's favorite dress, from Betsy Johnson's Vintage Collection. Betsy is Parrish's favorite designer, and she was absolutely thrilled to find this darling dress in a second-hand store with the original tags still on it. She got it for a steal! We shopped everywhere for the perfect shoes, but couldn't find what we were looking for. We finally gave up and she wore my Kenneth Coles. I made the headband for her.

So this morning, we met up with Rebekah, Aleah, and Skye, and drove down to my favorite neighborhood in Franklin--Westhaven. It was the perfect spot for this session. Unfortunately, it was miserably hot! We lasted about an hour and a half before giving into the heat, and deciding to go to lunch.

Just as we were about to leave, Rebekah discovered the battery in her van was dead! If I had driven my car instead of Parrish driving hers, we would have been fine, as I have two sets of jumper cables in my truck. But Parrish didn't have any. A very kind man coming home from his morning walk knocked on several doors to try and find us a set of cables, but no one who was home had any. We finally drove to Wal-mart in Parrish's car and bought a set. But first we had lunch at Genghis Grill. Love that place! (Ran into Zach while I was there, too.)

Fortunately, Rebekah's van started right up with a little jump from Parrish, and we all headed home to our air conditioning and Photoshop!

Here's the first set of images from this morning...

Stormy Skyline & Dinner at Miel

Kelly's on vacation this week, and today we ran some errands and then joined Zach and Suzanne and a few other friends for dinner at Miel to celebrate Suzanne's birthday. Dinner was fantastic! If you are in the Nashville area, looking for a nice restaurant with lots of organic and local foods, try Miel off Charlotte.

We started with the most delightful amuse-bouche--fresh, organic melon topped with mint sprigs. Then we ordered the escargot, with roasted garlic, house-cured ham, and parsley butter. This was followed by the peppercorn encrusted New York Strip steak, Smoked Gouda Au Gratin Potatoes, steamed spring vegetables and fresh tomato butter. This was accompanied by a delightfully fresh wine that had a hint of Green Apples. (Regretfully, I cannot remember what the name of the wine was, and it's not on their published wine list.) For dessert, we had French Press coffee and Creme Brulee. After everyone was finished with their dessert and coffee, our server brought us all a tiny spoon of local, organic clover honey.

We were very impressed with the meal, and the service, and will definitely return.

It's All Or Nothing...

Our social calendar seems to be one extreme or the other. Either we have nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to see, or we are practically double-booked. Tonight we had dinner with Zach and Suzanne downtown in the Gulch at Sambuca. Just grabbed this shot as we were heading home...

Dinner with old friends...

We had dinner tonight with an old friend who recently moved back to the Nashville area from Houston. Andrea moved to Texas shortly after getting married about 10 years ago, and we hadn't seen her since. Now she not only has a husband, but three kids.

We spent a pleasant evening catching up, and getting to know her family a bit. This is her youngest son, who wasn't too thrilled at first about me taking his picture. He kept trying to hide his smile, lol!