To our Louisville-area readers (and our readers who plan on visiting Louisville someday): you should head over to quaint little New Albany sometime. It just keeps getting better with downtown restaurants like Toast, River City Winery, La Rosita, Wick’s, and the Bank Street Brewhouse. Another new addition to the burgeoning downtown is The Dandy Lion, a cute little shop brought to you by the same ladies from The Female Art Collective.

Visit their blog to get a sneak peek at all the cute merchandise for men, women, and children available, and stop by to check it out for reals:  310 Bank St., New Albany, IN.

Hours of Operation MON. Closed, TUES. – THURS. 11-7p, FRI. – SAT. 11-8p, SUN. 11 – 5p

In our fair city, the savagely-titled neighborhood of Butchertown boasts Thomas Edison’s house, the building that formerly housed the oldest operating stockyard, and streets named after historical greats such as John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay.  But unfortunately it has also been well known for its occupation with–and the stinch of–  well…. animals passing on to a better place (we’ll just say that).

But hating to see the waste of an equally permeating history and the charming collective of shotgun and colonial homes, I am so glad that the boys at the Blind Pig have taken full advantage of the unpalatable reputation towards the high goals of generous conversation and happy bellies.

I love Bacon.  What else can I say?  And of bacon there is a-plenty here.  Having said that….this is not a bona fide “restaurant (or food) review”.  It is simply my own documentation and opinions made mostly of pictures.

As for the rest of the experience….get your own.  Head to B-town and drink your bacon from a glass!

I met with my dearest KVG, and still full of the dinner I ate before-hand, I ordered my first cocktail — Ohio River Water Fizz — made with Root Beer, Tanqueray, egg white, house made coffee bitters, and a mint garnish.  KVG had hers with Bourbon.  I should tell you now that most of this account will center around the drinks.  That’s because The Blind Pig has quite the wine/beer/cocktail menu.  Curiosity alone easily induces one too many so be careful!

Next, I tried the Anejo Highball while Katherine ordered some food: The Ivory Bacon with house-made Boudin Blanc Sausage, Bacon (of course), Munster cheese, and aioli.  I tasted and it was good.

And then we had to….  We just had to…. You understand.  The Bacon Manhattan.  Why hello.

No I must warn you… this drink tastes a lot like (can you guess?) BACON!! So don’t be shocked when you take your first sip.  KVG and I determined we like our bacon best as a solid.  But we’re glad we tried.

So to conclude my ameteur not-actually-a-review review, I will just say that I highly recommend the patronizing of Louisville’s own neighborhoods –even the smelly ones– so that we can keep these tasty homegrown gems around as long as possible.  Go.

Cupcake shops seem to be all the rage these days, (especially if you watch TLC every once in a while). We’ve got three shops in Lexington, KY alone, and this weekend I stopped by one for the first time: Gigi’s Cupcakes. Gigi’s has locations all over the South and Midwest (including Louisville). They have a daily menu of cupcake flavors to choose from, and luckily, I went with three other folks so that everyone could get a different cupcake and sample the others. We tried the Italian Cream Wedding Cake, the Midnight Magic (dark chocolate with chocolate chips), Texas Milk Chocolate, and Scarlett’s Red Velvet Cake. They were delicious! My only complaint is that Gigi’s piles the frosting on so thick that there’s about twice as much frosting as actual cake.

It was the perfect Saturday afternoon treat, and I’m looking forward to trying the other two cupcake shops in town to see which one is the best.

image via weheartit

If you follow us on Twitter (and if you don’t, what are you thinking?! go do it now) you’ll know that I, Wren, went to Deam’s lake last weekend to celebrate my friend Tyler’s birthday.

It was so nice to get away in our cut-off jeans and straw hats even if the water wasn’t much cooler than it was outside.

Here are some pics.  Is it the weekend again yet??

The Birthday Boy and his new flask.  He’s rather bright don’t you think?  (hahaha get it??)  btw- if you’ve never checked out this boy’s design skillz, DO IT NOW.

Although I spent a week working as a counselor at a Christian camp two summers in a row during college, I never had the opportunity to “go away to camp,” like you see in movies.  If I had it to do over, I think I would like to spend my summers on one of the Pali Overnight Adventures. This company offers 16 specialty camps at their facility in California for kids ages 9-16.

Campers can choose from:

Extreme Action Adventure
Girl Power Extreme
Hollywood Stunt Camp
Motorsports Extravaganza
Secret Agent Camp
Watersports Extravaganza
Acting Academy
Broadcast Journalism
Dance Academy
Rock Star Camp
Culinary Institute
Fashion Design Institute
Film Institute
Magazine Publishing Camp
Movie Makeup Academy
Counselor in Training
Leadership

Hollywood Stunt Camp?! Movie Makeup Academy?!  Secret Agent Camp?!

My only questions are: “Where do I sign up?” and “Do you think I can pass as a 16-year old?”

I am not ashamed to admit… I am one of those “Jane Austen freaks”.

And we live in maybe the best  town for fanciful imitation of her most loved classics.  Probably the absolute best spot for that is at the historic Locust Grove.

(Quick History Lesson:  On November 8, 1806, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark arrived home to Locust Grove.  It became the only residence still in existence west of Appalachia to have sheltered the famous explorers.  George Rogers Clark lived at the site in the final years of his life, from 1809 to 1818, and the property was adjacent to the home of Colonel Richard Taylor and his son, future U.S. President Zachary Taylor. (via wikipedia))

Locust Grove is just one of the gems of Kentucky and the Ohio River (and a PERFECT spot for weddings i might add) and it just happens to host an annual Jane Austen Festival.  Like how I brought that right back around?  Alas- I have not been able to attend the festival yet – for one reason or another.  But I always hear wonderful things about it and I look forward to the year that I do.

Our dear friend, Hayley, actually inspired this post by describing her adventure there with her sweet daughter Anna.  I would recommend going to see her first as her account is much better than my hearsay images.  But when you get back, here are some more images for your perusing.

I’m not sure i could do the dressing-up thing.  Simply because of the blazing heat!!   I’m all about modesty but Goodness Gracious how did they do it?  Have you ever attended an event such as this, and did you don the garb?

I had to steal some of Hayley’s darling pictures…especially of Anna Scout seeing one of her new favorite movies (Sense & Sensibility) in person… sorta.  This is just a teaser.  Again- check out her account for more.  Too Cute!!! I can’t wait to hear her imitating the accents and romantic language.

I LOVE watching Wimbledon.  But with regular daytime work-hours, i only get to listen to it through RadioWimbledon (which i highly recommend as those Brit commentators are quite hilarious).

Someday, I will go.  For now I will just dream, as i do with most things these days.

This year has been quite the year for surprises  – Venus beat by Pirankova, Roddick outted by Yen-Hsun Lu, Clijsters dominated by Vera Z*&$^@@.  This must be the year for hard-to-pronounce names.  In fact-his very moment #1 Federer is engaged in quite a struggle against his #12 competitor.

So who are you rooting for?  What was your biggest disappointment?  Have you ever been to Wimbledon?

What to do in-between matches… or sights for those non-tennis months…

Setting the mood. Where I live in today’s dream

Lucky you get to see inside my daydream today.  If we can’t buy our dreams, we can at least share them, right?

(This whole beachy cottage, french country, prep-school flirtation is not going away anytime soon btw.)

I’ll tell you what I want what I really really want…

Stocholm Navy-White French Tote

Vintage Mattress Ticking Pillows

North Meadow Hilton Head Croquet Set

I don’t have children yet, but if I did, they would wear things from Little Duckling while playing on their praire-coast front yard.

When calling the kids back to the house for dinner, I would wear this simple feminine blouse from Marni and these casual just-enough wedges from Stuart & Wright

Dessert is served white enamel cake stand while enjoying some family after-dinner entertainment

Bea and I were fortunate enough to hit Florida before the oil spill, so we had a wonderful week of sun, sand, food, and Veronica Mars Season One in Port St. Joe.

We stayed in a gorgeously decorated condo at Windmark Beach. Seriously, I wanted to take home everything in that condo.

(Condo and resort pictures from here and here.)

We ate a lot of great food that week at Joe Mama’s, The Dockside Cafe, Firefly, and our own kitchen, but the culinary highlight of the trip for me was lunch at Killer Seafood in Mexico Beach.

There was only one hog outside when we visited. I had the Killer Fish Tacos. AMAZING!!!

Bea saved me, Mr. Starling and Mr. Bea from being eaten by a giant relative of this guy:

And of course, I was finally able to introduce Bea and her husband to my hero:

All this is to say we had a wonderful time, and I highly recommend the Port St. Joe area for vacationing. So, once the threat of oily water and beaches subsides, you should do your part to help the people of Florida recover from the economic impact, and plan your vacation there.

If I ever go to Czech Republic, I am definitely going to stay at the Golden Well. This hotel sounds amazing! Also, all the Prague pics are from National Geographic’s website which has an amazing travel section worth checking out.

Wren’s Pick: As my eyelids creak and groan, I’m tempted to pull one of Bea’s old tricks where she simply posts a bed.  But i’ll go a little further and post beds in ideal locations.  I’ll go wherever these are.     *yawning*

Lost Coast of California

print by solus photograph on veer.com. location unknown

And these succulent slumberous  settings come with a bit more of an introduction and an encouragement to visit their web-home rather than their real home (’cause they might be really freaked out by that).  Grab some fresh, cozy ideas for your own sweet-sleep-spot, and the rest of your house for that matter.   Then again- the admiration and jealousy produced might be far too tiring.

abeachcottage.com documents the fixing up of an Australian sea-side cottage in a coastal vintage theme that feels just right at home.  I think I might die for that hammock setting.

This couple recently bought a summer house on the Norwegian coast.  Follow along as they transform it into a modern ScandinavianRetreat