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

This week I had to mournfully remove my beloved engagement ring and wedding band to accommodate my ever-expanding fingers. Until little Starling arrives and my fingers shrink back to a svelte size 4.5 , I’m making due with a cheap, yet cute set of 3 stackable rings from Claire’s.

Since I’ve had my eyes on rings lately, I thought I’d share with you some of the bling that’s been catching my eye.

Mini Snow Drop Ring from Free People

Cubist Ring from Janna Conner

Black Crystal Stack Rings from Fossil

Burlesque Roe ring from Poppi

Flower ring by Jules McDermott

I’ve had the joy of taking several batches of new parents a hot meal in their first few hectic weeks of babyland, and with a little one on the way, I’m hoping that someone (anyone?) might return the favor. For all you folks who find yourselves trying to coordinate meal drop-offs via telephone, email, or facebook, check it out, there’s a whole website dedicated to meal planning!

TakeThemAMeal.com lets the user create a schedule for someone in need, and then let’s other folks sign up! Genius!

CNN.com ran a really interesting column last week from James Oseland, editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine. In the article, Oseland listed his “5 Foods I Am (Only Somewhat) Ashamed to Say I Love.” Click on the link to read the secret indulgences of a food connoisseur, and check out the comments section to read confessions from everyday Americans.

I loved reading about the guilty pleasures of a food snob, and the accompanying confessions of the readers in the comments section (apparently, Jack in the Box tacos are amazing). Food is such a personal, comforting thing, something people can be so passionate about!

Feel free to confess any guilty food pleasures of your own in the comments.

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.

Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day. Actually, it’s one of my favorite things, period. And since this is a blog where we share our favorite things, I’d like to list some of my favorite breakfast dishes and where to get them.

Favorite eggs: The Kentucky Farmhouse Scramble from Lynn’s Paradise Cafe. (pictured above): eggs scrambled with country ham, Jarlsberg cheese, and roasted red peppers, topped with fried onions, served with fried green tomatoes and biscuits with sorghum butter. with  Ever since this dish was featured on Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay, it’s the only thing I order when I go to Lynn’s.

Favorite pancakes: Cornmeal pancakes from Boone Tavern Hotel. So delicious!

Favorite French toast: A Nice Restaurant. Thick slices, loaded with cinnamon, perfect.

Favorite Donuts: Square Donuts. Sure, they’re fun-shaped, but they also taste amazing!

Favorite breakfast sandwich: Mcdonalds’ Sausage McMuffin with Egg. No road trip is complete without one. Following a close second is the  ACE of a BLT from Wild Eggs. Avocado, Cheddar, fried Egg, Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato on toasted sourdough. (pictured below)

How about you, dear readers? How do you like to start the day, and where? Any suggestions for best bacon? Best sausage? Best biscuits and gravy? Give us your picks in the comments, please.

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?”

Kitty measuring cups

Hotman trivet

Head Chef utensils

Bunny paper towel holder

Chef vegetable peeler

A whole slew of products from Boston Warehouse

Boon Grass drying rack

This weekend, after years of wanting to learn, I was finally taught how to play Settlers of Catan. Now, for some reason, learning a new game always gives me an anxiety attack, and Catan seemed so complicated, but once the game got started, it was surprisingly easy to understand, and I had a blast playing it.  If you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it, and if you have played it, I think you should have me over for a round. And to celebrate my initiation as a Catan player, I’d like to share with you a few of my other favorite games.

Mexican Train Dominoes

Blokus

Beyond Balderdash

Pit

Buzz!, which is one of only two video games I can play for any length of time without wanting to throw the controller into the television. The other one is:

And for some outdoor fun, there’s always:

Bocce Ball

and, of course, Cornhole.

How about you, dear readers? What are some of your favorite games?

The shop also features some gorgeous accent pieces: