easter sunday

happy easter!!

on sunday, i had to work. but i got off at one [not too bad] and headed to brunch downtown with the family. my parents, sister, and her boyfriend shawn met us at the green room - seriously my new favorite restaurant in greenville. it was so hard to decide what to order - i wanted to try everything! needless to say, we'll be going back...a lot! after lunch we decided to head home and enjoy a lazy sunday afternoon. i listened to the sermon from the morning service on-line, and then we napped. i don't know what it is about sundays, but sleep falls on me so heavy in the late afternoon. all i want to do after church is curl up and snuggle...maybe it has to do with sunday being a day of rest or something ;).  sometimes my mind has a hard time stopping and truly taking a sabbath, so my body has to kick it in high gear and zonk me out. it's like whether i want to or not i want to, my body decides to rest. those bodies...they really do know what we need if we'll just listen.

 ^sister, sister. love her so!

 ^ easter cheer!

 ^ i settled on the crab cakes atop a fried green tomato and topped with a poached egg. it did not disappoint!

 ^ the two men in my life...husband, and dad!

i hope you had a blessed easter sunday!

around town || gigi's cupcakes

scofield and i couldn't help but try out gigi's cupcakes last weekend. i had heard they were great, and you know me...a sucker for anything sweet. and let me tell you, they did not disappoint! we tried the bourbon pecan pie, chocolate turtle, midnight chocolate magic, and chocolate chip cookie dough. i would have bought one of every flavor if i could have...they all looked so good! they have a few staple flavors and then others that rotate out throughout the week. like the blackberry cobbler or chocolate salted caramel...we'll have to try those next time. i think my favorite part of their cupcakes is the tall, perfectly swirled icing. i could eat that stuff with a spoon. 

we had dinner with family that night and shared the cupcakes with every one for dessert. they were too good to keep to ourselves! 

 ^ what did i tell you!? just look at that icing!

if you're ever in the greenville are, make sure to check them out!

gigi's, you are delicious.

croissant grilled pimento cheese sandwich

i told you i've been on a pimento cheese kick lately...

i made these croissant grilled pimento cheese sandwiches for scofield and i for lunch one afternoon, and we thought we had died and gone to heaven. so rich. so delicious. so filling.

my love for this sandwich probably has a lot to do with my love for croissants. and the only thing i love more than a croissant is a grilled croissant. 

croissant grilled pimento cheese sandwich

ingredients:

• 2 croissants [ i used store bought ] 
• 2/3 cup healthy homemade pimento cheese, find recipe here
• 2 tbsp. butter

heat a nonstick pan on medium heat. cut each croissant in half. use one tablespoon of butter per croissant to butter each side. spread 1/3 cup of pimento cheese on the inside of the croissant and top with the other half of the bread. place on the pan and cook about 4 minutes each side, until golden and brown. remove from heat and enjoy immediately.

happy hump day!

weekend things.

this weekend was one of those weekends. magical and wonderful - full of rest, family, and friends. scofield and i went to the movies and saw noah on saturday. we really loved it, and certainly recommend it. i know there's been some controversy over the film...but if you're going to see it, i think you have to realize it's not a biblical account and just go see it for what it is - a form of entertainment created by hollywood. so that's what we did - and action, adventure, suspense, it had it all. so we really enjoyed it! we also went to multiple soccer games...scofield coached a soccer game friday night, we went and watched a friend play on saturday, and on sunday scofield had a soccer game that he played in. i'm obviously not a soccer mom..having no babies and all...but is 'soccer wife' a thing? because that's what i felt like this weekend. scofield told me i don't qualify as a soccer mom until i pack snacks in my bag. ha! fine...working on that.

 ^ once i was given the task of taking pictures at one of scofield's soccer games. and i'm pretty sure i took 200 + pictures on the camera. i was so excited to show scofield all of the shots i got...and when he got them, he deleted almost every.single.one. apparently sports photography is suppose to include player-ball contact, not just my husband running down the field and standing on the side lines? whatever. side line pictures are so much easier to take.

 ^ i haven't baked a batch of cookies in a while, and i seriously got the craving to do so this weekend. so...cookies it was!

 ^ some little flowers from the market

hope your weekend was lovely! welcome, monday!

in case you missed it...

i shared some easy diy tea cup planter party favors over on curbly this week. check it.

cheers! xoxo

the art of being a woman: nurturing

i completed a bible study at my church, called ezer, that focused what the bible says about being a woman. we read and discussed how the bible calls us, as women, to invite, partner, and nurture. i believe these characteristics are built into a woman, but with the world pulling us so many different directions, we have to fight to keep them alive and to make this special, unique contribution to the world.

 as i was browsing anthropologie the other day, i couldn't help but pick up darling magazine. the title pulled me in and drew my attention...."the art of being a woman." i began to to think... nurturing is a true art form of womanhood, but how easy does this good characteristic get twisted and we end up forgetting to take care of ourselves. we can get so busy trying to nurture every one else around us, that we forget to nurture our own body and soul.

nurturing ourselves can be something as simple as taking a bubble bath, reading a book, or going for a walk. for me, lately, it's been lighting a candle and indulging in some ghiradelli intense dark chocolate and a glass of wine. it's like a little escape. and because it's so rich, i don't need much. just a square or two will do before i'm fully satisfied and feeling refreshed.

i love to pair my dark chocolate with raspberries these days. between the dark chocolate, raspberries, and wine, this little snack is full of rich antioxidants, which in turn nurture your skin, reduce aging effects, and even fight cancer (bonus points!). i've been on a raspberry and chocolate kick for as long as i remember. as a teenager, i remember going to our local coffee shop and always ordering a raspberry mocha. and then of course there's raspberry and chocolate ice cream. you really can't go wrong with this combination in my opinion.

i'd love to know your perfect pairing with chocolate, and your favorite way to steal a few moments to yourselves. upload your photos to ghiradelli's page or instagram using the hashtag #intensedark. i'd love to hear!
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this post is sponsored by ghiradelli intense dark chocolate. all opinions are 100% my own. thanks for supporting!

spring brunch for curbly

today i'm over on the inspiring curbly blog sharing a spring brunch i recently put together. below are some outtakes i'm excited to share with you here...

you can see the full post on curbly, here, where i am sharing a sparkling apple pomegranate drink recipe and some of my tips and tricks for entertaining. happy monday! xoxo

have a happy weekend!

i hope your weekend is filled with fresh flowers and spring weather!

happy friday!

around town || tupelo honey cafe

tupelo honey recently came to greenville, and we couldn't be more happy about it! every time we go out to eat when family or friends come to town, it's always the first place we take them. so naturally, we took our friends eric and allie there last weekend.

 ^ biscuits are my number one guilty pleasure, so my favorite part of the restaurant is that as an appetizer, they always bring out fresh, homemade biscuits. their biscuits use to be a lot bigger. i mean, one biscuit could be your whole meal. but word on the street is that people were getting too full to eat their food so they had to start making the biscuits half as large.

 ^ i'm a big fan of the color yellow, so i love all of their yellow plates and mugs. so cute!

 ^ this is their sweet potato pancake that everyone raves about...and they're huge! our waiter told us he's only ever seen one person to eat the whole thing. 

tupelo honey, you are our favorite! 

you can see more posts around town here.