EAB Designs

weekend in a nutshell ~ captured by iPhone

 

     ~ I always order a pot of hot tea ~ 

 

~walked into town & took the long way home~

 

~munched on it all weekend~

Would love to hear what you enjoyed this weekend!

Richmond's Fan District

 

This weekend we visited Richmond to celebrate sweet girl's birthday.  She's a senior this year and living in Richmond VA's Fan District.  Her home, which she shares with two friends, is conveniently located within walking distance to her classes on campus.  Here's a view of her street.

The Fan District is mostly a residential neighborhood filled with late 19th and early 20th century homes, Edwardian and Revival in style.

I love the charming details you find in many of the row homes.  Peeking down the space between the homes you can see glimpses of beautiful gardens I wish I could explore.

A few blocks from sweet girl's street is Monument Avenue.  In addition to historic monuments you'll find beautiful homes and churches.  The above statue is of Robert E. Lee.

The Fan District is also home to many great restaurants.  One of our favorite places is Kuba Kuba, delicious Cuban food. Their tres leches cake was featured on Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate".  Another cozy and quirky place to eat is the Black Sheep.  The menu items are unique and so are the ingredients. Fabulous sandwiches served on French baguettes are one of their specialties and breakfast is served as well.  For mom's home cooked comfort food, visit the Village Cafe, we love it.  These restaurants, as well as most in the area, are quaint and small. So arrive early, as lines begin to form quickly.  Although outside of the Fan District, I have to mention Bottoms Up, the best pizza in town with a great atmosphere.

Room with a View

Sweet girl is now settled in NYC.  She is living on the 20th floor and has amazing views of the city from every room.  I took the next few pictures from her bedroom window looking out onto the Hudson River.

This is looking down on Central Park, where she went for a run the first morning after her arrival.

She has a spacious dining and living area with a full kitchen.  There are a row of large windows across the dining area and the above photo is the view from those windows.  My husband and I didn't get to stay late enough to see the views at night, but I'm sure they are spectacular.

The Conde Nast Building

Sweet girl is great at navigating the subway system on her own, but to make me feel better we did a practice run to the Conde Nast building where she'll be interning.  We walked right up from the subway stop in Times Square and there was the building right in front of us.  (It's located next to "One Times Square" where the New Year's Eve ball descends each year.)  It was at that moment, with the sight of the people, activity and sounds of Times Square, it really sunk in what an incredible opportunity this is for her. She'll be keeping a daily journal, with photos, all summer and I can't wait to read about her adventures.

Our Exciting News!

Sweet girl was offered a summer internship for graphic design with Conde Nast Publishing in NYC.  She set her sights on interning in NYC and is thrilled to be headed there at the end of this week.  She'll be working until August, when she'll return to begin her Senior year at college.  We couldn't be more proud.  We're going to miss her like crazy this summer, but look forward to taking a few weekend trips to spend some time with her in the city.  The Conde Nast building is located in Times Square and she'll be living just a short subway ride away.

We've been busy shopping this past week building a work wardrobe. We have a few more essentials to get this week and then we leave to help her move in to her new home away from home for the summer.

I snapped this picture of our two girls this weekend.  While sweet girl is interning in NYC, our youngest daughter "sweet pea" will be working part-time at The Gap - a good thing since she loves clothes and will happily be taking advantage of her employee discount.  Looks like our summer will fly by, but it promises to be full of fun, new opportunities, weekend trips and relaxation!

Spring is here & summer is on the way because...

 

our '69 VW Crew Cab is back out on the road,

 

fresh flowers can be found all around the house,

and tickets have been purchased for outdoor summer concerts & picnics on the lawn at Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center.  (Less than 10 minutes from our house!)  Looking forward to hearing the B 52's; Rain (A Tribute to the Beatles); Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs, Donald Fagen; and more!  Can't wait.

A Visit to the College of William & Mary

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter weekend.  We just returned from a weekend away to visit our girls at college and deliver a few Easter treats.  First stop was the College of William and Mary.

Founded in 1693, it's the second-oldest university in the United States.  The campus is beautiful and it was a perfect weekend to explore.

This is Crim Dell bridge on campus.  Urban legend has it that if two lovers cross the bridge together and kiss at the crest of it, they will be together forever.  However, if that couple separates at any point thereafter, the lady must throw her ex-lover off of the bridge and into the water to break the curse of being single forever.

Another campus tradition is to swim the Crim Dell pond prior to graduation.  We came across a few snapping turtles enjoying a swim.  (Can you spot this one?) Our daughter has taken a swim in the pond, but has a few more years to attempt the last two legendary tasks. (Jumping the wall of the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg after hours and streaking through the sunken garden on campus).  These three events make up the W&M Triathlon.

Spring is a great time to visit, as the tulips, dogwoods and wisteria are in full bloom.

The campus has cozy wooded areas and beautiful Georgian and Anglo-Dutch architecture.  This is Barrett Hall, our daughter's dorm.  From the campus, we headed across the street to Colonial Williamsburg.  Next time, I'll share a few pictures of the gardens there which are always inspiring.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Sweet girl came home from school on Friday with a list of new recipes to try that she discovered on Pinterest. I apologize in advance for anyone who is giving up sweets for lent, or trying to maintain a healthy diet, but this is what she made today.

She did an amazing job and yes, they were as delicious as they look.  I know because I ate two!

If you'd like to make some pumpkin cinnamon rolls for yourself, you can find the recipe here. Tomorrow she will be making Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers for dinner.  Did I already mention how much I love having my girls home?

I could never love anyone more than I love my sisters - Jo March

 

My girls sharing a moment together on the front porch.

The girls ended up with different spring breaks this year, but were happy to have at least one day of their vacation that overlapped.  I love to see them laugh together and sometimes suddenly stop talking when I walk into the room.  For there are always things you can only share with a sister, and that's just how it should be.

A Day of Wine Tasting

Happy May Day!  I hope you all enjoyed a beautiful spring weekend!

On Saturday, we headed out early in the morning to drive to the Frederick Wine Trail, (in Maryland) for a day of wine tasting.  We had never been wine tasting before but were happily meeting up with friends who happen to be wine enthusiasts. We enjoyed driving down country roads and taking in the beautiful rolling farmland which surrounds the family-owned wineries.

The buds had sprouted and the fresh spring grape leaves had just begun to unfurl along the vines.

Time flew by as we chatted with our friends and enjoyed the wine tasting.  After visiting the second winery we decided to stop for lunch and discovered a fabulous restaurant.  If you're ever in the area, I would highly recommend Drover's Grill and Wine Co. - the crab cakes were excellent!

We visited four wineries in all, stopped in at a great bike shop to look at tandems, and then enjoyed another delicious meal in downtown Mt. Airy.  When the day was over, it truly felt like we had taken a little vacation. (Thanks Pete and Kathy!) Oh, and we also came home with three bottles of wine.  Cheers!

Williamsburg in Spring Time

Last Saturday was admittance day at The College of William and Mary, so we decided to leave a day early to enjoy the weekend in Williamsburg.  Sweet pea made earlier arrangements to meet with a few upperclassmen on Friday, so my husband and I walked around Colonial Williamsburg which is adjacent to the campus.

 

The weather was beautiful, crowds were at a minimum and many of the flowers and trees were already blooming.

Bread and Blossoms

Good morning and happy Monday!  It was incredibly wonderful to take time away from the studio for a few days and enjoy our first, but very cold, spring weekend in April.  First up, was some time spent in the kitchen baking bread.  I haven't been making bread as much as I used to and after looking over my favorite bread cookbooks, I couldn't wait to start again.  I love the whole process of bread making - from the smell of the yeast and the rising of the dough, to how incredible it is that a few simple ingredients results in something so absolutely delicious you want to eat the entire loaf.

Fresh out of the oven!  The hardest part is waiting for the loaves to cool a bit before you can slice into one. After a wonderful day spent in our warm kitchen, the next morning we headed outdoors. Don't let the cherry blossoms fool you, it was cold!

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Sunday morning we were up bright and early to take the metro downtown.  We are in the midst of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in DC and our "Sweet Pea", along with four of her friends, were participating in the annual Cherry Blossom run.  (She had to leave the house at 5:45 a.m.)

My husband and I waited at the finish line to cheer her on.  She did such a great job and it was so exciting when we spotted her coming up the hill approaching the finish line.

Here they are after the run and ready to head off to a favorite restaurant.  My husband and I made our way back to the metro as well and we stopped off in Clarendon to eat breakfast at one of our favorite cafes, Le Pain Quotidien (the daily bread).

It was nice to come in from the cold and enjoy a cozy breakfast accompanied with a pot of hot tea. Enjoying their delicious artisan breads inspired me to try baking those as well.  So I came home and ordered some new bread baking supplies which I'll share with you once they arrive.

My Favorite Bread Cookbooks:

The Book of Bread, by Judith & Evan Jones

Baking with Julia, by Julia Childs

Snow Day

Last evening we received eight inches of snow, our first accumulation of the year.  It was a heavy wet snow that coated the trees and we awoke this morning to a winter wonderland, and thankfully no power outages.

I relish any opportunity to keep my girls home from school so I love snow days.  My husband is even working from home today so it's especially nice.  After my walk outside this morning, I took one of our frozen bags of blueberries (from our summer picking) and made our favorite blueberry buttermilk pancakes.

So delicious, easy to prepare and the perfect snow day breakfast.  I don't have a link to the recipe since it's one of my own, but if you'd like to make them just let me know and I'll be happy to send you an email with the recipe.