It might seem like really bad timing on my part: 1) make plans to move abroad, 2) redo kitchen a month before leaving. Recipe for disaster – oh and I hate disastrous recipes. But we aren’t as crazy as we sound (or so I like to think). My hubs and I received a generous monetary gift from my in-laws for our wedding. Said in-laws have oh-so-wonderfully agreed to stay in our house (in our hood) while we are away. So we thought, why not make the kitchen more usable?! By usable we mean: installing a dishwasher and ripping out old uneven countertops and generally making the space less of a dark cave.

So we went marble shopping yesterday!

Look how excited I am by the marble slabs (above) and how steadfast and assured Matt is by this swirly granite (below):

Sadly, we learned that just days before our arrival to the Slab Farm (that’s what Atlanta Kitchen and Baths calls it), a worker had been moving all the lovely marble in our price range and broke it! Luckily said marble mover was not hurt (phew!), but we had to leave empty handed (sigh).

We needed some sort of consolation prize, and luckily the Slab Farm is just steps from one of my favorite bakeries in the whole wide world: Southern Sweets.

Wow! is right, piggy chef. Consolation prize: rustic cherry pie – ooooo I’d loose my marbles any day to  eat this! Slice of heaven, this is!

Can’t resist, must show you another shot:

It’s a lovely space. I believe one of the bakers is an artist, there’s an artist studio tucked off to the left of the shop, and wonderfully colorful paintings covering the walls. And you can eat your slice of pie on a soft buttery leather sofa. Delightful!

Oh, right, ahem, back to the kitchen. Please do not judge this photo below. This is the state of our kitchen at the moment: cabinet doors off, souls bared. Eesh! Can you tell even the camera could barely stand to look – just a quick blurry glimpse.

The plans are to prime/paint/demolish and then have the countertops and backsplash installed so it looks a little something like this:

(This is just one of many inspiration photos I’ve gathered, and I’m sorry I don’t know where it’s from. If it’s yours, please let me know and I’ll drop a link in straight away).

So that’s my weekend(s) job! What you lovelies up to?

You hear Cath and I wax poetic about Decatur all the time (it’s been our “home” town for the past 10 years): one of those small towns that happens to be six miles from the heart of a big city (Hotlanta!), a festival every month of the year, great boutiques, great food, great people, etc. Well, since I got married back in March, I actually haven’t been a true Decaturite. Now I’m a West Ender.

As a West Ender that means I’m a true Atlantan, just south of downtown. It’s not a neighborhood that a lot of Atlantans know much about, or if they do I usually get that “I hope you carry a gun on you” nose wrinkle when I tell people I live there. It’s true that the West End has seen wealthier days, but that doesn’t mean that as you roll through town you should lock your car doors twice and not make eye contact. West Enders are even friendlier than Decaturites (when Cath and I first moved to Decatur from DC it freaked us out when people whom we didn’t know would wave and smile – you just don’t do that in DC).

The West End is also awesomely historic. Most of the homes are brick bungalows built in the 1920s or gorgeous Victorians and Queen Anne homes built during the turn of the century. It’s home to my favorite house museum in the world The Wren’s Nest (you know how much we love that place – our latest adventure there was my Out of Africa inspired wedding photo shoot). The West End is Atlanta’s oldest suburb (originally a white affluent ‘burb) and is now home to a number of African American cultural centers like Hammonds House and The Shrine of the Black Madonna.

The West End is not the neighborhood to go to if you want Starbucks and high-end shopping malls. It’s the opposite of big box stores, neatly manicured strip malls, and homogeneity. Instead it offers plenty of mom and pop shops, soul food restaurants, and a Krispy Kreme.

Before I leave for Scotland, I’ll try to give you a few more peeks of The West End. These photos were taken on a little side road dividing The West End of Oakland City, in front of a mural of Brer Rabbit and (a menacing/trickstery-looking) Brer Fox hopping along to The Wren’s Nest.

On Lar/moi: tank top from Khol’s • French Connection for Sears skirt • Target belt • Ashley Watson purse • Ring from Heliotrope • Turquoise necklace from June Shin • Orange beaded necklace from a clothing swap

I usually like being a graphic designer by day and a blogger by night, but sometimes I feel like I live my life by the unnatural glow of a computer screen. I’m sure a lot of you can relate!

The thing is, I miss creating things with my hands (drawings, paintings, props, etc.) and I’ve been yearning to break out of my computer rut for a few years now. I’ve been dreaming of being a stylist (you know like  Tim Walker or Annette Joseph). I need to start as a stylist’s lacky – schlepping around furniture and props – and learn how to create an enticing world, communicated in a few photographs.

This past weekend, my uber-talented wedding photographer Aharon Hill asked me to style an inspiration wedding shoot (faux couple, faux wedding). I didn’t want to do the usual rustic charm wedding (barn, chalkboards, bunting, ball jars) – very sweet, but I wanted to try something a bit different. I took my inspiration from one of my all time favorite movies:

We had no budget and only 12 days or so to coordinate an Out of Africa wedding. I started sketching ideas and pulling together props, and Aharon roped some great vendors into helping us. (Below: my props took up a good part of my dining room and the entire interior of my car).

Finding a couple to be our Karen and Dennis was a little tricky, as was making a wedding cake appear, and telling Georgia to look like Kenya (“Less kudzu, more lions in the grass!”), but here are the result (see more photos on Aharon’s blog):

Photography: Aharon Hill
Styling: Lar
Location: The Wren’s Nest, Atlanta, GA
Flowers: Gardenia Floral Design
Paper goods: Calliespondence
Caligraphy: Carol Gray Calligraphy
Wedding cake: Miss Mamie’s Cupcakes, Cakes and Such
Models: Jackelyn and Miguel