Preakn' Out

Ahh, Pimlico, Home of the Preakness.  It's where I, along with 121,308 of my closet friends, spent last Saturday and it was a fabulous day.

Like I mentioned before, we pulled a Jeffersons a couple years ago and moved on up to the Grandstand seats.

I got to rock the look I put together last week, and see my boo in his seersucker suit for the first time since our wedding.

Thank you fascinator for not squeezing my melon-sized head

I love all of the energy of being at Pimlico and the fanfare that goes along with the race.  This year it included a visit from the Budweiser Clydesdales (and dalmatian).

A very patriotic parachuter, which I of course loved

And what we all agreed was the coolest part of the day, a fly-over by a Stealth Bomber

But I really adored seeing everyone in their Preakness finest

The girls

Mad props to pregnant Pam for being such a trooper.

The boys

Group picture, sans Doc

Obligatory Preakness cat picture

And I was a big fan of our seats that were only a few rows back from the rail; we got to see all the Preakness action.

The start

The second time around:

Amazing how much distance I'll Have Another made up in the final yards.  It was crazy being there in person and hearing the record-breaking crowd go absolutely bonkers for this horse.

We'll all be pulling for him to be saying I'll Have Another...win at the Belmont next weekend (had to do it).  But seriously, it would be awesome to say we were there when the first Triple Crown winner in Lord knows how many years (I could look it up but I'm too lazy), won the Preakness.

Preparing for Preakness

With the Preakness coming up this weekend, some may wonder how it's any different from the Kentucky Derby, and since I've been to the race a few times now, allow me to explain.  They both have grandstands where folks dress up in their finest and sip cocktails while watching the horses race by, but unlike the Derby, the Preakness has an infield party featuring a Maroon 5 and Wiz Kalifa concert and a half-man, half-horse, and possibly alcoholic mascot named Kegasus.

I liken the Preakness to a tuxedo t-shirt, it wants to be formal but it's here to party.  And that is why I love it, but also (and mostly) because it was at this race that I met my boo so many moons ago.

Back when we first met, we were slumming it in the infield but have since moved up to the grandstand seats for the past few years.  Both vantages have their virtues but I'm glad that we now class it up a bit, especially because I get to dress the part.

Tonight I'm going shopping with a couple friends to outfit ourselves for Saturday, so my mind has been, ahem, racing with ideas.

 A lot of ladies like to go the Maryland flag/Black Eyed Susan themed route in the spirit of the race

Dorothy Perkins Dress, Kendra Scott Necklace, House of Harlow Cocktail Ring, Day Tona Wedges, Target Floppy Hat

And last year I saw a few fellow race-goers rocking with the black and white look, and I have to say it looks quite chic

White Seersucker Dress  (Similar here),  Michael Kors Jet Set Zip Tote, super cute Horse Bit Bengal, Lanvin Sunglasses,  Pedro Garcia Wedges

However the hubs is wearing his tan seersucker suit and I'd like to wear something more complimentary plus my head is roughly the size of a prize-winning watermelon so finding a hat that fits can be quite a challenge.

To save myself some hat-trying-on grief I already took it upon myself to buy a fascinator which tends to be more forgiving to us big-headed ladies, so I am going to be building my outfit around that.  Here's one option:

Coral Fascinator (similar here), Lilly dress, MK watch, Katie and Kelly Janine wedges,  Navy Croco Ashton Wristlet, Michael Kors Watch

But since I already spent a tad too much on my headware (didn't realize my order was in GBP and not USD until I already purchased it, oopsies), I don't think a new dress is really in the budget.  I probably will follow the sage advice of fellow Tar Heels, Meredith & Gwyneth, and shop my closet instead.

Oatmeal lace clutch, Coral Bracelet 

Now if I only spent as much time researching the horses as I do on what I'm wearing.

Weekend Preview

There's so much going on this weekend, especially in Baltimore, it's going to be hard to pick one thing to do.

Festival Season problems.

For starters, on Saturday, there's the Kinetic Sculpture Race, where vehicles made to look like just about everything under the sun propelled by nothing other than human strength race their way through both the harbor and the rest of town.

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These things are quite a sight to behold, y'all.

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The Kentucky Derby is also on Saturday, and to help get into the Triple Crown Spirit, there's a viewing party at Pimlico, home of the Preakness.

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And FlowerMart is this weekend, which I've always wanted to go to, but have not yet made it in my 5 years here.

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Not to mention, Saturday is Cinco de Mayo, an event in itself.

So what's it going to be for me?  Well, only one thing is for sure, I'm getting my hair did Saturday morning. (Trust me, it counts as an event).

That and the most important event of all going on this weekend (no offense, Cinco de Mayo), these two are coming to visit:

Photo by Rachel Barker

I love me some L&B.

Happy Festival Season

Late April and 70-some degrees, it's beginning to look a lot like festival season in Baltimore, and one of the big ones to kick it off is the Federal Hill Spring Block Party (especially since the Highlandtown Wine Festival was postponed). 

However today, it was uber crowded.

But there were $4 big beers and great weather.

And we managed to run into some friends.

Plus for the after party we went to Ryleigh's, home of the, in my humble opinion, best crab pretzel in town.

Raw Oysters, Steamed Clams, Crab Pretzel, and Oyster Tacos: a Quintessential Baltimore dinner.

And I'm still rocking my Mod-ern Girl Pedi

A happy festival season to all, and to all a good night.

Wine Festival: Part I

This was not the email I wanted to get this weekend:

Noooooooooo!  The Highlandtown Wine Festival is just blocks from our house and definitely one of the highlights of the year.  We had been looking forward to it for weeks.  But after seeing what the weather has been like today, postponing it was definitely a good call.

However we did not let this get in the way of some good times this weekend.  We had leftover crabs from last Sunday's dinner so the Hubs made his mom's crabs and spaghetti recipe and invited some friends over Friday night for our own little impromptu festival.

It was all kinds of good, too.  I wish I could share a recipe but the instructions are a whole lot of "just add enough until it tastes right" steps.   Any attempt to document it would just result in me leading innocent souls astray.

We didn't have dessert prepared, but thankfully another friend arrived just in time. And his name was Mr. Tasty:

Nothing like seeing a couple of grown men excited about the ice cream truck

And I engaged in a whole new kind of double fisting:

Since our friends usually end up coming over to our house after the wine festival anyway for dinner and the inevitable visit from the ice cream truck, this was the perfect way to tide us over until May 20th.

Man, I really love it when a Plan B comes together.

Cheers to Plan B

I couldn't have asked for a better Baltimore weekend.  Summer-like weather in April certainly didn't hurt the equation.

Friday night was date night with dinner at Johnny Rad's, a walk to Fells point, and a glass of wine under the stars at V-NO.

Saturday was a run around the harbor, a birthday party with good friends, and corned beef from Attman's for dinner.

Sunday we attempted to have a picnic at Boordy, a winery just outside of the city, but it turned out that they were having an event that day and we arrived there only to be informed that it was sold out.  However, Plan B was not too shabby either:

Welcome to Baltimore Hon

Lunch was Caponata Paninis made by the Hubs. He added some chicken to Giada's recipe to give it more substance and it was spot on:

We had perfect weather with breezes coming off the harbor and it was an ideal setting for a picnic.

Canton Waterfront Park

It was like plan B should've been plan A all along.

And to top it off, this was our dinner on Sunday night:

Crabs and Natty Boh's with friends outside at a picnic table as the sun went down.  Doesn't get much better than that.

I'm ready to do it all over again.  Is the weekend here yet?

Meeting My Match(es)

I've already shared the story of how I came to amass a substantial matchbook collection here.  But I can sum up as well.  It's the same old story of girl meets fire, fire fascinates girl, girl collects matches.  And with all of those matches in my possession, I wanted a way to appropriately display them.

Enter inspiration:

Addicted 2 Decorating

I had the matches, and now the inspiration, but I needed a way from point A to B.  There are shockingly not a lot of matchbook art tutorials out there but I finally found this one on HGTV:

Not having or wanting to use scrap wood, I modified it a bit and here's what I came up with:

How to Make Matchbook Art


Materials
Matchbooks
Blank Stretched Canvas
Black Acrylic Paint
Scissors
Modgepodge
Paintbrush


Directions
1.  Paint canvas black with acrylic paint and allow to dry
2.  Cut matches from all matchbooks to prevent fire hazard (would hate for your newly made art to go up in a blaze of glory).
2.a. If you are anal like me, arrange matchbooks by location of origin.
3.  Use paintbrush to apply modgepodge to painted canvas in small sections.
4.  Press down a few matchbooks a time to modgepodged area.
5.  Repeat steps 3 and 4.  Continue to arrange matchbooks in a mosaic pattern until entire canvas is covered. Some overlap of matchbooks will be necessary.
4.  Brush another layer (or two) of modgepodge over the matchbooks to seal your work of art
5.  Hang and admire

Here is my final product:

As I said, I arranged my matchbooks by origin since I had large concentrations from places I've lived and I thought it would be cool to keep all of those together on the mural.

There's Raleigh in the middle:

Those No Longer With Us:  Rock-ola Cafe, Mr. Dunderbak's, Pat Patterson's Place, Darryl's, Pieworks, Grisanti's; And some old stand-by's: Winston's, Crowley's, 42nd Street Oyster Bar, Greenshield's, Griffin's

Chapel Hill:

Shout-outs to:  Top of the Hill, He's Not, Coffee Shop, Crook's Corner, 411 West, The Rat, Spanky's Yeats, Michael Jordan's 23, Bailey's, Spartacus

Hotlanta:

Emeril's, Vini Vidi Vici, Chops, Inman Park Patio, Food 101, Pool Hall, Roy's Atlanta, Halo, Genki, Taco Stand, Noche, One Midtown Kitchen, Taverna Plaka, Cafe Tu Tu Tango, Eclipse Di Luna, Pappadeaux, Nava

Hilton Head:

Marley's, The Lodge, Crazy Crab, Purple Onion, Juleps, Monkey Business, Harbourside Cafe, Fitzgerald's, Truffles, Aunt Chilada's, Cafe at Wexford, Salty Dog Cafe, Old Oyster Factory, Captain Woody's

And of course Baltimore:

Tio Pepe, RA, Phillips, James Joyce, Squires (like I said, that pesky smoking ban really slowed down my matchbook collecting)

I love this display because each matchbook brings back great memories of places I've been and the people I spent time with there and it gives me a way to see them all at once, which just wasn't happening with them all stacked up in a box or even in a glass vase.  Plus our wall was hurtin' for some art.  Mission accomplished, game, set, match(es).

Getting My Link On:

Tutorial Tuesday, Sassy Sites, DIY Showoff, My Repurposed Life, Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Overflowing With Creativity, Tuesday's Treasures, Addicts Not So Anonymous, Tip Junkie