our tulip tree did surprisingly well this year. a few early warm days combined with late freezes caused some worry, however it powered through. i would say general beauregard lee made the right prediction with how cold it’s been.

the blooms were still quite beautiful even with the frigid temperatures. they always stand out against the dormant late winter landscape. be sure to check out more photos from previous blog posts: spring 2012, late winter 2012, spring 2011, late winter 2011 & spring 2010.

– ryan

there’s a new dancing goats in town with a huge porch and a small, but appetizing, lunch menu! it’s also the first business to open at ponce city market, atlanta’s exciting new city project from the creators of the chelsea market in nyc.

ponce city market is the largest adaptive reuse project in atlanta’s history! the massive project involves restoring the historic sears, roebuck & co building in the old forth ward with lots of new restaurants, businesses, residences and surrounding parks. as of now the plan is to open spring 2014.

take the virtual tour!

– ryan

dancing goats ponce city market

675 north avenue
atlanta, ga 30308
404-874-0370

starbucks recently started selling their blonde roasts in whole bean bags at both grocery stores and starbucks outlets. they sold whole bean bags of their christmas blonde last winter, so i’m glad to see year-round options available.

i’ve also discovered if you order the blonde roast at a starbucks, you actually get a hand-brewed pour-over style cup of coffee! they don’t even charge extra for the hand-brewing, like other coffee shops do.

be sure to check out our previous posts on light roasted coffees as well as pour-over brewing!

– ryan

happy valentine’s day! clementine loved her valentine’s balloon. she was too small to fully enjoy her last encounter, so she made the most of it this time around.

gub created some sweet home-made cards for the family and in return received flowers and treats from cacao atlanta! this included handcrafted truffles, dark chocolate peanut butter cups & muscadine cordials. yum yum!!!

be sure to stop by one of their atlanta locations or factory store for some local “bean to bar” treats and good ol’ fashioned chocolatiering! here is their boutique menu or you can purchase items from their website.

– ryan

cacao atlanta factory store

312c north highland avenue
atlanta, ga 30307
404-221-9090

method recently teamed up with orla kiely to add a little style to their home cleaning products. these orla kiely designed products are sold exclusively at target and include hand & dish soap, foaming wash and cleaning spray. the scents are quite nice as well, especially tomato vine!

be sure to check our previous posts on our oral kiely goodies & bedding!

– ryan & gub

it’s groundhog day! looks like georgia’s general beauregard lee, who is 94% accurate, saw his shadow this morning and predicts six more weeks of winter. we’ve had a mild winter, so maybe we’ll actually get some snow!

clementine and i planned on heading to lilburn to see the general make his prediction live, however we were both sickly and it was freezing. next year for sure! at least we woke up and put on groundhog day, as per holiday tradition!

– ryan & gub

time for some father-son-look-alike contests!!!

– ryan

clementine has been enjoying her new swing!

– ryan & gub

our friends rob & ellen recently sent us a gift box from intelligentsia with a bag of fresh roasted coffee and two mugs! we had never tried intelligentsia before, at least that we are aware of, so we were excited. it was a very tasty, smooth cup of coffee, especially brewed with our chemex. we were quite impressed!

on a related note, we’ve upgraded our coffee brewing setup over the last few months. our electric tea kettle was on the fritz, so we got the new variable temperature kettle from bonavita. it’s the perfect companion for pour-over coffee brewers and tea lovers alike. it has a gooseneck spout for easy pouring and the kettle offers complete temperature control for ideal brewing settings. there is also a hold feature to keep your water hot throughout the brewing process, or if you plan on having another cup of tea. basically, it’s pretty awesome!

for christmas we also upgraded our grinder, which was on its last legs as well. we went with a conical burr style from capresso. it actually grinds the beans instead of chopping them, preserving aroma and flavor. the grinder is also extremely quite and super easy! you just set the fineness (from coarse to turkish fine), turn the knob to the amount of cups you want and it does the rest. for our chemex setup, we stick with a coarse grind, which you can see in the below photo.

– ryan

happy birthday gubby!

– ryan, clementine & grey