we went to see the lights before christmas at the riverbanks zoo in columbia, sc! there were lots of lights to see and a petting zoo where gub met a nice lama.

– ryan & gub

we love the cardboard white buffalo we got as a wedding gift! it keeps watch over our kitchen record player and is also fun and eco-friendly. the company that makes them is called cardboard safari and is based out of charlottsville, va. other animals are available, including deer, moose, elephant, and rhino in white or brown cardboard. they also have some limited edition pieces, like a skull designed by noah scalin, of the skull-a-day project.

our white buffalo arrived in a flat box with assembly required. it didn’t take long though to pop out the laser-cut pieces, put together, and hang up our cardboard trophy. it’s definitely been a conversation piece with guests ever since.

we recently bought gub’s brother, cullen, a deer trophy for his dorm room. he moves into his new home at the university of south carolina this coming weekend. gub is still in shock that her baby brother is starting college!

order here.

– ryan & gub

we are so excited about the most amazing popsicles EVER!!! banana pudding popsicle? made with real bananas and wafers? sold from a cart by the nice guy that made them? yes, have some. the king of pops handcrafted popsicle cart can be found in the highlands at the corner of north ave and north highland ave by the gas pumps at buddy’s. you will find stephen carse and his cart from 3 – 7 pm on weekdays and 12 – 7:30 pm on weekends.

these tasty treats-on-a-stick are fashioned after paletas, which are latin american popsicles made from fresh fruit. the king of pops features unique and interesting flavors you won’t find in grocery stores. they are made by hand each morning with local and organic ingredients and are a perfect refresher during this summer heat.

after losing his job, stephen decided to pursue an idea of opening a paletas cart after enjoying the frozen delights on travels through latin america. he perfected his recipes, got a cart, secured a street corner, and began selling his delicious treats!

you can follow the king of pops on twitter to find out his daily menu. today’s menu is: grapefruit mint, strawberry margarita, chocolate tarragon, pineapple with blueberry tip, lemon basil, banana pudding, and cantaloupe with cream & ginger.

be sure to get there early, most days the popsicles sell out. the prices are 1 for $2.50 or 5 for $10, so stock up and be the hit at your next pool party. you can also find the king of pops at irwin street market, super jenny, and various atlanta festivals.

– ryan & gub

king of pops

1079 north avenue ne
atlanta, ga 30307

i’ve never been shy about my affection for three’s company or john ritter. in fact, losing both john ritter and johnny cash on the same day was a huge loss for me. my brother, who is also a big fan of ‘the rit,’ has a copy of the life magazine poster seen hanging in jack’s apartment. i’ve always been envious of his poster and on the lookout for one of my own.

well much to my surprise, i recently found the poster for sale here! i am very excited! now i’m off to the regal beagle for celebratory drinks.

ryan

we are very excited to be a part of the kirkwood tour of homes! our home is one of only eight houses on the tour, so we feel honored to be asked to participate. the tour is part of the 8th annual kirkwood spring fling, which is going on this weekend in historic kirkwood. the festival also features a 5k race on saturday morning and an open air artist market with a ton of vendors, good eats, and live bands. admission to the festival is free from 10am-7pm on saturday at bessie branham park. tickets for the kirkwood tour of homes can be purchased at the festival or at local kirkwood businesses.

after the festival we hope post regularly again, we’ve spent all of our free time fixing up the house.

– ryan & gub

kirkwood spring fling
2051 delano drive ne
atlanta, georgia 30317

tour of homes
saturday, may 15th, 2010
sunday, may 16th, 2010
from 12pm until 6pm

5k race
saturday, may 15th, 2010
starts at 9am

artist market
saturday, May 15th, 2010
from 10am until 7pm

we recently tilled our garden! we rented a tiller from home depot for 4 hours, which was super easy, and got our backyard ready for spring planting. our garden plans are moving along and we hope to finish planting this week.

we realized our backyard was full of tons of random debris while tilling. we found rusty nails, roofing tiles, concrete, bricks, tools, and lots of other junk.

– ryan & gub

we noticed our horseshoe pits were looking rough recently, so we decided to give them a face-lift. we started by getting rid of the weeds and adding more sand. that alone made a huge difference. then we spray painted the poles bright colors, we went with blue and red, and topped it all off by adding our bottle cap collection.

we’ve been saving bottle caps for years, although we never really found the right use for them. gub has fond memories of her grandparents general store where they threw caps from soda bottles out front for gravel. the rusty gravel must have made an impression on her, we’ve been saving bottle caps since i’ve known her.

we’re excited to find a new use for our bottle caps! it’s gratifying to reuse something that could easily be thrown away. we plan on filling our pits a good bit more, our collection seemed a lot bigger inside the house. we are going to ask our local bartender to save bottle caps for us to help the cause.

– ryan

we celebrated easter by spending a fun morning drinking coffee and dyeing easter eggs in our new yellow kitchen. there will be a blog post on the kitchen re-do later, but here are the steps we took to create our colorful and recyclable eggs:

– hard boil eggs
– set up easter egg dye kit (we used a cheap grocery store paas kit)
– add stencils and resists to the eggs*
– stir dye bath and carefully place egg in the dye
– leave egg in the dye for 5 to 10 minutes (lighter colors take longer)
– remove from dye and remove stencil or resist
– place eggs in basket or nest (we used shredded paper scraps for our grass!)

*we created leaf stencils by picking small leaves from our yard and placing them on the egg. we then tightly wrapped panty hose around the egg and secured with a rubber band. small, thin leaves with few veins work best for the stencils. we also used electrical tape to add stripes and lines to the eggs.

yay easter!

deviled eggs for dinner!

– ryan & gub

last december we went to our friends doug & lizzy’s wedding in florida. it was a nice celebration with our good friends. doug is currently studying organic farming in england and lizzy recently graduated from edinburgh college of art. so sadly, we rarely see them these days. at their wedding, we enjoyed meeting a lot of their great friends from england, scotland, ireland, and germany.

many of the edinburgh folks either worked for or played in bands at the wee red bar, which is the bar/club on the grounds of the edinburgh college of art. my brother and i worked for the club downunder, the campus bar/club at florida state university, so it was interesting to hear about the scottish equivalent. the wee red bar has been open for 20 years and is a happening venue in edinburgh. they feature both local bands and national acts, art brut and green day have played there.

the wee red bar recently put out a dvd called the art school dance. it was filmed over two days during edinburgh college of art’s centenary year and features twenty live performances by students, graduates and friends of edinburgh college of art. both the dvd and its packaging are really great, be sure to check out the trailer below.

– ryan & gub

wee red bar

edinburgh college of art
lauriston place
edinburgh EH3 9DF
united kingdom
+44 131 229 1003

if you’ve ever lived or travelled on the east coast, you’re sure to have come across south of the border, or at least seen it’s wacky billboards on i-95 from florida to new jersey. it’s this strange bright tourist attraction on the border of north and south carolina that’s been open since 1949, predating disneyland by 6 years and disney world by 22 years. originally, south of border was just a bar which catered to the dry north carolina counties bordering to the north. over time it expanded into a thriving town full of hotels, roller coasters, and crazy tourist shops.

as a child growing up in virginia, south of the border was this sort of mini disney world our family stopped by on the way to visit relatives in florida. there were roller coasters, shops with game rooms and toys, and these bright concrete animals all over the place. what child wouldn’t have fun there? later in high school, i remember stopping there on numerous band trips. we would try and impress each other by drinking spicy blenheim ginger ale.

as campy and touristy as south of the border seems, it is still a unique and interesting part of american roadside history. the fact that it’s captivated children and travelers and stayed in business for over 60 years is quite impressive.

we like to tease gub’s mom because as a child she dreamed of having her honeymoon at south of the border! check out this link for some amazing vintage south of the border photos. you can picture how her honeymoon might have gone.

– ryan