Tumble w/ c.a. Marks

A couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to get a way from it all. A sister-friend, myself, and our teenage daughters packed up the cars and headed for Mentone, Alabama. We rented a quaint little 2-bedroom cabin located on a bashful piece of land just a few miles off the beaten path.

Yes, the cabin had wi-fi but I still felt disconnected from the world which was the point. It was nice to unplug for a day or two. I was able to get my vision boards started on that weekend. Yes, I’m proud of those vision boards! I look at them every day and they are a reminder of what I’m trying to accomplish.

The cabin had a jacuzzi on the back deck. I had never been in a jacuzzi before. I know, right! I quickly realized what I had been missing all these years. As I was adjusting to the jacuzzi-induced tranquility, it dawned on me that our home patio/courtyard is perfect for a jacuzzi.

But I digress….please excuse and forgive my day-tripping back to the days of my first jacuzzi experience.

Okay, Mentone, Alabama. Well, I was warned that there wasn’t a whole lot to do in Mentone which is really what I was looking forward to anyway. We did find a lovely little art gallery that supports the local artists.

The Forge Gallery is owned by Artist Blacksmith, Walter Howell and his wife, Rhonda. When we were visiting we only met Rhonda and what a lovely delight she was! Everything we commented on or touched or ooohed and awwwed over she could tell us the history of the piece, the artist’s background, and a whole lot of other interesting facts. The gallery is small but we could have stayed for hours! The gallery also hosts classes. So if you need to recharge your creative battery then check out The Forge Gallery in Mentone, Alabama.

Upon our day of being out and about, taking in what Mentone had to offer, I found the reason I need to come back to this sleepy little town – The Mentone Springs Hotel. Oh Em Gee! I would have never known that this place was so awesomely cool if I hadn’t been brave enough to just strut right into the place like I knew what I was doing. Fortunately for me, the wedding they were having there wasn’t due to start for another hour. So I quickly walked the lobby and snapped all the photos I could. I’m coming back to this establishment as a guest! Can you say writer’s retreat? Maybe I should bring The Gent on my first stay though.

Mentone Springs Hotel is on the National Register of Historical Places and is one of the oldest hotels in the State of Alabama.

Built in 1884 by Dr. Frank Caldwell of Pennsylvania, the hotel was finished but still lacking a name. Dr. Caldwell was living in the home of John Mason, whose daughter, Alice, had read accounts of Queen Victoria’s visit to a place called Mentone in France. The news item had given the meaning of Mentone as “a musical mountain spring.” She suggested the same name be given to this spot where a rippling mountain spring flowed.

At any rate, please enjoy some of the photos I took when I strolled through the first floor of The Mentone Springs Hotel. Click on any photo for a larger view.

    

The Mentone Springs Hotel is listed in the book, “1000 Places To Visit Before You Die.” The book is a New York Times best seller.

Check out their website for more information such as wedding venue, festivals, and seasonal room rates. www.mentonesprings.com

If you are looking for something a little more rustic and isolated then I might suggest the cabin we stayed in while we were in Mentone. Found on VRBO.com. You know, the one with the jacuzzi. The jacuzzi on the back deck. The back deck with a view. The view of peace and serenity.

More photos…

Okay, so I had to throw in the photo of an antique store we visited as well to make the photo-layout even. The antique store is right beside the Mentone Springs Hotel, they share the parking lot. And the Forge Gallery? Same thing, all three right there in sort of a horseshoe.

Another surprise for me was the dining experience. The Wildflower Cafe & Country Store was awesomely cute! The eclectic decor and stellar service are worth the trip alone. Oh, and the entertainment filled me with happy-joy. Tony Goggans came over to our table to sing, “Brown Eyed Girl” to all of us. You will have to look him up on their website. It was for my niece’s birthday. I think she was embarrassed as any good 17-year old should be but this 40-something year old seasoned gal loved every minute of it. I’m glad we had a reservation because they were slammed packed full!

Mentone is a great place to visit and hopefully I will be able to get back there soon. I’m definitely adding it my places to have a soft landing when I’m making my atmospheric entry from cyberspace. It is just the kind of area to visit when you want to unplug and unwind.

Do you have a favorite place you like to go to unplug?

Original Article

Taken with instagram

♦ Fashion Week Alabama in Huntsville [FWAH] ♦

The Eaves Restaurant and The Budding Chef Cooking School are under one roof. The two are owned and operated by Chef Merle Phillip. I had the privilege recently to sit down with Chef Philip to do an interview. The next FWAH networking mixer will be February 23rd and The Eaves Restaurant will play host to the event.

Growing up in New Jersey, Chef Merle Phillip’s parents were avid travelers and were the ones who gave Chef Merle her love of food. She graduated from the University of Maryland and trained/studied in the New York City area, the Mecca of all things culinary.

So let’s get on with the interview shall we?

When did you start your business?
I started The Budding Chef Cooking School in October of 2008. I wanted to share the love of the culinary arts with others. We started with children and teen classes first. We wanted to teach them to prepare healthy meals, educating them how to make intelligent choices in the kitchen. I’m a strong believer of bending the tree while it is still young. The Budding Chef started to evolve into the catering business as well. Then in February of 2011 we opened our restaurant, The Eaves.

Tell me about some of your recent accomplishments.
The Eaves Restaurant has been on the Top 10 list on Urban Spoon and we’ve been rated one of the Top 10 restaurants in Go Magazine for the year 2011. Most restaurants don’t survive their first year, let alone flourish, so these two accomplishments are very meaningful to us.

What is the key to your success?
I do my job well. I am constantly raising the bar on my staff and myself. By doing my job well, touching every plate, and striving to do better every day. I don’t ever want to get so full of myself where I think I can sit back and relax.

How do you keep current in your area of expertise?
Personally, I keep up to date on industry trends. This year I will attend a professional culinary boot camp. Remain open and learn from people who have achieved excellence. As far as the staff and servers, I consider them having an additional role, our sales force. They share the backbone of the business. We have a training program in place where we continue to cultivate the craft of fine dining.

Community involvement?
I am a member of the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce. I’m a supporter of our local NPR station, WLRH. Wounded Warriors is a philanthropic endeavor near and dear to my heart. I host a special cooking class for the spouses of Wounded Warriors.

Is there anything you have coming up that you’d like to share with everyone? Events, promotions, specials?
The Budding Chef Cooking School kind of took a back seat in 2011 so I want to let everyone know that we will be back in full swing for 2012 with the cooking school. We are filling up our calendar with all sorts of fun classes. One of which I am extremely excited about is called Art with An Appetite. So be sure to get on the schedule for that one! Of course The Eaves Restaurant is also expanding into social events and activities more and more in 2012. We are going to do a series called Dinner & Dancing!

####The Eaves Restaurant is playing host for the Fashion Week Alabama in Huntsville social networking mixer that will be held on February 23 from 6-8PM. Chef Phillip tells me that she is extremely happy to be a part of this event and mentioned creating fashion inspired beverages and hors d’oeuvres specific for this event. Proceeds will go to support the goals and missions of Fashion Week Alabama in Huntsville, as well as community outreach efforts.

Remember to check out the websites for class information as well as hours of operation for the restaurant.

The Budding Chef Cooking School and The Eaves Restaurant
The Eaves on Facebook
501 Church Street
Downtown Huntsville
256.489.1752

For more information about Fashion Week Alabama in Huntsville you can visit their website at www.fashionweekalabamahsv.com Be sure to LIKE their Facebook page as well to stay up to date on all the news and activities.

Come on out February 23 (6-8PM) for a fun and glamorous networking event.

Original Article

I have an on-off relationship with Pinterest. One day I’m all up in there liking stuff, pinning and repinning, even commenting! Then other days I’m all like, “eh.”

For the life of me, I can’t explain the obsession with Pinterest. But it is so cool! Sometimes.

For me, it’s fun but I can live without it too. I understand pinning to a board so you can save it for later. You know where you put stuff, easy to find later when you want to view it again. You can categorize things. This is probably the main reason I do like Pinterest. There is nothing I don’t like about Pinterest but as I said before, I can take it or leave it.

At any rate, here are my labels for the boards I have created on Pinterest.

• Products I Love (self-explanatory)
• Favorite Places and Spaces (places I’d like to travel/visit)
• Books Worth Reading (self-explanatory)
• My Style Board (clothes, jewelry, and other accessories)
• For The Home (decorating ideas, furniture, cool ideas)
• Writing (cool things related to writing; notebooks, quotes)
• The Coveted (great fashion looks from Jennine Jacbos)
• Rocket City Bloggers (local bloggers blogs)
• Foodie
• Rome, Italy
• Quotes & Inspiration
• Total Cuteness (I don’t even know why I have this one)
• Want (lusty stuff, fun)
• DIY (this is where I’ve figured out how to really use Pinterest)

Okay, now that I have all of my labels laid out here where I can see them in writing I realize that I’ve been using Pinterest wrong. Keep in mind I created most of these boards when I first signed up and really had no idea what I was doing over there and before I knew what the purpose of Pinterest really was.

Because I mean really, why do I need a board labeled Total Cuteness? What is on that board that I need to save and reference in the future?

Now, though, I want to use Pinterest to save ideas and DIY projects. Have a place to store great Internet finds whether it is a simple craft project to a recipe to a new designer.

Oh well, it is fun though. Follow me on Pinterest. And as soon as I figure out how to follow you back I’ll do it.

Happy pinning!

Original Article

Month one in 2012 is just about to come to a close. I thought this might be a good time to reflect and evaluate how I am doing, so far, on things I wanted to change this year. You know do a quick spot check on any resolutions I had set for myself.

I’ve always been a late bloomer in all sorts of areas. So setting goals and resolutions in January is no different. I took a while in January to figure out what it is I wanted to really get done this year. I should have done this in December I suppose but oh well. I didn’t actually write down my goals until last week, when we were well into the first month of the New Year.

Last month, to wrap up 2011, I wrote this blog post to Dear 2012. In it I wrote about what kind of person I wanted to strive to become. I want to become a more agreeable person with a positive attitude who is satisfied with the current state-of-affairs of her life. That is a big chunk of cake isn’t it? For me, that is a lot of effort. Sad, yes, I know.

So how am I doing? It is time for a little self-assessment here, a spot check so to speak.

Am I agreeable and satisfied? Yes, I am satisfied with where I am in life today. Do I want to aspire for more? Yes, of course, but it is more of a realistic nature these days (I wrote them down). Am I agreeable? Well, you’d have to ask The Gent and other people that know me face-to-face for the answer to that one. But inside my head, do I think I am being more agreeable? Yes. I truly believe it.

Have I tamed my complaining and bellyaching? On the social media sites, yes. I have had some slips but they were more civilized than they had been in the past. Or not as long and drawn out. Or not as dark and depressing. Or bitter. In real life? I’ve let myself slip from time to time but I would catch myself, become aware of what I was doing/saying, and I was able to reel it in. This area still needs vast improvement but it’s only January.

Have I shown gratitude? Yes. Gratitude is an action not a feeling or emotion. I still get up every day, shower, go to work, clean the house, support my family, and I try to help others. Can I do more to show my gratitude? Probably. This needs more pondering on my part; what else can I do to demonstrate my gratitude?

Have I written down everything, read more books, and listened? Wow. I am writing more. I have read 4 books in January (but I am slipping already). Have I listened? Hmmmm. I don’t know the answer to this question.

Have I reacted? LOL!!! I don’t know if I will ever be able to overcome this one. I try. I try so hard. I think perhaps I have gotten better but I want to become perfect at this one. But as they say, “Progress not perfection.” Ugh.

The shopping rule of waiting 3 days? Um, yeah, I’ll pass over this question. I still have 11 months left in the year to get a handle on this one. Thank you. What was I just saying about progress not perfection? ;-)

So yeah, I think this was all that needed addressing from that previous post, so far. As I stated earlier, I have finally written down my goals, dreams, and aspirations for 2012. I even made vision boards to help me stay on course. Is it working? I think so. I am more aware. I have a reasonable plan too.

Mapping a plan and visualizing it is helpful to me. I need to plan and schedule, stick to a routine. Be diligent. Persevere. Maintain.

I bought a simple Office Depot brand 2012 calendar notebook that helps me stay on course. I even created a writing schedule. So far I’ve done well with it. I’ve managed to at least go back to my desk during the scheduled time to write and sit down at the laptop (instead of watching TV on the couch). I may not have written anything worthwhile yet but I am going through the motions, getting acclimated. Yeah, that’s it. The photo in this blog post is of my new calendar - color coated and all. Yeah, I’m a dork like that but I learned this trick when I was a Mary Kay consultant and I found this to be one of the most brilliant things I’ve ever taken a suggestion on. It works. This is a shot of February. I don’t have it finished yet but I do have my writing time carved out first and foremost. That and the weekend my son will be home. :-)

As stated earlier, I took some time to think about what I wanted to accomplish in 2012 and I wrote them down. I’ll share some of them with you:

• Write personal essay/fiction/creative nonfiction and actually submit them
• Attend a blogging conference
• Be able to take family on vacation
• Travel
• Lose 20 lbs, be fit, do the Warrior Dash

These are just SOME of my goals I wrote down and was willing to share with the Internet.

My vision boards: Health, Career, Family, and Motivation

Okay, your turn, how are your New Year goals and resolutions coming along? Have you fallen behind? Well, just get right back up and start again!

Here is to a great February ya’ll.

Original Article

How did the Independent Fashion Bloggers Links a la Mode sneak up on me this week? I don’t know but here is this week’s edition for your viewing and reading pleasure. I know what I’m doing this evening? My reading is set!

It is the weekly round up of fashion goodness.

Making a Connection

Edited by: Fajr Muhammad of Stylish Thought

SPONSOR:

Shoes at Shopbop: Frye Shoes, Yosi Samra Flats, See by Chloe Shoes, Tapeet, Ash Sneakers, Sam Edelman Sandals, Steven, Wang Shoes, Pelle Moda, Vanessa Mooney, Loeffler Randall, Dolce Vita Shoes & Hunter Boots

PLEASE READ IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE

If you would like to submit your link for next week’s Links à la Mode, please register first, then post your links HERE. The HTML code for this week will be found in the Links a la Mode group will be published later today. ~Jennine

Original Article

Taken with instagram

Caught him in a yawn apparently. (Taken with instagram)

Hey, if you’d like to get in on the fashion scene then I might suggest you attend the hottest ribbon cutting you will ever attend in Huntsville, Alabama. January 28 at 4PM, see details below in the official press release.

Victoria Pennington Model & Talent Management (and also the agency working exclusively with Fashion Week Alabama - Huntsville) is having its ribbon cutting this Saturday at 4PM. But this isn’t your regular ole run of the mill meet and greet, shake hands, and pass out business cards sort of ribbon cutting. Oh no. Are you kidding me? Victoria Pennington do anything regular and normal? And trust me, this is a good thing. You are in for a treat my friends!

Cocktails, fashion & accessory trunk shows, and a grand finale fashion show that will feature collections from local designers Josie Wachi and LeJeune House of Fashion will be some of the festivities at this grand opening and ribbon cutting.

So yeah, you do NOT want to miss THIS ribbon cutting.

Below is the full press release for the ribbon cutting. Yes, she has a press release, can you imagine? I am so excited to attend this ribbon cutting. It’ll be like I am in New York!

Victoria Pennington Model & Talent Management
Lincoln Mills Office Campus
1300 Meridian Street, A13
Huntsville, AL 35801
256-777-2495
================================================

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Huntsville, Alabama - Victoria Pennington Model & Talent Management (VPMTM), located at 1300 Meridian Street, Suite A13 (Lincoln Mills Office Campus), will be holding a Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting on Saturday, January 28 at 4pm. Following the Ribbon Cutting, guests will enjoy cocktails, and preview and shop from local fashion & accessory designer trunk shows. There will be a fashion show at 5pm featuring collections from Huntsville designers Josie Wachi and LeJeune House of Fashion. Fashion models, of course, provided by VPMTM. Hair and makeup provided by Gray Premier Salon.

About VPMTM:
VPMTM is a modeling agency that provides coaching and other talent management services, and has been named Fashion Week Alabama’s runway fashion model hub for 2012. For more information call 256-777-2495 or visit www.victoriapennington.com.

You know I’m gonna be there taking photos to blog about this later. See you there!

Original Article

So The Girl and I spent some mother-daughter time this weekend by getting free facials and makeovers at the Benefit Cosmetic counter at Belk in the Parkway Place mall.

I thought it would be a great way to spend some time with my daughter and to have her try some new looks out for the military ball she is going to attend this coming weekend. So when Sarah, the Benefit sales consultant, called me to see if I was interested in the facials and makeovers I said, “Yes.”

We spent four hours there at the counter and had so much fun. My daughter does not wear a lot of makeup. She may wear some concealer and mascara but that’s about it. When Sarah broke out three different eye shadows for The Girl I remained quiet, hoping that Gracie would be open-minded and give it a try. She did. And she loved it. I reckon because it was someone other than her old mom suggesting something new.

Here are some before and after photographs of The Girl’s experience:

We had a great time. The Girl learned how to apply eye make up and Sarah was great with us; she was knowledgeable and patient, very outgoing with a positive attitude. She also has a great memory because she did not write anything down while we were doing the facials, but she was able to recite everything at the end of our four hour pampering session when she wrote down on our cards what she used in the process. I was impressed.

The product I liked best was the erase paste. LOVED the erase paste! Benefit Erase Paste is a brightening camouflage for eyes and face. Easily covers dark circles and imperfections. It is thick and you don’t need a lot of it so it will last a very long time. It comes in three different shades with brightening melon undertones.

The Girl’s favorite products were the cream eye shadows of course. She did look awesome. But of course I think she looks awesome all the time, with or without makeup. :)

The product packaging and names are so much fun too! Just to name a few:

Dr. Feel Good - a velvety complexion balm
Lemon Aid - color correcting eyelid primer
They’re Real! Mascara - beyond mascara
Ooh La Lift - instant under-eye brightening boost

I mean really, if you want something fun to do with your daughter go on down to the Benefit Cosmetics counter at Belk and ask for Sarah. Tell her Carol, the Blogger, sent you. Heh.

Original Article