A Visit to Hotlanta

There is a reason they call it Hotlanta. It's hotter than Hades. I'm NOT kidding. I thought- oh, yea, I can totally handle the heat. But dude. I was MELTING. But, I had a blast hanging out with Kelley Wenzel of KelleysBeads, and her family for the weekend. I bought a plane ticket a few weeks ago, on a whim. Wanted to do something super fun, and visiting my girl was the first thing I thought of it. 

Flew down on Friday, Kelley picked me up at the airport- it was great timing on her part. Traffic in Atlanta is a real bear! We did a little grocery shopping, and ran to the house. Got to meet Todd. Then we headed over to Lori Plyer's house. I have been swooning over Lori's Waterstone shop on Etsy for several months now. When Kelley found out that Lori only lives a few minutes away from her, it was a great surprise! I got to see Lori's Studio- it's awesome. And of course, I walked away with the prettiest bag, and cell phone pouch! 

That night we went out for Margaritas and Me-Hee-can food at a great local place. DELICIOUS! It was fun meeting Mr. Waterstone, and finally meeting Kelley's kids who were total angels at the restaurant. We went over to Lori's afterwards for a night cap, until I could barely keep my eyes open a minute more.

Saturday was a blast. We hit The Waffle house for breakfast where I experienced the covered and smothered hashbrowns, and a breakfast sandwich of eggs, bacon and cheese with mayonnaise! I have a new appreciation for mayo!

Here's a good one of me and the Beanarina.

There were fun hats, and super cool circus tricks.There was a bug attack, and Miss Lori saved the day. There was some whining, but no tears. Can you see Mr. grumpface there on the bottom right? He had a tough morning.

After breakfast we drove to see some fun landmarks. The Big Chicken - I sure am glad I didn't miss the first Kentucky Fried Chicken- the restaurant boasted the biggest chicken I'd ever seen.

We drove around Atlanta, checking out the buildings. I loved how clean the city was, and how easy it was to traverse. We went for a jaunt at Ikea, letting the kids play at the little Ikea daycare spot, while we shopped. Kelley bought the coolest drawer system for art supplies, but I think it would be a cool bead storage system and will be begging the husband to take me to Ikea next time we are in CT.

We dropped the kids off and went to a couple of cool bead shops. I got a bag full o' goodies at each store. 

Will show you my loot tomorrow once I get all my beads unpacked.

We also got some retail therapy out of the way with a couple of hours at the Prime Outlets mall. I found some great deals on some tops at Eddie Bauer and Banana Republic. It''s always exciting to have new digs to wear to work.

We had a great dinner out, just the two of us, at Taco Mac. The nachos were delish, and bigger than any plate of food I'd ever seen. Saturday night we spent making beads. I got a nice long lesson- and tried my hand at it. It didn't last long, when the bead I had created, blew up on me. At that point, I was done. I am a bit of a wuss, seriously. The fire is intimidating enough as it was, to then worry about exploding beads- was just too much for me. I had just as good a time, watching Kelley create beads, with me suggesting color combinations.

Here's a short video shot with my camera, while Kelley was melting glass. 

We had a nice trek on the nature trail on Sunday morning with the family- although the heat was almost unbearable. And the bugs. And my whining. about the heat, and the bugs. We've all just come to the conclusion that I am an indoorsy person afterall.  ;) 

Back to the airport Sunday afternoon. It was tough to leave but we are both looking forward to Bead Fest in Philly in just 19 days!! Can. NOT. Wait!!