A visit to Lynn's Paradise Cafe

After our tailgating weekend, we drove from Lexington to Louisville to see my friend Clare. She is recently engaged (yay!) and I hadn't been able to meet her fiance yet. Well, verdict in: he's adorable. And nice. And funny. And all around wonderful. The Nolands approve of this guy!

Clare was in Louisville for a wedding, and she made a reservation for the four of us at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Have you heard of this place? Apparently it's been on the Oprah Winfrey Show, The Food Network's "Best Of," the Discovery Channel's "Christopher Lowell Show," CBS "Good Morning America," and Food Network's "Throwdown with Bobby Flay."

Needless to say, we had high expectations. And friends, they. were. met.  Aunt Ellen, these pictures are for you. 

How cool is the outside?

A view from our table

Close up of the tree

These are legs.

More legs!

So. So. cool. I wish my license plate said FLY-SWA.

Even their uncool chairs were cool.

Breakfast didn't disappoint either. Zac ordered biscuits and gravy...

and I got a mushroom scramble with a side of MAC and CHEESE. Which yes, they offer as a side at breakfast.

The monstrosity on the right is the mac and cheese. I ate almost no eggs because I was eating so much mac and cheese!

I can't go to Clare's engagement party next weekend, so I brought her a gift. I embroidered their monogram on a dish towel and used it to wrap a newlywed cookbook. Adorable, if I do say so myself!

Me and Clare

We had SUCH a good time with Clare and Chris, and it was so much to visit Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Has anyone else ever been there??

All sorts of random

I'm sort of in a funk this week. I think it stems from being really tired - Zac's brother and sister-in-law are finally home from their trip around the world (yay!) but their flight was delayed until 3:00 AM on Sunday so I'm just exhausted (boo!). I haven't been in the mood to do much creating lately, and some of my pictures are on my home computer, and others are on my work computer, and blah blah. Huge problems, I know.

What I have been in the mood for is some organizing and purging. We did a completely overhaul of our guest room on Sunday - which was good since Josh and Steph ended up needing it in the middle of the night! We took an entire car load of stuff to Goodwill and rearranged the room to be a bit more functional. I didn't take pictures for you - this is all temporary as we have bigger plans for that space, but other things need to come first.

We also pooled together the last of our wedding gift cards to buy this beauty:

It's from Crate and Barrell. I had to accept that we're never going to get around to building one. It's gorgeous though, and it was pretty affordable. The chairs? Not so much (at $200 a pop). We are either going to buy unfinished chairs pre-made for $79 a piece, or try to garage sale some un-matching ones and re-finish them to match the table. Does anyone know the secret to making that look classy and chic and not just a hot mess? Something like this but a little less funky?

Or maybe the key is to add some fabric and color?

The table is back ordered until June, so we have some time to decide. We do need to get that room painted before it arrives though!

Other randomness based on the cell phone pictures I've taken recently:

Cincinnati has a new park downtown with these color lights and water features. I can't wait to take our good camera to get real pictures!

I have been crocheting up a storm and I don't know why. I'm hooked... pun intended! I got some sweet baby yarn on sale at JoAnn's and bought it without a project in mind. I ended up making a baby blanket. I'm just about finished, so you'll get pictures soon.

Sorry for the random brain dump. Unfortunately, this is what it's like to be in my head this week!!

Leaving on a jet plane

I'm headed to San Diego this morning for an amazing conference on mindfulness and youth. I can't wait to share the cool things I learn with you when I return.

Please send calming thoughts and prayers my way as I'm flying, which you know I hate to do.

The conference will be so worth how much I hate to fly though -- it looks amazing, and it's a great opportunity for me!



Oh, and this is what our hotel looks like.

          

I guess I can suck it up for a few days... See you next week!