staying energised

Tonight we kick off our wedding season with an Easton wedding at King Family Vineyards! I am the transportation manager for this event so I need to be on my top game and energised for the whole night. This morning at the Farmers Market I decided to buy a CCNO Bar for my early evening snack as a quick pick me up when I start feeling hungry!

CCNO For Life is a little business stationed out of Barboursville, VA. This couple focuses on the benefits of coconut oil in our daily diet. It all began when Corann, the owner of CCNO For Life, became ill and just did't feel quite right. According to the Doctors everything looked fine, but he just couldn't figure out why he was always fatigued and nauseous. Eventually he was disagnosed with " Hashimoto's Syndrom", a type of thyroid condition. Due to his medications he began gaining weight, swelling up, and had a hard time breathing. After much researching, Corann's wife found somthing amazing in the internet! She saw that his disease could be cured by consuming coconut oil....3-4 tablespoons a day! After two months he stoped taking his medication, and within a year he was back to his regular weight, and has been described as a " tall, skinny, hyper-active dude". With such amazing results, the family became inspired to begin the CCNO For Life company.

CCNO For Life sells a variety of nutritional products such as their CCNO bars, granola, and coconut oils. Using only the finest ingredients, their products help boost consumers energy as well as tasting quite delicious! Their bars are raw, vegan, wheat free, dairy free, and soy free. They are rich in Omega's 3 and 6 and each bar contains one teaspoon of coconut oil! The CCNO bars are made with raw nuts, dried fruits, spices and of course their organic coconut oil. With no added sugars and a variety of fun flavors these bars are the way to go. This morning I bought a Pecan Bar. Ingredients: pecans,almonds, dates,flax seed, and coconut oil...as simple as that!

Check out CCNO For Life online or stop by the Saturday morning Farmers Market or Foods of All Nations to get your CCNO bar. I am excited for my extra energy boost this evening. 

Have a Super Saturday...and check back soon!

homemade dinner

Tonight, before going to the Kelly and the Ruths concert at The Garage my boyfriend and I are going to make homemade spinach gnocchi!

image 

The recipe looks pretty easy and there are few ingredients... I'll let you know how it turns out! After our dinner we are heading to The Garage for an 8pm concert. Hopefully the weather will hold off and we will be able to sit outside on the hill to enjoy the music! There are so many fun things going on in C'ville this weekend. We may even stop by The Southern for the Virginia Coalition concert, another amazing band based out of Virginia! 


I want to leave you with a few fun images before you set off on your Friday night fun! 

Have a Fantastic Friday night... and check back soon!

First Fridays: The Garage

Our last stop last Friday night was The Garage. I love this little venue tucked off of the Downtown Mall. The exhibit was put on by Daniel Perry, a local C'ville jam maker! Daniel displayed his hand-made prints that work to display the interrelated dynamic between nature and the human form. 

The Garage is the perfect place to show off artwork... I just love the exposed brick walls and hardwood flooring. Daniel had a variety of screen-prints as well as samples of his amazing JAM! His jam was paired with cheese from Feast!, break from Albemarle Baking Company, and wine from Pollak Vineyards.

Daniels screen-prints were available for purchase both matted and framed and unframed! What a fun addition for a studio room!  I loved how they were displayed on the walls as well as the Garage doors. 

As well as art, Daniel also sells his wonderful jam at the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings and online. His most current flavors are yellow peach + raspberry, peach blackberry + lemon, and peach strawberry + lavender to name a few!

If you head over to a concert at The Garage this month make sure to take a look around inside the building to catch a glimpse of Daniels artwork...and visit his booth at the farmers market too! 

Have a Terrific Thursday...and check back soon!

Have a sweet day

Which one would you choose??

an ice cream cone....

or a s'more cookie....

 I am leaning towards the s'more cookie but as this lovely day gets warmer in C'ville, I might go for the ice cream!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday...and check back soon! 

First Fridays: McGuffey Art Center

 Our second stop on Friday was the McGuffey Art Center, located right of the Downtown Mall on Second Street. The McGuffey is an artist association which works to support artistic growth of professional as well as emerging artists within the Charlottesville community! Through their open studios, exhibits, performances, outreach projects, classes, and tours the McGuffey Art Center brings art to our community on a daily basis!

The Center is open six days a week and is free of charge! On any given day you can walk in the doors and wander around throughout the different studio spaces if their doors are open. This Friday my friends and I went to their First Friday opening exhibit. Interesting fact: The McGuffey Art Center has at least 5,000 visitors come through their doors during the First Friday celebrations throughout the year...Wow!

 

The McGuffey Art Center was established in 1975 with the renovation of the former McGuffey School, built in 1916. The school was transformed into art studio spaces that were designed to be light and airy. In 2009 this building was recognizes as a historic building within the state of Virginia! I love the use of the old chalkboards mixed in with current artwork...how fun and unique, as well as a great way to display the original use of the building! 

There are three gallery spaces ( lower hall, upper hall, and main gallery) within the space where member's artwork is displayed throughout the year. Within the art center there are a number of studio spaces that can be rented out by members of the Association. Currently there are over 45 renting members and over 85 Associate members do not rent studio space. The renting members comprise of the Board of Directors and other various committees within the art center. How fun would it be to have a studio space in the McGuffey...large windows, beautfiul C'ville views, and a building full of other local artists. 

I love how visitors can get an up-close view of what happens in an artist's studio! Make sure to check out the McGuffey Art Center... it's open Tuesday- Saturday from 10-6 and Sunday from 1-5. 

Have a Terrific Tuesday...and check back soon!

First Fridays: Second Street Gallery

This past Friday was First Fridays on the Downtown Mall. Over the course of the next few days I want to share some fun photos from a few of my favorite galleries down there! We had such a great time wandering from gallery to gallery checking out the artwork and surrounding ourselves with the C'ville community. Our first stop on Friday evening was Second Street Gallery, located on Second Street SE right off the mall.

 

The Gallery is located in a fun and modern space, perfect for the style of artwork inside the building... contemorpary and cutting edge!  Second Street Gallery held an early opening reception for their donors and members from 5-6 and opened their doors to the public at 6:30. We made our way into the Gallery around 7:00 and wandered the Gallery for nearly 30 minutes, sipping a glass of wine. One word of advice: get there right at 6:30 if you want to nibble on the hors d'oeuvres We missed the boat on that one... they had been catered by Mona Lisa Pasta!

Second Street was very crowded, a popular place to go during First Fridays. The Main Gallery space held a preview of the artwork that will be part of the 2011 Benefit Art Auction, taking place this Friday.  The auction will follow a 3 course dinner at X lounge and will take place in the gallery... tickets are available online. The pieces were just wonderful! People from all over Charlottesville visited Second Street as a 'teaser' for the main event... getting an idea of what artwork will be auctioned off this weekend.

I loved these two pieces. Second Street works to bring the public many mediums of art, from sculpture to acrylics, to mixed media the Gallery sure does covers a lot of ground!

 

Something really fun that took place at Second Street this Friday was the New Collector's Silent Auction! Affordable art was being offered through the form of a silent auction. Sheets of paper were placed next to the art and bids could be made until a certain hour of the night. Fun pieces were sold to locals for reasonable prices...what a fun way to get a new piece of artwork for your apartment! 

First Fridays promotes a strong sense of community within Charlottesville. We are so lucky to have an event like this on the first Friday of every month. Anyone and everyone is welcome ( even the dogs!) into Second Street Gallery on First Fridays to view wonderful art and submerge themselves within the C'ville community.

Have a Super Sunday...and check back soon!

my bud RBS

I hope you are having a wonderful Friday. There is SO much going on this weekend in Charlottesville, I am so excited! To start my weekend off I had coffee with RBS, a man who simply must know everyone in C'ville... at least it seems that way when we are together. He introduced me to about five new people, and that was just today. I asked him to share his secret... how RBS do you know everyone who walks in the door of Cafe Cubano, he just laughed and leaned back in his chair. He is my favorite!

Make sure you take advantage of everything Charlottesville has to offer this weekend! Tonight is Final Fridays and tomorrow is the first Farmers Market of the Spring. What a lovely C'ville weekend. 

Have a Fun Friday...and check back soon!