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!!

Comments

  1. LOVE the photo collages you put together! I had such a great time with you this weekend and am counting down the days to Philadelphia!

    Cute pics of the kids at Waffle House. Funny how lack of sleep will turn my boy into a complete grump. He might get that from his momma.

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  2. hotlanta very funny, i live in hellouston, i had to laugh about you being an indoor girl, well yea,its hot,HUMID, and buggy..ick.
    great photos of your trip.
    found the cork boards of kelly's interesting ..are those for outgoig orders?

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  3. I've never heard of Houston referred to as Hellouston...But today might be the right day...Luckily, I get to wear shorts and flip flops to work this month!! (I'm going to have to find out where in Houston you are...)...

    I'm glad you had a great time in Hotlanta, Lorelei! Now you know why those of us in the South talk about running from air conditioner to air conditioner :o) I am not a fan of the heat either and still don't know why I live her sometimes :o)

    Can't wait to see what you got on your beady shopping spree - and I wish I could be in Philly to catch up with you guys this year, but I'm budgeting (a little bit) and sticking to Dallas (the TRUE Fiery Pits of Hell!)...

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  4. It looks like you had a great weekend! I'm jealous!

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  5. Me too - jealous. Would have loved to be there and have a calm weekend with lots of shopping and laughter. Would need that right now.

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  6. Lorelei's Adventures in Hotlanta... enjoy it!!! we're flollowing you!! just keep blogging!

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  7. lorelei- folks on me blag are loving 1 necklace I made that was totally inspired by you. which means i had to give you credit! and, um, it sold practically before i'd finished listing it... sooo:
    http://www.etsy.com/transaction/32268612

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  8. So sorry I didn't get to meet up with you guys...but I am so excited about Philadelphia...less than 20 days!!!

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  9. I feel for you lorelei - I'm not good with extreme heat either! Not that that is something I have to deal with over here particularly often...loving the pictures, you guys look like you had a great time!

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  10. Can you please start flying down to make the videos for me instead of me using my computer? That's nice being able to zoom in!

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  11. I'm definitely jealous - it looks like you all had so much fun! It is hot as Hades here too, but you get used to it, and either spend all your time indoors or take a lot of showers! Can't wait to see your bead stash!

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  12. I LOVED this post! For one - I'm not too ugly in my pictures. The kids pictures ROCK and, well it all rocks.
    The heat can kill you, right? Believe it or not we finally got a little break today. It was a fluke.

    Truly, sounds like Kelley did a fabulous job of showing you around HOTlanta. I so enjoyed meeting you - such a treat.

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  13. Anonymous8/02/2010

    DUDE... Lorelei!

    Sounds like You had a GREAT TIME!

    That is so awesome!

    I can't wait to see your new goodies.

    Take Care.

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  14. Looks like a great time. Yeah, the torch definitely scares me a little, too! Good thing there's great glass artists like Kelley and Kelley looks and sounds like the sweetest person!

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  15. What a great trip and great commentary!! Thanks for sharing! :) I feel like I have been on a trip!

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  16. Love the picture of you and Beanarina. Lucky you seeing not one but two lovely ladies. Met Denise of Whirled Peas at the conference, she is a sweetie.

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  17. that is totally awsome

    i had no idea about how the beads were made.
    i just thought they were there because they were.
    make sense!!

    thanks for showing us
    it does look great fun


    caRolS

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  18. What a wonderful visit! Thank you for sharing!!

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  19. That looks like an awesome time! Ms. Kelley is delightful and I'm sure that it was even more fun than it look – which was a LOT of fun!

    I don't necessarily think that just because you're not acclimated to the heat of an Atlanta summer means you're an "indoorsy" person. It gets dang hot there.

    Have fun in Philadelphia for me. I don't think I'll be going out this year.

    OH! Next time you go by the BIG CHICKEN, you need to go to the Marietta Diner! It's GOOD and you'll have leftovers for sure. They are very generous with their portions!

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  20. Glad you had a good time. (Wish I had a beady friend to hang out with)

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  21. I will be moving to Atlanta soon. What bead shops did you stop at?

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  22. I have always wanted to try making lampwork beads and so I was fascinated reading your blog about giving it a try. I've never had the chance but I think I would try if someone else were there teaching me. I have watched a friend make fired clay beads and it was amazing. I couldn't try it though because it was her college class. Thanks for the chance to win these pretty beads

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  23. Sounds like a great time, Lorelei! Jealous. :o) I'm glad you tried your hand @ lampworking... it IS intimidating @ first, the first bead I made that broke in half (because I was admiring it too long & then popped it back into the flame....shock!) resulted in my first (of many!) burn because I tried to pick it up off the floor!! Doh! You learn. :o)

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