Making Spirits Bright: 2015 Gift Guide

Hints that the holidays have arrived are popping up everywhere we look — we've admired the re-emergence of seasonal decorations, the holiday greeting cards trickling in with the mail, the return of our favorite late autumn foods and the holiday gatherings beginning to fill up our December calendar. It's a busy time, but one we look forward to every single year.

In the holiday spirit, today we've rounded up 15 of our favorite gift ideas to share. From new gadgets and stocking stuffers to pet toys and last-minute hostess ideas, there's a little something special for everyone — enjoy!

The World Visits Richmond: UCI Road World Championships

UCI Women's Elite racing through the Fan

Over the past week, Richmond was the hosting city for the UCI Road World Championship bike race. This has been an event I've been looking forward to since they announced it about 4 years ago.

Weekend Basics

Happy Monday! With spring weather almost here (yep, it's still dragging), we're starting to get back into the swing of chock-filled weekends. This weekend was no exception with the 10k, a little project planning and our youngest niece's first birthday all in the lineup.

Weekend Basics

Hi there! We're checking in this morning from Brooklyn, where we'll be spending the majority of this week. From the looks of our various news-feeds, it seems as if everyone spent the weekend selecting and decorating Christmas trees. If we didn't have travel plans, our weekend may have looked very similar, alas it was still filled with a good mix of treasure hunting, good eats and travel.

First up, treasure hunting! Saturday morning we went on a mission to find the perfect piece of reclaimed wood to use in an upcoming project post we're working on (spoiler — you'll get to see the final result this week!). We decided to stop into our local Habitat ReStore to see what they had on hand and luckily found what we needed pretty quickly.

Local Cheer: Our 2014 RVA Holiday Gift Guide

It seems as if we blinked and now it's December! This is a favorite time of year for us, where seasonal smells and traditions seem to be around every corner — a busy time, and a chance to catch up with family and friends without the normal hustle and bustle of our daily routine.

When heading out to holiday gatherings, we always like to bring a little something along with local origins — it's always a great conversation piece and makes us feel good about spreading a little local cheer. Today we wanted to take the opportunity to highlight some of our choice gift picks this river city has to offer. Whether looking for a select option to bring to a holiday party or ideas to knock out your entire gift list, we've rounded up some of our favorite local goodies and offerings from Richmond spots to make it a very RVA season!

RVA Foodie

Weekend Basics

Hi from the Jersey Turnpike! Yep, that there is our view when driving home from NYC and we're happy to now be back. Friday night we cooked at home and literally kicked up our feet. After a great week in Brooklyn, Tim and I were ready to be here, relax and spend some quality time with this big guy:

Weekend Basics

Not sure about you, but it's been a pretty dreary string of days here in Richmond — lots of cloud cover, rain and general bleakness:

 

Days like these make us want to hibernate at home under the throw blankets, which we did a great deal of over the weekend — Sunday Football and The Walking Dead anyone? You know who was right there to keep us company and show us how it's done best:

Weekend Basics

Tim opening his Father's Day card from Basil

It was another beautiful weekend here in Richmond and it's the start to what looks like a sweltering hot week ahead as we move towards the first official day of summer on Saturday. We ended up opening the house for a little get together on Saturday evening to welcome in summer with friends and hosted a Father's Day cookout on Sunday, so it was a busy weekend where we actually got a chance to put the camera down, enjoying catching up with company.

Weekend Basics

It was a weekend of celebrations and celebrate we did! The three main events of our weekend included hosting a party at the house in honor of Stephanie's recent graduation from JMU, heading over to Richmond's Broad Appétit event where I had the opportunity to serve as one of the 8 event judges and perhaps one of the biggest celebrations of all — yesterday marked Mary and my's first wedding anniversary.

Our Wedding Day: Party Time at The Roosevelt!

For those following along, you'll know this week we've been sharing all the details behind our wedding this past June. Yesterday we shared many of our favorite photos, moments and stories from the ceremony and today (in true Friday fashion), we are ready to get the party started! We hope you'll enjoy scrolling through more of our favorite shots and reading our memories from the reception after exchanging our vows that afternoon. Each of the photos in today's post were captured by Tori Watson, our talented wedding photographer.

We left off yesterday heading over to the reception in an old working Richmond trolley. All of our guests had already been taken for a ride on the trolleys from the ceremony site up through historic parts of Richmond to our favorite local restaurant, The Roosevelt, where we held the reception...

Behind The Scenes: Ledbury Valentine's Shoot

I've been excited to share more about the Valentine's Day collaboration I teamed up with Ledbury for this month. For those unfamiliar, Ledbury is a Richmond based custom menswear line started by 2 Richmond natives who were able to make a go of pursuing their creative passions right around the same time the economy took a downward spiral — definitely something we can get behind. The company and collection have been growing quickly and gaining lots of attention, which is exciting to follow.

It's a Snow Day (errr, Dog)!

We've got a first snow here in RVA! It came in quickly yesterday in the late afternoon through the evening and the cold temperatures this morning have helped it stick around long enough to enjoy the views of a snow-covered city.

Weekend Basics

Whew, it was truly a weekend filled with holiday festivities for us! As you know, we started the weekend off with a visit to the Richmond Christmas Parade...

Rudolph in the House...Almost

Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to this December weekend! It's really chilly here in RVA, but not cold enough to stop us from donning our winter coats and taking in 2 exciting local holiday events going on today.

We already popped across the street over to Broad Street to catch a glimpse of the Dominion Richmond Christmas Parade. We saw Rudolph peeking at us from between the houses across the street, telling us we needed to come pay him a visit. Can you spot him above?

Weekend Basics

It was one of those weird weekends where we reached 90 degrees on Saturday and Sunday in the midst of October. Despite the heat, we ventured out to watch our niece, Caitlyn, play in two back to back softball games. We had to leave early in order to make it in time for the surprise 60th birthday party for one my previous coworkers, but she played amazingly while we were there! As life would have it, right after we left we heard she pitched a shut out inning and drove in 2 runs with a ball hit to the fence. You go, girl!

Weekend Basics

I made it safely back from a great week in Hudson, NY late Thursday and am looking forward to sharing a little recap with some of my favorite photos from the trip here on the blog tomorrow. 

Foraging for Edible Mushrooms in Richmond Virginia

Chanterelle mushrooms

Almost two weeks ago, we mentioned having the opportunity to forage for edible mushrooms with some friends in from out of town along a trail here in Richmond. Today we wanted to post a roundup of photos and some basic learnings we picked up along the way!

Richmond Magazine: Best BBQ

Have you seen the latest issue of Richmond Magazine? We've been keeping quiet about it until now, but I've been excited to share a peek here on the blog since I was one of the contributing writers (among many I admire) to the cover story — all about BBQ. You just do not turn down an opportunity to eat BBQ and write about it, right?

Eating With Origins Farm

Today we're excited to announce the start to a new partnership we're launching this summer with Origins Farm. We've teamed up to bring you a series of summer recipes that use key ingredients from their farm produce — which you've gotten a tasty glimpse of in a few of our Weekend Basics roundups from our trips to the South of the James Farmer's Market:

For those unfamiliar, Origins Farm is a small, family-run farm in Hanover, Virginia — owned and operated by husband and wife Alistar Harris & Rebecca Ponder. How cute and fun are these two?

Hitched! 17 Apart Wedding Preview

We made it! Tim and I are officially married as of Saturday and are already relaxing with Basil in a cozy remote beach cottage nestled in Hatteras. We knew we'd have limited internet access while here (which helps force us unplug), and are actually checking in via mobile hotspot — thank you iPhone! It's been fun seeing all the candid wedding photos shared across our Facebook feeds taken from all of our friends and family over the past couple of days — it really is so interesting to get to see a look at the wedding through all the different angles and points of view.