Serenbe…Serene as it can be…..

I am way behind on my blog posts so I’m scrambling to play catch-up as lots has happened in the last few months! Starting with our anniversary trip to the beautiful Southern treasure otherwise known as Serenbe. Serenbe is a wonderful little community nestled off the beaten path between Atlanta, GA and Newnan, GA. The backdrop of the community is a working farm with a fantastic restaurant called “The Farmhouse”. “The Farmhouse” is quite possibly the best restaurant I’ve had the pleasure of dining in across the continental U.S. of A. The food is in short, perfect. Here are some pics from our trip and details about Serenbe at the bottom of the page.

This is one of the cabins at Serenbe next to The Farmhouse and pool….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Main office at Serenbe and gift shop……

 

 Cj and I at dinner at Serenbe….every thing is farm fresh and organic. Set menu and wine pairings with each course……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Cj looking handsome…..

 

 

 

 

our cabin at Serenbe…..     

 

 

 

 

 

 

pool at Serenbe….

 

 

 

 

 

beautiful scenery…..

 

 

 

 

.

 

 farmhouse restaurant…

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t say enough great things about this place, it’s like a little Napa Valley right in our backyard! Rates vary, during the week, the smaller cabins run around $160/night, on weekends it goes up to $300/night. Here is a link to Serenbe’s website:

 

http://www.serenbe.com/

 

more to come, had to get a quick post in about this as it is too good not to share.

Ciao!

https://claytonpress.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?post_type=post

 

 

 

 

 

Bye Bye July…

Turn baby turn….can’t believe Summer is almost over and we’re practically Chrismtas shopping!!! We had a great July starting with a trip to the lake with our dear friends Jodi and Melissa Thrasher, here are a few of my favorite pics from our 4th of July weekend. Notice I’m never in any photos cause I’m always the one holding the camera, here’s a shot of me for reference….

Ok, back to our 4th of July weekend, here are some sweet pics..

 

Cj turned 34 over the 4th weekend and decided somewhere along the way to grow a mustache….. I am a big believer in expressing one’s personal style and generally speaking as with a move this bold, timing is key, you can’t hang on too long or the line between cool fashion statement and 80’s corvette is easily blurred.  Fortunately my husband is all things stud hauss and gets this so the stache will be exiting promptly before our anniversary next week. It’s been a good run.

Turn….Turn…..Turn……

Another rite of passage this month came when my dear, sweet gal pal and best co-worker Rachel Samolovitch resigned from CosmetAssure this month heading on to greener pastures in a new career. We have had so many fun adventures over the last three years I cannot even begin to recount. I found myself laughing hysterically driving down the road the other day thinking about Rachel and I presenting to a group of plastic surgeons at a trade show booth in Seattle when our boss walked up and  face planted at the booth after tripping over a lap top cord. Certain he was dead from too much chardonnay the night before, Rachel and I calmly backed away from the presentation saying in our best Southern manners “s’cuse us, our boss has just had a massive heart attack and we’re going to need to step away and tend to him for just a moment”. Needless to say he was totally fine and has lived through many more a tumbalina since. Keller and I visited Rachel in Birmingham last Friday to give her a proper Bon Voyage…fortunately for me, Montgomery is part of her new territory so I will see her and get to reminisce often.

Summer Lovin….

Here’s something I’m loving this summer, mom’s new porch swing. Mom and dad built a new screened in porch and mom had this porch swing/bed custom-built like the one on a recent cover of “Garden and Gun” magazine….it is heaven and the grandbabes love it! Can’t wait to watch football and swing in the autumn breeze….ahhhh the simple things! Here are some pics…

 

 

 

 

 

Food for thought……..

Cj and I have made a conscious choice this month to do away with eating processed food and hormone enriched meat. We are buying all of our animal products at Earthfare (love it) and our fruits and veggies at the local farmer’s market…of course we’re not totally ocd about it but trying to clean up our act a little.  I am almost convinced I’ve been holding on to an extra ten for the last decade due to all the hormones in the food I eat! After having a miscarriage a couple of months ago, I’ve been thinking more about what I’m putting in my body and more importantly, my sweet baby Keller’s little body. I heard recently that infertility is on the rise due to two things 1)processed foods and 2) plastics. “Men’s Journal” had a blurb this issue about the estrogenic effects of plastic wraps, containers, etc. so I decided to do a little further reading…turns out, there’s a lot of buzz out there right now on this topic and even scarier, if you really pay attention you would find it almost impossible to go a whole day and not use or drink out of something contained in plastic. Here are a couple of links on the subject….

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2011/03/bpa-free-plastic-products-estrogen/1

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/89/i10/8910news5.html

Words to live by….

This month in my plastic surgery trade pub PSN I read an article by Dr. Scott Hultman who recently visited an orphanage in Russia and met in person for the first time a young man he has been corresponding with for years. He went on the trip as part Mission 1:27 Christian Fellowship and Orphanage Relief Foundation. He left the young man with some parting words of wisdom as he prepares to transition from the orphanage to the outside world and I found what he said to be personally inspiring and very touching…particularly in moments of self-pity….

“Don’t ever stop learning. Treat others with respect and dignity. Make the world a better place. Look out for the least of these. Serve. Nurture your friends and family. And be forever young.”

Sussie News…..

 Had a great month with Sussie, working on final drafts of my new logo and had a successful sale trying to clear out old inventory before I roll out my new look! It’s amazing how long it takes to get things just right, devil really is in the details as they say. Had a meeting with Montgomery Aesthetics who hopefully will become the exclusive carrier of Sussie in the Montgomery area starting in October, very excited about that, a big thanks to Lauren Bishop for her help and support with this partnership!!! My 25% off sale lasts through Monday so if you missed out, there’s still a little time left! http://sussieskin.com/

Coming Soon…..

Cj and I are headed to Serenbe, GA for our anniversary next Thursday, here’s a little preview of this fabulosity where we’ll be staying

http://www.serenbe.com/ can’t wait to take lots of pics and blog about this next time!!!

That’s it for now, adios!

xoxo

Callie

https://claytonpress.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=16&action=edit&message=5&revision=34

Whatever….

Ok, so I am officially blogging. I’ve decided since I can’t get my act together to keep a scrapbook, photo album, etc. I am going to use this as my rambling outlet and post a few pics of the fam jam and any other interesting things I see along the way in this space.

A little about me for those of you who don’t know, I am a wife, full-time working mom and entrepreneur. I work full time in plastic surgery sales and have my own skin care line on the side called Sussie http://www.sussieskin.com. I have a wonderful husband, CJ, who works as a political consultant and a sweet baby girl, Keller, who i.s 16 months old.  

We live in an old historical neighborhood called Cottage Hill in Montgomery, Al in a home dating back to 1835.  

 

 

 

 

Our neighborhood is “up and coming” as they say. I moved back to Montgomery in 2004 after living in Los Angeles for 5 years. At the time I thought I was just blowing through on my way to a bigger city, but when I realized I could get this architecture for a dollar compared to what I was paying in LA, I was all over it. I had my quarter life crisis renovating the house and then met Cj and we’ve been here ever since.  We have a colorful cast of characters in the neighborhood to say the least and we absolutely love living here. I’ll give you a small peak, this is our neighbor Joe who starts every morning with a Natural light and a cigarette and could rebuild the engine of a 757 blindfolded.  .

This picture of Joe was taking at a party at our other neighbor Todd’s house who is a dear friend, totally hysterical, master designer and throws the best parties you’ve ever seen. He had a blue grass party in May featuring  Packway Handle Band which was ridiculously fun. P.S. Todd whipped together this stage made out of bamboo the day of….who does that and/or knows how?

More to come on Joe, Todd and other Cottage Hill happenings in future posts. Never a dull moment.

That’s it for now……now I’ve got to see if I can figure out how to publish this thing and send to anyone who might be remotely interested.

Signing off….

https://claytonpress.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3&action=edit

 

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. After you read this, you should delete and write your own post, with a new title above. Or hit Add New on the left (of the admin dashboard) to start a fresh post.

Here are some suggestions for your first post.

1. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post.
2. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting  page you read on the web.
3. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can alway preview any post or edit you before you share it to the world.