Weekend Basics

Sunday evening we had the chance to get all gussied up and head over to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts with the 2nd Annual Elby Awards were held...

The Elby's are like Richmond's own James Beard Awards, recognizing culinary and service excellence in the Richmond restaurant community. It was so much fun being in a room filled with so many familiar faces from the RVA food scene we know and love. So many of our neighborhood favorites were nominated and took home awards for 2013. Possibly the most exciting for us was when The Roosevelt and Kendra Feather (restauranteur/owner of the Roosevelt) won the awards for best cocktail program and Restauranteur of the year. We're partial since this restaurant is where our upcoming wedding reception will be held.

When we weren't all dressed up, we did what we do frequently on weekends — took Basil for long walks through the woods and down by the river:

While he always gets a good long walk during the weekdays, we always enjoy letting him run free in his element when we have a little more time to do so. Here he is thinking he might be able to hop up on the log with daddy:

Back home, we took care of a few odds and ends too. I've had this rocking chair in my family since before I was born and was recently able to bring it to our house. We're looking to have it professionally redone — from the wood to the upholstery:

It's got amazing potential, right? This is one of those projects best left to the professionals, so we snapped pics from all angles and sent off for a few quotes from local companies over the weekend. It feels good knowing this chair is going to get some love and will be fun to watch it's transformation once we get started. While we wait to hear back on quotes, we'd love your suggestions for furniture repair/re-upholstery professionals in this area since we have a few different pieces like this we'd like to get looked at and are finally ready to make it happen. Or if you just have tips in general for things to look out for and be aware of, they are always welcome!

While out back, we went ahead and got a few vegetable seeds started, including carrots and broccoli:

And also finally got around to transferring the second of our two avocado plants into a proper planter with soil:

This avocado plant was left neglected in the windowsill for months and stopped growing leaves, so we're hoping the soil might help bring it back to life. For now, the two plants are hanging out by the window together, doing their thing.

On the crafty side of the weekend, we played around with making molds and casting for a wedding related project we can't wait to share the details of soon:

In the kitchen, pomegranate was the star of our weekend — we'll be be back soon with a little concoction we whipped up with the seeds from this super-fruit:

We also watched an amazing documentary called Searching for Sugar Man, which chronicles the search for a lost American artist known as "Sixto Rodriguez."

Image credit

Tim and I love watching music documentaries, but this is one we'd have to recommend on the outrageousness of the story alone. Definitely one we're glad we saw — have you seen it?

That's what's going on in our world!