Weekend Basics

This past weekend was one of those that we didn't want to end — it was filled with new adventures, a new brunch spot and even some foraging & vintage "finding." Here's the full rundown —

I had the opportunity to attend the 2-day Mid-Atlantic Food Writer's Symposium here in Richmond this past Friday and Saturday. Yesterday we had a weekend send-off with brunch at The Rogue Gentlemen:

Mary and I have been wanting to make it out to this new Richmond restaurant, and this was the perfect excuse. Let me tell you, the food we've been hearing all the hype about exceeded our expectations and we can't wait to go back for a dinner date sometime soon. Yes, that is Mary's pancake, bottom right.

Early yesterday before brunch we'd ventured out with Basil for a little trail hike through one of our favorite Richmond spots, Larus Park. Can you tell how excited he was to be running around?

You might remember the name from a post we wrote around the same time last year when we went foraging for mushrooms. We love bringing Basil to this park since it's set up like an open forest where he can run, and it's such a great spot for foraging too. This go round we ended up with a handful of perfectly ripened wild blackberries and a surprisingly nice little haul of chanterelle mushrooms.

Since we know we'll be back for more in the next couple of weeks, I cleaned up the chanterelles and brought them to brunch as a gift for the chef, Aaron Hoskins, at The Rogue Gentlemen. He asked where I'd foraged them and I told him it was my secret — now the cat's out of the bag!

Outside of writing symposiums, foraging and brunching, we also had the chance to hit up a few local estate & yard sales, bringing back a few fun finds for the vintage shop and even a couple pieces for the house! More on those coming soon as we work them in and around the house.

Speaking of finds, Mary picked up this little collection of antique miniature lighters to make into necklaces:

The little brass one is shaped like a dog, how clever is that? We just love the mystery of what we'll come across when thrifting and antiquing. We actually came across this collection of 8 vintage metal architect drawing file cabinets on Craigslist that we checked out for the idea of turning one into a coffee table:

They were located in the basement of a large building down in the Arts district of Broad Street. The measurements didn't work out for what we needed, but these cabinets were so neat we wanted to share in case anyone else locally want to check them out! You win some and other times you just have to make the call that they won't work.

And how about that USA/Portugal world cup match? We thought for certain it would be another win until that fateful goal in the last seconds — incredible. You know what they say — you gotta play the full 90 minutes +5! At least we're still in it.

Here's hoping you had a nice weekend wherever you might be checking in from today — this was our little slice of life in RVA!