With spring in full swing and the Kentucky Derby fast approaching, there is no time like the present to enjoy a freshly mixed Mint Julep.
Master mixologist, Miles Macquarrie, of Leon’s Full Service here in Atlanta took some time to show SweetJack how to make the perfect Mint Julep.
Cheers!
Put away the plastic poncho, in fact, just throw it away. It’s not a good look for you (or anyone). Show off your style in the spring showers with a sleek jacket and a pair of oh-so fashionable Burberry rain boots. Look dame in the rain with a cute, printed umbrella and save your belongings from getting soaked with a fun-yet-functional handbag. Guys, for you, it’s all about staying dry while showcasing a sporty swagger. So, opt for neutral (and of course water-repellent) pieces! Not only will you be singing in the rain, you’ll be stylin’.
Women
{1} Burberry Rain Boots “Check Print,” $195 {2} Forever 21 Studded Clear Tote, $19.80 {3} Rain Along the Seine Umbrella, $29.99 {4} Eric Javits Patent Rain Hat, $150 {5} Kenneth Cole New York Ruched Waist Jacket, $108
Men
{1} WeatherEdge Rainfoil Parka, $129 {2} REI Flyweight Siliconized Nylon Manual Umbrella, $35.50 {3} Hunter ‘Andrew’ Rain Boot, $125 {4} The North Face Stormy Trail Hat, $35 {5} Columbia Men’s Regen Rain Pant, $50
Courtney is our no-nonsense fashionista click-clacking her stilettos across our office as a Staff Writer.
Think pink when you pour a sip of one of these refreshing rosés. They’re the idyllic complement to that next big picnic or alfresco romp. Clink!
This sparkly, full-bodied blush wine can stand up to a pot-roast or a salmon salad alike. The heady bubbly is perfect for a special occasion and the rosy color looks fab poolside!
2010 Marqués de Cáceres Rioja Rosé
Crisp, a little bit sweet and soft pink in color, this delicate pour tastes elegant with a light late lunch.
R. Lopez de Heredia Viña Tondonia
Drink this fresh, medium-bodied blend with spicy food (Mexican!), sausages on the grill or Chinese. This peach-hued bottle is a versatile one with a full body and a rich, velvety finish.
Robert Sinskey Vin Gris of Pinot Noir
Take a whiff of this personality-driven rosé and you’ll smell hints of strawberry and pear. A slight minerality makes this a substantial rosé to drink on its own, or to drink with a steak.
2012 Bieler Père et Fils Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence Rosé
This citrusy sipper hails from the south of France and shows its strength when paired with French-inspired eats like tuna nicoise salad, creamy cheeses and light aperitifs. With notes of lawn clippings and watermelon, it’s summer in a cup.
Make it a picture perfect picnic! Pull a bottle out of the fridge and pack the car with one of these chic picnic supplies.
Kelly is SweetJack’s laid back, in-the-know blog editor. This former magazine maven loves a good French fry with exotic dipping options (looking at you, Leon’s), her map-obsessed fiance Jason and her dog Maddy.
So you’re ready to be a yogi, huh? First thing’s first—you have to dress the part. Next? Shopping spree!
For the Ladies:
C9 by Champion® Women’s Seamless Fashion Cami, $16.99
Nike Go Breathe Dri-Fit Cotton Tank, $21.99
Athleta Organic Cotton Chela Capris, $59
For the Men:
Nike Legend Dri-Fit S/S T-Shirt, $21.99
C9 by Champion® Men’s Power Core 9” Compression Short, $14.99
Nike Monster Mesh Short, $29.99
Now that you’re looking snazzy, do a sun salutation to begin your practice. Namaste!
The Move: Sun Salutation
Kristen is SweetJack’s editorial assistant direct from the Big Apple. With a knack for the ins and outs of copy, this unassuming Jersey girl’s got southern charm to boot.
While diet trends come and go, healthy eating never goes out of style. This is undoubtedly one of the reasons veganism is steady on the rise. A vegan diet (one void of animal products) offers countless benefits for people, animals, and the environment.
Vegan diets are successful in treating–and even more impressive, preventing–chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and more. What’s more, there’s no worry about consuming products riddled with drug-resistant bacteria. Avoiding animal products from meat, eggs, and dairy also directly rejects the notoriously abusive factory farms that dominate the food production in the US and helps comprise the nutritionally void Standard American Diet (aptly acronymized SAD).
Perhaps the most compelling reason to embrace a vegan diet, though, is the fact that all major environmental problems–from global warming, pollution, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, land degradation, and water scarcity–have been linked to meat production. Leading water scientists at the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) even advocate a vegetarian diet to avoid a catastrophic global food shortage.
As if all that weren’t reason enough, there’s one more reason–it’s utterly delicious. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you’ll be missing out–there’s a way to veganize everything! Even more exciting is the fact that veganism propels you to discover a whole new world of delectable foods you likely wouldn’t have encountered otherwise!
Just like any other change, changing your diet requires social support, planning, and patience. Why not take advantage of the upcoming VegWeek 2013, April 22-28, to take the plant-based plunge? Every day, you’ll receive meatless recipes and more! To maximize the perks and make it easier and more fun for yourself, why not get your co-workers to join you? Spread the love, try something new, and see what happens–I predict you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
Brook is SweetJack’s eco-minded staff writer. When she’s not busy churning out snazzy deal copy, you can usually find this Asheville transplant kicking around in the outdoors, volunteering with Pinups for Pitbulls (she’s Miss February 2013!), cooking up tasty vegan fare or hiking with her “babies”: rescued pit bulls Bianca and Rufus.
Who hasn’t dreamed of immersing themselves in the fascinating world of landscape paintings—surrounded by rolling hills, flora and fauna—particularly in the thick of spring? Once regarded as the wide-lens counterpart to fruit-bowl still-lifes, American pastoral art has slowly developed a cult following. Coming soon to a museum near you, these mesmerizing depictions of nature will have you longing to graze in the pasture.
Edward Hopper in Vermont
Danbury, CT
Iconic American painter Edward Hopper is mostly known for his depictions of Manhattan and urban New York during the early 20th century. But Hopper was equally adept at landscapes, and admired the peaceful scenery of Vermont. Get in on the pastoral action at Middlebury College’s Museum of Art, where you can glimpse a chronological display of Hopper’s watercolor, drawings and oil paintings of blue skies, majestic mountains and green meadows.
May 23- August 11, 2013
Middlebury College Museum of Art
Albert Bierstadt in New York & New England
Catskills/Hudson Valley, NY
The Thomas Cole National Historic Site adds some excitement to the pastoral art scene with Albert Bierstadt’s lesser known hardcore landscape paintings of the East Coast. According to Art Fix Daily, the exhibition will “… offer a rare chance to see the artist’s faithful depictions of botanical and geological details in the unspoiled wilderness, mountains, and meadows in the White Mountains, Hudson Valley, and in New England and New York.” Cole himself was a noted expert in the realm of American pastoral art, so make sure to catch a few of his heart-stopping original works on your way out.
April 28- November 3, 2013
Thomas Cole National Historic Site
Sylvan Sounds: Freer, Dewing and Japan
Washington, DC
Smithsonian museum founder Charles Lang Freer grew to love Japanese art through his passionate affection for American landscape paintings. Curators took note, creating an exhibition which juxtaposes the rebellious works of American landscape painter Thomas Dewing with Japanese art from Freer’s personal collection. In what Passport DC describes as an “intimate exhibition”, visitors to the Freer Gallery of Art will experience a visual and emotional rollercoaster of pastoral works from East to West.
May 28, 2013- May 28, 2014
Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institute
Audubon’s Birds
Boston, MA
Take the naturalist’s approach to pastoral art when you check out James Audubon’s bird portraits at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. These graphic depictions of avian life showcase a diverse range of North American birds in their native habitats. Each illustrated page (often accompanied by nature-inspired verse) is over three feet high, giving viewers a rare, uncensored pictography of our feathered friends. Some smaller works are also included.
July 27- May 11, 2014
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Compass for Surveyors: Nineteenth-Century American Landscapes
Los Angeles, CA
Proper proportion in landscape paintings often ensure that they’re pleasing to the eye. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art focuses on how land surveyors, compasses and photography influenced the paintings of American artists in their “Compass for Surveyors” installation. The exhibition features every single landscape painting from the nineteenth century from the museum’s in-house collection. Architect aficionados, we can’t think of a more riveting afternoon excursion!
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Through December 2013
Moms, listen in. With just a few handy tricks up your sleeve, you can make even the dreariest days shine. Don’t pop open that DVD just yet. Here are some tried-and-true activities to make the time fly by—and the kids jump for joy!— on those rainy days.
Color Wars
Spread (ample) old towels on the kitchen floor, along with three or four non-glass mixing bowls, a whisk and/or wooden spoon, and a few small non-glass measuring cups. Fill each bowl partially with water. Let your little one add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl and stir it up. Now, you have one bowl of red, one of green, etc. Depending on your child’s age, let her practice naming and experimenting with colors, using the cups to mix from one bowl to the next, a straw to blow bubbles, or small plastic toys (of the non-choking hazard variety, please) to kerplunk into the water from different heights.
Puddle Splash, Indoors & Out
Throwing on galoshes and a raincoat to splash in puddles might just be the best thrill a kid (or his mama) can have. Get to it! But when it’s raining too hard or it’s cold outside, you can make your own splash puddles inside. Place a tarp on your kitchen, bathroom or basement floor. Get a boot tray, usually made of hard plastic with gentle grooves on the base to prevent slipping. These are available at any gardening store or online retail market for a few bucks. Place a towel underneath the tray to keep it steady. Fill partially with water, strip the baby down to his diaper, and voila! Instant puddle. Sing songs like, “You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out…” and the afternoon will be a hit!
Art Smart
A rainy day’s the perfect time to break out your inner artistes. Keep a “craft kit” handy for rainy day emergencies and stock it with goodies like construction paper, hole punchers, watercolor sets, pastels, chalk, crayons, markers, glitter, pipe cleaners, ribbon and stickers. Look online for paper-towel kazoos, sawdust clay, wine-cork turkeys, and other great projects using recyclable materials from around the house. Tap into that creative spirit!
The Great Bake
Cooking together creates a sense of pride in your little one, plus it encourages math and fine motor skills. Let younger kids do the mixing and dry ingredient adding, while older kids can help with pouring and measuring. (I like to use this as an excuse to eat cookies. Don’t judge.) Keep it healthy with homemade baked granola or whole wheat pancakes. Great kid-friendly recipes and ideas can be found on weelicious.com, 100daysofrealfood.com and wholesometoddlerfood.com.
Women aren’t the only ones concerned with head-to-toe awesomeness. Believe me, men know that it takes some elbow grease to be a head-turner. There may (or may not) be a secret society dedicated to sharing the secrets to soft, touchable skin, a squeaky clean beard or movie star hair–so we’ve done some digging. It’s out in the open now–there’s no reason that you have to spend a million to look or feel like it.
Check it out fellas:
{1} Clear Men Scalp Therapy 2 In 1 Complete Care Anti-Dandruff Shampoo & Conditioner, $4.98 {2} Redken for Men Working Wax Maneuver, $14.50 {3} Nautica Men’s Six-Piece Manicure Gift Set, $24.99 {4} 3 Swords 18-Piece Manicure & Pedicure Kit, $42.55 {5} Beardsley Ultra Conditioner for Beards, $10.98 {6} Wahl GroomsMan Pro Shaver, $50.99 {7} Burt’s Bees Natural Skin Care for Men Bar Soap, $4 {8} The Body Shop Smooth & Renew Body Loofah Mitt, $6.90 {9} Dove Dual-Sided Shower Tool, $3.99 {10} Suave Clean & Fresh Body Wash, $2
Clorissa is one of SweetJack’s exuberant editors. Editing copy and enjoying the occasional in-office wall-sit by day, she is a regular on the ATL social scene after hours. When her night’s not booked with events, she can be found lounging at home with a few of Redbox’s latest additions.
Our thoughts and prayers are with those in Boston.
Sock Ribbon courtesy of: Jaysn Kim and Eric Doctor
In honor of Charlie Chaplin’s birthday (it’s today!), we’ve pulled together a list of the top five greatest silent films of all time. If silence is golden, than these films are positively glowing!
5. It (1927)
A romantic comedy that many consider to be the first cinematic “Cinderella Story” this silent film put Clara Bow on the map as an American icon. It tells the story of a shop girl with an “it” factor and her crush on the betrothed and wealthy shop owner.
4. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
This epic film is based on the novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, and is notable for being the first film to pull in one million dollars at the box office. A story of WWI, family and heroes, it checks all the boxes of a wartime epic.
3. Nosferatu (1922)
Twilight who? This vampire horror film puts those sparkly Cullens to shame. This spooky German film is about a businessman who travels to Transylvania to meet a new client only to discover he’s a vampire.
2. The Gold Rush (1925)
It’s the film Charlie Chaplin most wanted to be remembered for. A poor man in search of gold discovers adventure, love and the life lessons that comes with them.
1. The General (1926)
Though initially poorly received by critics and audiences, this film has since been declared the greatest silent film of all time. A war, a high-speed chase, love and bravery, what more could you want out of any film, let alone a silent one?
Kristen is SweetJack’s editorial assistant direct from the Big Apple. With a knack for the ins and outs of copy, this unassuming Jersey girl’s got southern charm to boot.
