Each year, Kev and I spend New Years Eve with these fine-lookin’ folks:

Two years ago, we celebrated in Orlando at Disney for my very first visit.

Last year, we trekked out to Kansas City to watch the ball drop.  An excellent time was had.

THIS year, Kev + I are the hosts and we’re ringing in the New Year in Atlanta!  (Expectations are high.)  Sooooo, we’ve decided to celebrate with Yacht Rock at Park Tavern!

If you’ve ever seen Yacht Rock perform, you KNOW that we’re in for a great time!

And, Park Tavern is an awesome place to celebrate any holiday.  PT always throws a solid party…

NYE with Yacht Rock is an all-inclusive event.  Drinks and food are covered all night and into the wee hours of the morning.  There will be live music with Yacht Rock Revue & Atlanta’s best DJ spinning in the Piedmont Room overlooking the Midtown skyline.

Highlights include:
- Open bar: premium liquor, beer, wine and champagne
- Live music + NYE countdown with Yacht Rock Revue
- Gourmet food including hors d’ouvres, carving station, NYE specialties along with plenty of sides + salads to keep your energy up and dancing into the New Year.
- Sushi display
- Toast & get toasty with smores for dessert
- Midnight breakfast buffet including all your favorites + fresh Krispy Kreme donuts
- Photo booth
- NYE favors
- Champagne toast at midnight
- Coat check

This party is where it’s at on Saturday, so get your tickets NOW: NYE w/ Yacht Rock Revue!

***BONUS***  LOOK FOR ME AT PARK TAVERN totally rockin’ out to Yacht Rock…

…and I will give a fist pump + one of these super rad Q+DD koozies to the first three people who wish me a “HAPPY QUICK + DIRTY DIRTY NEW YEAR!”

Your drinks have never looked so fashionable…  I can’t think of a better way to toast 2012!

Q+DD koozies: so hot right now.

See y’all at Park Tavern!  Wishing a fun NYE to all! 

xx, L

Continue Reading | 0 Comments

Happy holidays everyone!  ‘Tis the season for overindulging and what better way to celebrate the season than with these 2 fabulous upcoming parties?  Better yet – a hookup for discounted tix!

1. Bagel Bash 2011

Kosher Chameleon will continue the time-honored tradition of gathering single people who, on the night before Christmas, aren’t caroling, drinking hot wassal or um… cooking a ham… for a little dancing, a little schmoozing, and of course, some bagels. 

Also featuring DJ Jazzy “Bagelsteingoldbaumschwartzberg” and lots of cash bars.

A message from your grandma: “Go!  What else are you doing?  G-d forbid you might meet someone!  Oy gavalt!”

Use promo code KraselskyBagel for $5 off your ticket!  Click HERE to get yours now.

2.  Spiral New Years’ Eve: The Kings Ball

Ring in 2012 Spiral style at the Kings Ball!  Spiral pays homage to the Big Easy at it’s annual new year’s party this year at Westin Atlanta North in Perimeter  (OTP?  No big D!) featuring:

• 6 different party areas including the Grand Ballroom
• 5.5 hours of OPEN BAR (and plenty of ‘em to avoid lines!)
• Gourmet catered buffet with carving stations, pasta, mini Spanish Wraps, a “fancy shmancy” baked potato bar, veggies and desserts
• Dance the night away with Cover Band MOBY DICK (80’s and 90’s dance music)  and then DJ Jazzy J and DJ Wats spinning a mix of 80’s, 90’s, Top 40, Hip Hop, Classic Rock till 2:30AM
• Laser Light Show  (oh yuesss?!)
• Midnight champagne toast
• Krispy Kreme donuts after midnight
• Free coat check and parking and….
• $99 Spiral hotel room rate.  No drinking and driving, kids!

Alllllll that AND $20 off your ticket with promo code LKfest.  What more could you ask for?  Click HERE to get yours now.

Happy happy, darlings!

xx, L

Continue Reading | 0 Comments

I just discovered Zumba.  

And I’ll be honest – until a couple of months ago, I thought Zumba was perhaps less appropriate for this blog and better suited for a feature in say… a publication like this: 

I was wrong.  Lucky for me, I had a small herd of girlfriends who persuaded me to attend a class at the brand spankin’ new LA Fitness in Town Brookhaven (which is conveniently located mere feet from my apartment door, so I had no excuse)

You guys.  It is a DANCE PARTY and full of adorable people. It’s less like this:

And more like this:

Here’s the Q+DD on Zumba: It’s a dance workout class that combines Latin-influenced music with pop songs that’s meant for all fitness levels.  You can burn 1000 calories in a single class!   

My 7:00PM Monday class at Town B is definitely more Usher than “Oye Como Va”– and definitely more cheerleader than soccer mom – but I think at least partial credit goes to the instructor, Melissa.  I am pretty much obsessed with her.  I don’t even know where to begin – she’s so cute I want to put her in my pocket.  And she SMILES the whole time.  It’s love.

Last night I took Broadway Meredith with me and pretended we were in our own little show stopping production of a dance musical.   It is the MOST fun.  (Can’t WAIT to bring Linds with me in a few weeks!)

Cabaret, Shmabaret. It's ZUMBA, baby.

BONUS: If you attend Melissa’s class on Monday 10/31 – wear all black and come prepared to do a little THRILLER.  (!!!!!!!!!)

In doing a little Zumba research, I found out that this class has been around since 2001- so I don’t know what took me so long to find it but I hope it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

The bottom line: it’s a super intense cardio workout cleverly disguised as a party and I am ALL about it.  

Obviously, I love the 7:00PM Monday class at LA Fitness Brookhaven, but check out your local LA Fitness, I think they all have a class or two on the schedule. 

You can also find a class nationwide by clicking THIS link.

Or, apparently Zumba from home!  DVDs are available HERE.

I hope you Zumba with reckless abandon. As that old cliché goes, “Dance like no one is watching.”  Seriously.  It’s way more fun that way.  

xx, L

Continue Reading | 4 Comments

A few years ago, an old hair stylist of mine told me that his single favorite thing to do around Halloween-time was to go to the Center for Puppetry Arts (CfPA) in Midtown to see The Ghastly Dreadfuls show.  He explained it to me as a Halloween puppet show designed for teenagers and adults.  He said it was creepy, funny, incredibly impressive – and especially fun for first timers or folks unfamiliar with the complexity of puppeteering.  It sounded really interesting and like something I’d want to check out, but frankly, I wasn’t sure that I could convince anyone to join me.

Until now!  Scoutmob threw a Revel Party at the CfPA last night, and as soon as I found out about it I snagged two free tickets for Mrs. Casey (this chick is down for it all!) + I to join in on the fun!  Thank you, Scoutmob!

scoutmob revel party at the CfPA

We pre-puppeted at Ecco, and headed over to the CfPA a few minutes before the show to check out the Jim Henson exhibit. 

The only photo I have of the museum area is this one, which I happen to love. (I was scolded by the hipster puppet museum cop when I tried to take an iPhone photo within the exhibit…  She was intense.)  What I CAN tell you is that we saw a number of our favorite Sesame Street characters, we heard Kermit sing “The Rainbow Connection” (Kevin’s fav), and we ogled the Fraggle Rock + Labyrinth portions of the exhibit.  It was very cool.  But, it was also time to get a drink (priorities, people!), so we quickly shuffled downstairs to the bar “The Tavern of Lost Souls,” for some overpriced wine in plastic cups.

CfPA Atlanta

The downstairs area + theatre were all Halloween-ed out.  We loved! 

The stage + a sneak peek at one of the puppets:

SOOOO without further adieu, here’s the Q+DD on The Ghastly Dreadfuls (according to our friends at Creative Loafing):

“The Center for Puppetry Arts has an unflowing crypt’s worth of spooky stories composed for The Ghastly Dreadfuls, its annual anthology of comedic and scarifying short puppet shows.  Co-creators Jon Ludwig and Jason Von Hinezmeyer debuted the show in in 2006 as The Ghastly Dreadfuls: Compendium of Graveyard Tales and Other Curiosities, then revised it in 2008 as The Ghastly Dreadfuls II: Handbook of Practical Hauntings and Other Phantasmagoria.  Currently Ludwig and Von Hinezmeyer can cherry-pick their favorite tales of the lot, such as the witty, grisly “The Girl in the New Dress,” adapted from the story by Larry Letemplier, which unfolds – or maybe “unscrolls” would be a better word — on a single, seemingly endless sheet, in the style of old Coca-Cola advertisements.  You’ll recognize the music of “La Danse Macabre” by Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns, accompanying a skeleton dance worthy of Fantasia.”  Etc, etc, etc…  I don’t want to give away too much!

Y’all it was SO good!  The show was really well done – from the detailed puppets and impressive puppeteering to the creative stories and talented musicians.  It was funny, too!  I very much enjoyed it.  In my opinion, The Ghastly Dreadfuls is probably not for the novice theatre goer, but it IS for someone who is really passionate about theatre, off-beat humor +/or Halloween. 

if this photo looks blurry, you are probably drunk. stop drinking at work, readers... (JUST kidding.)

mrs. casey w/ her scoutmob moustache

I strongly suggest scheduling a date night this month to see The Ghastly Dreadfuls at the CfPA!  But do it soon because they only have performances on Wednesday – Saturday nights through October 29!

serious theatre-goers...

Still need more convincing??  Check out a behind-the-scenes preview HERE: The Ghastly Dreadfuls.

And, Happy (early) Halloween!!

xx, L

Center for Puppetry Arts
1404 Spring Street Northwest
Atlanta, GA 30309
404.873.3391
www.puppet.org

Continue Reading | 0 Comments

The finest chefs in Atlanta are preparing food for you to sample. The line-up currently includes:

•   Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun’s

•   Anne Quatrano of Bacchanalia

•   Shaun Doty of Yeah! Burger

•   Jay Swift of 4th and Swift

•   Hugh Acheson of Empire State South

•   Ford Fry of JCT Kitchen

•   Duane Nutter of One Flew South

•   Brian Jones of the Ritz-Carlton Atlanta

•   Joe Truex of Watershed

•   Joshua Hopkins of Abattoir

•   Ron Eyester of Rosebud

•   Scott Serpas of Serpas

•   Pano Karatassos of Buckhead Life Restaurant Group

•   Frederico Castellucci of Iberian Pig…and more to come!

 

As if that wasn’t enough, some of your favorite food trucks will also be on hand to be sure that all of your food cravings are satisfied.

 

Tours of the old Sears building will be provided during the party on a first-come first-serve basis.

Ponce City Market, a two million square-foot structure, is an adaptive reuse development that when revitalized will house a mix of retail, dining, office + residential space.  A landmark structure at the crossroads of Midtown, Poncey Highland, Old Fourth Ward + Virginia Highland, situated along the Atlanta Beltline transit corridor, Ponce City Market is perfectly positioned to become a hub among its neighboring communities, and a vibrant reflection of the diversity that makes each of those neighborhoods authentic and distinct.  It is a development borne of integrity, one that is destined to emerge as Atlanta’s next great urban experience.

This all sounds amazing, but for me The Indigo Girls performing takes the CAKE!

indigo girls

I am going to DC this weekend + will unfortunately miss PatP, but I would absolutely be there if I was going to be in town! 

Find out more about the event here: PARTY AT PONCE. 

Ticket info here: GET ‘EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT!

Party on, Atlanta. 

xx, L

Continue Reading | 0 Comments