Fashion Fridays: Nashville Inspiration

Happy Friday y'all! I am in Nashville this weekend which you can follow on Instagram. For all of my trips I try to stick to a certain "look" to make packing easier. I try to follow these key things:

1. What is the vibe of the city - high fashion like NYC or LA or laid back like Napa or Tahoe?

2. What will I be doing while I'm there - relaxing, site-seeing, shopping, wine drinking?

3. What colors remind me of this place - Nashville feels feminine, and lightly-colorful so I wanted to bring that out in the clothes that I brought.

Below take a look at some of my fashion inspiration for this weekend getaway!

Nashville by akablog featuring a black leather shoulder bag

-A

Girls Trip : Nashville

 

Hey y'all! (That's a southern thing right?!) This weekend I am heading to Nashville with my college roommates. We did some traveling together in college but since we have graduated we haven't been anywhere together. We are hoping that this will be the first of many trips!

We are going to be using Kira's posts about Nashville (which you can see here and here) as our guide!

Looking forward to enjoying some good southern food, wine tasting, country music, and lots of shopping.

Tomorrow check out the blog to see my packing inspiration for this weekend getaway and next week I will have a photo round up of the trip.

Make sure to follow along on Instagram and if you have any tips of things to do while I'm out there feel free to leave it in the comments below!

-A

Monthly Mood: April

 

We're Loving

Spring and all the great-ness that comes with it! Fresh blooms at Trader Joe's, fresh produce at the Farmer's Market, and sunshine! April really feels like the start of great weather and care free weekends so we are looking forward to taking advantage of that. Ashley is super excited about the return of Mad Men and is looking forward to being inspired (again) by all of the flawless fashion on the show. We are also loving working out outside (morning walks are the best)!

We're Doing

We are all over the place this month. Ashley is headed to Nashville with her college roommates at the end of the month for a little girls-getaway! We have some birthdays to celebrate, so looking forward to spending time with friends as well family for Easter and Passover. Planning some upcoming summer trips is also an exciting project for us in April!!

We're Blogging

This month on the blog you have some fun to look forward to! Ashley will have a few Spring-time recipes for you including a DIY Mojito Bar! Since summer is upon us we are trying to get a little more active and healthy, so look forward to some health-conscious posts. Kira is doing some Spring Cleaning this month and will give you some tips on you to de-clutter your life.

What are you looking forward to this month? Let us know in the comments!

Follow along on all of our adventures on Twitter and Instagram!

-A&K

Nashville: Night

Hello and welcome to my second installment of Nashville fun. The first was last week and it highlighted all the fun to do during the day. You can read all about that here. This week however will highlight all the after hours fun to be had in Nashville, Enjoy!

My dad and I with The King!

When in town you must walk around Downtown Nashville. I think it's fun day and night. At night it is lit up from end to end and packed with people. Bar after bar and country music blasting out of every door.

Depending on what your looking for, you will find it. While they are all country there is quite a range from mellow to over the top. My suggestions are as follows...

Honky Tonk Central: Huge bar on Broadway, 3 floors of food, drinks and music. It's loud and crazy busy but has a fun vibe. The band was great, they played top 40 music with a country twist. I'm not such a country fan so it was nice to actually know the music. They also have great balconies on the third floor, from here you can see all of Broadway.

View from Honky Tonk's balcony

Wild Horse Saloon:  Unassuming from the outside but this place is huge and doubles as a music venue. When it is not hosting shows its a great place to grab dinner and pick up some line dancing skills. I had never line danced before but it was fun to try it out and don't worry they instruct you between live music sets. Dancing here was the only time I ever wanted to wear cowboy boots.

The Pharmacy: Burger Parlor & Beer Garden: This place is a little off the beaten path but not too far from downtown. The food and ambiance makes this place great. I loved eating outside in their spacious back porch. In addition to great burgers and beers they have shakes and malts and phosphates! I had never had a phosphate before but they were delish, go for the ginger strawberry!

With the extended fam at The Pharmacy's beautiful back patio

Pinewood Social: This place is super interesting and super hipster. It is open all day long; breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. They also have a coffee bar, full bar, bowling alley, karaoke and a living room to kick it in. Its a lot and they will be adding more in the future. It is beautifully constructed and curated, but I found the food underwhelming, esp for the price. I'd say go for a drink and bowling. They have beautiful vintage lanes.

Roberts Western World: This was one of my favorite bars that I visited downtown. It is on the smaller side but had a great vibe and a great Elvis inspired band playing. It's a nice contrast to some of the larger bars because here you can sit and talk easily or just chill, drink and listen to the music.

Like I said there are bars and bars and tons of restaurants, try some out and enjoy your travels!

-K

Nasville: Day

Hey ya'll I recently went to Nashville for a family wedding and it was great! I was there for a week and everything was new as it was my first time traveling there. A lot of time was spent with family catching up and going to and from wedding activities. I did however get to do a fair bit of sightseeing.

For my Nashville posts I decided to break it up by day and night. This post will include fun stuff to check out during the day while next week's post will fill you in on all the night time activities and hot spots.

Downtown Nashville is great. Busy and full of music. I would definitely suggest that you just wander around the city and check out the great boot shops, local and iconic music venues, bars and crazy souvenir shops. Its a great place to explore.

While visiting you should check out...

• The Hermitage: Home where 7th Prez Andrew Jackson lived. Beautiful grounds, home and garden and now I know a shit ton about him and his wife, he loved her so much!

Grounds at The Hermitage

• Centennial Park: Go on Fri or Sat when they have free music, specifically Musicians Corner. This was one of my fave things we did. Great park with a replica Parthenon, so random. Great free music and amazing food trucks!! Win-Win-Win

Deliciousness at Centennial Park

• Gayord Opryland Resort: Most people will tell you to go to the Grand Ole Opry but I'm not so into country music, so I went to this ridic resort next to it. So beautiful, must check out the crazy over the top indoor gardens and atrium. So pretty to walk around, you can shop, get ice cream, grab a meal and even take a boat ride on the river, did I mention this is all inside the hotel! 

Epicness at Gaylord Opryland

• Shelby St Bridge: Nice walking brige, gives you a good view of the down town area and the Cumberland river. 

• Cumberland Park: Once you walk over the Shelby St Bridge you can walk or take an elevator down to the park. Its really pretty, they have water fountain for you and your dog. A concession stand with Icees and a great water feature for you and the kids to play in because it does get hot!

View of Cumberland Park from the Shelby St Bridge

• Third Man Records: This is Jack White's ultra cool studio space and gift shop. Little outside the downtown area but cool to check out if your a fan.

• Cotton Eyed Joes: Great name, great souvenirs. Go ahead and pick yourself up something you could only find in Tennessee! I myself got an epic hat and shotglass here.

Eat & day drink here!

• Puckett's Grocery & Restaurant: Great food, well priced and excellent service. Almost half the wedding guests went to brunch here the day after the ceremony and they took great care of us. The breakfast buffet was on point. 

• Sonic: Ok maybe this isn't that exciting to other people but it was my first time having Sonic out there. Tator tots and a slush, what more could a girl ask for. 

Hair a mess, snacks the best

• The Flying Saucer: A zillion beers on tap, ok maybe more like 100 but its still a ton. Cool space and great beers and food. Best Pretzels ever, even the mustard was killer. 

• Nashville and Tennesee in general is home to many great breweries and vineyards, I definitely suggest you partake in a tour or two. We weren't able to go to a brewery but we did visit Beachaven a local winery that is family owned and operated in Clarksville. It is a beautiful little vineyard, take the tour and taste the wine, so good. 

The Bro at Beachaven

Obviously many of these places can be visited during the evening as well, these are merely my suggestions. Happy travels!

-K

Monthly Mood: May

Yay it's May!

May is always super busy and super fun. There is always a ton of birthdays and weddings and BBQ's. Those of you in school are headed towards the agony of finals and the reward of summer. May is that final push and transition into Summer. Whatever your up to we hope May brings you lots of sunshine and good times. Here is what we are looking forward to this month:

• Birthdays! Kira turns 24 this month!
• Memorial Day - day off, nuff said
• Ashley is very excited to see her boo Zac Efron in the movie Neighbors which comes out this month. 
• Met Gala - can't wait to check out the infamous fashion always seen here (think Anne Hathaway bleaching her hair just for this event and Kim K's floral couch dress thing from last year!)
• Mothers Day
• Kira's heading to Nashville for a family wedding!
• Fun free May events we wanna check out - free books event, free movies, free museums! Check out what events are free in your area this month! 

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter to see what we are up to this month! 

-A&K

New Years Resolutions!

I always try to remind myself to make resolutions throughout the year but there is always something about the new year and a fresh start that inspires fresh goals.

Source: Google

So here are some of my own

1. Career research and networking: With the start of the new year I hope to start looking into a new career or possibly going back to school. I want to network and go on informational interviews and job shadow and meet as many new people as possible. Keeping both my options and my mind open to new opportunities.

2. Save to spend: I recently heard from my brother who heard via Freakonomics how it isn't practical to stress out about saving in your 20s. So instead of trying to scrimp and save and miss out on concerts or trips,  I'm going to save to go to concerts and on trips! I want to  cut down on frivolous spending and focus instead on what I really want and use my money to go after those things.

3. Travel: Anywhere and everywhere, however I do have a few trips at the top of the queue.

Seattle: Ashley and I have been wanting to go for some time so we will hopefully make it happen soon!

New Orleans: Also have been wanting to go here for a long time and have been pre planning it with a friend, just need to save up and hopefully I'll be there this spring!

Nashville: My cousin is getting married in Nashville this year and I'm so excited to visit and plan a trip to the south.

4. Be adventurous: I just want to constantly remind myself to put myself out there and meet new people, go to new places and not be lazy or boring.

5. Be happy: Whatever I'm doing and wherever I'm at I can be happy and appreciative for all that I have. Don't waste your time doing things that make you unhappy, make time for what does!

-K