I'm back!

Hi friends! This month has been a bit crazy and moving threw me off my schedule a little more than I had hoped. Moving my apartment was one thing but packing up and relocating my whole office and inventory was a lot trickier than I had expected. I was stuck in a weird rut for the first week or so (the cold, rainy weather did not help) and all the creative juices that had been flowing when I first started my blog were totally gone, not to mention I was way behind on my orders and needed to totally focus on work. It was weird and I didn't like it one bit, I need that creative outlet in my life! Luckily, after spending a few weekends unpacking, organizing, and decorating (my favorite part of course!) I'm finally back to my normal self and can't wait to share my favorite adventures from the last month and all the great new things to come!

The first real weekend in my new place, I hosted one of my best friends, Michelle, and her boyfriend that traveled down from Charlottesville, VA. It was great motivation to try and get things organized and unpacked that first week before they came down. This turned out to be such a great weekend, with so many of my favorite Charleston activities that I wanted to share!

The pineapple is a symbol for Southern hospitality - perfect welcoming sign for my guests!

Friday night Robbie I ran some errands and made another homemade pizza before our company arrived. This was one a teriyaki chicken creation that I whipped together with a few things I had either had left over or could easily pick up at Trader Joe's. I threw together the pizza with: pizza crust, leftover Rao's pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, chopped fresh pineapple, TJ's Teriyaki chicken strips, and drizzled some TJ's Island Soyaki over it all- it all surprisingly turned out pretty good (although it's pretty hard to mess up pizza in my opinion!)

My new creation: Chicken Soyaki Pizza

Our friends arrived later that night and we got to spend some quality time catching up. One of my favorite things about old best friends (since 5th grade!) like Michelle, is that even though we don't get to see each other for a few months, we can always just pick right back up where we left off! Everyone needs a friend like that! :)

Saturday morning we laid around for a bit while we (Robbie) cooked omelets and planned the day. Since it was finally sunny and beautiful out, we wanted to be outside as much as possible so we threw on some workout clothes and headed out for a run/walk along the Ravenel Bridge.

After days and days of rain and clouds, these clear blue skies and sunshine were very much welcomed!

It was great to sneak a nice workout in while the weather was so nice. Of course after all of that exercising we were starving so it was time to head downtown for some lunch!

We were lucky enough to score a table out on the deck at Fleet Landing and were right on the water getting free entertainment from the cruise ship that was boarding and heading out to sea. I posted about Fleet Landing before (from our day after Valentine's day date) but it's great that a place like this can be a totally different atmosphere during the day. We loved eating right on the water since there really aren't too many restaurants downtown that you can do this! And of course, I always love the nautical flags- I just realized that these are F (the red and white) & L (black and yellow) flags for Fleet Landing!

After lunch, we walked around to the Waterfront Park got a typical Pineapple Fountain photo with the four of us! 

Love these people!

We explored a little more down to the Battery, up Meeting Street to see some of the gorgeous South of Broad houses and their secret little gardens behind the ivy grown gates.

Before we knew it, it was time for another meal (weekends in Charleston always seem to revolve around food) and we headed to Upper King Street for our dinner reservation at Stars!

I was a little hesitant about bringing guests to a restaurant I had never tried but Stars did not disappoint! Though our waiter was a little goofy, it was a really great atmosphere and when you have great food and great friends- not much else matters! 

Robbie's Appalachian Trout which was served whole- cool presentation in my opinion!

I was craving oysters so I ordered the Oyster's Bull Bay. I probably wouldn't get this again because it was so rich but it was very good!

My favorite part about Stars was their rooftop bar that served wine on tap (the restaurant downstairs does as well.) If you know me, you know I love a good rooftop bar and I love wine so this was definitely a win win! I can't believe I hadn't tried Stars before this!

After a fun, full day of activities on Saturday (and daylight savings!) we were ready to take it easy on Sunday and started strolling down King Street just as the Second Sunday activities were starting and they were closing the street down to traffic. Apparently everyone else had the same idea that we did and the restaurants were packed on King Street for brunch so we tried Leaf, on Beaufain Street right off of King. This ended up being a great choice because we were able to walk right in and get a table on their patio and soak in a little more sun. Everything on their brunch menu sounded delicious but I decided on their Leaf Frittata which did not disappoint!

All brunch items were served with fruit, hash browns, and either a mimosa or Bloody Mary!

After brunch we strolled down King Street a bit before it was time for our guests to pack up and head back home. We had gotten so lucky with some great meals (like I said, in Charleston our weekend is all about the food) and great weather and I was so sad to see the weekend end. 

Recap of some of my old/new favorites from the weekend:

walk/run the Ravenel Bridge

lunch on the water at Fleet Landing

Waterfront Park, the Battery, and South of Broad neighborhood

dinner and rooftop bar at Stars

Second Sunday on King Street

brunch at Leaf

I always love having friends in town to try some new places, as well as show them around some of my old favorites and this had been a perfect weekend to do all of the above! This weekend, I'm looking forward to another best friend's visit and hoping for some of the same great weather we had earlier this month!