Atlanta - The Design Bloggers Conference

This weekend Isabel and I are back visiting one of my favorite cities in the US and maybe only second to New Orleans in the South – Atlanta!!!

I have been here several times and what always strikes me about Atlanta and the South in general, is how friendly everyone is here! I know you always hear about Southern hospitality, but there is definitely a reason for that….it’s true!

Isabel and I are here this time for a Designer Social Media Conference that Isabel found sponsored by our good friends of The Design Network….what could be better for me than that!!! As you know all I do is Facebook and Blogging all day so I am in heaven! The conference starts today so we snuck out here on Friday to get in some Southern cuisine and that Southern hospitality – and of course take in some of the amazing homes here in Atlanta and specifically, Buckhead.

We also decided to keep it green this trip and do our best to never step in a car during the entire trip. I think we both know how much we love the food down here in the South so we knew we better keep on the go. So far we have done a great job. We took the light rail, MARTA, from the airport to Buckhead, then walked with our bags a good quarter mile to our hotel, and yesterday hiked all through Buckhead racking up 20,000 steps on our IWatches!  The weather could not be more perfect. 40’s at night and mid 60’s during the day. Perfect walking weather.

I am excited to attend this conference being hosted by The Design Network and all of the exciting things they have coming including their new platform on the new Apple TV coming this April including our show SKETCH which will feature eight new episodes for our Season 2! We have really upped the production with the addition of our new director, Kenny Moskowitz, “Spanky” and his crew from Wedgie Creative. They are fantastic and the footage they are shooting and editing is beautiful. More on this as we get a little closer. I am also bringing Spanky and the crew on the September Candelaria Tour Italy where they will film the entire trip as we will be creating daily posts with dramatic footage and will put the whole trip and story into a whole new Season of SKETCH goes to Italy!

In the meantime, we are having a great time and enjoying some wonderful architecture and dining along the way. Yesterday, we hiked several neighborhoods in Buckhead. I love walking to capture the essence of these homes from both a macro level with the layout of the roads and neighborhoods down to the micro details of wall, gate, paving, window header details…..What is best, is having a partner, in Isabel, who loves this I think more than me!!! We get excited about a cool dormer detail!

Then after walking all day we did a little shopping in Buckhead - including the new Tom Ford boutique - grabbed lunch at Dantanna's, did a little more shopping, including our favorites – shoes! 

Then we finished the day with a fantastic dinner at Southern Art with our waiter and new friend Kurt, who took great care of us. Tonight it was a charbroiled ribeye with collard greens and sweet potato succotash. Of course add a good Bouvadier cocktail and some vino and finish with a cigar on the terrace.

Life in the South is good!