Granted it’s summer but that only means it’s time to start shopping for fall fashion pieces like Spell Dress! Every SEC girl knows that football is a lot more than what happens on the field. Tailgating, camaraderie and corn-hole are just the tip of the ice berg because, believe it or not, football also has a lot to do with fashion.
While some sport game day T’s and athletic shorts, we’ve all seen the girls who dress up for the game. I was one of them. Yes, I wore black semi-formal dresses and four-inch heels to stand on bleachers for 3+ hours at Auburn games. Ah, the good old days. And if you have any kids, you can neatly place there clothes on options like a kids dressing up rail.
Post-college, this attire didn’t make sense. Did it ever? Maybe not. However, I couldn’t simply jump from dressy to casual. Instead I’ve found a happy medium – cute, semi-dressy outfits in muted game-day colors. War Eagle instead of WAR EAGLE, if you will. Does it make me less of a fan? No. If anything, I’ve decided that it makes me more of a fan (and savvy shopper) because I don’t have ‘game-day’ clothes; instead, I have funny t shirts from Australia I can wear year round.
One way I create my game-day looks is at Polyvore. Basically, it’s a site that hosts tons of shoes, tops, coats, and even mens lingerie. You can add to your favorites and/or use to create ‘sets’ of products, or outfits. Here are a few War Eagle looks I made for this upcoming fall.
Q: Ever used Polyvore?
Q: What’s your game-day look?
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Kelly.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kelly Shaw Martin is an organized pre-cooker, monthly goal-setter, and avid reader. Her blog Fitting Back In is devoted to healthy and happy living where she shares workouts, book reviews, meal plans, and ‘healthified’ recipes: traditionally-bad-for-you dishes transformed into lower-calorie fare. She loves life in Atlanta with her husband Austin, shihpoo Reuben, and maltipoo Remy.[/author_info] [/author]
Today I am excited to introduce a new Pretty Southern Series, The Weekend Getaway Guide! In this guide we will introduce you to some of the South’s most charming cities and teach you how to get the most out of a weekend visit. We’ll include our favorite spots to eat, hang out, stay and shop.
Back in May my husband and I had the pleasure of going to Charleston, SC for our honeymoon. We wanted a place that we would be able to drive to and stay in affordably but still feel like we had gotten away from home. Here are my tips for getting the most out of the city:
coffee at hope+union
1. Rent! There are plenty of fancy (ie expensive!) hotels around Charleston. My advise is to rent a cute house or apartment right in the heart of downtown. Using a site like homeaway.com or vrbo.com you can find plenty of cheaper alternatives to a hotel that offer more space and character. We rented a carriage house that was original to the city architecture and was located right behind an awesome bakery. 2. Bike! Charleston is super easy to get around, most of downtown and it’s hot spots are in a few flat, easy-biking square miles so you MUST either bring your bike or rent a vintage cruiser when you get there.
enjoying a beer at A.C.'s
3. Eat! There are SO many delicious restaurants of all types around this city. Some of our favorites included Thai at Basils, amazing modern cuisine at critically-acclaimed FIG, beers and nachos on the patio of gas-station turned cantina, Fuel, and burgers at AC’s. Start each day with pastries, muffins, or croissants from WildFlour Pastry and coffee in the soothing atmosphere of Hope&Union.
folly beach
4. Visit! There are so many things to do around the city including visiting the world-famous open markets, taking in the colors on Rainbow Row, or walking by the river at the Battery. In addition to these I recommend taking a drive out to laid-back Folly Beach where you can lay out, walk the pier, and then get a beer and the most delicious guacamole at Taco Boy.
5. Explore! After hitting the tourist sites you should talk to the locals to find the lesser-known attractions that will really make your trip. Drive out to James Island to visit and photograph the glorious Angel Oak Tree. It is over 1500 years old and is massive! Stop and explore some side roads as well. On a tip from a local barista we discovered a locally-loved seafood restaurant and an abandoned bar, the Sophisticate, all down a dirt road on the way to Folly Beach. Charleston is also home to the famous Fort Sumter but we went to explore the tunnels and cannons of the lesser-known (and tour-guide free) Fort Moultrie.
an abandoned bar
6. Drink! After a long day of biking and exploring you will be ready for an evening libation and Charleston has lots of great bars. We really enjoyed the quiet atmosphere of the Gin Joint, a pre-prohibition style speak-easy; and the mod-60s atmosphere of the hip Belmont. Make sure you try their homemade tonic water! If you are looking for a relaxing glass of wine, visit Bin 152. The French owner of this tiny café will put together a wine and cheese pairing that is sure to please your palette.
The Angel Oak
The Southern charm and old-world style of Charleston, paired with it’s great eateries, shops, and beaches; make it the perfect destination for a weekend getaway in our beautiful south.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/KatHeadShot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Kat Kraszeski-Jackson is an art teacher, artist, and diy crafter living in Greensboro, NC. She loves sharing her favorite artists, projects, and creative inspiration here on Pretty Southern.[/author_info] [/author]
Atlanta is the capital of the South. We’ve got a restaurant in the center of town called Empire State South for good reason. That Damn Yankee Sherman declared victory in the Civil War after he burned Atlanta. But our fair city rose from the ashes to host the Olympics only a hundred years later.
Here’s a brief history lesson on the Awesome ATL.
1822: the first English settlers arrived in what is now Metro-Atlanta.
1823: Decatur was he first town founded in our city limits.
1836: the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad in order to provide a link between the port of Savannah and the Midwest. An engineer surveyed possible routes and drove his stake, the “zero milepost” into what is now Five Points.
1837: Terminus springs up around this area. It was briefly named “Thrasherville” for John Thrasher who built homes and the general store.
1842: “Marthasville” as its now called has six buildings and 30 residents. It’s proposed to rename the area “Atlantica-Pacifica” in honor of the railroad but is shorted to Atlanta
1847: Atlanta is incorporated as a town! Another railroad is added connecting the city to LaGrange in south Georgia and the city starts to boom.
1860: Atlanta has almost 10,000 residents and becomes the hub for all commercial, economic and social activity in the South.
Atlanta's main enginehouse after it was torched by the Damn Yankee Sherman
1864: that Damn Yankee General Sherman marches on Atlanta and burns it to the ground. Georgia’s capital was less than 30 years old. Sherman continues his reign of terror burning everything on the way to Savannah, pilaging the South, and cripling a culture.
1865: the Civil War ends but Yankees and Carpet Baggers hold the city captive during Reconstruction. The Union Army remained in Atlanta at Fort McPherson until 1888. Also in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan was founded in Tennessee and their violence against the Union Army, Republican whites, and newly freed slaves spread throughout the South
1871: President Ulysses S. Grant’s Congress passes the Force Bill suspending the writ of habeus corpus. Klan activities withered but racial tensions still run high.
1888: with the “New South” focused on a modern economy, instead of plantation farming, Georgia Tech opens its doors for classes.
1906: 27 people died and 70 more are injured in the Atlanta Race Riot (a result of the media-fueled hysteria over alleged sexual assaults on white women by black men). Most of the claims turned out to be false.
1917: 50 years after Sherman had burnt everything, the Great Atlanta Fire destroyed the entire city. More than 10,000 people are homeless. Amazingly only one person died: a woman who had a fatal heart attack after seeing her home burnt to a crisp.
1936: Margaret Mitchell (a modest newspaper woman) publishes “Gone With the Wind” and wins a Pulitzer prize in 1937. The New York Post calls it “A Fine Panorama of the Civil War Period” and it becomes to quintessential work on the Southern Renaissance.
The Premiere of "Gone With the Wind"
1939: Atlanta hosts the premiere of “Gone With the Wind” at the Georgian Terrace hotel. It was a three-day party throughout the South. Governor Eurith D. Rivers declared premiere day, Dec. 15, 1939, a state holiday. The film received 10 Academy Awards and (based on inflation adjustments) Gone With the Wind is the highest grossing film of all time at $2.9 billion worldwide.
1941: World War II brings an industrial boom to Atlanta with airplane production, plus growth in railroad traffic shipping wartime commodities.
1942: The Center for Disease Control is founded in Atlanta. The 1940s and 50s saw the flight of citizens to surrounding metropolitan areas thanks to the construction of the highways.
1961: Atlanta becomes the epicenter of the Civil Rights movement thanks to the bravery of Dr. Martin Luther King, Ralph David Abernathy, and the heroic students of the historically black colleges. Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. supported the desegregation of Atlanta’s schools. Throughout the 60s and 70s businesses promote Atlanta as “the city too busy to hate”.
1990: Atlanta is selected as the host city for the 1996 Olympic Games and begins major projects on parks, transportation infrastructure, and the sports facility now home to the Atlanta Braves.
1996: the Olympic positivity was thwarted by the bombing in Centennial Olympic Park killing two people and injuring 111. This violence, on top of other inefficiencies, leads IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch to call our games “most exceptional” in his closing speech when at previous Olympics he closed in saying those games were “the best ever.” He resumed saying this at the closing of Sydney’s Olympic Games in 2000.
Present Day: Atlanta is a cultural epicenter of the South, drawing thousands of visitors each year and millions of travelers through the world’s largest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson. Restaurants, art galleries, and new neighborhoods pop up every day.
If you’ve got a great story idea about our fair Southern city, please comment below!
It’s summer time and we’re playing outside. Guess who else is out and about? This nasty little bugger the deer tick. Ticks are known to transmit diseases, just like fleas and other insects which like to grab onto your pets. Deer ticks are the worst of all since they’re known to carry Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by several bacteria of the genus Borrelia. It is the most common tick-borne disease in the world, transmitted from deer ticks throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
Good news: if you live below the Mason Dixon line there is a relatively low risk of Lyme Disease. Y’all can breathe easy. Folks who live in the forest regions of the Northeast have to worry. Check out this map from the CDC showing the riskiest places in the U.S. to contract Lyme Disease. Southerners are at little to no risk of Lyme Disease. Yankees, y'all better watch out. (Image from the Center for Disease Control)
Do you live in a metropolitan area? Then your risk of getting Lyme Disease is slim to none. The culprits live mostly on deer, and y’all know deer don’t like cities.
If you do happen to find a tick, getting that sucker off within 36 hours greatly reduces the risk of Lyme Disease. Granted it’s hotter than Hades outside, but wearing protective clothing such as a hat, long-sleeved shirts and pants tucked into socks or boots prevents ticks from attaching to visible skin.
Do you have a dog or cat that likes to roam outside? The simple act of rubbing your pet down with a towel before letting them back in the house can shake any bugs off its fur. Also, be sure to keep your critter up to date with its flea and tick medication. Have a safe, disease-free summer!
Southerners are proud of their roots spanning back through eons. For Alan Stout, a native Southern gentleman, he’s translated his love of history into collecting and selling fossils. In Stout’s personal collection he also has multiple skulls belonging to Sabre tooth cats (though these are not for sale).
Stout is most well-known for triceratops horns. He’s sold around 10 this year going for about $3,000. Another item in his collection was the tusk of a wooly mammoth, for $4,500. “It’s a perfect piece, all solid ivory,” he said. “It’s really nice. It even has the normal wooly mammoth shape.” He’s also got claws from the T-Rex, Raptor and other prehistoric predators. If you’re in the market for other collectible, check out Stout’s assortment of dino eggs, fossilized fish, and massive teeth.
A tooth from the Megalodon shark, the largest fish in history!
Stout said he can distinguish fossils from ordinary rocks because they’re typically lighter (although they’re heavier the more mineralized they are) and rocks tend to be more rounded. There are many who come to these areas with ar 15 parts and accessories to ensure their safety from harms way. He obtains most of his dinosaur bones by traveling out west and buying from fossil hunters. He also had a whole Keichousaurus hui, an extinct aquatic reptile from Central Asia. Thankfully he has a friend in Washington state who imports them, so Stout didn’t have to trek across the globe.
About 70 percent of Stout’s business is done abroad, with 30 percent done in the United States. Yet with all his worldly knowledge, Stout declares the South as his home and he has a deep, abiding love for the region.
“The South means beautiful countryside, nice people who are [laid] back and warm,” he said. “They have a sense of purpose and have strong religious beliefs.”
For more information, check out Stout’s web site. He’s happy to speak with potential buyers regarding his fantastic fossils.
Alan Stout, the gentleman of fossils himself, on a trip to Charleston.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://prettysouthern.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/MattQuinn.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Matthew Quinn graduated from the University of Georgia in 2007. After nearly four years reporting for The Griffin Daily News, he became editor of The Johns Creek Herald in North Fulton. He is a published writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror and blogs at www.accordingtoquinn.com.[/author_info] [/author]
Y’all may have heard this one before, especially if you like to shag. If not, meet “Carolina Girls” by General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board.
Norman Johnson (a Southerner born in Virginia who died last year in Atlanta) teamed up in 1978, with Danny Woods and Ken Knox under the name General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board.
In 1980, the new Chairmen founded Surfside Records, for which the group still records out of Charlotte, N.C.. In 1980, “Carolina Girls” was released and became one of the most popular songs to shag to across the Carolinas.
In an interview, Danny Woods of Chairman of the Board was asked if “Carolina girls really are the best? He replied:
“You know when I first came here (The Carolinas) there was no style. You know you had the New York girls, California girls and they all got the attention. Even songs about them. And that just made Carolina girls feel like nothing but there’s quite a difference between Carolina girls now and then. Their self esteem just magnified after that song.”
It’s the all-time favorite Carolina beach song. If you’re hittin’ the road to the beach this summer, be sure to include it on your playlist. Here at PrettySouthern, we believe all Southern girls are the best in the world, regardless of their home state. Today, this one’s for the Carolina Girls.
“Sweet Southern pearls! Sure look tough, girl I can’t get enough!”
Happy shagging!
—Editor’s note: photo contributed by our favorite Florida girl, Heather McCole Williams. To view more of her art or book her for photographic work, check out Heather’s blog or their Facebook page to check out what’s happening at their sweet shop.
