We Like Them Apples

We like them a lot!

Picked right off the tree to heavy bags to overflowing bowlfuls to yummy creations! Apple sauce, apple butter, caramel apples, apple fitters, apple muffins, apple cakes, apple cookies and a crafty little wreath. How 'bout them apples!

It is that most wonderful time of the year for heading up the mountain and picking apples. We like to go to Carter Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville. The drive is short and easy, the apples are delicious and the picking is fun! If that weren't enough, the staff is friendly and knowledgeable and sometimes there is live music to really set the mood. You can enjoy a tasting of Virginia wines and buy a bottle to enjoy with your picnic lunch! The hay wagon ride is a also must. But the best part of all are the apple cider donuts- Some folks go just for the donuts! If you manage to get down the mountain with any donuts left you have the greatest self control know to humankind! Slightly dramatic of a statement but not completely untrue all the same! Check out our Pinterest page for apple ideas.

The season isn't over try this link for other great spots for apple picking in Virginia.

As if the joy of apple season isn't overwhelmingly wonderful enough, it is also that other most wonderful time of the year known as the Brunswick Stew Festival. We are talking stew people!  STEW!!!!! The best most wonderful most delicious most amazing STEW!  It is a top 5 favorite festival of Cocktails and Glitter! After, you have a belly full of stew it is time to head to the river for the Urbanna Oyster Festival and continue the fest with fresh oysters prepared every way imaginable.

We had a low key Happy Hour at Social 52 (the former Avalon). They were able to successfully close Avalon and open Social 52 in a fairly short amount of time and have now been open for about 2 months. The rooms feel much more open than before with exposed brick and reclaimed wood and definitely open up the place. With plenty of room at the bar and additional bar tables, it is a great Happy Hour spot for a large group. Their "social hour" deals are good, especially the half price flat-breads, which are ample in portion, cleverly named (as is most everything else on the menu) and topped with creative ingredients. Bathroom was boring, but at least clean. Has a WOW factor in that moms eat free at brunch! We forgot to ask the details on this but come on, that is just cool whether we know what it means or not...right? Ok, you're right we should have the 411. Take your mom there and find out the deal and let us know on our facebook page. But don't get suckered by the Bacon Chopped salad- it was very disappointing (lettuce with house made bacon bits---lame-o). Thankfully everything else was a hit and we would recommend it giving it 4.5 martinis.

One last thing, a shout out to two of our girlfriends who have not lost the art of the thank you note. The same day as that post we both had fun mail in the mailbox in the form of thank you notes from two great ladies. But these are two of the gals we were talking about it in that post that are always on top it. Thank you ladies for being awesome!



Cheers, 
K&H


P.S. Due to technical difficulties we were unable to post last week and apologize for the delay this week.  Stupid (wonderful) stupid (kinda awesome) stupid (whatever) technology!

Homemade Happy Hour!

Who says babies can't Happy Hour? 

If the Happy Houring is in a public bar setting then most mothers everywhere say "NO" to babies at Happy Hour. However, if you get Cocktails & Glitter creative and bring Happy Hour home, all babies are welcome all the time...as long as they get permission and a ride from their moms!

When the tide of life changes you must adjust to the new ebb and flow.  In the last year, life has changed a great deal for many of our friends as they have created tiny wonderful human beings that we adore. Those tiny human beings have a great many needs and a schedule all their own that does not mesh well at a typical Happy Hour, so we decided to bring Happy Hour home! This gives us and others the chance to see our girlfriends that can't Happy Hour at bars and a chance to fuss over their beautiful babies. Win Win for everyone! 

First, we picked a day and date that worked for us and the moms. Looks like Mondays are going to be our go-to day for our home brewed Happy Hours! Kate's house was picked as the location because it is so centrally located and a great party house with plenty of indoor and especially outdoor space. Then we decided to each bring a snack to share and our own drink of choice.  Spread a quilt on the floor for the babies, poured some wine, ate fabulous chocolate cake and kissed those babies. SUCCESS!

If we were to rate our own Happy Hour hands down it gets a 5 out of 5 martinis. The atmosphere is charming and flows for a large gathering or an intimate few. The bathrooms are great! Service down right phenomenal! The deals are the best in town 5 snacks for the price of one and wine with fun labels! Not to mention private spaces for nursing or diaper changes if needed.

It was such a brilliant idea and smashing success that we are already planning the next one for September and hope to make it a monthly thing or as much as possible. We will still be scouting out great Happy Hour deals and locations in RVA, but this way we get the best of both worlds! 

Cheers!
K&H



 

Wine not?

Hurray!  By the skin of our chinny chin chins we will manage to get in at least one Happy Hour this July! Tomorrow we will be checking out the new hip spot Viceroy!  Viceroy is located on the corner of Devil's Triangle that was once home to Café Diem. Oh, Café Diem how we miss you... but not your bathrooms! We may get wild and crazy with a few live posts to our Facebook! Be sure to catch our review next week.

We had hoped Happy Hour would take place at the pop up tiki bar being held at Ipanema Café, but our tiki dreams of mai tai cocktails with fabulous garnishes and paper umbrellas were crushed when we realized it isn't happening during our traditional happy hour time, but from 10pm to 2am. Oh well. We do hope it is a success and the brilliant brains behind this brilliant idea will do it again...like between 4pm-7pm.  We had even started planning our outfits, so sad, they were going to be tropics in the city chic.

This Sunday we had a double whammy of awesome- Book Club and a winery visit! Our friend who was hosting lives conveniently down the street from New Kent Winery. This is a beautiful gem of a winery in picturesque country setting. The tasting is typically $8 for a lovely sampling of 8 wines and a tour of the building. Our tasting fee was only $6, perhaps because we arrived after the last tour had begun. The staff are exceptionally knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. Although we didn't make the tour, we've both taken it before and we recommend it. Much of the wood used on the building is reclaimed lumber- be sure to check out the old railroad trusses that originally were in Shockoe Bottom. Many of the bricks are reclaimed and date back before the Civil War!  The trip out there is worth it just for the building, but if you are there you should enjoy the wine as well. After the tasting, we shared a bottle of the wine to share and sat on the
beautiful wrap around porch and watched an afternoon summer rain shower. How southern can you get!?!

Cheers!

2 of the book club gals

 joined us Sunday

Cheers!
K&H

P.S.  Last week we blogged about the Purple Martin Festival which will be held at the 17th Street Farmers Market, please note the date has been changed to August 24, 2013.

Happy Hour, we love you!

What are the happiest hours of the day?  

Sure there are plenty of different thoughts on this but for Cocktails and Glitter, 4:00pm to 7pm have a special little place in our heart!  We built our friendship over Happy Hour and love the chance to Happy Hour with friends and family we don't see as often as we wish. 

Whatever the reason or location, we always seem to have a fantastic time. On occasion we are blown away by a HH location and want to rave all about it and then there are times it isn't worth mentioning. Way back in January, while Happy Hour-ing at Xtras Café, we had the clever idea to rate each location. Our rating system is brilliantly called...

"Cocktails and Glitter's Extremely Sophisticated HH Rating System" 

Each Happy Hour location has been given a rating of 0 out 5 martinis.  0-1-don't even bother, over 3-worth it and 5-LOVE IT we will be back and probably have already. Kate and Heather have each given a 0-5 rating which are then averaged together, for the final rating. Should there be a .75 we are rounding up and should there be a .25 we are rounding down. 

Check out our Happy Hour tab for the criteria we use to rate each location, "Cocktails and Glitter's Extremely Sophisticated HH Rating System."  Be sure to check out the Happy Hour tab every once in a while for future ratings and Happy Hour suggestions.

Here are the Happy Hour locations we've rated so far...


    

LOCATION	# of Martinis
Mint	3
Selba	4
Xtras	5
Brio Tuscan Grill	3
Mosic	2.5
The Hill Café	2
Sushi O	3.5
Blue Goat	2
Northside Grill	2
Savory Grain	3
Fat Dragon	4
Galley	2
Jorge’s Cantina	2
Nacho Mama’s	3
The Mill	4
Pearl Oyster Bar	4
Caliente	1
Deco Ristorante	4
?	?
?	?
?	?
?	?
?	?
?	?

Hit us up on Facebook for suggestions for our next Happy Hour location and any feedback you have on the above.

Cheers!

K&H

P.S. We are working on a graphic to actually have a martini or maybe a martini glass with 0 to 5 olives!  We are going to make this list a bit more sexy as soon as we learn graphics!!!!!!!

Eggs anyone?

Greetings!

It has been a busy and exciting week! Here are some highlights:

• Happy Hour at Fat Dragon. This was our first HH at Fat Dragon, and we had a fantastic time! The food and drink specials were great- $2 off of apps, $3.50 rail drinks (their rails were not crap liquor- decent stuff), $2 off drafts, and $5 wine by the glass selection. We will definitely be going back- we give 10 martinis- a perfect score!
• Three Sheets to the Wind put on a great show at the National on Friday!  They are always a blast to watch, and the crowd was clearly having an awesome time. We can't wait until their next show!

  

  It was a smooth time had by all.



Buffalo Deviled Eggs? Yes, please!

• Easter for both us of had last minute changes in plans. The weather was not stellar in Richmond- so neither of us made it to Monument Ave for Easter on Parade. Due to unforeseen circumstances, both our Easter dinner plans were cancelled, leaving us both with dozens of boiled eggs, ready to be deviled. We are trying to be creative in how to use these eggs: Egg salad and several twists on deviling have been consumed in the last few days by us and our husbands. Check out our Pinterest page for some ideas!

April is already in full swing with many happenings around town. The Richmond Flying Squirrels have their opening game on April 4th, complete with fireworks after the show. Spring break is happening for most schools this week, so the museums and parks have plenty going on for families. We are about to find out if all our training has paid off for the upcoming running races this month. Everyone in town seems to be training for something- the Monument Ave 10k, Color Me Rad, Hardywood 4miler...and many more! Search for more races here. We also learned today that one of our favorite radio programs, Prairie Home Companion, will be coming to Maymont this summer as part of the Groovin' concert series! Tickets go on sale next week.

Since many of us are hitting the pavement, either in running shoes or sandals, here's a friendly reminder for the gals out there: It's time for a pedi! Whether you do one at home or hit the salon, it is that time of year to make your toes and feet look great. Guys, you may want to consider it too.

Kate and her hubby are planning a spring yard sale for the weekend and are looking forward to the extra space in the basement! Whatever money is made will be going toward outdoor improvement projects. If you're on the Northside of Richmond this Saturday (April 6th, 9-1) come on by and check it out!  The weather is going to be great for a little outdoor shopping. No early birds, but we will be open to a Bloody Mary on the porch with you during the sale!

The sign is the hook to reel in your customers! BUY BUY BUY!!!

Congratulations to our friends Meghan and Travis on the Easter arrival of their little boy! He surprised everyone by coming a few weeks early, but everyone is doing great. We have been over the moon with excitement for this arrival, even if it means Kate has a ton of eggs to eat.

Cheers,

K&H

Give the groundhog a break!

Okay everyone, it is time to leave the poor groundhog alone!  Yes, the calendar says it's spring (as dictated by the sun and the tilt of the earth). Yes, there's snow on the ground. But honestly, does anyone really believe a rodent who, according to legend, is a lush? Knowing that little tidbit actually makes him more likeable in our book, but also less creditable. Fun fact: During Prohibition Phil threatened to impose 60 weeks of winter on the community if he wasn't allowed a drink. During our groundhog research, we also learned that Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking "groundhog punch" (a secret recipe). One sip, which is administered every summer at the Groundhog Picnic, gives him seven more years of life. (How much for that recipe!?!?). And lastly, according to StormFax Weather Almanac, which has been keeping records since 1887, Punxsutawney Phil's predictions are correct only 39% of the time. We don't know about you, but it sounds like Phil's a better Happy Hour buddy than weather/season forecaster!

As we mentioned last post, this past weekend was the Irish Festival! It's a great kick off to the warm weather festival season. Saturday brought warm, sunny weather, which in turn brought the public out! We stayed in one spot the entire time, which was just outside of the packed crowd. Kate was happy to get one of her favorite festival foods- the Irish Surprise, made by the ladies of St. Patrick's Church. A warm bowl of potatoes, cabbage and corned beef. Although we didn't have a chance to visit the vendors or watch the bands, we had nice time catching up with friends. And really, that's what a festival is all about! Well, that and Kettle Korn.


Richmond was sad, but proud of VCU this weekend. They played hard, but couldn't quite make it to the top of the tournament. Great job Rams!

A few weeks ago, we told you about a wine tasting we hosted with a few of our friends.This was something we had been wanting to do for weeks, and were totally bummed with the results in the wine. For the last few weeks, we've been trying to come up with a way to give an honest review without being ugly. We have decided to come clean and be as honest as possible:

The wine we were tasting was the Skinny Girl brand- we tried the white, blush and red. Now, the 5 of us are not wine snobs. I mean, we're all in our 30s, have had our share of wine, and know what's decent and what's not. But we're not above having a glass of Three Buck Chuck every now and then. It's pretty safe to say that 50% of the wine we typically drink is around $10 a bottle or less. So with the Skinny Girl wines retailing for $20 a bottle, we had some high expectations. We started taking notes when we began sampling the white. Then realized we all had the same thing to say: little flavor, boring, blah, won't pair with anything, not a sipping wine, not a wine for drinking, yuck. Same for the blush, and even worse reviews for the red! Before the tasting we were joking about having a dump bucket as they have at a proper wine tasting, and decided that we'd likely be drinking it anyway! WRONG! We ended up dumping most of the wine down the drain. Using it for cooking or sangria was discussed, but ultimately, it was just that bad. Fortunately Kate had back up wine, so all was not lost! Aside from the bad taste in our mouth, we were really just disappointed. We knew there would be some hype because of the brand, but it just seems wrong to charge that much for "diet wine" that tastes so bad. It was unanimous that we'd rather drink 120-135 calories of good wine than 100 calories of bad. Thanks to Ashley, Kri and Mary for helping us out!

On a happier note- the weekends in Richmond are about to get really busy! The Easter holiday brings out the fun family festivities! Here are the highlights we hope to hit this week:

• Happy Hour at Fat Dragon
• Three Sheets to the Wind at the National
• Easter at Maymont
• Easter On Parade on Monument Ave
• 4 week countdown to our first race of the year!

Last week we asked for Roller Derby names, and got a HUGE response. By huge we mean zero. So here are a few we came up with, using our former fake bar names:
Sockem’ Susie:“Don’t cry- it will only hurt until I sock ya again”
Susie Sunshine :“She’ll socket to ya”
Hellacious Heidi: “Hell on wheels, the fire is coming for ya”
Heidi “the hurricane” Duvet: “She's got her 'eye' on you!"
Cyclone Susie and Hurricane Heidi: "Catastrophe is a comin’ so you best be a runnin’"

What do y'all think? Have any favorites? And more suggestions?

We hope you and your loved ones have a great Easter weekend!

Cheers,

K&H

Countdown to Spring

Hello!

Happy almost spring everyone!  It's been a busy week here in Richmond. We had a Happy Hour, checked out the River City Rollergirls, got our craft on, did some running shoe shopping, cheered on VCU, celebrated St. Patrick's Day and enjoyed a spa day...phew! Here are the highlights for your reading pleasure:

• We got together on Thursday with some friends for Happy Hour at The Savory Grain. Opened last month by the beautiful and talented Jami Bohdan, the wife of a former coworker. It's a lovely space and we are so impressed with what they have built! This is a wonderful "date night" spot, and has a fantastic dining room available for small groups. The bar is stocked with plenty of local beers on tap, which were $2 off during Happy Hour.
• On Saturday we went on a double date to check out the River City Rollergirls at the Richmond Convention Center. This was our first bout (Roller Derby word for game or match), and it was exciting! There was a fun, enthusiastic and diverse crowd to cheer them on. Once we understood the rules, we really got into it! One of the highlights was checking out the player's alter-ego names on their jerseys. Though we are still deciding our Roller Derby names, we have no plans on joining, just cheering them on. We ended the evening with burgers and beers at Northside Grill.

We're bruised just watching!

• Kate finally finished a craft project that's been on her plate for awhile. When the craft table materials were bought, 2 magnet boards for crafty inspiration also wound up in the cart. Plain old magnet boards are fine and dandy, but fabric covered boards are better!  Check it out in She's Crafty!
• Heather and her Boo did some running shoe shopping over the weekend. They checked out Lucky Foot, a locally owned and operated running store. They specialize in proper fittings based on your foot and running style. It was one of the BEST customer services experiences ever, and we highly recommend checking them out. The icing on the cake was the free beer in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.
• We're proud of VCU and where they finished in the A-10 conference tournament over the weekend. We wish them luck in the NCAA tournament. Go Rams! Bring on the HAVOC!
• St. Patrick's Day was low key for us as far as the usual celebrations. Heather & hubby were buying shoes and watching the VCU game, Kate & her hubby took care of house projects. Next weekend we'll hit the Irish Festival in Church Hill.
• And the BEST part of the week was Spa day (or Spaaaaaahhhh day!). As a thank you for hosting Meghan's shower, we were given certificates to Glo Med Spa. Heather had the Deep Pore Glow Facial and Kate had the Body Contouring Massage (aka the skinny massage). The soothing atmosphere and knowledgeable and friendly staff made for a relaxing afternoon. Thank you Meghan!!

That's all for this week! If you have Roller Derby names for us or you, please comment below or on Facebook. Check in next week for our next awesome adventure!

Cheers!

K&H