an evening on an island in rva

Friday evening one of my best friends, Rae, and I went down to our city's river and to the island in the middle of it - Belle Isle. We were in search of paw paws! Richmond is a gorgeous river city and I'm very fortunate to live only a couple blocks from the river. Our destination this evening, though, was just a short car ride away. I brought along my newest familial addition - Ogden, my half blind sharpei mix rescue! I brought him home in mid-July and he's settled in well.

Our view on our way to the island across the pedestrian bridge. Beautiful! Somehow neither of us had ever been to Belle Isle despite all our years here. 

Since Og is part sharpei, he's pretty aloof most of the time. He's not easily phased and in his own little world (unless he's checking on me). The bridge was a cake walk for him, but the river not so much. He's never been around water like that, so he unknowingly walked right into the river and it scared him! I tried in vain to get him to walk up closer after that. I believe he really wanted to, but he was unsure. He's grown leaps and bounds of his shy self when I got him in mid-July, so I'm sure I'll have him in the river soon, haha. 

Here's part of our beautiful city on our walk back! Our paw paw search was fruitful (no pun intended)! While the part of the island we explored was picked clean, we did manage to find two paw paws! Neither of us had had one before, so it was a special treat. And absolutely delicious. We hope to try again next year and find more!

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day dates in rva

Having the same day off together has resulted in some pretty awesome date days around town - here are a few!

Cups of black coffee at Blackhand Coffee before walking over to the VMFA and checking out the collections. I hadn't been since the Ansel Adams exhibit in October, so it was nice to wander around.

Strolling around the city a bit before grabbing a local craft beer and just sitting on a nice bench at Scuffletown Park for a while. 

Visiting 821 Cafe for the best tofu sandwich of my life, checking out secondhand book stores, trying wild sodas. (The enchilada was disgusting.)

A long walk on some nature trails and found tons of cute little mushrooms, found a nice bench to sit a while, then caught a little bit of the Babe Ruth World Series and rooted for a team from Hawaii (who ended up taking it home!)

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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

richmond veg fest 2019 // #rvavegfest

Saturday I volunteered with my two best friends at the Richmond Vegetarian Festival! We helped with parking and then walked around the festival and had some amazing vegan food and petted a bunch of adorable puppers (most notably a tiny little nine pound pup who was the cuuuutest).

I was starving by the time our volunteer shift ended, so I started with a sides sampler from Khepra's Raw Food Juice Bar! I loved their kale and one other side, but I have no idea what it was, haha. While I didn't try any juice, definitely check them out if you're in DC! The food is worth it.

Next I tried the vegan mac & cheeze from In the Raw with Soul and GUYS, this stuff was amaaaaaaaaazing. I wish I had tried more from them! They had a surf and turf burger that looked really good, but I didn't see a photo until after I was home! I hope I run into them again sometime.

I had a great time and great food. ♥


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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

wine tour saturday

Saturday I was invited to go on a wine tour with Jess and a fabulous group of ladies. We all met at the cabin and loaded up the bus and set off! We had an absolutely amazing lunch at Early Mountain Vineyards. I had the pimento grilled cheese and it was to die for.

We tried several amazing local wines spread out over four wineries. The venues were gorgeous as well as the area.We all came back to the cabin and had a fantastic potluck! I brought a greek tortellini salad that turned out quite nice.

♥

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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

local haunts // city dogs

One evening I met up with my friends Carrie and Kelly at City Dogs for dinner. They both eat vegan as much as possible and I don't eat traditional hot dogs, but luckily City Dogs has a soy dog option that is so good. They have 15 different hot dog varieties and any of them can be made with a soy dog.

I chose the Tennessee Slaw Dog which came with chili, mustard, onion (I nixed these), and cole slaw. If you're looking to go fully vegan at City Dogs, make sure you get the vegan chili that's made with cauliflower and ask for Texas toast as their buns aren't vegan. The chili was really good and I'm definitely looking forward to our next visit.

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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

plant travels

I have a pretty extensive plant collection almost entirely comprised of houseplants. I'm addicted. Throughout RVA there are tons of nurserys, plant shops, and garden centers. Here are a few of the gorgeous plants I've encountered!

This one isn't actually in RVA, but I noticed this Hot Cocoa Rose bush in a nursery in Maryland and I love it. The color is amazing. If these did well in containers I'd already have one!

These pitcher plants were right here in my backyard! A local nursery had them and I was so impressed with how nice they looked. I could keep these inside but don't quite have the room for them.

 

These are all from my favorite greenhouse. They have such a massive selection and I love just wandering through staring at all of the amazing plants.

I hope to start an inventory of sorts here soon with all of the lovelies I have at home. ♥


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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

brunch & plants

Last Saturday all of us gals who work part time at the kitchen met up for brunch. Admittedly this was my first experience ever...am I last the last millennial on the planet to have brunch? That aside, we met up at the aptly named restaurant, Brunch, in Richmond and it was absolutely amazing.

Brunch is fairly new and is the morning counterpart of Lunch.Supper, which is also absolutely amazing. I'm really fortunate to live in a city with such fantastic food. I had the smoked salmon cake bennie with dill-dijon hash browns and I would happily eat that every morning for the rest of my life. That fresh house hollandaise was the highlight of my month. Of course I had to order a side of the Supper collards, which might possibly be the best collard greens I've ever eaten. I don't think I've mentioned how good the food was, have I?

The atmosphere is great and I love the painted (wallpaper?) floral pattern on the walls and (of course) the many boxes lining the ceiling that teemed with plants. After spending a few hours screeching like a bunch of hens and seeing our favorite chef, I headed over to the Lewis Ginter PlantFest with my friends Carrie and Kelly.

This was the first year I've been and it was great! I picked up a 13lb bag of worm castings, a purple basil baby, a citronella plant for my balcony (which I've already started propagating!), a purple pepper plant, a cute little ogre ear, and some yarrow. I'm almost ready to move my seedlings outside so these were some nice additions to my plant collection.

How was your weekend?

♥


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lucky bandit is a for profit blog. I use affiliate links and paid advertisements. I may earn compensation for a click or purchase through a link. Paid (whether via product or monetary) reviews will be noted in the actual post. Though compensation may influence the type of posts, all opinions and reviews will be legitimate and honest.

*All affiliate links will be marked with an asterick.*

museum day 2018

Last Saturday, September 22, was Museum Day! Luckily I don't live far from some pretty amazing museums down in Richmond, so we chose tickets for the Virginia History and Culture Museum, which saved us $10 each. Before that, though, we stopped by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. I'd never been to either place, so it was a fun day. I didn't take many photos, but here are some highlights.

The ancient art was amazing. This is a floor mosaic of the four seasons from a house near Antioch. The tiles were tiny and I can't imagine painstakingly setting each one. It was gorgeous.

After lunch in the lovely cafe, the gift shop was the next stop, of course. There were numerous shelves filled with local Virginia artists' work, and these soft sculptures by Vicki Bruner which were fascinating. I really like her style and hopefully I can snag a piece soon. I did end up walking out with a pretty funny mug, though. We headed over for some history afterward.

I don't have very many photos from the history museum because I was too busy absorbing everything. There were tons of things to see! Since it's all Virginia related, it's interesting to see where things happened throughout history in relation to the locations I frequent today.

Museum days are pretty awesome. See what's near you!

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local haunts // boutique 31

Last week I was out in beautiful ole Tennessee to house sit for my mom and I stopped into one of my favorite boutiques, Boutique31. It's a small little shop that carries adorable clothing in standard and plus sizes. Kaitlyn, the owner, is the sweetest gal and she always has adorable pieces. Here's what I picked up!

I'm a sucker for cute leggings because they're soooo comfy. These leggings were posted on Facebook and I was hoping to snag a pair. They were only $5! Since these aren't quite as loud as some other pairs I have (coughcoughDOGPRINTcoughcough), so I'm excited to pair them with a black tunic and boots out somewhere casually.

How pretty is this necklace?! I love the green, the black, and the tassle. Definitely a good score for my jewelry collection.

And coming soon is a second location for Boutique31 in Knoxville!! I'm so excited to visit and happy that they're doing so well.

Be sure to check them out:
Website // Facebook // Instagram

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true food kitchen // mosaic district

Earlier this month, Jess and I had a girls' night and decided to try out True Food Kitchen in the Mosaic District. Since she's dairy free and I eat vegan, it was a great spot for both of us. It was a chilly night, but they had a great looking patio and the interior and atmosphere were great, though a tad crowded. True Food has a great philosophy about food and a rotating seasonal menu that we're going to be sure to check out.

I ordered the Teriyaki Quinoa Bowl and Jess had the Butternut Squash Pizza. Everything tasted fresh and both dishes were delicious. My bowl was filling and had a great mix of veggies. I'm not a huge avocado fan (gasp) but it went really well with everything else. It was a really pleasant meal and I'll definitely be returning!

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summer 2017

Summer is winding down and coming to an end, finally. I worked a lot, but did manage to get out a do some really fun stuff!

In June, I spent a week out in Tennessee and it was great. Saw some baseball, got sunburnt, laid around the house. Back home, N and I sat on a lot of patios and complained about the heat, saw some great local sights, stopped by the farmer's market and the soap box derby, and caused general mayhem. In late July, N and I took a trip out to Tennessee, Mumma made us some amazing vegan spaghetti sauce, we did a lot of outdoor sitting and talking, and I found my favorite seasonal beer, RJ Rockers' Son of a Peach, and tried Shiner's Strawberry Blonde. I'm now in love with both. Jess and I saw Jurassic Park, one of my favorites, at Byrd Theatre, which was my first time going and it was awesome. A few weeks later, N and I shot down to the beach one weekend spontaneously and that was a lot of fun, then stopped at a friend's on the way back for some night swimming, squealing over hound puppies, and hanging out.

I'm normally a homebody, especially during summer, so I'm really glad I could get out more than usual.

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a lazy day downtown

Yesterday, after I ran some errands on my day off, I decided to head downtown. I work down there, but very rarely get to actually stroll around. I stopped and had lunch at the Virginia Deli, which is one of my favorite spots. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the streets weren't really busy, so I sat outside and enjoyed the day.





Earlier that morning, my grandpa changed the oil in my car for me, so I stopped by Sugar Shack and picked up a couple sprinkle donuts for him and my grandma. My grandma grew up downtown, so as I was telling her where Sugar Shack was, she told me their building is right across from what used to be the service station my great grandpa ran! I love learning family history.





I've been watching my spending lately, so I didn't pick up a lot of things in my shopping, but I did stop by Ladyburg for a bath bomb, The Grove of Brite Blessings for a few stones, and then I stopped by Ulta (but that was an awesome point redemption deal and I ended up only paying $1.26 for the polish!).



Overall? A very unproductive, relaxing day. ♥


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local haunts: Hyperion Espresso // fxbg

I love coffee. Plain and simple. I'm also a huge advocate of supporting local coffee shops. One of my favorites? Hyperion Espresso in Downtown Fredericksburg. They brew a fantastic dark roast, and they have almost any flavor syrup you could want.

During the summer, I typically stick with their smoothies or Italian sodas. Mango smoothie, peach Italian soda. ♥ You can't go wrong with the black tea, either. I recently tried their seasonal pomegranate black tea. Yum.



I don't normally have a lot of time to hang out there, but they have loads of space for working on your laptop and hanging out with friends. When you buy a drink, just grab the wifi password from the register. The building that houses Hyperion is pretty gorgeous on the inside, too, so there's none of that stale decor you'll find at other coffee shops.

The baristas have always been friendly, so if you're not sure what to order off their extensive menu, just ask!

So if you're in the area, stop by! You won't be disappointed.


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