CRAVE CRUSH the urban girl's blog to all that you CRAVE

Peek into the CRAVE Closet

February 25, 2010 by Sarah Clise | Comments (0)


Our very own Melody Biringer had her closet raided! MyCloset.com, a website dedicated to airing people’s dirty laundry (literally), recently featured the CRAVEcompany founder in its scintillating Celebrity Closets installment. Among the hangers and hampers, a myriad of wardrobe gems were unearthed from all over the world. Woolen leg-warmers from Amsterdam, Ilse Jacobsen rain boots from Seattle, a bold purple dress from Vancouver, BC… how can that much cuteness exist in one closet? Lucky for us, Melody divulged a few of her shopping secrets and we can all check out her fashion favorites for ourselves. Below check out some of her most-cherished boutiques.

Moscow (moscowdesign.nl)
Runstraat 8, 1111 AA, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Horseshoe (horseshoeseattle.com)
5344 Ballard Avenue Northwest Seattle, WA 98107

Lambs Ear (lambsearshoes.com)
3516 Fremont Place No.inesgloves.com Seattle, WA 98103

Ines Gloves (inesgloves.com)
Oudezijds Achterburgwal 132 1012 DV Amsterdam, Netherlands

JC Studio (jcstudio.ca)
46 West 6th Avenue Vancouver, BC V5Y 1K1

sonja | clothes to live in (sonjatacoma.com)
2701 N 21st St, Tacoma, WA 98406

Switch Shoes (switch-shoes.com)
7871 Southwest Capitol Highway, Portland, OR 97219

For a truly in depth look into the world of women-owned boutiques, check out the CRAVEguide for a city near you. These books are brimming with local women you need to know, whether you want to satisfy a craving for your closet, appetite, business, or piece of mind.

Our Guide to Atlanta’s Savvy Organizational Pros

February 24, 2010 by Laura Scholz | Comments (0)


Everyone loves a good makeover.  But when was the last time you thought about giving your abode a fresh look?  Whether you’re CRAVE-ing a complete overhaul or just a bit more structure in your dwelling, we’ve assembled a list of savvy pros who will get your space energized and organized in no time!

Mindful Redesign
Mindful Redesign, owned by organizing pro Tami Pickett, is a combination redesign and organizing business that creates homes that people WANT to spend time in.  Tami works with each and every client to assess the root causes of disorganization and then develops strategies for staying on track.  In addition, this resourceful intelligentsia’s is a master at enhancing your abode’s original, hidden charm. For more information about Mindful Redesign, email Tami at tami@mindfulresedesign.com

STP Enterprises
According to Summer Talamo-Phillips of STP Enterprises, being disorganized is more than just a nuisance–it reduces the benefit and effectiveness of any area. Known for transforming disorganized dens into welcoming lounges and messy home offices into your own productive oasis, Summer works one-on-one with each client to create the best possible approach to getting and staying organized. Her fresh perspective and personalized system of order helps each client create a peaceful, orderly abode for any occasion.

Chaos 2 Comfort
Owned by savvy entreprenesses Teresa and Susan, Chaos 2 Comfort is a business that seeks to help others through life’s transitions. Change can produce not only stress, but unwanted mess. Whether it is the joy and chaos of adding a new child into your space or the stress of buying and selling your home, disorganization is likely lurking around the corner. With over 45 years of professional organizing experience–including home staging, visual merchandising, space planning, showroom and commercial design–these ladies will get your home in shape in no time!

All three companies listed are part of NAPO, National Association of Professional Organizers, and come highly recommended. Check them out, their tips are sure to leave you empowered and renewed.  It could be just what you and your space have been CRAVE-ing!

CRAVE Chat: Building Financial Confidence

February 23, 2010 by Laura Scholz | Comments (0)


Speaker: Cathy Iconis, CPA
Topic: Building Financial Confidence
When: March 16, 2010 7:00 PM
Where: Urban Cottage 988 N Highland Ave
Price: $25 per person


Do you crave more opportunities to network with each other as well as spend more time with our entrepreness intelligentsia? After all, we are a community of intuitive, resourceful, passionate, business-savvy, adventuresome mavens!  Join us for monthly, intimate and informal discussions hosted by Urban Cottage.

Everyone is welcome!

About this Coffee Chat:

Topic: Building Financial Confidence

  • Willing to talk about everything EXCEPT money?
  • Lack confidence when it comes to your business’s finances?
  • Entrepreness and CPA Cathy Iconis shares the tools and knowledge you need to manage your finances with confidence and style.

About the Speaker:

Cathy Iconis
AtlantaSmall.biz		 CPA Cathy Iconis is an accomplished Mompreneur that provides Virtual CFO & Accounting Consulting services to small businesses. She is an experienced auditor, forensic accountant and project management who has spent most of her career analyzing companies and creating efficiencies in the accounting process while translating financial speak to everyday people.  She provides businesses that can’t yet afford full-time finance personnel with the tools and knowledge to better manage their companies and finances.Iconis is also the owner of AtlantaSmall.biz, a blog devoted to the issues facing small businesses.  She also blogs regularly about accounting related issues for the Georgia Society of CPAs.

Twitter: @CathyIconis

Home is Wherever You Hang Your Hat

February 23, 2010 by Lynn Edwards | Comments (0)



For those of you who have read my Rachel Ray blog you know I’m culinarily challenged, but love those food shows. I’m equally as inept at home design & décor but I love me some Design on a Dime (although I don’t actual DO either). I love the word “home.” I grew up in a small rambler with seven people, one bathroom and no dishwasher, but it was home. My Dad still lives there and it’s amazing how it feels sleeping in that house. It’s awesome when we all go home with our families, the bathroom line is just a little longer now with 23 people. After college I became a vagabond and lived all over the world, followed by 18 years as an army spouse. The Army has this cute little sign that says “Home is where the Army sends you.”

Needless to say, my “home” has been a stinky room the size of a closet, a grass hut in the middle of a rice paddy, an apartment on the 75th floor, a condo near a strip mall, a large sprawling tudor style, and approximately 5000 hotel rooms. I love all that cool stuff you get for your home when you get married but I made a critical mistake and had a really small wedding. Turns out I received three place settings of my formal china. When we’d have another couple over the fourth person had to eat off a plastic power ranger plate. I’m so home décor challenged I have lived for months with no pictures on the wall, have gone 20+ years without buying window treatments and I don’t have more than two bath towels the same color. When people ask me what “theme” I have decorated my homes I answer with a mid-modern century “pot pourri”.

As a joke one year my friends bought me an entire set of holiday plates. I now have salt & pepper shakers with snowmen on them…so stinking cool! I think chicks that wear hats are fashion forward stars, those with holiday-themed china are domestic goddesses….now I’m one. There are some staples I love that seem to make a house a luxurious home…a million pillows on your bed & lots of thread count sheets, a system to organize your plastic wear & lids, real flowers on your kitchen island, and that’s living. Oh, and whoever invented that electric fire place switch needs a raise…big time! I love huge tubs but have spent little time in them. The time I did spend was usually jockeying around to get comfortable around all those hot wheels in there with me. I did build a water feature on my deck once. I loved it, yeah for Lowe’s. I looked like a landscape architect genius just by putting part A into part B and firing up the hose. It was great to fall asleep to but it made me have to get up and pee all night long.

Oprah says make your home an oasis…take a look around and think about what you can do to make your house a little more “homey”…even if it’s just a $2 apple pie scented candle.

Put a Spring in Your Step with these Hot Colors

February 22, 2010 by Madeline C. | Comments (0)



When we think of spring we think of pastels and floral prints, but those just seem a little too passé and boring. What will you be wearing this spring to spice up your wardrobe? Here are some of the color trends that you won’t want to miss out on. Pick up a few bright accessories that are both trendy and timeless.

Turquoise – We’re pretty sure this is on EVERYONE’S hot-list, along with other aqua-colored hues. This vibrant color turns every outfit up a notch, making you just exude that cool confident aura that will make you the center of attention. Splurge on a Jamie Joseph brightly colored stone ring. We love this Sea Blue Chalcedony Ring for a beautiful eye-catcher.

Light Pink – More specifically, champagnes and corals are two “light pinks” that won’t have you gagging on pastel and cotton candy. Champagne is the closest you can get to a nice neutral color while adding a little pop! And for coral, try some of Cara Lyndon’s hairpins, we recommend Coral Wheel . Whether your hair color is light or dark, this feminine flair will turn heads.

Yellow – In every shade and size. Add a dash here or there or a big bright bag to have everyone around you smiling. Evoking sunshine and happiness, everyone could stand to integrate this cheerful color into their wardrobe or even their home. Try a bright throw pillow to add to your living room, we like the yellow Gloria pillow from Henry Road. The great thing about throw pillows is, when spring is over, you can just throw them back into the closet until spring comes again!

A New Twist on the Theme Song

February 15, 2010 by Jade S. | Comments (0)



A Theme Song. Normally when you think of a theme song you think of the first 30 seconds of a TV Show or news broadcast. That annoying thirty second melody that plays over and over in our heads days after we have watched the show. But this week we take a new look at the theme song. We asked around on Twitter and Facebook and came up with a fabulous list of songs people consider their “theme songs” for life.

These are songs that lifts you up and makes you feel good. Songs that starts a fire and keeps you going. Songs that you dance around in your bedroom listening to while you sing into your hair brush. These are the songs that define us. Everyone has one hidden some where inside of them. It might be your phone ring or the song that plays in your headphones while you work out or before a big meeting – whenever you use it and however it makes you feel we thank you all for sharing your themes.

Here is a complete list of the suggested theme songs:

For your listening pleasure go to the complete playlist on the blip.fm page titled CRAVEThemeSongs.

And next time you need a pick me up or inspiration, crank up one of these tunes and sing out – you might be surprised just how good it makes you feel!

CRAVE-ing Eco Chic?

February 12, 2010 by Laura Scholz | Comments (1)


The environment is always in style and ecoEMPORIUM, Atlanta’s first eco-lifestyle store, is your one-stop shop for inspiration, ideas and advice for living a greener lifestyle. The store offers wedding and baby registries, eco nursery classes, eco wedding gowns and invitations, non-toxic cookware and paint, organic mattresses and bedding, handbags, jewelry and much more for the urban, eco-chic stylista.  Here’s what makes owner and entrepreness Carol Held had to say about her business:

How would you describe your business in exactly three adjectives?
Organic,  Sustainable, Stylish

What are your most popular products or services?
Organic Mattresses, Bamboo Bedding, Organic Baby Products,ecoNURSERY classes, ecoWEDDING gowns & jewelry

People may be surprised to know…
I was born in Key West and never learned to swim

What or who inspired you to start your business?
Health issues occuring from toxic furniture

What business mistake have you made that you will not repeat?
Not trusting my own instincts

What is your indulgence?
a spa treatment or massage

Where is your favorite place to go with your girlfriends?
Canyon Ranch Tuscon, Arizona

EcoEmporium is located in Atlanta’s popular Westside at 1000 Marietta Street, Suite 114.

Valentine’s Day – Pink Themed Recipes

February 12, 2010 by Madeline C. | Comments (0)


There are so many pros to going out to dinner on Valentine’s Day and we can think of a lot of cons to staying in and cooking. But with the following recipes, staying in and making a home-cooked meal with your sweetheart might just look like the best idea ever!

Rack of Lamb with Herb and Olive Crust
For a pink themed menu, let’s start with a delicious lamb recipe. It comes from Caroline in Chicago’s blog (hwhippedtheblog.com). Our mouths are watering already!

1/3 cup coarsely chopped olives – kalamata, picholine or Manzanilla
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh thyme
2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
2 racks of lamb (7-8 ribs each, trimmed or frenched)
salt and pepper
3/6 cups breadcrumbs

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Combine olives, parsley, thyme, garlic and red pepper in a food processor or mortar. Make a rough paste. Stir in mayo. Set aside. Trim lamb so only a thin layer of fat remains. Heat a heavy skillet (NOT a nonstick) over high heat. Season racks with salt and pepper. Set in skillet fat side down and cook for about 2 minutes. Spread breadcrumbs on a plate. Coat the surface of the lamb with the olive paste then dip in the crumbs to coat. Put bone side down in a roasting pan. Cover the bone tips with foil so they don’t burn. Roast until instant read thermometer is 120-125 degrees for rare or 130-135 for medium. It will cook another 5 degrees when out of the oven. Let the lamb rest for 5 minutes. Cut apart between the bones and serve.

Strawberry Cupcakes
Amy Sherman, a San Francisco-based author, writer, and developer of all things food, shares an amazing strawberry cupcake recipe on her blog (cookingwithamy.blogspot.com). Cupcakes and strawberries are the key to any beau’s heart.

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 large egg
6 ounces Dannon® All Natural Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt (or any other fruit flavor of yogurt)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup fresh strawberries, diced

Frosting:
2 Tbsp. butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
2 fresh strawberries, about 2 Tbsp. mashed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners. With an electric hand mixer, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg, Dannon® All Natural Vanilla Lowfat Yogurt and vanilla, blending until smooth.
2. Measure the dry ingredients into the bowl and blend, then fold in the strawberries.
3. Divide the mixture equally between the 12 paper-lined cupcake cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
4. Beat together butter, powdered sugar, and mashed strawberry in medium-size bowl until creamy and smooth. Chill frosting for 15 minutes or until thick. Frost cupcakes with a spatula. Keep cupcakes in the refrigerator loosely covered.
Yield: 12 servings

French Kiss
To accompany your beloved meal (cupcakes are a meal, right?), the Wedding Paper Divas have some suggestions for romantically festive drinks (blog.weddingpaperdivas.com). May we recommend the French Kiss? It’s just the perfect shade of pink to match you cupcakes…we mean cheeks!

Âľ oz Chambord
Âľ oz Peach Schnapps
Âľ oz Vodka
Splash orange juice, pineapple juice, cranberry juice
Serve straight up in a martini glass

Let Them Eat Cupcakes

February 10, 2010 by Laura Scholz | Comments (2)


Whether you’re enjoying a romantic evening with your man or hanging with your best girlfriends, nothing says I love you more than a cupcake!  We have put together a list of our favorite urban spots to get these CRAVE-able mini treats. Most of these sinfully sweet cupcake shops have amazing deals and v-day specials, so go ahead and indulge your inner sweet tooth!

Sweet Pocket Cupcakes
4338 Paces Ferry Road
770-431-6611
Atlanta’s first cupcake shop, where all things revolve around the little bundles of sweet goodness! Cupcakes are made from scratch everyday and come in bite-sized minis, regulars or jumbo sizes to fit your cupcake CRAVE-ing.  Sweet Pocket Cupcakes also sells locally hand crafted products, a line of cupcake shirts and other fun and unique gifts.

Crumb {a bakery}
404-425-9535
New to the Atlanta cupcake scene, Crumb {a bakery} is a CRAVE staff favorite.  With delicious flavors like red velvet, carrot cake and very vanilla, you can’t go wrong! In addition to delectable cupcakes,Crumb is the city’s best source for French macarons, lovingly piped and filled by hand with only the finest ingredients, including fresh hazelnuts, pure vanilla and Valrhona chocolate. Crumb is currently delivery-only, but expanded pickup and retail opportunities are coming soon.

The Atlanta Cupcake Factory
624 North Highland Avenue
678-358-9195
If you’re CRAVE-ing cupcakes with love and heart, head over to Poncey-Highland  and visit The Atlanta Cupcake Factory. This small, family owned and operated bakery is dedicated to handcrafted, small batch, wholesome baking. Make sure you check their website for featured flavors, which are posted new every week!  This week–strawberry, just in time for Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate Pink Cafe
905 Juniper Street NE
404-745-9292
Chocolate Pink  is a retail pastry café that indulges guests with delicious desserts, illy espresso coffee and tea forte’ whole leaf teas in a chic, cosmopolitan environment. Pastries are made fresh daily using only the finest ingredients and no preservatives. Among other fantastic desert options, their unique cupcake menu features creative selections such as pink lemonade, cookies and cream, machaccino and peanut butter and jelly.

CamiCakes
2221 Peachtree Rd
404-748-4288
CamiCakes specializes in yummy gourmet cupcakes to enjoy daily or for birthdays, weddings, showers, and many other special celebrations. Believe it or not, this super successful entrepreness got her inspiration as a young girl from her Easy Bake Oven! Armed with her Grandmother’s advice and equipped with her Mama’s knack for baking, Andra Hall launched CamiCakes, which is named for her daughter Camille.  Flavors include The Elvis, Strawberries-n-Cream, Red Velvet and Chocolate Coconut Pecan.

West Egg Cafe
1100 Howell Mill Rd
404-872-3973
Soon after opening in 2004, West Egg Cafe quickly snagged the reputation for having the best breakfast in Atlanta, but make sure you leave room for dessert! Their signature Coca-Cola cupcake is a must try!   West Egg is an independent restaurant and coffeehouse with a comfortable lounge area, free wireless internet, locally-roasted Batdorf & Bronson coffee, and a full menu including breakfast all day – helping fuel the area’s many creative businesses and residents as they launch it into the 21st century.

Enjoy your sweets, and Happy Valentine’s Day from your CRAVE Atlanta team!

Hit the Slopes at Ski Camps for Girlfriends

February 8, 2010 by Sarah Clise | Comments (0)


The Groundhog said it all – On February 2, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and doomed the rest of us to six more frigid weeks of winter. Rather than crawl under the covers and hibernate ’til spring, why not make the most of the chilliest time of year and go skiing (or snowboarding) with your girlfriends? Take a look at these women-only snow camps and book your long weekend now!

1. ROXY All Star Snow Camps – Whistler Blackcomb
These 2-day snow camps are all about girls, fun, and hitting the slopes! The women-only camps are taught by highly skilled female skiers and riders and give you the opportunity to make friends with other women in the group. ROXY caters to ladies at any level of skiing and snowboarding, from beginner to expert, and they even throw in some prizes to get you motivated to boost your skills! Check the website for rates and dates.

2. Women’s Edge – Aspen Snowmass
Women’s Edge is a 4-day female-centric experience for intermediate to advanced skiers. You’ll spend time getting to know the women in your group while being instructed by female pros and getting treated to a luncheon, lectures, and chances to ski at nearby mountains with skiers in your same skill level. It’s a fun program with chances to build relationships with like-minded women while having a great time! Check out the website here.

3. Women’s Ski Camps – Snowbird
In Snowbird, Utah, these 3-4 day ski camps offer small group sizes and ample one-on-one coaching with women instructors to make for a truly rewarding experience. Intermediate to expert skiers can be accommodated, and the intimate program comes with an optional Meal & Spa Add On with special perks! To see prices and itineraries, check out the Women’s Ski Camps’ website here.

These are a few examples of resorts that currently offer women-only skiing and snowboarding camps. Check out your favorite mountain’s special deals for girls in advance and start planning next year’s wintry adventures now!

Next Page »