van's chocolate, a little wine and some wisdom

What up peeps?  It's happy hour in the valley and I'm just sitting here on the back porch basking in the greatness of the outdoors.  Ah, to be back at home this afternoon and in my comfy clothes. (Why yes, I am drinking wine out of a Mason jar.  And no, you are not allowed to judge me.)  Got some things to share.  Yea!  

I was in Hendersonville yesterday picking up doggie meds for our old girl Sable:

and decided to finally swing by and try Van's Chocolates. The chocolate shop is on Chadwick Avenue just off the windy drag before you get to the Fresh Market area of Hendersonville and luckily, not too far off my route.  I will say I was blown away by their Wine Truffles which were almost on the savory side and the Orange and Pepper Truffle had a good zing in the aftertaste.  The Scotch Truffle, was a little under-scotched, but nice anyway... I got some little key lime dark chocolate melt-away thingys too, but they were WAY too sugary and not up my alley... probably not yours either...I'd stay away from the little jokers. I actually said "akkk!" and wished I had water in the car with me. Not worth it, but definitely get some of Van's Wine Truffles. They'd be the hit of a party or make a stupendous gift with a bottle of wine. You can place internet orders.

Heard through the grapevine (aka Facebook) today that King of Pops provided some of his awesomeness on a stick to the guests at the BIG Charleston wedding last weekend .  If your next question was "What wedding?" then go here. Check out the Popsicle sticks on his Facebook page.

I'm playing around with a new slogan for Gap Creek Gourmet business marketing stuff: i bite. What do you think? Yes? No?

I went to a FemCity Greenville luncheon today - professional women getting together to network and chat.  PR girl extraordinaire, Taryn Scher, is the president so I thought I would give it a whirl.  Taryn has AMAZING taste in footwear. Always.

I met some crazy cool people including Starr Hammond from Rely Local Greenville. She coordinates the local cash mobs.  Super nice to meet cha girl!  And I met Lindsey Holder, a fellow blogger and "the savvy assistant".  She used to be a celebrity assistant.  I'll be picking her brain one day over coffee. You know that's coming! Think I found a new buddy.  Just sayin'.  And the "ista" t-shirt woman was in the house.  Yours truly was a featured blogger on the "What's your ista?" site this week as a Baconista!  That was WAY cool so it was nice to meet her in person.  (Still holding out hope she'll toss a Baconista T my way.)

Kim Petrie, author a little modern fairy tale for grown-up girls called The Enchanged Truth (coming out this week) was the guest speaker today.  She said some amazing things I wanted to share with the class.

"There is value in failure.  It refines you."
Sister! Ain't that the truth.  I can't tell you how many times I have failed at something...something even so small and it has given me clarity.  I HATE to fail at something, but if we didn't fail sometimes we wouldn't get the lesson.

On finding yourself, she said,"If you found her in college, she isn't around anymore." How powerful right?  How many women and men do you know who were totally the shit in college or even their twenties but walk around as a thirty, forty-something and beyond looking like they need a map or something?   Figuring out who we are and what we need to make us happy is a life long journey.  You can't hang up the keys and coast!

Ms. Petrie is a rock star in my book.

This is what I had for dinner.

Trader Joe's has this great Toscano Cheese with Black Pepper.  I spread a little mayo on an English muffin, topped it with sliced pear and then the Toscano cheese... broil... forget about it until the kitchen gets all smokey (don't try that at home). Yum. 

Night all!