SHOP & PLAY DURING THE FINAL DAYS OF MAY


We`re so darn excited about Nancy Braithwaite`s Spotlight on Design at SWITCH Modern TONIGHT from 6 to 8 p.m. This legendary designer has created some of the city`s finest interiors. Join us as she discusses the power of simplicity and restraint in interior designs. Hobnob with your designer friends, sip wine and nibble on cheese - this event is fast becoming a see and be seen fete. RSVP NOW

The girls are back and they`re ready to shop!! Channel your inner Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha or Miranda - Stanfords and Anthonys are welcome too - at the Tootsies` "Sex and the City 2" Private Shopping Party to benefit Dad`s Garage on Thursday, May 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. Bridget Benware, Mallory Godfrey, Lauren Imber, Chaffee Braithwaite Heilman, Elli Kaplan, Amanda Leibson, Morgan Marr, Kelly Redding and Lindsey Rodbell will host a night of private shopping, cosmos and cupcakes by CamiCakes. RSVP NOW.


Speaking of Dad`s Garage - Sean Daniels returns to our favorite Inman Park theater this Friday to direct "The Change: Another Teenage Werewolf Musical." This comedic gruel-fest chronicles the teenage life of Mikey, a mild-mannered high school student who is not only navigating adolescence as the new kid in a small town, but he unknowingly inherited the family curse -- lycanthropy! Written by Travis Sharp (co-author of the smash hit zombie musical: "Song of the Living Dead"), this World Premiere musical comedy, running Friday, May 28 to June 19, is not your typical story of teenage transformation. But then again - Dad`s Garage isn`t your typical the

SHOP AND PLAY AT SOME OF THE HOTTEST EVENTS IN TOWN


Enjoy an evening of shopping , wine, food and live music at the Shops Around Lenox on Thursday, May 20 . This compelling mix of retailers is fast becoming a fashion destination. All your favorite stores - like Bill Hallman Studio and Tootsies - will stay open until 9 p.m.


Join the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center this Saturday, May 22 from 7 to 10 p.m. for the Open Studios Patio Party. Enjoy PBR, Peroni, popcorn, popsicles and rum punch. The Good Food Truck will serve up the Poodle and Pizza by Moto Bene will be on hand as well. DJ Boss Jonesy will be bringing back the 1960s. Artists include Paul S. Benjamin, Jonathan Bouknight, Marc Brotherton, David D`Agostino, Margaret Fletcher, Mark Leibert, Mary O`Horo, Michele Schuff, Dayna Thacker, Yi-Hsin Tzeng and Nancy VanDevender . Members FREE, General Admission $5, Students $3, Cash Bar, Cash Concessions.







Councilman Kwanza Hall makes history on Sunday, May 23 with a "car-free Sunday" affair called Streets Alive, welcoming bikers, skaters, walkers and tango dancers. For five hours a number of downtown streets will be shut down to cars. Go play in the streets!


You won`t want to miss the fourth Spotlight on Design at SWITCH Modern, featuring the legendary Nancy Braithwaite next Wednesday, May 26. Hobnob with your designer friends, sip wine, nibble on cheese and hear this incredible designer discuss the use of restraint and simplicity in design. RSVP NOW.




The girls are back and they`re ready to shop!! Channel your inner Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha or Miranda - Stanfords and Anthonys are welcome too - at the Tootsies` "Sex and the City 2" Private Shopping Party to benefit Dad`s Garage on Thursday, May 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. Bridget Benware, Mallory Godfrey, Lauren Imber, Chaffee Braithwaite Heilman, Elli Kaplan, Amanda Leibson, Morgan Marr, Kelly Redding and Lindsey Rodbell will host a night of private shopping, cosmos and cupcakes by CamiCakes. RSVP NOW.


Speaking of Dad`s Garage - Sean Daniels returns to our favorite Inman Park theater to direct "The Change: Another Teenage Werewolf Musical." This comedic gruel-fest chronicles the teenage life of Mikey, a mild-mannered high school student who is is not only navigating adolescence as the new kid in a small town, but he unknowingly inherited the family curse -- lycanthropy! Written by Travis Sharp (co-author of the smash hit zombie musical: "Song of the Living Dead"), this World Premiere musical comedy, running Friday, May 28 to June 19, is not your typical story of teenage transformation. But then again - Dad`s Garage isn`t your typical theater.

EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY BUT HIP CATS LIKE YOU WILL BE SAYING BOW WOW WOW TO ALL THE FUN THINGS TO DO AROUND TOWN


Today we`re asking you to do your part to help find a cure for AIDS -- one cupcake at a time. Murphy`s is participating in the Virginia-Highland Dine Out to benefit AID Atlanta and its delicious pastry chef, Nicholas Crawford, will be serving up his "Awareness Red Velvet Cupcakes," complete with classic French butter cream. We love Nicholas -- and we have to imagine that half the city does as well because pre-orders are stacking up. Go Nicholas go!! They`re available all day starting at 11a.m. and $1 from each $2 cupcake will benefit AID Atlanta.

This evening you can help fight childhood hunger at the 22nd annual Taste of the Nation event at the Georgia Aquarium. Mix and mingle with your foodie friends and get up-close-and-personal with some of the city`s best chefs including Chef Christian Messier from the Sun Dial Restaurant, Bar & View . You can also bid adieu to our our city`s departing diva Jane Fonda, who is the honorary chair along with honorary chef Dean Fearing. Atlanta`s restaurant mavens Pano Karatassos and our George McKerrow are event chairs.




On Thursday, May 13, our favorite nightclub impresario Michael Krohngold aka KrohnicGold celebrates his birthday and we`ll be hitting the party at his uber hip Tongue & Groove . Michael and others brought Atlanta some of its finest hospitality concepts including Velvet, Color Box, Mumbo Jumbo, Fusebox, Deux Plex, the old Tongue & Groove and the new and improved Tongue & Groove. How does he continue to create a zeitgeist and look so good doing it?? We`d love to know!!


Castleberry Point is fast becoming a must stop affair on the Castleberry Art Stroll and you won`t want to miss it this Friday, May 14. We`ve assembled a pack of our favorite artists for "Go Dog Go," including Fred Gear, Jason Horton, Patti Krohngold, Michael Payne and Tommy Taylor. Their dog inspired paintings, photography, drawings, ink blots and more will be for sale in the live/work spaces with proceeds benefiting Castleberry Hill`s proposed Railside Dog Park. We love Freddy for providing ice cold SweetWater beer!! In the spirit of going to the dogs, the developer will present a screening of "Best in Show" and the Wine Shoe will host a wine tasting.



It`s Saturday night in Midtown, you`ve just had an amazing dinner at Livingston Restaurant + Bar (where you wished Chef Gary Mennie a belated birthday - Wed, May 12 is the day) and you don`t want the night to end with dessert. Where do you go to find a cool scene with great cocktails where everyone knows your name?? Until now, you would be challenged. Thank goodness for Pablo Henderson. Our favorite downtown club owner closed up shop at The Mark and opens Parlour in Midtown this Saturday, May 15. Parlour, from the French word parloir, which denotes an "audience chamber," is an intimate guest list-only bar. No cover. Invitation only. Open weekends. Music by DJs Quinn & Gresham and featuring Southern cocktails. How do you get on the list?? Ask a friend.

Round out the month with a couple more fun fetes. Wednesday, May 26 marks the fourth Spotlight on Design at SWITCH Modern, featuring the legendary Nancy Braithwaite. Hobnob with your designer friends, sip wine, nibble on cheese and hear this incredible designer discuss the use of restraint and simplicity in design. The design community was either starving for a great monthly social or Roy and Doug know how to throw a party - or both - but this event is quickly becoming the see and be seen scene.



Our favorite Atlanta theater company never grew up - thank goodness!! So come re-live your childhood when Sean Daniels returns to Dad`s Garage theater to direct "The Change: Another Teenage Werewolf Musical." This comedic gruel-fest chronicles the teenage life of Mikey, a mild-mannered high school student who is is not only navigating adolescence as the new kid in a small town, but he unknowingly inherited the family curse - lycanthropy! Written by Travis Sharp (co-author of the smash hit zombie musical: "Song of the Living Dead"), this World Premiere musical comedy kicks off Friday, May 28 and runs through June 19.

TOP 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TO CREATE A BUZZ

1. The single most important thing to remember is to maintain the integrity of your brand. Once you lose sight of that, the rest is just fluff.

2. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Get out and meet people; see and be seen.

3. Make it viral – take a lesson from the Faberge Organic Shampoo commercial: They told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on. Use every promotional vehicle you have and barter with friends to use theirs. Blog, tweet, Facebook and more.

4. Don’t take yourself too seriously – you may have to take the bullet for a bad idea. Don’t fight it. Accept it, learn to laugh at yourself and move on.

5. Know your audience – don’t sell ice to Eskimos.

6. Think outside the box – not outside the realm of possibility. Remember that you’re trying to get from point a to point b, not off the charts or into space.

7. Make your message easily accessible (like a top 10 list); it needs to be simple enough for a reporter to quickly grasp, write about and then move on. Time is money and these days most of us are short on both – reporters are no exception.

8. Recycle – there’s no such thing as an original idea. Tried and true formulas work for a reason: They’re tried and true.

9. There is strength in numbers. Create a network of colleagues who work for and with like minded brands. Constantly reach out to them to create synergies and forge alliances to create win/win results.

10. Have fun but don’t try to be funny – not everyone shares your sense of humor. When in doubt – call a colleague within your network and run the idea past him. Then think to yourself: Is he laughing with me or at me??

TOP 10 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR MOTHER THE LOVE

1. Ok - it`s a rainy day so you have to ask yourself: Do I feel like shopping?? Well do you?? Never ones to promote procrastination, we just might wait until THIS THURSDAY, May 6 for the Tootsies Private Shopping Party to benefit Chastain Horse Park. RSVP Now to get your mom something fabulous and pick up a little something something for yourself -- it goes to a good cause and your mother always taught you to give back. 2. If you`re as sweet on your mom as we are on ours, why not indulge her with chocolate? When we need the ultimate chocolate gift (or when we ultimately cheat on our diet) we look no further than Chocolate Pink Pastry Cafe for fabulous cakes, cupcakes and more. We love Michael Goodrich and he loves his mom. 3. If flowers are more her style, turn to John McDonald at Twelve. Our mom loves him and why shouldn`t she?? He`s so crazy talented!! 4. You know you can`t show up with flowers and no vase -- your momma taught you better than that. We adore Iittala`s classic Alvar Aalto Vase available at SWITCH Modern. If you haven`t been to SWITCH, join your designer friends at the monthly Spotlight on Design event. We had so much fun at last week`s event with Yong Pak - we can`t wait for the next one on Wednesday, May 26, featuring our friend Chaffee`s mom: The legendary Nancy Braithwaite. 5. If you drag your mom to all these fabulous events, she just may need to unwind. We can relate!! How about some pampering at Entebello? The facials are blissful and almost as much as we love Rachelle - we`re crazy about her mom. 6. Speaking of unwinding, our mom loves nothing more than to curl up with a great book. If she`s a fan of Southern authors - we`ve got two for you. We adored our Inman Park pal Susan White`s first novel, "Bound South," and we`re already rapt with her newly released second novel, "A Soft Place to Land," a captivating tale of two sisters` journey from Atlanta and beyond. Splurge and get her both! Or check out our Chastain Horse Park friend Christine Eisner`s must read: Comfort Living. She`ll be signing copies at the Tootsies Private Shopping Party this Thursday and donating 20 percent of sales from her book to Chastain`s life changing programs. 7. If she`s the mom who has everything, show her she`s tops with brunch at the newly renovated Sun Dial Restaurant, Bar & View where she can see the city`s best views from gleaming new windows. Chef Christian Messier will be serving a three-course brunch for $45, available from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 8. Is she a Midtown maven?? Chef Gary Mennie`s brunch at Livingston Restaurant + Bar includes a carving bar and a make-your-own Bloody Mary Bar for $35 ($12 extra for the bloodies) and $12.50 for kids 6-12. Kids under six eat free. There`s also a kids` buffet. For dinner he`ll be offering a special prix fixe, in addition to the regular menu, for $40. And the Georgian Terrace Hotel will offer a special $99 rate all weekend. 9. If comfort pub cuisine is more her scene then take her to HOBNOB Neighborhood Tavern where moms get a free mimosa along with their delicious brunch. 10. If she loves Asian food you can`t go wrong with Straits.The Midtown eatery launches its new Sunday brunch on Mother`s Day with Singaporean specialties and American classics for $19 and $10 for kids12 - 5 . The little ones under five eat free. Enjoy $3 Mimosas by the glass and $15 Bottomless Mimosas and Bloody Mary`s.