Melificent

Please Join Team Melificent!

Credit: Flickr User Rayoom

…I just might give you cupcakes…

As most of you know, I work with therapeutic foster children as my full-time job. However, I used to (& still occasionally) work with autistic children. My time teaching them and being a part of their lives was a very special time for me and eventually, I would love to work with the population again in some shape or form. Aside from my personal experience, I also know many brave mothers (biological and foster) of children with autism that have shown to me what unconditional love and sacrifice really are. For these reasons and many more, I dedicate almost all of my charity work to Autism Speaks and this year will not be any different.

Well, maybe a little. Rather than doing the Broward Walk, I will be participating in the Miami 2011 Walk Now for Autism Speaks event, which will take place on Sunday, February 27th in Key Biscayne. I’d love to raise as much money as possible for the cause as well as get a large group to walk with me the day of. I’ve been lucky enough to receive very generous donations in the past, but hope that the amount of walkers can compete with those donations this time around! I am planning on making team shirts for us as well if enough people show interest.

So if you are one of those interested parties, please visit my team page: Team Melificent.
On that page, you can join the team as well as make a donation.

Weekend Highlights

Saturday afternoon the hubs and I met up with our friends and headed to South Beach with our bicycles in tow to attend the 2nd annual Beer Snob Bicycle Pub Crawl. The event was hosted by the Miami Bike Scene and we couldn’t have had a better time! The weather held up beautifully and although we did not make it in time for the first two bars, we were able to hustle and get there early for the last two, which really paid off. We visited The Filling Station in Downtown as well as an old favorite, the Democratic Republic of Beer. Although the Filling Station had a limited menu, we really enjoyed what they provided, especially the pulled pork sandwich and their amazing selection of beer (Blue Point Toasted Lager was the definitive winner). Unfortunately, it seems like it is closed on weekends which really is a shame because I could have seen the hubs and I doing many a date night there. The DRB seemed to have also upped their game as their food was a lot better this time around, especially their calamari.

[Read more…]

Weekend Highlights

Miami is finally getting the ball rolling when it comes to foodie culture and the lineup hand-picked by Burger Beast for the Fall for the Arts Festival on Sunday definitely gave all of us hope that we are moving in the right direction! Some of Miami’s finest food trucks were on site, allowing us to sample some of their gourmet cuisine on wheels, as well as other foodie favorites such as Totally Bananas (totally reminded me of Arrested Development) and Feverish Ice Cream among others.

We got there as soon as the festival began, which means we had to do a lot of waiting around for the trucks to actually begin taking orders. Unfortunately, I think this event should have been held a bit later in the year when the weather gets a little more tolerable because the intense Miami heat was beating down on us with absolutely no mercy. We spent the majority of our time under an air-conditioned tent, having to amp ourselves up to venture back into the face-melting weather and the only thing driving us was food.

[Read more…]

Weekend Highlights

Saturday was the much anticipated Yelp event at the Moore Building in Miami. The theme was a mid-summer night’s dream and I can attest to it being every bit as magical as Shakespeare’s tale. All 4 floors of the building were jam packed with action! We were greeted on the first floor by Peroni beers, amazing food from Mr. Yum‘s and Maya Tapas & Grill and this ridiculously fun photobooth courtesy of Capture Pod. When we made our way up to the 2nd floor, we were thrusted into foodie heaven! We tasted goodies from such great places as JB Kitchen & Bar, Bongo’s Cuban Cafe and Maitardi. We also were bombarded with drinks at every turn, including Fenom Absinthe and Buck 15 bombs. As if our tummies weren’t thanking us enough, when we pulled ourselves up to the 3rd floor, we met the sweets! Nothing but cupcakes, brownies and ice cream galore from such wonderful places as Sweetness Bake Shop, 2 Girls and a Cupcake and Feverish Ice Cream Truck.

The event also featured beauty stations where you could get some false eyelashes applied amongst other salon favorites as well as a silent disco, where you donned a pair of headphones and jammed to the music quite literally in your own head. I know, you are jealous. How could you not be? Did I mention that all of this was free? My friends and I had such a wonderful time and I have to thank Yelp not only for putting on one hell of an event, but also for turning me on to a whole slew of new restaurants I wasn’t aware of! I really hope Yelp continues to host such amazing events in the future because it’s hard to find ones that feel so warm and inviting down here in South Florida without some sort of pretentious attitude.

Keep up the great work, Yelp Miami!

Have a great week, everyone!

Lovable Friday

1. Rolling Stone True Blood Cover

It’s not rare to see hotties on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, but that didn’t stop me from literally gasping out loud when this month’s cover was released. Wowza! You have to give it up to True Blood, they know what their viewers want to see – or rather, what they don’t want to see: namely, clothes. Jennifer Aniston, eat your heart out!

[Read more…]