Saturday's Derby preview day date

My friend and her coworker came down this past weekend to run in the Derby mini-marathon. Go them! I am not all about the running, but I do appreciate the coming and going of the races as one of the major events leading up to... the Derb. That's right. We're so close that I have a nickname for it now.

Since Erin had moved from Louisville, things had changed. The city has been developing some different areas of town, and building them up to be more appealing. Butchertown is one of those areas.

So after their race they headed over to my house and we decided to find something to do. I suggested we go over to Butchertown and hit a few of the cutesy little shops and bars before we went out for dinner. It turned into the best little girly day date I have ever had!

We first stopped by the Butchertown market building, where we headed to Work the Metal. This shop is full of just about everything imaginable. They have great jewelry that is super affordable. They have homegoods and housewares that are both ironic and awesome. They have candles, foods, paintings, etc. The only problem is... I WANT IT ALL! I cannot walk two feet in that store without wanting to buy at least one thing I see. I have several pieces of jewelry from there and I have a few pillows, too. One has a big green bee and is made out of burlap. I love it.

It is absolutely the most adorable shop you will ever peruse. If you are from Louisville and haven't been, yet, go. If you are from out of town, put this on your list of places to visit. I am dead serious. I love bringing people here, especially out of towners, because I think it does such a good job of wrapping everything that Louisville is all about up in one nice little bow.

I ended up getting some ingredients for the Derby Brunch I will be hostessing on Saturday. Some bourbon smoked sea salt. Yum. It smells like smokey heaven. I want to rub it on my steaks. I also got some bourbon barrel aged vanilla. Uh. Yea. This is going in just about everything I am going to bake from now until I run out and have to buy another bottle. It is amazing. It smells so fantastic that I want to drop some in every corner of my house so I can just smell it everywhere I go. Um... new idea? Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Perfume? Make it happen.

We shopped and shopped in Work the Metal, then we wandered over to the Cellar Door chocolate shop that connects to it. Mistake. They have a whole case of different kinds of bourbon balls and truffles. They have chocolate horses, chocolate fleur de lis, chocolate jockeys, chocolate roses, chocolate turtles. I like all of these things. So, of course, I left with several different kinds of bourbon balls. My favorites so far are the pecan, brown sugar and honey varieties.

After we bought our jewelry, accessories, bourboney things and chocolate, we left the market and walked across the train tracks to the Blind Pig. I have written about the pig before, if you do recall. It is where James and I had visited before we saw Wicked.

Well, this time we were just stopping in for a beer. Celebratory post-run beers. Or, for me, just a beer. They were spectacular. We all tried something different and one beer turned into two... you know how it goes. We drank our beers and chatted about the upcoming weekend and everything that went with it. Erin is coming back this weekend for the Derby and we started making plans.

It was a perfect kickoff day for the week of Derby and just made me so excited about this coming weekend! There is still so much to be done- especially with my move going on at the same time, but if there is anything I know, the Derby comes whether you are ready or not, so saddle up!