For starters- we pulled into the pea gravel drive of one of the most beautiful houses I’ve seen in a long time. Everything was dreamy- from the landscaping to the paint to the furniture- casual elegance pretty much sums it up . We were blown away by the flair of our delightful hostess Catherine Romero. She and her husband John- one of my best & favorite clients- welcomed us with open arms. Special note: John gets my “father of the year award” as he took the kids to the zoo, to dinner and then to an ice cream parlor- and maybe somewhere else I can’t remember! Bottom line, he’s a great dude. Now, back to Catherine- we really appreciated everything she did to create a wonderful environment for our cocktail hour start to the show. You can see in the pix just how lovely everything was.

Catherine Romero- the hostess with the mostest!
We settled right in and popped the cork on some nice wine and dug into the great cheeses-

here we are in the awesome kitchen- Heather, Ashley & Me
there was pecorino, chevre, blue cheese, robiola bosina, creamy brie all served with fresh grapes, dried cherries, salted almonds & cashews. Heather and I were in artisinal cheese heaven.
The first person to drop by was Evelyn Stutts

The eternally beautiful Evelyn Stutts
who is the aunt of one of my great pals from Vanderbilt. I hadn’t seen her in 19 years but I swear she looked exactly the same. I want to do whatever she’s doing. Living right, probably! (No matter how much I wish for the secret, it’s always that- darn it!)
That night we went to eat at an awesome restaurant called AVO. It felt like I was back in LA. It was beautifully hip and very delicious. Get a prickly pear if you dare….
The following day was really busy and we met many future BFF’s. The girls who came were so cute and fun- we are definitely planning our return at holiday time! Birmingham has definitely made it into our most fun port-of-calls!