Peacock Alley is an elegant store with many price points.





Night Gallery/Branching Out is a store where you can find anything on your list. Owner Pam Williams can't narrow it down to one niche so she has a little something for everyone. She has antiques, clothing, lingerie, Christmas decor. Basically, you name it. She has it in the store.



This year, soaps and socks seem to be selling like hot cakes for the holidays.



I bought Bloody Mary mix and my favorite underwear, Hanky Panky.  That's about as eclectic as it gets.



Kitchenworks is a local store that has been in business at University Place for decades. It's a small shop that is filled to the brim with anything you may need in your kitchen. I spoke to Liz Keller to see what is popular for the holidays in the kitchen this year. I loved all that she picked, and on the store's website, they list even more favorites.

Gerrie & Co is a curated gift and jewelry shop which has been in business at University Place for nine years. During a Facebook live, I interviewed Katherine Nunn and picked out a few items from her store to highlight. The jewelry sold here is wearable art.  The glass bracelets from Michael Vincent Michaud are simply stunning.

Bath balms are on many girl's holiday wish list. I have one little girl in my home that tells me she will bathe more frequently if her bath includes a bath balm. My biggest complaint about the beauty industry is all the hidden fragrances and toxic ingredients in many products.




Be Pure Beauty prides itself on natural, pure and safe ingredients for your skin. I interviewed shop owner, April Manring in a Facebook Live Video,  who gave me an inside peek at what you can find in her store, and the best part of all is that all products are safe and that is not the case with most cosmetics on the market as I've learned with my blog partnership with Beautycounter, but not everyone likes to shop online for cosmetics. It's important to have stores that you can walk into and know you are purchasing non-toxic cosmetics.  Manring has even created her own beauty line. This a store in Chapel Hill that you really need to visit.

For all items for kids, Glee Kids, and The Red Hen offer upscale clothing, toys, shoes, and gifts.  Glee Kids carries the comfy Tea Collection and fabulous pajamas by Hatley.



And if you stayed with me in this post long enough, I mentioned a gift for the unmarried uncle with no children. Surprise him with a gift certificate to  Silverspot Cinema and dinner at Trilogy. This theatre is about as lux as it gets. It's posh, intimate and the variety of movies on the big screen are Blockbusters to Independents to classic oldies. It even broadcasts live theatre. This place is impressive. And would be a special night for anyone.



I was at University Place for two hours for my live #OutaboutNC moment and there were many stores that I did not have time to visit on this trip. No doubt, University Place definitely has a lot more shopping destinations than just Southern Season, its anchor store.  My advice is to budget more than two hours here because you will want to soak up all the destination has to offer. And just so you know, University Place has the only Chic-Fil-A in Chapel Hill. There are no self-standing chic-fil-a's in this college town.

Want to Go:
University Place
201 S. Estes Street
Chapel Hill, N.C.

My thanks to my Clegg's Pest Control serving Chapel Hill, NC for sponsoring my blog and keeping me at my desk writing and OutaboutNC. 

I had heard that a dog was man's best friend, but I did not truly understand how true that statement was until October 22 of this year.  I am now a believer. Dogs are truly man's best friends. Cats are only your friend when they want to be your friend.





Throughout my life, my friends had dogs. They seemed happy with their dogs, but I never really wanted a dog. In fact, I was not sure that I even liked dogs. This was especially true in my single days. I thought some dogs were cute, but others....well, they didn't impress me much.

You see. I was one of those aloof cat people. Cats just seemed easier and I thought they were my spirit animal. I have had cats all my life. Big. Fat. Cats. Sonny, a yellow tabby weighed in at 18 pounds and lived 18 years.

His remarkable story could be a children's book. He was a frisky cat and bit people who tried to feed him when we were out of town. It was a pain. At this time in my life, my family had two houses, our main house in the mountains and a beach house in South Carolina.  My Dad thought it would be a good idea for Sonny to live with one of his employees who had a  house across the mountain from us.  By car, it was about an 8-mile journey.  Unfortunately, Sonny did not stay with this family. He left after a day. He never came back, We thought that was the end of Sonny, but as luck would have it, I was watching TV about eight months later and Sonny appeared in front of the sliding glass doors. Sonny was home again, and he ended up staying with us several more years until his death while I was in college.

After college, I got Rover, a grey tabby kitten while doing a TV story on adopting animals for the holidays. He lived ten short years and was a fabulous cat. I mean with a name like Rover...how could you not. His talent was fetching beer bottle caps.



My last cat was Bailey, a whopper at 24 pounds.  He was the cat we had when Jack was born and the last pet that was part of our family.  Even though I was dating Will when I adopted him, he thought Will was his owner.  When we got married,  I became a second class citizen that he would chase down the halls and bite my ankles. Will was the man he worshipped. Not me. He was our last cat.



We have been a pet-free family since 2009.

Jack is allergic to cats so I knew cats were no longer a possibility for us.  We helped my Mom adopt two Russian Blue cats this Spring and Jack loves them, but his allergies flare up each time he is in their company. We knew we would never own another cat.

Will had no interest in getting a dog. I really didn't either.

However, curly-haired dogs started getting my attention. It first started with the Goldendoodle.I would want to pet one every time I saw one. I would go to a brewery and see a Goldendoodle and the kids and I would run up to them like they were "Hollywood Stars".

After we moved into our new home, my obsession grew with my new neighbors, a Westiepoo and a Cockapoo. I saw how much Liza loved our neighbor's dogs. She walked them. She also visited them almost daily.

I also knew that Jack liked animals, too. I also read that kids benefit from having a dog in many ways.



Will was not on board though.  He liked being pet-free. Our kids are already a huge pain in our butts for our middle-aged lifestyle. Why would we want to add a dog to our craziness?

I started obsessing about small curly-haired dogs and would look at them on Petfinder. One popped up for adoption in Durham. When Will was out of town at a Boy Scout function, I started sharing this particular dog's photo on Facebook saying it needed a home. My friends replied that it needed to live with us.

I knew Will was against us getting a dog. But, I called about the dog anyway. I listened to my Facebook friends. I was too late on this one. The little white, curly-mixed breed was already under pending adoption by the time I got in touch with someone at the shelter.



However, they told me I could call back to see if the dog got picked up because they said that many times, the adoptions don't go through for many reasons. The rescue worker told me that this dog would need to be picked up by 5 pm two days later.

I waited. Should I call? Should I not call? It was on my mind.  I called and they told me that the little dog had just left the building with his family five minutes before I placed that call.

I was a little disappointed. I knew that I would need to act quickly if I wanted our family to have a -curly-haired small poodle-mix dog. I decided that I was all of the sudden hit with the "I want a dog" bug.  The kids wanted a dog.

Will texted me from Southern Pines when he saw Facebook posts about dogs and said, "Are you doing something behind my back?"

"No, I was just trying to find the dog a home, " I replied.

When the HurricaneMaria hit Puerto Rico in September, many shelters here were trying to get the dogs they had in their care fostered so they could take more dogs from devastated Puerto Rico. They were in desperate need of people to foster dogs. When people step up to be a foster, they need to be committed to getting the dog adopted. I was thinking that this may be something good for our family to do to see if we could handle a dog and also see if Jack's allergies were OK for us to have a dog one day.

To make a long story short, I discovered Dog Warriors via Facebook. A 10-year-old poodle had been surrendered to an animal shelter in Louisburg. This dog needed a foster family or else the rescue could not save him because the shelter thought he was too old to be adopted.



I called Will and said, "Can we do this?"

Will has a heart of gold and said yes to my request.

Andy arrived at our home on October 22 and it was love at first sight. We fostered him for about two weeks and decided to make him part of our family on November 3, 2017. He is such a sweet and patient dog. He also knew he had one guy to win over and he certainly did. Will loves him as much as we all do.



He weighs almost six pounds. I adore him. He's really my dog.  I take him with me to pick up the kids. He sits with me in my office. He's my new baby. And honestly, after having kids, he's so much easier than they are.

The rumor is true. We are official foster failures. We were not a family that could foster several dogs for this agency. Non-profits like Dog Warriors do need fosters for the animals they save until permanent homes can be found for these animals.

I'm now navigating the world as a dog owner. There is so much on the market and I'm excited to explore the hotel industry even more with dogs. I do not see us taking Andy out of North Carolina though, but I never say never.

Luxury. Sometimes that word scares people when it comes to travel and they immediately think "that's for people who are ultra wealthy." Travel is about experiences and yes, some luxury vacations may be out of the price range for a lot of people including myself, but on the other hand, I like to think you may be more like me. I travel less often in a year and splurge when I do because it's about the experience. I want a quality and memorable experience for my family.

Experiencing Southern Hospitality at the Jekyll Island Resort a few summers ago.

You may want to think of it like shoes.  Do you buy a few type of classic shoes you can wear with most anything for the quality or do you have 25 cheaper shoes in your closet?  It's basically a style and budget choice.  A family's choice of travel is no different. Yes, it would be nice to never have to worry about the cost and just go as you desire, but that is just not reality for most people. For most families who earn less than 200K a year, travel becomes a lifestyle choice on how they want to travel.

Do I go to Disney every year or do I go less often and spend more money on my vacation when I go?  I fall into the less often camp. We only take the kids to Disney every four years. Our last trip was the WDW Yacht Club Resort. 2018 is supposed to be our year to go again and I have one child who wants to go to Universal Resort now.

Our last Disney trip was almost four years ago. Liza was four. Jack was eight. It is time for another Orlando vacation, but I want to curate it differently this year. Less about the parks and more about the resort and experiences.

Sure, if I had more income then I probably would travel more often because I would have more disposable income.  Who wouldn't? I also think it boils down to your partner's likes, too. Will doesn't like to spend money often so he has no problem traveling less often. He also has the philosophy that traveling with older kids is more enjoyable as a family or at least that is what he says right now.  He has not traveled with a teen so he really does not know, but he's finally ready to start talking about taking the European plunge in the near future with our children.  He thinks they are ready because they will remember it.

Because of his travel mindset, I can get away with my luxury travel ways and desire for nice experiences. I travel to experience culture, food and to feel pampered a little even on shorter excursions. We are also middle-aged and had our children later in life.  Some of our friends are even grandparents now. I think that our age dictates how I want to travel. However, my college friends will tell you that I have not changed in 25 years either.  Rest and relaxation always come first even with children in tow.  I've always joked that my blog should be the lazy traveler's guide.  Here is how I did  Asheville, N.C. this summer and I still have lots more to write about on this trip. We give our son the experience of a summer mountain camp each year near Asheville. His Dad went to the same camp and I've now embraced Asheville as an area I frequent often.




Virtuoso, a leading luxury travel company with curated travel experiences revealed this their annual Luxe Report which forecasts travel trends for 2018.

There were two trends on this list and you can read the entire press release here, but these two trends continue to resonate with me and are really how I like to travel. I think of more of my immediate family which is the four of us, but I want to create lifelong memories, strengthen our relationship as a family, and I want my children to learn and experience. To me, travel is the best classroom.

1. Connecting with family through travel. After topping the list of trends since 2010, multigenerational travel has firmly established itself as a travel niche. Following close behind is travel with immediate family, also a consistent trend that will carry forward in 2018. Whether renting a European villa for a celebration with loved ones, cruising to the Galapagos Islands, or snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef, a family trip creates lifelong memories, strengthens bonds, and plays a pivotal role in childhood education.
2. Be a traveler rather than a tourist. Immersive experiences not found in a guidebook or brochure, opportunities to meet locals, wandering neighborhoods and making spontaneous discoveries are the best ways to experience a destination, according to Virtuoso advisors. Whether it is wine tasting, or learning a traditional craft or a new language, travelers will be seeking out the true culture of that area they are visiting.