Raleigh VIP Club » Raleigh Events

Raleigh Shopping Spree Event

Brandy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:10:12 +0000

One of my annual Raleigh traditions in October, is going to the Junior League “Shopping Spree” event at the Raleigh Convention Center. It’s a female dominated show where men are seen few and far between. There are hundreds of vendors that come out from all over the country. Last year I remember a lot of monogrammed stuff. This year the big thing was food, jewelry and one of a kind clothing.

I taste tested some coffees and tried a few dips. And I tried a red velvet or red devil cupcake and a muffin sample.

I also found a Michael Stars vendor who sold Michael Stars shirts for $25. Woo-hoo!

And along the way a unique vintage silver vendor caught my eye. I think I spent the most time at this booth. It was neat to see all the different sayings and designs. The silver/pewter pieces were made in New Mexico.

Another fav’rite of mine is the Kazur jewelry booth. The women of Africa make this jewelry. And speaking of jewelry, I also stopped in a booth where you can make your own locket and then add photos. I love lockets. I think the vintage concept is back in.

I also met this woman who sold some really unique jackets. I just had to try a few on. Her business is “It’s All About Mie-Mie”.

It’s easy to spend a few hours at this place. But don’t expect to find gifts for men. It’s really a woman’s gift event. You might set out well intentioned to find some gifts but most of us end up buying for ourselves. That’s what happened to the shopper in me.

Raleigh's North Carolina State Fair

Brandy — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:30:47 +0000

Trying fried Mac-n-cheese

When I think of the NC State Fair, what comes to mind is lotsa rides and games, crowds of people and fried fun foods everywhere. Nothing is more a tradition to NC, then the good ‘ol fair. Takes me back to the small baseball carnivals and events in my hometown. I remember Debbie Gibson came out to my town. Remember her? She was the craze.

NC State Fair is all about the food. I like those big turkey legs. They’re big enough to feed a small village. It’s one of the few healthier food items on the menu. Oh, and the corn on the cob is really good. But on the not so healthy side…where else can you get barbecue sundaes, chocolate covered bacon, deep fried ho-ho’s, oreos, pecan pie, and Reese’s peanut butter cups? This time I got a ‘lil adventurous with the deep fried mac-n-cheese…which is the newest item on the menu. It’s okay to live a little!

While they said there was a low turnout of 37,000 on day one, it sure looked like this year did good as in previous years.

The highlight for me besides the food…was going in the Crafts and Hobby barn. There you could see the Lego contest. Great work!

Then a little further along you see all kinds of trinkets, and scrapbook items with awarded ribbons. Not to razz on the fine artistry of the contestants, but I think I could’ve entered and won first prize. Like many of the others. Every entry seem to have won a ribbon.

…Then you’ll find Jerry Span at the end of the building giving a demonstration. He’s Vince Shlomi’s job replacement for Sham-Wow from “As Seen on TV”. He’s a professional. Gotta love hearing the …”but wait, there’s more…” So I came back with 3 of these Sham-Wows. I think I’ll use one in my shower.

I wanted to ride the ferris wheel but the line seemed e a mile long. And I didn’t have the patience to wait for the pig race. Inside the Dorton Arena, there are live performances. Like Kellie Pickler who is a regular. And then there was Julianne Hough on the events list. Not sure what she would be doing for $5 a ticket. I know she was a dancer on “Dancing with the Stars” but what kind of performance would she give? There’s also Anoop Desai. The star from “Slumdog Millionaire”. Another one I’m curious as to what he would do. But I guess I wasn’t curious enough to check it out. Anyone?

Cameron Village's 60 Years Celebration

Brandy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:44:28 +0000

Take yourself back in time circa the 60’s. In Raleigh style, you can celebrate at Cameron Village during their Groove Fest this week. All in the spirit of celebrating Cameron Village’s 60 years. You’ve probably seen animated advertisements around Raleigh. It’s a perfect time of year to get out and about. This weekend they will have a Beatles tribute band and I imagine some groovy people dressed up maybe in Austin Power-esque inspired outfits.

Raleigh Fall is in the Air…

Brandy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:27:21 +0000

Fall is officially here. There are lots of Raleigh events and activities coming up. The North Carolina State Fair around the corner, Parade of Homes, expos, concerts (like U2 which caught a big buzz), and you name it sporting events. And of course pumpkin, pumpkin everywhere. I was making a delicious pumpkin bread from a friend’s recipe.

And don’t forget to check out the Broadway South Series. They have a Pink Floyd Experience. It’s a 200,000 watt light spectacle with quadraphonic sound… I don’t know exactly what that means but it sounds impressive! I’m actually not a Pink Floyd fan but years ago, I had a surreal Pink Floyd experience of having to listen to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” tape for 17 hours straight in a car! That was a torturous road trip. Can you imagine? (Pink Floyd die hard fans probably could). Well…I felt like my brain had gone numb. But I’ve gotten over it and wouldn’t mind seeing the show now.

Outside the Fresh Market

And at the Progress Energy Center you can catch great shows like the ones they have in Vegas. Seriously, Riverdance and Cirque du Soleil-like shows. You’d pay an arm and a leg in Vegas. But not here in Raleigh. Finding fun things to do is relatively less expensive and EASY. That’s why Raleigh is such a great town.

Love this time of year! Get ready for a great fall.

Raleigh's North Carolina State Fair

Raleigh Peche de Chocolat

Brandy — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:27:21 +0000

Raleigh’s Peche de Chocolat has one of the best, fun gourmet experiences I’ve had in the Triangle. They offer a wine and chocolate tasting or pairing for just $10. And it’s not something that takes a lot of your time but you can stay as long as you like. It’s on the first Friday evening of each month. I went pretty early in the evening. I told them I didn’t mind having their wine and chocolate then ‘cause it was sooo good even though that’s normally dinner time for me when I stopped in for the tasting. Here’s Alec and Laura from the store.

I like the word ‘tasting’ because it reminds me of one of the fun things I did when I worked in catering sales management in the hotel industry. Back then, we really didn’t taste foods ourselves in front of the clients but it was still fun to watch clients try the foods. Well… it was like this event except the only food served is chocolate (fine by me!)… and I was the taster. The person pouring the wines was a wine distributor. His name is Alec and he was friendly and knowledgeable. Exactly the experience I was going for. I could tell he has tried many wines. And I had a roommate once upon a time, who had a similar job and she always brought home wines to taste. She didn’t really like the red ones, so I tried those.

But back to Peche de Chocolat. By the way, their word “peche” has an accent above each “e” which means ’sin’ in French. So, the full business name’s literal translation is something like ‘Sin of Chocolate’. That’s a different French word than if there’s only one accent above the first “e”. I know that’s confusing and even I pronounced it wrong knowing some French, because I thought it was the word with one accent. You can pretend like you didn’t read this stuff about the pronunciation ’cause I know it’s confusing

Anyway, when I first got in there, the first employee I met was Pierre who gave me his business card…it said he was a Confectioners Manager. I thought that was very interesting. I made a joke that I’m sure that people are much happier that, that’s your title than if you were a Collections Manager (get it? …it rhymes). He laughed.

And he pointed me to Alec who conducted the tasting and knew the wines he was giving me to try. Alec first described and then poured the wines. And then he handed over the chocolate . The chocolates came in little chocolate paper candy holders. But here…you can hear and watch what Alec had to say about one of the wine and chocolate pairings I had…it’s the “jammy” tasting Malbec with dark chocolate and fig.

Alec seemed happy that I liked the pairing. Here are the pairings I had:

Domaine de Bernier Chardonnay (France) paired with white chocolate

Willamette Valley Riesling (Oregon) paired with soft milk chocolate and hazelnut

Trinity Oaks Pinot Noir (California) paired with dark chocolate, hazelnuts, croquant rice crisp

Bodega Nortin Malbec (Argentina) paired with dark chocolate, almonds, and dates

They were all excellent and to my liking. Really. Both the wines and chocolates. I really liked all the chocolates even the dark one. I ended up buying a bottle of the Riesling, Pinot Noir and Malbec.

I’ve got a wine collection for consumption back home so these would go nicely. I like to sometimes have a glass of wine with my meal, but not always. One of my favorites is Hans Lang Pinot Noir which is not one that Peche de Chocolat serves, but just one that I have back home. We have a few bottles from the 2006 vintage. It’s light, has a light red transparent color, and has a clean finish. It has been described as tasting like it has hints of strawberries and raspberries. I like both fruits. …but enough about me.

I really liked the Riesling served at the Tasting. And since the Riesling came from Oregon, I told Alec about my experience of visiting Portland, Oregon and the California Wine Country over a decade ago. It took me back briefly. That was a very memorable vacation and I’d like to go back to visit.

The chocolates melted in my mouth. They come from France, Lebanon, Italy, and Belgium. I like imported gourmet foods and especially sweets.

I also talked to the owner Laura Antonelli who seems to enjoy her business. I don’t blame her one bit!

Watch/listen to her talk about Peche de Chocolat:

And, Peche de Chocolat is located off Glenwood in Glenwood South area before Hillsborough Street. They have a small parking lot that shares spaces with the art galleries that are in the same white building warehouse structure. The lot was full when I went so I had to park nearby. But parking is not usually a problem in Glenwood South as you can find paid or street parking. Everything is kinda a nice short walking distance down there.

Visit the North Raleigh Farmers Market

Brandy — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:31:40 +0000

Have u been to the Raleigh Farmers Market in North Raleigh? It’s the one at the Falls River Town Center on Wednesdays and Saturdays, thru October.

There are a lot of food vendors. Ones you’d expect like vegetable growers. That’s where most the people were.

There was an even an ice cream man. And other ones like these honey growers.

And this woman I met named Audra who sells cupcakes. She wrote to me after coming across my blog. I tried two of her mini cupcake samples. They were delicious. The first one I sampled was tiramisu. It was very subtle in taste which I liked. The other was dulce de leche. It had a caramel flavor. They were both very good and memorable. She said she sold out of the red velvet cupcake earlier. Darn…that’s my fav’rite. I’m sure it would’ve been good though. But two cupcakes (although finger size) was all I could have before noon. Well…the only sweets I would have the rest of the day.

Dulce de Leche Cupcake

I also ran into a woman named Jan who sells farm raised meat like chicken and duck. She’s based out of Wake Forest. It was a reminder me that we’re not far from the farms.

Downtown Raleigh Designer Market

Brandy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:11:11 +0000

Every week there’s something (some things) interesting going on in Raleigh. You don’t have to be a Raleigh insider to appreciate. Like the Downtown Designer Market where there are lots of artists with their handmade jewelry, scarves, and other handmade goods. It was in the parking lot off West Street.

They even had this hot dog stand.

Check out these wool dogs. This woman makes them for $85. I asked if she could make a Chihuahua and she said she could. That’s as close to what Apollo looks like although he’s really a mix and the personality of a mixed dog. Not a yappy Chi-hua-hua.

…and these really cute cupcakes…there not for real of course. But they sure look yummy!

Raleigh's Handmade Market Downtown Expo

Brandy — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:06:23 +0000

Over the weekend I went to the Handmade Market in downtown Raleigh at Marbles Museum. Like most Raleigh small shopping events… and there are a lot of them which is awesome for shoppers…this one was very intimate, but busy, and you got to meet the owners and in this case, the owner/designers. I enjoy looking around unique bazaar (not bizarre) environments. I get a lot of inspiration and it’s visually stimulating. I remember in Charleston there’s an area downtown that has something very similar but I think it’s year round. There is a lot of pottery and women weaving baskets right in front of you. Similarly at this handmade expo, I saw handmade cards, clothes, jewelry, photographs, bags, candles, and anything else you can think of making… these creative entrepreneurs at this expo had created them and were now displaying them for sale.

Handmade Jewelry made in Raleigh

Here’s a photo of a woman named Marcia (pronounced Mar-cee-ah)…

A Raleigh Baby Clothes Designer

…who makes baby accessories and girls clothing. She uses a lot of fabrics with cupcake designs. Oooh…how adorable! The baby booties made of felt are also sold at NoFo at Five Points in case you want to see them in person. Marcia’s business is called Small Beans.

For the handmade expo, it couldn’t have been a better spring weekend either. The weather was spectacular for people to get outside (and the pollen count was actually lower than it has been in days for allergy sufferers). And there was a small outdoor informal Christian rock band and a good flow of visitors were walking around the Exploris Museum and on Blount Street downtown. For a moment there, I actually felt like I was in a city. Remember, I’m a Washingtonian transplant from years ago, so to me, a city is like a bustling and happening place like DC and now possibly Raleigh (well…give it a few more years).

Raleigh's Marbles Kids Museum

Anyway… here’s a photo of me buying some patterned pencil cases with the designer Valerie who sells bag and other patterned pouches, business card, and tissue box holders. Her business is named Holland Fox named after a grandmother of hers. How catchy!

Handmade accessories made by Valerie