Cailin Burke – Castle Foundations

Fourth of July Style

July 3, 2017July 5, 2017Leave a comment

Happy Fourth of July all! We love everything that comes with this holiday — celebrating America and our independence, eating some classic foods, and wearing our red, white, and blue! We both put together outfits that were a little different than the norm and love how they came out. First off, I am obsessed with Tara’s look because… just look at that t-shirt! She thought it would be super fitting to wear a cheeseburger covered tee since it’s a staple July 4th food after all! Even better, these cheeseburgers have faces and are just too adorable and funny! This is definitely a statement tee.

Along with this epic tee (from Delia*s back in the day), she topped it with a denim slip dress and really cool Swedish clogs from MIA Shoes. (I got them for her as a birthday present this year! Success!!) She also threw on a few matching Pura Vida bracelets and wore a red lip to give it that red, white, and blue look!

Continue reading “Fourth of July Style” →

Exploring 12South + Our Last Day in Nashville

June 29, 2017June 29, 2017Leave a comment

BY CAILIN BURKE

For our last full day in Music City, we (successfully!!) fit in our last few “must-do’s” and started the day by heading to the 12South area to hit up Five Daughters Bakery and Franklin Juice Co. To successfully make it to all the places we wanted to go (for this trip at least), that meant stopping at both places for breakfast. We really wanted to try Five Daughter’s doughnuts and Franklin Juice Co.’s pitaya bowl so we had a “Why not eat two breakfasts?” kind of moment. You guys know how we feel about doughnuts. If you don’t, feel free to check out this, this, this, this, this, and finally this one too. (They’re all links to our doughnut adventures!)

After seeing that Five Daughters Bakery was Nashville’s main artisanal doughnut stop, we made sure to head there and grab a few flavors! They’re known for having the “100 Layer Donut” which is a croissant and donut hybrid, filled and then topped with a glaze! They’re basically shaped like doughnuts but more pastry-esque! I believe Tara and I got chocolate crunch, maple glaze, and one of the seasonal flavors and they were all so amazing! You can definitely tell that they’re a doughnut and a pastry combined because the texture is pretty different, but we love doughnuts in all forms and thought the flavors were so good!

Continue reading “Exploring 12South + Our Last Day in Nashville” →

A Day of Nashville Staples

April 10, 2017Leave a comment

BY CAILIN BURKE

After we got our fix of the Nashville skyline and remembered the country music greats at the Walk of Fame Park, we went straight to Broadway for some cowboy boot shopping! There are a ton of stores that have aisles and aisles of boots so if you’re looking for some, why not get them in Music City!? They were all so fun and intricate, but they had some great classic pairs too. The shops we went to definitely had the most unique cowboy boots I’ve seen – so they were the perfect place to find those statement boots. Tara found a pair that looked so good on her, but they were all super expensive to no surprise, so we mostly window shopped.

Screen Shot 2017-04-10 at 1.22.18 AM Screen Shot 2017-04-10 at 1.23.22 AM

Continue reading “A Day of Nashville Staples” →

Exploring East Nashville

March 31, 2017Leave a comment

BY CAILIN BURKE

Even though we all had traveled and just arrived to Nashville that morning, we wanted to make the most of our day and check out our new stomping grounds! We got an Airbnb in East Nashville and it was an adorable house near a huge park and conveniently 5-15 minutes from everything. A lot of the other houses in the area, like the one below, were super colorful and almost every one seemed to have an adorable porch swing! We personally love staying in Airbnbs because it’s cool to be in a more residential area and get a glimpse of how a Nashvillian lives! We picked one in East Nashville because we had heard the area was growing and had a lot of cool spots, but was outside of the toursity areas.

Well what we heard was true — because East Nashville quickly became one of our favorite pats of the city! After stopping into our house to get the Greyhound off of us, we headed to Five Points to walk around, see some street art, and shop! Five Points is the center of East Nashville in terms of food and businesses! Right away we stumbled upon a huge few walls that had a bunch of murals and grabbed some photos.

Continue reading “Exploring East Nashville” →

Arriving in Nashville & Heading Straight to CREMA

March 26, 2017March 27, 20171 Comment

BY CAILIN BURKE

A few months back we went on a six day visit to Nashville, Tennessee for a girl’s trip! We had always wanted to go to Nashville to eat amazing food, try out their cool coffee shops, and of course… hear some live music! When we discovered that we had a Greyhound Road Reward to take a free bus ANYWHERE, we wanted to get the best value and chose Music City! With all the public transportation and crazy long commutes we’ve done in the past, we knew we could handle the 24 hour bus ride. After several transfers, sitting in bus terminals, and long naps — we arrived!

We started our Nashville visit with caffeine and food of course! Straight from the bus terminal we walked to CREMA, a really cool cafe and artisanal coffee roaster that we heard amazing reviews of! We each got an iced chai latte, and they were amazing! They were pretty spicy which I really enjoyed, and unlike the normal chais I’ve had in the past. Since being home, I’ve found myself craving one of these again but can’t find a place that makes them the same!

Continue reading “Arriving in Nashville & Heading Straight to CREMA” →

Honey & Tea Tasting

March 17, 2017March 17, 2017Leave a comment

BY CAILIN BURKE

Nothing new here — this post talks about matcha, again! … But for all of the matcha lattes in NYC, my favorite green drink is few and far between in Upstate New York (our hometown). I was looking up where I could find matcha in the area, and saw that Saratoga Tea & Honey had one on their menu! So there we went!

Before we grabbed a latte, we went straight to the back to see their “Honey Room.” It’s just how it sounds, a room with jars of honey everywhere! You can taste all of their varieties which was so fun! I love honey in my tea, yogurt, and smoothies, but for some reason don’t like to eat it plain — so I wasn’t jumping up and down at the chance to sample tons and tons of honey.

Continue reading “Honey & Tea Tasting” →

Exploring the Omi International Arts Center

March 10, 2017March 17, 2017Leave a comment

BY CAILIN BURKE

If you haven’t noticed by all of our Feature Fridays, we are huge art lovers so if there’s ever a chance to check out a new artist or head to a museum, we’re there!
One day while scrolling through Instagram, I stumbled upon Omi International Arts Center and it looked incredible! Even better, it was located in NY! It wasn’t too far of a drive, so one weekend we headed there to check out all of the art in their Fields Sculpture Park.

We had always passed Storm King Art Center on our drive to college and wanted to go check out the huge sculptures, but never had the chance. So when we saw that the Omi Center had a similar concept and admission was –FREE– we had to go! It’s basically a huge outdoor area with different sculptures strewn throughout the premises.

Continue reading “Exploring the Omi International Arts Center” →

Fruit for Thought – A Subscription Box for Fruit Lovers

February 14, 2017March 23, 2017Leave a comment

BY TARA & CAILIN BURKE

We were excited to receive February’s Fruit for Thought box, especially since it’s theme was “Strawberries & Champagne” – the perfect Valentine’s Day combo! Fruit for Thought is a monthly subscription box for all those fruit lovers out there. Each month they have a new fruit-centered theme and in the past have done boxes like Piña Colada, Fruit Salad, and Pink Lemonade!

We wanted to give a little review of the box and all the fun items it contained — kind of like an unboxing! Subscription boxes are great because they’re so fun to go through and discover new item after item! Fruit for Thought’s boxes have 6-8 curated items all centering on the monthly theme.

Continue reading “Fruit for Thought – A Subscription Box for Fruit Lovers” →

XC Skiing the Berkshires

February 11, 2017February 11, 20171 Comment

BY CAILIN BURKE

As New Yorkers, we have a ton of snow most years and wanted to make the most of it! We love cross country skiing (after going a handful of times when we were younger) and had the random urge to go this month! Our friend Kbray is all about skiing these days too, so she joined in on the fun! We decided to head to the Berkshires (in Massachusetts) since it’s one of our favorite mountain areas! Usually, we go there in the summer for their chill lakes, locally owned coffee shops, and great music and museum options! (Hit us up for recommendations on any of these – seriously!) We actually had never been to the Berkshires during the winter months, but a cool guy named James Taylor once sang, “…The Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frosting…,” and so going there for a snow-related activity just made sense. He was right, by the way – totally dreamlike.

Continue reading “XC Skiing the Berkshires” →

Exploring the Cooper Hewitt Museum

December 5, 2016December 5, 20163 Comments

BY CAILIN BURKE

We’ve always made it a mission or bucket list item to go to all of the museums in NYC. This has seemed pretty impossible because there are so SO many, but we wanted to check another off the list and headed to the Cooper Hewitt Museum in the Upper East Side. Yes, the one known for the rolling chairs. Social media has also somewhat dubbed it as the “Museum for People Who Don’t Like Museums.” Unfortunately, we DO like museums, so this wouldn’t be on our must-see list, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you want a quick, fun museum day!

cooper-hewitt