My brother called: "How'd you get best blogger?" Me: "Because I'm the best blogger?" He wasn't buying it.

I got a tweet on Thursday morning: I'm Creative Loafing's "Best Blogger" staff pick. I'm not worthy. (If you tweet, please follow me @terrykearns.)
So THAT'S why they wanted a picture. Caricature by Tony Stewart. Last year's staff pick was one of my blog heroes Cameron Adams who does Atlanta Street Fashion.

That was Thursday. Then it was LikeMind on Friday morning at Octane for coffee courtesy of MailChimp.


Folks who can smile at 8 a.m. are better than I am. Lori Buff, Jen Soong, Tripp Cook, and Maigh Houlihan move, shake, and smile before coffee.


Wearing black is optional.  In this picture Jennifer Schwartz in black next to me, Jessica Weiss in blue behind Lori, and Sherri Copeland in black 2nd from right between Maigh and Jen.


Ashley Putnam was there, he's Atlanta's Burger and Brew blogger. He can only blog burgers and brew because he's a marathoner. See y'all next month.

Friday wasn't done. Reggie Darling (THE Reggie Darling) visited Atlanta on Friday and invited bloggers for cocktails at the Four Seasons. No pictures I regret.

I am NOT an erudite blogger. But Reggie is, and Blue, Jennifer, and Julieta are. They know stuff and know how to write.

Reggie Darling - The View From Darlington House has been restoring a circa  1817 house in New York state for more than a decade. Reggie is the nom-de-blog of a New Yorker. He doesn't just have readers, he has "dear" readers.

"Blue" author of The Blue Remembered Hills taught the history of design. In the world of sugar-sweet design blogs, Blue contributes a tiny but welcome bit of bite.

Jennifer Boles who blogs at The Peak of Chic is a design writer / historian. Jennifer has a book coming out in October, In with the Old: Classic Decor from A to Z. We Atlanta bloggers will be at the first book-signing, right?

Julieta Cadenas blogs at Lindaraxa, she's a banker with a food blog. She cooks 'em, she photographs 'em, she eat's 'em, she blogs 'em. (Mmmm...) I met her for first time on Friday.

There are so many great bloggers in Atlanta and room for plenty more.

More for Friday: The Atlanta Preservation Center Features the Rose House: A Rose on Peachtree Photography, Videography & Artifacts.  

The show is in my favorite Atlanta space, the drawing room in the L.P. Grant Mansion, patina galore.


Jason Travis, Jessica Sheppard, and Michael Joe Morgan presented art, photography, and video at the Grant Mansion. Author / historian / collector Jeff Clemmons (not pictured) provided some Rose artifacts for the exhibition. It's open through October 11, 2013 Gallery Hours - Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays, 10:00 am - 2:00 pm during the exhibit and by appointment.

Thanks to M.H. Mitchell, Inc. for supporting the show.

The Rose House is at 537 Peachtree Street. It was the forlorn old museum across from Crawford Long. "The Rufus M. Rose House has been on the APC's Most Endangered Historic Places List since 2007."

Saturday: Student Art in Grant Park and Established Art at Beep Beep.

I love student art shows because it's their very best stuff, it takes some courage, and who knows where they'll be in 5 years. Matt Haffner insists his Kennesaw State students do a show away from school this time at the Arts Exchange in Grant Park. The exhibit: "'waxing:waning' - an exhibition of photographic installations" was curated by Ben Goldman. 'waxing:waning' has a spot in the Atlanta Celebrates Photography 2013 Festival Guide. You can see it at the Arts Exchange until October 22, 2103.


Tracie Hinnant.


Jenny Woodall.


Sara Hollis.


Taylor Tolbert.

I finished off at Beep Beep Gallery with "Everythingalltogetherallatonce" new work by Jason Kofke.


Beep Beep Gallery is across Charles Allen from Grace Methodist. You can't imagine a gallery in this little space but it works. It's a bit intimidating for the gallery shy; there's no place to hide.


Jason was elsewhere stuck in transit but his "everything" was here.


Drawings, paintings, video, humor, and everything worth a close look.


Voyager's and Jason's message to ET. I really like these. Maybe it's a guy thing, if we look long enough we'll learn something.


Art requires time to grok. So you take little timeouts to chat with friends. Artist Craig Cameron, Art dealer Yu-Kai Lin.

What a week and it was only 3 days.

"Windows on Design" is a project by Atlanta's Design Collective. "It pairs one Showroom window with a Designer to create a one-of-a-kind window display."

I headed out with my trusty maps. I had no hope of capturing these displace with my camera, so I made it all about me. After all, there was prize.


On the west.




Verde Home featured Liquid Design Studios and it looked good enough to eat.




Jennifer Schwartz Gallery & Balance Design looked great in the rain.




Redefined Home Boutique & New Mood Design did a bed and a dress.

I headed east.






At Regalo Antiques, Taylor Galen Workroom with Charm Home Design pushed all the eclectic buttons.




At Robuck and Company, Mill and Forge showed a metal table with beautiful reclaimed wood.




Rebecca Keller built a studio / map room at Beau Holland.




Jenn Ryan Designs built a dining room inside Moattar.

Congratulations and thanks to all.


Thanks to Regalo Antiques for sending me this picture.

After a Yeah Burger lunch with our old friend Jim Olson, JoAnn and I did some cruising to finish the week.

You have to look up to find the lions in bow ties at Trinity and Pryor. I don't think "bow tie" is the proper architectural term. Can you help me out on that?


We saw lions at The Westside Foundry too.


JoAnn loves the boulders in the Oakland Gate Meadow. The proposed "Capital Gateway Park" will run from here along Martin Luther King all the way to the capital. But we hope they don't tear down Daddy D'z BBQ in the process.


The meadow is right outside the gate.


The week started last Friday night with a eclectic Oktoberfest party at Melvin Gallery in the Virginia Cotton Docks. We met the awesome "Now Painter" Janssen Robinson who painted to the tune of our buds, the Muleskinner McQueen Trio. Little kids danced in person and cows danced on video. It was a fun for the whole family and a heck of a night in the Old 4th Ward.


I heard more old-time music on Saturday, I'm talking medieval French love songs from Asteria Musica at Agnes Scott College. I blogged it at "Asteria soundchecks Château de Germolles."


The new tenants moved into our rustic Morningside charmer.


We enjoyed some brick painting on Zimmer.


No week is complete for Architecture Tourists without some good old fashioned demolition. These are the remains of Building 6 at Emory's Briarcliff Campus. They tore down buildings 7 and 8 too. We could hear the crunching from our front porch. These will not be missed.


It was a particularly good Tuesday. Bloggers and many others celebrated at the Beacham & Company, Realtors® "Beacham Series” release party at a McAlpine-Tankersley house. Wahoo. I blogged it at "Bobby's Big, Big Door and More at the Beacham Party."


The recycling truck trashed our circle again. What are we going to do?


Gordon visited. This is one of his favorite houses in Atlanta. It's one of ours too. "It's ironic ... humble is always the most expensive thing you can do." - Bobby McAlpine


On Thrusday I visited Occupy Atlanta at Woodruff Park.


What do you know, the Georgia State Homecoming Parade came through. The band marched down right down Broad Street.

I love a parade.

I mean the Bobby McAlpine door (McAlpine Tankersley Architecture) at the Beacham & Company, REALTORS^® "Beacham Series” release party Tuesday night.

The Architecture Tourist Lutyens Lovers SIG thought the party was just for us. This is exactly what we like to do on Tuesday night.



Kyle Studivent, builder and blogger at "The well Composed Home," and I walked outside to have a look. It was just one of the smile-generators in the house. Makes moving a grand piano easier I'm sure but I think it's the wit.

Here is the whole composition.


It's a beauty you won't see in a real estate ad. This is the view from the parking court. For Kyle and me it was a piece of heaven.

The parking court was so good, I had to photograph the electric meter, you gotta have one, even in a McAlpine house.


Mmm, mmm, mmm. Those zigs and zags, cornices and gutters, lentils and shutters. Just yummy. Remember, this the service side of the house where the basketball goal is, trashcans too but I didn't see them.

Here is the driveway.


Nice driveway no? The house is right up there.


This is the front porch. But compared to the porch on my little house, this needs a fancy French name. I didn't realize these were shutters until I got up close. The front door is behind me. The great room is though those French doors. You can see the porch from the inside in the video at the bottom.


The foyer is small and cozy. I'm looking down from the 2nd floor. I think the foyer has the highest charm/square-foot ratio I've ever experienced.

Many mansions whack you upside the head with their foyer. Know what I mean?

This foyer says, "We are not giants, we're just folks who want you to feel comfortable in our house."

But the foyer is not just a foyer.


It's in the middle of a long upstairs enfilade from the children's wing, through the great room, to the master. It's a box seat with a balcony for observing the flow of folks through the house.


James told me that a McAlpine signature is a mirror on a window. Here you go: this is looking into the master bath, the mirror hanging above the sink in the center window.


There was so much to look at. I'd turn the chairs so I could look at the detials.


By this time the crowd was shoulder to shoulder inside. Kyle showed me this detail.

Most of us the bloggers got there early. Kyle - Well Composed Home, James - Limestone and Boxwoods, Blayne - This Photographer's Life (Architecture + Interior Design), John - Clickscape John also does a heroic job at the Midtown Archive, Holly, our hero and heroine, was there from Things That Inspire, Niki from Single Bubble Pop. Rodolofo doesn't exactly blog but he tweets @CastroDesignATL and Facebooks and is a best architect friend to bloggers.


Kyle, James, and Blayne had a moment in the keeping room before the multitudes arrived.

I don't want to embarrass anyone but Helen, Capella, Ally, Claire, Angela, Travis: This will go your permanent record unless you bring an written excuse. Cristi is excused, she sent Billy and he did run the party and we heard that the baby is really, really cute.

Finally, a little video of the great room before the crowd arrived.



Thanks so much so much to Blayne, Glennis and all the folks at Beacham & Company, REALTORS^® and to Bobby and to Bruce and Lisa. Thanks to the bloggers who have been so nice to me, who've shown me so much.