The gorgeous kitchen inside this David Weekley-built Avignon home on this year’s Parade of Homes tour.

Get ready to window shop your way through some of the Greater Charlotte area’s newest and nicest homes this weekend!

The annual Parade of Homes begins Oct. 7 and lasts 2 more weekends through Oct. 23.

Whether you are in the market for a new home, a building site or just design ideas for a renovation, Parade of Homes is free and it’s fun.

This year’s parade includes more than 75 homes, including model homes, homes for sale and communities with available building sites.

The Parade of Homes web site offers a tool that allows you to choose the homes you want to see and then map your tour route. The parade can take you all the way from Lake Wylie to Lake Norman!

Twenty builders are represented on this year’s tour, including Alan Simonini Homes, Bonterra Builders, David Weekley, Saussy Burbank and Toll Brothers.

Parade home prices range from $200,000 to more than $1 million.

Some of the in-town and SouthPark neighborhoods on the tour include: Central Living at Iverson, Cherry, Eastover City Homes, Churchill Commons, Channing Hall and Avignon.

For a complete map of homes and list of homes on the tour, see the Parade of Homes Charlotte site. The tour is hosted by the Home Builders Association of Greater Charlotte.

Tour dates are as follows: Oct. 7-9, 14-16 and 21-23. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.

Yiasou Greak Festival 2015

It’s that time of year again– the leaves are starting to fall, football season has begun and Autumn wreaths are hung on doors– so get ready for some delicious Greek food, music and dancing… that’s right, synonymous with fall in Charlotte is the best Greek Festival in the Southeast, the Yiasou Festival.  The warrior reenactments are so much fun to watch and the folk dance performances are also very entertaining, you’ll want to get up and dance too!  Admission is just $3 and children under 12 free.

Greek Fest has been a Charlotte tradition since 1978 when Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral first held the festival in the heart of Dilworth.  Since then the Yiasou Festival has become one of the Queen City’s most popular cultural events.  Drawing huge crowds each year, many Charlotteans eagerly await Charlotte’s first festival of Fall. Yiasou  is the Greek word for Hello, Goodbye and Cheers and you will certainly feel cheerful at the festival.  Featuring Hellenic cultural exhibits, to-die-for Greek food, Cathedral tours, entertainment, art, shopping and more, Yiasou will not disappoint!  Fun for the entire family, this is Charlotte’s time of year to embrace all things Greek.

With its continued growth, Charlotte has more to offer than ever!  From its many delicious restaurants (Italian, Indian, Southern Home-Cookin’ Cuisine, Chinese, and even Ethiopian, you name it, Charlotte’s got it) to the new urban green-spaces of Uptown, and the new Trolley-line that courses through Elizabeth to Uptown, Charlotte’s got it all!  There are many wonderful places to visit in Charlotte, so this blog simply features a few of my favs from around the our beautiful city.

Romare Bearden Park – this gorgeous 5.4-acre public park is located in the heart of Uptown Charlotte, across the street from BB&T Ball Park, home of the Charlotte Knights and nearby the famous Brevard Court & French Quarter.  What makes it so fantastic? It’s equipped with a glass water-wall that is adored by all ages!  The park opened in August 2013 and is named for Charlotte born artist Romare Bearden, it opened in late August 2013.  With a picture-perfect view of Charlotte’s skyline, this is the perfect place to capture the moment in photographs!

Assorted Table, located at the 7th Street Market – Entertaining?  Need quality wine recommendations to go along with the menu you’ve planned? Be sure to stop by Assorted Table & speak with Josh Vlipiano about wines.  Josh always has great wine advice for me and I enjoy learning more every time I visit.  Plus you won’t want to miss the shop’s Weekly Tuesday Night Wine Flights, held every Tuesday from 5-7pm, $5.00 plus tax entitles you to a taste of five wines! Plus, you get a $5.00 voucher good on any future purchase. Same day purchases of featured wines are 10% off. Light appetizers provided by Church Street Realty and Orrman’s Cheese Shop or Pure Pizza.  This is definitely one of my favorite things to do during the work week!

Portifino’s Italian Restaurant – If you love Italian cuisine, you must stop into Portifino’s!  It’s a great place to dine-in or get Friday night take out.  Whether your passion is pasta or pizza, seafood or meats, cheeses or vegetables, they have it at Portifino’s.  With 3 locations, each Portofino’s restaurant is staffed by friends and family, many of whom are originally from Italy. The food is simply delicious and they have a nice selection of wines if you would like to pair.

The Manor Theatre – The Manor is Charlotte’s oldest movie house, often showing independent films that can be hard to find in Charlotte.  This is one of my favorite Charlotte movie theaters for that reason.  It’s fun to see a film that is not a Hollywood blockbuster.  Constructed in the affluent Myers Park neighborhood in 1947, the Manor was considered to be the most beautiful movie house in Charlotte at that time. The bathrooms were floored with hand-laid tile, and elaborate plaster work in art-deco styling framed the theater’s movie screen. The building was originally created as a single-screen theater, and opened with The Egg and I starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert. Several years later, however, the theater was divided into two screens, and although this renovation made for smaller viewing auditoriums, it created a more intimate space that went nicely with the independent and foreign titles the theater became known for hosting.