More nerdy tattoos!

We are a tattoo loving family over here, if you couldn't tell. Especially of the pop culture variety. Travis finally finished his zombie/graveyard half sleeve a few months ago, and got to start on something new over the weekend. I always thought he would be too chicken for a chest piece  (because I am) but he proved me wrong and went for it! Here is the before. Warning, there are lots of pictures of Travis' chest in this post. Hope you don't mind. Ha! Don't worry Harry Potter fans, he is going to get another deathly hallows symbol somewhere else.
Tattoo day means Haribo treats. They were out of my usual so I got these fish and they were good!
Stencil on! Can you see what he was watching in the mirror? It was on theme.

For a lot of it he was fine, but he said the sternum was terrible. Our artist is Jason St. Clair at Lone Wolf. I think he is a pretty incredible artist, he does great custom work. He was even nice when Travis was having a hard time staying relaxed. I don't think I'll be doing my chest anytime soon!

Here is it! First session down!
It is an Addam's family tribute. Two headed vulture with their family motto underneath. "We gladly feast on those that would subdue us." Yes yes, we know it isn't correct Latin. But it is the Latin they use in the movie, and that is the point. Travis LOVES the Addams family, the movies, the tv show, the comic, and the creator, Charles Addams. The haunted house on his inner arm is based on their house. I LOVE his chest piece, and can't wait to see it finished!

A new little friend!

I've really enjoyed the blog Vintage by Crystal for a while, and I love all of her vintage inspired creations. Usually I'm at work during her updates and by the time I check it out, all the ones I like have been claimed. But not this time! I finally got one! Look at how sweet she is!

Technically she is a birthday friend, but I'm going to keep her out year round since it is always time for cake! And she is in my favorite colors. 

Collection 15: Kistchy Jesus!

Oh man, it has been 3 months since my last collection post! And you KNOW I'm not out of collections. This is one I have been wanting to share for a while, but it has been really hard to photograph. It lives in a little cramped"hall" in our 1939 cottage house. Here is how it looks if you are in the dining room. You can see a little bit of my vintage dog photo collection on the left, too.

This little hallway is kind of a hub. It has doorways into the dining room, bathroom, craft room, linen closet, guest room, and living room. We wanted to fill those little spaces with a collection and our love of kistchy Jesus stuff fit the bill perfectly. One of my favorites is that paint by number on the left. He was a flea market find. Really, most of these were.

I bought a little Jesus light switch cover on Etsy to complete the look.
These are two of my other favorites. The bottom thing is chalk.

Here is the view into the living room, it really is more of a small useless room than a hall. And you can't have a kistch Jesus collection without at least one Jesus on a log. Do you see it? And do you see the pair of Santas in the dining room? I really need to put all my new Christmas stuff in the basement!

The other wall is so hard to photograph! Even when the day is bright! The main light source comes from the bathroom, so sorry for the yellow pictures! But I'll include one of my kitty. You can almost see my new poodle toilet paper cover behind him! Haha.

I love tiny shelves, because I LOVE tiny knick knacks. The Jesus with the red in the second cubby up from the bottom left was actually left in a closet in this house when we bought it. He is flat and weird and cute. You can also see a few unicorns living in this area. The gold metal thing on the wall is the old thermostat! We weren't able to use it, because we put in central heat and air but our contractor let us keep the old once since it is so cute!

And that completes the 360 view. There aren't tons of places left for this collection to expand, and I'm actually thinking of redoing this hall and selling all our Jesus kitsch. I'm kind of into filling the hallway with vintage souvenir plates. We'll see. I hope you liked seeing this collection! And my little cluttered house.

Does anyone know that the lamp hanging up there is called? I want to find out more info on it. It doesn't match my house at all and I should sell it and get something more our style, but you know me. It belonged to the woman who owned our house since the 1950's and I feel bad getting rid of it. Crazy!
sharing at Her Library Adventure this week

Estate Finds

Here is what I picked up at that estate sale I told you about earlier this week. I told you it was just a few little things. Have you ever played Master Mind? It is HARD! I got it mostly because I knew Travis would like playing it with some of our friends. Teeny little kokeshi doll that I found in the basement. Also a sweet tin, and an awesome pin.

I was really excited to find this whole box of millinery birds! I've been looking for some to do something like this! I have the perfect vase already, now I just need the perfect branches!

So cute. There was a funny little dog made out of a nut hidden in the bottom of the box.

There were SO MANY photo albums. I only let myself bring home four. They all had a page like this in the front. Such a weird hodge podge of images. I like the mole at the bottom.

Two I picked because of the cat photos. The albums span the home owners who life so there are a few different cats, but all captured lovingly. I really love that. One of my favorites is the tortie on the chair.

And this grey one.
I think that boy is the home owner.
I love this strange grouping of photos. The post card, the landscapes, and that bear.

There are quite a few photos of statues/art. I think they are really beautiful. Especially all the statues lined up on the table like that.

This book had quite a few large scale photos. There is one album full of "hippie" pictures that I somehow forgot to take pictures of? Oops!

This little grouping is from another sale that was a few blocks from my house. They didn't have tons of stuff, but I found a few treasures. The bamboo cups are milk glass, which I can almost never resist. The tree topper is silly and I just couldn't leave her behind. 

These little dogs are so cute. They were in the listing, and I kind of couldn't believe they were still there on day too. I guess there weren't many kistch hunters at the sale.

And I can NEVER resist a Santa. Especially a handmade one with shiny eyes!
I'm going to try and resist any sales AND the flea market this weekend, since we're going to the world's longest yard sale next week, BUT I don't know if I'll make it. Haha. Wish me luck.

The Pharmacy!

Yesterday it was my mom's birthday and when I asked what she wanted to do, she said that she wanted me to take her on a food adventure! Which is weird because I got my picky eating habits from my parents. The first things that came to mind were things like Ethiopian or Indian or the local vegan place but I figured she probably didn't mean THAT adventurous. Then I remembered that I have been wanting to check out the Pharmacy in east Nashville. 

We sat outside on the porch and it was awesome. I liked the picnic tables in the beer garden, and the strings of lights. I DIDN'T like the flies, but the manager said they were working on it. This place will be even better once it cools off a little. We got there around 6 and it wasn't bad though. We also seemed to get there just before the rush too. We didn't have to wait at all, but by the time we left there was a 45 minute wait for a table.

I got a creamsicle cream soda and it was so good!

I got a black bean burger and it was so so good! The buns come from a local bakery. Travis got the falafel burger. I loved that they had two vegetarian options. And the tater tots were awesome! 

Since it was a birthday celebration we went all out and got dessert too. The ice cream for the milkshakes comes from the Pied Piper Creamy, which is local. They make an oatmeal raisin cookie ice cream that is amazing! I can't believe we haven't been there yet this summer. 

I got a coke float, since they were out of root beer. (what!?) It came with Mexican coke, which is so much better! I think it's the cane sugar, haha.

Here is my mom and me! Happy birthday lady!

Nostalgia

If you get to know me at all, you will notice that I'm a very nostalgic person. I hate it when special things that belonged to people  that I don't even know get thrown away! So I find myself holding on to lots of things that I don't really need, or care about all that much. I have been toting around a BIG box of notes and cards from house to house for years! So I made myself sit down the other day and go through every single one, and only keep the really special stuff, like letters from my great grandmother or funny notes from my dad ("fwesh fwuit in fwidge" might be my favorite). I had pretty much every note that had ever been given to me. I've been out of high school almost ten years, and I found myself not even knowing who half of the people were!

Apparently I helped Tiffany in math, but I can't remember anything about her. Why do I hold on to this stuff? All these notes passed in class were pretty good for a laugh. There were so many weird inside jokes, and so much stupid. drama. Oh high school. 

Embarrassing confession time. I was REALLY into the Backstreet Boys in middle school. As in, my friends and I wrote letters to each other as if we were married to our favorite. So I was Mrs. Littrell. Haha. I actually still have my HUGE box of Backstreet Boys stuff because I haven't been able to throw it all away. At the end of this letter, my friend wanted me to tell Brian hi, from Nick. Because she was Mrs. Carter of course. (Nick Carter shops in the store I work at sometimes and it is always pretty thrilling, though I try to pretend it isn't. Haha!)

Here is a picture of me celebrating my favorite Backstreet Boy's birthday when I was 13! See my awesome shirt? The cake was blue because that was his favorite color. And I think we had his favorite drink (ginger ale)and favorite food (mac and cheese). I've always been really cool.

I loved all the intricate folds we did on notes. I kept a lot of the notes from my currant best friend, because they were hilarious, but I'm really proud to say I threw the rest away. And I only kept birthday cards and things with good notes in them. Just enough to fill a tiny vintage suitcase. 

Phyllis and Priscilla kept me company of course. Look at all the pigmentation on her little eyeball!

Checking off one goal: Trying Korean Food!

Finally checking this off my food to try list! As a reformed picky eater, it is big for me! (example: I never tried broccoli until I was 25 years old. Ridiculous I know) Seoul Garden is just a few miles from our house and Travis had been here with some friends. He tried to get me to go with him more than once, and I always made excuses. But I decided to be brave on Saturday and give it a go. (Also, I am a drama queen)

As we walked up I noticed that they are open until 2 am on Saturday nights, and do karaoke from 10 until 2! We might have to go back for that! When you go in they ask if you want a table with a grill (for their barbecue) or not. We said no, so we were put in this sad little room in the front that was dark and lonely. We kept laughing and saying it felt like we were being punished. 

I like that they have pictures on their menu for n00bs like me. I got the bibimbap in a stone bowl.

Here is what it looked like when it got to the table! See the plate of meat next to Travis' hand? For some reason we thought it was vegetarian...so we picked it all out and I brought it home for a treat for the pugs. The bibimbap has rice on the bottom, then vegetables (carrots, cabbage, radish, lettuce) with a fried egg on top. The bowl is REALLY hot and the rice is sizzling when they set it down. You get 8 little bowls of sides to share like kimchi, and diakon and fermented things that I was too chicken to try. But I ended up really loving my dinner. I've been looking up recipes to try and recreate it. 

Travis put lots of sauce and red pepper flakes on his. I added it at the end and it was awesome. I can't wait to go back! I can now say I'm a fan of Korean food. 

Booth Update!

It hasn't been a full month yet since I started reselling at the Tennessee Antique Mall, but we went by today so I could add a few more items so I thought I would update you.
So far I have sold 5 things. A vintage brooch, an 8mm reel, some crewel work, a vintage book called "This Is Our Parish", and something else that I can't remember now, haha! I'm pretty happy with that, especially since the summer is supposed to be slow. There is about a week until the end of the month and I'm not that far from making my rent at least, so we'll see how it goes. I'm wondering if the fact they my case is locked will affect sales. i went with a case because the smaller space seemed easier to start out with, but I know when I'm antiquing i will rarely ask for a case to be opened. It just seems like too much trouble. We'll see I guess.