The July Flea!

The July flea market was last weekend! I don't know if it was the fact that we're going to the World's Longest Yard Sale this weekend (you can see my posts about it last year here) or the fact that lots of the usual vendors weren't there, but I just wasn't feeling it as much this month. But I still saw some great stuff to share with you: 

Can you believe I resisted that poodle? It is one of those 3D ish hologram ones! I don't have many wall spaces left in my house, so I've gotten pickier.

My best buddies came with me of course. Thomas is coming with us to the yard sale too! I can't wait! Two more days!

 I hope someone buys all three and hangs them up in that exact order.

After I took this photo, the woman running the booth told me that I was the fourth person to take that same picture and she wondered why. Maybe it is because that head is CREEPY! I think it is the combo of the painted on features, missing nose, and rubbed off skin tone. She thought it might be the hat.

 Hmmmm, tempting. 

This vendor has had this awesome chair for over a year! I LOVE it so much, I can't believe it hasn't sold! If I had a place for it I would have picked it up by now. Maybe someday I'll have a great patio and need a vintage lounging chair.

I really love this sign too. Look at his tail! Now I wish I would have asked the price. It would look cute hanging in the pug's room!

 Travis was looking for one in his size. Cute. 

It was a nice day, a little hot but not sweltering. We kept seeing people with these cups of lemonade and it looked so good we couldn't resist!

 It was so good! Even if most of the cup was filled with ice. 

 Old metal letters. 

I got real excited when I thought these were old home movies. But they were old radio ads. Probably still good, but I don't have a player for them.

 I did this get reel of home movies! I'm kind of mad that I only got one! The vendor had a big box full. I wasn't sure what it would be (we've bought reels before, only to get them home and they turn out to be dirty movies! hah!) so I was cautious. It is awesome though! It's kind of hard to read, but this reel contains "My Birthday, also, dad's grandma's, paulie's 3rd, Xmas '55; Dixie's Broken Leg (Dixie is a dog! it's cute!) and more! We set up the projector a few nights ago and watched it, along with some of the home movies my Grandma gave me. I want to have an old home movie viewing party soon!

 I really loved these Beatle tie tack pins! I hadn't seen them before, and they were cute! I kind of wish the vendor was selling them individually, because I didn't want to blow our whole budget on one thing! I understand though. And I don't know if I could have picked which one!

 It wouldn't be the flea market if I didn't see some creepy cute taxidermy! 

 Even though we bought almost nothing, it was still fun to run around the fair grounds with Travis and Thomas. I really can't wait until this weekend!

After the flea we went to the Sunflower Cafe in Berry Hill! It is a kind of new mostly vegan restaurant. It is so good! I got the mock chicken salad wrap and some mushroom soup. Both were amazing.

Thomas and Travis both got sample platters. Look at all that beautiful food! They have a raw kale salad with currants and tahini dressing that is delicious! I never thought I would say that about raw kale.

I don't need to do a separate post to show you what I got at the flea because other than the reel and a few little restaurant soup bowls, this is all I got! There weren't even many vendors with photos this month. It was weird!

 My favorite is this guy with the budgie. 

Or maybe this one, where the guys appear to be hanging from the phone wire. 

Perfect Weekend Cabin!

I am going to be in a wedding this fall, and a few weekends ago we had a bridesmaids weekend in Camden, TN. That was exciting enough, but it was even better when we pulled up to this amazing retro cabin that has belonged to one of the other bridesmaid's families since the seventies! She said she thought it was built in the 50's and most of the furniture was in it when they bought it! You can't imagine how bummed I was when I realized I had left the battery to my camera at home. I almost didn't post these because they are cell phone pictures, but I can't resist! Just look at this place!

 Big beautiful windows facing the patio and the lake. 

 Look at that lamp! And those couches! 

 It was a very open layout and the space was maximized for sure. Look at the little kitchen! I didn't get a great shot of the pendant lights, but they were metal cylinders with punch outs. Perfection.

 There was a whole stack of these vintage plastic cups with metal handles. I loved them!

 Look at that van gogh over  the sink! And there is a little built in spice rack with vintage spice tins to the right of the sink. In the medicine cabinets there was even vintage medical supplies, not as a collection, they have just been there for years!

 Old metal cabinets!

 The vintage refrigerator is still in use of course. 

 Such a great front door. And the color choices! Amazing!

 I love these wicker head boards too. This was in the little bedroom. 

To the left is the vinyl pull out couch I slept on. It was so comfortable! I wish I had gotten a photo of the mattress on it. It had seriously beautiful illustrations of floral wreaths on it. Prettiest mattress I've ever seen!

 A chest full of extra sheets. That wood grain was printed cardboard, how cute!

 Close up on the curtains. They made the whole room orange in the morning, it was actually great.

 There were wooden cots to pull out too. It felt like we were at summer camp!

 Many veggie dogs were roasted. 

We never did swim off the dock though. It wasn't that hot (which is great!) so we mostly just ate and played games and laughed.

 Here were are presenting Dana (the beautiful bride!) with a gift! As one of our field trips we went to the freshwater pearl museum, and we bought her some pearl earrings that had been grown right there at the pearl farm to wear with her wedding dress! It was such a fun weekend. Made even better by that cabin! Can you imagine if that was your little vacation home?

My Favorite Vegan Treats!

Travis and I have been vegan for about 8 months now, and we're still loving it! We mostly eat "whole foods", you know, veggies and fruit and grains and stuff made from scratch. But there are some processed treats I really love. I thought it would be fun to do a little post about it! All of this stuff can be found at Whole Foods (and a lot of it at conventional stores) but most is of it is also available at Vegan Essentials.

So Delicous Coconut Milk Cultured Yogurt // I bought a package of this to make this bundt cake and boy am I glad I did! It tastes like delicious vanilla pudding! It is probably the best yogurt I've ever had. It is great in a smoothie, or you can make a fruit parfait. I don't buy it often because I know I would eat it non stop!
Vita Coco Coconut Water with Pineapple // It took me a long time to get on the coconut water train. Travis always drank the plain one, and it wasn't sweet enough for my sweet tea lovin' palette. But I can't get enough of the pine apple variety! I always get Travis to buy me one to sneak into the movies!
Ciao Bella Sorbet // I got a pint of the coconut variety once at Target because it was the only non dairy ice cream I could find. It is my favorite now though! It is creamy and amazing. The coconut is my favorite, but the other flavors are good too.
Go Raw Chocolate Super Cookies // These little things are addictive to me. And Travis doesn't like them, which is great because that means they last me a long time! They make a few varieties, but I always get the chocolate ones because they are so good.
Justin's Organic Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups// Another every once in a while treat. The peanut butter in the middle is really salty and goes perfectly with the dark chocolate! They are expensive though (a buck a cup) so I just get them occasionally when I need a treat. Justin's almond butter is my favorite too! They make little packets of nut butters which are great to throw in your back for a filling snack.
Earth Balance Vegan Popcorn // I'm not big on chips, but I LOVE popcorn. The Earth Balance bags are so delicious! There is a butter flavor too.

Barleans Omega Swirl // We sell this at my job, and I am so good at getting mom's to buy it for their kids! That omega swirl tastes SO GOOD! It is like candy! And the great thing about it is the emulsification process they use to give it the creamy smoothie texture makes it even easier for your body to process! Mmm, I could drink this stuff right out of the bottle (and sometimes I do!) but it's good in a smoothie too.
Rapunzel Vegan Vegetable Bouillon // I felt like a big dummy when I realized how cheap bouillon is compared to buying the pre-made veggie broth! Duhhh. We use this Rapunzel at least a few times a week because I make a lot of soup. I like that it doesn't have a ton of salt but adds great flavor.
Hemp Hearts // Another delicious source of omega 3s! Hemp hearts taste really good, kind of like a peanut. If they were bigger and easier to handle I would eat them as a snack all the time. I usually put them in my oatmeal in the morning. Yum.
Amazing Grass Green Super Food Chocolate Chip Coconut Bar // I go through cycles with different bars and this Amazing Grass one is my favorite right now.
Gardein BBQ Pulled Shreds // These BBQ shreds are SO DELICIOUS and all the places near me that carried then have stopped! It bums me out so much! I always loved BBQ sandwiches when we ate meat and this Gardein version is a great alternative!
Beyond Meat Chicken Free Strips // We don't eat many meat alternatives, but this new kind by Beyond Meat is really great! It is made with mainly soy protein, pea protein, and amaranth. They have three flavors but I like the lightly seasoned the best.

So there you have it! Do you have any vegan treats you really love that we need to try?

Currently

I had a root canal today. Half of my face is still numb and Travis wouldn't stop laughing at how it looks when I drank from a straw. Haha! I can't wait to regain feeling in my face! The actual precedure wasn't bad, except for a woman in another room SCREAMING! The hygienist told that woman was a huge drama queen, and they weren't even working on her while she was screaming. Haha! Now that I'm home my teeth really hurt. Ugh. I hope it will be better soon. Now I will listen to my mother and go in for my regular cleanings. 

While I'm stuck at home recuperating I thought I would fill one of these out: 

currently: 

reading: I'm still making it through the Game of Thrones series. I'm around 2300 pages in, with about 1200 to go! I still like it a lot! Next I want to read some more Neil Gaiman books. My "To Read stack is a little out of control, so no more new books, and no checking stuff out of the library until I make a dent!

watching: We are watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix. Have you seen it yet? It is fantastic! I wasn't so sure a Netflix original series would be worth watching but it totally is! We're also trying out the free trial of Amazon Prime and I've been watching old seasons of America's Next Top Model! Total guilty pleasure. Travis is NOT into it. 

thinking about: We are going to try and spend as little money as possible for the next month. Well, other than going to the world's longest yard sale again. That means no nights at the movies and no eating out 4 time a week!  It will be an experiment for sure. 

anticipating: Our trip to California at the end of August! I just confirmed that Richard Simmons WILL be in town while we're there. So we are definitely be taking a class with him! Ah! That is at the top of my already exciting list of things to do while we're on the west coast. 

listening too: Mostly podcasts, as usual. How Did This Get Made and Who Charted are still my favorites. 

working on: cleaning out our front room. I keep saying I'm going to take pictures of it to share, but it's too embarrassing! It is full of boxes from when we moved, stuff from my parents house I haven't opened in 5+ years and tons of vintage finds. Travis has been making me go through boxes and throw lots of stuff away, so hopefully we'll have a useable room by the end of the summer!

loving: Our little nephew Ellis! Isn't this a sweet picture? Baby Ellis looks a lot like Travis did when he was a baby! They even have the same widow's peak. I can't wait to go visit him again. 

And then a Louisville morning

We slept in too late Saturday morning because we forgot to set our phones ahead an hour. Good thing the place I was excited about serves breakfast all day! There aren't a lot of places with vegan breakfast options, other than oatmeal, so I was so happy to go to Earth Friend's Cafe! I got a panini with vegan cream cheese, pecans, and strawberries. It was out of this world good!

 They also serve San Pellegrino which I LOVE! We never keep it at home because I would drink 10 a day, but it is a fun treat when we're out. The blood orange is my favorite!

 Travis got the EFC Breakfast Burrito with seitan and avacado and I forget what else. He was scarfing it too fast for me to get a good photo, but he said it was great. We'll definitely will be back next time we're in town. The breakfast was so good, I bet the sandwiches and wraps are good too!

We also found out that our favorite store has a second location! And it happened to be the weekend of Lebowskifest! I wish we had known before, I would have planned to be in town at a time where we could have gone to some of the events!

 We did get to see the Lebowski art show, as if I couldn't love this store any more! I would love to have  that big painting in the middle. Isn't it amazing?

 Or that wood burn portrait!

 Travis lobbied hard for this Log Jammin' painting, but we are saving for our trip, so I said no. 

I did come home with a shirt though. I probably have 12 shirts from their shop. They are all designed by local artists and screen printed in house and are amazing! I really wish there was a Nashville version of this shop.

 And then, last but definitely not least! The whole reason we were in Kentucky! Travis' brother and his wife had a baby last week! Our first nephew! I have been so excited since they told us they were pregnant last December. How cool is it that I'm going to see this little dude grow up? We hung out with them for a few hours, I held him and tried not to freak out (I've only held two other babies in my LIFE) and we made Travis kiss him. We also took him to his first restaurant! He was very impressed by Mellow Mushroom, you can be sure.

 Welcome to the world Ellis! We can't wait to come see you again! 

We left in the early afternoon, listened to more Game of Thrones in the car, and got the pugs from our friend who was watching them for us. It was a whirlwind trip to be sure, but a great one.