Say It Ain't So

Sling time again!

2012-02-10T13:28:00.000-06:00

The weather has been so good lately! So good that I made Travis go on a walk with me and girls. We pulled out the ole dog sling and I made a big fuss over them, as usual. And took a ton of photos.

Phyllis actually walked most of the way. She was running as fast as she could! I think the sun felt good on her bad joints. That and she has been getting her joint supplements again. I think they are really making a difference for her.

We put Priscilla in the sling for the first time! She loved it! She is so weird on walks. I'm not sure if she can smell or not, but she doesn't sniff anything, or go to the bathroom the whole time she's on the leash. Such a weirdo.

Phyllis will tolerate us fawning over her and making her little paw wave.
Priscilla doesn't like it though. No kisses for this girl. I sneak them in sometimes though.

I'm almost sorry for the sling picture spam. Almost. It is just so darn adorable!

Nashville Puppet Theater!

2012-02-08T16:49:00.000-06:00

When we went to the Nashville Library the other day we went to look at the puppet theater. it is for kids, but we came to see their Alice in Wonderland production a few years ago and it was great! My favorite part was the displays of vintage puppets. Look how cute!

I can't even pick a favorite in this case!
Tom Tichenor
I love the pearly eyes and the eye lashes on that monkey!

Beautiful royal bears.

And this was made by Wayne White (who i was just posting about!) and some students from a local art school. The eyes rolled around if you turned the crank. So cute.

Photo an hour attempt

2012-02-06T16:15:00.000-06:00

I love it when bloggers do a photo an hour post, so I decided to try it last week. I didn't do a very good job keeping up with it. But I'm going to post it anyway!

10 AM

I crawled out of bed super late, then spent an hour on the couch looking at blogs. Chloe was staying with us. She loves to be wrapped in blankets. It is so freaking cute. I got that afghan at an estate sale last month. I LOVE it.

11 AM

Get ready to leave the house. Look at that audience! Priscilla isn't looking the right way, since she is blind. And check out Murray trying to decide if he wants to jump on the bed too!

11:30Grab an Ale8 for the road. we bought a TON of these while we were in Louisville, my favorite drink!
12 PMPick up our passes for universal! As you are reading this I'll probably be drinking a butter beer and petting a hippogriff. I'm SO EXCITED.
1 PMWent to get my arm measured. Getting more work next month!
2 PMPotty break.
2:15Discover that Chloe's owner left this long sweater in her bag. LOOKIT THAT TURTLENECK!
2:30Attention hogs. You can see Phyllis, but she was on my lap.3:00Kill time at the library with Crystal. Looking for animal patterns.
How fun!
Checked out this book, obviously.
7 PMDon't take pictures for a while. We picked up Marc and his son and went to Chuy's. Ate about 6,000 tortilla chips. And got the tres leches cake. AMAZING. We actually ended up eating out with Crystal and Marc three times in five days! I have been in vacation mode for a whole week!

2012-02-05T16:11:00.000-06:00

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you just CAN'T clean up? That blue dicky has been sitting on the kitchen table for 3 weeks! I feel like it is haunting me.

Scampi loves it though. She has so many things to lay on! And check out that audio book with the kitten on the front. Travis checked it out of the library for our road trip! I can't wait to listen to it!

Collection 8: Vintage Dogs

2012-02-04T15:30:00.000-06:00

I am a sucker for anything related to dogs, always have been. Not including my collection of vintage pictures of dogs, I have little dog figurines all over my house. One of my favorite things is that dog picture on the right. It is actually a cut out mounted on craft paper. I love his jaunty bowler and the monocle.

This paint by number was actually found by Travis at a thrift store. it is so perfect!

I have had these Dalmatians as long as I can remember. I tried to find out how old they were online, but could only find info on a similar set that was produced in the 1960's. Mine aren't that old. I think they are probably from the 80's, and my grandma probably got them for me since she lives close to Disney. I used to play with them a lot when I was little. I especially loved putting them in my mom's nativity scene. I found our recently that there are two more puppies, so I am on the lookout!

I got this little dachshund salt shaker for a buck at an antique mall recently. I wish I had the pair!

I love the little dogs with the pink flowers on their chests! I've tried to find more info about them online as well, but came up empty handed.

Here is Scout coming to see where my cat stuff is. I really don't have that much, isn't that shameful?

I love surprise parties!

2012-02-02T11:14:00.000-06:00

Like I said, the reason we were in Louisville was to celebrate Travis' brother's 30th birthday. His wife Laura had planned a surprise party! It was so fun. It was set up in the upstairs of a restaurant called Mark's Feed Store.

They got him there by telling him it was fundraiser for a mission trip for their church. I loved the fake flyers on the doors. Laura and her mom are such good hostesses! They put together an amazing wedding, and always give really thoughtful gifts! I sometimes wish Jordan and Laura lived a little closer to us, they are so fun.

Jordan was totally surprised! It was awesome.

We played a fun game where everyone wrote down a memory of Jordan. They were almost all hilarious. Jordan had to guess who wrote each one. I think that is such a fun idea for a birthday party.

We had ice cream cake, and cake pops, and Travis and I both ordered ice cream. SO MUCH FOOD that day! And it wasn't over yet.

After the party we wanted to go to Hammerheads, but it was closed! Such a bummer! I need to have truffle fries again. We ended up at Impellizzeri's and had some pretty delicious pizza.

Then after lots of laughs, we headed home. I felt like I needed to do a cleanse after that weekend. We ate out 5 times in 48 hours! Blarg! So gluttonous! So awesome!

Lynn's Paradise Cafe!

2012-02-01T14:00:00.000-06:00

Last weekend Travis and I headed up to Louisville, Kentucky to celebrate his brother's 30th birthday. We left early so we could eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Lynn's Paradise Cafe!

The fog was crazy! It was so gloomy and sad the whole way up there. Thankfully there weren't many cars on the road. We listened to an audiobook (which I recommend) the whole way. That makes the trip go so fast!

Lynn's! It was packed so we had a little wait. But I didn't mind because there is a bunch of stuff to look at, and they have a fun little shop. There was a little notebook that looked like an order pad that you can write about restaurants you go to! I wanted it! But travis said I could just use a regular notebook. Party pooper.

I can't resist these kinds of things! I wish I knew their technical name. I think the pancake is my favorite. I need to make a scrapbook full of just pictures of us with our heads in things.

They have these fun games at the tables. There are all kinds of little plastic things in those beads for you to find. We never could find the bathing suit.

I got a veggie plate. Garlic mashed potatoes, herb braised lima beans (!!!!), baked apples, and macaroni and cheese casserole. That might have been my favorite. It was so so delicious! Travis had to help me finish my plate, I could barely eat half of it.

Travis got the BLT home fries. Without the bacon of course. So it is homefries sauteed with onions, tomatoes and spinach. Then covered in cheese and a fried egg. YUM.
Oh man, look at that! So perfect.

According to Travis' brother Lynn's isn't cool anymore, but I LOVE it. The dining room is full of kitsch, the food is good, there are things to pose with...my kind of place.

Gratuitous Pug Photos

2012-01-31T11:16:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it has been a MONTH since I posted a picture of my girls? Absolutely shameful! So here are some gratuitous pug photos from our walk the other day. The weather has been so beautiful!

they actually love when we do this.

Lookit that thing! Gosh, I just love them so much!

A Family Heirloom

2012-01-30T13:30:00.000-06:00

I've come to my last bit of vintage that Travis' Grandma Betty gave to me, and I saved the most special for last! The ring below was her mother's wedding ring. A few years ago my engagement ring got broken at work. Since then I haven't wanted to wear my wedding ring to work because I'm afraid of it getting broken too. So I have gotten out of the habit of wearing a ring at all. I had been wanting to get a plain band to wear. This is so much more special than any band I could have picked up.
This is a photo of Betty and her family. Her mother's name is Annie Mary Huckabay Jordan.
The inside of the ring says "wedding belles"
I love that my ring not only symbolizes my love and commitment to Travis, but belonged to his great grandmother. That is one of the reasons I love vintage so much. The items I collect and fill my home with have a story that started long before I was even born.

Hometown Date

2012-01-28T12:55:00.000-06:00

Here is the rest of our date day, after we left the estate sale we went for brunch at Puckett's in downtown Franklin. It is a meat and three, it is pretty good, if a little expensive.

Travis got the buffet. They had apple spice french toast that was AMAZING.

I didn't want to overeat so I ordered eggs and hash browns. I barely ate any of the hash browns, i was so full! They are really good though, I love the scallions on them. I got my eggs over medium as usual and they were great.

Then we went to a Goodwill we rarely go to. I found a dutch hex sign, and two books. There wasn't really anything else that even tempted me. What a bummer.

We saw this cute little dude outside though. He looks like an ewok! His face reminded me of Phyllis.

Then Travis forced me to go to the library to get an audiobook for our road trip the next day. I HATE going to the downtown library. There are men looking at bikini pictures on pretty much ALL of the computers and it creeps me out. Also, I don't like going without a plan for what I want to look for. I hate just standing there staring at the shelves. I'm such a nerd, you would think I loved the library, haha. Usually I send Travis with a list. He loves it and goes all the time.

Look at these dorks in their matching shoes.
Then we went and saw this movie!!

I loved it! The book is really good, so if you are interested in reading it, I would wait to see the movie, because the pacing of the book is just fantastic. Everything unfolds just perfectly. It is one of the best books I've read in the last few years. But I think they did a really good job with the movie. The kid actor is wonderful. I bet I cried 6 times. I even though Sandra Bullock was really good, and I'm usually not a fan of her.

After the movie we picked up burritos, then went home and hung out with the dogs on the couch. We're dog sitting the dachshund Chloe again this week so there were actually three dogs laying on me. Heavenly. It was a pretty perfect day off.

Estate Sale Report!

2012-01-27T11:35:00.000-06:00

Travis and I have been avoiding estate sales and the thrifts so far this year to save a little money for our trip to the Wizarding World. But when my friend Lauren hit me up and asked if I was going to this sale in Franklin I couldn't resist. And bonus, Travis had the whole day off too!

Digging through books. This was the second day so the house was pretty picked over. I loved that little bed, I thought about getting it for Phyllis to sleep in, but they wanted too much for it. Oh lordy, look at that wallpaper! Here is a close up!

I liked the curtains too.
Sweet stuffed tiger, left behind in the top of a closet.
I didn't buy this, if you can believe it. Haha.
We ended up spending 6 bucks, and here is what we got.

I am a big Julie Andrews fan, so I couldn't resist these records. I'm regretting not picking up the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana brass box set!

Travis says he is going to cook us some french bread on this! I'm excited!

Sequined felt. I think it is for a mantle. You know I can't resist glittery Christmas. They actually had an awesome mid-century looking santa wall hanging (what tempted me to the sale in the first place) but the face was stained really darkly in weird patterns.

Pretty metallic partridge in a pear tree paper. I'm not sure what I want to do with it.
And of course, more vintage Christmas. I can't pass it up. I am also a sucker for crochet pot holders.
I LOVE this holly santa with the spun cotton head.
This silly little bird is so sweet. Look at those pipe cleaner wings!
And my favorite find might be this decorated matchbox. Felt and sequins. So lovely.

Best gift ever?

2012-01-26T10:32:00.000-06:00

I almost forgot to post about one of my Christmas gifts. Which happens to be one of my favorite gifts I have ever gotten! My friend Marc, who is married to my best friend Crystal made it for me! I have looked at this pug wall hook for a while, but always thought where would I hang it? And I didn't love the chrome color. They were actually selling them at a local store. Well imagine my surprise when I opened my gift and found one, but made 1000x better by the paint job Marc gave it! Sugar skull pug!It is just perfect.
I love it from every angle. I think my favorite part is the eyelashes.
Or maybe the bones on the neck.
I'm pretty much obsessed with it. I can't decide where to hang it. It is in the dining room right now.

Some other awesome gifts I got. I told you about that lion from Dana. But that sweet horse bookend was given to me by my friend Brittany. I love the gifts she gives me every year. We frequent one of the same antique malls and she always buys me something I talked myself out of buying because I don't need to spend money on myself near Christmas. I swear, I almost bought that little dude at least 3 times. I'm so happy he is mine now!

My other gift from Crystal and Marc was this great paint by number. I love the teal sky! Another piece for my western guest room!

Nerd Alert: Reality TV Edition!

2012-01-24T15:31:00.000-06:00

A fact about me that you may be surprised to learn, I'm a sucker for cheesy reality tv. That is the main reason we don't have cable. Once while dog sitting for my aunt I sat through an entire season of Rock of Love. So shameful, and so fun. Needless to say, when my friend Donny let me know he was going to be on a reality dating show on CMT I was STOKED! The show started last week. I had never heard of it before, but apparently it is a huge hit for the channel. The premise is a country girl gets wooed by country boys and city guys. So cheesey, so awesome. I went to the viewing party last week. It was really fun! Every time Donny was on tv we all screamed.

There he is! Ahh! I have had so much fun asking him all about his reality tv experience. How do the interviews work? What do you do all day? Do they show you clips to help you remember what you were feeling at a certain time? Was it terrible sleeping in a bunk bed? Is that guy really a tool? It is a dream come true.

I work with Donny, so here I am with some of the girls from my department getting our fan picture.

I had to make sure Travis got a picture too. This one cracks me up every time I look at it. Especially since the angle makes it looks like Travis has the biggest head on earth. I went to the viewing party again this week, but Donny wasn't featured in the episode that much so it wasn't quite as fun.

After the show was over we went with my friend Marcie and her husband Elliot to Waffle House. Marcie had never been, which is crazy!

So excited!

They got a new jukebox. I've been coming to this Waffle House since I was a little kid and it was kind of sad! Thankfully they still have the Waffle House themed songs. My favorite is "Special Lady (Waitin' Only at the Waffle House)". Play it next time you are there and think of me while you eat your scattered, smothered, and covered hash browns.

I got my usual. Covered hash browns, toast, and over medium eggs. It wasn't their finest hour, but it was still greasy and good.
I would say the experience was a success. Marcie got a waffle and loved it. Thank goodness.

Almost like it was made for me

2012-01-23T14:02:00.000-06:00

Here is my second to last post about the great vintage I got from Grandma Betty. Look at this gorgeous couple! I really love Bruce's hairstyle. Travis could probably wear his like that, his hair is curly too.

I don't know how we missed this quilt the first time we went to Grandma Betty's house. Travis' mom said it was like someone made it just for me. If only it was big enough to put on my bed!

Here are my favorite squares: Cute boston!
Little red squirrel.
Sweet pink bunny.
I love the camel's fez!
Sweet baby bear drinking a bottle.

Collection 7: Dream Pets

2012-01-21T15:09:00.000-06:00

This is a collection I started by accident! And I'm not sure how all the Dream Pets (and Dream Pet like things) I have turned out to be red. I have a red elephant also that I couldn't find when I was taking these pictures. Here is what is says about dream pets on Wikipedia:

"Dream Pets are collectable miniature stuffed animals, made of velveteen and filled with Willow sawdust, manufactured in Japan beginning in 1957 by Japanese toy designers Tochigi Mongi and Tomy for R. Dakin & Co. The manufacturer surprised Dakin by using these little toys as packing material for a shipment of battery operated toy trains. Which Dakin had ordered. That same day The president of Dakin, Roger Dakin placed an order by cable to Japan for 25 dozen of the little velveteen toys, by the end of the day he changed his order to 300 dozen.By 1961 Dream Pets were being designed by Dakin's Senior toy designer Virginia Kemp in the United States. The toys became popular, and by the end of 1979 there were over 2000 different characters. In 1995 Dakin merged with The Applause Toy Co. Applause Toys re-issued copies of 24 of the vintage Dream Pets in 2004."

These four deer are the first ones I bought. I got them at one of my favorite antique malls last Christmas. I'm not sure if they are actually Dream Pets or just made in that style. They are only labeled with "Japan". But they are super cute. I love the little bells on their chests.

These two are actual Dream Pets. The lion was a gift from my good friend Dana! She sent it to me this Christmas. He is so perfect! I love his eye lashes and sleepy face. The deer is another antique store find.

Here is the real Dream Pets label. And look at that sweet fuzzy tail!

These two don't have any kind of tag, it looks like it was cut off of them. I got them at The Antique Castle in Sevierville. One is missing an antler, but I still think they are sweet.

As you can see, Murray was very helpful while I was taking pictures of this collection. I love them so much! I'm not putting them away with the Christmas decorations this year, I'm looking for a good spot to display them year round. Looks like I'm officially collecting dream pets. I'll try to stick to just red.

Vintage for Kids

2012-01-20T09:29:00.000-06:00

I'm almost done with the vintage that I got from Travis' grandmother Betty. Here are some more great pictures of her that I got from Travis' brother. I really love that first one. I'm not sure which of her sons that is. Look at her great dresses!

She saved two vintage puzzles for me. It kills me that this United States isn't quite complete! It is so cute. Look at the shape of Florida! Haha. The colors are great. I'm going to frame it.

I love the little cotton symbols.

She also gave me this Lone Ranger one. I really wish it was closer to being complete! It would look so great in my western room (still in the planning stages).

Travis found a big box of read and hear records. Including 101 Dalmations, my childhood obessession.
I think the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea cover the best.

I also got this diaper stacker. I LOVE the fabric on it. I can't decide if the bear with the fancy hat or the pink bunny is my favorite.

Allright, I've got two more treasures to share with you from Grandma Betty. They are two of my best finds ever!

Beauty Is Embarrassing

2012-01-19T13:14:00.000-06:00

I am SO EXCITED to see this movie. It is a documentary about Wayne White! Not only did he graduate from my alma mater, he was the set designer for Pee Wee's Playhouse! Among other things. Seriously, watch the trailer, you are going to love it!
Pee Wee's Playhouse was a HUGE influence on me as a child. Wayne White did a bunch of the puppets and was the voice of Randy. He also was a designer on Riders in the Sky and Beakman's World, which I also loved. Now he is mostly known for these incredible word paintings that he does over vintage landscape reproductions.

I love the part in the trailer where he says "My mission is to bring humor to fine art."

"Heinies n Shooters w/Hotties at Hooters"

All these images are from his website. I looked through ALL the galleries, cackling and annoying Travis the whole time.

He came and spoke at a student design event when I was in school. I remember it being hilarious and completely inspiring. Which I needed to be reminded of.

This year one of my goals is to be creative again. You probably don't know, but I have a B.F.A. in graphic design. I graduated in 2008 and after a brutal job search that ended with lots of rejection I pretty much gave up and lost all confidence in my creative abilities. I started college as a painting major and it has been years since I've even thought about painting. And it is a shame because I always loved it. So I'm going to take some inspiration from Wayne White and try to make art again. Even if I never show it to anyone. Art doesn't need to be serious, and it doesn't always have to be perfect. I'm going to try and remember that. We'll see how it goes.

Poor Pitiful Scampi

2012-01-17T15:51:00.000-06:00

As usual, when we are trying to be really frugal and save some money, someone ends up at the vet. This time it was Scampi. She suddenly developed some really gross scabs all down her back! They suspect a flea allergy (I don't give them flea prevention in the winter since the cats are indoor only). So she got a steroid shot and some antibiotics and we've got to buy 5 doses of flea stuff. Pets sure can be expensive! But it is worth it of course. Look at that pretty face!

We've been looking but haven't seen any fleas yet. Let's hope we don't!

I love curious kitties. Whenever I pull out the chairs around the dining room table they all have to come in and climb all over them.

More vintage from Betty!

2012-01-16T17:34:00.000-06:00

Here is another post about the vintage I got from Travis' Grandma Betty. Here is another great picture of Betty, her husband Bruce, and their first son Keith at the Memphis zoo in 1955! I love her dress. And Keith's cowboy hat is pretty cute.

A cute vintage stocking, some ornaments made from pipe cleaners and plastic canvas, some kids books. My vintage kid book collection is getting pretty huge. I need to find a place to store them! I have plans for that vase, I want to do something like this vintage bird collection. I've been saving all the vintage millenary birds I can find.

This was part of her mother's sewing box. It is so pretty. I put ornaments in it at Christmas. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. It is up on our mantle. I love it.

Cute little gnome planters!

And it was my lucky day because I have been looking for some back of fun magazines! Grandma Betty had a whole stack! I also got a few books about crochet and sewing projects that use scraps.

The R2D2 and C3PO might be my favorite.
And this cover is pretty much perfect. I feel like I need to learn to knit so I can make this. And get a taxidermy squirrel.

Collection 7: Vintage Planters

2012-01-14T16:04:00.000-06:00

I really love vintage plants. I always have a big plan for what I'm going to plant in them, but I have a black thumb. I haven't been able to keep anything alive yet. Four of these planters were given to me by Travis when we were dating. He always knew the way to my heart.

This Napcoware fox from Japan is my favorite. I bought him at an antique mall in Murfreesboro around 2006. He would look so pretty with a little maiden hair fern.
I've featured this kitty before. I need to get a little cactus for his tail!

I found a bull and a horse that matched this donkeyat a thrift recently, but they had been broken and glued back together badly. This guy is going in my western room after I put a cactus in his saddle.

The duck and pink elephant live on my vintage radio in the dining room, and the boot with the squirrel on the toe lives in my craft room. The unicorn lives on a bookshelf. Since I took this picture I have accumulated a few more, including some pretty lady head vases. I will try to resist getting anymore until I actually start using them. Anyone have any good resources to teach you about how to keep succulent alive? I had some before, but I think I was overzealous with my watering.

Blog Redesign!

2012-01-13T13:25:00.000-06:00

You may have noticed that I redesigned my blog! I decided to make a post about it so that I can look back later and see what I did. I want to make a cute banner for the links at the top but I haven't taken the time to figure that out yet. I have been talking about doing this redesign since October. But I would rather spend time reading the hundreds of blogs I follow (it's a sickness, I swear) than messing around with my own. I kept it simple, and used my favorite colors. I want to find a way to make my blog banners look cuter over there, and get a better picture of my face but other than that I'm happy! Now I'm going through all my tags and cleaning them up. It is taking forever because I just start reading all the entries. That is what I love most about blogging, looking back and seeing so clearly what I was doing and thinking years ago.

1000 Pugs!

2012-01-12T14:03:00.000-06:00

I have signed Phyllis and Priscilla up for 1000 pugs and I am so SO excited about it! My pug friends probably already know all about it, but if not, let me tell you how awesome it is!Amanda is a pet photographer (DREAM JOB) and she runs the blog The Daily Puglet, which is one of my favorite pug blogs! Her photos are so great. She decided that she was going to raise $10,000 for pug rescues this year by traveling around the country, taking photos of 1000 pugs and then turning the photos into a book. She is going to be in Atlanta in April and i was determined to get a spot so my ladies can be in the book! And so I can get a sweet portrait of them. Look at this one! Kills me!!I really can't wait! And I can't wait for her to blog about the process. So many sweet pugs. She has a Kickstarter page too, so even if you aren't close enough to book your pug for a shoot, you can participate.

Family Vintage

2012-01-11T15:59:00.000-06:00

We went to Missouri again in December for my husband's family Christmas. While we were there we got to go back to Grandma Betty's house and pick up some more great vintage stuff! I also got to see this picture:

Which is pretty incredible. That is Travis' dad on the right, OBVIOUSLY. The little dude is Brian, and apparently those circles on his hat are sunglasses when you flip the bill down. And check out Betty's purse! I really love this photo.

Here is a little bit of the stuff I got, I'll have a do a few posts! There is a McCoy planter back there, and awesome art deco frame in the front, and some more vintage napkins! I put those in my lunch box every day. It is better than throwing out paper towels all the time, and they are just so pretty!

I have been wanting one of these cute rainbow polaroids for a while, but couldn't find one at a good price. Meant to be!
Awesome cup. I'm going to use this to decorate with at Halloween.

Amazing old photo album that says "Bruce Cole, Age 13". That is Travis' grandpa! Sadly most of the pictures had been taken out. I wonder what they were! The patch is from the high school in Hayti.

Some great little things. Such a cute bunny pin. And the cotton pendant! And I picked up that gold tube and wasn't sure what it was....then I opened it and....

Fancy toothbrush for your purse! It twirls up like a lipstick. I wish there was an easy way to replace the brush. That would be so handy to have in your bag!

I also got a big bowl of Christmas lights and little Christmas balls in a bunch of different sizes. I used a LOT of them to make my Kitschmas wreath. I got them at the perfect time! I can't wait to show you the rest of the stuff we got to pick up! There is one extra special item that deserves its own purse.

The Addams Family: The Musical.

2012-01-10T11:15:00.000-06:00

We are big Addams Family fans around here. I've probably seen both movies over 20 times each. Travis has one Addams inspired tattoo, and it going to start on the second soon. We love the show. We love the comics. We hated the board game, but saved the pieces to use as decoration. So when a customer came through Travis' register at work at offered us free tickets to the Addams Family Musical at TPAC we were super excited! Our best friends Crystal and Marc happened to be available also, so we all went together.

And in case you happen to be an Addams fan as well, I feel like I must warn you.

IT WAS TERRIBLE! Talk about disappointment. The curtain rose on a cool graveyard scene and the opening number was great and we were giddy (well, at least Crystal and I were) with excitement! But it just got worse and worse. It felt like we were watching a terrible Disney Channel movie, the characters just happened to be the Addams Family.

I DID like the Addams ancestors. I love the idea of an elaborate costume, with all the pieces being white so you are a ghost. I might use that for my halloween costume this year! There was a great number (one of only three I liked) where Morticia sings "Death Is Just Around the Corner" while dancing with the ghosts and a Death figure. But almost every other song was awful. There were tons of pop culture jokes (Charlie Sheen? Really?) but almost none of the silly macabre humor that the Addams are known for. I just don't understand how the show is popular (and the audience we saw it with seemed to love it). The curtain was really cool though.

The main story line is Wednesday is in love with a "normal' boy and wants her family to behave and not scare him off at a dinner. She basically acts like a brat for the whole play, with no characteristics you would expect out of Wednesday Addams. She GIGGLES and SQUEALS and runs around, and almost every interaction between her and her love interest is a fight, so you can't even understand why they are in love. Morticia and Gomez even fight for half of the play, which is just so wrong. Their extreme devotion is one of the things you love about them!

One hilarious moment was when a cousin It puppet makes an appearance at the start of the second act. The way the crowd reacted you would have though some huge star was making a surprise cameo. The cheers and screams went on for probably two minutes!

There is a random secondary storyline about Fester being in love with the moon. That provides the other song that was actually fun, even though it seems really out of place during the play. It involved some puppet legs that made me cry with laughter.So in conclusion, if you love the Addams Family and see this play is coming to town, avoid it. It is not the Addams Family that you love. It is a super cheesy (and not in a good way) musical. I would have been SO pissed if we had bought the tickets. We did have fun singing "Full Disclosure" the rest of the night. That song ends the first act. And is terrible.And speaking of terrible, there was a "photobooth"set up with a girl to take your picture with the Addams family cut out. She wouldn't let anyone take their own picture, just kept insisting that you could see your picture on Facebook the next day. Here is the one she posted of us:Hahah! I can't stop laughing about how bad it is! And she took FOREVER looking through the viewfinder and lining everything up. What the heck!

Lazy Days

2012-01-09T14:34:00.000-06:00

Even though I've been really busy, January always seems slow and lazy to me. Lots of sleeping in when I can, bundling up on the couch, rearranging stuff around the house.
Rereading the same old books. I'm on my third this week.
If you had told me even a year ago that my bed would be covered in 6 kinds of floral patterns I would have said you were crazy. Isn't it funny how things can change?
I'm really looking forward to the days getting longer. Even though I get off work by 3 most days, it is usually dark by the time I get home. Which doesn't make me feel productive at all. How do you beat the winter blahs?

A Winter Estate Sale

2012-01-07T13:25:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to avoid estate sales as of late. I'm saving for our trip to the wizarding world so I haven't even been look at listings. But I did make it out to this one before my self inflicted ban. Look at this great house!

Inside it was PACKED full. And I went on the fourth day. I can't even imagine what awesome stuff they must have had on the first day. I had to go to work so I didn't get to dig as much as I would have liked. What a bummer.

I couldn't resist this. There was something about it I just had to have. I love the light on the top.
There were PILES and PILES of blankets and afghans. I was good and only got one, a long thin one in almost rainbow stripes. The upstairs was just full of boxes upon boxes of stuff. Oh if only I had a whole day to go through them.
Since it was the last day they were almost giving stuff away. Travis found some 8MM films, we were really excited because we have been looking for some for our projector! But let's just say they weren't the wholesome family movies we were hoping to find. Hahah.
Do you ever want to buy stuff like cute boxes and packaging? Don't worry. I didn't buy this old box even though I LOVED it. This was in the second garage. I walked in to find about 6 feet of boxes piled up. I said "Oh my god!" and the woman who was digging through the stuff was like "I have heard that about 15 times in the last thirty minutes." I was pushing it with getting to work on time, so I had to leave with just an awesome vintage garland (25 cents!!). I don't even want to think about the vintage goodies that had to have been in that garage!
These clocks are from a different sale the same day.
Look at how cute those graphics are! I really love them. I haven't been able to find out much about it online. It has a spring on the bottom so it probably had something cute dangling from it originally.
I've got a little collection of this style of clocks now. I just can't resist.
These pins were from another sale that day. They were together on a table and I asked the guy at the cash box how much they wanted, thinking at least 5 bucks each. And he said "How about a dollar for them all?" and I could hardly pull my dollar out fast enough! That made up for the fact that the amazing ornaments I had gone to the sale for were gone. I got my tree skirt at this sale too. It was great.
Oh, looking at these pictures makes me want to pull up estatesales.net! I must resist!

28 Day Detox

2012-01-06T17:35:00.000-06:00

Travis and I have been doing the Whole Living 28 day detox after I read about it on Robbie's blog, Knitcore. We haven't been super strict on the meal plan because Travis has been sick, but I have been having my breakfast and lunch off of their recipe list every day. And I've mostly been having another smoothie for dinner, since I don't like cooking a complicated meal for just myself. I've actually really been enjoying it! Here are my favorite recipes so far. The pictures are from the Whole Living site, obviously.Antioxidant SmoothieKinda sour and really awesome.
Carrot, Mango, Herb SmoothieI've been using mint as my herb. I love carrot juice, and this is a really good smoothie.
Spiced Butternut Squash and Apple SoupThis soup is incredible! I was worried I would hate it but I was so wrong! I had it for lunch three days in a row and haven't gotten tired of it yet. I'll definitely keep making this soup once the detox is over.
Dried Fruit and Nut BitesThese are a really tasty snack. I used raisins and dried cranberries as my fruit and they didn't hold together well, next time I'll use dates.
Cranberry-Pumpkin Seed Trail MixReally delicious trail mix.
So I've been doing a smoothie for breakfast, trail mix for a snack, soup for lunch, then some fruit balls once I get home. It has actually been surprisingly satisfying and I haven't been starving all day like I thought I would be. I can definitely cut out the almost daily muffins I was in a habit of eating last year. The reason I wanted to do this detox was to force myself to try lots of vegetables I haven't before, and make some dishes that don't rely on cheese or bread to be awesome. So far it is working. I'll let you know how I feel in two weeks!

2011 in Review: The Final Post!

2012-01-05T23:08:00.001-06:00

All right, I finally finished going through pictures for my year in review! Here is our final installment:

Dog Day in the park / the flea market was awesome / spent the afternoon in the backyard with the pugs / helped style a vintage Christmas photoshoot / got to hang out with my brother's puppy / went to Missouri to celebrate Grandma Betty's 80th!
Dog stroller! / More flea marketing / decorated for Halloween for the first time in years / helped my friend build the perfect Seymour Krelborn costume / Pugtoberfest / pumpkin patching with my mom / Dia de los Meurtos / last minute witch costume
BFF vacation in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge / Hiking in the Smokies / Knoxville / Magiquest / Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum / Meeting Raja
Awesome estate sale / lots of Christmas decorating / Crafting ornaments / making a wreath / fawning over my aluminum tree all month long.
And I had to post a few of my favorite finds of the year:
Cute dog art / really great paint by number / prettiest mint working sewing machine / new daruma collection / our velvety sofa bed / a great stash of vintage linens / JR Deluxe Collection / My perfect tree / free pink toilet!

I after looking through all these, i must confess I had a pretty awesome year. Even if some plans had to get pushed to the back burner, and we had lots of unexpected expenses. And I can't believe we just got Priscilla this year! It feels like we have had her forever. So here is hoping I can have a fantastic 2012 too! Here are some things I'm looking forward too:

3 day merchandising trip for work (seriously, i LOVE merchandising)

the wizarding world in February

our TEN YEAR dating anniversary!

hopefully participating in 1000 pugs

Boca Raton beach trip

Disney World in December (this is my florida year apparently)

Seeing a lot of my family I don't see often at a wedding soon

and I'm sure a million more fun things will come my way!

Thanks for reading my blog this year!

Best find ever?

2012-01-04T16:32:00.002-06:00

Jamie over at Owl Really contacted me recently. I am so excited because not only does she have a great blog with tons of lovely vintage, she lives just a mile or two away from me and has a great booth at one of the antique malls I frequent! She asked me to tell her about one of my best thrift finds ever, so head over to her blog to check it out!

Spoiler Alert! I told he about this amazing thing!

I really can't believe I haven't ever posted about it here. It is Travis' pride and joy. I had to post this photo in case you wanted to see how big it was compared to a pug.

Year In Review: Part Two

2012-01-02T20:57:00.000-06:00

Here is the second part of my year in review. Isn't it funny how much you forgot happened in the last year? So much of this seems so long ago!
Crystal and I got the same glasses / There were tons of huge storms and one knocked over the big tree in our backyard / crazy cicada time happened (i hardly went outside all month!) / we celebrated our 3 wedding anniversary / phyllis and priscilla were the cutest things in the world

helped with a photoshoot and held baby bunnies / road trip to st. louis / pez convention / city museum / st. louis zoo and akc dog museum / bought a sling for phyllis
went to pugs in the park then forgot about the gatherings for the rest of the year / ate my first kinder egg all the way from new zealand / had pizza buds for the first time and died of deliciousness / saw harry and the potters twice / hosted a wizard's feast / cried a river at the last harry potter movie / celebrated fourth of july playing games with friends / my hair was the longest it has been in 10 years! / got my septum pierced (it feel out and closed up in my sleep. bummer)

Memphis for Elvis Week / Travis got his lifetime membership at Graceland, Too / attended the Elvis Vigil / Went to the Pink Palace / short trip to Louisville for thrifting and ice cream / bought costumes for the girls and took them on lots of walks

New Years Eve

2012-01-01T21:36:00.000-06:00

Like last year I had a really low key new years even and it was pretty much perfect. We gathered at my BFF's house and cooked and played games and danced and watched the ball drop. Crystal dyed her hair pink! It looks like an awesome wig.

We played pictionary first. Crystal and I won, even though I couldn't guess this monstrosity.

Thomas gave me a stuffed piece of bacon. And just WAIT until you see what Marc made for me! I have to take a good picture of it first, but it is pretty incredible. One of my favorite presents EVER.

While the boys cooked dinner and cake for us, Crystal and I danced and played with the strobe light. I really hope their neighbors could see us through the windows.

A variety of grilled cheese. Mine had a fried egg on it. YUM.

We busted out Settlers of Catan of course. Are any of you obsessed with this game too? We all have a set now. That amazing blue settlement chain is mine! I did really good, FINALLY.

I always buy these "Krisp Kringles" because they are cute, but they don't taste that good.

Delicious cake! Homemade icing with accidental butter chunks.

Then I won the game! And Crystal won second! It was a new year's miracle! I have never won before.

Then we watched the ball drop, drank sparkling cider, sang auld lang syne and parted ways. It was totally nerdy and relaxed and just perfect. I love having a little group of friends who are like my family. We tried to find somewhere to road trip to today, but everything is closed new years day.

Travis and I slept in really late today, then cleaned the house, threw out all the Christmas candy, and went and bought food to do the 28 day challenge from Whole Living. This is the year we stop being junkatarians and really start to eat vegetables like we should. The goal is to change our tastes so we aren't slaves to sugar and bread and cheese. I'm excited! I love a goal.

2011 In Review: Part One!

2012-01-01T12:26:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite things to do every year is make a year in review post! You can see some previous ones here:

2009 / 2010

I decided to divide it up into three posts so it wouldn't be one HUGE one. The best part of making a year in review post is it helps you remember all the amazing things you did during the past year. As a whole, 2011 was a hard year for us. I felt like I had a bad luck streak starting in November of 2010 when Rose was killed. But I'm hoping it is over and 2012 is going to be amazing! So here we go:

Perfect New Years Eve / More snow than I've ever seen! / Forced to buy a new car / went to Knoxville for a beard pageant / Our last foster boy, Johnny Cash gets adopted and I cry a river (why we don't foster anymore)

We paint the last room in our house that hadn't been painted / I finally hang up art after living here a year / I put Phyllis in a canon / Fun BFF road trip to the space center in Alabama / Baby meerkats

Made a flower bed / My brother got a puppy! / Pugs in the Park / Trip to Unclaimed Baggage / We take Phyllis on a walk around the neighborhood / A trip to the zoo / We babysit Chloe for the first time / Travis turns 26 / Road Trip to Atlanta / Go to my first estate sale in years, starting the obsession

I turned 26 / Set up my craft room and sewed some curtains / A work friend sent me a picture of "parsley" on her cell phone...Priscilla joined our family the next day / made some terrariums / couldn't afford lady gaga tickets so went to the drag club after party instead / amazing raspberry cake / lots of vintage hunting / took phyllis on a hike and made her ride in my back pack

I had so much going through the photos to make this post! I really had a lot of fun in 2011.

My Goal in 2012

2011-12-31T11:32:00.001-06:00

Here is my one goal for 2012. I was working on a list of goals/resolutions and realized they all kind of had to do with the fact that I let self doubt get in my way all the time. So this is my year to follow the advice of the great Kanye West.

I also read a great post by Amy Morby about resolutions. She said don't make resolutions that make you feel guilty, or are inspired by things you hate about yourself. Make resolutions that will add something to your life!

So this year I want to do at least 2 creative projects a month. I used to make stuff all the time, but I let that stupid self doubt get the best of me, and I stopped. But I had so much fun making those ornaments and wreath last month, I really want to make time for stuff like that regularly.

I think 2012 is going to be an incredible year.

Thing I Ate in 2011

2011-12-30T13:03:00.004-06:00

As I was going through my posts to make my 2011 recap post I noticed I take lots of pictures of food. So I decided I'm going to post about food I ate this past year. Because I am a dork.
Highlights: Loveless Cafe in Nashville, Onigari from the Happy Eating food truck, the amazing hand cut fries from the dog of Nashville, Pizza from Mellow Mushroom.
Highlights: Stroop Waffles! Pancake Pantry forever.
Highlights: Falafel from Istanbul in Nashville
Highlights: Best cinnamon roll ever at Tomato Head in Knoxville, salted caramel ice cream from Jeanie's in Nashville
Highlights: Smart Dogs (roasted over a fire only), sweet potato pancakes, Waffle House is always a favorite.
Highlights: Yorkshire pudding from the Harry Potter cookbook, fish sandwich from McCreary's in Franklin, truffle fries at Hammerheads in Louisville, pizza muffins! Butterbeer popsicle.
Highlights: Apparently I ate LOTS of pancakes this year. And of course burritos from Baja Burrito, raspberry coffee cake.

Lots of grilled cheese from Sonic when we're on the road, derby's from the Dairy Kastle in Lousiville, and more fish and chips and burritos. What a delicious year I have had! Next year I will try to eat more green, and less yellow.

I need suggestions!

2011-12-29T12:51:00.000-06:00

[source]

Travis and I are driving to Florida in February for my cousin's wedding and I need suggestions of stuff to do! We are going to be in Sanford for the wedding, and we're going to go to the Wizarding World of COURSE but I would love to know fun, weird, kistchy things that we shouldn't miss! Or places to eat. Or even just vague areas we should explore.

Good Sports.

2011-12-28T20:38:00.003-06:00

I wanted to take a picture of Phyllis and Priscilla to post on Christmas Day, and then I forgot about them! But they are so freaking cute I'm going to post them anyway. So this is officially my last Christmas post.

Priscilla kept the same sweater but I kept changing Phyllis. She loves it when you put something on her. If you hold out one of her shirts she will run up and stick her head through. So we started with a fancy sparkle collar thing. And Travis is sporting his new Christmas Kitty sweatshirt.

Then we moved on to a more subdued and classy neck warmer.

And then my personal favorite, her gryffindor hat! Look at those sad sacks!

That hat KILLS me. I bet I took 25 pictures just like this. All while saying "Do you want a treat? Do you want to go in the car? Do you want a bath?" to make Phyllis perk up.

Oh man, I love them so much. They are both in my lap right now. Perfect.

Almost done with Christmas...

2011-12-27T20:04:00.000-06:00

I decorated for the holidays pretty much all month. I finally finished on Christmas Day. Haha, now I've got to take it all down! But before that, here is what I ended up with...

My mantle is probably my favorite thing to decorate. I can't resist vintage stockings obviously. The two stockings on the right are the ones Travis and I made for each other a few years ago. And Travis picked out the one on the left for Phyllis last Christmas. How sweet is he?

We got to go to Travis' grandmothers' house and take some stuff again, I can't wait to show you the treasures I found! Including that box, which was part of her mother's sewing box! That little snowman elf was an antique mall find from last year.

I got the plastic garland at an estate sale recently for a quarter! I was so excited.

we took out our big white rug and for some reason that made it look like more of a Christmas explosion to me. See Priscilla down there? She is forever supervising me.

This macrame tree is another thing from Grandma Betty's house. I love it!

Priscilla in the Santa hat. She just threw that rat on the ground. I feel like she is like a baby sometimes, she likes to throw her toys of the couch and then I pick them up for her.

my family always puts our presents back by the tree after we open them. Do you do that too? I love it, it is so fun to look at your presents for a few more days before you put them away.

I have really been loving my decorations this year. It will be such a bummer to pack it all away again.

Christmas Day!

2011-12-27T12:23:00.000-06:00

Here is what my Christmas day was like. A LOT of my family and Travis' lives really close to us so Christmas is always really busy for us.

I asked Travis to pose with our bags of presents on our way to my grandparent's house. (We have GOT to do something about that faded siding! It makes our house look like a shack!)

It was weird the streets so empty. It was about 8 am and there were no other cars in sight. This is usually a really busy intersection.

I think this was a "looking at Christmas displays" face.

The tree at my grandparent's house! What a haul! There were 12 of us there.

My favorite ornament. My Grandaddy was a pastor and one year one of the ladies in his church cut his picture out and made that, and glued it to a fly swatter! And was selling at the church craft fair! Hahaha, I love that idea. I need to make one of my boss next year.

A pretty vintage angel.

My cousin Lindsay and I played Santa this year. Look at my seat! How fun!

After the present frenzy.

Then we had our customary Christmas breakfast: cheese grits, scrambled eggs, Bicky's famous rolls, strawberry butter, and country ham for the meat eaters. I do miss that ham. So salty and delicious.

After breakfest we came home and I finished tidying up.

I made my favorite homemade crackers. Recipe here.

I put the girls in their new sweaters! (Martha Stewart pet of course, my favorite.) Travis' brother and his wife gave them to us! I also gave them their Christmas chewy things and they completely ignored me for the next 20 minutes. As you can tell by this picture.

Holiday fridge. Cut veggies ready to make black bean sweet potato soup in the bottom. Homemade cranberry dressing. Spiced cider ready to heat up. A cheese ball chilling with a pitcher of peach tea. I always seem to go overboard. At least I didn't insist on making dessert too!

I wanted a vintage snack set but I haven't found one yet so I got this plain one at Target. I forgot to take a picture of the famous cheese ball. It is incredible. I should post the recipe. It is always a hit at parties.

My new little deer planter gets a Christmas make over.

Ugh, i guess I have to change the table cloth now.
Travis' family came over and we ate and played games and laughed until late.
What a busy holiday. I feel like I need a day off after all of that, haha. I hope you had a lovely holiday and got to spend it with the people you love!

I must have been a very good girl this year....

2011-12-26T20:05:00.003-06:00

I was totally spoiled this Christmas. Here are some of the lovely things I received!
Travis' parents got us a Roku Box and we have already used it so much! We can watch our netflix instant queue on our tv now! Amazing! And I can't wait to play gardening mama. Cooking Mama 2 has been my favorite DS came for a long time. Travis' mom got me a subscription to Martha Stewart Living! Magazine subscriptions are such good gifts! I always forget about them as options. Some other highlights were a butterprint pyrex bowl, and a book full of vintage images of kids with their dogs.
I have been kind of obsessed with that cat flag shirt for a few months, I'm so happy Travis remembered and bought it for me! And the print by Lisa Hanawalt is one of the gifts I gave Travis. But I love it so much, it was kind of a gift for both of us.
I'm probably most excited about my new camera bag from jo totes!! I have an ugly canon camera bag, but I hate it so much I never use it, just throw my dslr in my purse, usually with then lens cap off! So terrible! So now I have this cute bag that is padded and has room for me to carry another lens. I promised Travis that if he got me one for Christmas I would take good care of my camera from now on. So hopefully I will!
What did you get for Christmas? I'm pretty sure Travis' favorite gift was his Nook Simple Touch. He has hardly put it down since yesterday! He is going to let me read a book on it to see if I like it. But I think I like real books better.

Collection 6: Vintage Christmas Photos

2011-12-24T17:18:00.000-06:00

It is Christmas Eve! I'm working part of the day, then I'll spend the evening at my in-law's house, hopefully playing games and making the pugs wear their Christmas outfits. I thought I would post some of my favorites from my vintage Christmas photo collection! I love getting inspiration from old photos like these.

A pretty amazing Christmas card. Look at that scary Santa head!

It looks like "Merry Christmas" was spray painted on those curtains!

I LOVE that foil door. The back says "Xmas 1968 + Dixie"

I also love trees completely covered with tinsel. If I didn't have cats I would do that.

This looks like an office Christmas party. I think that is a woman Santa! And look at the pin up poster in the back! I really wish I knew what was really going on in this picture. Where are they? What is that equipment in the back?

Travis brought me this picture. It says "Margaret and I did get mink stoles for Xmas so we thought we'd do a little modeling" and it it from 1960.
I also have a few of my dad's Christmas photos from when he was little! You know I love that.

A tinsel covered tree! My dad is the little guy in the front.I love the checkered jacket!

My dad and his brother Steve with a creepy Santa! What is with the weird slack arm?

I have always loved this picture. I'm pretty sure this is them trying on their Christmas gifts. Look at those buckaroos! And my uncles scuffed up shoes!

A later picture. I love this for so many reasons. My dad's weird face, the glasses, that intriguing santa up on the bookcase, and is that a paint by number Jesus I spy?
I hope you are having a great holiday no matter what you are celebrating, even if it is just a day off! I can't wait to eat delicious food and see my family and open presents and make Phyllis wear her Santa hat.

Making a list, checking it twice...

2011-12-23T17:09:00.000-06:00

It is so rainy and gloomy. I really wish we were going to have a white Christmas again this year.

My to do list seems a mile long. And I didn't write down "clean the whole house."

Phyllis and Priscilla don't seem to be worried though.

I thought I would show you some more of my holiday decorations.

I love that circus horse ornament so much I bought THREE when they were at Target last year.

I need to get a bigger treee! I couldn't get out all of my ornaments this year. My grandparents have given me an ornament every year since I was born, and Travis' mother did the same thing, so we have a tree FULL of lovely meaningful ornaments.

My "drunk" angel that I found last year. I don't think I'll ever find one I like better.

My grandmother got us this one the year we were married. It is one of my favorites.

This is one of 4 Dalmatian ornaments I have! When I was a kid I was totally obsessed! I always told people that when I grew up I wanted to animate 101 Dalmatians.

Seeing my tree through the window when I come home at night makes me feel so cozy! I will be sad to take it down.

FInally found it!

2011-12-23T10:56:00.000-06:00

I've been looking for the perfect vintage tree skirt for a few years. I never seemed to find tree skirts at all, much less ones I loved. But it finally happened! I went to an estate sale on a whim, just because I was kind of near it, even though I hadn't seen anything great in the pictures. And there it was...

It is in pristine condition. the felt is so soft! and the sequins! I'm scared to iron it because I don't want to mess it up! This was folded up in a closet, which is the only reason I think it was still there when I stopped by. The rest of the house was pretty picked over.

Do you recognize the deer? They are such a classic vintage shape!

Just like my little flocked deer! I have two more similar ones.

Apparently I have a thing for red Christmas deer.

And how freaking cute is this Santa? I picked him up at Rare Bird. I love his pose, and his eyelashes!

Kistchmas Wreath!

2011-12-22T22:02:00.000-06:00

I am so excited with how this project turned out that I can't even wait until tomorrow to take a pretty natural light photo! I have been talking about making a wreath like this, inspired by Betty Crafter's beauties, since the middle of November and I finally sat down to do it today.

My dining room table has turned into my work station, even though I have that whole craft room.

All my supplies. over prepared as usual. i've been collecting vintage baubles every chance I get.

I've been getting a lot of mileage out of my hot glue gun lately.

I get this far and run out of tinsel! that starts a 3 store journey, and I end up with a different kind and every place was PACKED because it is almost Christmas. So I'm really grumpy when I get back.

My little helpers, right at my feet as usual. Priscilla loves that sweater.

After much agonizing here is my wreath! I love it! It is hanging over the mantle, directly in front of me now. There are definitely some things I will differently if (when) I make another one. But it is still pretty gorgeous.
I also finished wrapping my presents today and bought travis' stocking stuff and cleaned our room and the craft room since I'm hosting a little bit of the Christmas festivities on Sunday. I'm working the next two days, so I bet they will go by in a blur!

Pre-to-Post Modern

2011-12-21T16:15:00.000-06:00

Christmas will be here in just a few days, so I better hurry up and post all my Christmas pictures! I had to share this shop in Nashville. It is one of my favorite places to go. They always have a great Christmas selection.

I would love to have a whole bunch of vintage angels to line up in my big living room window.

Santas! I'm on the lookout for a cute card holder like those on the wall to the right.

I also really want one of those ceramic trees! I hope I find one at an estate sale this year.

Ahhh, so lovely.

American Songwriter!

2011-12-20T19:58:00.000-06:00

Remember a while ago when I posted about taking my vintage Christmas collection to help with a photoshoot? Well the magazine is out and I can show you the pictures now!

The shoot is in the current issue of American Songwriter!

My good buddy Brett Warren was the photographer. He does some really incredible work. Most of the stuff on his portfolio site are shoots he has done in his spare time! That makes me feel so lazy! In my spare time I usually hang out on the couch and pet my dogs!
He was kind enough to send me the images they used in the magazine so I could post them on my dorky blog.

The house we were in was INCREDIBLE. I wish I had taken my camera and gotten a picture of the living room before we set up Christmas. It was my dream house. And the kitchen was turquois with orange counter tops!! Amazing!
Those guys are the band Apache Relay. The shoot was for the magazine's holiday gift guide. They wanted a classic Christmas look. The creative director Rachel knew I had lots of kitschy Christmas and asked me to bring it by. And since Brett is my friend I volunteered to hang out and help him during the shoot.

I decorated the tree with my vintage ornaments.

Still in love with this tree.

I had so much fun that day. I got to put up my decorations, I got to hang out with Brett and Rachel, we sang, we danced, I got to hold a light box! Wouldn't being a set stylist be an awesome job? I wish I had a warehouse of vintage that I rented out to people to use in shoots. That would be a perfect career.

A little Christmas...

2011-12-17T15:15:00.000-06:00

I still haven't finished decorating for Christmas, how ridiculous is that? But here is what I've got going on in my dining room.

a deer and a doily and a cake stand and a wreath make a cute little center piece.
Top of the cabinet.

This little santa was vintage dead stock and i agonized about taking it out of the package! But the package wasn't quite cute enough to display.

little santa on a stick. that purple bowl was FULL of satsumas but we scarfed them in just a few days.

and my little christmas puppies! I'm so bummed, I was going to take them to see Santa at Petsmart again but now I've waited too late! So if someone would like to dress up like Santa and hold the girls for picture I would really appreciate it. Haha.

A Guest Post!

2011-12-16T21:08:00.000-06:00

I wrote a guest post over at Tales of a Tumbleweed! It is a day in the life of Phyllis and Priscilla. Go check it out! I'm really excited to see who else contributes to the series, because it is so freaking cute!

Ode to Baja Burrito

2011-12-16T14:29:00.000-06:00

I feel like I've mentioned this place a million times before but I had to devote a whole post. Baja Burrito on Thompson Lane is my very favorite place to eat. It is really close to our house, and we go through phases where we eat there 3 times a week! If I could afford to eat there every day I would. I had actually never had a burrito until two summers ago (for some reason i thought I would hate them even though i love mexican food?) but I was forced to eat here and fell in love.

It is a Nashville original. There is a chain called Blue Coast Burrito that is a franchised version but don't be fooled! It isn't nearly as good! They charge more for less food and the rice is always crunchy. Yuck.

I love them because all of their beans are vegetarian! I LOVE pinto beans but most places use pork to flavor them. These are amazing without that! And I like that they aren't refried. I get a maximum rice and bean burrito every time. Usually a small because the regular is so huge! We like to get them to sneak into the movies. Burritos are the perfect movie food if you didn't know.

Their fresh salsa is pretty great. The pineapple mango is our favorite but I also really love the tomatillo. And the horchata! Oh my gosh I want to go get a burrito right now! Travis loves their fish tacos and taco salad too. But I'm a creature of habit and always get the same thing.

So there it is, my favorite place to eat in Nashville.

Vintage Isabella Sale!

2011-12-15T22:04:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite parts about going to estate sales is you get to peek into homes that you would never have gotten to otherwise. A friend convinced me to go to this sale, but then ended up not being able to go herself. I'm so happy I decided to go alone! There were some amazing things to be seen.

I love wallpaper like this.

A tiny fraction of the clocks they had the first day. I went the second day when things were more picked over. I still got two awesome clocks that I shall show you later.

There were lots of outbuildings like this. The listing said you needed to wear boots and long sleeves and gloves to dig around. I wore grey canvas boots with flocked pink birds, and my gloves were pink floral liberty of london ones. I really fit in with all the "good ole boys" who were there. Haha!

There were so many CUTE old cars all over the property! This blue one might have been my favorite. It is a Crosley.

I got really excited when i saw this old fridge. I've been wanting one ever since Heidi at my paper crane posted about using one to house their media equipment (probably YEARS ago!) but this one was SO dirty and gross inside I didn't bother asking about it. It sure was cute though.

Cool old cars everywhere!

They were hidden all over the property.

I would LOVE to drive this. I sent Travis a picture of it and he got off work early to come look.

I had never even heard of an Isabella before! (which doesn't mean much because i know NOTHING about cars). They were so cute though. I really hope people were waiting for last day deals and at least some of them got bought to be restored. There was a beautiful out cadillac too that had a pristine vintage interior. A real thing of beauty. It was so fun just to walk around and look at them all! I think some of the men thought I was a serious car buyer because I was taking tons of pictures with my fancy camera. They were asking me questions. Which I had no answers too. haha.
So left with just a little bag with some vintage craft supplies and the clocks, but it was definitely worth the trip!

I Have a Problem...

2011-12-14T22:15:00.000-06:00

I can't stay out of the antique malls. Because everyone has their Christmas stuff out and I don't want to miss anything! Here is some stuff I've gotten recently:

Velvety deer! My favorite! Tinsel and balls for that wreath I promise I'm going to make someday. And I've been wanting a deer in the style of that brown one! So cute. I found a white one a few days later.
Spun cotton Santa. And look how much fun that kid is having with the tinsel!
Glass balls. Filler for that wreath.
I decided I wanted to get a holiday corsage, then found 2 within the next few days!
feather birds. I want to make a cute display like this one.
And last but not least, this cute skunk! It was labled as an owl? The teenage boy working the desk at the antique mall (a first, it is always older people!) laughed at the tag.

Ornament Exchange!

2011-12-12T23:57:00.000-06:00

Every Christmas my friend Lauren hosts an ornament exchange party. She invites all kinds of creative people and I look forward to it every year! This time I wanted to REALLY try and make good ornaments that I could be proud of. Here is what I did!

First I made pom poms! I took my supplies and made these during bar trivia last week. I LOVE my pom pom makers. I have four different sizes. You can DIY it with cardboard (Delightfully Tacky posted a great tutorial last week!) but they store bought makers are faster. I have a stash of yarn that I pick up at the Goodwill Outlet whenever I see it. It is only about 15 cents a skein!

I decided to make birds so I tied the smaller pom poms onto the bigger ones. I ended up trimming the yard on the heads to make the beaks stand out more, and to make the size difference between the head and the body more balanced.

Phyllis was really helpful and insisted on being in my lap. I ate lots of satsumas while I worked. Yummmmmm.

I wanted to make glitter crowns. Jade glue and Martha Stewart glitter are the PERFECT combo. I have had that bottle of glue since my "Intro to the Studio Experience" class in 2003! Memories.

Just lovely.

A whole flock of little birds.

Killing me with cuteness! The beaks are cardstock and the eyes are pony beads. Hot glued of course. I made felt wings but they didn't look right. So they are just fuzzy birds.

Glittered the insides of the crowns next.

My little work station. I haven't crafted in so long. It felt really awesome. Art school/failed job hunt kind of ruined making art/being creative for me. I always get really anxious and feel like nothing I make it good enough. I need to do more stuff like this and get my confidence back. I also watched about 6 episodes of Rupaul's Drag Race while I made these. I made me want to call everyone darling. And put glitter on EVERYTHING. You can see the little bird I used as inspiration to the left.

Glitter fingers. I STILL have glitter stuck to my face, two days later.

The girls sat next to me all day. Lookit them holding hands!

Here is the finished product! I was dark by the time I was done so this picture isn't great, but look at how cute! I made two for myself. I was so happy that they came out like I imagined. That night I went to the party and had a really great time. I learned how to do a "tim tam slam". Have you heard of that? I should do a post about it because it was one of the most delicious moments of my life.

Another Estate Sale

2011-12-11T11:38:00.001-06:00

We went to this estate sale based on the pictures of these tables COVERED in cat stuff!

Look at the kitty tea pot/creamer/sugar bowl stack! Love it!

I mean, this is probably only a fifth of what they had! sadly, the prices were HIGH. the tiniest little black cat was 15 dollars, and they went up to 250! Insane. I saw they actually extended the sale another week, probably because no one was buying at their prices. I mean, 35 dollars for an enamel flower brooch? Please.

I LOVE this picture. But not for 10 dollars. And where the heck would I put it?

Here is what I did get. An old yahtzee set! Someone actually bought 2 of the dice out of it (what??) but I already have some dice. For 50 cents, I couldn't pass up the vintage box to add to my game shelf.

Super sequined three wise men wall hanging thing.

Cute old ornaments. You should see the huge pile of these I have stock piled for the day when I finally make my kitschmas wreath. I think I'm having too much fun gathering the supplies.

And here is a perfect example of how you can get practical things at estate sales! I got 54 zippers for 10 cents each! I'm going to give them to my best friend to use when she is making pouches for her etsy.

Stroke of Luck

2011-12-09T22:13:00.000-06:00

I had a crazy run of luck with blog giveaways a little while ago. Sadly, I haven't won anything in a few weeks, but I wanted to share some of the awesome stuff that has been in my mailbox! MOST of this is from when I won a Tim Burton blog party giveaway and Andrea's blog, Paper Sparrow. Do you follow her? You should. She is crazy talented and I seriously don't know how she can come up with and do all the projects she does! My favorite so far has been her stamped dresses. And her blog parties are always so fun. I can't wait to see what her next one is.
I'm crazy about this shadow box she made out of one of her illustrations.
And I really love this calendar too. I wish I had a work desk to put it on!
The Edward Scissorhands necklace is from Paper Sparrow, the deer one is from Little Fever, and The bike is from The Morose Bee. She does movie mondays every week that i LOVE. She picks images from etsy that are clues to a movie. Sometimes I know it right away, sometimes Travis and I talk about it for a few days before we figure it out. And not that many people enter for some reason! So get over there and enter! She has lots of cute things in her shop that you can win!

Maybe most exciting was this Holga camera I won from I Just Might Explode! I haven't tried it out yet because I've been too lazy to order film. I need to remedy that! So I guess this is my shout out to how fun blog giveaways are! You should always enter, what have you got to lose!

I'm starting to love Knoxville

2011-12-08T20:55:00.000-06:00

I haven't done a lot of exploring in Knoxville. We always visit the same places because they are SO GOOD. For example, this AMAZING restaurant.

The wait was really long this time, but it was worth it.

I had a sandwich called the cheddar head. It was incredible. Baked tofu with fresh veggies and sharp cheddar and mustard. Mmm. And of course I was the weirdo who ordered a side of black beans. Travis had the kepner melt, which also had baked tofu with pineapple and veggies and walnuts and pesto. Very tasty.

Then of course we had to walk a few blocks to yee haw industries. If you like letterpress you HAVE to make a trip there.

Now I wish I would have gotten on of these little calenders!

They make so many cute things! I already have all of the carnival food stuff.

Here is what I ended up buying. I love that they have the letterpress cards. I like to frame them and use them like prints. I'm going to hang the devil in my kitchen.

On the way back to the car I bought this beautiful piece of cake. It wasn't as great as it looked sadly.

We also passed the amazing bright red wall that made all the boys turn into posing machines. Crystal and I couldn't stop laughing at them! We called it the dating website profile wall.
So there we have it, the last of my vacation pictures! Now I've just got to make it through another holiday in retail. I'm already looking forward to our next trip, Florida in February!

Pizza....muffins?!?

2011-12-07T17:15:00.000-06:00

The best thing about Pinterest is my husband has been using it to pin recipes, and then making all kinds of delicious stuff. Not that he didn't cook before, but now he cooks all the time! I love it! He has made pizza muffins a few times. Yeah that's what i said. PIZZA MUFFINS.

The recipe is from here. We do it with Yves vegetarian pepperoni in a mini muffin pan. And they are so awesome. It is basically dough and cheese and pepperoni, then you dip it pizza sauce. yum.

he also made this awesome pumpkin monkey bread, from scratch! I would have taken a nicer picture in the morning, but we pretty much devoured it.
Do you use Pinterest? I absolutely love it. Here is mine. And here is Travis'. His board of "things my wife would love" is pretty freaking amazing.

Ode to the Goodwill Outlet

2011-12-06T17:17:00.000-06:00

The Goodwill Outlet has been my favorite place to find vintage lately. It has been a wonderland of Christmas Kitsch! AND the other day we ran into Eartha Kitsch in the parking lot!! It was so awesome! I couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the night.

This is what the outlet looks like inside. Look at all that junk!

Travis actually likes going there more than I do. He goes a few times a week.

Amazing things like this can be yours for only 1.49 a pound!
Here is some of the stuff I've picked up recently.

yarn wreath! yarn trivets and pot holders! vintage felt stocking.

cute little mouse and a sparkly plastic wreath.

my favorite might be this candle. it is over a toilet paper roll.

I've got tons of this plastic greenery. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it all, but I can't resist.

There was a big box FULL of these letters but I didn't know what I could do with them, so I just got the R's. And some ampersands.

cute santa basket? it has a bunch of magnets on the back, but is still too heavy to stay on my fridge.

I now have stockings for every living creature in my house. I'm going to try and resist getting any more.

and this little pile of treasures is from half off day at Music City Thrift. I was so excited to find that cute deer! And I have been eyeing those Junior Deluxe Editions for a LONG time. They had them in a case for 10 bucks each for so long! They finally lowered the price to 6 bucks and then they were half off so i finally got my hands on them.

Rainy Day

2011-12-05T19:49:00.001-06:00

Today is my day off and it has been dark and rainy all day long. I left the house only to go to the post office, pick up a burrito, and make a quick stop at the goodwill outlet. Other than that we had a pretty lazy day.

these two followed me around and watched me fold 1000 loads of laundry.

i worked on my Christmas decorations. I can't get over this tree!

I'm not quite done yet, I'll do a thorough, dorky Christmas home tour this weekend.

I made some amazing cranberry bread out of the Veganomicon cookbook. I used fresh cranberries for the first time! I thought they looked so pretty in that old pyrex dish.

I heated up the leftovers from the fancy dinner training I went to for lunch. It was cedar plank salmon and potatoes and leeks cooked with asiago cheese, and a cheese fritter. I love dinner trainings so much! They always take us to fancy places and encourage us to order tons of stuff. Delicious. We have another one this week.

The rest of the afternoon was spent sitting on the couch, plotting my ornaments for the handmade exchange this weekend, and watching season 2 of Glee. It kept making me cry! What is wrong with me? haha. Now that Travis is home we are finally watching A Very Potter Musical and I'm trying to get sleepy since I have to be up at 5. It isn't working. As usual.

A little stop in Knoxville

2011-12-04T14:00:00.000-06:00

On our way home to Nashville from Gatlinburg we made what was meant to be a quick stop in Knoxville to see the Sun Sphere. Because I can't go through that town without a little visit to this golden beauty left over from the 1984 World's Fair.

so exciting! it was really hard to find a parking space because there was a UT home game that day. Those fans are crazy. The streets on our way out of town were a sea of orange.

I'm not sure how to best explain what is happening here but I will try. For some reason Thomas invented this way of racing where you throw your legs up as high as you can while you run. He called it "Ole Franklin" and it makes us laugh until we cry so we ask him to to do it all the time. It was so perfect out and we were feeling so good that all the boys were doing it in front of the Sun Sphere. That other guy is Marc's brother who goes to school in Knoxville. Looking through these pictures makes me laugh so much!

I should look up what this pretty thing was supposed to symbolize/be because really I have no idea.

Scary! And grammatically incorrect.

On the observation deck the light is all golden and beautiful.

Aw friends! Can you believe we still wanted to be around each other after a whole week?

So gorgeous. I don't have any pictures of the view. Because it is kind of boring. But the Sun Sphere is still awesome.

What I Bought On Vacation

2011-12-03T11:36:00.000-06:00

I realized I never posted what I actually bought on our antiquing day during our trip! I actually bought very little. I attribute this to a few things. I've gotten pickier on what I will buy (since my house is already FULL), I was being cautious with money since we were spending more than usual since we were on vacation, and I'm so used to estate sale prices I don't like to spend more than a few dollars per item. So here is what I did end up buying:

I absolutely LOVE this paint by number. I wish I had bought the matching set with two setters. The colors are just so perfect. I'm not sure where I'm going to hang it yet. I've got it propped up in my craft room for now.

Travis got a few first aid books for his collection. I'm kind of obsessed with that style of poodle ever since I missed out on a condiment set of that style at an estate sale. And apparently I'm really into deer. This isn't the first time that my vintage haul has consisted of mostly deer.

I'm officially collecting dream pet deer now. I have 6 so far. I love these, even if an antler is missing.

and these little deer are so precious! There were a ton of them (well, ten at least) but i contented myself with just two.
So that is it! Can you believe it?

Adventure Time!

2011-12-02T10:21:00.000-06:00

So all good things must come to an end. And so we reached the last day of our vacation. And I have almost posted my last vacation post. It was so sad to leave our cabin and go back to work. I was hoping to come back refreshed and excited, but I came back more jaded and dissatisfied. But I'm working on that. So here we are, on last picture on the cabin porch.

I love having such good friends that I can share a week long vacation with. they are like my family.
on our way out of town we stopped to get fudge, more taffy, air brush shirt, and stopped at all the photo ops we hadn't made it to during the week.

This shark store looks so strange on the strip. it seems like it should be at daytona beach.

There are LOTS of mini golf places in the smokies. This one is the cutest by FAR.

It was closed though. and no trespassing signs everywhere. We were standing outside the fence taking pictures and whining, when Thomas decided to go ask if it was ok if we took pictures. And the guy working the go carts said of course! So we went in and took probably 500 pictures between us. Don't worry, I won't post them all. Here are some of my favorites.
My new home.

I was laughing at his joke. We wanted to jump in his mouth but it was full of gross water.

Love it! I wish it was my back yard!

The octopus was the BEST

Travis stayed in the car reading but we were taking so long he finally came out and joined the fun.

I didn't want to leave! What a wonderful place. I hope it doesn't get torn down before the next time we're in town. I would love to actually play the course some day.

Flea Markets

2011-11-30T16:13:00.000-06:00

On your drive from the interstate into Gatlinburg you pass two flea markets. We were really stoked about getting to go to both of these and were looking forward to Friday. But let me tell you, it was the most disappointing flea market experience I ever had!

the buildings were half empty!

really cool computer booth.

LOTS of furbys.

comics are cool i guess. travis bought one called "suicide squad"

i feel like these pictures make it look better than it was. what you don't see: sick puppy mill puppies, expired food, close out piles of broken crap, perfume, cheap cheap cheap clothes, NOTHING i was interested in at all. i think we found two booths with vintage and there wasn't anything good. so sad.

my review.

ahhhh, much better. even if they don't allow pictures inside.

we ate dinner at a touristy place called the mill. they give you tons of food but nothing is really spectacular. except maybe the banana pudding. next time we're in the area i'm going to do more restaurant research so we can find some actually good food.

look at all that salty food!carrots, backed apples, creamed corn, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, fried okra, catfish, rolls, and we also had soup AND salad. geeeeeze.

after dinner we went in this cat store and i almost cried when i petted one of their resident cats. because i missed having a little furry friend in my lap. (I currently have one pug in my lap and one next to me and i couldn't be happier)
The moral of this story, don't go to the flea markets around gatlinburg! they are awful! unless you want to buy 5 bras for 20 dollars. or a boxer puppy with worms. then you are in luck.

Magiquest!

2011-11-29T12:27:00.000-06:00

Ok, not that I've ever tried to hide the fact that I am a huge nerd, but this is going to be a really REALLY nerdy post. You have been warned.
On the fifth day of our trip it was supposed to rain. So it seemed like the perfect day to do this:

Magiquest! Dana mentioned it and we debated a lot about wether we were going to go. I think we were all worried that it would be really lame and not worth the price Well, I'm so glad we went!

First you pick your wand (even though we all know the wand chooses the wizard). Look how cute Dana is, wearing my favorite colors to visit me.

Ready for the quest! We all had to pick magi names.

You have to sign this very serious contract. I can't remember what my Magi name was.

I thought that it was going to be some kind of laser tag with wands. But that wasn't it at all. It is mostly puzzle solving. There are three different "realms" and you have to find items with clues. And when you wave your wand treasure chests open and things talk and light up. It sounds lame, I know, but it was really fun! Travis, Dana, and I were able to finish all the quests in our alloted time, so we are Master Magi. AND there are teenagers dressed in "magic robes" and a funny wizard that gives you instructions and a silly computer animated fairy that talks to you. If we go back we take our same wands and it saves all your info and you get to do other adventures. I don't think it would be fun if you went during the busy season, and I don't think it would be fun with small kids. There were a few parents there with 3 and 4 year olds who looked miserable.

Included in our entry is a game of black light pirate mini golf! they play the same two songs over and over and make you feel crazy! Travis was really good and won the game.

They also have the world's largest mirror maze!! It might have been the best part of our whole vacation. It was amazing. Everyone has to wear gloves so the mirrors are really clean and it was so freaky! You would think you were running towards your friends only to have them come up right behind you! Or it really looked like there were 5 of each of you and you CAN'T TELL which one is real! So freaking fun. Once we got to the end we went back into the maze and got lost again. They also had strobe lights and dance music. I want to go back just to do the maze again!

Soooo Magiquest was awesome. Totally worth the price. We'll probably go back next time we're in Pigeon Forge so we can battle the dragon.

After our strenuous adventure we got some much needed ice cream.

we continue our nerd day back at the cabin by playing settlers of catan all night! thomas taught us to play and now we are OBSESSED. We played almost every night of our vacation.

It is kind of like risk, but with AGRICULTURE. We actually went over to crystal's house last night and played with one of the expansion packs, with islands and boats! I have kind of gotten a bad attitude about it because i haven't won even ONCE. And I am more competitive than I like to think.

Phyllis and Priscilla

2011-11-28T20:19:00.000-06:00

I have had crazy blog giveaway luck lately. I'll make another post about the big pile of stuff that has shown up in my mailbox, but I had to give this its own post! I won this giveaway from Kaelah at Little Chief Honeybee (seriously cant wait to get my rosita mustache portrait!) and part of it was a custom creation by Lifemintsweet on etsy. I asked her to do a portrait of Phyllis and Priscilla and this is what she made for me!

how freaking cute is that?? I was cracking up before I even got the box open at Phyllis' tongue.
i absolutely love it! and look at the tails!

so yeah. i am in love with this little sculpture. Now I have to decide on the perfect place to keep it so I can see it every day. I really think she should offer pet portraits on her etsy.

Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers!

2011-11-27T14:45:00.000-06:00

Did you think I was done with vacation photos? No way! I hope you aren't tired of them yet. I actually hate that no one who blogs ever posts much about their vacation. Maybe they do more relaxing than I do. Maybe they don't take pictures? I don't know. I LOVE seeing people's vacation photos so I can get ideas for my next trip. (which happens to be to florida in february for a wedding, which means, WIZARDING WORLD!) So anyway, one of the places you HAVE TO go to in Gatlinburg if you love vintage and kitsch is the Museum of the Salt and Pepper Shakers!

we went last time we were in town and it was just as awesome the second time.

so you can kind of get an idea of what it looks like.

this is the personal collection of the owner! over 20,000 sets!! they are organized in loose categories. that is one of the vegetable cases. even with that many shakers i saw barely any of the ones that I have in my collection. You could probably collect them for your whole life and never collect all the sets that are out there.

these little dudes were in the ocean set. i'm not sure what they are supposed to be but i love them.

this shelf made me think of betty crafter!

so many owls. and squirrels.

LOVE those bostons! i wish all the sets were for sale.

dog section.

vacation sets, and cats! the cats were probably the cutest there.

i love the little blue and orange ducks, and the ducks with the long intwined necks!

did i mention one of my best friends, dana, came and joined us for the day? so awesome! we were in teh museum for a few hours. you can kind of play i spy with each other. and take a million pictures.

map of visitors. the big pins are for collectors.
So the Salt and Pepper Shaker museum is awesome! It only costs three bucks! And that goes towards any purchase in the gift shop. But she has the sets priced REALLY high in the gift shop. The museum is actually for sale now! So if you feel like you could make it your career...

Back to estate sales

2011-11-26T16:12:00.000-06:00

I haven't been to a great estate sale in so long! I got spoiled over the summer with houses just stuffed full of awesome vintage! Last weekend Travis and I went to a sale at a house up a long long driveway, with gorgeous views. Sadly, even on the first day of the sale the house was pretty empty. But they did have this...

a table full of beautiful vintage photos! i keep expanding the parameters about what i "collect". So now it is pictures with dogs, vacation photos, christmas, cute outfits, sassy guys, or anything weird. i just got one of a lady holding a baby out of a window. so hilarious! i kind of wish i had gone back on the last day and scooped up some more of these photos. i don't know if it was a collection, or just ALL of their family photos were great.

table of linens. i've had to cool it on embroidered doilies. what am i going to do with them?

estate sales are so glamourous. haha.

there were a bunch of pictures of that fat little terrier. i wish i knew his story!

Christmas and a dog! (dixie) if my door wasn't so cute already (it is bright red with a sweet little window), I would wrap it up like that! Travis picked the picture of the ladies showing off their fur coats. The back says 'Margaret and I got mink stoles for Xmas so we thought we'd do a little modeling"

My first pug! this one is from the 70s and isn't something I would have normally gotten, but it was a pug so I had too! The back says "sassy hess (5 years old) isabel baby hess (11 years old)" so cute.

the rest of my stuff. from a few different sales. fabric, hand made shelf, my first fridgie!

mushroom soup bowls! 25 cents for two.

some super sharp sewing scissors. 25 cents!

ANOTHER cookie press. Now i have three! But this one had the box and recipe book! and was only a buck. Now that I think of it, I have four if you count a modern one.

I love the doggy plate. Obviously.

and a handful of pretty spoons to use in my lunch box. I like the ones with the letters best.
Have you ever had an estate sale dry spell? I can't wait for it to be over! It took me all day, and 5 sales to get that little haul!

Our Holiday

2011-11-25T23:50:00.001-06:00

Travis and I were both off of work for Thanksgiving AND the day after! I couldn't believe it! It was so nice. We rarely have days off together, unless we request off for something. We had a very nice Thanksgiving day and ate SO MUCH food and say both our families. Then today we headed to historic downtown Franklin to see Travis' favorite movie on the big screen.

Christmas Vacation. He says that he has literally seen it at least 50 times.

They had a tacky sweater contest before the movie and we won! Too bad I never took a good picture of our sweaters! And you can't really tell that Travis' spectacular blue dickie shows through his white sweater pretty distinctly. We won two movie passes. I want to use the to see Meet Me In St. Louis, A Christmas Story, or A Wonderful Life.

After lunch we did a little window shopping.

There are some great little shops in the area. My favorites are Avec Moi and Yarrow Acres.

We did a little antiquing of course. All the booths finally have their Christmas out! I might go back for one of these choice boys. I really like them. So that means they will probably be gone. I went back for those dream pets and that cute tv tray that i posted about and there were ALL gone! I was so bummed.

funny toilet seat cover! and like that big santa actually. i don't know where I would put it though.

i got this little spun cotton santa. he is on the end of a really long pencil.

i love that travis loves looking for vintage with me. even if he makes that face when i'm trying to take a sweet picture. haah.
we went to the goodwill outlet too and picked up some more Christmas bits and bobs and I got a really cute Chinese dragon marionette! I'll take pictures of him tomorrow when I have some light. A lady was actually jealous that I found it and kept staring at it and telling me i was soooooo lucky.
I started decorating for Christmas tonight. I can't stop staring at that aluminum tree! It is so beautiful! I've been threatening the cats with the spray bottle whenever they get near it. I can just see one of them knocking it down.

What are you thankful for?

2011-11-24T10:05:00.000-06:00

This year I am most thankful for my little family. Travis is such a great husband (even if i complain about him being messy) and i love all my little critters; Phyllis, Priscilla, Scampi, Murray, and Scout.

I live in a house that I love with a job that pays my bills and friends that I can always count on. What more does one girl need?

Today we're going to lunch at my aunt and uncle's house, where i will stuff myself with food and pet their two cute dachshunds, then to Travis' parent's house for dinner! We were planning on seeing the Muppet Movie in between but I couldn't wait any longer so we already saw it! I LOVED it. Jason Seagel is so great. I want to go see it again! And there was a preview for the new studio Ghibli movie before it!! I got so excited the popcorn I was eating fell out of my mouth. It is based on the book "The Borrowers", which I really liked when I was a kid.

Oh I've gone off on a tangent, what I meant to say was I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

What I Wore: Witch Hike

2011-11-23T18:18:00.000-06:00

It is no secret that my best friend crystal and I love dressing up! no matter the occasion. we had talked about dressing up every day on our vacation but it didn't end up happening. but we DID dress up like witches on our hike. we didn't do the green paint, but i think the sepia colors look better than way.
i'm going to pretend this is an outfit post. but i read lots of "fashion" blogs even though i'm not very fashionable. most of my posts would say: jeans: old navy cardigan: target 2009 shoes: converse circa 1999. haha.

behind the scenes!

once we got to the top the light was so harsh and we were whining about not being able to get good pictures. mostly i was whining. i'm glad we ended up taking pictures though.

we got thomas to take a million pictures of us, hoping we'd get some cute ones.

after we were done travis threw the broom he made me over the side. i think that was his favorite part of the day.
once we got back to the cabin crystal played with the photos while the rest of us played a rousing game of settlers of catan (so dorky! so fun!). here are some of my favorites! i love how they came out!

hat: vintage from grandma bettie's attic glasses: see eyewear dress: old navy summer 2009 tights: performance studios capeish thing: ? shoes: converse all stars

Smokey Mountain National Park: Part 2

2011-11-22T15:58:00.000-06:00

I picked a "moderate" hike for our hike in the Smokey Mountains. It ended up being kind of hard (for me at least) but it was still fun.

crystal carrying a prop for our photoshoot at the top of the mountain.

we stopped for lunch about 30 minutes in. haha.

we didn't have sandwich bags in the cabin so travis used this huge one he carries to put my camera in if it starts to rain.

scary thin bridges with handrails on just one size!

climbing up under s steep cliff. we thought this was the top but we were really wrong.

still not quite the top but that was as far as i could make it. it was so beautiful! even if there were no leaves on the trees. next post i'll show you the random photos we took once we got up there. here is a hint....

Smokey Mountain National Park

2011-11-21T17:16:00.001-06:00

The Smokey Mountain National Park is one of the most beautiful parks in the country, I think. So when we in Gatlinburg of course we had to go on a hike!

the drive into the park is gorgeous!

pretty views around every turn.

we stopped at this creek with huge boulders that thomas has been talking about forever.

it would have been so fun in the summer when you can swim. even though the pull off would probably be packed.

check out that all natural lens flair.

we kept cracking up because from hill to hill the trees were so different. One way you looked there was all kinds of beautiful fall foliage, if you turned the other way, the trees were completely bare.

we drove a little farther to the trail head that we picked. check out how none of us but thomas had on appropriate hiking shoes. i feel like all the people who passed us with their packs and hats and hiking sticks thought we were crazy. i'll post tomorrow about the hike! i'm trying really hard not to post 100 pictures per post!

More vacation!

2011-11-20T21:23:00.001-06:00

have you ever been to a gem mine? basically you dump a bucket of dirt into water and sift it around and find some "gems". this mine is right next and an antique mall in a barn. they make you use a port o potty outside that i don't think has been emptied in a month. it was SO GROSS.

whenever i see an "independent" thrift store i always get excited and expect to find some awesome stuff.

this was probably the best thing there. oh man, so bad.

i broke the "only eat places you can't eat at home rule" to eat at mellow mushroom because i love it so much! and look how cute their sign is!

yummmmmm. i can't resist posting pictures of food i ate.

travis was mad because everyone was taking too long to order. i was desperately trying to keep the bright sunlight out of my eyes. it is kind of fun to have pictures of myself from my vacation. usually it is just a thousand pictures of travis.

calzone. i was gross and got just cheese. it was so good!

there used to be a really cute little shop here. now it is this monstrosity. but we had to stop to see the live bears!

poor bears. i felt sad as i threw them dog biscuits and brown apples. but they were pretty cute.

after this we finally picked a place to get our old "tyme" portrait after asking about prices and backdrop options at a thousand shops. it was SO FUN. i am so happy we did it. the girl probably hated us because we took FOREVER picking outfits and kept mixing costumes from different "scenes." but i love how the picture came out. we couldn't stop laughing about it all week. such a perfect souvenir from our bff vacation. and i love the lame photo frame. i wish you could have picked your name though. the wild bunch just doesn't do it for me.

Stocking Up

2011-11-18T20:55:00.001-06:00

I haven't been to the Goodwill Outlet in a while. You really have to be in the mood to dig through a lot of junk when you go there. So whenever the mood strikes I will usually run right over. This time i kept finding great stuff!

first we found this suitcase that was in almost perfect shape (i just have to re-glue one spot on the lining). then i filled it up!

Christmas explosion!
I am OBSESSED with creating a "kitschmas" wreath like Betty Crafter. I have lots of little vintage christmas bits but not many glass balls. So that is what I'm on the lookout for. I was thrilled to find two boxes and one bag full! I also got a handful of plastic picks, a silly snowman who needs another googley eye, and some fake poinsettia.

I couldn't resist the yarn wreath! The owl wasn't in it, but I might stick it there when I hang it up. It looks pretty darn cute. I can't think of the brand the owl is, but i've always thought that style was cute (especially the mice).
On the same trip i found a straw wreath, which was awesome since the next stop on my list was michael's to buy one! ! love it when ! find practical things for pennies, almost as much as I love the vintage.

kind of a terrifying santa. he is so fancy with his crocheted hood.

I really love these little presents on a string! They were all tangled with an ugly cheap garland so I painstakingly removed them all. They might go on my tree or hang across my mantle.
So, the suitcase was 2.99 and the rest was by the pound. Our total for everything was less than ten bucks. We picked up a few books too that aren't pictured here. The goodwill outlet is pretty awesome most of the time. If you can stand the crowd (it is ALWAYS packed), and the dirt, and the mean cashier.

This little buddy wasn't thrifted, he was sent to me by the love Miss Crafter after I lamented that I hadn't been able to find a knee hugging elf at a descent price. It was so fun to get in the mail! The box was jingling and for some reason I just couldn't imagine what was inside. Then I opened it and jumped for joy! I can't wait to use him on my wreath!

Vintage Vacation

2011-11-17T12:28:00.001-06:00

we wanted to go out for a pancake breakfast one morning of our vacation. i looked up reviews on trip advisor and almost every place in pigeon forge or gatlinburg has TERRIBLE reviews. like "a cesspool of filth and despair." haha. so this one seemed like the best choice. even though one review said something like "the food was good. but it isn't actually a log cabin."

it wasn't very cute inside. no bear decorations or logs.

the food was pretty good. and our waitress was really weird and made fun of thomas.

we spent the whole day antiquing! it was awesome. we started in sevierville and stopped at all the antique malls we passed. here are some things i saw:

i love walking in and seeing booths like this. i love digging through piles of stuff.

why didn't i get this christmas dog? ugh! third thing lately i regret not getting.

pretty fancy books.

pretty radio. i was 100 bucks or i would have picked it up.

we couldn't stop laughing at this. what would you use it for? an ornament? to hang up when it snows? i wish i would have bought it. it was only 2 bucks. i love the sun choking the snow man.

i loved this little camel. his yarmulke said israel. the tag said he was a souvenir from 1954.

this booth had FIVE dog paint by numbers in it. i had to pick just one. it was really hard.
believe it or not this is probably the first vacation i've taken where we have dedicated a whole day to antiquing and vintage shopping. it was awesome.

A little Raja break...

2011-11-15T14:30:00.001-06:00

I'm going to take a little break from my vacation pictures to tell you about something I almost forgot to post about! A little while ago I went to the Vanderbilt LAMDA Annual Homecoming Drag Show. Now normally this won't be an event I would feel the need to post about (especially since i didn't get any great pictures) but it was extra special because some of the performers were from my favorite show of all time, RuPaul's Drag Race! Are any of you fans? To me it is the perfect mix of America's Next Top Model, Project Runway, and drag. Three of my favorite things.

My favorite of any season is Raja, and she was there!! she was amazing. I tipped her twice and wanted to faint both times.

They also go pandora boxx, and jujubee! If only Ongina and Manilla had been there, it would have been all my favorites.

Here we are with Pandora after the show.

Raja! What a great night!

The Evolution of an Airbrush Shirt

2011-11-14T11:13:00.000-06:00

one of the ancient art forms practiced in gatlinburg is the airbrush t shirt. after looking at lots of places crystal finally decided on one to get a shirt from. i think the rainbow bucket hat with the peace sign on the top is what really made this place stand out. of maybe the giraffe wearing sunglasses with one hoop earring. here is how her amazing shirt was created in 15 minutes!
that is the outline his stencil made.the rest if free hand.

look at that thing!! so awesome!

now i wish i would have gotten the pug. with a rainbow. and sparkles. and the words "pug life."
next time.

Old Smoky Candy Kitchen

2011-11-13T11:08:00.000-06:00

i had to give the old smokey candy kitchen its own post! it is my favorite thing in downtown gatlinburg! for some reason it is so much better than any of the other 10 candy shops downtown. and their packaging is so cute. look at this:

i always get a box of this taffy. i love salt water taffy so much. and i love the letters made with taffy! my favorite flavors are probably the banana and the peach. they will let you try all the different flavors there and you can see the taffy being made! so fun.

the marmalade jellies are another favorite of mine.

super cute hook rug.

so cute! i would totally get any of those as a tattoo. especially that shy raccoon. did you know that last time we were in the smokey mountains travis and i got matching black bear tattoos? now i wish we had gotten candy kitchen bears!

i got a caramel apple with peanuts! my favorite!

Downtown Gatlinburg

2011-11-12T22:13:00.001-06:00

downtown gatlinburg is basically a tourist trap. and not in a kitschy fun way. well, not for the most part. we went downtown on the first day of our vacation to see if there was anything we wanted to do. it was halloween and it wasn't as festive as i was expecting! i'm glad i didn't paint myself green. haha. later we saw tons of kids trick or treating at all the stores. there are lots of air brush shirt stores. and weird stuff to buy. though i kind of wish i had gotten that johnny depp license plate. or a picture that made it look like i was on a date with edward cullen. there is a TON of ripley's stuff downtown. other than the Believe it or Not Museum and the aquarium they aren't really worth your time (or the insane price!). wait, am i making it seem like gatlinburg is lame? look at how beautiful it is! and full of gem mines (did you ever do one when you were young? it remember being really disappointed) and putt puff golf. and old time photo places. we went in this really cool store. i need to gather all the pictures of us with our heads in things. i love those! i can't even remember what this thing was in front of. there are so many things to pose next to! after looking at lots of knock off purses, black bear stained glass, and candy shops we were starving. so we went to this mexican restaurant. it is one of the only descent food choices in that area. i got a bean burrito and i loved it! after eating we walked through the mall (nothing good in there but the magic shop. you've been warned) then headed back to hang out in our cabin. and eat a lot of taffy. even a lame place is fun when you are with your best friends in the whole world.

Vacation in the Smokey Mountains

2011-11-11T22:16:00.001-06:00

Travis and I hadn't taken more than a few days off from work in more than a year and a half, so we decided that we had to do something this fall. Somehow we decided to rent a cabin in the Smokey Mountains with our best friends, Crystal and Marc. Then, lucky us, our other best friend Thomas was able to get a week off from work to and he came up with us! It was great. I've been going through the THOUSANDS of pictures that Crystal and I took, so i'll try not to bore you. haha. Here is post one!

here is my mountain of luggage. minus all the food we took, minus the big pile of games. of course i didn't need most of it. i took three books! what was i thinking? thank goodness we decided not to bring craft supplies. thomas borrowed his mom's van and drove us all. it was great! it made it really feel like a "family vacation." crystal and i sat in the middle and worked on people magazine puzzles and watched russell brand (of course). we stopped in cookeville for lunch. i ate so many fries (i picked around the bacon) i could only eat a few bites of my actual lunch. a good start for my week of over eating. haha. here is our cabin! it was so awesome. i was really glad we decided to rent a group cabin instead of staying in a hotel. we had a kitchen and a big huge couch by a fireplace and a hot tub! it made it so easy to relax. we slept in every day, we ate dinner at the cabin a lot, we got in the hot tub pretty much every night. it was perfect. and it was actually much cheaper than staying in a hotel. less than 25 dollars a night per person. so i would really recommend it. the street our cabin was on. travis and my room. there whole cabin was black bear themed. so lovely. the view out our window.

One Year of Phyllis

2011-11-09T17:15:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure the exact date that we got miss phyllis (it was very shortly after my first pug rose was killed and i don't want to know the date) but it was in november of last year. So happy one year Phyllis! Here is her story!

As I mentioned up there, Rose, my first pug was tragically killed last year. Here is my favorite picture of her sweet face in case you haven't seen her before:

It was incredibly devastating to me. I have been very fortunate and have had very little lose in my life. Travis and I were trying to get a pug puppy from a less than reputable source because I felt desperate for another pug. It fell through (thankfully!) and Travis decided to go to a dog adoption event at the Nashville Zoo while I was at work. He showed up in the last hour of the event and asked at the front if any of the organizations had a pug. He was directed to the Metro Animal Control booth and there she was. They were calling her Suzy. She was one of only two dogs they had left. He called me at work and told me he had found a three legged pug and i said to use his best judgement and decide for me. He brought her by work after picking her up and i was instantly in love. i actually went into the back room and cried because i was so happy to have her. here she is the day we brought her home:

she was found as a stray. they guessed she was four. she is missing lots of teeth and has just three legs (obviously). her leg was removed a long time ago, and she still has her shoulder and part of her leg bone, which our vet said is incredibly unusual. she had no guesses at to what could have happened. you can tell she has had puppies before too. she had been at the pound 6 weeks so we probably saved her. and she definitely saved me. without her i don't know how long it would have taken me to feel like a normal person again. we needed each other.

she is a tiny little pug with the curliest tail. sometimes i forget that she only has three legs. she can jump up on the couch! it is pretty amazing. she loves attention from people and wants nothing more than to sit in your lap. when we go to the dog park she spends most of her time trying to get strangers to pick her up.

she has the saddest face in the world. and she groans and sighs whenever you hold her. people always thing she is growling at them but that is just the noise she always makes. she doesn't bark much. just when i leave her on the bed when i leave the room. or when she really wants a treat.

she is a spoiled little thing who gets carried everywhere. she knows that you will come pick her up, so she won't even come when you call. she just sits down and waits. she likes to have her nub tucked to the inside. i've tried to tempt her to come to me with treats, but that doesn't even work!

riding in my backpack.

she loved her sister priscilla from the start. it made her a lot less clingy. her face look even sadder next to priscilla. we call her sad sack all the time. they are almost always in the same bed in the morning when we get them up. and every once in a while they will both get really excited and actually chase each other. pretty freaking cute.

this picture KILLS ME. it is my background at work.

sometimes i carry her around in this.

and sometimes she rides around like this.

so happy gotcha day to you phyllis! you have brought me so much joy this year! pretty much the cutest little thing i've ever seen. here is to many many more years with you in our family!

A couple of firsts!

2011-11-08T21:04:00.000-06:00

check it out! my first part of prescription sun glasses! i wasn't sure how long i was going to stick with the glasses (it only wore contacts for about 8 years) but i'm kind of obsessed now so i splurged and got sunglasses too! have you been to See eyewear? they have so many cute vintage inspired frames! i'm really regretting not getting a jeweled cat eye pair. I might be back. i will admit it has been hard coming back to work after my nine days off. especially getting up at 5 am this morning. and the holiday season is already in full swing. i'm indulging in a little blog reading and toddlers and tiaras watching while travis is at work. (did you know i had a pageant job for 6 months in 2009? i know SO MANY people on this show, it is kind of scary/embarrassing). Another first from today:

a cat on the couch with phyllis, even though she wasn't asleep! usually phyllis will bark at the cats if they get up on the couch with her, but she must has been feeling extra friendly today (or tired, we did walk around the block). she and scampi had a little nap together. it was so sweet!

Dia de los Muertos: Part Two!

2011-11-07T11:06:00.000-06:00

The Cheekwood botanical garden is really beautiful. The house is amazing and the grounds are so cool.
the "crawling lady hare" is my favorite part of the sculpture trail. she looks so eerie! the sculpture is made of wire. it was hard to pick which food truck to eat from! they all looked good and all had long lines. we ended up at yayo o.m.g. we shared an order of mahi mahi tacos. this is not a great picture but oh man it was SO GOOD. it had cranberries in it! and i don't even know what else. it was amazing. i ate this too. i don't know what it is called. we got some pan de muerto too. it was pretty awesome.

Dia de los muertos!

2011-11-06T10:54:00.000-06:00

Every year the botanical garden in Nashville does a Day of the Dead Celebration. Travis and I went this year, it was a great start to our vacation week!

i love alters. i say i'm going to make one every year, but i always forget. one day i will make it down to mexico to see the celebration. the nashville one is pretty fun though. it gets better every year! i was good and resisted buying much. and i've already got so many skeleton things. we got some treats from las paletas! i got raspberry lime, it was SO SOUR i couldn't finish it. travis got hot chocolate which had cayanne. it was really good. we made paper marigolds and skull masks. we missed the sugar skull station somehow! we got some free hats too!we made a tombstone for rose for the pet graveyard. it has been about a year since we lost her. i still miss her so much and think about her all the time. i think i'll split this into two posts so i don't bombard you with too many pictures!

My Vintage Find of the Year!

2011-11-05T23:40:00.001-05:00

One of my favorite things on the internet is Her Library Adventures weekly thrift find round up! And this week she is hosting a best find of the year contest! Travis wants me to enter the life sized gold bust of hank williams that he got at the goodwill outlet for 5 bucks, but my favorite find was this tree!

i guess technically it was an estate sale find. i was making my second lap through a bummer of an estate sale when i saw this box in the kitchen next to the fridge. they had 20 bucks on it. i thought it couldn't possibly be complete, but at that price i had to take a chance. i'd been looking for an aluminum tree for years but never found one for less than 150 dollars. it was the last day of the sale, but the lady was trying to drive a hard bargain and told me she wouldn't take less than 20. i was happy to give her 20.

imagine my delight when it was complete! and the prettiest aluminum tree i've ever seen! i love the mercury balls on the end of each branch. i can't wait to show you a picture of it all set up! i set it up for that christmas photoshoot i helped with and i was in awe of it. seriously, i was dorking out about it the whole shoot. so i think it can take the title of my favorite find this year!

Flea Market: Things I Didn't Buy Edition

2011-11-05T08:42:00.000-05:00

The Nashville Flea Market was so full of amazing vintage christmas stuff this last time. I decided not to get anything until I've actually put out my decorations so i can see what I have room for. i mean, i have FOUR trees now. I need to give at least one away this year. but i was drooling over all the pretty stuff. i loved how all those balls looked in the wire basket! i'm going to start picking up those glass balls whenever i can find them cheap. i want to make a vintrage ornament wreath too. my friend thomas came with me and was freaking about this roulette wheel. i made fun of him. because i am mean. haha. kyle was looking at this old camera and i loved that you could see his face! so cute. i really love the colors on this tablecloth. but it wasn't for sale. we stopped by the honeybean! kaelah had some really cute stuff! i loved those deer the most. i was a dork and got too nervous to say hi to her though. as i mentioned before, we were STARVING and had to leave before we made it through the whole market. we made a stop at baja burrito and were recharged and made a trip to goodletsville to one of my all time favorite antique malls. did not buy this awesome clown. i am kicking myself for not buying this awesome tv tray! i love it SO MUCH and it was only seven dollars. maybe it will be there when i go back.

linking up as usual!:

Boiler Room Date

2011-11-03T18:57:00.000-05:00

A little while ago Travis and I went on a double date with our good friends. We started off as we often do by browsing at one of our favorite antique malls:

This mall is in Franklin TN. there are some really good vintage dealers. and some really terrible ones. there is one case completely full of cat and dog stuff! we didn't get anything, just browsed. i've gotten a lot pickier, thankfully. since my house is pretty much already full. we went to dinner in historic downtown franklin. it is so cute in the fall. and all other times really. we went to McCreary's Irish Pub as usual. i love it so much i never want to try one of the other restaurants. i started bringing a little notebook around with me to jot down blog/fun ideas. it has been really awesome so far. and check out the cute sticker i won in a giveaway over at angel's art blog! i have been having really good giveaway luck lately! speakin of that...i convinced my friend crystal to give away something for the paper sparrow tim burton blog party. then hilariously i won the giveaway! she brought the wallet i won from her shop that night and included a note that said something like "i can't believe you tricked me into making you a free wallet.' hahaha. after dinner we headed over to the boiler room to see a play! it is a theater that is in the actual boiler room of an old stove factory that has been converted into shops and living/event space. we saw The Rocky Horror Show! it was really good. it was a little different from the movie and the theater was tiny and we laughed pretty much the whole time. it was great. i want to try and see more plays there. on tuesday nights it is buy one get one free tickets so it is really affordable. it was a perfect date.

Vacationing in a Tourist Trap!

2011-11-01T21:04:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to pop in and tell you how great our vacation is going so far! our cabin is perfect, gatlinburg is so fun and cheesy, and we spent the whole day antiquing then got an "olde tyme portrait." i'm just waiting for the brownies to be done, then we're going to go sit in the hot tub and maybe watch scary movies. hope you are having a good week too!

Halloween!

2011-11-01T08:44:00.006-05:00

We went to a Halloween party on Friday night. I had big plans for a costume i was going to make (don't i always?) and never got around to it. I kept putting off deciding what to be until friday afternoon. Thankfully i have a whole trunk full of costume stuff so i can always throw something together. This year I was a witch! and travis wore his old standby, the skeleton suit.

i think i was trying to make a "scary" facethis makeup is so awesome. if you need to make youself one color this is the way to go. it just feels like foundation on your skin and it dries so you don't have to worry about staining everything you touch. and it has shea butter in it so your skin actually feels really soft when you are done. i love it. i bought it at a costume shop in nashville called performance studio. the party was at our friends nettie and graham's house. what a good idea! so easy and cute. nettie and her husband dressed up as hal and oats. she look so hilarious! here is how ryan's seymour costume turned out. so cute! i still want to steal his audrey 2. travis manned the fire, as usual. i think that is his favorite part of parties. there was dancing. and laughing. and too much sugar eating. we made it home around 1:30 am. it was so fun!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T13:00:00.000-05:00

how lucky am i that this is my family? if only i could somehow get the kitties in the picture too. i was trying to get a cute picture of travis and priscilla in their matching costumes. but she was being such a sad sack! usually she loves getting her picture taken! phyllis is the cutest little thing in the whole world. just look at that face! i love her so much. and my new glasses. and haircut. look how pretty my dogwood tree is! i don't remember it being this awesome last year. and of course the tree and the end of our driveway is blowing me away. seriously, i love it. i'm such a huge nerd. so we hope you are having a perfect halloween! hopefully right now im dressed as a witch in downtown gatlinburg, stuffing myself with free candy. perfection.

Kitty Party!

2011-10-30T11:07:00.000-05:00

The kitties are very excited about having the house to themselves while we are on vacation. let's hope they don't get up to too much mischief while we are gone. (of course we have someone to cat sit, they won't really be on their own)we dropped the pugs off at my parent's house. it is always sad to come home when they aren't here. look how pathetic phyllis looks sitting on my mom's back porch. i wish they were coming with us!

Little Bitty Halloween Party

2011-10-28T11:00:00.000-05:00

I decided that i wanted to host a little Rocky Horror screening party last weekend because we are going to be out of town for the midnight showings at the belcourt this year. i only invited a few people over since it was so last minute, and only a few of those came. so here is the saddest little party spread i've ever made:

we had pizza too. and brittany brought the famous cheeseball and homemade crackers. and we still had too much food. as usual. the spiced cider was pretty perfect if i do say so myself. i made this halloween candy corn cookie bark. i wish we could have found the halloween oreos. but it was still good. it is SO sweet you can only eat one little piece at a time. i also attempted these candy corn cupcakes. my colors didn't turn out as pretty but they tasted really good. it was just a doctored up boxed mix. delicious. we gorged ourselves and then gave ourselves over to absolute pleasure. i love that movie so so SO much. i hope they will do it at midnight on new years. i've been singing the songs all week. i can't wait for halloween!

Collection 5: Milk Glass Mugs

2011-10-27T17:24:00.000-05:00

It is nice to have a collection that you can get some use out of (other than decorating of course). I love mugs, but obviously with just the two of us, we don't need THAT many. So i made my mug criterion pretty strict. they have to be milk glass. they have to be blue or red. and they have to be cheap. most of these are from the goodwill outlet so they were probably about 25 cents. i think this collection started with the weird flower one, or maybe the blue hazel atlas glass. i love the look of milk glass. my friend crystal actually found this little devil. but she tries to not buy much, so she said "please buy this so i don't have too." i was happy to comply. this universal studios is another favorite. i guess everything on there used to be rides at the park? do they still have a parting of the red sea ride? sounds thrilling. of course, i haven't always stuck to my mug rules. i have some with deer handles and one that is shaped like e.t. but for the most part i am able to resist.

2011-10-26T13:08:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite things about fall is getting these pumpkin donuts from krispy kreme. the jack o'lantern ones are just fun for the shape, they are just plain donuts. but the pumpkin spice are delicious. i'll have to get a few more before they stop making them. it seems like i've been doing nothing by laundry and cleaning lately. we're leaving for our vacation on sunday and i'm trying to get everything ready. we're going to stay in a cabin in the smokey mountains with our best friends for a whole week. i can't wait! if you have any suggestions on what to do near gatlinburg i would love to hear them!

Halloween Thrifting

2011-10-25T11:36:00.000-05:00

The other day i went with some friends on a Halloween costume searching adventure. i'm just going to wear one of my old costumes (cuz i'm boring) but my friend ryan is doing something awesome. look what he got off of etsy!!!

audrey 2! i love it so much! i want to steal it from his house. little shop of horrors is my favorite movie of all time. and seymour krelborn is my dream date. so i was excited to help him find a sweater to wear. this creeped me out a little. "mommy hug me dry!"i found this amazing vintage halloween costume. for 2 dollars!! i was so excited. because that is the only vintage i found on the halloween racks even though blogs all over the place and talking about how their local thrifts are busting with vintage dresses. i was bummed. i found this cute vintage jamaica tray as well. and another plastic santa. i have a problem. i have three of the SAME ONE and would probably buy any more that i see. we finally found ryan a sweater. and a granny costume for a dog. it was a pretty good trip.

Decorating the Dining Room

2011-10-24T10:57:00.000-05:00

I finally finished putting up my halloween decorations! i actually ended up throwing out a ton of what i had because it was mostly cheap ugly junk i picked up in college. i'm on the lookout for cuter things to use. but here is what i used to decorate our dining room.

top of my china cabinet. silly little lanterns hanging from the light. dining room table. little bitty skeleton my bff brought me back from oaxaca, mexico. kind of halloweenish? i saw another kitty exactly like this at the flea market! shoulda got it. of course i have to get this picture in whenever i can. oh stephen. and a perfect little halloween kitty to complete the look.

Flea Market Finds

2011-10-23T11:31:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was the biggest Nashville Flea Market of the year! And somehow I came away with just a few things. I think i should have eaten a good breakfast. I went with two friends and after a few hours we were starving and thirsty and had to just leave. but here is what i ended up with..

i was VERY excited to find the daisy afgan! I've been really wanting one for a few months. then there is the sweet little frame (the silver is a mirror) and picture, a chippy cute deer, and an adorable set of animal rummy cards.

and kind of a huge stack of vintage photos! i've been trying to be more picky about the vintage i buy (because my house is already pretty full) so i have been really enjoying collecting vintage pictures. they are cheap and small and I can fit them all in a vintage photo album i bought. i try to stick with pictures of dogs (sometimes other animals if i really love it), christmas, and silly vacation photos. here are a few of my favorite from yesterday:

a cute saucy addition to the dog collection. the back says "with lady boats simon. oct. 13, 1952"

i love these little old ladies showing off a cat and a calendar.

"butch and ross. oceanside california. 1938"

"Herman Bennett" i love little wodden scenes that you can put your head in for a picture so this really delights me!

it was really all about travis at the flea market! he wasn't even with me and i kept finding stuff for his vintage medical collection.

the booth that had this had a TON of purple medicine bottles that were awesome, but they were expensive. and i am cheap. maybe i'll get him one for christmas.

our friend thomas bought him this awesome wooden first aid kit as an early christmas present.

he loved it! i'm still on the lookout for a mid-century hutch for our living room so he can display his collection. we also have some vintage red cross books, a cute eye chart, and a teeny little red cross pin. linking up as usual:

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-20T22:26:00.000-05:00

my mom and i went to a local pumpkin patch on sunday. it was a beautiful day. i don't know if we usually go later in the year or what, but the leaves in the patch were so high! your really had to search to find pumpkins!and the pumpkins were still green! i kind of wish mine would stay that way instead of turning orange. i think they are pretty that nice dark green. after we picked a few pumpkins we walked back to the tent to get a few more. i love that pumpkin tower. they didn't have many interesting pumpkin varieties. it was kind of a bummer. here is our little pumpkin haul! i think i'll look for a new patch to go to next year though. you can't really tell in the pictures but it was REALLY crowded and you had to park so far away. mom and i had lunch at McCreary's in downtown franklin as well. I got a fish sandwich and it was incredible. mmmm. it was fun to do something with just my mom. we haven't done anything just the two of us in a long time. I put my pumpkins by my side door just like last year. I love seeing them when i get home from work every day.

Pugtoberfest! Part Two.

2011-10-17T20:53:00.000-05:00

we played a round of pug bingo. phyllis didn't win though. here we are ready for the costume contest! for some reason i didn't get a picture of priscilla! she wore her skeleton costume of course. they got to walk down a red carpet. very glamorous. look at this sweet blind baby. i think her name was buttercup. we didn't win the costume contest either. i can't remember who won...kissing contest! so hilarious. they were looking for longest continuous kiss. the girls were getting really tired, but we were waiting for one last contest. banana eating. can you spot travis and priscilla waiting to start? phyllis and i watched from the side lines. she isn't a fast eater so we didn't enter her.

there was some INTENSE focus from the other pugs.

priscilla wasn't so intense and she didn't gobble down her banana like she usually does at home. all that training for nothing! hahah. training means sometimes if i ate a banana, i would give priscilla a few bites.

so then we headed out. of course we had to stop by this dog bakery to pick up the prize priscilla won for winning the pug race. they were really cute! i was tempted to try it myself. haha. travis' brother and his wife live in louisville so we met up with them since we were so close. the girls got to sleep in their apartment (since they pretty much sleep 20 hours a day, going places with us exhausts them) and we went to a restaurant called hammerheads. the food was sooooo goooood. i overindulged and felt so full and terrible on the way home, but it was worth it. fries with truffle oil. oh man they were so good. jordan got smoked mac and cheese with truffle oil that was great too. crispy smoked catfish sandwich. very very good. i didn't finish half of it, it was so huge! travis and i keep trying to go full vegetarian (right now we're technically pescetarian) but we can't give up fried fish! the ride home was almost uneventful except for a doggy bathroom episode that i will spare you. but let's say it involved us having to leave both the dog beds on the side of the interstate. but other than that, we had a great time at pugtoberfest!

Vintage Finds

2011-10-16T11:21:00.000-05:00

our vacation is two weeks away so i've been saving my pennies and not thrifting much. but pretty vintage stuff keeps coming my way!I went to the goats, music, and more festival in lewisburg, tennessee last week and there was a great vintage booth with super low prices, not even taking into account that everything was half off on the last day. i picked up that cute panda bank for a dollar! and the pretty metal globe with astrological signs for 7.
the other stuff was given to me by my friend Neill. We watch his dog for him (that sweet dachshund chloe) and sometimes he brings me vintage treasures as a thank you! I would watch her for nothing, because she is so good and sweet, but it is fun to get pretty things. he brought me a better homes and gardens annual cookbook from the year of my birth.... a cute old chopper that matches my kitchen , a pretty depression glass syrup server and serving dish. last but not least, one of those cool vintage hair dryers! i love that faux bois label maker tape! nail dryer portion. i love the type they used. and i'm tempted to try it out. (never mind, apparently they sometimes have asbestos in them!!)it has a hose and the little cap to pull over your hair. so fun!

linking up as usual:

grandma jordan's glasses

2011-10-15T22:18:00.001-05:00

Travis' brother went back to hayti to see their grandmother and brought me back some glasses that belonged to their great grandmother.
as you can see they are very flattering. haha, i can't see a THING when i have them on. and can i tell you how happy i am that I'm finally getting a haircut next thursday! my hair hasn't been this long in over 10 years and it is driving me crazy!travis went to a civil war reenactment with his dad and brother today and his dad got them both kepi hats. he has been wanting one for a long time. what a dork. (pot calling the kettle black much?) phyllis was really into posing dramatically this afternoon. we told stories about how she lost her leg in the civil war.

Pugtoberfest! Part One

2011-10-14T22:27:00.006-05:00

So I took a LOT of pictures at pugtoberfest last weekend, then it took me forever to go through them because so many were terrible. I really need to learn more about taking descent pictures in low light! and then half of them were pictures of phyllis and priscilla, so I had to decide how many it was acceptable to post. haha. so here you go!

travis checked this audiobook out for us to listen to on the drive (almost 3 hours!). it made me realize i would NEVER want to have a pet owl. you basically can't have any friends come over because the owl will try to pluck out their eyes. and you have to spend part of every day killing mice. not worth it!

we drove past cave city, the most magical place on earth. next time we need to stop and get a picture of the pugs on one of those big plastic dinos. i put the girls in a crate this time instead of buckled in on the advice of some people on the pug village forum. it worked pretty well! priscilla didn't cry and bark the WHOLE time. just part of the time. wouldn't you love to be just randomly driving through town and see a sign like that? i would. so this was pugtoberfest! it is a fund raiser for the kentuckiana pug rescue. it wasn't as big as pugfest in atlanta last year, but it was still fun. i like any time i can pet other people's dogs. the first thing we saw was a pug race! so cute! we entered priscilla in the 9 and up category. we didn't enter phyllis because she runs for no one. she KNOWS you will come pick her up, so if you call her she just sits down and looks at your expectantly. little stinker. priscilla won first place in her division! can't you see how thrilled she is?she couldn't see travis or hear him calling her, so i had to kind of run in front of her so she knew where to go. then we bought a bunch of raffle tickets. i wanted this wreath! mostly for the little knitted pug. or this funny thing! but bummer time, we didn't win one single basket we put tickets in for! oh well, the money was for the pugs anyway. look at these cute babies! they were so focused on their owner they didn't care that i came over to pet them. we put them in the stroller to rest. they didn't like it much. they wanted to be out getting petted and meeting all the pugs! we found a place to sit on the floor to wait for more contests. they were both entered in the costume contest, and priscilla entered the banana eating contest! i'll leave you in suspense of how they turned out.....