Our Holiday

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?

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

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

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

The Smokey Mountain National Park is one of the most beautiful parks in the country, so when we were 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!

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

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!