One goal down...

It only took me four months to make one of my goals for the year happen. Haha! I have been hoarding a huge magazine pile for a few years, and I finally sat down to go through it. This photo is about 1/4th of it.

So I forced myself to sit down one night and go through them all, tearing out stuff I wanted to keep. My good friend Dexter kept me company. I rewatched season 4 for the first time and dang, it was so good! I think it took me 6 episodes to go through all the magazines! 

I ended up with a pretty great pile. I seperated them into folders: recipes (dinner), recipes (dessert), craft ideas, home ideas, pretty pictures. Which I might never look through, because Pinterest is so easy, but at least the magazine mountain is gone!

Then I finally pinned stuff on my "inspiration board".

Some close ups. I've been saving that picture of Michael Cera in a foil hat for a few years, I love it so much! The Frida patch was brought back to me from Mexico by my best friend (5 years ago!). I want to sew it on something, but it has to be something awesome. And check out that picture of the dogs jumping rope!

Ole sandworm. And I love Martha's dorky pet expert. I feel like that portrait of him could be a portrait of me. 

One of my favorite things about Martha Stewart Living is the monthly feature about something vintage. It is always something awesome! I loved the feature about crochets pot hangers. There was a really good fruit and vegetable salt and pepper shaker feature once. 

Little Phyllis was a great helper. I just can't resist taking their picture (pretty much at all times).

My glass of water looked so refreshing,  I had to take a picture of it too. I love these paper straws, they make me drink more water. And shirley temples. 

So now I've finished one thing on my to do list. The rest of the magazines are finally in the recycling bin, and I haven't been bringing more home. Who needs them when I've got pinterest?

Beauty Is Embarrassing

I posted about the movie before, but I finally got to see it and it was even better than I was expecting, so I had to tell you about it again. Watch the trailer, for real!! It is so good!

The Nashville Film Festival is happening right now, and this was screened on the first day. I'm so happy I randomly got a festival pamphlet at trivia last week, because I wouldn't have know it was playing without that! The movie was so incredibly inspiring. The message was mostly that you should do what you love. Being creative doesn't have to fit into a certain category. Fine art can be funny. It also made me feel like crap because I don't do anything creative anymore because I let myself get discouraged and always take things too seriously. I went with my friends Brett and Kyle who are really creative and awesome. I wish they hung out with me more, because I like them a lot.

It is playing again tomorrow (Sunday) at 1, and if you are in Nashville, you should seriously go! You will laugh and cry and want to come straight home and draw. 

Wayne White was actually at the screening. He is from Tennessee so I should have known the movie would be at our film festival. The next day he did a book signing at a little bookstore in Green Hills. My boss was awesome and let me come into work a little late so I could go! Brett was there too and we both worked on not being too dorky when we met him. He gave a little talk before signing and I found out not only did the do design for Pee Wee and Beakman's World and Mrs Cabobble's Caboose (a nashville children's show I watched a LOT when I was a kid), one of his first jobs was designing part of the Cumberland Science Museum, a place I went to on about 15 field trips. So basically he was a HUGE influence on me as a kid.

How cute, he drew Randy! I'm so happy I didn't chicken out and went to the signing. Now maybe I'll use some of this inspiration and get some use out of my craft room!

Presenting Miss Sharon Needles!

I know that a bunch of you are Drag Race fans like me, so I had to post about the other night, even though my photos didn't come out so great. Quite a few Drag Race Alumni have come through Nashville and I've been to see a few (Pandora Boxx, Raja, The Princess, and Jujubee) but have missed even more (most notably Manilla, I'm still kicking myself!). But when a friend told me Sharon Needles would be here on Friday the 13th I knew we had to go! Even my best friend Crystal couldn't miss it. We got to the club REALLY early (I thought there was a 9:30 show, but it didn't start until 11!) but that turned out to be good because we ended up with a great spot. They had the club decked out in spooky stuff. I heard that almost 1000 people showed up to see Sharon and couldn't even see the stage!

She came out of a coffin that had been on the stage for the first 3 numbers by the house queens. It was so great! She had on her "Inaguration realness" outfit. I wish I could remember what song she did.

It was so packed I couldn't even get to the stage to tip!

After her first number she sat in the coffin and ate dollar bills until they got a mike out to her. She was so funny and great. I really hope she wins next week! 

For her second number she came out with a real poodle in her canine couture outfit!
It was so good.
Even though we had all said we wanted to be home by 11, and it was after midnight, we decided to wait in line to meet her. Crystal made her this pouch. Look at the perfect outfit she wore!
I don't know why I didn't buy one of these shirts! They are so perfect! "I ran into Sharon Needles at Party City." I did get a poster, which you can kind of see in the background, and Travis got a koozie.
She was SO NICE and funny! She did her Michelle Visage impression for me and signed our stuff. I'm always so relieved when you meet someone you like and they turn out to be just as great as you hoped.
She LOVED the pouch and Crystal's dress.
I can't wait for the season finale next week!! Who are you rooting for? You better not say Phi Phi!

Estate Date

Every once in a while Travis and I get to be off work on the same day. I especially like it if that day falls on a day when we can go to some estate sales! We went to a few one day, and I didn't pull the camera out until we came across this terrifying little statue.

Look at this cute owl! I was just talking about owl macramé in the comments to someone, saying I wanted one but never found one I liked enough, then this little dude caught my eye! For one dollar, he came home with us. 

Travis pointed out this awesome custom sled. I would have been tempted, but it was 90 dollars! Delusional. This whole sale was way over priced. Except in the basement, where all the good stuff was anyway. 

Check out the sweet Doobie Brothers paint job. I would love the know the story behind it.
The last sale put us really close to the Loveless Cafe, so we went in for a late brunch.

My cute date.

I got eggs and cheese grits and home fries. It was really good! Their home fries are battered like curly fries. Yummmm.

Here is the little pile of treasures I picked up. I have been looking for one of those ceramic trees forever! I was so happy to find a white one for just a few bucks! And I couldn't resist that owl, what a sweet face he has!

This kitty shaker is missing its mate, but I loved it too much to leave it behind. The holes are right behind the ears. It is the first long shaker like this in my collection.
A little pill box.

I found this pretty Betty ornament in a big box full of pretty glass balls. I picked it up because I thought it could represent Travis' grandma Betty on our tree! I assumed they would be expensive so I just grabbed the one, but they ended up only being 25 cents! I wish I would have grabbed some more.

And last but not least, a cute vintage picture of a cocker spanial. It was in a tiny frame they had marked 20 dollars and I asked the seller if I could just please by the picture because I collect vintage dog photos. He remembered me buying the big poodle picture from him before, and was so sweet to just let me have it.Estate sale season seems to be in full swing around here, I'm loving it!

Phyllis and Priscilla go to Rock City

I love Rock City, and when I found out recently that you can take your dog there, I have been looking forward to taking Phyllis and Priscilla. Can't you tell how excited they are by that picture? Haha! A nice French couple offered to take that family portrait for us. I'm so happy they did! Even if the 'kids' look less than thrilled. 

Rock City opened to the public in 1932. The owner's wife loved European folklore and imported German gnome statues to put throughout the trail. It is really kistchy and cute. I really want to go at Christmas. We bought season passes this time so we have no excuse not to go back once they put up the lights! 

We saw a few more dogs on the trail.
I love the old names of the rock formations. There are lots of places that you have to squeeze through.
My little goblin.

It turns our Rock City isn't the best place for two differently-abled pugs, especially two really tired ones. We ended up carrying them most of the way, they were not into the stairs, or the dark passageways. It was still fun though!

Travis and Priscilla on the swinging bridge.

I found this vintage photo of Lover's Leap last year and have been keeping it with me so I could take a picture of it with the real one. Nerd alert!

Phyllis didn't like getting too close to the edge or seeing the view, but Priscilla didn't mind. Probably because she couldn't really see the view.

Pretty amazing view though.

I couldn't stop laughing while we were taking this!
Hall of Rainbows.

My favorite part is Fairyland Caverns! There is a fairyland neighborhood at the top of the mountain that has a similar sign. The caverns are a series of caves with black light fairy tale scenes! It is creepy and cute at the same time! Perfect right?

The entrance.

I tried really hard to get some pictures to show you, but these two were the best. Believe me, if you are a kitsch fan you need to visit! You will LOVE it!

Snow White! My favorite part is a big room at the end that is a Mother Goose village. It is huge and you walk around and see all kinds of nursery rhymes, like Jack and Jill and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.

Sadly the gift shop isn't good. I did like that cat purse though! Most of it is really cheap modern souvenir stuff. They have some funny gnome hats, to bad not dog sized!

Here they are on our way out. I was so happy that they slept the whole way home. It was kind of exhausting traveling with two little dogs, I don't know how mom's do it! I'm so glad we went on this little trip, even if it left me itching for a longer road trip....