Night Out in Louisville

Travis and I went on a whirlwind trip to Louisville this weekend. We had a pretty special reason (I'll tell you about that tomorrow!) but we don't need much coaxing to make the 3 hour drive up to Louisville. We LOVE it there! If I was interested in moving, we would probably move there. 

We got into town in the late afternoon (we listened to Games of Thrones on the way there, we're on book three and I keep getting freaked out! I can't wait to watch the show!). Of course we checked Happy Cow for places to eat (vegans/vegetarians you have GOT to get that app! It rules when you are traveling!) and we saw this place called Hillbilly Tea. I'm not crazy about the name but Travis loves tea and I was interested in some BBQ tofu that was mentioned in a review.

 Travis doesn't like to smile in pictures so I love it when I catch a picture of him smiling naturally. 

 Look at all those mason jars! I got the sweet bush iced tea and it was SO GOOD! Had a strong vanilla taste that I absolutely adored. Travis got some of the tea hootch and said it was great.

 I loved their screen printed menus too. It looks like they change seasonally, which is cool. 

They were out of the smoked okra appetizer we wanted to try, but the substitute was fried portabella mushrooms over some chow chow and man where they GOOD. I decided to be brave and try mushrooms on their own and I'm so glad I did. Mmm, I could eat another order of this right now. 

 We both got the smoked tofu stack for dinner and sadly it wasn't great. I'm not really into eggplant, and I prefer tofu to be cut up more, or shredded. It wasn't terrible, just not something I would order again. I loved the barley on the bottom though! I don't think I've ever had that before, I'll definitely been buying a bag and trying my hand at it.

I loved the old silverware too! So we had a great time at Hillbilly Tea and I would go back, maybe in the fall to see what their next vegan entree will be. It was a little pricey, but fun for a date night.

 After dinner we went down to the Louisville Palace. It is the most beautiful theater I've ever been too. It is from 1928 and usually hosts musical acts, but every summer they do a movie series. You can see what we were there for...

 Yes! The movie on Friday night was Rebecca. I had read the book but hadn't seen the movie before. It was GREAT.

 Look at that lobby!

 Close up on the amazing ceiling. 

 I never got a clear picture, but I'm going to show you anyway. Can you just die? Oh I'm glad the lights go down for the movie because I would be so distracted by all the beautiful things to see. We ended up sitting on the floor, but I love the view from the balcony as well.

And here is the lobby on the way out. Just perfection. We're hoping we'll be able to make it up for at least one more film in the series. If you live anywhere close I highly recommend catching one of the films there! Louisville is awesome, and there is GREAT vintage shopping there! So cheap! I'm bummed that we didn't have time to go to Tickled Pink this time.

Our Last House

Yesterday Travis was looking at his old Whiskerino profile for some reason (warning if you look at those photos, there is a pretty scary mustache involved). We took a lot of his images at our last house and it made me nostalgic and I also realized I hadn't shared pictures of the house here. So indulge me a little bit, I think you guys are going to love it. 

Travis and I lived in this amazing house for a year. I can't say much about it, but it was an incredible experience. Sadly, I never really took the time to walk around and photograph the place. So there are tons of pictures of friends there (I can't believe how often we used to have people over for themed get togethers!)

 There was a covered walkway that went from the dining room to the old kitchen house. They used to rent that little place out, how cute! There were a few little ponds around this covered porch and lots of flowers to cut.

There were more out buildings. All with great red roofs. I wish I had a picture of the original carriage house! I don't know what I was thinking. I was blogging at the time (on my old live journal) and you would think I would have taken the time.

I loved this covered porch. 

This is another shot from the beard competition. Ha! This wallpaper was in the room we used as our bedroom. Man, I wish I could have somehow brought all the paper with me. I know it has all been torn down now.

We had a big fireplace in our room, too bad we couldn't use it. Those are flowers from our wedding and the gorgeous Mr. Bowie of course.

Those big windows! So beautiful, but it was SO COLD in the winter! That is Scampi in the window. We just had two cats when we lived there.

 Another competition picture. Hah! That crown is from my short lived career in child beauty pageants. Oh I WISH I could tell you all about that! This wallpaper was my favorite and was in the front room, that we called the ballroom.

 Because of that chandelier! Look at it! Oh I can't believe I lived somewhere so amazing!

I had to include this one for those curtains! Kind of a strange choice for the room, but they worked somehow. That stool we were using for our photoshoot was over 100 years old! It went with a super old piano that was in the house.

 I can't believe I don't have a better picture of the entry way. It is a big open space that goes to the upstairs (which I have NO pictures of!) One of the bedrooms up there had a great mid century cowboy light fixture. And more amazing wall paper.

 On the landing in the middle of the staircase there was a little door that went into this room. THE COFFIN ROOM! Ah! When this house was built there was NOTHING else around so the family had all their coffins shipped to the house to wait for them to die. Isn't that crazy? This room was creepy and unfinished and awesome. This is another Whiskerino picture.

 Some more wallpaper. This room had heavy deep red curtains. We had a Yule Ball that Christmas and asked people to dress up. It ruled.

 Then there was the kitchen. Can you tell what the wallpaper was?

 No simple fruit pattern here, look at all that bountiful produce! It was so overwhelming in the best way! I miss that kitchen. It was huge!

We used this room off the kitchen as our living room. The house was over 7000 square feet and we lived in just three rooms in the bottom back.

 Look at that red! (This is a picture from the year we recorded a Christmas album. Ha!)

 And last but not least, this is the room we lived in during our last month there. It was so cold and we didn't want to buy propane since we were moving out. This room had the least windows. It was still 50 degrees or less in there! It was so miserable!

 You can see the pattern a little better here. 

 So we moved from this amazing manor into our little cottage in December 2009. Sometimes I think I've lived a pretty boring life and don't have any good stories, then I remember things like this crazy house.

And I had to post this one because it made me laugh. It was the second day we were in our new house and Travis captioned it "We moved into a new house. I hope Santa can find me." Look at that beard! Sad to say it didn't last til New Years. I just couldn't take it. Maybe someday I'll let Travis live his beard dream.
I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!

A Night with Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors, so when we found out he was stopping in Nashville on his last ever signing tour we had to go. The event was last Wednesday night at War Memorial and it couldn't have been better. 

Neil was just lovely on stage, and read from his new book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane. He said that at all the other tour stops he has read from the first or second chapter, but since there was a thunder storm going on during the reading he read a portion from the middle of the book that took place during a storm. It was so perfect, the thunder rumbled almost like it was being queued! The passage was just as creepy as I wanted it to be and I couldn't wait to get home and read the rest of the book. And it didn't dissapoint! I only wish it was longer because I wanted to stay in that world longer!

He also answered some questions that the audience had turned in (it was kind of disappointing that so many dumb ones were at the top of the pile. But his answers were always good) He read another selection from an upcoming book and Bela Fleck came out on stage to accompany him on the banjo!

After that Neil stepped off stage and the signing portion began. I think they said there were 1700 people were there and a LOT of them stayed to get their books signed. They pulled section and row number out of box to determine the order you got your book signed. We waited close to four hours and I can't believe how great the crowd was! I kept waiting for mutiny or people trying to cut in line but everyone seemed so good natured and just happy to be there! Even at the Maddie on Things signing week before people were complaining the whole time and we waited barely an hour!There was some exaggerated yelling whenever a section was called that WASN'T yours that was close, but people also cheered for other sections. When we got called we all leapt to our feet and it felt like we'd won something!

 As it always is when I meet someone that I really admire and love I couldn't think of anything to say but I was so happy to stand in front of Neil Gaiman and thank him while he signed my books. He was so good natured even after signing for HOURS and I can see why this will be his last signing tour. It has to be exhausting.

It was a very special night. You could get one other item signed after he signed your copy of the new book, so we chose Anansi Boys. We HAD ordered a cool new edition of American Gods that we planned to bring but we didn't get it in time. But I absolutely LOVE Anansi Boys so I was happy.

I highly recommend his books. Coraline was the first one I read when I saw the preview for the movie and it FREAKED me out, even though I mostly read it at work on my lunch breaks. Neil Gaiman has such a great and original voice and those are my three favorites I've read so far. His audiobooks are wonderful too, he reads most of them himself which I always love. Next I'm going to read American Gods. I didn't for a long time because I thought the cover was dumb (yes I know that isn't a good reason). BUT we've got a different edition now so I'm finally going to listen to Travis and read it. That is, if I ever make it through the Game of Thrones series! I'm 1700 pages in, with 1800 left. Geeze!

Are you reading anything good lately? Some friends and I are trying to start a little book club but are having a hard time finding something good to read that none of us have read before. It's just five of us so it shouldn't be that hard!

A Day In Great Detail

My Saturday started out pretty great. I put on Pandora and one of my favorite songs to dance too came on first thing! "Get Me Bodied" rules. I tried to get Travis to dance to it with me while we got ready, but it didn't work. Ha!

 Murray is very helpful first thing in the morning. 

 I took on smoothie duty. We bought a Vitamix in the fall and I highly recommend them! I have a smoothie almost every morning, and always with at least 2 cups of kale!

Supplement time! I get lots of supplement samples at work, so I'm making myself actually take them! It has lasted about two weeks so far, we'll see how long I can keep it up.

 A little selfie to show you I'm ready to go!

 We put the girls in their room and leave for our first destination...

 We went to the Belcourt to see All Dogs Go To Heaven! As you can see, they were doing a Don Bluth series and sadly this was the only one I was able to go to. I would have LOVED to see The Secret of Nimh or The Land Before Time on the big screen.

After the movie we went to our favorite place in Nashville for lunch. Their buffet is so good! Everything there is vegetarian, and almost everything on the buffet is vegan too.

 Mmmm I want to go back right now! Those hakka noodles in the middle are one of my favorite things to eat there. And those little lentil donuts in the back!

We did a little grocery shopping next. We had to pick up a few things because we were going to make some food to take to my aunt's house for dinner that night. I like the challenge of making a few vegan things to share that everyone will like.

 Had to include a shot of the cutest grocery bag I have! 

Then it was time the main event of the day! Do you follow Maddie? If you are a dog lover you are going to love it! I like her owner's instagram, thiswildidea, and his Why We Rescue project is amazing! 

Her owner Theron is a wonderful photographer and gave a really inspiring talk. The best part was Maddie running around through the crowd looking for people to pet her the whole time. What a cutie.

 The line to get books signed was so long! We waited over an hour!

 Look at that posing pro! I got to pet Maddie a few times. It was awesome!

 He had a stamp made of her paw print which is pretty great. 

It was such a fun book signing! They are going to have Garrison Keillor sometime later this year which is pretty exciting!

 We went home after that and scrambled to get our food ready for our dinner plants that night. Priscilla loves hanging out in the kitchen with us.

I made this raw vegan No Bake Strawberry Chocolate Pie from The Joy of Vegan Baking, and it was amazing! I will definately make it again before strawberries go out of season. It seemed to be a hit at dinner, there was none left to bring home!

After this we mostly just sat around and talked with my family until it got dark. It was a pretty great day off!