Some finds...

today i went into whole foods to fill out some paperwork. i'm going to be working there again on monday! only part time, but maybe that will give me time to find some freelance work. who knows.
even though we've been pretty broke since i left that terrible job, we have been able to make some small purchases at flea markets/antique stores. i have made a few cute additions to our salt and pepper shaker collection, which is almost exclusively animals:


i wanted some squirrels like this at the salt and pepper shaker museum but they were 38 dollars! these didn't come with the tree they are supposed to hang on but they are cute anyway (and only three dollars!) so i hung them from little nails in the window above my sink. the lady i bought them from was SO NICE. she was like " i know they aren't a complete set but i thought they were so sweet and i hoped someone would love them." mission accomplished.

cute owls we picked up in princeton, kentucky. JAPAN is stamped on the bottom. i have lots of japanese napa wear animals planters in storage waiting for me to plant stuff in them.

this little guy was labled "mr. donkey" and is missing his mate, but i loved him so much, i bought him anyway! i got him at the spring hill antique mall. so cute.
for some reason almost everything i buy at antique stores is for my kitchen.

cute puppy napkin holder! ah! we already had a cute old napkin holder but this one was even better. it's sitting on top of our old fashioned radio. for some reason people always ask us if it came with the house.

set of glasses someone hand painted to match a famous poppy pattern. i got 5 for three bucks. the lady at the counter couldn't believe it! she was very talkative, and i think she was disgusted when i didn't know what poppy pattern she was talking about.

the same lady then made this bag for me to take my stuff home! she stamped it, and wrote on it! how cute! she also reminded me three times that they had ice water and cookies at the front. she probably kept talking to me because she thought i was going to steal something. maybe not.

a cute old stuffed dog that i fell in love with in a weird junky booth at the flea market. 

hanky with an R. since my name is Rae. i don't know what to do with this. but it was only a dollar.

not an antique, but a cute parasol for future photo shoot. crystal bought one too. 

unicorn plates: 25 cents! kitten cards: 1 dollar for eight! yes!

i love antique stores/flea markers. fo sho. when we buy a house it will probably be almost completely decorated in antique store finds.

Pet Cemetary

pretty exciting, i did my first letterbox plant yesterday! the start of a series i want to do called "animals i have loved" i started with thomas' family dog crystal, because the plant spot was closest to my house now. i planted it in the pet cemetery where she is buried.

memorial wall. i'm thinking about getting a tile for haley. my first dog. we'll see.

hahah, i loved this one. i want to know what is going on in this picture.

omg the pet cemetery is much sadder than i expected. i was there for about an hour and half. making clues and reading all the headstones. poor biscuit boo.


someone had made a whole little scene around their dogs grave, with all kinds of plastic animals and little houses and wind chimes.



that last one was named pandy! so cute. and even though he died in 1985 the grave was the best kept one in the yard. fresh flowers and biscuits. awww.

Marissa's Birthday

i finally bought martha stewart's cupcake book! so many beautiful photos and wonderful looking recipes. i used it to make cupcakes for marissa's birthday. they are simple, just white cake with fluffy vanilla icing. but they were pretty delicious.


you use cake flour, instead of all purpose. supposedly that gives it a "tender crumb." haha. whatever that means.


i love making cupcakes. i used the last of my cute bear baking cups that dana got me. the icing was ok. not heavy enough for me i think. next time i'll use the buttercream recipe i like.
the birthday girl. we all dressed up and met her at the park. we were supposed to ride bikes. but it was going to storm. and travis had the bike rack in his car so i didn't bring mine. it turned out to be ok, there wasn't much riding done.
i can't believe even crystal dressed up! here she is signing into a letterbox that is at the park. that box isn't going to last long. every time i've been there it's been in plain view, in a busy area. shame.

we ate dinner at ru san. a sushi place in "the gulch".  i had been complaining that it was going to be there because i don't like sushi. but it was so fun! i take it all back.


i had some delicious chicken fried rice. it wasn't even expensive. dana let me try her tempura and it was delicious. our waiter was so bad. he brought our food out, a little at a time, probably over 2o minutes. so half of us had finished eating and the rest didn't have any food. when one girl asked him what was in a certain drink, he just said "i don't know" and didn't even try to find out! even though the bar was literally 5 feet from our table. haha. it was still fun. there was crazy techno music and we were all laughing a lot.




marissa got a free saki bomb for her birthday. the whole restaurant was cheering "when i say saki, you say bomb!" hahah. so much fun. i was so glad i went to dinner. i wish we all lived close to nashville and could get together for dinner more often. i could afford to go out more if we didn't have to drive over an hour to get anywhere interesting.

Graveyard Date

we are going to memphis this weekend, and it's elvis week! we are going to the vigil saturday night and i am so pumped about it. the vigil is held every year on the anniversary of elvis' death. you walk up the driveway of graceland to the meditation garden (where elvis is buried) with a candle. thousands of people come out. they make shrines to him in the streets...we went a few years ago, but waited until really late and the crowds thinned out. i want to see the opening ceremony this year.

i took murray to the vet this morning for his yearly shots and checkup. little baby is 10 pounds now! he used to like the vet because he was tiny and the ladies all cooed over him, but this time he hissed and did that kitty growl and puffed up his tail. so bad. they did a "fecal floatation" and it was just humiliating for the poor dear. but he is healthy, and doesn't have to go for a year. he is running from me whenever i come in the room, which is heart breaking. i hope he'll forgive me by the afternoon.

here are some pics from when i wasn't confined to the house....first i'll show you some from when travis and i went to a really old cemetery near downtown nashville.

it prompted lots of talk about what we want to happen when we die. we both want to be cremated. i don't know what i want him to do with my ashes though. i wouldn't mind them being buried in the backyard, like we did with my dogs ashes, but i bet there is probably a law against it. what do you want to happen to your body?



another travis' day off baja burrito lunch. i'm still obsessed. i can never decide what kind of salsa i want. they have a really good tomatillo one, and they also have a really good pineapple one. so i usually get both. yum.


we saw this dog in the back of someone's truck on our way to the cemetery to do some letter boxing. he was so cute and kept posing for me.





this old cemetery is really awesome. especially that pyramid. so creepy. this part of it is really really old. travis' parents took us on a tour of old nashville cemeteries randomly one easter.

here is what we were there for. clown graveyard stamp. haha.

i got some gold ink to use with my signature stamp. yes!

i love lamb head stones. i know they are kids, but the lambs are so cute. i told travis that i want a cute animal on my grave. i actually told him he could but a cute stone rabbit or deer from a garden store and use that to mark where my ashes are, and decorate it every year for dia de los muertos.


this cloaked lady (turned out to be a nun) freaked me out really bad. as we were walking towards it i was thinking about how creepy it would be if she turned around, then i started imagining it. i'm very good at freaking myself out.




scary! like a zombie coming out of the grave! i love all these elaborate old head stones. some are 15 ft tall!


we were supposed to go to derek's house after this and see his new scooter. but we were so tired we just went home. it's been so hot and humid here lately that i don't want to be outside at all. i planned a little letter box trip for myself and then only made one stop because the hike (a little over a mile) was just so unpleasant.

the heat also sucks because our electric bill was almost 250 dollars this month! that is over a hundred dollars more than it has been since we moved in! ahhh! i'm going to have to keep the thermostat way up. looks like we already spent the money i made working for the magazine last week.