"Where young people go to retire." Portlandia Tour Review

Do you watch Portlandia? You should, it is hilarious! When they announced they were making a stop in Nashville on their tour I knew I had to go. The show was last night, I went with my friend Brittany and it was SO GOOD. I wasn't really sure what to expect. They played songs, played clips that haven't aired yet, talked to the audience and did some comedy bits. I had seen some reviews online of people who didn't like it, and thought it seemed unrehearsed, but I loved it! It almost felt like we were all just hanging out together. My favorite part was when they showed old photos from their computers. That sounds super lame but it was so hilarious. I got very few descent pictures, but I'm still going to show you!

Carrie Brownstein is so freaking cute. She has such a perfect haircut. If my hair wasn't curly I would have it. Here she is talking about a card she made for her mom when she was eleven.

Fred Armisen in high school. I'm totally in love with him. I mean, I was before last night, but now it is a super crush. Haha, he just seems so nice! And cute! And did you see him as Prince on SNL recently? So gooooood. And you know I have a thing for glasses.

They did this whole "She's Making Jewelry Now" bit that I really loved! Here is the video of it fro the show. Carrie said they wrote it because it seemed like they were hearing "She's making jewelry now" a lot when asking about someone they hadn't seen in a while. 

There was an audience question and answer which was just terrible. I don't remember there being even one good one. Someone asked if the "We can pickle that" skit was based on we can google that? and said something like "it took us a week to pickle ourselves and another week to unpickle ourselves." It was bizarre. Someone said "Fred can I put a bird on you?" I guess there was one good request, someone asked Fred to play drums, and it was awesome! They sang some songs with Eleanor Friedberger. She has a great voice, I wish I had brought more cash so I could have bought her cd. They did Patti Smith's "Because the Night" (that song comes on a work all the time and I love it!),  The Doors "Light My Fire", and Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark."

They said it was the only encore they did on the whole tour, and this was the last night. They pulled one dude up to dance and a ton up people ended up on stage. Security wasn't happy about it, but it was pretty great. Believe it or not I didn't wait after for a chance to meet Carrie and Fred. I really doubted they would come out, and the night had been so nice and weirdly intimate feeling I didn't want to ruin it if I ended up waiting a long time for nothing. 

I got a poster and this great tour bag. Check out the bread box that I put a bird on behind the bag, haha.
I love the we can pickle that sketch so much! You should watch it!

So in conclusion, I thought Portlandia: the tour, was great. I'm so happy I got tickets.

Collection 10: Deer

Here is another collection that is woodland creature themed. Deer are amazing animals, and you can find all KINDS of cute vintage deer pretty easily while thrifting. After I started writing this post I found a bunch of other deer around the house that I forgot! 

I love these little flocked deer. I found the whole family at an antique mall for just a dollar! 

These are teeny little bone china deer I found at a fancy estate sale. I think the guy with the money box was insulted when all I brought up were these tiny things.

I saw a little wall mount just like this on the Dainty Squid and I have been on the lookout ever since! I was so happy to find one at an estate sale! I keep that calendar on my birthday because I'm too lazy to change the date. And the other deer is a brooch.

Some sweet little sitting deer.
The little deer with their butts in the air are salt and pepper shakers from a national park.

I started an accidental Bambi collection. I recently added a read along record. That framed piece is a page from a vintage kids book. That is such a fun place to find art!

I love the little deer handle from this sugar bowl. I had a tea pot that matched but the cats knocked if off my shelf and it shattered. It was a very sad day. They don't knock down many things in the house, but they always seem to find the things that I like best.

So there is my sweet little deer collection. 

I held a snake!! And saw a manatee!

Hope you aren't sick of my vacation posts yet! I'm near the end. Since we've been back things have been really hard at work, so I almost feel like I'm back having a great time when I'm making these! We're already planning our next getaway. So anyway...My aunt Lori work at a nature center and told us to come by before we headed out of town if we had a chance. I'm so glad we did! 

The main event was holding their pine snake, Precious. I had never held a snake before and it was so neat! Her belly was cold and felt like glass! Lori said she is the sweetest snake. She is the one they put around kid's necks when they come to the center.

Seriously awesome. I never really thought before about how a snake is basically one big muscle. She was surprisingly strong! And seems so curious! I thought I would be scared to do it, but once I saw her sweet little face I wasn't scared at all!

They have lots of reptiles there. This is hognose snake, so cute!

And this is a glass lizard. It is a lizard with no legs. When she was telling us about it I was thinking "Uhhh isn't that just a snake?" But it seems so obvious when you actually see it. They can lose their tail just like a skink, and they blink, which snakes don't do. 

Box turtle! I love that wrinkly skin.

We went for a walk on their trail too. It is so interesting being somewhere so different from what I am used too. The ground, the trees, the plants, the wild life, pretty much everything.
That sign made me think of the deathly hallows. Of course.
Those little red plants are carnivorous! So interesting.
Thanks for showing us around Lori! It was so fun!

After we left the wild life center we went to Blue Springs State Park. In the winter manatees hang out in the spring because it is warmer than the river. I had been swimming there in the summer about 10 years ago and it was awesome. But I really wanted to see a manatee! You can keep up with their count on their website and see how many manatees are there every day! Sadly the weather had been warm lately so most of the manatees were out in the river. The sighting board only said 3 manatees, instead of  over 100 like I was hoping.

The spring isn't huge so it doesn't take a super long time to walk all along it. I was getting bummed thinking I wouldn't get to see a manatee. 

Then we saw one! YES!

And there he is coming up for air! It was so cool. I wish there had been more, but just seeing this one dude made the drive worth it! Apparently you can download a guide and identify a lot of them by the scars on their backs from getting hit by motorboats. So sad.

Travis is obviously a manatee fan. Haha, actually someone who used to tattoo him was like "Look at this hilarious flash, I'll do this for free on anyone who will get it!" and of course Travis did it. When he showed it to me, I could just see the flames at first and I said, "That better not be a flaming skull!"

So, mission accomplished! Manatee spotted!

Second Day at Universal

We had multiple day Universal passes so we went back the day after the wedding to see what we didn't get to see the first day. We tried to get our picture with the Simpson's again, but the line was sooo long. Oh well, look at how cute their camper is! I would love to own that and travel in it!

The Simpson's ride is pretty new I think. It was kinda cool, it is a motion ride, with a big dome like a planetarium over you. I've never liked computer animated Simpson's stuff though. My favorite part of the ride was the big Krusty mouth.

Love it.

There was so much cute stuff in the Kwik-E-Mart. I had a really hard time choosing what to get. It was between a Squishy cup and a glass that looks like a can of Duff Beer. These donuts looked pretty awesome, until you looked close and they looked toooo processed and weird to me.

The Jaws portion of the park is all boarded up except for this. I am glad though! That movie freaks me out and I probably would have cried if Travis made me go on the ride. 

We rode the MIB ride and the Mummy again, then went back to the other park. I loved the Truffula trees in the Dr. Seuss section. I hope the Lorax movie is good! I saw a preview for it yesterday (before the Secret World of Arriety which was awesome!!) and it looks kind of laaaame.

These sculptures were in one of the Dr. Seuss shops. I WANT ONE! Too bad they are almost 2000 bucks each. They are called Unorthodox Taxidermy.

We tried to eat somewhere else, but after waiting in line at the circus cafe ands seeing how crappy the 8 dollar mini pizzas looked we just went back to the 3 Broomsticks. 

Right after Travis took this picture a girl asked me to do a survey and tried to make small talk about cats because "obviously you are really into cats." haha. 

Yummmm. More butterbeer. And omg going through these pictures I'm realizing that I ate fried fish and fries almost every single day of our trip! After lunch we rode the Forbidden Journey in Hogwarts a few more times and bought a few more souvenirs. Then we went on our way.

Here we are on our way out. I'm on the cusp of having a sun burn. Dang.
Looks like we left at just the right time! Look at the ominous sky!

After it rained we saw a rainbow! It actually turned into a double rainbow (all the way across the sky. for realzz) and it made me so happy! It was like the universe was at peace now that I had finally been to the Wizarding World. It was totally worth the trip.

A wedding on Lake Mary

The main reason for out trip to Florida actually wasn't to visit the Wizarding World if you can believe it! We went down for my cousin's wedding. She got married at this really beautiful event center. 
The ceremony was great. I don't know if they wrote the vows, or where they got them, but there was a part about accepting the person you are, and supporting you in becoming who you will be. Just lovely.
Paparazzi! My mom was fixing her dress.

For some reason I didn't take a picture of the beautiful lake they were taking pictures in front of. It was a great place for us all to wait to get our pictures taken. I love this candid one below. From the left you see my brother, my grandma, her sister in law, my uncle, my mom, and my grandpa.

The reception was really fun too! They had a good DJ and amazing food. I always love a mashed potato bar. Here we are dancing to "Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis. At our wedding Travis requested that the band play it, then ran off to tell some other friends it was on? So I danced with my friend Thomas instead. Haha!

My cousin Ashley is the one in pink, she really went for the bouquet! Sadly she didn't get it.
Right before it was time to go they passed out cookie and milk shots! So fun!
And just for fun, here is a picture of my dad and his parents on his wedding day. Look at that suit!