Gatlinburg Weekend!

This past weekend was Travis' 28th birthday, and our 11 year dating anniversary! Can you believe that? To celebrate, we were able to take a long weekend from work and rent a cabin in the smokey mountains. It was much needed. Our little cabin (called "Right at Home") wasn't too impressive from the driveway. 

But it had a great view. We had a sweet hot tub on the deck, and we hopped right in when we got there around 10 pm. There is nothing better than sitting in a hot tub when it's cold out! Heavenly! This is our third time renting a cabin through Mountain Rentals and it has been great every time. I really recommend it. It is not that expensive, especially if you go with a group of friends! We did that last fall and it was one of the best vacations we've ever taken!

The inside was deer themed. Well, part of it, the bedrooms were bear and fishing themed respectively. The bedroom we slept in was awesome, it didn't have any windows and was perfect for sleeping in.

The first day we headed to downtown Gatlinburg and walked along the touristy strip. There was actually not even one store we wanted to go in! Most of the fun kitschy stuff is gone, and it is all tacky (in a bad way) t shirt and knife shops. But here is some cute stuff we saw.

I told him to look serious.

The Ole Smoky Candy Kitchen is still cute! It was there when I was a little kid and it doesn't seem to have changed over the years.

I love that taffy logs sign. Too bad taffy isn't vegan. It is so good!

Sweet little carved animals. I wish I had this as a centerpiece for my kitchen table!

Look at their sweet packaging. 

I'll also take this latch hook rug.

The Harry Potter one!! I have always wanted to get a caricature of us. My cousin had one when we were kids of her as a Ghostbuster and I was always so jealous! I bet it wouldn't live up to my expectation though. Also, poor Nicole Kidman!

We've never done the space needle, but I loved this review of it on trip advisor. Spoiler alert, angels saved that family from dying on a rickety elevator. I use that site a LOT and my favorite part is reading the terrible reviews. 

The lady in front of the magician moved up and down. We should have gone in there, I've always been curious. Gatlinburg is so full of over priced tourist traps though, it is hard to tell which ones will be funny terrible, and which ones will just be a waste of time and money.

It is a good thing there was a Mellow Mushroom there! It was the only vegan option we could find in town! Their vegan pizza is so good! Their regular pizza is good too! I'm glad they seem to be in a lot of touristy areas.

Travis was happy about it too. We get the enlightenment salad too. It has apples and dried cherries on it. Mmmmmm so good!

I'm finally starting to appreciate mushrooms.

After we ate we came back to the cabin and sat in the hot tub forever. I wish we had a hot tub, that someone else took care of for me. It was so relaxing and awesome. I totally snuck this picture of Travis through the window. He is drinking a san pelligrino! We are little obsessed with them. 

That night we had a fire and Travis made me mashed potatoes with peas (one of my favorite things to eat) and we watched Sound of Music! Travis remembered me saying I felt like watching it a few weeks ago so he brought it, isn't that sweet? It was awesome. We (well, I) sang along and then we got Travis' birthday pie ready! I made that fudge one I posted recently.

26 plus 2 is 28 right? 

Around the house

I'm in the middle of a 9 day work stretch so I haven't gotten to go out and do anything fun lately. So today I have some more snapshots from around our house. 

The curved doorway from the kitchen to the dining room is one of my favorite things about our house. I wish all the doors were like that. It's hard to get a picture of it, but I've been trying to fill the kitchen walls with red things. Here is one side of the doorway. You can see my silly daruma collection on top of the cabinets too.

 Here is my little collection of bull dog salt and pepper shakers, and a chippy tooth pick holder.

I finally found some vintage fake flowers to fill a few of my planters with. Thankfully the cats are not interested in them. How sweet is that mama and baby koala planter?

Oh I am itching to get out and go somewhere! Thankfully we've got two little trips lined up soon. We're  also trying to finalize where we're going to go for Travis' week off in the summer. I'm thinking either California or New England so far.

My room.

Here are some scenes from around my bedroom. Would you believe I'm almost thirty? Ha!

 That crown is from my time working for a child beauty pageant production company. Yes, that happened. Yes, my ex-employers are on Toddlers and Tiaras. I wish I could post about it!

 Little collections everywhere. And books! We actually donated a few boxes full last year. But there are still piles and piles around the house.

 Travis' dresser. The luchador and the skull were both gifts from our best friends. They brought them back from mexico! The little safe belonged to my dad when he was a kid. It is full of our love notes from high school. We just emptied the change from that jar and we had over 40 dollars! We used to money to go see Cabaret at the Tennessee Repertory Theater. It was great!

 The view from our bed. The ceiling was papered when we moved in. I used to hate it, but I like it now. It is hard to see, but there is a subtle pattern of pagodas and men fishing in between the flowers.

 The poodle is of my favorite photos in my collection. The little black pug was a gift from my friend.

 I love the build in shelves in our room. Most of my favorite books are in here. 

I have a little inspiration to be fabulous inside my closet door. I LOVE Latrice Royale. When I met her she was even nicer than I had hoped. I have a signed Sharon Needles poster in there as well.

I keep my camera bag on the back of the door. It is a Jo Tote, and I LOVE IT! I've had it over a year, and I keep meaning to write a review of it. I use it ALL the time, and it is still in great shape and my big DSLR fits in there perfectly. I highly recommend their bags!

And here is my little pile of sad left behind vintage stuffed animals. This is the weird little collection that Travis probably rolls his eyes at the most. But sometimes I just can't leave them behind!

And of course my favorite thing in my room! Little bitty Phyllis. 

Sick House

We've got a sick pug on our hands! I don't want to embarrass her by posting her symptoms on the internet, but lets just say it involves the mop and a fecal collection kit and rubber gloves and keeping her on a towel or in her room. Poor thing. We've got some medicine and we're hoping she'll be all better tomorrow. Sometimes dogs are gross. Good thing she is cute! 

Speaking of cute. I just can't resist these two.

I tried to take a picture with them both, but it never worked out. Here is the best attempt. Today was my first day in an eight days of work in a row stretch. But it will be worth it because next weekend we get to go out of town for Travis' birthday! We're still trying to decide if we're going to bring the dogs with us. Don't you think they deserve a little vacation from their hard schedule of sleeping and eating and being carried around?

A day of sales!

There are a ton of sales in town this week/weekend! Not many that look tempting, but it was still fun to have a bunch of listings to look through! I am off work today so i decided to spend my morning going to a few. And you know I got something good if I'm posting about it the same day!

The first sale I want to was in the store front that one of my favorite sale companies has. Then a little house in Crieve Hall, and then this big weird place in Germantown. This place was WEIRD. It had living space and work space and tons of HUGE cool stuff that wasn't for sale. 

Like that amazing Attack of the 50 ft. Woman art! How much would you love that in your house? The table in front of it was full of vintage camera stuff which was neat, but antique store priced so I left it.

 These strange cut outs weren't for sale either. Really, there were about 20 things for sale per room.

 Look at that amazing circus banner! There was a room that had a bunch of great old panorama photos that I was tempted by. I might regret not picking up the one of the boys camp from 1937. A hundred awkward preteen boys in little shorts and kerchiefs with no shirts. But it was antique store priced as well. Hmmmm.

Oh my way out I noticed this creepy scene in the fountain out front.

Here is what I ended up with. Notice Murray was having a hard time not hanging out with me while I took pictures. This picture made me laugh so I had to post it!

 So here is the crazy part. I got this cute donkey brooch at one sale for four bucks. Not a bad price. 

And I don't want to brag, but at the next sale I got all this for the same price!!! She actually asked for five bucks, but since I only had four bucks cash she took that! This sale was run by one of the BIG companies in town, that is known for overpriced sales. It had walked through and only picked up a piece of fabric and looked through a bunch of cheap modern Christmas stuff. I decided to quickly glance at the boxes in the car port and when I saw a few elves peeking out I got excited and started digging. There was a big box of more glass balls but I wasn't sure how it was going to be priced so I left it. I was seriously waiting for someone else at the sale to see what I was finding and come snatch some away! But no one there was looking for vintage stuff I guess? I took it up to the front and the woman running the sale barely even looked in the bag and box I had, just said five dollars. I still can't believe it. Here are some close ups:

 A big pile of Santas. A yarn lion. A flocked reindeer. 

 These were the best balls, but there were way more! I like the honeycomb looking ones a lot.

 I'm most excited about all these elves! I've been wanting a bunch of them but never seem to find them at sales for less than 5 bucks each.  I like the little singing dude! And the one in the yellow outfit.

 Some little glittery nativities, and some cute deer. There are a few birds scattered through there. 

These BIG flocked deer are actually what I saw first. I bet if there had been a hidden camera you would have seen my eyes bug out. I love their creepy blue eyes!

A little felt stocking and some gift tags. I'm on the lookout for gift bags this year. For real, I will never pay full price for wrapping paper again. There is so much at estate sales for 25 cents a roll! And ribbon! And tape!

Some sugar bells and three corsages.

I already have a few of the red birds.

Other than the Christmas stuff, I grabbed two other things. This fabric I am going to use to recover two pillows for our couch. My plan is to get up and do it after I post this, so well see. I'm not totally sure what the Hawaii thing is. It is made of silky fabric and is a little envelope. For some reason I think it might be for putting lingerie in when you pack it, but I don't know why I think that. It has a little poem about sisters inside, and a cute hula girl on the back. 

   

And there you have it! What a haul!

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