Beard Monsters and Chin Faces

The last weekend adventure for August '11 went like this:

Friday I went out with some girls from work. I laughed so hard my face hurt. Josh even met up with us and was such a trooper with a bunch of girls. 

But really, my first night "out on the town" was a lot of fun. And it has made work more fun now that I know some of my co-workers better.

Saturday morning Josh and I went to a big Flea Market that a friend from work told me about. It is held at the fairgrounds once a month. I was surprised how much of it was clothes, jewelry, some food stands (with samples!), prints and posters, perfumes, coin collections, ear candles etc... and not a whole lot of booths with home decor, knick-knacks or old raggedy DIY inspirations. It was HUGE though. We went into 2 buildings and there were numerous booths outdoors. 

{Side Note: Let me just point out how amazing and awesome my husband is because I don't have to "drag him around" to these sorts of things... he really likes going with me. Mostly because he likes to see me happy, but he also has some really cool ideas when he sees something unique or interesting.} 

Our only purchase was this:

Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits on vinyl. 

My dad has this album and I love it, so I had to get my own.

But yeah, that's all we bought.

After our feet were thoroughly achey we decided to get some frozen yogurt from Yogi's, load it up with fruit and granola, and hang out at Centennial Park.

I thought it was cool that the trunk was twisted.

I wish I had my camera out to capture an ambitious squirrel carrying an entire rib bone in his mouth. Someone didn't dispose of their BBQ properly. It was hysterical to witness.

We didn't have a plan when we left the house, but next time we will bring a quilt. It felt like the beginning of autumn. The sky was clear and blue.

Then I decided to make a Beard Monster, but I didn't tell Josh what I was up to. I just put some grass and helicopters in his beard, gave him some directions (Smile! Growl! Frown! Lick your nose!), and snapped my pictures. Giggling all the while. No really... I was cracking up the whole time. 

Josh's reaction to my antics, "What is this nest you have put in my beard?"

Now please enjoy my portfolio of silly Beard Monsters and Chin Faces

At this point, Josh destroyed the "nest" and I yelled "NOOOO! I'm not done." {frowny face}

So I gave up on Beard Monster's hair and just gave him eyeballs.

FAVE!

When I decided I was done, I let Josh see all the pics. I was literally laughing out loud.

Josh was semi-amused.

"My turn!" 

So then I said excitedly, "No! I want flowers as eyeballs!"

And Josh begrudgingly obliged.

I was getting much more joy out of this whole experience than he was. 

I still giggle to myself when I see this one.

All in all, I highly recommend Chin Faces and Beard Monsters. 

Especially if you have lots of little trinkets handy to utilize.

If you are like me, they could provide hours of entertainment. 

If you are like Josh, you can enjoy the fact that your wife gets so much joy out of your contribution of silliness.

Loves

Post Script: I'm feeling very aware of my teeth right about now. Please don't scrutinize too closely

The highlight of our Sunday was a nice hike through the blue trail at Percy Warner Park, literally right down the street from us. It was a nice challenge. We were sweating and our hearts were pumping, but it really wasn't difficult. We have since gone one more time, after work no less. I have a feeling that we will be frequent visitors, especially as it starts to cool off. 

Then we came home and did the projects from our previous post.

I'm hoping to get another post done soon about all the neat things we found while we were back home in Jackson.

Stay tuned!

Haley

To someone else's dead Grandma's house I go

Um What?!

I went to my first ever estate sale Saturday. What's awkward about barging into a house of the recently-deceased to pillage through their belongings? Oh, nothing. Especially when all three of the aforementioned dead-lady's (elderly) daughters are asking if you need any help or have questions. What is the appropriate response? "I'm sorry for your loss. How much for this mirror?"

I didn't stay long and I didn't buy anything.

I would expect that some of these rich folk in Nashville would have some killer estate sales. I'll keep my eyes peeled. (Catch the pun?)

So that was the start of my Saturday. The rest of the Saturday morning/afternoon was spent at antique stores. I had a great time looking around, getting ideas (mostly for later in life when we have a house). There are a whole bunch of antique stores and consignment stores along 8th Ave, all clumped together. Very convenient, thank you. 

So my plan was this: Take out $100 in cash and spend no more. Sometimes I go a little crazy at antique stores. And I was celebrating my first paycheck... I don't normally drop a Benjamin whenever I please.

I'll share a few of the things I saw that I thought were cool:

This is the biggest one that I went to, and was most organized. I heart it.

I found strange things like this:

'Cause who doesn't need a larger than life Bruce Lee?

But there were also a ton of amazing pieces, too.

Like this wooden folding chair bench. I take it that it was once a pew because it had the little rack on the back on the left chairback for the communion cups. It was $250, which was about what I expected. Lovely though.

I also thought this enormous copper thing had endless potential. It is a corn husk... something. You could have it just as decoration and store stuff in it. You could utilize it as a central piece in a room and but something tall like branches of some sort. I mean really, possibilities are endless.

I apologize for the quality. The flash on my phone just wouldn't co-operate. But it is an old tool caddy like this one from Secret Garden Cottage's blog:

Except it was really long and had 5 compartments. Can you say coffee table centerpiece? Craft storage? Future dining room table centerpiece? I can see it. And it was only $40 (a good price for those things) I was THIS close to getting it, but found something I liked better.

I'd seen this on Pinterest and put it on my radar for the space above my fireplace:

So when I saw this ladder, that's the first thing I thought about. 

I fell in love. I have future when-we-have-a-house plans for it too. The more I though about it, the less I liked the idea of wrapping it in chicken wire (plus its kinda heavy to hang). It is so beautiful in its own right. I am now planning to prop it up in a corner of the living room behind the chair where there is some empty space. I'm still going to do something to spruce it up. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Since it couldn't fit in my little Civic, Josh will have to go Monday to pick it up. I'm so pumped and it was less than $30!

Look at this awesome ladder utilization from The DIY Showoff!

Like the ladders in libraries! Love it!

And what antique girl doesn't love old trunks? I always have to stop and look. This one was something like $30 and I was a little beat up but still had a very nice weathered look. And a little bit of red paint.

It was hard to walk away, but I have no where to put it! I actually thought of my mother-in-law. We looked at lots of old trunks together in past antiquing days.

Speaking of in-laws, I found my father-in-law something special too. What do you think? Should I get it for Christmas? *wink* You can't see it, but it is marked down from $500 to $325. What a deal! (I think my mother-in-law would disown me if I did buy this for their house though)

Oh and this surprised me! I saw this out of the corner of my eye and couldn't believe it. These are those pantry storage racks! We had been looking for some that would hang over the door (not have to be screwed in). These probably could be hung but they were reallllly long so I decided to measure my door before I bought them.

So I went to another antique mall and found some other great items.

Old LIFE magazines (which are much larger than their current brothers) for only $3 each. This one caught my eye: "The Incredible Year: '68" This would be a cool display on a wall in an office or a boys room. All sorts of Life mags in frames. When I told Josh about it, he decided he wants to go back and get a few. (He likes the history stuff)

So then I found what I am going to used for the chicken wire piece:

No, not the King Tut poster. The 40x30 wooden frame. It is very light and a great size for the wall above the fireplace! I stopped by Lowes and got the chicken wire and "Vanilla" and "Butter" spray paint (yum) {They are a cream and a soft yellow} But I think a soft blue might be better. Everything in the living room so far is in the tan/white/gold family.

I thought this book was adorable! The Fascinating Story of Dolls

I ended up getting the large frame, this doily-esque pillow, and beautifully weathered copper pan:

While at Lowes I checked out the lamp shade. I got a "small" and a "medium" ivory drum shade to see which looks best.

This is medium. It's a bit oversized but that kinda makes it look retro. The downside: you can't see the little rosette on top.

This is the small. It fits, and you can see the rosette on top, but I think it just makes it look even smaller. (They are already pretty small). And I don't really like that you can see the plain metal part of the "neck." Its hard to tell in the pictures, but does anyone have an opinion?
I wish they had a size in between. Anyone know of any Smediums?

 Also, does anyone have any suggestions for how we can spruce up the ladder (Hang something from the rungs?)

After Josh got home from a weekend gig in Birmingham, I showed him this beautiful scenic road, which of course led to a random playground, so that adventure will hopefully be posted in the next few days.

Stay tuned,

Haley

Weekend Adventures: August

A weekend in review as recounted by out iPhone photos.

This weekend included movie date night, lazy mornings, tax free weekend, live music, new church, and a hidden trail.

Friday after work we had movie-night. 

Um... SO good. Funny (hysterical even) while maintaining a quality that most romantic-comedy movies don't. Touching, cute, insightful, and cinematographically lovely. I highly recommend it.

We also want to see Beginners. Watch the trailer. Love me some Ewan McGregor. 

Saturday we had a lazy morning. I made some peach pecan muffins from scratch. I had planned to make blueberry muffins again, but the blueberries got gobbled up before Saturday, so I used allrecipes.com to find an alternative utilizing what we had. (Love that site! You can create a virtual recipe box and save the recipes you want to try.)  

After lunch we took advantage of tax free weekend.

Be bought Josh a couple of these:

Shirts, not boy toys

Black fitted button-downs from Express. I'm pretty proud of our savings, so I'll share. 

Normally $60 each (meaning we would normally never purchase them)

+ tax free (10% savings)

+ Express sale: Buy one get one for $20 ($40 savings)

+ a coupon from Josh's mom: Save $30 off a purchase of $75 or more

= Total spent: $50 for TWO Express shirts.

Total savings: $70 (not including the tax we saved).

Why did we opt for such fancy shirts for Josh? Because he has joined The Tennessee Three. He will be the new touring drummer for the legendary Johnny Cash band. Bob Wootton was Cash's guitar player from 1968 on, after Luther Perkins died (the original guitarist). 

This is Johnny cash in 1974 (you can hear Bob's guitar solo at about the one minute mark)

He still tours playing Cash/Carter songs with his family and maintains the name "The Tennessee Three" {It used to be Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three}.  We are beyond excited. Since Johnny Cash's signature look was all-black, we decided to get some fancy black clothing.

We were planning on utilizing tax free weekend to buy the Mrs. some new clothes as well, but if you know me, you know that crowds stress me out. It's the chaos and the in-my-bubble-ness. I don't like strangers bumping into me. Or dodging rude people who don't gently move out of the way. 

So we moved on to coffee from Bread and Company before dinner at Demos' Steak and Spaghetti House. Yum! It is our current Nashvillain favorite restaurant.  

If you come visit us, we WILL take you here. Delicious and affordable. Josh applied to work here and got the job, but we would have had to shave his beard, so I vetoed that job. I'm protective of my man's beard.

Speaking of:

I love my husband! Especially his beard.

After dinner we chose a bench in the Batman Building courtyard to relax before the Decemberists show. 

 No instagram effects :(

After we felt our food was sufficiently settled, we walked across the street to the Ryman to find our seats.

We learned our lesson the hard way: always opt for the balcony at the Ryman Auditorium!

This column was not conveniently placed.

And the lights were often right on us... 

But the show was so great. Colin Meloy has such a dynamic stage presence. I love it when musicians interact with the crowd.

Sunday we got up and went to church. Thus the church-seeking process begins. This week we tried Journey of Franklin by recommendation of one of my co-workers. 

We definitely could see ourselves there... because they had us at "Welcome, help yourself to some coffee"

 But really because it had a modern service and a young crowd. Not to mention it is located inside The Factory, which is one of the places that makes Franklin such a cool place. 

It is actually set up a lot like First Hattiesburg (which we miss dearly) but a lot smaller. We are going to try it on for size for a few weeks since this week wasn't a "usual" service (guest speaker). 

Since we love Franklin and hope to someday buy a home there, we decided to drive around and get a feel for the residential areas. Um... can't quite afford, well anything we saw. But I'm convinced a perfect, cozy little home is out there for us. 

Whilst exploring and marveling, I saw a sign for an "overlook" and we pulled over. At the overlook was a little trail. I freaked out a little. 

This is the view from the overlook... foothills of Franklin

The aforementioned little path

I wasn't exactly anticipating a walk through the woods when I got dressed this morning. But I made due.

We had a lot of fun fantasizing about living on a parcel of land in the mountains where our future little ones can play in the woods.

... UNTIL ...

A fallen tree blocked the path. We actually did jump over it (which was an ordeal in my pretty dress) but the path kinda ended about 100 ft past it. 

Apparently it didn't lead to any big scenic view. Sad. But we still had a good time.

Well that's all from this weekend's adventures. This week I get CRP and First Aid certified. Til next time! Stay tuned, 

Haley