Yard Sale Saturday

I know, I know "Ashley, when do you possibly have time to participate in a highly successful garage sale?! How DO you do it?!"

"I don't know. I just do." I say.

So here's the BEST thing I heard all day:

My sister and I were manning the money while the rest of the yard sale crew were arranging the patio's goods. My grandmother had been arranging and re-arranging items in the most strategic ways in order to sell the most merchandise possible and in order to attract people who might just be driving by. The item in the front row center of the drive-way had just become a large ceramic rooster. An old silver car pulls up perpendicular to (and might I add, completely blocking) the end of the driveway. An older lady slowly pulls herself out of the car and inches up the driveway. She reaches the rooster. She yells across the driveway to my sister and I (here it is... the best thing all day)(if you want to hear me say it as she would have, call me, I'd be more than happy) (in a slow southern shaky woman's voice imagine this:), "How much cock-a-doodle-doo is?"

I cannot tell a lie. My jaw dropped and my eyes panned over to my sister who was giggling rather uncontrollably. I yelled around the corner, "Nana-- I think someone here wants to know more about your rooster!" Brilliant.

Globe Trekker Update:

I'm off bright and early in the morning for my summer in Manhattan! I was very very excited but as the hours dwindle at home, I'm becoming increasingly sad. I will miss Bryan and my family more than I may be able to bear. Please pray for me in that respect. I know that I could easily have a good cry daily otherwise. I'll be there tomorrow and will update when I get there with photos of our new pad.

Bryan is leaving for Seattle then Vancouver on Monday. He'll be there for a week! I can't wait to hear how that goes! He's going for a conference but he also found out that there will be a coliseum-sized philosophy book sale! Book heaven I'm sure!

Moving In

We moved in to our new house! Today was much faster than yesterday only about 3 hours total as opposed to 6+ hours yesterday. We had lots of help. Thank you to my dad and sister, Aimee, Bryan's mom and dad, and our friends Kellen and Ryan.

This is it! Our new apartment! So cute. Ours is the top right side of the house.

This is all of our stuff in the front yard before we moved it into the house. Notice the truck across the street... as we tried to turn it around it got stuck... By stuck, I don't mean in the dirt on in a ditch... The hitch on the back got wedged into the concrete and wouldn't budge. The wheels were just spinning out of control and wouldn't budge. We had to get a tow truck to come pull it out... Crazy!

Moving Out

Our last few minutes in Starkville:

Heaven forbid my car get side-swiped... that chandellier would have been a permanent part of my head!

Moving Day

Today was our last day in our first house. (by today, I mean Thursday, I know it's officially Friday, but we just pulled up to my dad's house UHAUL in tow, packed to the gills at 1:35am)

We had a good day. I was feeling a little nostalgic though.

We got two great meals that we can't get anywhere but Starkville. We went to Little Dooey's for BBQ for lunch and we got Stromboli's Pizza for dinner for us and the awesome guys that helped us pack up the truck.

If you had asked me yesterday, as Katey did, if we were moving this weekend I would have said no. We decided last night that it could be done so we packed everything we could find and as Tim Gunn often says 'made it work.'


We put in an order for a 17 foot long UHAUL truck last night and today the only one available was 26 feet long and located an hour away from our house in the wrong direction. Good dang thing we got the big truck. NO WAY IN HADES would all our stuff have fit and we were even leaving things and giving things away to our helpers by the time we finally left.

We had this really awesome helper. She belongs to our neighbor but she helped us from 3 in the afternoon until 11:30pm.

And in the end, our entire lives were piled high in the back of this truck and in one of our cars.
More Pictures to come... My computer died and these were the only pictures that the draft saved... Computer cord is in the basked behind the dolly so when I dig it out today I'll be back up and running! :)

Memorial Day Weekend

I know, officially the weekend is far from over, but the rest of my day today is wholly devoted to packing.

This weekend we went to Jackson. We got to meet my dad's new family and boy oh boy were there some bad omens attached to that party. Let me explain:

On my way to Jackson, I was struck by a baseball-sized reddish-brown boulder-rock. It hit my windshield directly in front of my head and scarred me quite a bit. This is the immediate repercussion and bad omen #1.

By the time I got to my dad's house, this was the visibility level and bad omen #2.

That was really all of the bad news. I expected bad things but it was actually a really good weekend. We stopped by Bryan's parent's house on the way out to the party. (Aren't we cute?)

Bryan's mom made this tomato basil mozzarella pie. Doesn't it look good?! Don't worry. I checked it out. It was really delicious.Bryan's mom and and Aunt Peggy and dad were all there and it was good to visit with them for a bit before we had to go to Flora. We have also firmly decided that there will be a girl's trip to New York to visit me sometime this summer! I say 'firmly decided' because if I don't say it that way, it may not come true!Ok, so we finally made it to the party, had a few glasses of wine, met the new family (above is my dad's fiancee, Angie, and my dad) which includes two girls and a boy. I'm sure you have an image of small children. They're not. Brittany is going to be a senior in college next year, Brady is going to be a freshman in college next year, and Charlie is going to be a sophomore in high school next year. I guess it's different for me because I'm older and married and I will never actually have to live in the same house as them so it's not as weird as it could be. Angie's really nice, too, so that helps things.

Looks like the bad omens were just coincidences.

One more exciting bit! We got the keys to our new apartment in Bellhaven! We even got to drop off a few boxes! The place is so cute!

New Doors

I love new doors. I love when I'm awakened by two shirtless red necks who say things like, "We gotta put en sum new doors back er." (Translation: We would be much obliged if you would let us remove your old sliding doors and replace them with nice new french doors.) Replace them they did, that's for sure. The last thing I remember was *BANG*BANG*BANG*BANG*CRASH* glass EVERYWHERE. See.

They shattered two sliding glass doors with a crow bar. Then swept that broken glass into the grass behind our porch. I'm hoping some of that glass made it to the recycling bin, but I'm not holding my breath for environmental responsibility around here. It took most of the day for them to get one set of doors replaced. They're coming back tomorrow for more fun and one more set of doors. I'll post pics of our new doors later.

For a little less excitement around here... I went to Arkansas last weekend. Fayetteville to be exact. For a board meeting. Which lasted 35 minutes. We also had a mix-n-mingle party hosted by the local chapter at a show house. Each room in the house was designed by a local decorator or designer. Everything in the house was for sale, and 25% of all the proceeds go to charity. The house sold for $1.5 million!!!

These are a few of my favorite spaces and pieces from in and around the house.

The hotel we stayed in was an old mill just outside of Fayetteville. It was done in about every style of architecture and design you could imagine. This was the super creepy sconce in the halls and in my room... very near my bed. Imagine opening your eyes to that in the middle of the night!

We get the keys to our new apartment this weekend! I'll also have pictures from there in a few days!!!

New Shoes

I love new shoes. Today I was awakened (from a dream about being attacked by a shark) by the UPS man. He brought me new shoes, and he brought Bryan useful things for traveling across Europe. I slipped those beautiful babies on and went back to bed. I do love a new pair of shoes. Especially a new pair of shoes as hott as these! Be jealous. Be very very jealous! :)

Camping

We went camping last weekend with Bryan's family, as is tradition every Mother's Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend. This was something totally new to me when we got married, as my family is more of a ski-trip kind of family. I definitely needed a bit of rusticity in my life, I'll admit, but just a bit. (Don't get me wrong, they also go to the beach for a week every summer and that is one of the newest joys in my life! They really know how to have fun and all (all 23 of them) enjoy being with each other and experiencing new things.)

This camping trip incorporated something new: A CABIN!!! (with a kitchen and air and beds and no tents and not too many bugs... the ones that did make it into our room were SMASHED BY MY LIGHTNING SPEED HANDS! but I digress--- there was also one admission by my sister-in-law and cousin-in-law "they have known all along I'm not a camper... and they were ok with it." I love them!)

This was one of the most intriguing things in our cabin: a protruding, rusty, non-functioning 'can opener'--- It stuck off the wall about 6inches and could really have scalped someone. Lucky for me, I'm short!

My In-Laws! It took a few motivational speeches to get them both out on that log but they trusted that I had a good photo in mind!

Cousins! They really go crazy sometimes...

They reminded us before we left to bring our suits... This is the swimming area! Pretty appealing eh?

Just Kidding!!! Well, actually, that was the designated swimming area... but THIS was a water park. Look at all the children! They were having so much fun!One last thing... In case you forgot how great my husband is... here's a small reminder... He can walk on water (You're right, just like Jesus!)

Boo You Battery!

Saturday, May 3rd: Ashley to Bryan: "Man, I wish I had some Orange juice."
Monday, May 5th: Ashley to Bryan: "Man, I could really go for some OJ."
Thursday, May 8th: Ashley to Bryan: "I'm totally craving some vitamin C, let's go get some orange juice!" Bryan to Ashley: "I could go for a snack! Let's go!" Ashley to Bryan: "Really?! Let's do it!"
As the door closes our adventure begins.


We took Bryan's trusty silver Camry to the Pig at 11:00pm on that fateful Thursday evening. The air was warmish and humid, like a hot shower that had begun to filter out of the bathroom. The mood, light. The grocery list, short. Let's go.

We rounded up our trusty OJ and headed to the lone cashier. It only takes one person to run the store in the middle of a Thursday night, and I was impressed. Real impressed. We move quickly to the parking lot, hop in the car, sing one line of some 80's song a little too loud, then... dun dun duuuuu... click click click click click...
Ashley to Bryan: "What's wrong?"
Bryan to Ashley: "Won't start."
click click click click click
(Everyone we know, practically, has already gone home for the summer)
Ashley to Bryan: "Martin can help!"


Martin does help. We negotiated jumper cables out of the lone cashier's trunk onto the batteries of both the silver Camry and Martin's SUV. Afore mentioned silver Camry jumps to a start, as though he had only been a napping old man. A thousand thanks to Martin and off we go.


Because we both remembered hearing somewhere that when you jump a car, if you drive it around for awhile it will get the battery charged again. So we drove. We drove in a zig-zag formation back toward our house. We even drove through McDonald's to spend a McDonald's Dollar on two apple pies. (What a deal!) We drove to the stop light just beyond McDonald's and 'pewwwwww pew pewwww' into hibernation mode.
Ashley to Bryan: "Died again!"
Bryan to Ashley: "Died again."


Car rolls to the shoulder across the street.
Ashley to Bryan: "Martin again?"
Bryan to Ashley: "I hate to bother him again."
Ashley to Bryan: "We could walk. It's only a couple miles."


We walk.

You may not be able to read this... The pink line indicates our journey on foot. The 'x' on the far left shows the shoulder where we left the car. The top right pink 'x' shows where our house is. (and if you'll note the football stadium directly underneath the 'ABANDONED ARCHITECTURE BUILDING' you'll be able to get some sense of scale of this map.)

To get home we had to cross though the 'HAIRY SCARY FRATERNITY FOREST', 'MAGICAL LAND OF BOOKS', 'ABANDONED ARCHITECTURE BUILDING', 'LAND OF ABANDONED DORMS', 'WEARY TRAVELER'S TRAIL', and the 'DARK BLACK DUNGEON'...

2.5 miles and 45 minutes of walking later we make it to the car that works, only to later find that we purchased Wal-Mart jumper cables for no good reason. The silver Camry wouldn't budge. We had to leave him on the side of the road until we could get a new battery this morning. Now he's fine. I guess. Finally made it home around 1:00am.

Local Farmer's Market

I love love love local farmer's markets. I think they are fantastic places to get great, fresh food, and also a great way to support local growers!

I'd been hearing about this new "Hitching Lot Farmer's Market in Columbus" for about a week on the radio and television and was very excited to check it out. I even went online to check out the website that had been advertised (please check this site out before you scroll down to see the pictures http://www.localharvest.org/farmers-markets/M17573 also please note all the fresh veggies/ fresh flowers/ fresh fruit/ and baked goods offered)

Once I looked up this site, I was sold. I began making my mental list of things I'd have to have once I got there and all the recipes that my eager belly awaited. Oh, the flowers: I pictured huge sunflowers, roses, daffodils, mums... Oh the vegetables: I pictured tomatoes galore, potatoes, squash, onions, broccoli, beans, zucchini... Oh the fruit: I pictured apples, oranges, lemons, limes, maybe even mangos and pineapples for some reason even though I know those don't grow locally. Oh the baked goods: fresh warm bread, pies, cobblers, cookies... I built this place up in my mind for days. Crystal can attest to my excitement because I just left a comment on her blog about this very subject!














This is what was there when Liz and I pulled into the old Hitching Lot at 8:30am.One man selling potted house plants and jars of cookie dough mixes....

No hustle. No bustle. No fruit. No vegetables. No children strolling down the lane with bagguettes. No moms in summer dresses buying sunflowers and letting their littles ones taste sweet home made jam. I almost cried. We didn't even get out of the car.

Graduation

My internet has been out of commission for the last couple of days! But "I'm back and I'm lovin every minute of it!" (props to anyone who can name that quote!)

So.

This week I've made 5 lamps... (Sorry yours didn't make it to you today, Sophie! It's is almost done. It just needs one more coat of paint and wiring! I'll bring it to you Friday when we go camping! Everybody loved the color of it, I chose teal-blue) finished up college, went to an awesome dance party and even graduated this morning! Whew. After all that, I took a nap.

Did I mention I also watched two red-necks try to kill a snake with a gun? Here's the picture I took in case insurance needed proof: and yes. he is pointing it right at her.

Bryan made Landon a loaf of bread for his birthday, which he loved! (I tried to make a loaf of bread last week and it came out as a two pound ball of partially unbaked dough--- as we all remember, I'm not a baker, I'm 'a little of this a little of that' kinda girl and to be quite honest, I'm not careful enough to scrape the top of the measuring cup flat when I'm measuring. I shake it until it's about right then dump it in--- YOU CAN'T DO THAT WHEN BAKING!) Bryan immediately tried again with the bread machine when mine was a failure. His loaf turned out more than perfectly. A warm beautifully risen golden crusted masterpiece really.

More about that awesome dance party... Our friend Will has been throwing amazing dance parties all year at local venues under the pseudoname "The Hooded Dear". They are always a blast and he usually brings a huge crowd. This was no different! This time, though he added LIVE DRUMZ- with Hairy Feathers (aka Bryan) So fun! We rocked out and I'm still sore from dancing the night away!

And last but certainly not least: GRADUATION!

I'm done! I got a little teary sitting in that big colliseum with my entire class. I thought, this is the last time I'll see all of these girls for a while! We have been through so much together, long nights, crazy projects, horrible deadlines and tons of trips! I love those girls and can't wait to see how much talent they are going to give back to the Interior Design field all over the country! Way to go! We made it!