Out and about in WNC with the fam

So this past week was absolutely fantastic. I've been up in WNC for 51 weeks now (yes, almost a full year) and my mom, stepdad, little bro and sis in tow have been up visiting for the first time this past week. It has been amazing showing off the area that Beau and I love to our family.

We also spent a LOT of time showing off good ole Hendo. We went to the soda shop, walked around downtown, shopped, ate some amazing food and in true Southern fashion did some serious front porch sittin’.

Hendersonville has lots of perks but you can’t visit this part of the world without heading in to Asheville to see that town in action. Asheville has lots of fun, art, culture and people watching. So there was lots of showing off to be done. I insisted on taking my sister to UNC-A to visit the campus and to attempt to convince her to move to Asheville, got to UNC-A and become a hippie, simple request right?

Despite the great overview of the campus, she wasn’t fully convinced though so I had to attempt to bribe her with cupcakes and shopping in downtown. (Jury is still out but if a cupcake from Bake it Pretty won't help, I don't know what else to do, you know?)

Last night was our big send-off. Nothing says small town like a fun dinner with the family and car show/outdoor music downtown. One of the things I love best about Hendersonville is that it still has such a thriving downtown and offers so much up to us as residents from Music on Main to Mike’s Saturday Sock Hops to carriage rides to the countless festivals.

These may seem like “old people” activities and in all fairness Beau and I are the first to admit that we sometimes act as 80 year-olds trapped in 30 year-old bodies. But these things are oldies but goodies and these activities are the things that made the American small towns so great in the past and are missing from too many towns today. (Not to mention my family loves them too!)

I'm so bummed the fam is back in FL but the good news is that they fell in just as much love with Hendersonville as we are and have already planned to come up in the fall and hopefully winter too!

Healthier, happier me...(inside my head)

So in just about a week it will be one year since Beauseph and I moved up here to Western North Carolina. A lot of people ask if I have any regrets about having left a job I loved and a city so close to Beau's family and our friends to move up here, but I honestly don't. Do I miss the people we love, yes but we've met great friends up here. Do I miss the job I loved, sure but we're building a life together up here and sometimes that means sacrifice.

After moving up here I realized how much I had put my life on complete hold since being the victim of violent crime while living in Atlanta. I had literally stopped living life. I hardly went out at night, I didn't run outside anymore and I really didn't do much outdoors unless Beau was there within 20 feet of me.

Then we moved up here. A place where small towns still exist, people are still friendly, and kids still look you in the eye when saying hello. Life changed for me in a subtle but freeing manner and I was living life again. I can go out at night (alone or with Beau) without a sense of fear. I run again (I hadn't done race of any substantial distance since 2008 when everything went down, I had blamed that on my job, but it was really my fault for being afraid to leave the house to run alone). And I'm just living a healthier life in general.

The only thing I really regret is the friends that I may have alienated while working through the things I worked through. No one has ever come out to me and said that I've did alienate them but I get the sense that I have and for that I'm sorry. I'm a firm believer in the idea though that everything that happens leads us to where we are today, so I can't look back with total regret on that because it got me to this healthy, happy place today and for that I'm grateful.

And honestly the guy who deserves a lot of credit for his patience, kindness and lack of any real social life while I got to where I am today (and continue to get to where I need to go to keep healing) is this guy right here. I love you Beau and thank you for letting me work through what I needed to to be me again.




P.S. Sorry for the somewhat happy but sad post. My mom is in town this week and showing her the town I love has made me retrospective and realize how far I've come. In the future, this will focus on not only the inside stuff that I'm doing to live a better life but the outside stuff too. I've lost 10 pounds since 1/1/11 and lots of people have asked me for advice on that so I'd love to share some tips on that kind of stuff too.

Thanks for reading!

New blog topic....Can anyone explain...?

So I need to add some life to my blog. I was out and about there for awhile, getting settled into the Carolina lifestyle but I'd really like to refocus on writing here on my blog, getting back into crafting, and being more outdoorsy again.

To "get the party started right"-yes I just went there, I've decided to start a new blog topic called "Can anyone explain...?". For this week the topic I need explained to me is this season's "The Bachelorette".

Can anyone explain this bachelorette to me?

Background: I am not a follower of this show but this week my mom, step-pops, little bro and sis are in town visiting from Florida. This next part is going to sound silly but also a bit genius. My mom has this thing where she and my sister watch The Bachelor and Bachelorette so that my younger sister can learn how not to act around guys. Genius right?

Anyway, so I popped over to the cottage they are staying at after work today and they are both watching "The Bachelorette". Admittedly, both of them love to hate this show. Today's episode was especially horrible because it was literally a train wreck waiting to happen, the bachelorette requested that her potential suitors roast her Friars Club style. Can you say crazy?

You don't have to be rocket scientist to figure out that this plan went downhill super, duper fast. Now keep in mind that the Friars roasts are known to be brutal towards the person being roasted. Apparently this bachlorette missed that memo and so when one of her mens (yes, men plural) roasted her with some seriously funny jokes she got all worked over and the tears started flowing very quickly after the event finished up. She gets all super emotional and has to have meeting with the guys about how upset she is. When the funny guys approaches her to apologize for doing what she asked for in the first place, she makes him feel so bad that he contemplates leaving the show.

So I'll take any explanation anyone can offer up to explain this lady and her crazy. In the meantime, thank you this season's bachelorette for single-handedly solidifying the "women are high maintenance" stereo-type.

Old Favorite/New Favorite:Typewriter Display

I love a good ole typewriter as a vintage prop for one's home but with space being tight here in our townhouse I decided that I needed to figure out another use for our old Remington (the photo up top shows it's previous job: doing nothing but holding up a yarn wreath). That's when it hit me...the keys on the typewriter would make a great way to prop up loose photos. Here are a couple shots of a vintage typewriter photo display in progress.

30th Birthday continued or Jolie learns the mandolin

I don't know if I ever mentioned but I had no idea what I wanted for my birthday. Beau wanted my gift to be something special and so rather than get something just to get it, we decided to wait until we had figured out a gift that had some meaning that would last.

A couple weeks ago it hit me! I've been dying to learn to play an instrument...side note 1-I can play the clarinet, I was first chair throughout my 6th grade band experience prior to quitting and joining chorus. You may find this surprising but those clarinet skills don't really translate into day-to-day life as well. I wanted to be able to play something I could sing along with. So I've been wishy-washy about what to learn: guitar?, accordion? (yes, I've seriously considered it), or ukulele? (wouldn't it be fun to play, you'd feel like you are an a Hawaiian vacation anytime you pick it up). Finally though, we settled on mandolin.

I love it and I can't wait to start officially taking lessons. It is so much fun to finally be on my way to one of my life goals (to learn to play and instrument past the 6th grade level).

So here are some photos of our impromptu jam session Sunday evening. I can play all of one song right now...Yankee Doodle! So needless to say it was more Beau and his friend Blake playing but I hope to be able to hold my own soon after some lessons.



Side note 2: If you think I'm crazy for considering the accordion some things to consider are #1-I'm part Polish, it's in my soul to love the accordion and dance the Polka and #2-The BowerBirds. Check out their music and you'll dig the accordion too.
Side note 3: Truth be told, this was Blake taking a break from impromptu Yankee Doodle jam session to help Frankie recite some Shakespeare...Sunday evening it was decided that sitting Frankie upright and helping her to use her hands to recreate some of the Bard's famous monologues was hilarious. Chalk it up to one of those "you had to be there" experiences unless you have a Shih tzu of your own to try it with :-)

Memorial Day Fun In Asheville

Beau and I had some fun company in town all weekend. One of Beau's best friends, Blake, came to visit for a man's weekend (he and his beautiful wife are expecting a baby soon). The boys spent most of the weekend hiking, fishing, biking, etc. which meant that I got some serious downtime (lots of crafting and cleaning). I love my husband but sometimes it is nice when he finds other people to be active with on the weekends so I can do some relaxing.

Anyway Beau's BFF (funny picture post on Beau's facebook where he calls Blake his BFF) left early on Monday and because Beau had been pretty active earlier in the weekend, we decided to take things a bit easier and opted to go down to Asheville for lunch and some walking around.

I didn't snap a ton of pics but here are a couple shots from our trip. The shirt I'm wearing is a new fave. It's a reworked dress that I rescued from a thrift store and decided would make a cute top. I've got a before and after of it but it's stuck on my camera and I cannot find the cord to transfer photos from my camera to computer...boo.

Ft. Laud or bust

Have I mentioned lately how proud I am of my husband? Moving up to Asheville and starting up his own business was a big step out of Beau's comfort zone but he did it, and as if God hadn't blessed us enough by facilitating all of this, He also helped Beau to win a trip through work to Ft. Lauderdale! An unexpected, but much needed vacation. Blessed much?

We had our choice of activities and one of the options was to take a tour of the Everglades on an airboat. I think Beau and I both expected a little more swamp and a lot less tourism but it was fun either way, and when else are you going to get the chance to ride around on an aiboat? Plus the whole experience was very "old Florida". I long for the old Florida vacation days gone by of citrust scented erasers, plastic alligators, and oranges/grapefruit by the ton sold in rickety road-side stands.

What vacation memories are some of your favorite?