#travel2013 - denver

This time last week I was in beautiful, and unseasonably warm, Denver, Colorado.  Today I am back at work, cold, and watching it sleet in Chattanooga.  Yuck.

I had never been to Colorado, and I was thrilled to have the chance to go visit friends in Denver.  I stayed in the 'hipster' part of town, so everything..food, laundry mats, shopping, a two story goodwill, more shopping, movie theaters.... was walking distance close.  That's something I'm not used to, but it's really nice.

I'm going to do something different in this post.  It's going to be a lot of pictures with captions.  I think this will be a little more fun, and easier for me to do while I'm at work. (shhhh)  It's also going to make it easier to pin the pictures I took of things I couldn't bring home.  (double shhhh)

Probably the best part of my trip.  I went to visit a musician, but did not expect to hear him play.
The best thing in the world is seeing your friends excel doing what they love.
I'm completely spoiled to have so many friends who fall in this category.

I love meeting new people, especially artists.  Sitting in on this jam session made me happy.

Since I stayed with musicians, we went out to see live music too.  We hit up Cervante's for
their 10 year anniversary show w/Motet. The good thing about having musician friends is
they know how to pick out good music.

One of the guys had two fantastic dogs.  Bentley looks and acts like a cat.
He's shy, but once he gets to know you he's a cuddler.

Weezer (100 lbs of love) was OK having me around, but he never quite gave up his spot
on the couch. He just chilled on top of me instead.

The neighborhood I stayed in was neat. Lots of houses with cool architectural
 details and fun colors. There was a lot of personality, and I liked it.  This is
what I walked past getting to the shops on South Broadway.  The rest of the
pictures are from the shops here.

Yarn Bombed!  The shop beside this tree sold new clothes made from vintage fabrics.

Such a shame I took a picture of the booze and not the food.
The food at The  Hornet was so good I ate there twice, lunch & brunch. 

I'm not sure how I feel about this edition being in a vintage bookstore.

This little guy would have found it's way into my luggage if it we're $95!!

L-O-V-E these clear, stemmed, cordial glasses.

Lots of fun and funky handmade jewlery.

So much of what I saw belongs in my house. This belongs in my living room. 

This belongs over my kitchen sink.

This belongs in my kitchen.

These belong on my porch. For my smoker friends. Because I'm a good hostess.

I'm not sure where, but this just belongs, if it works.

Love these chairs.  I'm looking for something like this for a desk.

This belongs outside, above my future outdoor dining room table.

This belongs at the head of my dining room table.

The end

2013 - my year of travel

2011 was my year to (Re)Discover Chattanooga.  I had just moved back, and the city had changed so much. There was a lot to do, a lot to explore, and most of it is documented on this blog.  It seems like I won't stop finding new things in Chattanooga any time soon, and I love that about this town.

Last year, I told myself that 2012 was going to be the year of my house.  I was going to focus on the house, the yard, and deciding how long I want to be in the house.  2012 was fun, and I learned how I am going to use each space.  I ended up focusing more on the yard than the house, watching and learning what was going to grow, and cleaning up areas that had gotten out of control.  By the end of the year I was able to make some firmer plans for the gardens, and started putting a few things in the ground.  All in all I did pretty good, and never stressed myself out...a definite plus.

Last year, I also told myself that 2013 was going to be my year of travel.  Call it determined, consistent, or stubborn, but this will be my year to travel.  I just got back from a trip to Denver, Colorado, so the ball is definitely rolling.

2013, so far

I love to travel, but when I was living in Clemson I got away from it.  I've traveled a decent amount abroad (Belgium, Germany, The Bahamas, The Dominican Republic, & Canada) but not much in the US.  My trip to Colorado was only my second trip west of the Mississippi. (The first trip was to play in the National Pool Tournament in Vegas a few years ago)

travel up to 2013, link

I'd like to see more national parks this year, see more of my friends who are scattered across the country, and just get out more.  So far I've got my eyes on trips to Clemson & Charleston, maybe back to the Denver area to see more of the mountains, but other than that, I don't know.  I am going to renew my passport, just to make sure all my options are open.

january bloom day 2013

I'm a day late, but that's better than nothing right??

January is not my best month for blooms, but I did put in some Hellebores, or Christmas Roses as I call them, in my rock garden, and they're starting to show flowers.

My dad thinks the downward facing flowers on the Christmas Roses are depressing, so he had my mom remove all of  hers from the front gardens a few years ago.  They were pulled up, and tossed in the woods, where they thrived...which made them perfect candidates to be relocated to my shade, shade, more shade, and sometimes neglected environment.

I tilted this flower up a little so you can see the pretty mauve spots on the inside of the flowers.  My grandmother likes to keep the cut blooms face up in floating arrangements.  One day when it's especially cold and yucky outside, I'll have to do this as a reminder that spring is eventually coming.

The other flowers I have blooming I picked up by chance at our local Ace Hardware with some pansies.  (I saved the tag, but will have to come back later to identify it. They start with a C, but that's all I remember right now)  This picture is pretty terrible, but it's nice to have have a little bit of life beside my back door.

January

November

I want to show one non-bloom related picture because we have had so much rain in the past week. 

 

This is my pond.  The normal waterline is to the left of the trees that you see in the photo.  Last winter (our rainy season) the waterline rose to the base of the tree that you see second from the left.  We're way past that now.  What is crazy is that the pond has risen so much in less than a week.  We've had a ton of rain in east Tennessee (10"+), and as the water has soaked into the ground, the water table has risen and with it, my spring fed pond.   This picture was taken 1/15/13 around 2pm, and by 5:30pm the water had risen to the point where I had to move my benches (again).  They're now sitting at the base of a hill, and if they float away, I have bigger problems than replacing a bench!

Happy Belated Bloom Day Everyone!  If you'd like to see more of what is blooming around the world, please visit Carol over at May Dreams Gardens.

holiday recap

Now that the holidays are well behind us (and the SEC has won another National Championship) I thought I might as well share a little bit about what I've been up to on my holiday hiatus.

Sleeping, lots of sleeping...it really is my favorite thing to do, and it was glorious.

But I digress...  I didn't do a ton of decorating for the holidays, but I did enough to host the family's Christmas Eve and a group of my high school friends after Christmas without feeling like a grinch.

My sister took this picture of the pond on Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition has always been dinner and presents with my dad's side of the family, but as my grandmother has gotten older, she's been a little more comfortable going out to dinner, then coming back to her house for dessert and presents.  Last year we transitioned to dessert and presents at my house, and this year I cooked and we did the whole thing at my house.  (My family was surprised that I could cook a turkey, go figure, this was like number 6 or 7 for me.) 

My Grandmother was thrilled to have dinner at my house, and I think it was the first meal she had eaten in the house since my great grandmother passed away in 1991.  It was nice to see her happy in the house, especially since I know she wasn't thrilled that I painted the kitchen yellow.

I spent the week after Christmas visiting friends who were in town for the holidays, and anyone who was still in town the weekend after Christmas came by my house to get togeather.  It's crazy that my group of high school friends has grown to include babies and puppies, but it has, and I think they had the best time out of anyone!  Little Bobby and Anoush (Armenian for sweet) are seriously best friends now.  Any time Bobby was upset...and that is hardly ever bc he is so chill...Anoush made everything better.  It was fantastic.

Our girl scout came through on the fire (since the ground was soaked), and I have to say it was a pretty perfect night.  (Well except for the part where a friend told us that she had to back to the UK for VISA issues, but she will better be be back)

from @Chandlee's instagram feed

New Year's Eve is one of my favorite holidays, and I have always celebrated with friends.  This year Clemson was playing LSU in the Peach Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, and I apologized to the host in advance because I knew I was going to be preoccupied for the first half of the party.

Clemson vs. LSU was a pretty epic match-up, and going into the game I was nervous about how it was going to turn out.  LSU is good and consistent, Clemson is good, but no one can pretend that Clemson is the model of consistency.  Last year Clemson was on an emotional high coming off an ACC Championship, and was embarrassed by West Virginia.  So when I thought honestly about the game, it didn't look pretty. THEN Sammy Watkins was injured on the first drive of the game.  That was bad, there was a fumble, then LSU scored, but you knew that Clemson had success this year without Sammy, and all was not lost.  Somehow the team focused, rallied, improved at the half, and played the best 4th quarter of Clemson football that I have ever watched. (I've watched it about 3 times now, it was that good.)  4th & 16..4th & 16...it was just amazing.

Also over the holidays (but before Christmas, I know this is out of order) I got to spend time with an out of town friend that I don't see nearly enough.  The trip was not entirely planned, but we got to hang out, make a bazillion sugar cookies, and meet her new puppy.

Isn't she cute!!  She's a little sassy, but I think she's going to get a lot of that from her family (human and puppy brothers & sisters)

My holidays were great, and hope yours were too :)   And if anyone knows how to get rid of this 5 day work week, let me know, I feel spoiled!