Florida Adventure!

Hello from sunny Florida!  The old man and I are taking a much-needed vacation to undo a lot of the stress we've encountered lately and so far, I think I need to try and relax a little harder...I may or may not have gotten wound up about the seagull in photo #4.  Why?  Because I thought: "Hey, why not stop at the ol' Whole Foods, get some lunch items and have a picnic on the beach?"  Okay, so far so good.  I got a delicious sandwich from the best Whole Foods since the one in Philly and we were on our merry way to the lovely Clearwater Beach.  Once there, we made camp and started our picnic when some uninvited friends came.  I would've fed them some of my bread but I know if I fed one, I'd have to feed them all.  I also ended up eating the entire sandwich instead of half, like I originally planned.  These seagulls would've totally pecked through our stuff to get to that sandwich!
I was able to calm down a little, though.  I guess I just need to remind myself that it's okay to relax!  :)

1.  Instax Mini from the GA/FL state line
2. This church is beautiful and I love the stained glass.  We have dubbed this church "Heavy Metal Church" and/or "Rock n' Roll Church" (but you have to sing it like an 80's Glam Metal singer when you say it!)
3. We found this former hermit crab home on the beach yesterday
4. This little seagull (and five more of his friends later on) was trying to get some of my sandwich!
5. The view from Pier 60 in Clearwater, FL
6. A boarded up house in St. Petersburg
7. I LOVE the "Greetings from" post cards and I'm so happy that I've been seeing that design as art around here!  Greetings from Pier 60!

Has your weekend started?  Do you have any fun plans?

DIY Pie / Cake Box Care Package

I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on Craftgawker.  It's true.  I spend my days scrolling through pages and pages of creative craft ideas and bookmark them all in the hopes of maybe trying them out one day.  Take that, Pinterest!  Just kidding.
But seriously, I really do love Craftgawker because I've found so many great blogs through them: Alana Jones-Mann, The House That Lars Built, Minted Strawberry...the list goes on and on - trust me, the bookmarks on my iPad will agree.

Anyways - one of the coolest things I saw was this Birthday Cake Care Package from The House That Lars Built.  So cute!


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It also contained a link to the cutest, scariest DIY I'd love to try: the Cake Postcard from She Knows.  I say it's scary because there's sponge cutting and caulk "frosting" involved.


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Pretty awesome, huh?! Alana Jones-Mann took it another step further by using that same tutorial to make business cards!  WHAT?!?!?


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Okay, if that isn't cute overload, I don't know what is (except, maybe, Cute Overload).
I didn't have any neat pie boxes already made like Brittany did at THTLB but I did find a few tutorials on making your very own with Martha Stewart and Lavender's Blue!  Thanks, Internet! :)

I took advantage of my extremely long render times and assembled some boxes for a care package I'm putting together.  Granted, it's super late to the recipient but I think he'll be okay with that.  Why did it take me so long?  I have no idea!  Usually, I'm on top of this birthday thing!  Ugh - I've been slipping...



Bonus - the envelope for the Birthday Party Kit holds Instax Mini prints PERFECTLY!  I had just enough glue to glue down the "Happy birthday" wedge to the inside of the blue slice but I had to tape the other cake slices together.  Not as pretty as I would like but still cute, I think!  Now, I get to take them home and fill them with goodies (and make a few more!)  I'll do a big reveal once I know the recipient has received it :)

Hope you're having an awesome week!

Instant Adventures #7

This past week has been a busy one! I'm glad we get a long weekend :)

1. While running an errand on a rare lunch break, I saw a pretty and old Rolls Royce
2. My Instax Minis from the day I went to Roswell Presbyterian Cemetery
3. You can barely see us but Cynthia snapped Lauren and I saluting while perched on a cannon in Decatur.  You can see more Decatur adventures from Friday night here, here and here!

I hope you're having an awesome weekend! 
Do you have any fun plans?

A haunting I will go

Feeling insanely inspired by some light research I was doing during a very tedious archive session at work, I fell down the link rabbit hole and found so many fun sights to see in my own backyard!

One of the best resources I've come across is the Southern Spirit Guide.  There are great posts about the Haunted Pillar in Augusta, the Roswell Ghost Tour and the Gartrell Monument at the Marietta City Cemertery - which just happens to be 9 minutes from my office!  I tried to get there after work yesterday but I couldn't find a way in - the roads were under construction and I'm not familiar with that particular area, so I turned around and made my way to the Presbyterian Cemetery in Roswell.

I've been there before many times but for some reason, I had never seen who I call the Angel with No Hands.  I tripped my way through the grounds to see her.  She has her back to the main road and her silhouette is very striking as she sits under a tree.  The text under the cross next to her reads: "Thou shalt be a crown in the hand of The Lord".  I didn't notice that her hands were missing until I had zoomed in on the text next to her.  What a beauty!  Maybe I need to do some research on her...

There are other hidden gems in that cemetery but a lot of it is steeped in Georgia's history of the Confederacy and the KKK, unfortunately.  I came to terms with that upon one of my first visits when I was a teenager.  You can't escape Georgia's hate-filled past.

One of the great things I found during my research is a wonderful blog dedicated to 432 Abercorn in Savannah run by author and Roswell Ghost Tour Guide Beth Dolgner.  I feel like I've seen her before, like, maybe in passing or something, but my goal is to be on a Roswell Ghost Tour led by her!  How exciting would that be?!  Then, afterwards, she could tell me more stories about 432 Abercorn!  Or I could be so spooked that all I'd want to do is go home and drink the spookiness away.

And to think - this all started with me reading this post on the Dainty Squid, which led to this post, some research on the Haserot Angel, and a seemingly innocent search of "unique" and then "strange" Georgia...

I hope you're having a great week!
Happy Thursday!

1-7: Photos of tombstones at the Presbyterian Cemetery in Roswell, GA
8. The Public House in Historic Roswell, which is said to be haunted.

North Georgia Weekend

This past weekend, the old man and I went up to Helen, GA and, unbeknownst to us, the Southern Wörthersee VW-Audi Car Show was going on.  I thought it would be a little exciting but it was a bit of a bust.  The weather was iffy and the atmosphere was...weird.  The one thing I wanted to go to - a crystal shop - was closed that day for a graduation ceremony.  Bummer.  We tried to make the most of it but we ended up walking around the whole town 3 or 4 times secretly hoping something fun would materialize but there was nothing.  I think because it was a dreary day and the town was full of loud cars, it made for a weird and not-so-fun trip, unfortunately.
I wanted to go gem mining at one of the few roadside gem mining places up there but we kept forgetting to get cash while in Helen because the ATMs are cleverly disguised with little Alpine accents and we kept missing them.  I used up most of my cash getting coffee beans, paying for parking and on a single Bratwurst that was way too overpriced for what it was.
The old man took me by this pretty tiny church on the way in to Helen, which was a great sight because it was opposite the Nacoochee Burial Mound - that I didn't photograph.  Oops!  Here are some photos.
I managed to divert us towards the Cabbage Patch Kids Babyland attraction on the way back since I hadn't been since I was a kid and we never go that far north for anything so I made it a YOLO moment and we took a slight detour.  We didn't go in, we just did a little drive by...
All in all, it was an alright trip up to North Georgia, I guess.  Maybe next time will be better?
Because of this, I've decided that I need to order the Weird Georgia book to see what kinds of neat things are nearby!  Until then, I'll just keep checking this map for fun stuff to do...

1 - 2: Tiny church across from the Nacoochee Burial Mound
3: Wedding Chapel in Helen
4 - 5: Metal sculptures outside of a restaurant in Helen
6: A mini waterfall in the park
7 - 9: Cabbage Patch Kids Babyland

Instant Adventures #6

1-2: Church day and night (Dahlonega, GA)
3: Tree of Progression (?) (Dahlonega, GA)
4: Tiny Church (Helen, GA)
5: Tree of Progression (?) Hipstamatic (Dahlonega, GA)
6-7: Diving Bell - Hipstamatic (Dahlonega, GA)

Last Monday was my old man's nephew's high school graduation in...you guessed it, Dahlonega, GA.  We tried to make the most of the road trip up and took photos of interesting things around town, such as the church across from where the ceremony was (the night Instax Mini of the church is more dramatic in person, I promise!), the Diving Bell and the Tree of Progress (?) sculpture.  Surprisingly, I can't find anything about the tree sculpture!  I read the plaque about it for a brief moment and then spent most of my time positioning myself to get the best shot with my Hipstamatic Sergio Lens+Maximus LXIX Film combo.  I had forgotten that the lens adds that vignette blur and I didn't realize it had done that until we were well on our way home.  Oh well.  It definitely adds a touch of moodiness to the tree sculpture, that's for sure.  The diving bell...not so much.  How random is that thing?!  Read up on it - it's actually pretty neat.

This past weekend, the old man and I hit up Helen, GA before the rains came but more on that later!  For now, I'll just leave the Tiny Church Instax Mini as a preview of sorts.

Hope you all have a great week!
Happy Monday!

#SAVEWRAS

If you're from Atlanta, you're familiar with WRAS 88.5 - the 100k watt student voice of Georgia State. Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) is trying to take that away from us.

Last night, I attended the #savewras benefit show - which was a last-minute thing...with a HUGE turnout and I was so happy to see so many people there to support their local community.  Selfishly, I went for support and to see my friends, Book of Colors, play and they killed it, as always!  

The Q&A session at the beginning of the night was pretty informative but you can get more details concerning the GBP takeover here.

I think it's important that we keep the student voice alive.  I have so many great memories with WRAS and I'm hoping more kids get to make and keep great memories with them, too.  Without WRAS, I never would've discovered so many of the bands I know and love today and it's always a joy to hear my friends' music on the radio.
I remember one of their Friday night rave shows (can't remember the name but maybe it was the early days of Subterranean?) and my sister recorded one in particular (to cassette) of Supa MC TC Islam in the studio for 2 hours and it was the greatest cassette tape in my collection (besides all The Number Ones stuff, of course!) and we try to listen to Subterranean whenever we can - at least I know I do!  Fridays are the best because I get to relive my teenage years with I Don't Care - their weekly punk rock show - and they have so many other great programs that it would be a shame to lose them!

Ways you can take action:
SIGN THE PETITION
Make some phone calls
Use the hashtag



Happy Friday, everyone!
Tune in to I Don't Care at 4PM EST!!

Incoming Mail: Flowers from Jess + Tattly Temporaries!

They arrived! My Tattly veggies have finally arrived!  And they also included a bonus typography bike tattoo!  Hooray!  The veggies are part of an on-going prank series we're pulling one someone at work.  It will be revealed in time.

In the mean time, check out Jess's pretty cotton candy pink morning glories!!  How pretty are those?!  How pretty is that anchor stationery?!  So cute!  I really need to step it up with my stationery :)  She included some wonderful tips for starting an indoor garden.

My want of an indoor garden started with Nicolette Mason's posts about having fresh flowers in her apartment, the bouquet we got to keep from Lauren and Chandler's engagement brunch, the birthday bouquet I got for my Mom, and this wonderful succulent toolbox DIY from Alana Jones-Mann.  There's only one problem: I'm TERRIBLE with plants.  I don't know how we managed to keep my orchids from Valentine's Day alive for so long.  They're gone now but they lasted for quite some time!

Jess told me to start with succulents, air plants, and cacti.  I mentioned to her that I wanted to have a spot for cacti in our house because the old man really likes them but, knowing my clumsy self, I'd probably get injured trying to water them!  Jess had some great words of encouragement and I thank her so much for that!  It was just the right kind of motivation I needed to start putting our plant display shelf together :)

How's your week going?
Happy Thursday!