february 2016

If you've been around a while, you'll remember Binky's birthday is February 2nd. She decided we should go on a birthday hike at Ruffner Mountain. 

We brought Possum and Bo with us to get some exercise. Little did we know how much we were going to get.. There was a path leading to the "ruins" if i recall correctly, which unbeknownst to us led us to the Crusher Trail. It went almost straight up the mountain (or so it felt). 

We used Binky's phone to find our way back to the entrance, but in reality, the path we took led us to the back of the reserve. Oops. I wore my fitbit and before the afternoon we had already taken 10,575 steps! 

We looked like a couple of tomatoes by the end. 

We didn't stop there! After we went to Jersey Mike's for lunch, where Binky got a free sub bc it was her bday, we got ready for the evening's festivities which included the trampoline park! 

It was so fun!

Carl in the back of this one lol!

Randy and Binky

Our jumping group: me, carl, Mollie, bink, Randy

Of course we had to go get some mexican food at El Caz when it was all over. 

Birthday song for the birfday girl!

That week we got ready to have a Super Bowl party to watch the game and continue Binky's birthday celebrations.

By we I mean me. But the dogs supervised. 

The Carolina Panthers were playing in the big game, and of course they're my team ever since my boy Cam Newton went there from Auburn. My mom sent me and Binky these fancy leggings to wear for the occasion lol!

I was super pumped!

I got Binky to join me for a pic outside.

Some of the crew, mad at the outcome. 

In case you need reminding how badass Cam is:

Cousin Ashley came to celebrate with the birthday girl!

My phone was sitting on the arm of the couch and got knocked off. I had dropped it a million times, and of course this tiny little fall shattered the screen. I was not happy.

February began the Great Packing of the house. Barely started, and I already was frustrated:

Puppers didn't know what was coming.

I tried to sell my desk online, to no avail. I ended up letting Carl have it.

Valentine's Day came about on the 14th. Since Honky and I didn't get to see each other, he got Binky to get me a Cadbury egg and balloon from him. How schweet!

I made a massive list of things to be done by March when the house would be listed.

There were so. many. things.

Honky came in town to help! Colby also visited, and when we're all together, we have the pizza slice power haha!

We made a welcome note on the fridge. 

And soon enough we were Lion King-ing the fireball.

Honky helped me clear out my wood pile, and it was SO NICE to have that done! He was such a big help.

I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the carport! 

The next week there were a MILLION BIRDS in my neighborhood. I took a ton of snap chat videos of it, along with these pics:

They kept flying around and landing in big groups. So crazy. 

I walked down the street to get some shots. Crazy bird lady, right here. Bo agrees.

Wanna see some of the projects I worked on during February?

A Maryland and Texas two state string art.

A regular Baltimore, MD string art.

South Carolina string art

A bridal brunch and bachelorette invitations!

The cutest gold pineapple string art!

A Steffen name string art for one of my friends from high school!

A big 18x18" Georgia string art.

This Muscle Shoals string art based off a sign of the same design that use to be in the city.

I also made this bench that I used as a TV stand for house showings! 

I ordered the hair pin legs off Etsy and attached them to a piece of wood I already had. I love the way it turned out! 

january 2016

Finally into January! WOO! 

We had a low key New Year's Eve at Honk's house in Santa Rosa Beach.

Cheers!

Gordo and his brother Kelly were Honky's roomies and were also attending the get together.

I got these boots for Christmas, and I'm obsessed!

A couple days after the new year, Honky really broke in the smoker with tons of meat treats!

He smoked these onions, and if you can believe it, I loved them! 

Can you stand the awesomeness?!

We were both excited about the yumminess to come.

So so so so good!

Someone knows the way to my heart!

So the night we cooked out, my mom's house in Dothan was robbed and trashed beyond belief. It was unbelieveable. 

The local news came out and did a story on it. So crazy. 

They never found out who did it. The cops came and determined the thieves wore gloves. They said there was probably 5-6 people and they stayed there HOURS trashing everything. Pulling out every drawer and dumping it. Turning over every mattress. Knocking pictures off every surface. They took everything valuable, including TVs, computers, video games (including our old school Super Nintendo and N64!! TEARS OF AGONY!), jewelry, gun, etc. So heartbreaking.

It really was hard for my mom to get over, as you could imagine. We built this house in 1993, and have never had any problems until now. And mom lives there alone, so it was hard to trust nothing would happen again. You better believe it is on lock down 24/7 now though. Thank goodness mom was in Birmingham for the Auburn bowl game, so she wasn't there. Who knows what would've happened had she been there.

I went back to Birmingham for just a wee bit to finish up some orders.

Then I went back to Dothan to help with some clean up. Sweet Honky came up to help as well. I felt like we barely made a dent, but it felt good to get the furniture back in place. 

I went down to the beach from there. I got to help with an event with the catering company Honky works for. This was the view:

So pretty! I got to write the sign for the oyster bar. You know I love drawing a chalkboard menu!

Later in the week, Jenny and George came down to the beach! We all met Caroline at Cafe 30A for dinner and some live music. 

It was the Singer/Songwriters Festival, and Honky scored us some tickets to Shovels and Rope, one of my favorites! It was at Grayton Beer Company, and all the beers were free! Double bonus!

Soon enough it was back to Bham! Bo is always interested in my work. 

I got to help one of Honky's friends from high school (now one of my friends!) design her wedding invitations! So exciting. We attended the wedding later in the year. 

At this point I should mention that over New Year's, Honks and I discussed our future and what the next step would be. Since he loves his job and he is known down in Santa Rosa Beach, it made most sense for me to move! The only thing holding me to Birmingham (besides all my friends of course) was my house. I work from home. I was at the beach every few weeks. If it was fall, I was in Auburn AND the beach. So I made the scary decision to sell my sweet little blue house and make the move to Florida!

Step one was having a yard sale. I tried to talk my sister out of doing it in the dead of winter in January, but I couldn't. I got rid of so much! 

We had a multi family sale (with Binky, Randy, my roomies, and some others).

 I got rid of some wood from my wood pile. 

We might've had too much fun with the champs. I woke up at 5:30am, so by noon, I was ready for some libations. We had several customers! Binky and Mollie were in charge of the money. There was something funny with the cigs, but I can't remember what. None of us smoke, so I think it was one of our friends that dropped by? I can't recall!

We had some leftover items that we set by the curb. Anything left the next day, we took to the thrift store.

On Sunday, we went to Michael's for brunch, courtesy of my roomie Carl.

It was yummy! The champagne wasn't bad either.

Me, Binks, Randy, Carl

My street has pretty sunsets, doesn't it?!

 Since I was going to move, I became obsessed with looking at houses down in Santa Rosa Beach. I found this little lovey that was basically the little sister to my Bham house, navy blue exterior with a yellow door. Swoon!

Sadly it was sold, but that didn't stop me from looking at others! 

I had several radial string arts go out in January, all within the same week! 

I usually get orders in pairs, meaning if I get a Texas order, I'll get another Texas order from someone else within the same couple of days. It has happened this way too many times to count, but in this instance there were four!

I really dug this bright red with white string color combo.

I got a close up to use for a Valentine's Day photo :)

Speaking of Valentine's Day, Bink and I went to Walgreen's and found these gems for the day of love:

Why?

Chocolate for men?

The duct tape is too funny! 

I had to get to work in February whipping my house into shape for putting on the market in March!