weekends around these parts

Dddyyooouuuuuu wanna know what fun I've been up to on these past few weekends?!

If you start any sentence with "dddyoouuuuu" (all drawn out) to my pups, they turn their heads from side to side. Very amusing to this pup-mama. 

The weekend before the big patio reno, I went to Magic City Brewfest! It's a beer festival in bham, and I've been for 4 years in a row, so of course I couldn't miss this year. But I almost did.. I thought you could buy tickets at the event, but then a couple hours before it started, I noticed the website said they weren't selling them at the door. So I checked Ticketmaster, and they had already turned off buying ability because it was so close to showtime.. I went anyways to test my luck, and thank goodness they were selling them outside the gate! How rude of you to lie, brewfest website!! 

I've blogged about the years past, but in case you're new..

They give you these glasses to fill up as you go around to the different booths. There are over 200 different craft breweries there from around the country. If you happen to drop your glass, the ENTIRE festival full of people will yell: AAAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH! It's hilarious. 

Did you notice I'm starting to grow my nails out?!? This is quite the task after biting them for 20+ years..

I ran into some Auburn friends, Tori and Mitch! I think Tori's glowing horns came from the Straight to Ale tent (a brewery from Huntsville). 

Hilarious!  

You may have noticed I haven't cut my hair yet.. I'll be danged that every weekend that comes around, a different event comes up that I want long hair for.

I went with one of my besties, Jensen. She pointed out that since it was May 31st, we could technically still celebrate Rachelpalooza. I like where you're heads at, Megs. 

Brewfest always happens at Sloss Furnaces here in Birmingham. It's an old factory that's been turned into a place for festivals, concerts, etc. 

This was as it was ending, but you can see how the booths are lined up with the brewery name on top. In the midst of brewfest, there would've been tons of people lined up here. 

On that Saturday night, I went to Ragan and Kyle's house for a going away party for Virginia and Matt! I've talked about Dothan dinners before, but in case you need a refresher, the nine of us below all graduated high school together (10 years ago, eee!) and now we all live in Birmingham! That is huge considering we only graduated with 48! This wasn't a Dothan dinner, but luckily we were all able to make it to the party to send Virginia off! 

Yep, that birdhouse makes me look like I'm wearing a dunce cap/small wizard's hat. 

Caroline, Brittany, Me, Abby, Ragan

Virginia, Jenny, Megan, and Katie

All the girls brought their fancy cameras, EXCEPT ME, knowing I was going to want to post pics!! What a bad blogger! I grabbed this one below from Caroline, who had posted it to her own blog in a timely manner (aka a better blogger than myself!). 

I just love my little Dothan-Bham fam. Do you see Drew in the top right in the pic below? He also graduated with us and is recently engaged to Brittany! Jenny is the cute prego lady in the front, and just had her baby a few days ago. I can't wait to meet him this week! Virginia (the party-lady of honor) is moving to North Carolina for her med school residency with her fiancé, Matt. So many exciting things going on between us!! I mean, I just built a patio for goodness sake!

After the party marinated down, mostly Dothan people were left. And we had, what else, a dance party! I had so. much. fun! PS, if you haven't checked out the new Daft Punk album, DO IT! We started out with old school rap, but then once Daft Punk was on, everyone was out of their seats. Ragan told me later that the cops showed up! HAHA! 

Gah, I need another Dothan party, STAT! 

Not a weekend event, but.. I had to meet a customer at the Summit to deliver a piece of art, and I conveniently met her in front of Private Gallery. Coincidence? I bought this super cute Alabama necklace there. I love how small it is, and that the charm is attached, as opposed to something that moves on the chain. 

After that weekend of awesomeness was the patio building experience. I forgot to post these nuggets of goodness from Saturday night.. Murray and I drinking some cheap champagne, bc we both love it and deserved a treat after 37 hours of manual labor. 

TWINZ!

My family has a mass text going on with all of us (me, mom, dad, and Binky). I sent out a text with this pic below, and said "look what I did this weekend!". After no one commented for several hours, I texted: IS NO ONE GOING TO COMMENT ON THE PATIO I LAID WITH MY OWN LITTLE PAWS?!?! 

Dad replied: I thought you swept it. 

hilarious.

I worked my buns off all week long in preparation for the Auburn Summer Nights Art Walk! 

It was very luxurious in comparison with other art shows in that AuburnArt set up the tents and tables AND there was always someone to ring up the customers and package the art. All I had to do was show up! Well, I just dropped off my art at lunchtime before the show, but that was the extent of my labor in preparation for the event. They had these lovely tablecloths and stands for the boards!

It was me and Tabitha, another winner from the contest back from last fall under the tent.

She hand-makes these awesome tiger & Toomer's Corner mugs and bowls. 

How awesome! Or should I say AUsome.. hardy har har. 

The AuburnArt crew! They're the best! 

While Tabitha made her mugs, I demonstrated stringing this big ol' Toomer's Tree string art! I had several people stop and watch while I worked my magic. haha

Yes, that's Murray photobombing in the back. 

Continuing to creepily pose, without sausage arms this time.. haha

There were tons of people that came by! The most asked question was "how long does this take you?!". In case you'd like the answer: for the big trees, about an hour to nail, and three hours to string and the small ones take about 30 minutes to nail and an hour to string (not including sawing, staining, and painting Tradition on the front).

The one in the front was the finished one, and the one towards the back was the one I worked on throughout the show. 

Binky, Murray, Texas, and Tucker came down for the show and did the pie walk in hopes of winning some dessert.

and Texas won! hahaha I just happened to be set up in front of the pie walk, so I got them in action. (sorry for the blur!)

Picture down College Street. For these downtown events, they close off the streets, AND you're allowed to walk around with open containers! My kinda event, amiright?! 

Everything went great, and we all went out for a bit afterwards. Poor little Murray had to work all weekend, so I brought him a treat on Saturday. Sort of.. 

It melted. 

I almost wrecked trying to drive it to his house to prevent the dripping. Down my arm. Onto my leg. Into my purse. Onto my steering wheel. Into the controls on the door and on the side of the seat.. Note to self: don't order a cone when it take more than 5 minutes to deliver on a day hotter than the sun.. which has me worried since it's only mid-June. Let's say 2 minutes if it's July/August. 

Yes, you only see one little drip here, but I assure you on the other side of my hand was the Niagara Falls of ice cream. 50 cent cone from Burger King, you were NOT worth it! 

So as you probably know, Sunday was Father's Day! Murray and I went to the lake to celebrate with dear ol' dad. I told him he didn't have to cook, but secretly hoped he would. Lucky for me, he made some delicious burgers! 

You may have seen this similar pic on instagram (follow me at ilikewhatimherring). After seeing a BAJILLION pics on fb and IG of everyone's dads on father's day, I made dad pose for this obligatory pic.

He had brought the ol' 32 coupe up to the lake. 

I decided to get some shots of the car with dad in the background. When he saw this one below, he said: I was gonna say this shirt makes me look fat, but I ain't wearin' a shirt! I need to reduce! 

hahaha

Another car shot. 

Once dad got his burger all fixed up, he wanted me to get a picture with him and his masterpiece! haha

When I asked dad what he wanted for father's day, he said "nothin"... but I knew this really meant ICE CREAM! I picked up some once we got to the lake (after the big melting incident the day before I didn't want to chance a 30 minute drive). We each had a big bowl. Murray headed back to AU since he had work the next day, and I hung out a bit longer. Not 30 minutes later, dad had busted out the entire ice cream container and ate the WHOLE THING! 

When I asked if he wanted to save it for later in the week, he said: well I still have 3 hours of father's day left, so I can have all I want! 

a few minutes later: can you run up the store to get more?! hahah

Ooooh dad! He won't keep sweets in the house because he will eat every last bite if there is any in there. When we head up there with some, he takes full advantage. 

I ended up spending the night (the joys of being your own boss!) and we went on a little boat ride Monday morning before I headed back to Birmingham! 

What a good few weekends! I have several more fun ones coming up this summer, and I can't wait to share them! EEE!