west elm birmingham grand opening!

A couple of weeks ago was the big West Elm grand opening! The official one was on Thursday night, but they had a "soft opening" on Wednesday night. 

Let's rewind just a bit. When they contacted me, they wanted a dark wood stain, like several of the pieces in my Etsy shop, but they also wanted a light wood stain. Done and done. 

I was super giddy about dropping them off. Of course I snapped a pic before walking in.

Then I posted it to IG, tagged West Elm Birmingham, and they put it on their facebook page! 

There were tons of people working in there to get everything set up and in place. It looked awesome! That's when I was told about the soft opening, so of course I planned to come. It was so much fun! You can see the string art hanging on the wall below, next to the window. We saw it as we pulled up to park from outside! 

There was a line when we got there with people checking off names on a list! Fancy! Once we got inside, they had champagne, beer and wine, and some finger food. It was packed! There was even a DJ, seen below.  

Everything looked awesome. 

There were other Etsy artists' work sprinkled throughout the store with these little signs. 

How exciting!

Mollie and Murray came with me.

Are they the best or what?! 

My work was in two different areas of the store! 

I ended up coming back on Thursday since a few of my friend's were coming then too, and the manager told me that they had sold all but one of my pieces! Within one day! Woo! I recently got a new order from their corporate office (EEE!), so I'm hoping to have them restocked soon!

At the end of the week, I was at Art and Music on the Green out at Ross Bridge in Hoover. 

I love this art show! The atmosphere is always so nice, and the weather has been great the past two years I've done it. 

Also, this:

free beer and wine tastings!

Murray was a big ol' help with loading, unloading, toting, and possibly most important, getting refills on the refreshments! 

Thanks, Mur! 

What a good week! 

au vs. ole miss week

Another riveting title! 

 Before I get started (just to recap all the game weekends), I need to update week 4. We played LSU down in Baton Rouge. It was the first time I hadn't been to an AU/LSU game in 7 years. I have gone down there the past 3 times we played in BR, and of course I went to the ones in Auburn. I'm making the trek to College Station, TX this weekend, so I opted out of going to Baton Rouge (le sigh). We played a good game, but sadly didn't win. I'm convinced that if it wasn't raining we could've pulled it off. Oh and if ol' Nick Marshall hadn't worn that damn glove, he probably would've thrown better in the first half. 

via

If the glove makes you throw like shit, you must a-quit wearing it!

We lost 35-21, however we looked spectacular in the second half. Onwards! 

The week before the Auburn/Ole Miss game was a good 'un. Birmingham is hosting these pop-up shops in different locations around the city throughout October. The first one was downtown, and new roomie Mollie and I went down there to check it out. 

It was very cool. They had different vendors in different locations along a part of 3rd Ave N in Birmingham. 

There were artists, fashion designers, food vendors, live music, etc., but my favorite was Yellowhammer Creative. I discussed them in the last post with the Edward Sharpe poster I bought. 

Don't you looooove them?! I bought another print, but sadly I didn't take a picture. It was of the "It's nice to have you in Birmingham" ad from back in the day screen printed with a green/blue background.

Nifty little mural pieced together with regular printer paper. 

It was so fun! They had free food and beer samples. Last week they were in East Lake, and this week they're in Ensley. It's different shops every week, so you need to check it out if you haven't already! 

 I realize this is a little stream of consciousness, but look what Cotton did to my beautiful patio!!!! 

She dug up an entire paver. I was so mad at her, but poor girl has a big ol' scab on her nose from it. I know she was chasing the cutest little infestation I've had recently..

CHIPMUNKS!

Gah they're so cute. I seen them before, but lately there have been a ton around the wood pile and by the side porch. 

On Friday night of game weekend, Binky and I went to a Sigur Ros concert here in Birmingham. I won tickets from Birmingham Mountain Radio (of course). I was introduced to this band years ago. They're from Iceland, and I have no clue what they're saying, but it is.. magical? I can't explain it. It gives me chills. 

We were super close to the stage.

Here's a video for Heysatan, which means haystack in Icelandic (thanks google). It's one of the first songs I was introduced to.

And here is Hoppipolla, which means "jumping into puddles". Some of my best friends used this at their wedding to walk back down the aisle. Chills! 

It was so. good. 

The only thing that would've made it better would be if we were in the Icelandic countryside. Maybe one day..  

Funny thing.. they kept blasting these bright lights during certain songs. Binky and I both would recoil in eye pain, and NO ONE ELSE WAS FAZED! Do we have the sensitive eye gene? You could clearly see the whole audience when it flashed and no one was moving or even blinking. Weird! 

This picture even hurts my eyes. We had moved to the top of the section towards the end. I doubt this band will ever be in this area again, so I'm glad I got to see them! 

We left after the show to head back to Auburn. My roomie Mollie came too! We got there right at 2am to see all the people coming out of the bars.

Saturday, gameday was in full swing, and a few of my lovely sorority sisters were in town. 

Me, Beth, Johnny, Kate, Jackie, and Tyler. 

Here is my roomie Mollie! She went to Ole Miss, which is why she's wearing red. 

Smalls joined the group. 

Soon it was time to head to the stadium, but beforehand we had to go pickup Jackie's tickets..

from Charles Barkley! 

No lie! Her mom knows him through events in Birmingham, and she called him up to see if he could get tickets for Jackie. He could! In fact Jackie got his number and was texting and calling him to find his tailgating spot. Is she a VIP or what?! Of course being the starstruck Auburn fan that I am, I was so excited when she let me tag along. He talked to us for a minute and let us get a picture. So exciting! 

On the way to the game, I ran into my cousin Andrea, who is a junior at Auburn. When I was in college, I would always run into my cousin Terrell before games and we would win if we took a picture together. A Newman family/gameday miracle, if you will. I practically forced Andrea take a picture with me to ensure that we won the game. 

I made her hands-on-hips pose with me haha! 

It was a glorious day, even though it was hotter than I thought it would be. The pic below is of the eagle flight. Can you see her? She is just barely visible to the left of the 40 yard line to the left of the AU towards the center of the field.

This was the Military Appreciation game, and there was a flyover! 

Man, I love a flyover. 

Can you tell?

Another sunset shot!

And a good ol' orange and blue sky never gets old, amiright? 

I walked down to see the Woods who, if you recall, sit in my section (Kate was my old roomie and married Brett, who went to Auburn, so Kate is now an AU fan. WOO!). 

I sat with Mollie, Kate, Beth, and Johnny throughout the game. Murray came over for the second half. Since Mollie is an Ole Miss fan, I kept saying things like "WAARR EAAGLLEE WOOOO!.. I'm sorry." I couldn't contain my excitement, but I didn't want to be rude! haha

We won the game! It was a bit of a nail biter at the end, but we pulled it off. Of course we walked downtown afterwards to the wires. 

I can't wait for next year when trees will be back up. 

War damn! 

au vs. mississippi state

Sometimes I try to make semi-clever titles, and sometimes I come up with amazing things like "au vs. mississippi state".  I'm way behind on blogging, but since this is my scrapbook of sorts, I want to include things that are important, and we all know AU is one of the top spots on that list. 

Before we dive into the game, the week of the Miss St game I got to see one of my favorite bands in concert:

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros! 

I've been obsessed for a while now, so I was really excited to see them at Iron City here in Birmingham. The venue is really awesome and small in a good way. I didn't zoom on these pictures, and it seemed that any place you stood would have a great view. 

Ahhh it was amazing. Since they are one of my favorites, I bought this poster at the show. It's made by a local print shop here in Birmingham called Yellowhammer Creative. I. love. them. They remind me of Hatch Show Print, which I'm obsessed with too as evident with the 7 prints I have in my casa.  

Ok, so finally it was Auburn time. As we discussed, on Fridays if we're in town, we'll go to lunch as a fam. This time it was just me and dad. Right before I met up with him at the shop in Opelika, one of my headlights went out due to water collecting in the headlight encasement thing. I hadn't noticed it, but dad got it fixed right up. Not only that, but he washed my car! Note, he only did this bc of the dang lovebugs from Dothan, but it was still nice nonetheless. Of course I got him to pose for a pic: 

Hilarious! Thanks, daddio. 

Once I was back in Auburn, my friend Brooke got in town to stay with me and Murray. Murray lives with Trey, and Trey's sister Kaki graduated high school with me. She and her hubs were also staying there for the game. Full house, woo! 

We went out to Moe's BBQ, which serves food during the day, but at night it turns into a bar. Claire, me, Brooke, and Kaki pretended like we were freshmen.

pic via Brooke

There were so many people there that we had to get two drinks at once because who knows when we would be able to shove our way up to the bar and flag down a bartender for a beverage. This wrinkledy 28yo who wears flip flops to the bar cannot compete with 21yo college girls who look like they have the same stylist and makeup artist as the Kardashians. 

We survived the evening, and soon enough it was game day! Here's Toomer's Corner, sans trees. So sad. 

Auburn passed a law where you can take drinks out of bars and walk around with them on game day! How exciting! 

photo via Brooke

We tailgated at Kaki and Trey's dad's tent. It was lots of fun! Murray and Kaki's husband Chris were both excited that they had a TV with the bama game on. 

Me, Brooke, Colby, and Kaki

Soon enough, it was game time! 

Here's the eagle in the kennel before her flight. Most people walk by it not knowing she's in there. 

It was a glorious game day! 

Jensen sat with me and Brooke.

We won in quite the nail biter of a game! It was so exciting, and I pretty much yelled my heart out. 

I was convinced my new game day earrings aided in the win. 

Jens was pumped! 

First SEC win in eleventy billion years! Ok, 1.5, but it felt like forever. 

We went to Bodega after the game. Binky came and met us after she got off work, and we ran into Max while we were there. 

Sissies!

Brooke and I got a pic of our face tats. They also aid in the lucky-ness. 

Gah it feels good to have a decent football team again. Woo! 

I was going to write about the last three weeks of stuff, then I realized it would take forever to write, so I'm breaking it down into a few posts. The good news is the pictures are already edited, so I should have another out by tomorrow. Woo!