Nashville!

Hello world! Here I am, finally, writing from Nashville. Since my last blogging splurge there’s lots to update on. We’ll see what I can do.  I’ll categorize this to help you read it better, and if you don’t want to read it all, you’ll get the jist.

NASHVILLE:

Our trip here was great – we did it in two days, and it wasn’t bad at all. I was expecting to hate the car by the end, but nope. People’s accents vary here. Sometimes I can hardly understand what’s being said, and other times it’s like I’m talking to someone in Utah. You never really realize what a desert Utah is until you are somewhere that’s not. Nashville is one of the greenest places I’ve been, and it’s gorgeous! Even the ghetto parts of town that I’ve seen, still have a charm to them because it’s so green. We live in an extra pretty place too.

Our apartments and the pool.

To get to our apartments you have to drive across a dam on the edge of  Percy Priest Lake. I’m always bugged when we are driving by on a beautiful day because the water is perfect glass and no one is wakeboarding – just fishing. Hopefully that’s just because it’s not super hot yet. I tried to get my parents to drive the boat out, but after they drove my Honda Civic out, I wouldn’t have them do that again. Yes, they are such nice parents. They drove my car out a few days after we left and I kept driving with them to Louisville (my mom’s birthplace randomly enough) where they did a wholesale show for their business.

LOUISVILLE SHOPPING:

While I was there my mom and I had a few hours to shop. First, we went to a huge antique mall – where I bought this old, vintage suitcase. Isn’t it cool? Anyway, I’m going to keep looking for old suitcases throughout the summer so I can have a little collection to stack in our apartment when we get home. They have such a charm to them. Plus, the antique stores out here are so much neater than in Utah. I guess people have lived in the East just a little bit longer than they have in the West, and hence – they have neater older stuff.

Is this not cool? It even has the initials J.A.N. engraved on top.

The second store we went to was probably the coolest store I have been to in my life – seriously. It was called Architechtural Salvage something… Anyway, all this store consisted of were old doors, mantles, windows, ballisters, railings, and anything else you can think of from old buildings. There were some of the neatest things. That had everything down to the hardware from wherever these old buildings were. I always tell Jeff that I want to buy and old house and restore it, rather than build a new house (if and when we ever get to that point). But, Jeff isn’t quite down with that idea, so I’ll compromise by taking a trip back to Louisville and shipping out neat doors, and a unique mantle and a bunch of different ballisters. Wouldn’t it be so neat to have a whole railing on the side of your stairs made out of different antique ballisters? I should have taken pictures. They also had anything from the outdoors too, like huge iron gates from old southern mansions, and small iron fences. It was so neat. Sorry, most of this probably isn’t as interesting to you as it is to me. Read about my obsession with HGTV, and it will make more sense. I have this secret ambition to someday have my own interior design firm…someday.

Quilt No. 1 for the summer.

QUILTING, COOKING, & WORKING:

Anyway, back to life now. Jeff’s just been working since we got here, and I work part-time. All I do is secretarial stuff a few times a week, so I have lots of free time on my hands – which is something I am NOT used to. I can’t tell you how relieved I felt after graduation. I had never felt that way before – no stress, no pressure. It’s an amazing feeling. Anyway, so I finally have time to do things I’ve wanted to forever. Like… learn how to quilt. My grandma Holt gave me a sewing machine for my High School graduation, and for my college graduation equipped me with everything I need to being quilting. And, I haven’t wasted any time. Here are pictures of my finished product – not too bad, right?

A close-up of my craftsmanship.

I have also been trying to cook more – and I have been, a lot. Well, 3 times a week for me is a lot, and it ends up being enough food to feed us for the week. In the past I haven’t particularly liked to cook, but I am warming up to it. I have had a few successful meals by now, and that makes me feel good. Jeff always east whatever I cook, no matter how it turns out, and the fact that he’s getting an actual meal makes me happy. I probably cooked a total of ten times this last semester, so I owe him a lot of dinners. I even make lunches for him everyday too. Most of the cooking motivation has come from the new Kitchen Aid Jeff got me for graduation. I LOVE it! Jeff says he bought it to motivate me to cook, and it’s worked. Our favorite thing to make is homemade pizza – dough and everything. I am now over my fear of yeast, and am gradually working up to bigger

and better yeast-included recipes. Well, enough of this. Hope you enjoyed my update!

ONE MORE THING!:

Oh, and I forgot to mention this coffee table I picked up at Goodwill for $10.00. Our apartments didn’t have them, so I found this one (covered in cat hair and an ugly faux wood – totally 70’s) and refinished it, added new hardware, and Whala!

Summer coffee table - only $10.00!

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