our weekend in Nashville

This past weekend we hopped in our Accord and headed to Nashville for a much needed break/opportunity to spend some birthday cash.

I'm going to go ahead and say it. Nashville tops Knoxville any day {sorry, natives}. :)

 Here's a quick over view of our weekend in pictures. They are entirely phone pictures; you've been warned.

The full size Parthenon at World Fair Park

The "American Pickers" store

The awesome indoor arboretum at the Grand Ole Opry Hotel

Ice Cream in Downtown Nashville

Our tour guides. :)

Way more happened this weekend.

 Picture the largest flea market in the world, Chinese food, creamy popsicles, hugemongous Goodwill bins, breakfast at the Loveless cafe, art museums, Vanderbilt campus tours, and additional shopping. Sorry I was spotty on the photo taking, but we did bring a bunch of Nashville home with us. I don't mean t-shirts and post cards {through we did mail ourselves a post card while we were there}. I mean less touristy things. Things like a hammock.

Sharon got this hammock in South America, but didn't have the space for it, and now it's hanging pretty in Powell, TN. Lucky Powell. 

Loverly, eh? :) I have so much to show you, but it's midterms week so everything is on hold. I will be back tomorrow afternoon to announce the winner of my print giveaway. There's still time to enter! 

So what did you do with this lovely February weather? Pose for pictures in your new hammock? No, just me?

weekend trip

To finish off my birthday week, on Friday we are heading to Nashville to visit with Matt's sister and her husband. I am so excited! I keep mentally packing. Pray it doesn't rain on us. :)

On the flip side, I got rain boots for my birthday, so bring on the rain! :)

Midterms are next week, but I refuse to study on this trip. Instead I will spend my time spending my birthday money on flea market finds and stuffing myself to the max. Me=Excited. Of course I'll be documenting the trip{along with my fabulous finds} and sharing them {mommy will be so proud}. 

How bout a small recap of my birthday week? Cupcakes, kite flying, pearls, and nesting dolls. See? Ok, only half of those are pictured. But I'll show you my nesting dolls and pearls later. :)

Oh, and yes. Matthew did decorate all of my cupcakes {how adorable is he??}, and our kite is a pteranodon. :)

Be sure to enter for my print giveaway! The more the merrier! :)

christmas 2011

Just like Thanksgiving was spent with the Pearsons, Christmas this year was spent with the Nowaks. Just a quick run down for everyone who doesn't know the Nowaks, their family consists of: 4 sisters {Sharon, Beth, Chris, and Katie}, 2 brothers {Danny and Matt}, 4 in-laws {Bryan, Courtney, Richard and I}, plus mom, dad, and granddad. That's 13 people even before any of us have kids. Whoa.

Thirteen people means nothing if not a triple batch of crescent cookies.

It also means tons of presents. Tons and tons. I didn't mean to take a before and after picture. I merely took a picture before we opened the presents while we were sitting around... and then one more when we were sitting around after the presents. It looks like we staged disaster. Nope, this disaster is legit.

The highlight of after Christmas digesting? A lock picking set acquired by my brother-in-law Bryan. It has renewed my desire to be something of an assassin when I grow up.

After the Christmas festivities on Sunday, we spent Monday with my family for our second "first" Christmas. It started with a longer than usual game of find the pickle. I almost always find it first, but this year Matthew beat me to it. We were the only two who found it this Christmas. Grandma really buried it. 

The highlight of this years gift giving, was my ten year old sister's face when she opened an ipod touch, cleverly disguised in a small American Girl box. I'm not saying it was an attractive face, but it lasted a couple of solid minutes, and it was sincere. Yes, I captured it for you. You're welcome. 

I suppose that's basically all. I'll give you a gift run down later once everything has a home {and we've donated enough to help it all balance out}. Just as a spoiler, I got a couple of amazing hand made gifts. I'll end with a couple of pictures of my favorite person in the entire world. 

Just chilling with Jacinda on Christmas, and with a blueberry {non-beer like} drink in a fun little coffee shop in Richmond. We never take pictures of the two of us together. I need to fix that. Sniff sniff. I'm pretty sure I smell a New Year's resolution. 

t. hanks

I am awful at blogging. I go places and forget to take pictures.

We just spent a couple of days in Hampton Roads again. Matthew and I drove up on Wednesday and stayed at my Grandparents in Poquoson. We're doing the whole "every other year" thing with our families and it was "Pearson" family Thanksgiving this year. First of all, it was weird because mom and Andrew were down in Florida visiting Pensacola Christian College. Second of all, it was weird because I had no desire at all to brave Hampton Roads traffic for some Black Friday savings.

The only thing I did on Black Friday was meet {my best friend} Julia for the first time since our wedding at Starbucks. Afterwards we walked around the ashes of our home church. As we said our goodbyes, Julia hit our friendship dead on. "It's funny how we don't talk at all for months, but then we can pick up our friendship whenever we see each other, because we're best friends." Thanks for being a fantastic best friend Julie.

This Thanksgiving I am non-inclusively thankful for:

1. Nowaks (including, but not limited to, my handsome husband)
2. Grandparents
3. Pearsons
4. Cousins
5. Board games
6. Shrimp nachos
7. Best friends
8. Soft kittens
9. Vintage markets

Matthew and I stopped in Charlottesville to do a little Christmas shopping and found an adorable thank you card cleverly featuring Matthew's favorite actor.

the cavalier hotel

A couple of weeks ago we got the chance to steal a weekend off before school starts back up. We spent the weekend (as most of you know) in Hampton Roads. The weekend began with the newest Nowak Family Production premier of "Martha", and it was stepic {that's a mix of stellar and epic, for those of you fine people who've never heard it}. After that, we played a mixture of the usuals {swamp man, catch phrase, ultimate ninja destruction, and some made up game sort of like soccer but involving a floor buffer} and then headed back to my parents house for a shower and good night's sleep. The next morning mom made chili eggs {fabulous} and then we headed over to Matt's parents house to meet up with his family. The Thompsonowaks {Our sister/brother-in-law} were in town from Philly, and we continued the Nowak family traditions with some serious Thrift Store shopping. My favorite score from this trip was our new mustard colored ottoman. We have one of those awesome {hand me down from my Grandparents} couches that has a recliner built into each end, but my husband and I don't like to sit so far apart from each other, and so one of us gets the footrest, and the other sits in the middle, wishing he/she had a footrest. This ottoman is the perfect solution.

Matt had the genius idea to tuck it under the chair when not in use, and it has done its job perfectly. After thrift store shopping we broke away from the family and made our way down to where the highway hits the sand. I have lived most of my life in Virginia Beach {with the exception of Pensacola for a couple of months, Knoxville for a year and a half at school, and a semester in the UK}, and I bet I haven't gone to Virginia Beach more than 100 times. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. It's a little depressing to think about. Anyways, we went down to the beach to spend the night in The Old Cavalier Hotel. If you know anything about the Old Cavalier Hotel, you should know that it is old {duh} and it's expensive. "So, why did you randomly go there you money wasters you?" {that was you talking} Because, originally we were going to get married on July the 31st, before we decided that May the 21st made way more sense. So we had already booked the Cavalier for this weekend. Here's the hotel as we approached it.

Gorgeous, isn't he? :) Yes, yes he is. The foyer was no disappointment either. If I ever had David Bromstead ColorSplash a room, this is the place I would take him for my inspiration. I love the colors and the details. 

Next stop? Our bedroom. Originally we had booked the honeymoon suite, but we downgraded since we had already had our honeymoon. We expected a decent room, with a partial ocean view, but that's not what we got. What we got was three whole windows of this:

Hello, Virginia Beach! :) It was the perfect weekend, full of family time, and alone time. 

atlanta

This past weekend we visited our good friend Amelia at her Aunt's house right outside of Atlanta (Yes, this is the same girl we visited at her Grandmother's house in Chattanooga). We spent the first day playing board games, watching Sense and Sensibility (still unsure how I feel about such dramatic movies), and swimming in their fantastic pool.

The next day we spent quite differently. We began by climbing a mountain. Whether Amelia properly informed us of said climbing is debatable, but regardless, I was not prepared. I'd be lying if I said I didn't almost die climbing it. Was it really that bad? No, probably not. But I haven't attempted to do anything quite that adventurous in a good long while. Anyways, here was the view.

Next, we went to some adorable park-like square with food, dessert, eclectic, and antique shops. We had lunch at a delicious little cafe, and then moved on to another shop for ice cream. My favorite stop {as you can imagine} was the large antique mall. We wandered through the entire store, and while I loved many things, I managed to not commit myself to any of them. Truth be told, I was on a mission. I was looking for a pot {or vase, or bowl} to house the chocolate mint plant that my husband had purchased for me. The first trip through, though long and thorough {wow, that sentence was kinda a tongue twister for the eyeballs} yielded no such pot. I was rather disappointed, but we started to head slowly back toward the front of the store. As with all good stories, this one has a happy ending. As we neared the door, I noticed a beautiful little teapot that was clothed in a color somewhere between blue and green. It was unassuming and missing its top. A teapot missing its top is not much good for making tea, however it is the perfect substitute for a boring pot. The only wall to conquer now was the price. I hesitantly flipped over the price tag. $7.00. This teapot and I were going to be friends. :) 

It was only a two day trip, but it was relaxing. I'll end this post with a picture of the fountain in the middle of the square. It has a sort of "thank you for coming" presence and seems fitting.

downtown knoxville

After a riverside walk last night, we settled on the pier beside an assortment of overly friendly birds. While we tossed them cracker bits, I leaned against my husband. My husband. :) I have all I've ever wanted. I understand that I am still a "newlywed", and at this point I should still be remarkably happy, but it's bigger than that. God has given abundantly. All of my daydreams have become my reality.

 When the horizon swallowed the sun, we listened to the live band playing at Calhoun's, and I found myself humming the tune of the Plain White T's song "Rhythm of Love".

"I love the view from up here, warm sun and wind in my ear. We'll watch the world from above as it turns to the rhythm of love."

Something about moving water and moonlight brings out the happiest in people. Remember to take in the little joys in life.

chattanooga

I love to travel. Taylor Swift sounds best when you're on the road, and you find the best hole-in-the-wall places when you aren't home. We just got back from spending the weekend with our friend Amelia Mendonsa in Chattanooga. Chattanooga is a pretty cool city. It has all the urban style you can handle with enough whimsy to keep things interesting. We were serenaded by an impromptu jazz session while playing a competitive game of Settlers of Catan in a coffee shop, rode the carousel that was built in the 1800s, and found the best donut shop. I try not to leave a new place without some sort of un-souvenir-like souvenir. This trip's find was a pair of hippie suitcases. The color orange has been growing on me lately. Must be a TN thing.

reupholstery

Matthew and I both had been collecting things for years before we met each other. Our tastes reflect a sense of eclectic old world mixed with lively colors and patterns. One of the chairs that traveled from Norfolk to Knoxville was a very dull sort of beige and was tearing. I decided to try my hand at making its life significantly better. This is the outcome. I'm considering it to be a success.