Checked Out: Style Me Vintage

Style Me Vintage

 

By: Naomi Thompson, Belinda Hay & Katie Reynolds

 

What a fun book!  I loved flipping through the pages and discovering make up and hair tips and learning about how to care for and style vintage clothing from different eras.  You will find step by step instructions for retro and vintage looks.  I sewanee, when I came across the eye brow section I stopped reading and started plucking and felt much better. 

 

Checked Out Rating: A Fun 8

 

 

 

Grow Baby Grow

 

I feel like we are in the down hill stretch of seed starting and really we are.  This year I started a lot of seeds indoors, especially in the tomato department.  I currently have 96 plants if they all make it.  I know that sounds like a lot but to me it is just about right.  We will plant our normal batch in our garden which is usually around eighty of the same variety, a handful at the day care and the rest are late tomatoes that won't get planted until later.  This time I have about half Bradley, half Roma for the first batch planted.  I will can the Bradley's and make pasta sauce and make salsa from the Roma's.  The store on Etsy that I ordered my Bradley seeds from also sent a free packet of variety tomatoes, of which I planted them all like a good girl.  So really, my late tomatoes are a grab bag assortment and who knows what we will get.  The good part about that is that if we get something we like we can save our seeds for next year.

 

I also have cabbage and eggplant planted which is the first time I have begun both from seed.  They are doing great.  My green peppers did not come up so I will have to buy those plants. 

I have two dill plants which need a few more weeks, zinnias in two varieties who are ready for the ground, and a new flower that I've never grown before called Cleome. 

 

I have been caring for these little seeds, seedlings and plants for weeks upon weeks now, watering putting in sunny windows and moving them outside on sunny days and back in at night.  I actually get nervous when they are first planted in the ground like a little mother hen thinking a rain drop will drown them.  Our planting time seemed like it was taking it's sweet time getting here since we plant on May 10th or there-a-bouts.  This year we are already planning to wait another week or two.  The ground temperature is not warm enough nor dry enough to plant for our taste.  It takes warm ground to make these babies grow and I am not convinced that we won't have another frost.  I have to say it is ok with me right now that my plants have a couple of more weeks to mature.  If not, I would be stressing about not having them in the ground and might be tempted to plant them when I shouldn't.   Patience and gardening grow hand in hand.

 

Late tomatoes.

 

They look like they need water but really they don't.  I watered then decided that some needed a little more soil for support. 



Not So Local Spotlight: Bluegrass Underground

My Dad's birthday is in February.  My Dad is a lover and picker of bluegrass music.  My Dad is also a big fan of caves and underground rooms and passageways.  For my Dad's birthday this year, I though it would be fantastic to combine the two and take my Father to Bluegrass Underground! 

 

Bluegrass Underground is in McMinnville, Tennessee located inside the cave at Cumberland Caverns.  It is 333 feet below ground, a fine 56 degrees year round, and is in what they call a natural amphitheater named the Volcano Room with the most fabulous natural acoustic sound.  They have a stage inside the room along with seating, restrooms and a snack bar.  We got to see two bands.  The first one called Seryn, was a good band and we enjoyed their music although it was not traditional bluegrass style stuff but did give us a mix of music.  The main band there was The Boxcars which was pure, out right bluegrass... like we like!  Fantastic show!  The music lasted from one until four o'clock with a slight intermission with the change of bands.  They have music there once and sometimes twice a month.  I booked our tickets for an April show.  We actually had tickets for the whole shabang which included about an hour cave tour before the show that was pretty awesome in itself.  There are five very large rooms in the cave along with a waterfall, stalactites, stalagmites, natural formations and a few bats flying around.  I really liked that we did both the tour and the music but if you just went to see the music you could possibly have enough of a view of the cave.  There are soot and torch writings from the 1800's from people exploring that I thought was super cool.  We did have enough time to eat some lunch between the tour and the show from the snack bar. 

 

All in all I had a great time and my Dad really enjoyed his birthday present! 

Something much better than a doily or skates!  (little inside joke with my sisters! I gotta tease!)

 

 

The cave entrance.  A small hike from the gift shop where you pick up your tickets.

It was a very rainy Saturday!  Good thing it wasn't raining inside the cave!

 This is the Volcano Room where the show was.  We passed over it on the tour!

My Pa.

Stairway on the tour.

Formations.

We sat right under the 1500 pound chandelier!

Seryn

The Boxcars

 

It was hard for me to get good pictures inside the cave.  I hate using the flash on my camera and it is almost a must for any sort of clarity but is just too bright for my taste.  Oh Well. 

 

You can catch Bluegrass Underground on AM 650 at 5:00P.M. on Saturday nights or watch for it on NPT channel 8.



Sharing the Love

Personally, I think this song deserves the share.  My precious and eldest niece was lovin' enough to share this song with me, so now I'm passing it on to you... my lovin' readers. 

I think we have all had someone in our lives that this song points the finger right at.  Luckily, at this point in my life, I don't have any neighbors that can right off see my house so these worries are out of my life for now.  But I will say that I can name two right off the top of my head that fall in the category.

 

Love you!  Hope you love this song! 

Careful... it's addictive and fun to sing.

 

 

 

I told you you'd love it!

 

Thanks LaLa.  I finally listened to it and you were right!

Not that I doubted you for a second shoog!