Life lately

I think we all know by now that I'm pretty much always a busy girl. But here lately things have been way more busy, exciting and fun than usual. I guess life has just been handing me one heck of an end of summer party.

It started three weeks ago with a cookout at Nick and Ashley's for his birthday on Monday night. Then later that week Joy and I had dinner at the new Todd English Pub downtown followed by seeing the Red Mountain Theater Company's production of 42nd Street at the new Dorothy Jemison Day theater at the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA). Such a great time!

The next night, J and I went to the Green Seed & St. Paul and the Broken Bones show in Avondale. (oh btw, St. Paul & BB have been chosen as "the best of what's next" from Paste magazine!) Then Saturday I made german chocolate cupcakes (from scratch!) for my dad's bday and a going away cookout at Joy's house that night. Sunday J & I went home to spend some time with my fam in honor of the aforementioned bday. My nephew and I were able to coax a tiny kitten out from the storage area under my parents house. What a cutie! Not gonna lie, was tempted to keep the kitty, but I know better so I managed to leave it behind.

That following weekend was spent pretty much with J at Secret Stages, which you can read about in it's entirety here. For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a great idea to get up on Saturday am (after maybe 5 hours of sleep) and run the Peavine Falls course with Patricia. I have no idea how I survived but I did and for some other crazy reason, I want to go back soon and do it again! Sunday of this weekend was again spent at home with fam that morning for church and then I hurried back to Bham to make peach ice cream for my framily reunion later that night to welcome Peach back home.

This past week was spent seeing Peaches and Matt (along with the rest of our gang) since they were in town for Torry & Nicole's wedding. We had dance parties, long discussions and frequented some of our fav restaurants like Mugshots, Five Bar & of course, Moe's. I also went to a panel discussion at Alabama Outdoors on Thursday night to see my friend Kyle speak about running the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run, but sadly I had to leave before I got to hear about his experience.

Friday afternoon brought Emily in town, which meant the gang was finally all back together again (well, minus her husband Blake) so I ended up taking a half day and meeting them at Moe's for lunch. Later that night we met at Ashley Mac's for the rehearsal dinner (yum!) followed by karaoke at Starz. Saturday was packed with an early run, a coffee meeting/catch up sesh at O'Henry's with Lauren (of Something Blue Events) and her husband Sam and their three kids, then pedis with the girls, lunch at Urban Cookhouse, dessert at Pastry Art Shoppe and then finally, the main event—Torry & Nicole say "I do" (#foreverpattons).

The ceremony was perfect, the bride looked stunning and the reception was a redic good time. We also even managed to surprise Torry at the reception with a flash mob dance routine. My fav part is when he went to join in and dance with her and someone had to grab him and tell him 'nope, you have to watch.' It was awesome. Don't worry, when we've got the video finished, it'll be posted on the blog.

Top off this incredible weekend with some time spent at Peaches' lakehouse yesterday and you've got one happy girl sitting at her computer today. I just wish I got to see these people all the time! One day... maybe one day.

Music Monday: Secret Stages

I'm not sure how it happened, but I just attended my first Secret Stages weekend here in Birmingham and the festival has been happening since 2011. Either they've been keeping the festival secret a little too well or I am just slow to the game. Regardless, I'm glad I finally caught up to the scene.

If you're not familiar with Secret Stages, I like to compare it to the Birmingham Sidewalk Film Festival, though obviously you're watching bands instead of films. But the principle is the same in that there are so many different genres and bands performing at the same time.

Basically it's like any other festival in that you choose which bands you're most interested in, but it's great because there are at least five artists performing at all times. And all of the shows are held at local bars and venues downtown near 2nd Street North—putting you within a quick walking distance to a ridiculous amount of music.

I'd say the weekend pass (for only $20) is definitely the best way to go, and that's exactly what J & I decided to do. We were able to catch nine different bands perform each night, for a total of 18 bands over the weekend. Um yeah, insane.

I was able to see some of my local favorites like the Great Book of John and The Banditos plus see completely new bands that I have never heard of like Amasa Hines (J's fav act that we caught) and Foreign Fields (my fav show from the weekend).

One of my other favorite highlights from Secret Stages includes seeing Cleve Eaton, who has performed and recorded with many greats like Count Basie, John Coltrane and Miles Davis, play the upright bass with his band Saturday evening.

And suprisingly enough I also really enjoyed watching Bit Brigade—I mean, there was a live performance of someone playing Mega Man while the band played, who wouldn't love that?! And I even caught a hip hop act, Mr. Invisible, which was a crazy high energy and super fun show as well. It was really neat having the opportunity to branch out of my usual musical choices and experience new bands.

Obviously the weekend was a blast, and quite honestly a little exhaustin, but I definitely plan to attend again next year. And if you live nearby, you should, too.