Life lately

Well, despite the yucky weather we seem to be encountering a good bit these days, we've still managed to get in a few fun activities over the past couple of weeks. Our friends Ben & Emily of Carolina Story came in town to play a show back in March and we were stoked to get to see them perform at Workplay. AND we found out they are expecting their first child! Super exciting. They opened for another Nasvhille band/friends of their, The Vespers, who were super fun and entertaining. I totally recommend checking out both of these bands.

The day after their show, J and I hit the road for a climbing camping trip to Rocktown. We eventually met up with Beth and Phil and climbed pretty hard all day Saturday. Such a good time! We will definitely be back in the fall, when hopefully the weather will be less rainy.

More recently, I was lucky enough to have my friend Casey in town from Portland. She came in for a wedding for a friend of hers and we were also able to sneak in a bridal shower for her while she was here. Her soon-to-be sister-in-law hosted the most beautiful luncheon outside in her front yard for Casey. It was positively lovely and all of the food was delicious. But most importantly I got some good ole quality time with Case and she got some good gifts! I absolutely cannot wait to go to her Portland wedding in less than two months!

Later that same weekend we also celebrated Amy's birthday with some classic bbq at Jim N' Nicks. It was just low key good food, good friends and a really good time. And sadly, the very next night we all got together to watch the How I Met Your Mother series finale. UGH. a) I'm sad it's over and b) I was SO not okay with the ending. I've had time to process it now and I am better with the ending than when I first saw it, but ultimately, I think the writers could have written the entire last season better if that's the ending they were going for. Anyone else feelin me on this? Anyhow, the cherry on top was that we FaceTimed our friend Peach in NYC to watch it with us.

Oh and as per usual, J and I are always checking out any new restaurant in town and we finally went to Post Office Pies (POPs) in Avondale, which is located in the old Post Office building. Love it. Good food, great location. If you're a B'hamian, go try it out soon. Supposedly they also have a great salads, but you know I didn't venture near anything green :) My only complaint/suggestion is that they need to have a BBQ pizza on the menu, seeing as it's the same owner as Saw's. Just sayin!

Music Monday: Current obsessions

Artist: Wild Child
Album: The Runaround (listen here on their website)
Why I love it: It's upbeat and just a little bit quirky.
Favorite song(s): Crazy Bird, Stitches
For fans of: The Oh Hello's, The Weepies

Artist: Song Preservation Society 

Album: Ready Room (listen here on Bandcamp)

Why I love it: I feel like it completely lives up to the name of their band. If that makes any sense at all?

Favorite song(s): Love Me Like She Did

For fans of: Great Peacock, M. Ward

Artist: Carolina Story

Album: Chapter One EP (listen here on Amazon)

Why I love it: I will always love Ben & Emily's harmony and song writing abilities. Listen to their music and you will feel what they feel. 

Favorite song(s): Even When the Road Gets Hard, Slippin' Away

For fans of: The Civil Wars, Shovels & Rope 

Artist: Dear Georgiana

Album: Dear Georgiana (listen here on Bandcamp)

Why I love it: It's super dreamy.

Favorite song(s): Wait for Me, Over You

For fans of: Nora Jones, Tennis

Artist: Red Tail Ring

Album: The Heart's Swift Foot (listen on Spotify)

Why I love it: It's a singer/songwriter kind of sound with banjo pickin. It's beautiful. 

Favorite song(s): A Clearing in the Wind

For fans of: Alison Krauss & Union Station, Sarah Jarosz

Life lately

Well, it's been a couple of fun-filled weeks since I last did a "life lately" post. It started with the big special event, Taste of Triumph that benefits Triumph Services, which is the non-profit whose junior board I serve on. It's always great spending time with the Martucci's, but since Joy has such a giving heart, I was truly excited for her to see more of what Triumph is all about. It was a great night with great friends, and most importantly, Triumph pretty much met their fundraising goals for the night!

Things didn't slow down much from there (as per usual). That following weekend J and I attended a surprise party for one of our friends and then the next morning I crawled out of bed early to do my first ever solo trail run at Red Mountain Park. I couldn't believe I actually found my way out of the park and also avoided a fall—huge success! Then that afternoon I went climbing at Moss Rock with Beth and a couple of guys from the gym. I was pretty stoked to make this big move at Lost Roof. Too bad I didn't finish the problem and "send." Oh well, it'll be a project I guess!

The following weekend's highlight was a Friendsgiving dinner at the Little's house with some friends of mine and J's from church. Since these are technically more J's friends than mine, I felt honored to be invited to this special occasion. The food was incredible, conversation was awesome and of course Bonnie's decor was gorgeous. It was such a great night.

Then this past weekend, I hosted the Bham Framgiving that we called "Fiesta Gracias" since we were having Mexican food instead of a traditional turkey day feast. Sadly Cassidy made it out the door before we thought to take a pic - sorry Cass! Anyhow, it was also a great night filled with food, fun and games (literally). I love these people and just don't get to see them enough these days.

The rest of my time has been spent catching up with friends over dinner and coffee and even seeing a couple of movies with J (btw, I totally recommend Gravity. It is intense, but you have to see it. It's so beautiful). One of the movies I actually dragged him to (instead of him dragging me). It was a two-part climbing film at the Reel Rock Film Fest, which was followed with a late night dinner with Beth, Phil and Justin. Good times!

Oh and J and I also got to see Carolina Story perform at the Red Cat when they came into town last week. Turns out they were also filming for a PBS show and everything was decorated and lit beautifully. And of course Ben and Emily sounded great and I'm loving their new songs. It was so good to be able to catch up and hang out with them after the show, too. Hoping to get up to Nashville at some point and hang with them on their turf sometime soon.

Whew! Well, I think that covers it! Hopefully next time I won't wait so long to update and you don't have to hear quite as many details. Hope yall have had a great couple of weeks too!

Life lately

So life lately has been just a bit more insane than usual. Still the typical something going on every night, but day job and freelance work have both picked up recently, so I've been a super busy girl!

First of all, there seems to be at least one concert a week that I've either attended or wanted to attend. It started with Mumford & Sons a couple of Monday nights ago. Super great show and I'm so glad I actually got to see them perform live, but I struggle with really big shows like that. I'm just so used to the smaller, more intimate shows these days and I enjoy them so much more.

Like the Carolina Story show I went to the following Thursday of that same week. Such a great time! Ben and Emily sounded great and I really enjoyed hearing some of their new songs (off their upcoming album!) and it was a super good time for me and J to be able to hang with them after the show as well. Definitely looking forward to them coming back to town in November.

I also went to the FUN. concert in Tuscaloosa on the actual night of my birthday with a few friends. Again, awesome to see them in person and the lead singer has the most ridiculously amazing voice, but still...big show. I just feel so far away from the musicians! I need to be all up in the action and I just can't afford to do that at bigger shows.

In between all the concerts, there have been several birthdays, including myself, my friend Joy and J's twin nieces. And my friend Peaches' birthday is coming up! So lots of celebrating going on these days.

And of course, after all the celebrations, what does one do but take a nice Sunday afternoon backyard nap in the awesome eno hammock that J gave me as my bday present! This thing is going to be used often, I can already tell.

Music Monday: Current obsessions

Here are the top five albums/artists I can't quit listening to at the moment.


Artist: Carolina Story
Album: Home (listen here)

Why I love it: Their lyrics are beautifully honest. Plus there's a lovely mix of foot stomping, hand clapping, good time songs and sweet, slow love songs. 

Favorite song: Eek! It's a toss up between "Feet Keep Movin Still" & "53 Days"
For fans of: The Civil Wars, Elenowen

Artist: Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles

Album: HEAT (listen here)

Why I love it:  Simply can't get enough of Lucy Michelle's quirky, vintage-tinted voice.

Favorite song: Oh Home

For fans of: April Smith & The Great Picture Show, Luella & the Sun

Artist: John Fullbright

Album: From the Ground Up (listen to a sample here)

Why I love it: It's just nitty gritty good stuff. 

Favorite song: Satan and St. Paul

For fans of: Shovels & Rope, Leo Kottke

Artist: Kestone Cobblers Club 

Album: One, for Words (listen here)

Why I love it:  Any band that can pull off blending a tuba, an accordian, keys & more (plus folksy vocals!) in the lineup is more than a-ok in my book. 

Favorite song: You-Go & The Curve

For fans of:  Toote Toote, Evening Chorus, The Head & The Heart

Artist: The Lighthouse and the Whaler

Album: This is an Adventure (listen on Spotify)

Why I love it: To me it sounds like a blend of Ra Ra Riot and Phoenix. Who knew that could be such an amazing combination?

Favorite song: Pioneers

For fans of: Ra Ra Riot, Phoenix

Design project: Lyrics as art

I mentioned recently my homemade gifts for friends this year where I took lyrics from a Head and the Heart song to make a sign for home decor. As I said in that post, I also made another design project piece of art. Mostly because I wanted my friends to know the entire song and why it makes me think of them and all of the lyrics just couldn't fit on a sign. So I made a cute lil postcard with the lyrics in the shape of the state of Alabama, which is where we all met and started our beautiful friendships together. Then I attached the post ard to the back of the sign so they could have it framed or post it on their fridge if they wanted. 

Once I had made this, it occurred to me I should use this same idea for other instances as well. Luckily I had the opportunity to host two amazing musicians in my home a few weeks ago for a house show. If you haven't heard of Carolina Story yet, I suggest you listen to them now. Yes now. Go here and press play and then come back to my blog. 

Where were we? Oh yes, Emily and Ben of Carolina Story were coming to play a show in my house and I really wanted to do something special for them. So I took the state of North Carolina (where they fell in love) and filled it with lyrics of one my favorite songs of theirs "53 days." It just seemed to fit.  I loved it, they loved it; it was a hit. 

Obviously this is fast becoming one of my "things" I do. So get ready to see many more state outline, lyric-filled graphic design projects in the future. I'll go ahead and apologize for the redundancy now.

Life lately

Quite honestly, life lately has been pretty busy! And I haven't even thought to take pictures during most of the insanity, though really most of the crazy has been meetings, outside projects and things like that, so I don't think anyone would care to see pics of that anyhow.

Instead, I am reaching way back to Christmas-time while my framily was in town visiting for the holidays, because that's definitely something that needed to be documented. We somehow managed to have every single member of the framily—and their significant others—to hangout together in the same place at the same time. It was certainly a Christmas miracle! We got so lucky that Blake and Emily were driving through Bham on their way down to see his family in Mobile for the holidays. And the rest of us just all happened to be around and home for Christmas, too. It felt ridiculously good to all be together again!

I also threw in a shot of most of the gang at Moe's on New Year's Day. If you know me and my gang, you know we love some Moe's. It's definitely our go-to. Hit up the Vestavia location and you'll prob see one, if not all of us there.

One of the most incredible things I have done lately (or ever, for that matter) was to host a band, Carolina Story, to play in my living room. They were amazing. I mean, if you make a kickdrum out of a suitcase, what else could you be but amazing? Seriously though, they sounded great, everyone loved them and Ben and Emily were such a blast to hangout with before and after the show as well. I will definitely be working on having them come back to Birmingham and I'm looking to host future shows in my home again, too. I was on a concert high like you wouldn't believe after that show! #musicisadrug

And going back to Christmas again...my dad's side of the family's get together got temporarily cancelled due to the flu, so we all got together this past weekend instead. Who doesn't love Christmas in January, right? We all played reindeer games and I got play karate with my nephew (that's our go-to activity) and I got to play with my niece and watch her eat a lemon—always entertaining. It was a good time.

And finally, I dropped in an instagram photo of my view outside of my office window while the snow was coming down a couple of weeks ago. Alabama weather, true to form, was back in the 70s a few days later.

I'm gonna try to be better about documenting good times going forward. So stay tuned!