Grayson Highlands State Park {Mountain Trip Day One}

I had a fabulous opportunity in October to go on a photography trip with one of my great friends, Judy and two other ladies - Mary & Shannon - who I now consider friends.

We spent five days driving on beautiful country back roads through Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee looking for "something shiny" to photograph.

I came home with over 2,000 pictures of some of the prettiest places I've ever laid eyes on and memories that will last a lifetime.

Here's Day One:

We left from Guntersville, AL in the early morning on Monday, October 24, 2011 headed for Independence, VA. Of course there were a few stops along the way for lunch and photo ops.

This is an old house we found abandoned in a field, somewhere in Tennessee, I think.

We arrived in Virginia earlier than we anticipated, so we decided to visit Grayson Highlands State Park a day early.

We had planned to do a sunrise shoot at Grayson Highlands the next morning, but once we seen that most of the leaves had fallen, we changed our plans.

Grayson Highlands State Park was still a beautiful place to visit, I can't imagine how captivating it is in full peak season.

Big surprise, I had to play tourist and have my picture taken at most of the big places we visited. I may need proof I was there someday!

I love old fence posts and weathered wood. Swoon!

After we left Grayson Highlands, we found this adorable little road in the middle of nowhere.

It basically sums up everything you need to know about Virginia and West Virginia roads and/or highways - they're all crooked, ain't nun of 'em straight. Fun to photograph but no fun to drive on. Unless you have a motorcycle, maybe.

We arrived at our hotel in Independence, VA just before sunset. This is a picture I snapped minutes before the sun went down while we were unloading the van.

Judy, Mary and I had supper at Steph & Andy's Pizza Plus {the blue roofed building at the bottom of the pic above} Of course I had to take a picture of the menu because we don't see very many things with Andy's name on them. Pretty neat! Oh, and I ate spaghetti in case you were wondering. =)

Check back tomorrow for day two of my trip when we visited Mabry Mill!

Virgil Our Pet Turtle {An Unusual Feeding Incident}

I would like to officially introduce you to the reptile in the family, Virgil. We've had him about 8 years now.

He was a little bigger than a quarter when I got him. Now he's about 8 inches long from head to tail and he's still growing.

His first home was a 10 gallon aquarium, then a 30 gallon and we upgraded him to a 75 gallon aquarium a few months ago.

{Yes, people, we really have a 75 gallon aquarium in our living room!}

Virgil spends his days on his floating rock under his basking lamp enjoying the "sunshine" and we feed him every morning. {I use "we" very loosely here... Andy almost always feeds Virgil every morning.}

Well... yesterday morning, Andy got out of bed like usual to let dogs out and to feed Virgil. He had to charge his car battery overnight so he told me in a slumber that he was going to unhook it before he let the dogs out. I was still in bed trying to pretend I didn't have to get out of bed that day.

The next thing I know, I hear Andy screaming {in a very panicked voice} "Let go! Let go! OUCH!! Let go! OUCH! OUCH! OUUUUCCCHHHH!!!"

Well wouldn't you know, I completely freaked out and hit the floor running straight to the kitchen in my pajamas. {if you can even call them that!}

I was looking for the broom!! At that moment I remembered very clearly learning as a child that if someone is being electrocuted, pushing them away with the handle of a broom could save their life. {I still have no idea why exactly I thought Andy was being electrocuted. At least I was trying to save his life though, instead of looking for the camera, haha!}

My search was short lived though because Andy was in the living room.

And he was standing over Virgil's tank.

And Virgil was on the end of his thumb!!

This led to more freaking out from both of us for a few seconds.

So imagine Andy shaking his hand up and down with a turtle attached to it {the thought alone makes me laugh out loud hysterically! Seriously, I wish you could've seen it!} I finally tried to pull Virgil away but those jaws were clamped down so hard he wouldn't budge. 

After a few more seconds {I'm sure it was seconds but it felt like many minutes at the time!} Virgil gave up, loosened this grip and plopped himself back into his tank.

Andy, on the other hand, didn't recover so fast. There was no bloodshed but the tip of his poor thumb was white and numb for a while.

And he's still a little traumatized. He said he just dropped Virgil's food in the tank and ran this morning. ;-)

One thing that makes this story even more hilarious to me is that just a few days before this happened, Andy said to me "Virgil ate out of my hand today!!"

Something tells me that was the first and the last time that will ever happen!

I wish so bad that I would have thought to get the video camera to record all the excitement of that Monday morning. I just know it would have made us rich!

{I should add that I'm happy to report that Virgil still has a happy home at the Reeder house and there is no turtle on the menu in the future.

At this time. Ha, just kidding!}

Roll Tide

It's been a fun week for me!

My sister-in-law went back to work Monday, so I've got to spend every day with these cute kiddos.

We've done crafts, played soccer, spent time outside, played fun games and had a little photo shoot in the name of Alabama football.

I've been waiting for fall since before summer! It's my favorite time of year. I love everything about it.

One of the best things about fall in the South is football!! I cheer for Alabama and Andy's a die hard University of Kentucky fan.

I don't get into the games as much as my family does, but I do enjoy watching a good football game. Something about the commentator's voice and cheering crowd makes cleaning house on Saturday a little more bearable!

Welcome, Football Season 2011!!

Fight on men...

ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!

Photoshop {A Long Time Comin'}

Guess what I got last week?

Andy bought me my very own copy of Photoshop and a nifty little wacom tablet. My goodness, I love that man.

I'd had my eye on the wacom tablet for a while, but wasn't sure it would be very useful to me. After spending a fun afternoon playing with THE wonderful Mrs. Judy Kennamer and her awesome wacom tablet, I knew I had to have one!! It comes with a cool pen that allows me to "draw" instead of use a mouse. Long story short, this thing is so COOL!!!

And Photoshop. I can't say enough good things about it. I drooled over creations made with Photoshop for years. *literally* I sampled an older version once and completely hated it because it was so difficult for me to understand. I usually catch on quickly with things like that, but something just wasn't clicking between me and Photoshop.

That was, until I spent a little time with Judy. {She's a local photographer and a big inspiration to me. She's truly a godsend. Oh, and did I mention she's an extraordinary photographer? Check out her work here and buy something while you're there!} She explained Photoshop so well, suddenly everything started making sense to me.

So, a week later, we took a trip to Staples and my life changed forever.

Example #1:

I had high hopes when I took this picture a few years ago while we were visiting an Amish community in TN. I took it in the middle of the day and it didn't turn out quite like I wanted. But now - with the glorious Photoshop - I have the ability to change that!

Example #2:

Flowers are always interesting to edit in different ways.

Example #3:

It's hard for me to believe I actually thought the before picture was so good. haha!

These are only a few of the pictures I've played with over the last week. Photoshop totally hogs my life now. Like I needed another thing to keep me from blogging, ha!

I can't tell Judy thank you enough for taking time to show me a few of her tricks. It just goes to show you that you should always be kind and try to help someone along the way because you just never know when something you do will change someone's life.

Have a great week!!

World's Longest Yardsale {From Mentone, AL to Chattanooga, TN}

In case you aren't familiar with The World's Longest Yardsale {also known as The Highway 127 Yardsale}, it's a huge yardsale that happens every August and goes from Gadsden, Alabama to Hudson, Michigan. You can click the link above for more info.

Andy works every Saturday, but he took off on August 6th so we could go yardsalin'. We didn't get started as early as we hoped, {we were on the road by 8am and wanted to leave by 7:30am but that didn't discourage us.}

We planned our route out the night before and decided we would start at Mentone, AL and go until we were ready to come home. We'd been to Mentone before so we knew they would have antiques, which is what we love most. Granted we don't usually buy antiques -they're not cheap - but we love looking at old stuff.

Mentone was basically set up like a mini flea market. They have lots of vendors with various items {booths selling hamburgers, hotdogs & icecream, outdoor furniture, porta potties, etc.}

I got so excited when I saw this box of old toys.

My daddy always loved playing cowboys and indians as a child and pistols like these are exactly what I imagine his would look like. Just maybe not in such "new" condition.

I know $65 may be a bargain for someone, but I'll settle for the picture, thank you!

This was a neat little cottage we visited. They honestly had too many things to look at and no a/c so we didn't stay long!

We browsed in Mentone for a while then we were on the road again.

My brother, Shane, and s-i-l, Amanda, went to the yardsale the day before we went. Shane had told me to keep an eye for the man who was selling trees for $5 because he wanted me to get him another one. On our next stop, we found the trees and I ended up buying one for Shane and one for myself. However, I found out that I should've done my research instead of just getting myself the one he wanted. I bought us both a Sawtooth Oak. Turns out, they have lots of acorns so I'm giving my tree to Shane. I'm sure he'll be happy!

I didn't get pics of the trees {I should have, they were a great bargain!} but I did manage to get a picture of my huge Hawaiian shaved ice snow cone before I enhaled it. In case you didn't know, I'm a snow cone connoisseur. So trust me when I say this was one of the best snow cones I've ever ate {eaten?}. I had strawberry with cream and it cost $3 for this size including the cream, which is usually .50 extra.

I want another one right now!!!

Another unique cabin on the trip. It didn't have much for sale other than handmade outdoor furniture but the man had a huge German Shepard inside as big as a grizzly bear! {I didn't get a pic of the dog either because I almost had a heart attack when I first seen him. He looked big enough to swallow me with one gulp and I was afraid a picture would be a good excuse for him to try haha.}

The rebel flag on the boat can only mean one thing, we were still in Alabama!

This was another "mini flea market" stop we made. They were even selling grilled corn on the cob and fresh barbeque here. If we had a huge barn, this big ol' star would have found a home with us.

I think these glass jars are so unique! I would really love to know how they make them. They're cool but what would you do with them??

You just never know what you will find at a yardsale! When I seen this knight, I just had to get a picture. Our family sorta has an inside joke about armor suits so if this baby would've been a little cheaper, Andy and I would have bought it for a Christmas *gag* gift for my parents. I would love to see their face when they opened it up haha!!

I expected the traffic to be much more congested than it was. Maybe it's because of the route we chose, but there wasn't many places where traffic was bumper to bumper like I'd remembered from the past.

Pintos and cornbread!! Seeing this sign made me wonder how many people tried pintos and cornbread for the first time in their life on this yardsale.

Lookout Mountain Parkway has a few pull offs where you can stop and enjoy the view. Despite the miserably hot weather we've had in AL this summer, it was actually tolerable on this day, even though it looks so hazy/humid.

The overlook was one of our last stops on the yardsale. We ended up in Chattanooga and had a rare lunch at Fazoli's {our favorite pizza place!} After a late lunch, we headed to a big thrift store that we thought was nearby but clearly the internet isn't up-to-date because it had gone out a business. Just our luck!!

All was well though because on our little adventure, we found a new {to us} camera shop, Superior Camera. They carry mostly Nikon stuff and I'm a Canon girl, but Andy did buy me some reflectors and I'm pretty excited about that.

Some people would probably call us horrible "yard salers" because we hardly bought a thing. We had a great time though and did both of our most favorite things which is spending time together... awww!! =)

Four Square Bow Holder {Gift Idea}

A few months before my niece Abby was born, I started thinking of something special I could make for her. I knew she would have lots of hairbows so I decided on a bow holder.

I googled "bow holders" and got a few ideas of what I liked, but ended up coming with something completely original.

First, I decided on what colors & style of ribbon I wanted to use. {This wasn't easy for me. I knew my SIL wasn't 100% sure what baby bedding she was using at that point, and I was really worried about picking all the wrong colors.} I didn't want all the same color ribbon, that would be much too easy. So with the help from my unbioligical lil sis here is what we came up with:

{Please excuse some of the low quality photos in this post, sometimes my cell phone is all I have handy!}

By this point, I already had a good idea what direction the design was going to go in. The colors of ribbon I chose would be perfect for flowers, trees and butterflies.

We already had some extra plywood, so Andy was a sweetheart and cut four 4x4 squares for me.

He also drilled four holes in each square. Two holes at the top for the squares to hang and two holes at the bottom for the ribbon for the bows to hang on. But more on that later.

I used a pencil to sketch the basic design I wanted on each square.

Next, I started the painting process, which took about three days to completely finish. It could be done faster, I'm sure, but I took my time.

After they were completely painted the way I wanted, it was time to attach the ribbon.

I twisted the end of the ribbon and put a piece of scotch tape around it to slide it through the tiny hole. {I had Andy make the holes so small so there would be no chance of the knot being bigger than I wanted.}

For the ribbon that would hold the bows, I measured and cut it to be 36" long.

After I pulled the ribbon through the holes, I singed the ends to prevent fraying.

I tied two knots, leaving about an inch of ribbon on the end. I pulled the ribbon tight so the knot was touching the square. Next, I got my hot glue gun ready and wrapped the extra inch of ribbon around the knot.

 Then I hot glued the extra ribbon around the knot to make it look like a flower. {I knew this is how I wanted to do the ribbon, so I was sure to paint stems under each hole.}

I repeated these steps for all the holes including the ones at the top.

Here's the finished bow holder hanging in Abby's nursery:

And a close up of all the letters:

I'm happy with how it turned out!