Vacation in a #photo summary

A gathering of photos from my trip.

Starhill Brewery | Crozet, VA

Starhill is awesome.  You walk into the brewery and you're immediately in the middle of the bottling plant.  You come up to an open bar area that appears as if the bartender just grabs the nearest keg and hooks it to the tap.  I don't even like beer most of the time, but I found my new passion.  It's called Smoke Out, and has a delightfully smoky taste to it.  The after taste: bacon.  

Floydfest 12 | Rise & Shine
This 4 day journey was the muddiest I've ever been.  It occurred to me on the 3rd day that it could have kept raining, it could have stayed cold, and it could have been a very dangerous time getting out of the parking lot.  But with a mile and a half hike in with all of our camping gear, 4 days of amazing music, and time with my 3 favorite boys, it was an incredible weekend to remember.


Montana | Big Sky State
While we were in Montana, I got the pleasure of meeting the hubs' best friend's newborn baby, I ate at one of the most wonderful pizza joints in Billings, explored the plains on a 4-wheeler, ate my first crawdads, floated several miles of the Madison River, and tasted some of Montana's finest huckleberry beers.  All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good little trip!

And of course... relaxation.

My weekend in a nutshell

So my weekend can be summed up in a few words: hot, moving and DONE!

Despite owning a tiny car and having a husband that is 518 miles away for 3 more weeks, I finally finished.  I over came an overwhelming move, and now I am FINISHED!!  I was nervous about the whole thing, especially considering that moving is my number 1 least favorite activity ever.  I was supposed to have until next weekend to be out of the old townhouse, but the owner decided he wanted to sell, and we needed to be out this weekend.  Yeah, I'm sure there are some sort of renters rights, but I had no other plans this weekend, so why not?
On Friday I borrowed a pick up truck from a friend at work and decided to tackle this thing.  Oh, did I mention his truck doesn't have air conditioning?  Great.....

Yesm, that is a fan, a remote for the radio, and the window crank.  But seriously, it was a truck, and after a trip or two, we started to get along.

When I got home on Friday, I noticed a large puddle of water on the floor near the front door.  Greeaaat.  Thank goodness for home warranties!  Turns out there is a problem with the air conditioning in the house and the repair man can't get out until Monday.  So once again.... No air conditioning?

This is how i feel.. except I've only seen the meme in regards to 61 degrees.  Imagine it representing 85 degrees, the first picture the same but the second picture resembling a red hot firey building....

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Really!  How does that work?!

Anyway, long story short, it took all weekend, but I did it.  We're officially out of the old house, and completely into the new house. 

I have very little brain power left for the weekend, and  all I know is the keys to the old place are turned over, I get the convertible back tomorrow morning, and I have a TON of work to do to get the new place in a livable state.  Including getting some air conditioner up in HERE!!!

Time for some fun times with friends at the local pub.  Cheers!

Song of the hour: Born With a Broken Heart by David Wax Museum.  We saw these guys at Floydfest last weekend, and they're so much fun!

Monthly Music Recap- July

If my July had a soundtrack, here's what it would be: 

• September (by Earth Wind and Fire) by PomplamooseMusic
• Some Nights by Fun
• Dancing In the Street by Mick Jagger and David Bowie
• Warrior by Kimbra, Mark Foster and A-Trak
• Fly by Sugar Ray
• Message in a Bottle by the Police
• My Name is Jonas by Weezer
• Little Help From My Friends by the Beatles
• One Day by Matisyahu

August, here I come!

Summer Shows and Inspiration

Excessive heat- they're not lying!

This morning I went out for a craft fair benefiting a local childrens hospital, and had a great time.  I'm looking forward to hearing how much they raised to donate to the hospital.  I've decided I'm going to skip tomorrow's show as it's scheduled to be even hotter than today.  I'd rather transfer my booth fee to a later month than pass out from heat exhaustion!

Today I met some really neat people and was able to help out a fellow artist in need.  Last night I got an email asking if there was any way I could help out by picking up some art work for an artist who could not make it to the show today.  At first this struck me as strange, but then I was filled in a little more and was glad to help.  This woman was on the run and had been relocated for her own protection.  The art she had been creating was made with what she could find- mostly acrylic paint and cardboard.  With such simplistic supplies, her works carried an incredibly deep and heavy meaning: she would never give up no matter how hard things got.  After looking at the pieces, it really made me realize how much I take for granted.  I'm so lucky to be married to such a wonderfully sweet guy.  I'm so lucky to have a job that I love, and hobbies I am passionate about.  I am so lucky to have a supportive and caring family and friends to hold me up when I need it most.  And my appreciation for a warm bed and a private bathroom is greater than ever.  Today made me have a great feeling of hope for this woman I have never met, but have been touched by her paintings.  All around, today was about supporting others in need, even if you've never met them.

I'm excited to do some shows later this summer... Maybe when it's not a bajillion degrees.  Most likely I will wait until after we move, but we'll see.  

Until then, I will be brainstorming on what I can do to boost my booth and make it look even better.  
What do you think?

Song of the hour: Warrior by Kimbra, Mark Foster and A-Trak.  I felt like this was an appropriate song for today, plus it's so wonderfully addictive!!

Blue, Pink, and Lemon

Cody says Happy 4th of July!  He doesn't know much about independence, but he does know that he got lots of treats for letting us torture him with blue and red food coloring!

Yesterday was an excellent day.  I spent half of the day at work, but when I got off around 1, I found a hilarious scene in my back yard: Jason and 2 of his friends playing-with/fixing my scooter!  Once they finally got it running (YAY) they took to the streets and were gleefully zipping around the neighborhood.  Imagine it: 3 military guys taking turns on a bright pink scooter.  Was so sad I didn't have my phone to take pictures, but here is the finished result:

Later a bunch of us went to a cook out where we brought out our instruments and played some awesome music and laughed a lot.  A few years ago, a friend and I gathered as many (amatuer) musicians together and called it Kitchen Band.  Yesterday, it had grown to 18 people, and sounded better than ever.  We had 2 fiddles, 3 mandolins, a banjo, an army of guitars, a few bases, and a drum.   It was excellent fun.

For the pot luck, one of the things we brought were these amazing lemonades by Five Sixteenths.  You should check out her blog post about these easy summertime drinks- They're awesome!  I couldn't get enough of the grapefruit lemonade with an extra splash of white zinfandel.  It was excellently refreshing on such a hot day!

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Overall, it was an excellent day.  What did you do for the fourth?

Song of the Hour: Dancing In the Street by Mick Jagger and David Bowie.  This music video cracks me up every time.  I love it.