{Not} Living Vicariously

The Cross at Sewanee

While my parents were here, we spent some time sight-seeing throughout TN. Last Saturday we loaded up in their conversion van rv (I'll blog more about that later) and headed East on 24. I can't even count all the towns we went through: Altamont, Coalmont, Tracy City, Jasper, Dunlap, Kimball, Decherd, Winchester, and the list goes on. However, one stop we did make was at Sewanee: The University of the South. I have heard many times how beautiful the campus is and that I need to visit the Cross. So we tracked it down.

 
Dedicated to those locals who have served in various wars, this stunning work sits atop a hill. Turning around 180 degrees, you have a view of quite some distance which is amazing. I can only imagine how inspiring it must be to spend some time up here. However, on the day we visited, it was a bit hot so we quickly continued on our journey.

I'd like to go back and do some of the perimeter walks one day.

Garage Storage Loft

My parents have been visiting for the past couple of weeks and par for the course, they leave here with my house in better shape than when they arrived. Aaron and I are trying to simplify and pare down however we still have a lot of stuff that we can't imagine getting rid of yet have no place to store. When we mentioned this to my father - he came up with a great solution. While here, he implemented said solution and voila: we have a storage loft in the garage!

 
(sorry for the flash on the bicycles)

Anyway, he claims to have over-engineered the loft to the point where we could park a tank up there. However, considering how many boxes of books we own (okay Aaron has one box to my ten . . . but still some are his!) we are perfectly happy to have it capable of holding quite a bit of weight. And yet, not a single box of books is up there. Currently we are storing camping equipment and off season entertaining items (like our spare tables and chairs we pull out at Thanksgiving). Then we have a small workbench and a set of shelves left behind when we bought the house underneath one side and our bicycles on the other. In between the two is a sheet of pegboard for hanging all sorts of useful items. We think it is absolute genius and are "this close" to being able to park at least one car in our two car garage. Just need to get a few more items up on the loft. I'll leave you with another shot of our wonderful (can you tell how excited I am????) loft. And anyone who disagrees with the category I chose - just doesn't understand how storage is part of decorating :-)

 

Words of Wisdom - Albert Einstein

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -- Albert Einstein

So, if this is true, I must be trying new things every day. Because it sure feels like I make mistakes every day. And scary as it is, I'm actually having some fun and learning new skills. Somehow I got elected to learn SharePoint, QuickBase, and PowerPoint all in the past several weeks. And in the case of QuickBase and PowerPoint, there are no teachers - this is fumble around in the dark sorts of things. With the case of SharePoint, I am being taught - however this will probably be like my SQL lessons in that the instructor teaches me how to fly a jet and my employer insists I only get to taxi down the runway. In any case, I do see a difference in my attitude as a result of saying "yes" when being asked to try new things.

So my advice here? Go out and try something new. If you scared of making a mistake, start with something small. And know that I'm over here . . . rooting for you!

Viewing Stats

For those of you who actually blog . . . do you pay attention to "who" views your site? Where they come from? What brought them there? I don't actually pay for any of the indepth analysis, however I do enjoy checking out my typical users on the days I log in (I only get the last 24 hours without paying). It amazes me how often a viewer comes via one of the image search engines and from all over the world. Sometimes I can't even tell what language it is they searched in and found my little corner of the internet. Typically they are looking at pictures that came from my series of Tuesday Tours in which I showed the changes we made after we bought this house. It looks like they are looking for inspiration ideas and I hope some of what I've provided stirs them in the right direction - now that right direction might be what NOT to do or it could be they like the colors I've chosen.

We have made some minor changes in the past few months as well and I look forward to sharing some of those with you in new "room reveals" but not yet. They aren't ready yet! Now if I can just get my husband to slow down on the garden and finish up some of the interiors. You'd think he'd be glad to in all this heat but I'm sharing him with peas and okra and tomatoes and all sorts of goodies I can't wait to eat. I guess I shouldn't complain.

Back to blogging . . .

While I enjoyed my month (plus) off, I have missed you. So I've come back. It may be sporadic for a while, there is still a lot going on which keeps me from too much quiet time. We'll see what happens.

Some highlights over the past several weeks (in no particular order):

 
~the cicadas arrived~

 
~we lost a tree in a bad storm~

 
~we picked our first peas~

 
~we ate at The Varsity~

 
~we visited Fall Creek Falls~

and we celebrated our second wedding anniversary with a trip to Ikea in Atlanta. Just wait until you see my new bookshelves. I'm still drooling over the thought of unpacking some of my boxes that have been in storage!