the best thursday night i've ever had

i almost titled this post "the best night that i've ever had," but that seems dramatic. i'm pretty sure that it is the best thursday night i've ever had, though.

i can't really remember the moment when something clicked and i became o b s e s s e d with jack white, but i know it was sometime around my freshman year of college. considering the only time i've ever seen him live was with my least favorite of the jack white bands (the raconteurs), this was long overdue.

can i be real for a second? i spent ALL MORNING while austin was at work deciding what to wear. i know. it was like a legitimate 5 hour game of dress-up.

i decided on a black tank top, a 70s skirt that has just been hanging out in my closet, my dollar store frankenstein socks, and my doc martens (in case i needed to stomp some people to get to the front, obviously).

the socks were kinda weird but i was a little obsessed with his eyes peeking over the top of the boots. plus they matched my skirt!

i also brought this goofy purse that i got in dollywood. it's teeny and goes over my shoulder and is perfect for my phone, money, id, chapstick, whatever. unfortunately not for a tshirt and poster, which meant i was carrying a tube around all night, too. but whatever! totally worth it.

i was so giddy. like a child. i posted something on facebook along the lines of, "i'm sure that you can imagine how much i'm annoying austin right now," and the only other person who has seen me at a jack white concert liked the status. ;)

we did have car trouble on the way there? which was weird, and i freaked out a little (read: a lot). but i took this cute picture of austin:

and then we were basically there. we stood in line for about 2 hours before we were let in, and then i annoyed (probably) everyone around me for an hour and a half before the concert started.

i could talk/write about this show forever probably, but i won't.. i guess. the "set list" (jack doesn't have set lists, which i only know from my pre-concert research) was a really cool combination of white stripes, raconteurs, dead weather, jack white, and bluegrass/country/blues-songs-i-didn't-recognize. he played with the guy band, which i ended up being really into, even though i thought i wanted the female band. okay, but - i really want to see him again, but with the girl band! you know, for the different songs! i didn't get to hear "love interruption" live, and i'm wondering what else he would've played with them. one huge shock (on my part): i only cried once!! i teared up consistently, like every time austin acknowledged what i was watching (by hugging me or rubbing my back or whatever), but i only full-out cried when he played "hotel yorba." i have no idea why. also, his encore was 6 songs long.

you guys, it was just so much fun. we were lectured about not taking photos or videos, because they had a professional photographer onstage and the pictures would be free on jack's website (so you can imagine what the background to my laptop and phone is going to be for the rest of forever). also my cell phone pictures just would. not. turn. out. so really, you probably don't believe me that i was there. i actually can't believe that i was there.

so, i'm glad i bought this poster.

i'm going to end this here, or else i'll gush for another two hours. of typing, which is like probably 7 more paragraphs.

i promised austin that we would never, ever miss another jack white show, ever. <3

ps, my ears are STILL ringing. ~no regrets~

our trip to chicago/renegade

the most flattering photobooth pictures ever? probably.

mine and bekuh's chicago trip was so perfect. it was basically the quintessential girls' trip.. lots of chatting, shopping, and eating. i had been harboring a lot of reservations about the trip as a whole and they were almost all gone from the very beginning. as a warning: this post is a modgepodge of my cell phone pictures, becca's pictures, and bekuh's pictures..

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the twelve hour drive seemed to go by preeeetty quickly, which helped. we only stopped a few times, for coffee and mcdonalds. ;) of course.

i went with my own advice and wore a cotton dress, leggings, and boots.. my minnetonka fringe boots, to be exact. it was perfect for driving! i didn't need to make the switch to the passenger seat until a little bit before we got to the city (i had asked bekuh earlier if she could do all of the city driving for me.. i'm a baby).

the first night, i was exhausted but also just so happy to be reunited with becca! we drove around to find a parking spot (i was really nervous about where we were going to leave my car for three days), and then ordered a pizza (obviously - we were in chicago) to eat in becca's apartment. i hadn't gotten to see this apartment yet, so it was nice to be able to piece together all of the pictures she had sent me of it. ;) and also to go through her closet! it was huge and awesome. i want to share a closet with becca one day.

lately, i've been waking up at the crack of dawn (even if i'm still sleepy.. annoying), and chicago was no different. i got up and took a shower before the girls were awake. this was the outfit i wore to renegade!! only i took off the tights for the daytime. the skirt is vintage, found at an amazing vintage attic sale that bekuh and i went to a couple of weeks ago, and the shoes are becca's. :)

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mine and bekuh's feet on the platform, waiting for the l

originally, we were hoping to meet up with katherine (my lovely package exchange partner) for donuts before renegade, but there was construction on the l that got us to wicker park right when renegade was starting. our first stop was the tumbleweeds booth, where there were THREE be(ca)(cca)(kuh)s surrounding me. it was ridiculous. we all oohed and ahhed over the glasses that they brought with them, and bekuh and i both left with some pretty sunglasses.. :)

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at first, we thought it'd be best to do a walk-through and see everything before we started buying, but that quickly dissolved, and we just started checking everything out. there was so much to see! and we even realized that we missed a few booths that we were looking forward to, but it was seriously impossible to navigate around all of those people.

we had lunch at a really cute cafe right off of the festival.

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after about 6 hours (!!!!!) of shopping, we figured it was maybe time to head back to becca's to refresh and go over our purchases. i got a few gifts for family and austin, and my favorite finds (besides my sunglasses, omg) were these little things for our house:

these prints caught my eye early on in the day, and i'm glad i remembered to go back for them. i had been envisioning a tattooed lady/tattooed man print pair for hanging over our bed, but these changed my mind completely. :) they're from methane studios, and you can buy them here and here.

this tea towel is, hands down, my favorite thing that i bought in chicago. it's ridiculous! it's a tea towel with little naked ladies on it! ahhh i'm obsessed. i almost never want to use it so that it's never dirty, but. yeah. it was from bespoke uprising.

this tea towel is a little more traditional. ;) i couldn't pass it up, it was so stinking cute. i actually bought two things from the little canoe, but one is a gift, sooooooooo. i love everything she does, though.

via becca :)
waiting on the l to go shopping, day 2

the next day, we decided we'd be doing more shopping. bekuh was super excited to visit a topshop, and i was looking forward to picking up my dream sweatshirt from an urban outfitters. :) we got so lucky this day, with sales and things we had our hearts set on fitting and being cute. becca took us to an urban surplus store, which was nice because i could get a few things for austin on the cheap.

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this trip came and went SO fast, and i'm so glad that i stressed so much over getting to take it. it was necessary. i wish i could have had more time with becca, but i know we'll see each other again soon. ;)

renegade was everything i thought it would be, and i'd love to go to another one next year! hopefully this time with austin in tow, so i can do more home goods shopping.

<3

we're back !

i have so many thoughts and things to share from our chicago trip, but i just wanted to pop in and post this picture of me and my girls. this is us sharing a two-seater on the l. :)

thank you, becca, for letting us take over your teeny tiny precious perfect apartment. thanks for handling my car parking neuroses like a champ, thanks for letting me sleep in your bed and being the sweetest about my kitty allergies, thanks for letting me borrow your shoes, thanks for taking us to the cutest restaurants and being cool with my being a serious granny, thanks for being my favorite girl forever.

thank you, bekuh, for the 24(+) hours of constant conversation in the car. thanks for going with the flow when i know you're a planner, thanks for being up for such a silly adventure and being so awesome with my annoying schedule, thanks for letting me borrow your tights!, thanks for encouraging me to go for some of my most favorite goofy purchases, thanks for having the best sense of direction, thanks for constantly pushing me to remember just how much is out there for me to explore (whether you know it or not).

seriously, i missed austin more than i thought i could and i kinda want to go ahead and plan on taking him to renegade next year, but this girls trip was PERFECT. i was sleepy and my sinuses were not feelin it a lot of the time, but we ended up loving renegade more than i thought we would and even the parts of chicago i was nervous about ended up being fun (and yummy).

i'm excited to see bekuh's pictures and to write a more descriptive post at some point. <3

i'm obsessed with mark cline

i have to be honest, this is one of the very first people that i wanted to write about when i started this blog. i've had these photos prepared for months. but, i couldn't start. mark cline's artwork is one of my absolute favorite things i've come across while living in southwestern virginia, and i always worry about not doing justice to the things that i love. i could talk about him and his art for hours.

when it comes down to it, mark cline creates roadside attractions. he has also done commissions for theme parks, restaurants, hotels, campgrounds, and even broadway. he also creates april fools' jokes that stay up during the month of april, and usually disappear without a trace.

one of his most famous april fools' jokes was left up, due to the well-received response. you may have heard of it before? it's called foamhenge.

hi austin!

that wizard's face is a friend of mark's death mask. one of the weirdest/coolest tributes i've ever seen.

we took instax pictures at foamhenge (which, in case you couldn't tell, is an exact replica of stonehenge made out of foam) before heading to ryan and bekuh's wedding on our 2 year anniversary. i think we may make it a little tradition. i love this place!

in 2011, the location mark chose for his april fools' joke was really close to my grandma's house, and after driving past it a couple of times, my friend kayla and i decided to take a closer look. by walking up a muddy hill the day before he took it down. good timing! :)

this truck was parked at the bottom of the hill, and people had left little notes of praise in the windows <3

i'm pretty sure we weren't meant to make this trek, but i needed a closer look!

soon after the april fools' joke was taken down, austin and i finally decided to go visit mark's main attractions at natural bridge: the haunted monster museum and dinosaur park. we weren't disappointed. in fact, we were pleasantly surprised to find that mark himself was giving our tour of the museum! i was kind of starstruck and probably said some idiotic things, but he was perfect. i told him how much we loved his jack and the beanstalk april fools' joke, and he told us a story about how he was asked to remove it by some town leaders. his reaction was something along the lines of, "their parents never took them to disneyworld." he was just such a positive person and such a treat to get to meet. we bought tshirts after our tour, and i told a couple that had gone through it with us how much i love his work (i actually said "i looooove mark cline") and then the person selling us our tshirts asked if we'd like them signed. we said yes, and she said "dad, could you sign their tshirts?" oh my gosh, i was so embarrassed. imagine if you heard some goofy girl gushing over your father! haha.

most of the pictures that i took of the monster museum and all of the pictures that i took of the dinosaur park were instax pictures, but there are a ton still on his website, if you're interested. the dinosaur park was a re-imagining of the civil war, if dinosaurs were involved. it was hilarious and interactive and self-guided and we loved it.

unfortunately, in the last month, both the monster museum and the dinosaur park were destroyed by a pretty huge fire. this isn't the first fire of mark's career, as his first studio was burned in a very similar manner. mark handled it in stride (better than i did, to be honest), and made sure to explain that he was going to keep creating, and he was glad that people had the memories of his work.. because happiness is all that he strives for. the interview in the news article that i linked is a pretty perfect representation of this guy.

earlier this year, mark was honored with an exhibit at the local art museum: the taubman. there was some really ridiculous controversy about it, calling what mark does "not art." i got pretty fired up about this for months, and would debate anyone that seemed to agree in any way. folk art IS art. whatever. his pieces looked awesome in their exhibit, and i was so happy to see them in this environment.

i know that this is picture overload, but i couldn't help sharing everything! i can't wait to see what mark thinks up next. <3

road trippin' with becca

late last week, becca and i took a road trip to richmond.

sometimes you just need a little bit of a break with your best friend. the actual circumstances taking us to richmond were not awesome, but we made it relaxing and enjoyable all the same. originally planning to leave friday morning at 5am, becca's mom angelically offered us up a hotel room for thursday night, so we got our hairs cut and were on our way.

there were some slight gps setbacks, and we arrived around midnight. i think i passed out in bed soon after, while becca worked on a paper.

the next morning, we took full advantage of the free breakfast, and even though the room was FULL (like every table full) of a family headed to a quinceañera, the coffee was good, there was bacon, and i really like cereal.

after we took care of some business, we headed to a nearby starbucks to talk literature.



not really. kind of. becca worked on a paper, i made notes for the store, and we sometimes discussed literature. then we went shopping! we both got lots of perfect things and took advantage of those big summer sales deals and it was just so good to go shopping with my best friend. i needed some new clothes for my new job, and i'm sure you'll end up seeing some of my spoils here soon. :)
then we left to go home.

the floor at my seat: my shopping bags, my purse, my overnight bag

i'm pretty sure i just say this every time i see becca, but i'm so glad i get to see her as often as i do. she'll be back in town in a month or so, and i'm planning a trip to her for september (for renegade! with bekuh!), so our long distance best friendship isn't actually as dire as it sometimes seems.

i'm mostly posting both of these pictures to show how inconveniently unphotogenic we can be at times. sometimes we're so cute, sometimes we're not so cute. to be fair, we'd been awake since 6:30 am, shopping all day in the heat, and driving for 4 hours when we took these. :) <3

i went to nashville, part 4

i'm sorry for stretching these out soooo looong, but i wanted to make sure that i posted about everything. it was mine and austin's first vacation and hopefully not our last trip to nashville.

i mentioned that we took the last bit of our trip to make mini stops in other big cities in tennessee.. namely, knoxville and gatlinburg. in knoxville, i really wanted to stop by nostalgia.

 

this picture was taken from across the street, but i loved the turquoise accents on the front of the building (the sign, the walkway). this place was huge, and we were lucky to have gotten there fairly early in the day, so we had time to mosey around the whole store.

one of the first things that greets you is this cute cute old-tv-turned-aquarium:

 obsessed! <3

they had incredible selection.. i ended up buying a sweet little vintage top, something that is forever alluding me. :)

our reasons for stopping in gatlinburg were a little bit sillier.. i wanted austin to see the main street with all of the tourist attractions (i LOVE that road.. i bet that it's just as much fun to stare at as the attractions would be!), and i needed a new pair of jeans. i only owned one pair of jeans prior to this trip, and, with weather changing/my current job requiring dresses to be worn with tights at all times, i needed another pair or two. my one pair of jeans came from the levi's outlet in gatlinburg, so i figured it'd be a quick stop because i knew my style and i knew my size (when i bought my first pair of jeans, they were the only pair that i tried on!). unfortunately (to austin's dismay), i was wrong. THIRTEEN pairs of jeans later, i ended up spending exactly what i would have at home on a new pair. don't get me wrong, they're perfect and i really did need them, but it was a bit of a waste.. and not a fun side adventure. ;)

after those (and a couple of other) stops, we had to really head home.

i was a sad pup. <3

i went to nashville, part 3

even though third man records was the obvious outlier in terms of things we did in nashville, we did so many other awesome things!! a few were even awesome enough to mention. :)

hatch show print
this letterpress shop has been running since 1879, and the interior was incredible. we couldn't help ourselves and bought 4 posters from them! i took a few pictures, because i was in awe of the walls and also of their letterpress blocks.. there seemed to be millions!

in this one, i spotted a poster at the top for a show at the salem civic center! i got pretty geeky excited, because we lived in salem for a time (it's about twenty minutes down the road from our current home)

las paletas
i was SO. EXCITED. about these popsicles. unfortunately, i forgot to take pictures... whoops. but i got the avocado, and austin got the pineapple blueberry. thumbs up from both of us! we enjoyed them while walking through the park across the street.

rare bird antique mall
i was told beforehand that even though this was a little bit of a drive compared to everything else we visited while in town, it was worth it. that was so true!! i was OBSESSED. we actually showed up on a day that they were planning on closing early ( :( ), so we didn't even get to see half of the place. i bought a little pin, because i wanted something.. but this is one place i definitely absolutely for sure will be visiting again.

the day after all of this, we left nashville. but we took a long route home, stopping in knoxville and gatlinburg (no dolly parton sightings, unfortunately). i'll write about those detours later. <3

i went to nashville, part 2

so. i was in nashville. but why? i mean it's a pretty cool city in it's own right, but i think people were confused as to why austin would take me there rather than somewhere closer/bigger/more interesting, whatever.

anyone who knows me, probably knows that i idolize jack white. in a pretty serious way. i have these strange tiers in my head of my favorite music/bands, and his bands are generally at the top of each tier. especially the white stripes. so, when i read years ago that his record store in nashville, third man records, was like a teeny tiny sorta white stripes museum, i dreamt & dreamt of the day i'd be able to see it.

well. saturday, april 14th was that day!! unfortunately, i'm real awkward and i was SO nervous (SOOOO nervous) to even be in the place, so this was the only picture that i took. however. i can highly recommend the store to any vinyl, white stripes, third man, or jack white fan. :) i think i got most excited seeing the 'fell in love with a girl' lego pieces ;)

luckily, this trip DID coincide with my birthday, so i had some extra birthday money to spend.. not nearly enough, seeing as i wanted e v e r y t h i n g (honestly. everything.), including a lil white stripes onesie with the pope and the devil shaking hands for my niece (i passed on that, though).

here's a really blurry cell phone picture of my third man swag that i took on the hotel room bed when we did a drop off because i was scared of my records warping in my hot car (i know, i know)!
(clockwise l-r: 3 free prints, the white stripes' 'under great white northern lights,' the white stripes' 'white blood cells,' first aid kit's 'universal soldier' 7 inch [which i didn't know existed! and freaked out about! did you know that jack is doing his european tour with them?! what a dream.], jack white's 'sixteen saltines' and 'love interruption' 7 inches, a cute little third man records tshirt, and the teeniest white stripes peppermint swirl button. <3 austin had to drag me away from the mini record player (it came with 6 wrapped 1-inch records.. what in the world so cute).

even though this was the most important and most exciting part of our little road trip, we still did so many cool things! but i'll save those for later. <3