Interviewing my almost FIVE year old...

What's your name? Stella

How old are you? 4 1/2 

What are some of your favorite things to do? Eat frozen yogurt, have Daddy-Daughter Date Nights, eat pizza, hog the bed, be at the beach, make crafts, read books.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A zookeeper, a veterinarian, a cake decorator, a dog walker, a Mommy and a hair stylist.

What are your favorite foods? chocolate, pizza, macaroni and cheese, chicken, asparagus, vegetable soup. 

What do you do really well? swim

What makes you laugh? tickling, Daddy chasing me around the house

What are you afraid of? sharks....and riding my big girl bike. And scorpions.

What do you like to do with your family? go trick or treating, get in the hot tub with Ivy at Nene & Grandaddy's

Who are your friends?  Annika, Charlotte, Payton, Joseline, Ella, Sofia, Avery, Marco, Kai and Antonio (all classmates), Alina, Gracen & Jessica (from the beach), Wiley, Harper, Jovie and Lenore.

What do you like to learn about? cartwheels, handstands, swimming by myself and driving the golfcart.

Where do you like to go?  My grandparent's houses, Ivy's house, Wiley's house, Harper's house, Andrew's house, Alina's house, Tiny Tots (at the skating rink), Uncle Mikey and Aunt Jessica's house

What is your favorite book? The book I just made.

If you had one wish, what would it be? To fly on a unicorn princess.

What do you love most about yourself?  My heart. Because it wants to help people.

Total Eclipse of Blue Ridge

**Due to life and my phone being weird for a few months, I've been unable to upload photos and blog. This post was finished, but I had no idea I never published it. So here we go.....5 months later.

When I found out the eclipse was going to be a few days before Stella started school and that Blue Ridge would be close to 100% totality, I knew we had to visit my Aunt's cabin for a few days.  Her cabin is actually in Morganton which is about 10 or so miles more northeast getting us a tad closer to the line of totality which was even better. 

Stella and I left Friday morning with a car-load of food and some of her old baby clothes, toys, cloth diapers, etc. Our friend, Sweetman and his girlfriend, Meredeth had just had a baby boy, James Carter a week or two prior and I was going to share Stella's gender neutral stuff with them, plus bring them a meal.

They just got a new home in Cumming and since that was on the way up north, we made their house our first stop on our road trip to see the eclipse.

We arrived in Morganton mid afternoon and unloaded the car. I'd brought up a ton of food. My cousin, Jennifer told me that days earlier some of the stores were already running out of food in preparation for all of the out-of-towners that weekend. Plus, originally my Uncle and a few other cousins were possibly coming up for the eclipse so I'd unloaded our freezer of meat and such, and made my grocery store purchases in advance down here. I didn't want to just show up with food for my family of three, I thought that would be rude, so I made sure I brought enough to share with whoever showed up at the cabin. Turns out, it was just me, Stella and Donald that weekend and we were covered on food.

First thing I noticed when I stepped out of the car on Friday was: no humidity. Or at least, lower humidity. 

I brought my hammock and set it up under the shade of some trees. We ended up spending more time there than inside I think. Each morning, I'd fix a cup of tea and go out with a magazine and a blanket and just take in the cool, crisp, mountain air.  Stella would join me at all hours of the day. One morning she stumbled out onto the porch and called for me. When she heard me return, she tiptoed through the wet grass barefoot and only clothed in panties, crawled in with me and under the covers to warm up again next to me. Our plan was to be quiet and wait for deer to appear. This never happened.

Donald drove up after work Friday afternoon and soon after he arrived we hopped in the truck and headed for McCaysville, Ga/Copper Hill, Tn to look at the area. We were/are throwing around the idea of buying a place somewhere in that area or around Ellijay and just wanted to check things out. We had dinner at a place downtown and while we were eating Donald asked if I knew if Fannin County was playing that night. My cousin, Sam and his twin brothers James and Thomas play football for the Fannin County Rebels. Their younger brother, Jackson also plays, but not for the high school team.  I texted Jennifer and she said they were so we told her we would be there by halftime. Stella had never been to a high school football game before and since we had nothing to do, thought it would be nice considering the perfect weather. 

Fannin County is good and has a lot of fans so parking was a bit of a chore, but we got fairly close and didn't have to walk too far.

We decided since it had been five years since we'd tubed (HOW is that possible?!?!), we would tube this weekend and introduce Stella to it. One of our tubes had been chewed on so we only had two. We needed something for her to float on, plus somewhere to keep our cooler and a dry bag. Saturday morning, we tried Roses (yes, Roses. Go ahead, take that in) and Wal-Mart for a tube, but both places were low on summer stuff like that since it was the end of the season. We opted for a $9.99 twin air mattress which turned out to be the perfect thing.

We packed sandwiches, pirates booty and grapes for lunch. We couldn't find a "beach" to park our tubes on to have lunch so instead, we just pulled over in a somewhat shady spot and stood in a few inches of very cold water and "picnicked." It turned out to be Stella's favorite part of the experience. 

Saturday evening I'd planned on us going to The Swan drive-in to see a movie, but Stella opted for a bonfire instead. I'd brought stuff for s'mores so they built the fire and I got that stuff ready. We laid a blanket down and sat down to be warmed by the fire, listen to the crickets and cicadas and star gaze. It was a wonderful night. Stella fell asleep between me and Donald while we watched for shooting stars in the dark, night sky.

Sunday, Donald left before lunch to head back to Atlanta. He had some things to do, plus was busy at work and couldn't stay to watch the eclipse with us. 

Stella wanted to go into town to go shopping so we went in to Blue Ridge after lunch. We browsed and window shopped and Stella picked out a purple light-up ring from a store. She chose to get ice cream and I got dulce de leche fudge as well as dark chocolate-pecan-salted caramel fudge from Three Sisters Fudge.  

We killed some time between downtown and the kid's movie at the drive in with a stop by TJ Maxx. I didn't want to drive back to the cabin because I'd pretty much have to turn right back around once I arrived but there wasn't a coffee shop or anyplace like that to go and just hang out. It was a bit too warm downtown to play at the park so I figured an air conditioned store like TJ Maxx would be perfect to kill an hour or so of time browsing the aisles.

We grabbed dinner at Zaxby's and go to the drive-in about 10 minutes before the movie started. The Nut Job 2 was playing at 8:30. Apparently just that week, during one of Donald and Stella's Daddy-Daughter Date Nights they watched The Nut Job on Netflix so that was perfect timing.

Monday morning I gathered up our things and straightened up the cabin. Then at lunch we headed down the to Jennifer's house. Luckily, she had two extra pair of eclipse glasses and shared them with us. Her boys were out of school for the eclipse so we sat on her front porch and watched one of the coolest things ever. I'm so happy we could experience this together and with family.

We figured traffic would be crappy coming back in to the city so we hung around and ate dinner, then headed back home later that evening. Stella went to sleep and I had a peaceful ride home.

North Georgia State Fair

On Monday, September 25th, Donald, Stella and I visited the fair for our 3rd year. I got discounted tickets from Walgreens which I love. Admission is half off and I get 21-22 tickets for $11. I bought two of those. Plus, you get to bypass the lines for purchasing since we already have ours. Done!

The first thing Stella wanted to do was the trampoline. This is her favorite thing and she wants to do it anywhere she spots it. I'm sure if it was possible I could just hand the guy a Benjamin and walk off and she'd be happy here all night. 

I love the sights, smells and sounds of the fair. This image was too perfect for me not to capture it.

Our neighbors, The Joneses were also at the fair. Alana was happy and content with her friend from school and her mom, but Eric didn't have anyone. In steps Stella as his alternate big sister. They rode most of the rides together that night. Donald and I joined them on a few.

See that weird over the shoulder grin? She was so proud to be "watching out for him."

Stella had it spinning good and Eric loved it....

...Then Alana and her friend hopped in and spun it even more. Eric loved it until he didn't. This look washed over his face and he looked very drunk. He could barely keep his head up and he kept blinking. Sara and I thought he was about to puke everywhere. We yelled at the girls to stop spinning it and to put their arms around him so he didn't bang his head if he passed out.  They paused for about 30 seconds and then he yelled at them to make it spin. So they did. And he was fine after that. I guess he just needed a little break to regain his composure. 

He enjoyed the carousel.

And so did Stella. It was the first thing she asked to ride once we walked in since it was right next to the ticket booth, but it wasn't working at the time. So we rode another one instead.

I still don't think we've ridden the Ferris wheel. I mean to me, there's nothing that screams "FAIR!" much more than a Ferris wheel, but it always has a crazy long line so I guess that's why we've avoided it.

Right after walking in she spotted the cotton candy. Now, up until last September this kid didn't even know what cotton candy was. But last  year we went to the fair with The Green's. Landon asked for some towards the end of the night and shared a few bites with Stella. So apparently Stella remembered the cotton candy from last year and requested some this  year. We told her it wouldn't be a good idea to eat all that sugar then ride rides. Plus, it's all sticky and blah, blah, blah. The typical crap you say trying to avoid buying a bag of artificially colored spun sugar. She bought it. Until a few minutes before we walked out of the gate. I actually thought, "Damnit! We were so close!" But, she'd eaten a good meal, rode the rides and hadn't asked again so we thought, "When in Rome." So we bought the damn $5 bag of fluffy sugar.  As you can tell from her face, she's not a big fan.

Here she is faking it.

We started making our way to the exit. We walked through the exhibit halls so I could look at the artwork and photography. I always say I'm going to enter a few photographs but next thing I know it's time for the fair a whole year later and I never looked into what I needed to do to enter.

We stopped for a few minutes to watch a sea lion show. One of the sea lions was named Stella. Stella just lit up when we told her. She thought it was so cool that she know knew a dog and a sea lion with her same name. 

Right next to the exit/entrance, there was a carousel. This was the first thing Stella tried to ride when we entered the fair, but it wasn't working at the time. It was up and running now and there was no wait. Since I'd ridden the other carousel with her and Eric, Donald rode this one with her and we were able to use up all 40-something tickets we'd bought.

This was a fun night and the weather was good. You could tell there was a hint of Fall in the air when the sun set. And as always, the people watching was on point. See you again next year fair!

Cape San Blas Lighthouse

Well, we finally made it up the Cape San Blas Lighthouse in Port St. Joe. Wait....what? Yes, the Cape San Blas lighthouse is not out on the cape, but instead in PSJ. It got moved a few years ago to this spot here when the water threatened it's safety. Stella and I have been trying off and on to go up to the top for about two years. The thing is, the museum is only open a few days a week with limited hours and they won't let you climb if it's too windy or raining. So it was difficult for us to time everything right, but we finally made it.  

Stella attended Vacation Bible School next to the lighthouse this summer so that is what actually helped us achieve our goal of getting up top. The next eight photos are ones taken the week prior to our trip to the top. The clouds, sunset or a combination of the both was just too right for me to not take a picture.

June 26

This was such a beautiful evening. Many families were waiting to have photos taken in front of the steps. One let us run up and snap a few while they got situated. 

June 27....what a difference a day makes.

One day before VBS (on June 29 to be exact) we came over to PSJ early and went in prior to it starting. I wasn't sure if it was going to happen as it had been raining earlier that day, but as you can see below, the weather was perfect by the time we made the 15 minute drive from Mexico Beach.

The marina in middle background.

At the top!

There are 131 steps to climb and the further up you climb, the smaller and thinner and trickier they become. We passed a few people on the way up and down and let me tell you, forget personal boundary rules! You get real up close and personal in that tube.

Stella had turned into Grumpy Gillian (we say as a Gemini, she has split personalities: Sweet Stella or Grumpy Gillian) by the time we got to the top. She was no fun to be around and I let her know it. We sat down in the shade, took in the sights and enjoyed the breeze and had a talk about it. She was in a better mood after chilling out at the top for about 10-15 minutes. We called Daddy and told him the exciting news too.

Here we are going back down....

This was fun and I'm so glad we were finally able to do this.

She better kiss me after putting up with her attitude!

So glad to be a part of this beautiful part of history and to have it closer to us.

Come sit a spell....

Our new seating areas

I've been wanting to do something different with the front porch for a while now, but didn't know exactly what. 

We went to Nashville at the end of April/beginning of May and took a lot of back roads on the way home due to bad weather and traffic. On that drive we passed lots of old, small, country houses similar to ours. What did most of them have in common? Front porch swings. 

We've been in our house just over nine years now and the idea of a front porch swing has crossed my mind several times, but once I saw all of those houses this past Spring with their swings, I couldn't get one for our porch out of my head. So I sent in my Mother's Day present request-a front porch swing. I even sent Pinterest pictures to Donald for reference. I was super excited. But then he mentioned not knowing what kind of supports were in the porch ceiling and didn't know if it would be possible to hang one. So he suggested we move the antique glider that was in the backyard to the front porch. It never glided smoothly in the backyard due to being on uneven ground. We briefly discussed having it sandblasted and painted, but then that would cover up the patina/rust we love (you'll see two more rusted objects in the pictures below) so much. We agreed just getting it out of the weather (directly) would 

protect it and make it last longer. 

Here is the "before." 

I'd bought these crates off of a Facebook yardsale site for $4 a piece. It was my intention to use them in the back room/office instead of shelves. I assumed they were sturdy and similar to the two I'd purchased from Michael's, but they were not. Turns out these were used to hold and transport produce and were a bit rickety. But I'd already agreed to buy five of them and I figured I could use them somewhere for $20. 

The rug belonged to my cousin Mary. She lived next door for two years and just moved this May. She was throwing it and another one out, but I love color and grabbed it since nothing appeared to be wrong with it and put it on the front porch. 

Most of the accessories I used to decorate came from my house. I love to "shop" my home and move stuff around to give a space a different feel or look.

I had Donald hang the two "sturdiest" crates.  The Vintage sign was handmade by a lady whose house I used to clean. The birdhouse is Amish built and was a gift from my ex-boyfriend's parents when they visited Amish country up in New England when I was in high school. 

I've always loved it and have had it inside all these years. 

We've discussed painting the ceiling blue for that true southern feel.

 I'm sure it will happen this Fall now that we've done this 

and a few other outdoor renovations.

The little red, round metal and iron side table was around $10 at Revive Consignment. It was in the guest room as a side table, but I found a new side table at another consignment sale that matches perfectly so out this one went.

I folded up and laid down a thick blanket on the glider for a little padding. Then I found this almond and red striped tablecloth for $3 at Goodwill. I just draped it over the chair to make it less jarring when your bare back hits that cold metal and to make it prettier. 

The rusted potting stand is a favorite. It was given to me by a lady for who I used to nanny. I commented on how much I loved it and was looking for something similar. She ended up giving it to me because it wasn't even in use and was just taking up space in her garage.

 Both signs were painted by me. The bird was done at a door sign painting party. The one above the door was just completed by me this week. I actually ended up moving it to our back porch yesterday and put another one I painted in it's place. You'll see further down below.

The third patina-ed item on our porch is the rusted metal step ladder. I got it at Goodwill a few years ago and it's been on the front porch ever since. 

Stella climbs it almost every weekday morning to wave 

and say her goodbyes to Donald. 

As you can see, Bandit loves the front porch. He adores being outside. He'll sit on the top of the steps or just at the bottom in the grass. Sometimes I forget he's outside with us and I'll go in for a while. Half an hour may go by before I realize I left him out there. Usually I open the door and he's either on the porch right by the door or just snoozing in the grass. Such a good boy.

Here's the sign I swapped "The Bryan's" to. I figured since the bird already had a "B" for "Bryan" we didn't need two similar signs on the same porch. 

Stella painted the little red heart. 

 I've got three pots all with shamrocks. I love them and their little white flowers. I'd love to get some purple ones too! I think it would go great with the sage color of the house.

I bought this fountain for $3, I think at a yard sale before I moved to Atlanta. This thing has worked all these years. Now, I haven't had it running constantly all that time, but I"m still impressed, nonetheless. I did have to hot glue the seal because it has started leaking a bit, but that was a quick and simple fix.

I grabbed an old metal fan from the storage house we weren't using and have it sitting out ready to plug in at a moment's notice. It's been so pleasant out lately, especially in the shade of the porch, but this is still the South which means mosquitoes and other annoying bugs are still buzzing around.

 Here's a shot of the candles lit up at dusk the other night.

And this thing-heck I don't even know what to call it. I think I got it at Goodwill. It's just these tin/aluminum cups screwed in to a piece of wood. That's it. They almost look like little vintage Jell-O molds. But I loved it. 

So I filled them with battery operated tea lights.

I replaced the old, half-dead summer flowers with new Fall-colored stuff: Rainbow Chard, chartreuse and eggplant colored Coleus and orange marigolds.

I'm very happy with how the front porch turned out.  

Stella has been riding her bike almost every afternoon or evening or playing with the neighbor a lot more so this way I can sit out and

 keep an eye on her or them.

***************************************************************************

Backyard Seating & Firepit 

I can't even remember when we made this firepit. I mean, I vividly remember doing it, but I don't remember what month or year we did it. I don't even know if we were engaged yet or married. I do know it's been here for a while and gets used on occasion. But, it was boring. 

So Donald measured and roped off the area. He dug out some grass and dirt on the higher side some, then sprinkled sand down for the blocks.

Here, you can just see half of the glider and approximately where it used to sit. 

You should also be able to see one block up on top of the other blocks just in front of the glider. That was our "extra" block. I say was because when he was pounding the blocks into the sand with a rubber mallet, one corner of one of the blocks broke off, leaving us without an extra. What I'm getting at is Donald estimated how many blocks we would need for this project and ended up getting the exact amount plus one. It was amazing and also irritating 

to me at the same time.

One evening he came home with a truck load of crush and run and spread it. The next evening he came home with a truck load of pea gravel. 

Here's the finished area before we had seating.

So these chairs were on the back porch at the beach. They looked great, but no one ever really sat on them. Occasionally Stella would go out there and sit with B, but usually it was just so dang hot out there, that no one spent any time out there. So I suggested, instead of buying new or gently used Adirondack-type chairs, we bring these up and put them in our new fire pit area. 

Donald agreed it was a good idea.

I was okay with the light blue paint on the chairs. I cleaned these up pretty well with a Magic Eraser, but they were screaming for a new coat of pain. You could tell the chairs had faded a lot, had gotten paint dripped on them and various other things splattered on them here and there. This stuff did not come off with the Magic Eraser. I've been painting some furniture the past few weeks but didn't have it in me to start this project. Luckily, Donald did. 

Yep, we went with orange. Now I love color and lots of it, but when he originally told me orange, I wasn't so sure. I thought navy perhaps? Or even gray? Oh and we have that never ending can of red paint. And of course, an Army Green color flashed in my mind since I love green. But then Donald pointed out how we already have a good bit of red in places around the yard since we've been trying to get rid of that can of paint for-ev-er. Then he said how both the house and storage house are green and obviously, the grass. He thought orange would go well with the color of the pebbles and pop in the backyard. He was so right!

 

The green metal table was purchased at Goodwill two weeks ago for $6. 

It was already lime green and ends folds flat. 

 I think our fire pit area looks a million times better. I love this space and can't wait to use it more this Fall and Winter. I'm imagining sitting out here bundled up with a big mug of cider or hot tea early 

in the morning or late in the evening. 

And now since it's September, we can start burning again and hopefully decrease the ridiculous pile of leaves and sticks growing rapidly in the back corner of our yard. 

Our K-mart is closing it's doors soon and I'm considering stopping by this week so see if they have any outdoor pillows that will match. I'm not certain I want pillows but if I happen to find something.....

And no, the new swing doesn't hit any of the chairs.

Donald even fixed up this area. We'd been filling it with mulch the past few years, but it would always fade so much or wash away. So he dug up the random crab grass and weeds, smoothed out the dirt and......

...put the remainder of the pea gravel here. It looks much better. 

That's all for now. Maybe one day we'll paint the porch ceiling. And paint the picnic table. We're thinking of planting mondo grass around the perimeter of the seating area of the fire pit but we want to wait until it's cooler before we tackle these projects.