Friday, May 31, 2013

"Thyme" In A Bottle by Ingrid Croce

Wrapping up Jim Croce week, we're going to talk just a little about Thyme In A Bottle. You may have heard of Croce's restaurant in San Diego, but did you know that Ingrid Croce released a book of stories and recipes from her life and restaurant?


I came across the book on eBay for $30 or $40. I consulted my favorite place to buy books, BetterWorldBooks.com, and found it for $3.98. It's a former library book, but I don't mind!

It came last night and I only had time to read the first few pages. I love her philosophy on cooking (have fun with it) and her writing seems like it's going to be a really inviting read. She seems very warm and approachable in this book.
There's no need for pretense here. Food is about fun. It must be approachable, embraceable, capturing your heart and your spirit too. So make mistakes and learn from them. I do!
I make a lot of mistakes but she reassures us that we have our whole lives to practice!

I can't wait to dig in and maybe plan a Croce dinner party! If I actually do, you can bet I'll take notes and blog about it. :)

If you'd like a good deal on a pre-owned Thyme In A Bottle, check it out for $4.94 on BetterWorldBooks.com!

(BetterWorldBooks is a GREAT site I've been using for years to buy used books. They are generally under $5 and the profits go to literacy programs across the world and shipping is free. You can pay a few cents to carbon offset your shipping, too! LOVE LOVE LOVE them!)

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

I Got A Name: The Jim Croce Story

Are you wondering why I chose to highlight Jim Croce this week? It's simply because I love him. My mom loves him and I grew up listening to Photographs & Memories and innocently singing "Bad, bad Leroy Brown - baddest man in the whole downtown." The innocence of children, right? :)

I could listen to only "oldies" for the rest of my life. There's SO much great music that's already been made. As it got warmer a few weeks ago, I found myself drawn to 70s rock. I couldn't get enough of the Doobie Brothers and America. Then I thought, "I'll finish the week out strong with Jim Croce." My heart was so happy!
I started wondering about him - how in the world could "Operator," such a tender, heartbreaking song and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" come from the same writer? I did a little searching and discovered that his wife, Ingrid, had released a Jim Croce biography in the past few years. I immediately requested it from the library and I've been reading it over the past few weeks. Here's a little bit of a recap about how Jim and Ingrid came together and my interpretation of how his style developed:
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Jim and Ingrid met when he was in college and she was 16. They fell in love pretty quickly even though his parents objected to their relationship due to her age and the fact that she was Jewish, not Catholic. His dad was distant and disapproving and Jim turned to Ingrid's dad as a father-figure. The two men shared a love of psychology and discussing life. Jim decided to convert to Judaism and married Ingrid while she was in college.


While they were getting to know each other and beginning to date, they played music together constantly. They booked gigs and performed in a rowdy bar in a neighboring town. Jim seemed to be really inspired by bawdy English drinking songs and would perform them at the club. Throughout the years, he met blue-collar men and was inspired by their work ethic. "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" makes SO much more sense when you read about his friendships with colorful construction workers and his stint in the National Guard. (Leroy Brown was real- he was Jim's seargent!)

He seemed to be a true artist - moody and unpredictable. Even though they had their ups and downs, they were committed to each other. Jim gave us some of the best love songs ever and I'm thankful to Ingrid for inspiring the softer side of him.

Watch him perform "Operator" below:


And the iconic "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown":


Want more love and heartache songs? Be sure to check out the below songs on my Jim Croce Spotify playlist!
  • Photographs & Memories
  • I'll Have To Say I Love You In A Song
  • These Dreams
  • Lover's Cross
  • Alabama Rain
  • New York's Not My Home
Want to hear more rowdy songs? Check out:
  • Roller Derby Queen
  • Rapid Roy The Stock Car Boy
  • You Don't Mess Around With Jim
  • Working At The Car Wash Blues
  • Five Short Minutes
  • Speedball Tucker



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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Free Download: Time In A Bottle

It's still Jim Croce week on Owl Really! It's my birthday and I can Croce if I want to! :-)

I recently re-did the frames and art above our couch and needed to fill a 4x6 frame. I decided to make some lyric art based on one of my favorite Jim Croce songs, "Time In A Bottle."

It's nothing ground-breaking and I'm not a real designer, but since I made it , I wanted to offer it up as a free download in case anyone else loves the song as much as I do!


Click here to download the PDF!
It's set to a full page but you can shrink it down to print it.

If you want to enjoy the song while you browse blogs, here you go!


The really sad thing is that since I turned 31 today, I have lived longer than Jim Croce did. (He passed away at the age of 30.) He was such a prolific songwriter - it's hard to imagine that he was so young when he was writing such amazing songs.

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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

The Only Jim Croce Playlist You Need


I decided to turn my birthday week into Jim Croce week on the blog. I hope hope hope that you're familiar with his music, but if you're not, get ready!!!

I created this Jim Croce playlist on Spotfiy - there have been so many Greatest Hits albums released that a lot of songs repeat across albums. I loaded this playlist with one of each song that was available on Spotify - and some of them are ones that never made it to a Greatest Hits so I actually wasn't familiar with them!

Listen by clicking below (or the link above!)



Spotify is a free app that lets you stream almost any music. It's wonderful!




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Friday, May 24, 2013

Friday Fun: Vintage Family Photos - My Baby Nursery


Next Wednesday is my birthday, so I thought it'd be fun to take a look at my nursery from when I was a baby!
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That's me!

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I am not sure what this is!! Baby toys used to be kinda scary, am I right??

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I am definitely right. Giant teddy bear with some GIANT EYES. But check out that Dumbo lamp! I bet someone made that for me in ceramics! :)

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Sweet little crib.

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Close up...I definitely remember that blanket from my childhood!

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One more bear shot. :)

Maybe my mom will comment with some more details!! :)

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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Call The Midwife


Call The Midwife has won me over. Back when I wrote about Lark Rise To Candleford, a few people mentioned Call The Midwife. I had seen the first episode but found it really intense and it didn't hold my attention completely.

BUT, I gave it another chance and oh my goodness. I had a major marathon over the weekend while I cleaned and did stuff around the house and then this week I managed to finish Season 2. SO, SO GOOD.

Season 1 is available on Netflix and Season 2 just aired on PBS so you can watch it on PBS.org and on the PBS app. (If you don't have the PBS app, I recommend it! There are so many shows available on it that look REALLY interesting!)


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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Redken Replacements: My New Curly Products

hair products

This post is for allll the girls googling about Redken's Fresh Curls Curl Refiner and Soft Spin being discontinued. I used both products and LOVED them but sadly, Redken changed up their entire curl line and those products are no longer available.

I tried the Curvaceous Full Swirl and the new Ringlet - didn't like either of them, unfortunately. And I hate the smell. So disappointing!

SO, I went off to Sally's to try to find something that would work. The above products (Beyond the Zone Noodlhead Curling Creme and Ion Thickening Styler) are what I've found to replace Redken Fresh Curls Curl Refiner and Soft Spin!

My curl care routine has been the same for many years. I lightly towel-dry my hair - trying to keep the curls as thick as possible. The stringier the curls get, the worse my hair looks, so generally I try to keep as much water in my hair as I can in order to get my curls to clump together better. I then lightly scrunch a curl creme through my hair and then a holding gel. I never run my fingers through my hair or drag product through. I only lightly scrunch. I let it airdry for 20ish minutes and then dry it with a diffuser for like...EVER. It takes awhile. When it's dry, I normally put some kind of holding wax/pomade in. That's the last missing piece of my routine right now - I haven't figured out what works the best since my products have been in flux.

The Beyond The Zone Noodle Head is a good curl creme and I follow it up with the Ion Volume Solutions Amplifying Style Builder. They are not perfect replacements but they are working pretty well for me right now.

I hope this helps anyone who is googling and looking for a replacement!!

(I'm aware of the no-poo and Curly Girl movement but it's just not really for me...I'm super happy for anyone that it works for though!)

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

What A Difference A Frame Makes

Estate sales are my favorite places to find art - great variety and great prices!

estate-art

A local art gallery closed and an estate sale company has been helping liquidate the art. I went by awhile back and picked up a few piece, including the above piece. 

Soon after I bought it, I found a wooden frame at another estate sale for 50 cents. I then zoomed over to Joann's to pick up a mat that I thought would look nice with it.

When I put them all together though, I was really disappointed. It looked frumpy, I thought. Like hotel room art or something. Very old fashioned.

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Meh.

BUT, Ribba saves the day. I bought a bunch of different size Ribba frames at Ikea and brought them home to figure out what should go in them. One was perfect for my art!

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I think it looks so fresh now. I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but it almost makes me think of something Jenny from Little Green Notebook might have. (She has the BEST art and gallery walls!)

It's going above my chest of drawers in our bedroom. I'm looking around the house for 2 smaller pieces to hang next to them in a little arrangement.

I wish we had our own Ikea - it's such a pain to have to drive to Atlanta or beg friends to pick something up for you! Now that I have Ribba frames, I think I might be obsessed. Gotta get my hands on more!!

Edited to add: Welp, I wrote this post on Sunday night and broke this frame on Monday night. I hung it with command strips and noticed it was crooked. I took it down and leaned it against the wall on top of my chest of drawers temporarily and it came crashing down into a ton of pieces. Very, very disappointing!  Anyone local heading to Ikea soon??

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Monday, May 20, 2013

Old School Ceramics, Part 4

I was out of town two Saturdays in a row so I missed ceramics a few times, which means months after I started, I'm STILL working on these Clauses! It's taking me fooooorever to finish these pieces!

ceramics4a

I finally got to paint red! I painted on a dark red, then dry brushed a bright red over it. I think the red looks amazing!! It's so nice to see them get closer to being done!

The red (and some subsequent touch-ups) took most of our 2 hours, so I actually brought them home and worked on them! I painted Santa's gloves, belt, and boots black. For Mrs. Claus' shoes, I painted on a dark green then dry brushed a bright green. Dry brushing is so great! It really makes the details stand out.

ceramics4b

I still have more touch-ups to do and I have to learn how to do eyes from Barbara! We are busy the next 6+ weeks, so I don't think I'll be able to go back until July, which is super disappointing! At least I know that with direction, I can work on pieces at home!


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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Did You Know The Dick Van Dyke Show Theme Has Lyrics?

We all know I'm totally obsessed with the Dick Van Dyke show and so of course I follow the show page (run by TV Land) on Facebook. This week, they shared an old clip of Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore on the Rachael Ray show. He is so incredibly charming and wonderful that this clip almost made me cry! I so wish there was a way to see him (or better yet, them!) in person somehow before it's too late. (Sorry for the slightly morbid sentiment - I would just love to see them somehow!)

The Rachael Ray video player won't let me embed the video, so click below to see him sing the lyrics to the theme song and to hear who he and Mary Tyler Moore would cast to play Rob and Laura if they could cast from actors today. I like Mary's answer for Rob!

the petries


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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Owl Really: 20% Off Sale!

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Take 20% off everything in my booth at the Tennessee Antique Mall in the month of May! No code needed - just shop 'til you drop! Come visit at 654 Wedgewood Avenue (Nashville, TN) 7 days a week til 5:30!

Meanwhile, here are some fun things you can find in my booth right now!

booth may

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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Easy DIY: Mason Jar To Memory Jar

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Do you ever see giiiiiiant jars without lids at estate sales and think, "I need that!" and then think, "For what??"

Enter: the easiest DIY ever!

jar

Get a giant jar, put all your ticket stubs and programs inside!

I hate throwing away souvenirs like those and this giant jar has been a wonderful place to stash them!

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It's about 10 inches tall, so it holds all kinds of fun things like 3-D glasses from movies, printed out tickets to musicals and plays, and programs from roller derby, etc. Easy peasy!

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Monday, May 13, 2013

Thrift Report: Mother's Day Edition


My mom and I met in Bowling Green on Saturday for a little bit of thrifting fun. We didn't have much luck, but I found a few cute things. I don't know why, but I have been SO obsessed with figurines, salt & pepper shakers, and planters. They don't do very well in my booth so I have been trying to curb my obsession, but I just can't!

deer

Here's my Bowling Green (KY) secret: My favorite place to shop is the antique mall at Flea Land. Since it was Saturday, the outside sheds of the flea market were also packed with vendors. Most of the dealers have junk, but I stumbled upon a really cute antique booth with tons of salt and pepper shakers.

whales

When I spoke with the booth owners, I immediately recognized them from the Nashville Flea Market. They were set up in the same building that I was in in February when I tried my hand at the flea market. The husband was very kind to me and Tosha and gave us some tips about our tables - he wisely suggested moving our them forward (we had them up against the wall). He was right--- and we were so thankful for his help!

I was happy to return a kindness and buy from them. It was a HUGE sacrifice to bring home these deer and dolphin salt and pepper shakers! :)

bear

This little bear is really tiny and really cute. I couldn't pass him up!

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I love any excuse to buy plants and this yellow diamond, scallopy planter was calling my name! Soooo cute.

plant

I picked up a $3 plant at Home Depot that I had never seen before. The leaves are green but the veins are pink! It's called Fittonia. Anyone familiar with it?

Hope you found great things this weekend too!

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Friday, May 10, 2013

Friday Fun: Vintage Family Photos + The Skating Rink


Let's go to the skating rink!!! Today, I'm posting pictures of what was probably one of my very first trips to the skating rink! I look terrified! Read on!

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Standing... chilling... not too bad...

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Oh boy! Better hang on!!! :)

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This is kinda fun, yeah??
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Oh.. maybe not... better hang on!
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Taking it easy in my little jeans! So cute.

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So much hanging on!! I'm surprised there aren't photos of m falling with how much hanging on I'm doing.. or maybe I didn't fall since I was hanging on so much! :)

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Whatchoo lookin at??

Oh man, I loved the skating rink growing up. We went all the time in elementary school! I got some good practice as a little youngster, according to these photos!


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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

How To Catalog Your Vinyl Collection

If you love vintage, chances are you have a record collection, am I right?? If you have an extensive vinyl collection, it can be hard to keep track of what you have.

records
A fraction of our records, all spread out 2 years ago when Andy moved in after our wedding

A backstory: years before I met him, Andy lived in a house with an extra apartment upstairs. He and his roommates used the extra space for a recording studio and Andy stored his records in the kitchen cabinets. Unfortunately, the cabinets weren't strong enough to hold the weight of the records and they eventually fell off the wall. Andy lost the majority of his record collection in that accident and since then, he has had a hard time remembering what records he currently owns.

For part of his anniversary gift, I decided to catalog his collection so he would always know what he owns! I did a bit of research and discovered Discogs.com, a site that allows you to keep track of all music you own (vinyl, CDs, cassettes, etc) and even syncs to an app called Crate Digger. Find out more below!

Start by creating a free account on Discogs.com. People can see your collections, so if you want to remain anonymous, don't choose a username that is associated with you. Andy is a turntablist and goes by DJ Fat Andy, so I created "djfatandy" as his username.

There is an option for barcode scanning to add to your collection, but the majority of our vintage vinyl isn't going to have a barcode, unless you're a big 80s and 90s fan! The easiest way to input your records is to input the catalog code you find on the record jacket or actually on the record label.

I love Jim Croce and my obsession has resurfaced as I'm reading his biography (more on that later!), so let's take a Jim Croce record as an example.

record code

On the label on the record, you will see a code that is made up of letters and numbers that represent the edition of the album. This number is what you can search for on Discogs.com to find the exact edition you have.

discogs1

Once you search and find your edition, click on it:

discogs2

A page will open with ALL the information about the album. Now that you've clicked through to your edition, you can add it to your collection:

discogs3

Before I realized you had to click ALL the way through to your exact edition, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't add a record to the collection. Make sure you search the album, then click your edition, then add to collection!

Once you've added all your records to your collection, you can download Crate Digger for the iPhone. You don't have to log into Crate Digger with your Discogs.com username and password--all you have to do is navigate to "Collections" and type in your username. Your entire collection loads to your phone so you can browse!

You can even create a "wantlist" on Discogs.com and keep that loaded into Crate Digger! Andy had the great idea of consulting charts/lists of the top records to add to a wantlist. Discogs.com even lets you buy and sell vinyl! I'm really pleased with the site and app and I think it will work pretty well for Andy to consult to see what he does and doesn't have.

If you're wondering if it's a time-consuming process, I will let you know that it took me about 6 hours to process his 434 records. Luckily, there was a night where he was away for HOURS (DJing Promocalypse, the Nashville "zombie prom") and I got them all done in one night. It was quite a project, but so worth it for his reaction when I showed him his record collection on my iPhone! :)

Good luck! Let me know if you decide to set up a Discogs.com account!

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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Goats at Sugar's Ribs in Chattanooga!

Last week, we took a quick trip to Atlanta to see a live recording of my favorite podcast, Professor Blastoff, and to go to Ikea. (More on that later!)

sugars

We discovered Sugar's Ribs last fall when we drove past Chattanooga to go white water rafting. We liked it so much, and there's a great reason to stop, so we ate lunch there Friday.

What's the great reason to stop??

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GOATS!

The restaurant is on a ridge and I suppose they can't mow the grass on their property because of the steep incline, so they have GOATS! The cutest goats ever.

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When we went in September, the goats were on the side of the hill, walking around this elaborate setup:

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But on Friday, they were in a small gated area and we could get close to them.

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Andy was brave enough to reach out to them but I was a little shy. When I was a kid, I had a run-in with a goat at a petting zoo at Halloween. It ate my Little Red Riding Hood cape...while I was wearing it!

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I mean, come on. How cute are they?!

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I'm trying to convince Andy that we need a goat.He's not a fan of that plan.

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I told him he wouldn't have to mow anymore!

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I guess we'll have to just keep driving to Chattanooga for my goat fix!! :)

I told my friend Emily about how much I love the goats (she and her fiance were with us the first time we saw them) and she sent me this video. OH MY GOSH. Baby goats are so playful! I want one as a friend for Lucy. :)


Cutest thing I've ever seen!!


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