This Sunday, October 27 from 2-5pm I will have a special holiday sneak peek of amazing vintage Christmas items! Come out and shop the Pop-Up Sale and grab some fun vintage Christmas decorations, ornaments, and more! 8th & Argyle is located at 1800 8th Avenue South in Nashville.
Dolly and Kenny's Christmas album is my favorite ever. I grew up listening to it and still faithfully listen every Christmas. This summer, I found the vinyl in Nashville, Indiana for $2 which felt like a Christmas-In-July miracle. :)
I just can't even express HOW much I love these songs. They make my heart so happy and take me on such a journey of emotions.
Dolly wrote "Once Upon A Christmas" and I think it's SUCH a powerful song about the birth of Jesus. The dancers get a little weird in this performance toward the end, but the song is so beautiful. If you've never heard it, you should definitely listen now!
My favorite lyrics:
All the world rejoiced because the King was born at last / A savior had been promised, now it had come to pass / And the joyful news that He was born spread quickly far and wide / Once upon a Christmas was the birth of Jesus Christ
Aaaaand, so sappy, but I can appreciate this song so much more now as a newlywed. :)
"The Greatest Gift Of All:"
Love, love, love them.
Merry Christmas, y'all!
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It's tiny. But, I love it! My mom sent us home from Thanksgiving with a small box of special ornaments from my granny's* house including ornaments that my mammaw and great-grandmother made.
I love them! I grew up with some of these types of ornaments and now I love having my own!
I've also been hanging on to a needlepoint ornament from Andy's family. It's so special to have a tree that is strictly sentimental!
*My granny is my great-aunt who "adopted" me after my mammaw passed away. She's amazing!
Roostergate update! I talked to Ira twice yesterday and we'll talk again today. As a former interviewer, it is so fun to be interviewed by someone I admire so much!
Before I knew where the rooster lived, it was easy to think,
"I'll call animal control since there's a rooster running loose," but it feels more human and more personal now that we know which house
he belongs to.
Ira convinced me that we should go talk to our neighbors rather than calling animal control on them. I had been feeling really conflicted - I don't want anything bad to happen to the rooster, but he needs to live elsewhere for his safety and my sanity. It's just not safe to have a rooster running loose on a busy, residential street!
We tried talking to our neighbors last night but they wouldn't answer their door the three times we knocked, even though someone was clearly home. We talk to Ira at 11 today and I'm afraid the story has been roadblocked by the fact they won't answer their door to talk to us. I might try this morning before I go to work. Wish us luck!
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I spent 3 hours on Saturday stocking the booth for Christmas. It was a huge undertaking!
I re-did the entire left wall with Christmas items! Last year, I didn't have much Christmas so I made sure to buy throughout the entire year so I would be well-stocked this season.
I added some thrifted garland to the front of the shelves. It felt a little overwhelming, but a few people said they liked it, so I'm going with it. :)
I have no idea how Christmas will sell, but I hope that it does well! I'd hate to pack it all back up and hold onto it for another year.
I didn't see Christmas in anyone else's booth yet... I hope I didn't jump the gun!
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Rae texted me Thursday to let me know that there was an amazing estate sale happening a little bit outside of town. I wasn't sure if I would have time to go, but luckily, I was able to go - about an hour before the sale closed and amazingly, there was still a GREAT selection!
I picked up some fun potholders and a cute pink & white accordion pleated pillow that will all go to the booth. But, two of my favorite finds were a Viewmaster Projector and a white task lamp. The projector was the first item I discovered - apparently, there were a ton of viewmaster slides but a local news anchor bought them just a few hours before me! I'm so glad she didn't see the projector! I LOVE IT. It works and is so, so cute. And the white lamp is in great condition and it also works! I picked up a bag of little figurines that included 2 fawns and a little squirrel that will all go in terrariums or in potted plants. Love this stuff!
They also had a ton of vintage Christmas. I got a LOT - a box full of vintage ornaments and then 2 fun retro Santas.
I am so, so glad I stopped. I also bought some faux bois metal shelves that I'm not quite sure what I'll do with yet!
Funnily enough, I ran into Rae when I was leaving! She has stopped by everyday and said on the first day, it was unbelievable how much great stuff there was. I'm sad that I couldn't make it then, but very happy with my finds!!
What did YOU find this weekend???
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Christmas at the Opryland Hotel is one of my favorite Christmas traditions!
They set up pretty much the same decorations every year, but they're so magical! If you're not familiar with the Opryland Hotel, it's an enormous Gaylord hotel & resort with indoor gardens and so much more. The lights inside and out are so beautiful! Locals and tourists alike flock to Opryland to take in all the Christmas cheer. You could spend hours wandering around taking it all in!
The first year we were dating, we celebrated Christmas by touring the lights at Opryland and I spent about 20 minutes trying to get Andy to take a "real" photo in front of the Christmas tree. Fast forward 2 years later and I'm still trying to get him to take a "real" photo. Even though he'll rarely make a straight face, I have to admit that I do treasure these goofy pictures so I sometimes indulge in a goofy face myself!
If you're ever in Nashville at Christmastime, you must check out the lights and events at Opryland Hotel!
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Erin at Sunshine and Carousels has been posting adorable Christmas DIYs and I fell in love with one of the ornament tutorials she posted! She created an atomic starburst ornament tutorial and I got right to work to make my own!
Last year, we were engaged in November so we spent the holidays knowing we were going to be married soon. Andy and I set out to put up my Christmas tree but when we went to get it out of the garage, we discovered it had been ruined in the Nashville flood the previous May. It was sad that it was ruined, but it meant that we got to go buy a tree together!
This year, we set it up the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Our house is pretty small and in year's past, I had to set the tree up in front of the front door, rendering our front door unuseable! This year, I thought we might set it up in front of the dining room window so we can open the blinds and share the joy! :)
Here are a few of our special ornaments...
1. I love gnomes and last year Andy surprised me with this cute ornament! 2. I try to pick up ornaments when we travel and I bought this in an antique store in Puyallup when we visited in September. 3. On our honeymoon, we took a little roadtrip to Atlanta and Chattanooga to do all the touristy things we had never done. We picked up this polar bear at the World of Coke in Atlanta. We are definitely Coke people, so it's fun to have him on our tree. :) 4. Living in the south, we knew it was a must to "see Rock City." We had no idea what it was, but we knew we had to go. It was beautiful and we picked up an ornament to represent the iconic "See Rock City" barns.
I don't go all out with decorating because we don't have much room, but I set up my vintage ceramic tree in the living room since our actual tree is in the dining room. And....my tree has a new friend!!
Look at this adorable owl that Stephanie sent me! She is so sweet and thoughtful - with SUCH great taste!! Thank you, Stephanie!!!
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When we were in Louisville a few weeks ago, about 25 of our family members all gathered to check out Lights Under Louisville at the Mega Cavern. It was SO bizarre to have grown up in Louisville but to never have heard of the Mega Cavern!
According to their website, the Mega Cavern is actually a former mine/quarry/limestone cavern founded in the 1930s under the Louisville Zoo. Lights Under Louisville features over 500 lit characters with over 1,000,000 points of light and the only underground light show of its kind on the planet.
All you do is show up, pay the entrance fee, and drive your car through the cavern and look at the fun lights! There are different sections set up, like "small town USA," "dinoland" and the north pole.
It's pretty cute and they play Christmas music throughout. And for our Jewish friends, there is a Jewish section with a beautiful dreidel.
Our family met in a nearby parking lot in order to carpool and caravan through the cavern, and it warmed my heart beyond words to see carload after carload pull in, everyone get out, and gather together. We had a difficult few days after attending our aunt's funeral, so it was sweet to end the weekend together celebrating and going on this adventure together.
Here's a silly little video of my granny dancing like one of the penguins and then my mom and her cousins dancing like the snowmen. It makes me smile so much to see them all again, even virtually!
And yes, my cousin Jeff with the white beard and red sweatshirt IS one of Santa's helpers every year. :) And yes, he and his brother are exactly the reason I always wanted to marry a guy with a great beard. :)
Feeling so nostalgic made me want to re-watch the video I made from our family reunion in Michigan last year, so here is that too!
It was one of my favorite weekends of my life! I am so thankful for these wonderful people.
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Oh, goodness. I have mentioned before I love vintage ceramics but let me just reiterate it - I love vintage ceramics! I like to imagine little old ladies sitting around gabbing and making them together then toting them home proudly to their families. It seems so fun!
At a yard sale over the summer, I found a vintage ceramic, light-up Christmas tree and was so delighted to snatch it up for only $2. The top was broken off, but I glued it back on. You can see where the paint has been chipped away, but I think it adds character to it! This Christmas tree has seen MANY Christmases!
Now that Thanksgiving has passed, it is time to decorate for Christmas! But, I must confess that I set this tree up the day before Thanksgiving. I worked from home and wanted some ambiance!
I love it! I almost put it in my booth but really couldn't bear to part with it. I do have a GORGEOUS white ceramic tree with all blue lights in my booth, but it does not have a lighting element under it so it wasn't as immediately ready to be displayed. And it seems a tad fancy for our house. I love the kitschy-ness of this tree. I am in love!
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