I am working on the Cover for our Catalog at work for this year. I realized I never showed you guys the cover from last year. Here is the Cover for our main library catalog and our english language learners catalog.
Tennessee Trip - Part 2
The next day we headed downtown to the Nashville Visitor Center because when we went by the day before it was closed. We went down there and bought some souvenirs.
We decided that we pretty much saw everything we wanted to see in the downtown area so we headed back to the hotel. On the way back we noticed this church with gargoyles above the threshold.
We had bought tickets to go to the Grande Ole Opry that night so we got dressed and headed over to the Opry Mills Outlet Mall to do some shopping before heading to the show. While at the mall we ended up eating lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and got to eat by these guys.
After spending way to much money we decided it was time to go wait to go in the Grande Ole Opry.
Me and my sister hanging out waiting for the doors to open.
I am not a huge country music fan, but I do like a few artists. The show was really neat. There were 8 artists performing and each played 3 songs. Most of the artists were up and coming artist, from my understanding. They were all really good. First up was Tyler Farr. He has a song on the radio called "Redneck Crazy," which he played.
While the bands were breaking down and setting up for the next, there was this great announcer guy. I just loved his voice.
The next person up was Terri Clark. I remembered her from when I first listened to country in the 90s. She was great and told a story about Reba McIntyre and did an exact voice impersonation of her.
Dailey & Vincent came out and sang the song "Home" originally made popular by Phillip Phillips. The last song they did was an acappella christian song. It was beautiful.
Then there was Dustin Lynch, it was his birthday and he was so appreciative for being able to play at the Grande Ole Opry.
Eric Paslay was up next and I enjoyed his music probably the most. He had a bit of rock n roll mixed with his country style. He played his hit "Friday Night". After his set was over he just found out the single went gold. He came out and showed us the gold plaque. He seemed like a very humble guy.
The last act of the night was Gloriana. I really enjoyed their style also.
After the shows were over we ended up going to Dave and Busters for some dinner and video games. We had a blast playing games like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, Mario Kart and more.
The next day was Wednesday the day we needed to start heading back to my sister's house, to get ready for my nieces graduation. We had planned to make a couple of stops on the way out of town first.
I had been wanting to see The Parthenon for awhile now, especially since seeing it on Percy Jackson. This building was amazing. On the bottom floor there is an art gallery with some beautiful paintings.
Upstairs there is this huge statue of Athena, that is absolutely beautiful.
Then we headed to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. They had these huge sculptures of different bugs made from wood.
This little train set was really cool. They had 2 trains running through the tracks and one was Thomas the Train.
This little tree house was awesome.
I don't know why but I love this photo of this flower.
Ants marching on. If you look closely to the background there are 2 more ants marching along with this one.
The mansion just gorgeous.
View from the back portico.
This was another cool sculpture made of twigs of wood. It was really spectacular to walk through.
After we were done strolling through the gardens, we headed up to the restaurant and ate lunch. Then did some shopping in the gift shop.
We headed back to my sisters house. Driving back down the mountain was a bit tense because it was raining and the road was super windy. We had talked about maybe stopping in Lynchburg to visit the Jack Daniels distillery but decided against it because of the rain.
The next day was graduation day. We ended up doing a bunch of running around getting food and decorations for the party. The graduation didn't start until 7:30pm.
They were going so quickly with the names I couldn't get a good picture of her walking.
I made this little paint bucket for her for her present and hid some money inside for her. It was something I saw on pinterest and thought I would try it out. I bought Jelly Belly Beans in her school colors. I took the cardboard piece of a toilet paper roll and cut it to fit in the middle and then put the beans around it. Then put the money in the middle of the roll. I think it came out cute.
Another pinterest idea that my sister found, little caps made out of Reese's peanut butter cups and Hershey's chocolate. We also made chocolate covered marshmallows which were amazing, you can see them in the background of the picture.
Cap and Diploma - I am so proud of her!
My beautiful niece!!!
I don't have any children of my own so my niece and nephew are like my kids. I have been there for all their big moments in life. I love them both with all my heart.
I stayed one more day and my sister and I just hung out at the house all day. I helped her set up her new computer, she decided to become a Mac person. Then we went through her photo albums and scanned in some pictures of us as kids. That night we sat down relaxed and watched "Frozen" which was a perfect movie to watch with your sister.
I got up the next day and headed home.
Tennessee Trip - Part 1
Earlier this year I planned a trip to Tennessee to visit my sister and to see my niece graduate high school. My sister and I decided to take part of the week and turn it into our sister trip and planned to spend a few days in Nashville.
I left early Saturday morning on May 10th for the long 10 hour drive to where my sister lives. Here are some pictures driving through Georgia.
Last time I drove up there I ended up stopping in Valdosta, Georgia for some BBQ at the Smokn Pig. The food here was so good, I looked forward to stopping there again. I ended up buying some bbq sauce to take home with me.
I finally got to my sister's house about 7:30pm.
The next day was Mother's Day and my sister, niece, and myself drove to Chattanooga to go to the mall to do some shopping.
Monday morning my sister and I got up and and headed to Nashville to spend some sister time together. I love all the mountains. It is so flat here in Florida that it was a nice change of scenery. Although going up and down the mountains killed my ears because they kept popping.
I found this quite amusing that there was huge strawberries on the road.
Our first stop was the Belle Mead Plantation. The main reason we wanted to go here was to try the wine at the winery there. The grounds were absolutely gorgeous though.
This was the outside of the barn. Inside there were old horse drawn carriages.
This was the neatest flower. I thought it looked like something out of a Dr. Suess book.
This is a view of the other side of the barn.
Here is front view of the mansion.
The slaves and workers quarters.
There was a mausoleum onsite. It was beautiful from this distance. As we got closer and looked inside the gate, it was kind of creepy inside.
Some beautiful huge trees.
Last but not least the winery. Inside was just a gift shop and where they did the wine tasting. I have to say most of the wines tasted like what we have here at my local winery in Florida. Except for the Blackberry wine, it was delicious, but a bit to sweet. I ended up buying a bottle to bring home to the boyfriend.
This place was really beautiful and full of history.
From there we headed to downtown Nashville. We decided to get a bite to eat before we did anything. My sister had never eaten at Margaritaville, so we stopped there and got a burger.
We then headed to the Johnny Cash Museum. If you are a fan, this place was awesome, with all kinds of artifacts from his life.
This was a custom motorcycle built for the museum.
Johnny throughout the years.
All his singles in 45s.
The covers of all his records.
Gold and platinum albums.
This was a drawing he did. Where he rubbed the pencil to cover the page and then did the drawing with an eraser. I didn't realize he was also an artist.
I took more pictures but some didn't come out as well as these did.
After that we ended up just wandering around the downtown area.
The football stadium where the Tennessee Titans play. The boyfriend is unfortunately a Titans fan.
There was this neat walkway and we decided to walk it and get some pictures from it.
They call this the Batman building because it looks like Batman's cowl. I got several pictures of this for the boyfriend because he is a big fan of Batman.
The Country Music Walk of Fame.
There is this alley called Printer's Alley. It seemed like it was mostly showgirl shows and things like that down this alley. It was to early still for all that. Lol.
We found the pot of gold in Nashville. This seemed kind of random to us but awesome at the same time.
A beautiful statue. To tell you the truth I forgot what the significance of this statue was.
Well we ended up stopping at a place called Dick's Last Resort. I wasn't sure what this place was about but my sister said her friends said to check this place out if we got the chance. So we stopped for dinner. While we were being seated the table next to us left a tip and all the coin spelled out the words "Fuck you". My sister asked the hostess what that was about, and she said it was part of the experience. We looked at each other like what did we get ourselves into. Basically the waiters are kind of rude to you but in a fun sarcastic way. At one point I took my feet out of my flip flops and set them on top of my flip flops. The waiter yelled at me and said "Put your shoes back on hooker, who do you think you are Brittney Spears"! I couldn't stop laughing. We ended up getting drink's, mine was called Angry Balls, and it was Angry Orchard with Fireball Whiskey. My sister got a Pina Colada that was called "Blow your wad Pina Colada."
Then the waiter made us these lovely hats!!!
As we were leaving we asked the hostess to take our picture with Dick and they decided to take a selfie first.
Coyote Ugly was just next door so we had to stop in and have one drink to check it out. It was Monday night so there wasn't to many people in there. The girls got on the bar and danced a couple of times while we were there.
Here is the strip at night. As we were walking back to the hotel every bar had live country music blaring from inside.
We had such a great time but it was a lot of walking!
Look for Part 2 coming soon!
I left early Saturday morning on May 10th for the long 10 hour drive to where my sister lives. Here are some pictures driving through Georgia.
I finally got to my sister's house about 7:30pm.
The next day was Mother's Day and my sister, niece, and myself drove to Chattanooga to go to the mall to do some shopping.
Monday morning my sister and I got up and and headed to Nashville to spend some sister time together. I love all the mountains. It is so flat here in Florida that it was a nice change of scenery. Although going up and down the mountains killed my ears because they kept popping.
I found this quite amusing that there was huge strawberries on the road.
Our first stop was the Belle Mead Plantation. The main reason we wanted to go here was to try the wine at the winery there. The grounds were absolutely gorgeous though.
This was the outside of the barn. Inside there were old horse drawn carriages.
This was the neatest flower. I thought it looked like something out of a Dr. Suess book.
This is a view of the other side of the barn.
Here is front view of the mansion.
The slaves and workers quarters.
There was a mausoleum onsite. It was beautiful from this distance. As we got closer and looked inside the gate, it was kind of creepy inside.
Some beautiful huge trees.
Last but not least the winery. Inside was just a gift shop and where they did the wine tasting. I have to say most of the wines tasted like what we have here at my local winery in Florida. Except for the Blackberry wine, it was delicious, but a bit to sweet. I ended up buying a bottle to bring home to the boyfriend.
This place was really beautiful and full of history.
From there we headed to downtown Nashville. We decided to get a bite to eat before we did anything. My sister had never eaten at Margaritaville, so we stopped there and got a burger.
We then headed to the Johnny Cash Museum. If you are a fan, this place was awesome, with all kinds of artifacts from his life.
This was a custom motorcycle built for the museum.
Johnny throughout the years.
All his singles in 45s.
The covers of all his records.
Gold and platinum albums.
This was a drawing he did. Where he rubbed the pencil to cover the page and then did the drawing with an eraser. I didn't realize he was also an artist.
I took more pictures but some didn't come out as well as these did.
After that we ended up just wandering around the downtown area.
The football stadium where the Tennessee Titans play. The boyfriend is unfortunately a Titans fan.
There was this neat walkway and we decided to walk it and get some pictures from it.
They call this the Batman building because it looks like Batman's cowl. I got several pictures of this for the boyfriend because he is a big fan of Batman.
The Country Music Walk of Fame.
There is this alley called Printer's Alley. It seemed like it was mostly showgirl shows and things like that down this alley. It was to early still for all that. Lol.
We found the pot of gold in Nashville. This seemed kind of random to us but awesome at the same time.
A beautiful statue. To tell you the truth I forgot what the significance of this statue was.
Well we ended up stopping at a place called Dick's Last Resort. I wasn't sure what this place was about but my sister said her friends said to check this place out if we got the chance. So we stopped for dinner. While we were being seated the table next to us left a tip and all the coin spelled out the words "Fuck you". My sister asked the hostess what that was about, and she said it was part of the experience. We looked at each other like what did we get ourselves into. Basically the waiters are kind of rude to you but in a fun sarcastic way. At one point I took my feet out of my flip flops and set them on top of my flip flops. The waiter yelled at me and said "Put your shoes back on hooker, who do you think you are Brittney Spears"! I couldn't stop laughing. We ended up getting drink's, mine was called Angry Balls, and it was Angry Orchard with Fireball Whiskey. My sister got a Pina Colada that was called "Blow your wad Pina Colada."
Then the waiter made us these lovely hats!!!
As we were leaving we asked the hostess to take our picture with Dick and they decided to take a selfie first.
Coyote Ugly was just next door so we had to stop in and have one drink to check it out. It was Monday night so there wasn't to many people in there. The girls got on the bar and danced a couple of times while we were there.
Here is the strip at night. As we were walking back to the hotel every bar had live country music blaring from inside.
We had such a great time but it was a lot of walking!
Look for Part 2 coming soon!
May Adventures
Wow May had been super busy! Work has been crazy trying to get our newest books off to the printer. We still have quite a bit to get done to finish off the season. I didn't get any art done at all this month, although I did start a sketch for one of my LifeBook lessons.
I was super busy preparing for my trip to Tennessee at the beginning of the month. I just couldn't wait to get out of town for a little bit and see my sister and niece.
I took some pictures on my trip up there. Look for some blog posts coming up all about that trip.
I took this picture from my sister's back porch.
When I got back home I finally finished the Flat Sally project. You can read more about that here.
I had bought some Blackberry Wine while up in Nashville. The boyfriend and I decided to drink it one night. It was so sweet, but delicious.
A couple of years ago the boyfriend bought me a clipping of a yellow Frangipani. It looks like it is about to bloom. I can't wait to see it!
The other day coming home from work the sky looked amazing with all the clouds, and a storm coming through.
Look it's almost ready to bloom.
May was filled with so much going on it went by so quickly. I am hoping the summer will slow down a bit and I can get more art done. Keep on the look out for the posts about my trip to Tennessee.
There was an Air Show that was going on near where I work. The Blue Angels were flying over practicing for the show that was starting that weekend. I was able to get a few shots of them flying by.
I was super busy preparing for my trip to Tennessee at the beginning of the month. I just couldn't wait to get out of town for a little bit and see my sister and niece.
I took some pictures on my trip up there. Look for some blog posts coming up all about that trip.
I took this picture from my sister's back porch.
When I got back home I finally finished the Flat Sally project. You can read more about that here.
I had bought some Blackberry Wine while up in Nashville. The boyfriend and I decided to drink it one night. It was so sweet, but delicious.
A couple of years ago the boyfriend bought me a clipping of a yellow Frangipani. It looks like it is about to bloom. I can't wait to see it!
The other day coming home from work the sky looked amazing with all the clouds, and a storm coming through.
Look it's almost ready to bloom.
May was filled with so much going on it went by so quickly. I am hoping the summer will slow down a bit and I can get more art done. Keep on the look out for the posts about my trip to Tennessee.
Flat Sally
Some of you might be asking what is a Flat Sally. It is based on the children's book Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley was flattened by a bulletin board that fell on him. After he was flattened he decided he would mail himself to his friends to see the world. They use this as a geography lesson in classes, basically you make your own Flat Stanley and send it off to a friend or family member. My little sister's class decided to do the project and she sent me a Flat Sally (named so because she is a girl). I was instructed to take pictures of the area I live in and send them back before June. I decided to make a book with a little story about Flat Sally's adventures with me.
This was such a neat project. Some of these picture are from my trip to Tennessee recently. I still plan on writing a post about that and explain the photos further.
If anybody has done a Flat Stanley/Flat Sally project let me know I would love to see your pictures.
This was such a neat project. Some of these picture are from my trip to Tennessee recently. I still plan on writing a post about that and explain the photos further.
If anybody has done a Flat Stanley/Flat Sally project let me know I would love to see your pictures.