{101 goals in 1001 days} goal no. 28 - Nashville, Tn - part 1

well, as promised i said i'd be back after yesterday's wedding, and here i am... i wanted to catch you up on my trip to Nashville, Tennessee... which is also my goal #28 in my 101 goals in 1001 days.

last month my mom and i took a girls trip to Nashville, a place i've dreamt of visiting for a very long time, i'm a HUGE fan of country music, and so a trip to music city sounded like such a great idea! so here are some of the highlights from our trip...

broadway - the main drag in nashville where all the honky tonks & bars are

{the stage is actually in the movie Country Strong}

we took a carriage tour around downtown with Bill and Blondie 

{i trust you can figure out who's who} ;)

she was such a pretty and sweet horse

the country music hall of fame museum is neat... the windows are meant to look like keys on a piano

inside this rotunda of the museum is the actual CM hall of fame where all the plaques are hung...

and the notes around the top are the chord to "may the circle be unbroken" which has become the anthem for the music city since the big flood the city experienced this time last year.

below left is the Hard Rock gift shop {had been totally flooded out} below right is also a street where all those bars, restaurants and shops had been flooded out too, so sad

                 

at Roberts you can buy boots, a meal, a beer and take in live music

also on broadway is Hatch Show Print... 

one of my favorite stops during our whole time in Nashville!

Hatch is one of the oldest letterpress shops in the country and specialized in posters for the music industry, any artist who has posters pressed by Hatch knows they've "made" it once they've had Hatch make a concert poster for them!  i seriously was in heaven in here since i do design paper goods in addition to my events business... and i would LOVE to have my own letterpress to work with. so needless to say we spend some time in here watching and even getting an awesome behind the scenes tour from Cathy {their accountant}. 

since i'm such a paper nerd, here are some of the shots from our little tour

they have posters all over the walls showcasing work they've done over the years

below left: the walls are filled with tons of vintage wood carved blocks of type in all sizes and typestyles... this is what attracts clients to Hatch... below right is one of their many small presses 

               

here are some of the plates set with the type for each job... you can see who these jobs are for 

{not just country music stars, they had just finish lady gaga posters for her upcoming show in nashville}

one of their old, old presses which they run the old school huge hand carved wood plates from 

vaudville days, this place really is a studio and museum! and true to form, artist work here obviously given away by all the piles everywhere {that's just how us creative people work}!

one of the employees inking the plate prior to running it... what i would give to be able to have had an internship with Hatch!

this poster was way in the back of the shop and it was for a taylor concert than happened last year on my hubby's birthday... i love taylor's music, loved the colors, and the awesome orchids and when i asked if there was any way i could buy it they said the boss man keeps extras to give away to charity auctions and couldn't sell it... i was bummed, but totally understood... so i took a picture hoping that would help...

 we went back in the day we were leaving town to get something we had been thinking about, and one of the employees that i had been chatting it up with on our first visit saw me on my phone in the crowd upfront and came and asked if i got the Taylor poster, and i knew he knew i hadn't, so as i started to tell him "no they wouldn't let me buy it..." he was rolling it up to give to me! i seriously was ready to cry, that was so cool that he had asked and just gave it to me because he knew how much i had wanted it so badly! the people who work there are so nice... and that's really true of pretty much everyone we encountered while we were in nashville!

to find out more about Hatch Show Print go here

well, that's all for part 1 folks... i'll be back soon with the plantation tour and tour of President Andrew Jackson's home, the Hermitage... and of course our trip to the Grand Ole Opry!

i'm still here!

i'm stopping by real quick to show you what i'm working on at the moment...

here's the inspiration behind the wedding i've been working to design 

for the bride Tracy + her groom Lee... congrats you guys!

i just adore all the color and the fun details we'll be showcasing, i'll be back after next weekend to start catching you {my fabulous readers} up on recent events, since so much has been going on!

hang tight till next week =)

{sneak peek} project in the works

just wanted to pop in to show you a little sneak peek at something that i'm working on, it should be ready just in time for summer!  but that's all i can share for now...

hope you love the color combos, i know i do! =)

{101 goals in 1001 days} goal no. 47

so a little while back i posted about the 101 goals in 1001 days that i'm doing and here's my first official post about one of the goals i've accomplished... this isn't my first of the 101, but this is a quick post so i thought i'd throw it out there for you all!

as some of you may know, i was wanting so very badly to get my hands on an ipad 2... 

....well yesterday was my day!

after quite a few days of calling the apple store when they opened to check to see if they had stock and hearing "No" everytime... and after calling Walmart, Best Buy, AND Target almost daily checking to see if i could avoid a really early morning waiting in line at the apple store... i set my alarm for 5:45, yes that's AM for those of you who know i don't enjoy mornings =) it felt like Christmas morning so i shot outta bed, got ready, grabbed my laptop and a jewelry order to work on and headed to the South Coast apple store to wait it out with lots of other folks. i said a prayer as i walked in the mall around 6am that went something like this: "Lord, i know this is a really silly prayer, but it would make me so happy to only have to do this once, and please let it be your will that i get the one i want." 

... real mature prayer Blair...

the apple crew rolled in around 7am for their daily Fed Ex shipment inventory, then came out and proceeded to go down the line with these cards that corresponded to each unit they had in the store that morning... i was about 30 people back so i figured i was sitting pretty....

not so... they ran out of these cards at the couple in line right in front of me... i was about ready to flip my lid when a man got out of line handed the above card back in and the apple dude gave it to me... it wasn't the unit i wanted, but i was back in the game!

at this point everyone behind me in line had gone home and didn't know they could've lingered and potentially snagged a forfeited card!  so then about 10 more minutes go by and another guy pieced out of line and gave his card back, the apple dude looked at me and said, "it's your lucky day" it was the exact model i had wanted and in white too! WAAHHOOO

here's my little card, or answer to prayer as i'd like to think of it!  i know it was a silly request, but i do have to say God is good, and He did answer mine and my hubby's prayers.

after this happened, i called J at home and told him what had happened and that he had a happy wife, and he then told me he had prayed the night before that it'd work out for me... 

such a silly thing, but so neat to know God's there and dialed in, and understands how powerful of a business tool this little ipad will be!

Goal no. 47 - check!