{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!

{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!

since you've been gone.... may i introduce the 4 hour body

i mean... since i've been gone =) it's been yet another whirlwind month of client orders for my other biz - Joie de Vie Design, and mixed in with those orders i've taken some much needed personal time to tackle some cleaning and organizing projects around our place {with a lot more work left to be done}.  another fun challenge that's been thrown into our everyday life mix is that a few weeks back my hubs and i decided to make a huge lifestyle change, i had been reading tim ferriss' book the four hour work week {which was recommended to me}, along with ferriss' newest book the four hour body... which the hubs and i have both been reading and a week and a half ago began the journey to a huge lifestyle change for us!

not to bore you all to death with the details, but i think there comes a time in most people's lives when they aren't satisfied... not satisfied by a job, not satisfied by your lifestyle, not satisfied by your health {or lack thereof}... you fill in the blank.  well, we decide that we had grown a little complacent in the way we eat and the overall lack of a healthy lifestyle.  needless to say we started reading the four hour body and realized we needed to make the lifestyle change it talked about...  so now we are living the "slow carb" life!  if you're interested in knowing more about the four hour body diet and lifestyle here's a blog that we enjoy and find really helpful.

this is probably boring some of you at this point, but i feel that posting this is a means of accountability for me and a few posts ago i shared with my readers the 101 goals i hope to accomplish in 1001 days, this new lifestyle change is what i hope will be the means to accomplish a few of my personal lifestyle/weight loss goals.  to show you little of what this change entails here are some photos of a few slow carb meals...

pork chops w/ asparagus and zuchinni

rotisserie chicken {from costco} w/ red spilt lentils and asparagus

the costco chicken makes dinner super easy and quick

and in honor of st. patty's day today...

a corned beef brisket {in the crock pot}, some cabbage and carrots... this is one of my favorites!

basically the rules are as follows:

• nothing white - no flour, no sugar, no rice, no processed carbs period!
• eat as much protein as possible - eggs, egg whites, chicken, pork, beef, fish {organic when possible}
• eat as many veggies as you want {we happen to love asparagus, carrots, baby spinach, celery, green beans, brussel sprouts, and cabbage}
• eat slow carbs - beans, lentils, edamame, any kind of legume {really helps with filling you up}
• drink tons of water, have limited diet beverages {such a killer since i'm a diet coke addict}
• follow these rules 6 days a week
• here's the kicker - make one day a BINGE DAY, yes i said binge day! you can pig out on anything and everything you want, sugar, carbs... you want it, you eat it {sounds like a dream right? if you do it right it will leave you with a killer food hangover that makes you yearn for the clean eating of the other 6 days}

and that's it folks - doing this for a month and you can see great fat loss results... which is what i'm testing right now....

and to bring this all back to my point in sharing this with you all... i'll be using myself as a guinea pig to test this "diet" or as i like to call it "lifestyle change" to hopefully be able to recommend to my readers and the brides out there following along!

ps. if you'd like more insight into the 4 hour body lifestyle, here's another great post about it!

{personal} 101 goals in 1001 days... here we go!

I found this idea on one of the blogs I follow and thought "this is the kind of goal setting I can do!"


The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific with a result that is either measurable, or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of stretching on your part.)

Starting Date: February 9, 2011
Completion Date: November 15, 2013

I can do that! So.. here's my list:
{I will add a link to all the posts about the completed goals}

1. Refinish my cute tiered flea market table.
2. Read the Proverbs 31 woman 6 months out of the year {each year}.
3. Scan and burn to a CD our College party pix.
4. Get back to my goal weight of 140.
5. Do some form of exercise 3 days a week for 2 months straight.
6. Have a baby by 30.
7. Keep a pregnancy journal when that time comes.
8. Organize a business photoshoot. 
9. Create 4 Business Christmas card designs in July 2011.
10. Post Christmas Designs in September 2011 in my paperie Etsy shop.
11. Organize all my iPhoto images. {florals, attire, cakes, wedding decor, home dec, etc}
12. Collect 10 friends or family recipes and try each of them.
13. Create a "important docs" binder w/ my mom
14. Visit Temecula. {post coming soon}
15. Visit Napa
16. Vend in the Local Irvine Farmer's Market.
17. Make Lasagna.
18. Make dinner 5 nights in one week.
19. Finish living room curtains 
20. Start "top secret project" with my SIL Lisa. 
21. Buy a deep freezer for meets and frozen meals.
22. Take my mom on a girls date and actually pick up the tab for once!
23. Go to a daddy and me breakfast with my pops... like old times. 
24. Go to Hawaii with the hubby.
25. Build the neat-o shelf/display pieces for our dining area.
26. Babysit for my girlfriend so she and her hubby can go on a date.
27. Babysit for my brother and SIL, so they can go on a date.
28. Visit Nashville, TN. {part 1 post here}
29. Sit in the audience of the Grand Ol Opry. {post coming soon}
30. Grow my dahlias again and get them to bloom.
31. Have the hubby's best man and wife over for dinner to our place. 
32. Fit into my lucky jeans again... huge stretch!
33. Get our carpeting cleaned.
34. Visit the Nixon and Regan libraries with the hubby.
35. Finally make a date to go to lunch with the 3 college girlfriends I haven't seen in over a year!
36. Clean out, update, and organize the hubby's filing cabinet.
37. Clean out, update, and organize my filing cabinet.
38. Visit Vegas in the Summertime again.
39. Take a Weekend Tip to Santa Barbara.
40. Host a seasonal party at our place. 
41. Go for a walk on the beach with my hubby 3 times summer 2011.
42. Buy a new mattress.
43. Buy a gas grill for me to cook on.
44. Blog 10 times in one month {on one of either blogs}
45. Get my jewelry into 3 boutiques.
46. Get the hubby's life insurance taken care of {sounds so morbid}.
47. Purchase an iPad2 {for business}. {post here}
48. Go to the Stagecoach festival.
49. Burn all our pictures by year onto CD. 
50. Go through college junk that's in my parent's storage, sort, and purge.
51. Become homeowners.
52. Frame my USC diploma w/ my stole.
53. Read the 4 hour work week.
54. Plan my 10 year High School Reunion. {in the works}
55. Attend my 10 year High School Reunion.
56. Attend my hubby's 10 year High School Reunion. 
57. Drive the speed limit for one day.
58. Finish decorating our place.
59. Give my BBE blog a make-over.
60. Overhaul the furniture and layout of our study/my studio.
61. Re-paint the studio.
62. Attend a USC Weekender in 2011 or 2012.
63. Finalize and have our wedding photography book completed {yes we were married in "08}.
64. Get all of my bank accounts, gym membership, insurance info changed to my married name.
65. Do a 500 piece puzzle by myself.
66. Buy a sectional sofa... no more his and her's sofas.
67. Majorly clean out the refrigerator.
68. Finish organizing my business storage unit.
69. Get pro photos taken of all of my event props, and put together a website for my rental pieces.
70. Do a MAJOR clean up/back up of my laptop.
71. Take my laptop in to have the casing fixed & recover my iTunes password, all prior to my apple care running out.
72. Do it again like a year later. I'm sure it will need it again.
73. Go to a pumpkin patch. 
74. Go to a Drive-in movie.
75. Put up our Christmas Tree by December 1st, 2011
76. Do a major cleaning overhaul in our place.
77. Do it again a year later, again I'm positive it'll need it.
78. Have fondue with the family for dad's birthday. 
79. Get 30 sales in one month in either of my etsy shops {not counting outside/referral orders}.
80. Have a professional bra fitting.
81. Write to our adopted World Vision child.
82. Serve a meal in a shelter or soup kitchen {once a year}. 
83. Read 10 new books.
84. Get a new dinning room table.
85. Learn to drive a stick-shift.
86. Drive/show my hubby Silverado canyon.
87. Get a flipCam {for business}
88. Learn how to make tiramisu.
89. Find and bake a great red velvet cupcake.
90. Pay for someone behind me in a drive-thru. 
91. Get our taxes done on time.
92. Buy a "big kid camera" and SLR to shoot biz stuff and personal Buy my hubby his voice recorder. {5.22.11 scratch this one since it's now obsolete, he got an iphone}
93. Collect all close relatives, friends and families birthdays and anniversaries, and addresses to keep on file.
94. Find a new home church.
95. Go hiking when in Jackson or visiting in Utah.
96. Wash my hubby's car for him.
97. Stop drinking diet soda.
98. Spend a day with my mom watching Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea series again.
99. Save $10 for each item completed.
100. Make a new list of 101 Things to Do before I complete this one.
101. Give thanks to God for the willpower and determination to complete these tasks on time!

If any of you want to join in.. feel free. =)