Nashville Christmas Parade 2010

12/22/2010

A couple of weeks ago I went to Nashville’s Christmas tree lighting and parade. It’s on a Friday night downtown, which I thought was so weird when we moved here but I guess it makes sense with the lights. This is the first time in 7 years I’ve made it out to watch the parade. Usually we forget about it until we’re stuck in a traffic jam due to the closed roads. Anyway…

My friend Laren and I went down to Public Square to meet our friends Kala and Nate. Nate was busy doing some video thing for work so the three of us waited for the tree to be lit. (Jason was on the road with a music gig, in case anyone is wondering.)

I was glad I had my new hat cuz it was COLD!

Waiting … waiting … waiting …

There it is!

As soon as the tree was lit, fireworks started going off … 2 blocks away! We could hear them echoing through the city streets but we could barely see them. I love fireworks! Who planned the timing and location of these 2 events? Oh well. We set off to find Nate, who didn’t have his phone with him.

Found him and a high place to stand and watch the parade.

Music City offered some pretty good marching bands.

And several fun Christmasy floats. They were really the only thing worth photographing from our perch. A candy cane, followed by a bizarre bloated rocking horse…

A Jack-in-the-Box…

A big green donut…

A T-Rex … wait a second … what does this have to do with Christmas?!

A Godzilla-size Gingerbread Man …

And an ornament.

According to tradition, the parade ended with Santa Clause. I didn’t get a good picture of the big guy because we had moved over by this propane heater to thaw out our feet and make awkward conversation with the other people huddled around it.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Modern Gingerbread House

12/21/2010

I wish I could take credit for this but alas, I cannot. I saw it on a blog last year and saved it in my inspiration files. (The blog is now private so there is no point in citing it.)  Maybe it will inspire someone else out there, too!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Christmas Gift Guides

12/16/2010

(Picture taken on December 13, 2010, the morning after Nashville’s snow storm. We got about 1.5″ at our ranch.)

I’ve seen lots of great gift guides out there this year but two blogs, A Cup of Jo and Design*Sponge, seem to stand out above the rest. Great ideas, wide ranges of prices and broken into creative categories. In case you’re still shopping:

Cup-of-Jo Gift Guide Part #1: Your Beautiful Mom Who Gives Pitch-Perfect Advice and Has a Secret Crush on Niles from Frasier. (from Cup of Jo)

Cup-of-Jo Gift Guide Part #2: Your Hilarious Younger Brother Who Rides a Yellow Motorcycle and Dressed as a Bedbug for Halloween.

Cup-of-Jo Gift Guide Part #3: Your Twin Sister Who Loves Hiking by the Ocean and Wept When She First Met Your Baby.

Cup-of-Jo Gift Guide Part #4: Your Best Friend Who Wears the Prettiest Lipsticks and Knows (and Keeps) All Your Secrets.

Cup-of-Jo Gift Guide Part #5: Your Awesome Dad Who Makes the Best Family Lunches and Always Has a Good Book Recommendation.

Cup-of-Jo Gift Guide Part #6: Your Favorite Little Dudes Who Love High-Fives, Zerberts and Giggling Just ‘Cause.

Cup-of-Jo Gift Guide Part #7: Your Beloved Husband Who Makes Peppery Eggs, Sings The Rolling Stones to Your Baby and Can Always Make You Laugh.

Design*Sponge 2010 Gift Guide: For Flower Lovers

Design*Sponge 2010 Gift Guide: AC’s Guide for Guys

Design*Sponge 2010 Gift Guide: Gifts by Color

Design*Sponge 2010 Gift Guide: For Animal Lovers

Design*Sponge 2010 Gift Guide: Crafts

Design*Sponge 2010 Gift Guide: $50 and Under

Design*Sponge 2010 Gift Guide: $25 and Under

(More Design*Sponge guides here.)

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

12/10/2010

My mama knitted me a new hat (with ear flaps!) to match my coat. (Sorry about the flash. I forgot to turn it off.)

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Pinecone Garland

11/24/2010

I saw some pretty fall decorations on Design*Sponge last week: first these Emily Thompson Wreaths:

Then these Bird for Bread fall garlands:

And I was inspired to gather a few of the many, many pinecones that fall from our giant pine tree every fall to make my own fall garland.

I purchased some bright blue spray paint for another project (more on that later) and I had some white spray paint on hand. I could have made this a DIY post but it was really so simple.

I laid the pinecones out on newspaper and spray painted them: 6 of each color. Spray one side, wait an hour, turn them over, spray the other side. Then I used some thin wire (string would have worked) and twisted it loosely around each end of each pinecone to make a chain.

I had some command hooks (the ones intended for Christmas lights) already up on the ceiling so it was a snap to hang my garland. We’re having Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year so I thought it would be fun to do a tiny bit of fall decorating.

Our big pine tree is not only pretty but useful, too. It provides shade for the front yard. We use the pine needles for mulch. We’ve used the pine cones for decor and kindling. But, I’ve never used the pine branches for anything. Maybe this year I’ll try making a fresh pine wreath.

Anyone ever done that? Do you have any suggestions?

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Posted by mahlbrandt

First Day of Fall: Almost scarf weather!

09/23/2010

Despite the calendar saying it’s the first day of Autumn, it’s still in the 90s for a few more days here in Nashville. (I’m not complaining; I love the heat!) However, fall is here and scarf weather is on it’s way! My patient and gracious mother taught me how to knit on Sunday afternoon. She had to fix, unknit and reknit for me many times but I’m happy to report that after 4 days, I’m getting it!

My scarf is now 4″ long! Only 43″ more to go! At this pace, I should be done around the beginning of November. Just in time!

Remember, I’m using this pattern from Pickles.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

My First Knitting Project

09/14/2010

I know—like I have time for another hobby, right? Wasn’t I just saying last week how I didn’t have time to blog because I had so much freelance. (Freelance isn’t really a hobby, I guess…)  Regardless, I’ve decided to start knitting. I bought this soft gray yarn last week …

and turned it into these fingerless gloves!

Just kidding. They’re from H&M. But I think I did get a pretty close match with yarn.

What I plan to make is this scarf this from Pickles:

I’m hoping it’ll match the fingerless gloves…

And also kinda-sorta this headwrap/earwarmer/topless-hat that Jason bought me from the Faroe Islands.

Not quite but maybe I can pull it off. Or else my next project might be a teal blue scarf!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

I made a hat!

08/23/2010

One of my favorite kiddos just turned 1 a few weeks ago and I decided to dust off my sewing skills and make this little cap with the pattern from Leila & Ben.

It came out pretty well. I haven’t sewn with a pattern in years and I had a few boo-boos but that’s what the seam ripper was made for!

The first time I turned this right side out the brim was on the inside, between the liner and outer fabric. Oops! Next time it’ll be a lot easier.

And that’s the great thing about buying a pattern – I can remake this as many times as I want with different fabrics. For $6 that seems like a pretty good deal.

I just realized as I was posting this that I bought myself a similar shaped hat a few months ago at Target. I wonder if I could adapt this pattern for adult size …

(Top photo is from Leila & Ben. The rest are mine.)

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Pressed flowers, mushrooms and an owl

07/26/2010

At a recent estate sale Jason and I hit the jackpot of small* framed mid-century art. I found the one of the pressed botanical collages on blue linen and the owl carving on gold burlap in one room while Jason found the other flower collage and mushroom paintings in another room—two white on black paper and one color on wood block.

*the blue pressed flower collages are around 6″ square.


As we were walking toward the checkout together I told said to him, “I’m so glad we like the same things.”

Maybe a little kitschy and I have no idea where we’re going to put them but for $4 total we couldn’t resist.

(Bad photos … sorry. There are more details in these than you can see here.)

This owl carving is both of our favorite. Someday it will probably live next to the owls we got in May.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Third Life

06/28/2010

On Saturday, Jason and I finally tackled the job of upholstering the mid-century chair we got at the TN52 Yard Sale. We’ve never upholstered before so it was pretty intimidating. Turns out this chair has been reupholstered once before (hence, the 3rd life.)  Here’s the chair how we bought it (for $5):

Amazingly, we only got frustrated with each other one time. That’s pretty good considering it took us about 8 hours. It wasn’t technically hard just time consuming. It was very much like a puzzle. Jason told someone yesterday that we do projects together— that’s how we avoid marriage counseling.

I’m so thankful I got just enough fabric (4 yards) from IKEA a few weeks ago. I think there might even be enough to do a few throw pillows for the couch.

I took these pictures before we were 100% done. We’re going to add 2 buttons to the back before we can tack the last piece of fabric onto the back. We’re really pleased with how it came out and I think it was worth all the sleep we sacrificed this weekend!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

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