Thistle Bee

Currently living with our two kittens in an apartment we nicknamed the Bakery.

[thistlebee]

Weekend in review.

Surprise birthday cupcakes from my co-workers/ Lunch at French Market Grille West / new hair / Skarrie got married / Sunday porch hangs with bunny and Rori

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Cutest little details from our Downtown Loft Tour. Someone help me decorate!

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I was not the first of my friends to get engaged but perhaps one of the first few. I’m older than most of my other friends and had been dating someone for more than seven years. When you reach a certain age or get to a certain period in your life, things tend to happen naturally. It’s just a fact of life. You’re dating someone, you both have stable jobs, you have an apartment, so you get engaged and married. 

Soon after our engagement and wedding, other friends started to get engaged as well. I remember seeing lots of old high school friends posting on various social media accounts (okay, mostly Facebook) comments like “OMG ANOTHER person got engaged” or “I swear if one more person gets engaged this month...”. I never assumed any of these were about me or took personal offense but I still found them to be annoying because those are all reasons to celebrate and lift others up. Now the comments have started to transition to people being pregnant.

SO WHAT? 

Who cares if you are engaged, married, pregnant, or whatever life announcement you may feel compelled to make to the world. There’s really no need for the snide remarks from others. It’s just where we are all at in our mid to late twenties. 

Pretty soon in life it will be announcements about divorce, cancer, dying parents, and all the other things that happen as a result of growing up.

My advice to everyone (myself included sometimes) would be to STOP judging the decisions others make or questioning why they made certain life choices. These are all deeply personal things. Lift your friends up and celebrate their milestones with them!

[thistlebee]

I came across this on the internet this past week and it really hit home. Please take a moment to watch this video. 

My anxiety is not something I try to hide, but it is not necessarily something I readily talk about either.

My last anxiety attack was on Easter Sunday. We had a woman in the nursery who is a recent visitor that insists on sitting in the nursery instead of attending the service. It’s a very long story about what seems to be a very complicated family situation. I can’t try to rationalize it, but something about her persona irks me. Even though we are supposed  to be welcoming to everyone, I find her particularly unnerving. With so many kids and unneeded adults taking up our very limited space in the nursery that day, I decided I couldn’t handle it anymore and I left. 

I left and I cried. I yelled. I cussed. I broke down... and my mom held me. I’m so glad she was there to pick me up without judging me. Sometimes that’s all I need and this video is a reminder of that to my friends and family. 

I don’t want to be embarrassed or ashamed or feel like less of an adult but sometimes little things are just too much and I think that’s okay to admit.

[wolflikeshadow]

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Check out this funky portico from my walk around historic Summerville. I love when houses aren't quite high style. It's fun to imagine yourself as the architect or family that built the home.

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Scenes from yesterday’s 3 mile walk around Summerville. Doing more surveying for work this week. It was nice to get out of the office, up from my desk, and take a really good look at all the beautiful homes in this town. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any celebrities in town for Masters Week.

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These cactus friends need a new home! We are moving and they can't go with us. The best part is they don't require water or sunshine. You can't kill them like the rest of the plants on our porch. Check them out and buy now on Etsy! https://www.etsy.com/shop/birchandfern

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House progress! It only took part of 5 days, 3 people, and countless coats of paint but the kitchen, living room, hallway, entryway, and laundry room are painted! Alex has been working away at the pesky wallpaper removal in both bathrooms. Once we tackle that project we'll be ready to move on to painting the bathrooms and finishing the paint in our bedroom. Our bedroom is such a dark color that it's going to need multiple coats. I'm excited to see our little house come together and I can't wait until we can officially move in.

[thistlebee]

Wednesday Web Round-Up

I started my day off by complimenting someone else and I promise you the feeling I got from having that lady smile was just as good, if not better than how she felt by being complimented. I dare you to try it! 

You know what else I’m excited about?

1. Van Gogh’s birthday and all the memories that flood back from seeing his works during various museum trips through our travels to Edinburgh, Chicago, Atlanta, and more.

2. #MuseumWeek and all the awesome behind the scene gallery talks I’ve been watching on Periscope.

3. The first look at the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets illustrations by Jim Kay. 

4. Savannah River Brewing Company, their adaptive re-use project, and super cool tasting room plans.

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Let’s be real, this Pitchfork review of Mind of Mine is the most accurate thing I’ve read in response to Zayn’s new album: “Lacking compelling hooks, a unifying mood, or a clear narrative, his debut is oddly inflexible and over-calculated. Great solo pop careers are usually born when the performer figures out what space they want to claim and leave enough room for the listener to join them, but Mind of Mine is a definitive step away from One Direction towards nowhere in particular” BUT I’d listen to an entire album of Zayn singing in Urdu anyday. This song is the best on the album, and it’s not even a full song.

Intermission: fLoWer

Until the flower of this love has blossomed This heart won't be at peace Give me your heart...

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I try not to get too political on social media but I feel comfortable posting this here because I’m fairly sure no one is reading it. (Hello if you’re actually reading this! I appreciate you.)

They were working more on the demo of the old DFA building the other day so we stopped by to take some photos for work. I’m sad to see this building go... not just as an alumnus or a preservationist, but as someone who lives and works in this town. 

There are so many buildings in this area that have great potential that end up sitting vacant for years and eventually torn down. The reasons are varied. Sometimes an investor doesn’t have enough money to make an offer. Sometimes the owner is unwilling to sell. Sometimes the government gets in the way. Sometimes people just aren’t interested. I don’t think it’s helpful to point the blame at anyone and that’s not really my point in all this. My point is that old buildings bring character to downtown areas. People don’t want to live downtown because the buildings are brand new. They want to be able to visually see the history of what makes this town what it is. Historic buildings hold stories and memories that will disappear over time without a physical reminder. I’m tired of seeing perfectly good buildings torn down to make a parking lot when they could be repurposed. There are plenty of success stories that should sway anyone who thinks otherwise.

The truth is that we don’t always need the newest, biggest, and trendiest thing. Sometimes the best buildings are the ones we already have.

[thistlebee]

Very healthy mid-afternoon meal at the Sno Cap Drive-In. I've honestly probably only eaten at the Sno Cap a handful of times. I'm excited that we will live so close now. We may have to walk up the street to grab a coney and float for date night soon!

[thistlebee]

We decided Fern and Birch needed a little more room to play... so we bought a house! Got the keys to our first home together this afternoon. What a perfect way to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Band of Horses' first album. We're excited to make this place ours!

[thistlebee]

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, then you’ll know I used to be really diligent about meal planning. We were living in Charleston and had a lot of free time after work because everything was within walking distance and commuting was taken out of the equation. I worked an 8:30-5 job that didn’t require any outside work or weekends. A lot of that changed after we moved back to Augusta. We both work evenings and occasional weekends on the side and have to balance dinner with our families weekly to avoid hurt feelings. I went from using a May Designs meal planner to just winging it. Because we were still shopping weekly and outside engagements popped up at random during the week, it ended up that we wasted a lot of food because it would go bad before we’d have a chance to cook it.

In January, we started our subscription to Blue Apron. On Fridays, we receive a box with three pre-portioned meals that have every ingredient needed for the recipe. It’s been a blessing in that I don’t have to be very creative with the meal planning process anymore. We’ve been able to try out a lot of recipes with unique ingredients we probably wouldn’t otherwise have access to at the regular grocery store. Right now we’ve been averaging maybe one meal a week out of the three that I really like and would want again. The others aren’t bad, they just aren’t really my taste preference. It’s hard when you’re really craving Mexican food but the meal for the night is a meat and potatoes type dish. So in that regards, I kind of miss planning out our meals despite the amount of time it takes. Another downfall of the box is that it creates a lot of packaging waste (which you can mail back when you accumulate enough). Soon we will be using the outside boxes to pack up our apartment and I guess that will make me feel less guilty.

As you can see, after a few months of meals there are definite pros and cons. For now, we’re going to keep up our subscription box! You can read more about the business of meal kits in this article from The Kitchn.

[thistlebee]

Busy Bee

This article came across my Facebook newsfeed today and boy, am I glad it did. It was published last year on our 8 year dating anniversary (just in case you were wondering).

Being busy is not all it’s cracked up to be. It’s nice to pass the time but some days I don’t want to do anything. And maybe it’s not even that I don’t want to do anything, I just don’t want anything that I’m obligated to do. I can’t tell you how many days I fail to complete my to-do list for work, let alone my to-do list for home. Laundry and dishes often go by the wayside around our place. How will we ever juggle kids too? As satisfying as it is to physically cross things off my to-do list notebook, I long for a Saturday and Sunday where we don’t have to work and can either get out of town to enjoy a day trip together or just snuggle up with the cats and watch tv, scramble some eggs, and casually fold clothes (while still sitting in bed).

I know before long it will be summer, we’ll be in our new house, work will slow down, and we’ll have time to work on big projects at home and enjoy everything we’ve worked for so far. For now, I just need to remind myself to take a break, breathe deeply, not feel discouraged, and press on at a pace that feels comfortable.

[thistlebee]

In a bit of a rut when it comes to making art lately so I challenged myself to a little sketch time tonight. I present to you A is for Animals... Aardvark, Antelope, Alligator, Armadillo, and Angelfish. I like how the armadillo turned out. I'm wanting to practice illustration and pattern making more. I'm great at drawing from life but I want to develop a quirky style to call my own. Happy drawing!

[thistlebee]

2/12

It's really hard to believe that the end of February is already here. Even though this year is a leap year, the month still felt a few days too short. February has been a very eventful month for us and one full of firsts. I have to admit that I haven't kept any of my promises for Lent or worked towards any New Years resolutions. As a couple, we have seen a lot of growth, though. I think there's something to be said about that even if it wasn't the intended goal at the beginning. In the past month we put an offer in on a house, countered, applied for a mortgage, hired a home inspector, filed our taxes together, owed taxes for the first time, talked about insurance more than anyone would like, and traveled to my favorite camp in the mountains. That's a whole lot of firsts for one month. It's been an interesting journey so far but we still have a little ways to go before it's all settled. I'm excited but trying not to let myself get distracted. February has honestly been very productive but I hope March feels more productive on a personal level. I'd still like to make more time for myself. For long walks, reading, home cooking, and painting. See you soon, March.