A couple of weekends ago William invited us up to stay at his family’s place in Sewanee, Tennessee. In the past, anytime the Sammons have invited us we’ve always had something that kept us from going. However, this time, we were able to make it for a night! It was an intimate gathering, with only me, Andy, William, and his girlfriend, Hannah. We got there after dark, so we made a fire and played board games until the coziness of the place lured us to sleep. The next day we explored the areas, including the nearby campus. My favorite part of the whole trip was the little stone cottage that was on the property. Apparently, the man that owned the place before the Sammons bought it hand-built (stone by stone) the cottage. He built it room by room, and included dates in the grout when a room was completed. There was so much character to the house, and I couldn’t stop taking photos. It was a wonderful weekend retreat!
Alabama roads
cooking breakfast
You can see the new house on the left that was recently completed, along with the gazebo. You can see the original stone house poking out of the snow on the right.
It was a straight drop down, more than 50 feet.
The next series of photos are from the property’s original stone cottage (hand built!) before we venture in to town.
William and Andy
fireplace
living room
super cute bedroom
kitchen built-ins
floor
living room
hannah and william (awww) & dining room table
the date the kitchen was complete
william
andy!
We were “afraid” we would get snowed-in. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but my Grandma’s 90th birthday party was the next day! Luckily we chanced the roads in the afternoon, and made it home right at sunset. We even had time to stop at an Amish grocery and stock up on some items, including a couple of Christmas presents for our families! It was a lovely mini vacation!
Andy made a pecan pie with some pecans we picked up from the Amish grocery!
After the November 25th show, the audience practically doubled for the December 12th show. Jana invited me to do a crazy, fun, wild duet with her. We sang “Bad Detective” by New York Dolls. The Coasters also did a version of it, but we wanted the rawness of the NYD version.
the lovely Jana and Casey
me and Jana
Matt getting his hurr did
Matt opened the show with a killer original tune
Demetria sang Loretta Lynn’s “Wings Upon You Horn”
Jillian sang “Save Me” by Dave Matthews
David sang a Specials song
Corry’s half time antics
Summer usually performs an original song, which blows the audience away
Beth gorgeously sang “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley
we’re goofballs
Casey sang a Duffy song, but I forgot which one
Kara powerfully sang Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman” – it was intensely beautiful!
the Big Finale, which was an original song Matt wrote…it was amazing!
BONUS: A talented photographer, Stephen Moss, and his wife came to the show and took some photos. He got a lot of neat captures.
Also, Dustin Timbrook put together a video of the highlights of this show!
No real rhyme or reason, just a selection of randomness!
rainy day – color
rainy day – b/w
Our friends at the mill got a new kitten! I could hear her mewing one day and Amber let me spend the entire Saturday cuddling with the fuzzball. She was so tiny…and it made me miss Tiny’s tinyness.
We had a very successful Friendsgiving this year! In fact, we needed two houses to cook all the food. It was wonderful being among such good company and food. I was a bit distracted by it all and didn’t take as many photos as I had hoped. Nonetheless, there are a handful of shots to accompany this entry!
Matt booked a round of Purgatory Lounge shows over the past two months and it’s been a BLAST! I’ve missed doing these shows. You see, I have a pretty big fear of singing in public. This goes back to high school when I totally cracked several notes (bad…it was bad. BAD!) while singing my one solo line in Music Man (“oh ho the Wells Fargo wagon is a-COMIN’ down the street oh PLEASE let it be for ME”). All of the words in caps are the ones that cracked. Luckily my character was a 13 year old girl, so maybe just maybe I could always blame it on that. But no, ever since then I’ve always been afraid. I feel like I could anything on stage, no problems. But singing…my vocal chords tense up whenever I see a microphone.
When Matt first came up with the idea for these Purgatory Lounge shows I thought it would be a great way for me to try to get over this ridiculous fear and just DO IT (Nike wha wha?!) So thankfully Matt is still letting me perform in these shows and slowly the fear is fading.
On the 25th I sand a Nancy Sinatra song called Lightning’s Girl. I love me some Nancy. Not only is she a spitfire hottie, but her voice is amazing…and a range I can “comfortably” sing. Here are some stills from that show.
Lynsie sang the Elvis song “Don’t”
moi
I had a freak-out-stuck-by-lightning “dance” during the breakdown
Corry’s half time skit
Summer serenaded the audience with an original tune
Kara, oh Kara, is truly an inspiration. Her voice is incredible. Her stage presence is insane. Girl crush? Oh sure…full on. She sang nailed the Elvis song “Trouble”. Holy shivers!
Jim Cavender is a local musician and teacher who is INCREDIBLE! He sang an original song.
Joey dressed up as the Devil and sang Arthur Brown’s “Fire”, which was my suggestion! It’s such an awesome song, and if you’ve never heard it, do yourself a favor and watch this:
Matt, and his hair, performed an original tune which got everyone’s hands clappin’ and feet stompin’.
Andy’s friend Ramesh brought his pup, Hey Now, up to the store one afternoon before we headed to a house show that night to see Really Loud Hamburgers, Holy Shit, and Breathing Light. The house is in Five Points so it was an awesome walk there, fun show, and great time with friends.
I know it’s Christmas Eve…and I’m about to post about fall pictures, but that just shows you how far behind I am on blogging. Between blogging on White Rabbit Studios and Hi-Fi Weddings, I finally have the time to sit down and post to my personal BLAHg. So pardon me while I berate you with a smorgasbord of posts!
This year we grew loofah gourds and they finally are ripe for pickin’! This thing is LOADED with seeds, so if you’re interested in growing your own sponge (or veggie, if picked early) then let me know and I’d love to send you some seeds!
A few weeks ago Dan Sartain played at the VooDoo Lounge. We’re testing out a new point and shoot camera, and this was a great time to try out the “low light” situation. I’m not 100% sure about this camera, because even at a lower ISO it gets kinda noisy. Our friend works at a pawn shop, and that’s how we are able to “test” cameras before committing. Apparently there’s a better camera that we can hopefully take for a test spin, so we’ll see. Anyway, Dan Sartain.
And here’s a video, which didn’t come out as bad as I thought it would.
After three years of talking about it, deciding where to place it, and finally just getting the time to actually go and get it – I now have our skeleton key tattooed on my left forearm. The pain was minimal, and didn’t even make me squirm unless she was going over the very top, closest to the fold of the arm. All in all, the least painful tattoo I have, and also the largest! Yay! Stephanie got Jasper’s baby feet on the back of her calf and it is SO cute. It was her first tattoo, but by the end of it she was on the omg-I-just-did-had-that-needle-puncture-me-over-and-over adrenaline high and already had others planned out in her head. I told her that feeling is addicting! We got them done by the fantastic Caroline at Blue Rose Tattoo.
I totally ganked the collage from the post we have on the White Rabbit Studios blog.
And here’s a shot of the key right as she finished.
