Please email me so you can claim your prize! Kaelahbee@gmail.com!
and to everyone else, thanks for being patient with me this weekend as we move and get settled into our new place! It's been a busy busy busy past 28 hours and we have to paint paint paint, move move move and drive drive drive (plus unpack, situate, organize, and shop!) so I'm going to be slammed.
If you follow me on twitter, you also may know that I dropped my Nikon last night and busted the lens. (Well, it's pretty much jammed beyond repair because it'd take 2+ months to fix and I'm not having that!) So Mike and I just bought a new lens via the internet and it'll be here in the next week or so. Until then... I guess it'll be iPhone and disposable cameras once more! :( I was just getting the hang of the outfit photos, too! Don't worry, I'll try to figure something out for the time being. (Oh, and we just realized our Flip cam is broken :( Fail!) There's a lot going wrong but we're so so excited to be in our new house and I can't wait to share all of the photos with you! Thanks for being awesome!
xoxo
PS; Last chance to snag a sponsor spot for the month of August! I only have one spot left of each the small and the large! Email me at kaelahbee@gmail.com if you'd like more info or to buy one! (You can see my stats and traffic by clicking HERE! Though it needs to be updated!)
Around nine years ago, I visited California for the very first time. We headed up to San Francisco and as you can see, it was a very cloudy day. Despite the weather, I still had to get a shot of the "Painted Ladies."
Don't worry...this isn't a "vacation" post. :) We did it all during the 2-3 days we were there. We walked across "the" bridge, visited Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square...pigged out on yummy chocolate.
It's really breezy on the Golden Gate bridge. Wasn't I styling in my RL houndstooth jacket? (LOL) Ok, not the greatest look for me...but I've always had this thing for houndstooth jackets.
Took the tour of Alcatraz...
Got the t-shirt...
My first trolley ride...
We visited Yosemite and the great Sequoias. Words can not describe. Awe, just pure awe!
Wonder how many people have had their picture taken in this spot? Hard to explain what it's like to walk among these majestic giants...but I'm pretty sure I know how an ant feels now.
Now we get to what this post is really about. :)
A few weeks before I took this trip, I was watching HGTV and they were talking about this crazy, crazy house in San Jose. I couldn't believe it when we were zooming up the interstate and I saw a sign for it. What? How often do you watch something on HGTV and then get to experience it in real life? I had to go. Have you ever been to the Winchester Mystery House?
You know how sometimes you hear about a place, then you go and it turns out it's really not worth the trip? Turns out to be all hype? Well, the Winchester Mystery House is totally worth the trip! I'd love to go back and do the "flashlight tour."
This house was originally built by Sarah Winchester, the widow of the founder of Winchester Repeating Arms.
It all started with two awful tragedies. First Sarah lost her only child, Annie, just a few weeks after her birth. Then, a few short years later, her husband, William Winchester died. As you might imagine, she was inconsolable.
She eventually sought the advice of a spiritual medium who told her the tragedies in her life were caused by all the folks who had lost their lives at the hand of a Winchester rifle. She told Sarah she needed to move way out west, build a home, and never stop building it. No kidding. Weird, huh? The spiritual medium told Sarah as long as she kept building and adding to her home, the bad spirits would stay away and she would be safe. Sarah apparently took this advice to heart.
She bought an 8 room farmhouse in 1884 and added room after room after room...for 38 years. At her death, the 8 room farmhouse had become 160 rooms! She employed 13 carpenters full time and they labored day and night.
I remember seeing lots of beautiful stained glass and gorgeous moldings. Sarah must have really loved daisies because a lot of the stained glass depicted daisies, as did much of the beautiful molding. A lot of the stained glass was Tiffany and she hired some of the most amazing artisans to create the moldings and woodwork throughout the home.
One of the shocking things I heard on the tour was that the house consumed the barn on the property. They just built and built and built...and when they reached the barn, it was absorbed right into the home. The day we took the tour, they had many of the doors and windows Sarah had purchased for future additions stored in this room we were told was once the barn.
Some stats: The house is 24,000 square feet and contains 160 rooms, 40 bedrooms, 13 baths, 6 kitchens, 10,000 windows, 2,000 stairs, 47 fireplaces and 17 chimneys.
Before the huge earthquake in 1906 , it stood 7 stories high. Today, it is 4 stories.
There are many, many wild stories about this home...you get to hear all of them on the tour. There was no master plan. There are doorways that oddly open to the outside like the one below...do you see it in the pic?
There are doors that when opened, have nothing but a blank wall on the other side. Some stairways lead nowhere. It's been said, Sarah created the crazy stairways and the trick doors to fool the spirits.
The Winchester Mystery House is said to be one of the top 10 most haunted places in America. I read this evening at the Winchester Mystery House website, they are getting ready to shoot a movie about this house. I don't plan to go see it because it's supposed to be scary...and I don't like scary movies.
Here's a video with some additional information...
sitting here with just about 25 minutes left of work, is the best feeling in the world. tomorrow, i am going to get glitter toes with a good friend from work. and for that, i am super excited.
but the most exciting thing for me here today is that on my play-list, up comes lil wayne. and not to mention, my favorite lil wayne song, 3 peat. i don't think i've ever expressed my complete satisfaction with lil wayne. he is so rad. he has nice hair, and a super unique voice. which i love. ♥
PS; Tomorrow I'm going to attempt a "Day In the Life" or a "Document A Day" style photo journey! It'll probably be crazy with the move, but I'm gonna try! From the minute I wake up to the minute I go to bed. I've tried this before... and failed miserably... but wish me luck! (I promise to break the entire day up with a "Read more..." tab at the bottom if I succeed!) Has anyone done this before? If so, link me over! I'd love to see what you did!
last night, was one of the best nights of my life. for the simple fact that i sat at my computer and made probably the best play-list on groovesharkknown to all mankind. i was sitting there thinking, 'i am so tired of all these lame songs i listen to again and again and again at work. i need something new.'
so this is exactly what i did. i went to google. and typed in 'top 100 songs in the 80's'. and you KNOW it's gonna be good. check out the list here. including: Billy Idol, Men at Work, Bon Jovi, Def Leopard, Run DMC, Dexy's Midnight Runners, R.E.M., Styx, Prince, Journey and much much more.
i am sitting here at work, listening to songs that were popular before i was ever born. i love it. these songs are the best. and of course, i threw in some of my mom's favorite songs. just because they're good. ie. al jarreau. ;)
so whether you're in your car, singing along to the music on the radio. in an old stuffy office, listening to your pandora. or even in the shower, belting out half known lyrics to a song you heard once before.i hope that you all have a fun day and have some lovely music to listen to.
Today is going to be a busy day. We woke up and ventured out to take some photos at that abandoned house and my hair is all sorts of ridiculous. More so than usual! My red shampoo was in a box from NYC to Tennessee until yesterday (with my dry shampoo too!) so I was forced to use my mom's shampoo this week. Well, pair that with some intense Tennessee humidity and this is what you get. My hair is never in the "middle"... it's always really dry (ugh!) or really oily (bummer!). Luckily my dry shampoo is a miracle worker, but I've been without it for almost a week! I haven't had hairspray since Thursday of LAST WEEK! AHHH! If you know me at all you'll know I don't do much (if anything) to my hair, so not having my typical products is really throwing my hair for a loop. But I'm thinking about doing an olive oil rinse today (which will make it even greasier for a day or two) or doing a leave-in conditioner overnight (my CHI stuff was also in my box!) Phew! I'm going to start packing things up today (books and dvds, etc) and we are moving in the morning! We're going to head down to Lawrenceburg to get our new tv stand and bookcase before heading to our new house. Then Mike is going to go down to L'burg and finish painting our dressers at some point. We also have to get a bed and mattress at some point! It's going to be a busy weekend so I'll try not to neglect the little blog! Anyway, here are some photos. BTW, no cardigan today! Haha
{Outfit Details o7.29.1o} {Dress: Forever 21, several years ago} {Belt: From another dress} {Flats: KMart ($13)}
xoxo
PS; Someone came out of NOWHERE and all of a sudden has 75+ votes on the Soap and Glory contest! Meaning I'm behind by like 10! (This chick legit had like 5 votes yesterday! haha) Please VOTE FOR ME if you have a second! I promise I'll stop talking about it when it's over (which is in a day and a half!) I'd realllllllly appreciate it!CLICK HERE if you'd like to vote for me!
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