Music City Indeed!

Nashville's nickname is the Music City and this month Gavin and I truly felt like it lived up to its name! In the last two weeks we went to three amazing concerts here in Nashville.

The first concert we went to was a Tyrone Wells concert. We had seen him live before, so we knew we were in for an amazing show! The concert was at a venue called 3rd and Lindsley and was more of an intimate setting which is awesome for concerts. Tyrone did not disappoint and put on a phenomenal concert! We even got to meet him again after the show!

The second concert we went to was put on by one of the local country radio stations as a benefit concert for St. Jude Children's Hospital. The concert was a bunch of country songwriters telling the stories behind the song and performing them. The talent of all the songwriters blew me away! Now it was obvious why some of them are only songwriters and not singers as well, but most of them were pretty good. It was awesome to hear the background behind why the songs were written as well. The radio DJ who organized the event, Amy Paige, mentioned that it might become an annual event and I truly hope it does!

The two sets of AMAZING songwriters!

At the beginning of the night the MC announced that there would be a special guest later in the show and it ended up being Christ Young! Gavin and I were really excited considering they hadn't advertised that there would even be a special guest at the concert.

The last concert we went to was the second night of Rites of Spring which takes place on the Vanderbilt campus every year. There was a whole night of concerts, but the main reason we went was to see Mat Kearney. As with Tyrone, we had seen Mat Kearney before but were still looking forward to another great concert. Well, Mat didn't disappoint us either! He put on a great show and we were in the very front for it! Need to Breathe performed after Mat Kearney and was the last of the night. However, after they played Something Beautiful we decided to head out and beat the crowd leaving. I didn't really know many of Need to Breathe's songs, but a bunch of the people around us did and I guess they are a lot more popular in the south.

All in all it was an amazing month of live music for us here in Nashville! Gavin and I are loving the music scene around here and are really trying to soak it all in. As always, thanks for reading!

He is Risen! Amen!

Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday rejoicing in the fact that Jesus paid the ultimate cost for each of us and then rose from the dead to be seated in heaven! It is celebrating times like these that makes me think I should make it a priority to be celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus every day of my life. For it is through Him that we may have life!

The young marrieds group that we have joined at church had an Easter egg decorating afternoon a week before church. Everyone was asked to bring a side and I decided to bake and decorate a cake. I got the idea of how to decorate it off of Pinterest (of course) and ran with it. All of the decorations were made out of chocolate melting wafers and it was fairly simple. Also I am happy to report it went over really well with everyone. The cake itself was lemon cake with strawberry filling and homemade buttercream frosting. Yummm!

Gavin and I had a great day yesterday celebrating Easter with our new church family and just the two of us at home. After we got home from church I had a few surprises up my sleeve! I had played Easter Bunny earlier in the week and made us Easter baskets as well as picked up some plastic eggs to have a little egg hunt. We ended up hiding eggs for each other around the apartment and had fun reliving our childhoods. 

For dinner I made rack of lamb with thin parmesan potatoes and green beans. It was my first time cooking rack of lamb, but Gavin and I thought it came out really well! I made a fresh herb crust and then roasted it in the oven. We even got a little fancy and broke out the china for dinner. Overall, it was a great Sunday celebrating the work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection!

Adorning Our Front Door

For a while I have had a wreath for the front door on my list of DIY projects to do and I finally got around to making one! When I decided to take on making a wreath I searched for some tutorials and didn't really find any. So, I thought I would just post a little tutorial of how I made my wreath.

Materials:

Grape Vine Wreath

Fake Flowers

Wire Clippers

Thin Floral Wire

Thick (18 gauge) Floral Wire

Glue Gun

Unfinished Wooden Letter

Coordinating Paint and Paintbrush

First cut the stems off of the flowers, but leave about two inches at the base of the flower. Next, wrap the thin floral wire around the base of the flowers. I also put a glob of hot glue over the wire just as an extra precaution and for a sturdier hold. Make sure to leave plenty of wire because that is how the flowers will attach to the wreath. I decided to attach the flowers with wire instead of only hot glue so that the flowers could be easily removed in the future to change the look of the wreath.

The next step is to arrange all of your elements on your wreath until you are happy with how it looks. Once you are happy with the layout of everything take the thin wires that are attached to the flowers and thread them through the grape vine wreath. It is important to not just go around the wreath, but through it so that the wires are well hidden. Then just twist the wires together on the back side of the wreath. Make sure that the wires are twisted tight enough and the flowers are securely held onto the wreath.

Finally, paint your letter in the color you had chosen and let dry. To attach the letter I used two thick floral wires attached to the back. I attached the wires to the letter by taking fabric I had laying around, which happened to be burlap, and hot gluing the fabric to the letter with the wire underneath. Once everything is dry put the wire through the wreath like with the flowers and secure by twisting in the back.

This is my completed wreath as-is. I am still contemplating if I want to add anymore greenery to it. I hope you give making your own wreath a go! It was a fun project and now I have a cute wreath to put on our front door!

***UPDATE***

I ended up adding some more greenery, so I thought I would post a picture of my final project. I used the same method to attach the greenery that I used for the flowers. I think the greenery is just the little extra that the wreath needed. I love that it can be up almost year round!

Thanks for reading!

Painting Our Dresser and Nighstands

Once we had assembled our dresser and nightstands from Ikea, which was a whole project itself, it was time to get them painted! We decided to paint them a color that coordinated with our comforter. The paint department at Home Depot was able to create a color that perfectly matched. After talking with the man that helped us at the paint counter I decided to skip the primer since we were painting bare wood. Another tip that we got from the Home Depot employee was to make sure the paint has fully cured (up to two weeks) before using it.

Dresser Before

Nightstand Before

In hindsight I would have sanded before applying the first coat of paint. I think it would have helped the first coat dry a little smoother. I applied the first coat of paint out on our balcony to try to avoid the paint smells in the apartment. 

The First Coat Drying

Once the first coat had fully dried I used fine sandpaper to get all the roughness off. You will probably have to use multiple grades of fine sandpaper to get a smooth finish. Since I sanded between coats so well I ended up not needing to sand after the second coat. In some places getting a smooth finish required sanding past the first coat of paint, but the second coat covered all those areas.

After Sanding The First Coat

After the sanding was complete it was time for the second coat of paint! Since the weather wasn't so nice I decided to give painting a go inside and hoped the fumes wouldn't be overwhelming. Thankfully the smell wasn't bad at all!

Painting The Second Coat Inside

Deciding Between Knobs

I realized after the fact that I had missed the front of the middle leg with both coats, so I will have to go back and put at least one coat on the leg. We waited a few weeks to use them and so far the paint has held up well without any wax or poly finish. Overall I am really happy with how the dresser and nightstands came out! This experience painting furniture has given me the confidence to tackle my next project of painting and refinishing out dining table and chairs.

As always, thanks for reading!

Exploring Our New(ish) Town

This last weekend Gavin and I had plans to explore downtown Nashville and go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. When Gavin won tickets to the Opry from a radio station they also included tickets to the Hall of Fame. We were going to go on Saturday since I had the day off, but when we got to the Hall of Fame there was a line around the block to get in. It just so happened to be a free admission day and since we already had tickets we decided not to wait in line.

We were already downtown and decided to explore some areas that we hadn't been to yet. The area we checked out is called "the gulch" and is an area of revitalization. We went to Yazoo Brewery and Gavin tried a new beer they had on tap. After that we checked out a liquor store called Frugal MacDoogal. Now the fact that we check out new liquor stores all the time might seem a little odd to those of you in Oregon or California. However, because of the Tennessee liquor laws the only place to buy wine or beers above 6.3% abv. Every liquor store has different stock and we are always looking for new wines and beers. At Frugal MacDoogal's Gavin found a couple beers that he had been searching for.

Our last stop of exploring was to try a Nashville dish called hot chicken. It is fried chicken that is then smothered in cayenne pepper or paprika. The place we went to is called 400 Degrees and it lived up to the name! We tried the 100 and 200 degree chicken and it still made me sweat and my eyes water. There are actually quite a few places around Nashville that claim to have the best hot chicken and eventually we want to try all of them!

Sunday after church we went to a potluck lunch with other young married couples at a couple from the church's house. It was great to be able to spend time getting to know other young couples and just having a fun afternoon! We are really excited to be getting to know some other married couples our age!

In other news, this week I finished painting our dresser and nightstands! I am really happy with how they turned out and I will be posting about it soon. Right now I am deciding which knobs to use and then they will be done!

In my last post I wrote how Gavin had his last licensing test this week and I am so excited to write that he passed! So he is done with all of his tests before getting a spot as an internal wholesaler! He is interviewing next week and any prayers for his preparation and the interview itself would be much appreciated!

Well, that was a lot of writing and no pictures - sorry! Next time I promise that there will be more pictures!! Thanks for reading!

The Past Few Weeks

Eeep! How is it almost a month since I last posted?! Well I thought I would tell you about what we have been up to through my instagram pictures and fill in where there aren't any pictures.

A few weeks ago we made a quick trip down to Ikea in Atlanta to get some furniture. Part of the reason I love Ikea so much is because we could fit a queen bed frame, dresser, 2 nightstands and a coffee table in the 2 door Accord!

We experienced our first tornado siren going off and then two days later we had a dusting of snow! There was definitely damage from the tornado that we could see around town, but thankfully nothing too major. 

We went out to lunch and got a flat tire...

This was my drive into work a couple of weeks of ago! It was snowing so hard, but by the time I got off it had all melted away.

Before we went to a party at one of Gavin's coworkers for the Superbowl I made cookies and Gavin put together our bed frame from Ikea.

Our new bed all put together! It has been so nice to not have the mattress on the floor anymore.

For Valentine's Day I made dinner and we had a nice dinner at home. Gavin had his series 63 test the next morning, so he was also studying for that. He passed the test and only has one more test to take before he can get a spot and an internal wholesaler! He is taking the state insurance test early next week and will then be able to interview!

We had Monday off work together and ran some errands, including going to Home Depot to buy paint for our dresser and nightstands. I was going to paint yesterday and today, but it has been too cold! I'm hoping I will be able to get some painting in this weekend since it is supposed to get above 50. The paint says that it is supposed to be at least 50 out and I am going to follow the directions rather than risk it.

Well I think that is pretty much it for now!

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I always know I have found a good cookie recipe when I take the cookies to a party and don't take any home. I made these cookies to take to a Super Bowl party at a couple of Gavin's co-workers place and brought home a very empty plate! I hope you give these yummy cookies a try soon. They definitely satisfy a craving for a good chocolate cookie!

1 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
3/4 cup Firmly Packed Light Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted (the recipe called for Dutch-processed, but I just used plain old Hersey's and they came out fine)
1/2 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup Milk Chocolate Chips
1/2 cup White Chocolate Chips
1 1/2 sticks Unsalted Butter
1 Large Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1. Preheat over to 350 F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, granulated sugar and cocoa power. Whisk together. Add all of the chocolate chips.

3. Melt butter on the stove or in the microwave. Whisk in the egg and vanilla extract. Add all dry ingredients and stir until well combined. I had to use my hands and then end to get it all combined.

4. Place a generous tablespoon full 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Flatten each ball before placing on the pan. (This helps the dough to spread out and make flatter cookies while baking).

5. Bake until the tops are cracked and dry, about 12 minutes (it was more like 15 for me). They will be soft on top and in the middle, but will firm upon cooling. Slide cookies onto racks to cool completely. Yields approx. 30 cookies (I think I got 32).

Recipe from A Baker's Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies