Waterfalls and Faith

Over the weekend I enjoyed a trip to Cumberland Falls here in Kentucky. I had been here a couple of times before but it was probably the prettiest I had ever seen it. My younger sisters, Justin and the pups had a very peaceful evening enjoying the beautiful mist which captured the light so perfectly and it made me think. 

I have been praying so much lately asking god to take things into his hands and show me the way. I don't go to church and I haven't read the bible. I believe in god and I have faith that he will lead me  in the right direction because he always has for me. I would love to tell you the handful of ways god has answered my prays but I like to keep those events sacred. 

I fully believe that having faith and just talking to god are the only things you need to understand religion. I don't believe that praying about an exam is going to give you an A or that asking god to keep your dog alive is reasonable. I do think that telling god of your situation, feelings and leaving it in his hands can result in miracles. 

I didn't want to discuss this so that we could start an argument over whether god is real or not or if praying helps just wanted to give you a small peek into my beliefs. My religion is not set in stone with a name or rules it's what I believe and what works for me. I think that believing in something is way better that believing in nothing. 

Hope your Tuesday is beautiful!!!

Photo Journal: While Away

Found the time to post while on vacation... Just so many good pictures so far I wanted to give you a peek! A beautiful lush location :)

Artsy Fartsy at 21c

The town of Louisville is just awesome. The streets, shops, people, and atmosphere are calling my name. When I do open a boutique/ studio it will be here. Before we headed to the Red hot chili peppers concert we headed to a hotel called 21c. The unique thing about it is that it is a art gallery that constantly changes out its artwork to feature new and modern works. In fact if you want to try to stay in the hotel you pretty much have to book a year in advance and that's if your lucky.

 The hotel is pretty obvious because of this huge statue and red penguin statues which stand on the roof.

 We saw nothing but hoity doities (how I think it's spelled) coming in and out with their rolling suitcases and black suits and ties. Ladies with their sky high heels and flamboyant hair talking with proud voices which didn't really bother me. It was funny because Justin whispered in my ear that we would book a room and wouldn't care what they thought when we become rich.

I am always shocked at Justin and how he enjoyed the museum and took his time. It just goes to show that you can't assume anything and you should always try new things because you never know even after 6 years what someone might be into.

The works were incredible... I really can't describe to you how much I enjoyed it. It's really one of those things you just have to experience.

 Some of my favorites....

And finally the Yum Center where we got to watch Red Hot Chili Peppers. I really enjoyed that more than anything but I wasn't allowed to bring my camera in because the lens was too large... :(.

Overall my opinion of the concert... The Chili Peppers can do no wrong. They been around long enough and made so much good music that they have earned that. However I could tell that they were a bit tired. Which is expected but they did not play two of my favorites Scar Tissue and Zephyr. The lead singer didn't speak hardly at all in fact Flea the bassist did all of the intros.

Ok so I shouldn't have judged that at all because the lead singer is older than my mom and I love rhcp more than any other band that exists. I am super lucky I can scratch that one off my ultimate bucket list.

Thrifty Tuesday: The Nitty Gritty

 I love thrift shops like this one we found in Louisville right down the street from Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Her shop is up scale cool with affordable prices for one of a kind pieces. Well worth the visit I really felt like I could live there. You can tell she takes her time to pick pieces that are special and unique to their time.

 Before we even get in the door we spotted these vintage playboy mags from the 60's. I actually don't mind the magazine and bought one of the special editions for Justin.  The older Playboy's actually are pretty classy and actual contain way more words than pictures. 

 She also had these beautiful slides from the derby. It was hard to capture them in a photograph but I like the blurry ones better than the ones that actually showed the slide.

The upstairs was even cooler! She had lots of really cool vintage hats and Mens clothing. I know where I will be shopping for Justin's Tux and hat when we get married.

 Ha ha... his head is so small.

 Sombrero! I wanted this soooo much!

 The magazine I got for Justin. 

I ended up getting 2 patches that I plan on putting on a corduroy jacket I own or maybe a bag.... still thinking about it. I also got a huge button that says think happy. Think happy is just what I need to be reminded of when I get into one of my moods. 

Is there any really cool vintage shops near where you live?

Tell me about something cool you found recently?

Adventures in Louisville Part One

This weekend was just wonderful! I have no reason to complain because I enjoyed every second. I must have needed an escape even if it was just a little over an hour away. The one thing I was a little disheartened by was leaving my pup to hang out with Justin's mom all weekend but she took really good care of him. I just had to throw this picture in... I love him sooo much but it was just to hot to be hauling him around with us.

I took a lot of pictures this weekend but I actually took a lot less than I usually do. I focused more on taking pictures that captured the moment rather than just taking a bunch and hoping for the best. I took so few pictures that Justin actually questioned me about it and that is unusual. I never feel like he pays attention to the crazy things I do but I guess he does. 

 So this week I will be devoting each day to my favorite pictures from this weekend. So stay tuned for all my little adventures which were surprisingly right in my very own back yard. First up was a awesome little cafe in Louisville called Lynn's Paradise! I had been here once before but it has now become a favorite!

 The whole cafe is an eclectic mix of vintage and art. The decor is so mismatched that it just somehow works. It reminds me a lot of what my apartment looks like except I wish I could make it look this good!

 All the chairs were vintage and covered in all different textured patterned fabric and vinyl. Do you see the upside down lamps hanging from the ceiling towards the right of the picture? How about the manikin legs? It was a lot like my favorite old eye spy books! I couldn't stop looking and I wish I had taken more pictures.

 I thought I got a picture of the lamp at our table but I guess I didn't.... anyway the lamp shade was covered in old ties. 

 Yes that is a giant decorated tree in the middle of the restaurant. LOVE IT!

 There was also all kinds of fun things to play with at our table. Definitely my kind of thing being a big kid at heart in all. Crayons, plastic animals, trivia cards, and even one of those find it toys. 

 Justin always gets a burger but I guess the cool thing about it is that I have never seen so many different kinds of burgers. Where ever we go to eat it seems they have their own twist on a burger!

 I got the fried green tomato blt with the macaroni casserole. I absolutely love blts and macaroni.... this was soo good and filled me up!

 Notice anything different about my hair lately?

 The other cool thing is that there are all of these really cool cement statures to take pictures by!

This is what I wore for the concert. It was extremely hot that day so I wanted to keep it cool but as you can see I just love my little mustard yellow cardigan it always adds the pop I need to my outfit. Can you tell I ate a little too much? lol

So if your ever in or near Louisville I highly suggest checking out Lynn's Paradise. It's even famous for a bobby flay throw down. 

Tomorrow I will show you the neatest little thrift shop call the Knitty Gritty that is literally down the road from Lynn's and you can see some of my thrifty finds from there!

SMOKIES

 I currently use a cricket phone but it is an android so I am able to use instagram as you can see in side bar the four pictures I have taken so far. However I have taken a bunch more but when it goes to post it, it takes me back to the home page and doesn't post the picture which has been aggravating me. I think it is because it's cricket service. Anyway in order to feel like I am instagraming lol I have tried to over edit some pictures from our trip this weekend in the smokies. 

I have been to the smokies a dozen times because it only takes 3 hours to get there from the little town of berea kentucky. So it makes a nice mini vacation. Here is the cabin my mom rented :)

The trip went by too fast but we enjoyed it. I love to take pictures but sometimes I wish I could just hand the camera to someone else and enjoy the surroundings without looking through a lens.

It was a little cold and rainy but that made some majestic views of the mountains!

Looks like a painting eh?

I haven't been to rock city since I was a little girl. I wanted to go so bad but there wasn't a lot of time.

Ok so I look a little out of it in this picture but these were some of the only ones I got someone else to take. We enjoyed a campfire and my sister's boyfriends brother who sang some old country tunes with his guitar.

lol it was actually drizzling a bit in this pic but the fire kept going so we just enjoyed it. You can see my favorite drink of choice below my feet. 

Look at the smoke rolling off the mountains! Beautiful! It was nice to not worry about anything and not have my art stuff around me that can stress me out at times. 

So last year me and Justin went to the smokies for the weekend by ourselves and it was horrid! We couldn't find a motel with vacancy which was my idea to just leave.. thinking that we would find a motel. We ended up staying in a one room... crap hole right down from gatlinburg's strip. Basically it all summed up to the fact that we now hate the strips so I wanted to go to these caverns down the road.

We walked in and they wanted almost 20 dollars a person... everyone looked at me like "Courtney you know were broke and if this sucks your in for it. So I was nervous but it ended up being the best part of the trip!

Our guide was a young guy who took this picture for me. He was very nice and said he was actually going to go to the university of the Cumberlands here in Kentucky for college.

I really enjoyed the cavens because it was a lot of climbing and almost crawling.

All of us sitting in the main room of the cavern. I tried to take good pictures but my camera wasn't cooperating with all the changing tones of light.

Reminds me of one of my favorite movies... Journey tho the center of the earth! (the old version)

My little sister and her boyfriend Cody.

Everywhere there was light in the cave there were patches of fresh green growth... so cute!

Tennessee is such a wild state these cute ducks were in the gas station parking lot!

The one shop I like on the strip is a shop called Earthbound. A lot of their items are made from recycled materials like these letters made from rolled up magazine pages. 

All of these pictures were taken in their shop! Kind of inspiration for me :)

I took several pictures of these two wearing different hats. This is the one I got on my camera the other is on instagram which I hope with work for me soon.

I loved this table. I wish I had the materials and tools to make it they wanted 400 for it on sale!

Overall the trip was worth it... even if it broke our bank and our savings!

Have you been to the smokies? Whats your favorite site to see there? Do you have a vacation spot close to home? I would love to hear about it!