Judd and I have two Auburn vs. South Carolina tickets for sale. The game is this weekend, Sept. 25th, in Auburn. It starts at 6:45pm CST. If you are interested just leave us a comment that includes a way to get in touch with you.
If you’re heading down to the loveliest village on the plains this weekend for the Auburn v. Clemson game, don’t forget to wear navy. We are an Auburn family and we are ALL IN!!!!! Check out this link to see what Coach Chizik discussed with our students last night.
http://auburntigers.cstv.com/allaccess/?media=195328
Bodda getta navy shirt or else. Ha.
War Eagle!
For those of you who read The Lettered Cottage (like I do) then you already know that Layla from TLC hosted a joint yard sale last weekend with Rhoda from Southern Hospitality. The sale was in Birmingham, AL at Rhoda’s house. Layla and her husband, Kevin, drove up from Montgomery, AL with a load full of yard sale stuffs. When I say load, I mean…
L-O-A-D.
Since we live nearby, Judd and I decided to check things out. We are not the early-bird-yard-sale types. Apparently, some folks arrived at Rhoda’s house really early. The sale was advertised to start at 8am. Yikes.
We decided we needed sustenance first. We had an early morning breakfast date from Chick-fil-a and then headed down highway 280 towards Rhoda’s. I made this video while in Judd’s truck on the way to the sale. Yes, we took Judd’s truck actually thinking we might have a chance to buy something. And yes, this is a terrible video. Note to self, don’t even think about making a video of yourself speaking when you have a cold that makes you sound like Fran Drescher. Epic blogger fail. I thought y’all might get a kick out of it. So, at my own expense, here it is.
Did that make milk come out of your nose or what??? Ha.
Anyways, we arrived at Rhoda’s around 8:10 to find a crowd full of people assembled and waiting for Layla. You see, Layla wasn’t there yet and being the blog star that she is, everybody was sticking around to see her and peruse her items for sale. Judd and I didn’t mind waiting because we ran into a friend of mine from high school. We chatted with him and his wife while waiting for Layla.
After we stood around for a short while, Layla and Kevin arrived.
When they drove up, Judd and I were at the top of the drive way. Before we knew it, the crowd below us swarmed the trailer. We didn’t stand a chance. I just couldn’t muster up the courage to fight the crowd. People were literally buying the items as Layla and Kevin unloaded them. If you look closely you’ll see us at the very top of the driveway. Judd and I are both wearing white shirts. Note: I didn’t have my camera so these photos are Rhoda’s. She was nice enough to allow me to use them. Thanks Rhoda. :)
We made our way down the driveway and watched in amazement from the back of the line.
I couldn’t even see the items until they were in the hands of their new owners. I saw faux-liage, benches, and chairs passing before me left and right.
Judd talked football with another husband. They were being such good sports. Kevin was too for that matter. I, however, kept my eyes on the trailer in sheer awe of what was happening. I look scared don’t I???
I enjoyed going. It was a treat to get to see Layla and Kevin. I must emphasize the “see” part. At this point, I felt like I was wasting our time. I knew we wouldn’t be able to get close enough to purchase anything. We decided to leave before I ever actually got to meet them. Maybe we’ll run into them another time. I know I’ve seen some Auburn attire on their blog before. Perhaps we’ll finally get to meet them sometime down on the plains. :)
Overall, we decided the morning was a success. It got us up early, allowed us to have an adventure together, and hey, at least we got a chicken biscuit out of it. :)
What did you do over the weekend? We had another adventure the night before the yard sale. I’ll share that one with you soon. Spoiler alert, it involved Melissa Joan Hart’s husband.
It’s about time we got a new one of these for tailgating. The bad boy below was shipped to us last week. Now we just have to load it in Judd’s truck and take it down to the plains. If you’re new around here you may not have seen some of our older posts about Auburn University football tailgates. You can view them here or here if you wish.
We love our tigers and our tailgating. Judd’s parents bought the house we rented when in graduate school. It is now used as a tailgate home. We’ve really enjoyed our time there with friends and family. We are REALLY looking forward to that again this year. I hope this new tent exceeds our expectations. We plan to put it in our usual tailgate spot, the back yard. The house is across the street from campus so the yard is usually a pretty happening place on game days.
Our old tent, seen below, was purchased when Judd was just starting his undergraduate experience at Auburn about 10 years ago. It had a good run but just couldn’t withstand another season.
In addition to spending time in our new tent, there are a few other things I can’t wait to do. I look forward to spending time with this guy doing something he loves so much. To say he likes football, especially Auburn football, is an understatement.
I look forward to spending time with these folks too. I also can’t wait to the devour the yummy dishes we serve at tailgates.
And who says football is just for men? Us women can get pretty into it too. Not only do I love the game itself, but I love the party planning, fellowship, and outfit coordinating parts of it all too. Speaking of, I decided the tent couldn’t be the only new thing we get for football season this year. I bought this dress thinking it would be cute for the first tailgate. I can’t wait to wear it on Saturday.
Are you going to partake in any college football this weekend?
I just wanted to share that Auburn University’s Rural Studio will be featured on PBS tonight at 9:00PM CST.
You can watch the trailer below. Many of our close friends in the College of Architecture, Design, and Construction at Auburn worked at Rural Studio. As Auburn University graduates, we are so proud of the work our university and students are doing through this program to improve the quality of life for so many in rural Alabama.
You can also check out the Citizen Architect Website here.
It’s just another typical night at the Langham’s.
Our spoiled rotten dog is asleep on the living room floor.
He has almost as many layers beneath him as the princess, or in his case, prince, and the pea. (Do you remember that story?) For his comfort and our fear of dog slobber and hair on our rug, his bed sits atop a doggy blanket of which he is not allowed to venture off unless otherwise directed. Behind him a fan blows to keep him cool and relaxed.
Now that’s the life.
Football commentary can be heard in the background.
Art supplies are strewn about on our coffee table.
And so are high heels and fuzzy slippers???
Ok, here is where our normal evening took a turn for the unusual. As previously mentioned, Judd and I started our own business. What’s our product you ask? Well, we offer professional custom DIY printable invitations and stationary. Our designs are very affordable. Plus, there is no minimum or maximum order because, well, you print them yourself. Judd, my handy and extremely talented husband creates beautiful artwork to add to your invitation or stationary. He drafts either by hand or with the his fancy schmancy computer programs, renders, and edits it all himself and creates a high resolution pdf which is sent to you when complete. We first started with wedding invitations and have ventured on to events such as tool and gadget showers, baby showers, bridal teas, bridesmaids’ luncheons, and now LINGERIE showers.
Disregard the clutter, I took the photos as is because I thought it was funny to see my shoes on our ottoman. Judd has an incredible eye and talent and can usually draw anything with, or more often than not without, a prop to use as inspiration. This time, however, when asked to create a lingerie shower invite for one of our good friends he was drawing a blank. Pun intended. :) While being his typical masculine self, petting his 100lb dog and watching NFL football at the same time, he replied, “I can’t visualize girl stuff.” He requested I go to the closet and pull out some inspiration. I grabbed some slippers, heels, robes, and other more delicate items if you catch my drift.
I told him I hoped our neighbors didn’t walk in because we might just look like freaks. Ha. I had the most feminine of clothing hanging all over the living room for him while he sketched.
Here is just one of the many reasons I love my husband and our most recent, slightly less typical, evening.
I love to watch him think, visualize, and create. (I especially love that he found a purple set of paintbrushes in my craft closet left over from making something for my sorority little sister.) It takes a real man to watercolor women’s lingerie with purple brushes. That or it takes a man who was too lazy to look for a better tool. Ha.
I can’t wait to show you all the finished product. I also can’t wait to show you some of our other finished products for that matter. I’ll try to get in a post about those soon.
Last night, Judd and I caught the tail end of HGTV’s Design Star. This week’s challenge was to design a glass house. All three contestants did a great job. I was especially taken with designer Emily Henderson’s room which was inspired by her blue and white outfit.
As the camera panned to her space I immediately exclaimed to Judd, “that’s my pillow fabric on the wall”!!! Now, of course, it is not my pillow fabric. I just used it for some pillows that I made for our family’s Auburn house. I found it at United Textiles in Bessemer, AL on sale several months ago. I have no idea who actually designed and made the fabric. I’m just a pretend designer you see. :)
Ironically, my sister-in-law, Brenna, recently posted a picture of one of my pillows on her blog. Ok, the picture she posted is actually of her cute niece, Aly. But, see my little pillow in the background??? She and her family stayed at the Auburn house last weekend to attend a wedding.
As stated in my side bar, I am not a designer and in no way do I claim to be. I just like pretty things and enjoy putting them together. Most of the time I have big ideas in my head and no budget to actually make them happen. Needless to say, I was tickled to see my fabric selection on the small screen.
Is it just me or has this summer been exceptionally busy? As you may have guessed from my blogging hiatus, things have been a little crazy for me lately…well since about May. My full-time position at UAB, in addition to my two courses, have taken up just about every minute of every day for me all summer. I have slept about half as much as usual. I’ve eaten way worse than normal. We are talking fast food, dinner from the vending machine in the School of Education building, or skipping a couple meals at a time. And to add to my healthy and balanced lifestyle (note sarcasm), I’ve consumed considerably higher amounts of caffeine. I might as well have just had an IV drip of the stuff attached at all times.
I’m finally able to blog about all of this now because I’m FINISHED with the summer semester. I officially turned in my last paper on Wednesday, August 4th!!!!!! The last two weeks have been “H” “E” double hockey sticks. I’ve had two final papers and one lengthy and time consuming final exam all due in the last two weeks. One paper was for my EDL 704 - Educational law and policy development course. It ended up being 67 pages!!! The other paper was for EPR 692 - Educational Research. This was a research methods course. My final paper for this class consisted of a mini-literature review to give us a better understanding and (hopefully) a jumpstart on what will be chapter two of our dissertations. When I say mini, please understand the context. Mini makes things sound easy and manageable right? WRONG. This paper ended up being 31 pages!!!!
Sorry for the rant. I know we all have stresses in our lives. I know I brought the stresses described above on myself when I decided to pursue my Ph.D. while working full-time. Despite the constant pressure I am under I wouldn’t trade the opportunity to pursue this degree for anything. I know it will be worth it in the long run. To stay focused, I visualize when I will become Dr. Langham on graduation day (3 years from now) . I attended my mother’s doctoral graduation a few years ago. Since I went to hers, I know all of the special pomp and circumstance that surrounds the hooding ceremony and graduation. I CAN’T WAIT!!!!! This blog is my outlet and as such, I wanted to shout from the rooftops that I made it!!! I’m finished!!!! I survived yet another semester!!!! But since I am too tired from all of that work to climb up to a rooftop, I’ll just tell you all here. :)
This post is an attempt to catch up on all of the things I wanted to blog about this summer but did not have the time to because of work and school. I may follow up with some future posts about a few of these topics.
Here’s a recap of our summer:
Mr. and Mrs. Bryan Tull
Judd and Me
My Parents
The groom’s cake. Yeah, this cake probably deserves a post all its own. This was an armadillo cake like the one in Steel Magnolias. (Please note that they did have a normal bride’s cake and an additional groom’s cake).
Mr. and Mrs. Colby Langham
Brenna, the beautiful bride
The gorgeous wedding cake.
The FAB in Atlanta
The FAB and significant others at an Atlanta Braves game.
Elvis Presley’s grave at Graceland.
The entrance to the beautiful and historic Peabody Hotel.
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The most delicious ribs I have ever had. They were from Rendezvous.
We have had an eventful summer. I’ve truly enjoyed the time with Judd, friends, and family. I even enjoyed learning more about my field while in school; however, I am SO glad to have those two classes completed. Grades will be posted this week. I’m pretty sure I did well. Keep your fingers crossed. :)
I have a little secret.
It’s a problem.
It’s an addiction really.
Well, maybe it’s not that serious.
It’s more of an ode to my mother and her fried green tomatoes (FGT’s).
What’s that little cylindrical shape bulging out of my purse you ask?
It’s not mace, or hairspray, or any other normal thing found in a purse.
It’s….
Ok. Are you ready for it?
Here it is…
It’s….
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt!?!?!?
When I know I am going to a meat and three type of restaurant or somewhere I know serves fried green tomatoes, I grab the Lawry’s Seasoned Salt out of my spice cabinet and put it in my purse to take with me.
I know you are all now convinced I’m like one of those little old ladies who keeps food rolled up in napkins in my purse. I’m not. I promise. I just carry seasoned salt in its container. That’s not weird at all, right????
Once you try Lawry’s on your FGT’s you’ll be doing the same thing. And if you don’t, you will be really missing out.
My momma’s fried green tomatoes are seriously the best I’ve ever had. Hers are so thin and crispy. She always seasons them with Lawry’s when they still hot from the frying pan. Y-U-M-M-Y!!!!
This little seasoned salt habit started when I went away to college. You see, it’s difficult to make FGT’s in a dorm room. It’s actually nearly impossible. The housing folks don’t think too kindly of kids who cook things with hot grease in their rooms.
So, when I lived in Auburn and attended Auburn University as an undergraduate and graduate student I had to get my FGT fix at a local restaurant called Veggies-To-Go. Once I learned that they had fried green tomatoes on their menu I always tried to stash some Lawry’s in my bag or purse to take with me.
My sorority sisters, college friends, boyfriends (that would include Judd), etc. all got a big laugh out of it. This little secret has been happening for years now. Judd still gives me the crazy eye when I do this; although, he has been known to partake in the seasoned salt goodness himself.
The thought of doing a blog post about this little secret came to mind this week because Judd and I ate at a local Mtn. Brook, AL. diner, Tracy’s.
Tracy’s FGT’’s are good. They still don’t hold a candle to my momma’s, but they are good. I recommend them (with Lawry’s on them of course).
I already had the Lawry’s in my purse and had already ordered my food when the idea of blogging about this popped into my head. I borrowed Judd’s phone to capture the moment.
I just thought this little tip was something you couldn’t live without. It’s life changing. Ok, maybe that is a slight overstatement. But it does make your FGT’s taste delicious. I don’t know how or even if your momma makes FGT’s so I can’t guarantee that the addition of Lawry’s will make them taste like hers. But as a consolation, I can guarantee it will make them taste like my Momma’s. :)
Maybe if we all start doing this it will become a trend and it won’t be any weirder than carrying gum in your purse. Who’s with me?
Hi Bloggers,
I couldn’t wait any longer to share this with you.
I feel so excited, proud, and blessed to have this treasure in our home. My mother and grandmother found it for me while treasure hunting at the Salvation Army store in Hoover, AL.
I received a call from my mother while she was at the store. She said she knew I had been looking for a queen sized bed to put in our guest room and that she may have just found one at the Salvation Army.
I wasn’t sure at first. Although I trust my mother’s and my grandmother’s tastes, it is hard to agree to something over the phone that you have never seen. Especially since it was at at thrift store. I mean, there is just no telling what it looked like and what kind of shape it was in.
While on the phone with mom, three other customers walked by and looked at the bed. Mom chimed in without even knowing for sure that she was going to get it. I overheard her tell them all that she wanted it and that it wasn’t for sale anymore.
She said she thought I would love it. She told me it is a four-poster wheat bed that looks to be in great shape. And, the best part, it was only $149.00. I knew she would use her good judgment and make the right decision.
My grandmother, was visiting last week. She lives in Rome, GA. I’ve posted about her several times before. Mom drove Grandmother to Birmingham in grandmother’s blue Ford van with a handicap parking tag. Those two sweet women agreed that they would regret not purchasing it. They knew it was too good to pass up.
Mom bought the bed for me as a 26th birthday present. I didn’t know it was a gift. I tried to pay mom back and she insisted that it was my birthday present. I am so lucky to have a mom like her. They helped the men at the the Salvation Army store load the bed into that big blue van. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall as all of this was happening.
Mom and Grandmother met me for lunch the next day. They came to pick me up at my office. Only, they forgot that there were no extra seats in the van because the bed was in the back. I crawled in and squatted in the space between the bench seat and the door. Too funny! We were quite the sight heading back to my house to deliver the bed.
Judd came home during his lunch break too. He wanted to help us unload it. Isn’t he great??? I sure think he is.
We moved the old full sized bed into the other guest room (which was completely empty) and set the new bed up in the current guest room all on one lunch hour.
Judd and I have patiently waited for a new bed. We’ve priced several over the last year. I even looked at a bed very similar to the one mom found. If I remember correctly it was about $1000 at an antique store. Let me reiterate that mom found it for approximately $150!!!!!
Here are some close-up shots of the bed’s detail.
Judd and I are so fortunate to have family who loves us and who do such thoughtful things for us. We love this bed. The price was right for mom; and because it was a birthday present for me it was the PERFECT price for us!!!!!
I have two round tables with floor length skirts that will flank either side of this bed. We are currently using them in our living room. So here are some of the next home purchases and furniture shifting we will do.
Thanks Mom and Grandmother. We love you and appreciate you more than you could ever know. I could not have dreamed of a better birthday present!!!!!
Here’s a quick clip of the bed in our guest room.
