Yardwork. Just kidding.

Photo courtesy of Pottery Barn.

My darling seester is always the first to remind me: "Ashlyn. Update your blog." Two days later: "You know people stop reading people when they quit updating their blog?"

My, my. So subliminal in your messaging, Kristen.

Pardon my hiatus, but I've just been so ultra crafty/homemakery in preparation for The Move. We're talkin', I squealed over a Le Crueset cookware present yesterday. I'm even girlier than I thought. Anyway, the Stallings homestead is a sight, I tell ya, what with two girlies getting their first apartments and all!

I wanna show you my latest project. My first garden.

Well, kinda.

It started with a rainy Montgomery afternoon today and 4 herbs. Their names are Rosemary, Basil, Oregano, and Mint:

And quatro terracotta pots:

The delicate herbs made the potentially traumatizing trip from the biodegradable containers into their new abodes, which we have documented all thanks to Kristen:

Doesn't it feel good to get dirt under your nails? Even if those nails are a painted Birthday Blue (a.k.a. Essie "Lapis"). Of course, the Brownies had to investigate:

AHH! WAY too close, Ellis. Way too close. I promise she's a presh-pot, but I mean, who looks adorable in the soaking rain? It's okay, wittle Ella-bella. Everyone's hair gets curly in the rain.

I digress. Next, I painted the pots with chalkboard paint puchased at Wally World. I would like to note that skin should always be the same color as terracotta. A tan just makes my whole entire summer.

And there they are! Chalk isn't allowed to touch them 'til Sunday so maximum dry-time is reached. But I love them. I've always grown up with a garden in the backyard, with Mama tellin' us to "go pick some rosemary for tonight" or fresh basil for topping a yummy Southern tomato sandwich. OBVIE, making the move to Atlanta without fresh herbs for Em and I to cook with would just not be right.

One day, they will live like this  in a wine box on our back porch.

Anyone gotta spare wine box? :)

Photo courtesy of HipHostess.

You get a line, I'll get a pole.

We've had that Igloo cooler seriously as long as I can think back.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Daddy grabbed his two most beautifully stunning favorite dates--Mama and me--loaded the truck, and headed down to the "farm" as we call it. Cows and chickens don't live there or anything, just pretty Alabama huntin' and fishin' land that passes through the Stallings family.

I LOVE the farm.

And Daddy and Mama, I know y'all will read this probably today.

And you've been askin' for the pictures.

So here they are.

p.s. I. Love. You.

Part of the pond, where our Christmas tree and half the neighbors' trees are recycled every year for the fishies. Don't ask.

Have you heard that song "She Thinks We're Just Fishing?" The (lil' sappy in a good way) country song? Dad and I love that song because he says it reminds him of taking Kristen and me down to our land during the days of Keds and floppy hairbows.

I mean, the little girl in the song talks about ballet and kittens. Hello, kindergardener-Ashlyn.

I digress. Anyway, we needed this:

And then these started flinging themselves into the boat! Crazy fish.

Hewwo, wittle bwim.

It's ok. You can laugh at DRS III's hat. We all do.

And that bass really was big. He's like, 7 pounds, you just can't see because he's turned sideways... Promise.

'Twas a fun trip. I love those lands. And this time at home sure is sweet. Thank you, Jesus!

Blog post title: "Boondocks" by Little Big Town.

The PARISH project (aka How I Wound Up Temporarily in Interior Design).

Photo courtesy of PARISH.

So. In the meantime, I'm spending my glamorous hours in this deep South city launching a few marketing and publicity efforts for the incredible (and yes, glamorous) Ashley Gilbreath.

Which means I'm dabbling in interior design.

Oh my.

You interior design people and your crazy world.

I'm learnin' at lighting speed.

Tall, blonde, and whip-thin with style dripping from her every word, Ashley is one of Montgomery's premier designers, and a huge role model to me: great marriage, precious-baby-girl-Cates, and an absolute killa in her field. Her designs? Probably (and by probably I mean exactly-could-not-be-more-perfect) precisely the style I would like my future house and apartment to emmulate.

Lots of neutral.

Lots of exposed wood.
Lots of natural materials.

Photos courtesy of Ashley Gilbreath Interior Design.

The girl's got style, am I right or am I right? Love it.

So if you're in Montgomery, venture out to this community:

Hampstead Development
A sustainable community from the planners of Seaside & Rosemary Beach

Photo courtesy of Kim Box Photography--love y'all!

and hit up 5272 Hampstead High Street for looks like this:

this:

and this chandelier that I am crushin' on:

Photos courtesy of PARISH and Kim Box Studio.

Swoon. PARISH is legit, huh? I'm a lucky girl.

So get ready: You'll be the first to know when our blog launches and the new website for Ashley Gilbreath Interior Design and PARISH goes live.

'Til then:

Follow PARISH and Ashley Gilbreath Interior Design on Twitter.

Like us on Facebook.

p.s. The interview? Went incredibly well, all thanks to Jesus. I'll keep y'all posted, but I do want to extend a huge, HUGE gracias to everyone who commented/emailed/Facebooked/texted about a prayer said or best wishes. So sweet. :)

Like a siren song, ya keep callin' me home.

 Photo courtesy of Pinterest.

This weekend, my Xi sisters invited me on their New Delta retreat in Burr Oak State Park. Now, I looove a good state park. The Chac's woulda been on except uh, let's be honest: we all know I'm at 50 lb. luggage limit fo sho. And Chacos are no light-weights. So they live in my closet in Montgomery.

Anyway, on the drive from Ohio University to the park, Garmin took us through some windy, weaving single-lane roads through some of the prettiest countryside. I dunno what I took Ohio for. Flat maybe? But I learned the southwest portion of the state is part of the Appalachians. And 45 minutes from sweet little West Virginia (This, friends, is what I get for never having a geographicaly CLUE where my planes touch down).

Blame it on the pick-up trucks (cough-what I learned to drive on-cough). The worn-out, delapidated wooden barns (well, there wasn't kudzu on them though). Big 'ole fields. Cows. Hunting land. Post-and-rail fencing. American flags. Chyupp--Wasn't long before I was missing Alabama. Pres Claire's mix of Carolina Chocolate Drops, Edward Sharpe, and Yonder Mountain String Band wasn't helping.

I know, I know. I keep saying "I miss home" to anyone that will listen. But the thing is, you don't realize how growin' up in a certain part of the country has shaped who you are until you're standing miles away gazing at it as an outsider...

I quit travelin' and go home for Spring Break in 10 days.

Ten.

10.

X.

IIIIIIIIII

YES!

Blog post title: "Carolina" by Eric Church. Precisely how I feel about the South. I love how this is literally a love song. For land.

The travelin', the singin', it don't mean nothin' without you.

Photo courtesy of Bippity Boppity Boo.

I'm going home.

HOME.

Today.

I think "home" is in my top 10 words. Right up there with "Jesus."

Schedule? 1. Friendsandfamily. 2. Sleepingtnbsd;xzzzzzzzzzz. 3. I've checked the 85 degree forecast, and looks like I'll be laying out in Dixieland! 4. Getting highlights for the first time in my virgin hair's life (ha, can ya tell this Southern girl needs sun? January, February, SUMMER, October...).

And time on my back porch talking to Jesus. Getting tangled up in grace. Having time to think through some things and ask God what He thinks.

See ya soon, my sweet little rivertown. See ya soon.

Blog post title: "Without You" by Keith Urban. I'm obsessed. Boy can write a love song, dangit. Have fun with that, Nicole.

'Til I cross Montgomery and I lose my sense of time.

Photo courtesy of Bippity Boppity Boo.

"In the South, we have a tendency to be possessive of our hometowns. A Memphis girl can marry a Birmingham boy, raise her family there, and live out the rest of her days in Alabama. But when her obituary runs in the Birmingham Post-Herald, it will still claim Memphis as her home."

- Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter by Lisa Patton

So true.

I'm home and get to jam 48 hours with fam and friends and Samford Step Sing until the road beckons again.

Have I ever mentioned that I love my hometown?

I so do.

I guess I'm always gonna be a Montgomery girl, huh...

Blog Post Title: "Southern State of Mind" by Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers.

Home is wherever I'm with you.

Photo courtesy of umm... I forgot. I have no idea. Whoops.

Alabama, Arkansas / I sure love my ma and pa

Not the way that I do love you.

Ah, home / Let me come home

Home is wherever I'm with you.

- Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, "Home"

Good 48-hour trip to Montgomery. Good long quiet times. Fam dinners. Running excursions where I didn't have to shiver in 2 layers of Under Armour. Great Auburn reunions and conversations over Starbucks paper cups with best friends.

Even better? The realization that even when I take a blow, no matter what--I. Can. Still Sing. Without really getting into things, for the first time, I took a little hit this weekend, and then realized it didn't really affect me like it would have a year ago. It just didn't. Ha. In fact, I even laid in bed and laughed over how "okay" I am, how after months of prayer, my January 2010 self would stare perplexed at me now. Our fountains of joy bubble up from the deepest well inside of us, and when you bottle that up and look at it under a microscope, all that's there has gotta be pure, absolute ecstacy that we serve a glorious King and we'll follow Him into this world and one day sit at His table--HIS, as in, the creator of every galaxy, molecule, angel, and starfish--because nothing can steal joy like that.

"You have made known to me the path of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence,

with eternal pleasures at your right hand."

- Psalms 16:11

 

Blog post title: "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. Totes my new jammmm.

Get it, Scott.

Hello, jeans-weather! At least up here in PA.

“I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it's these things I'd believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn't all she should be. I love her and it is the beginning of everything.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

I'm assuming Scott was talkin' about his love Zelda.

Who has been my idol since grade 10.

She had me on the whole ballerina-writer-artist-Montgomery-girl-spitfire thing.

And he met her at the good 'ole Montgomery Country Club.

And I may or may not drive by their circa 1930 house on Felder Avenue every time I go home just to visit.

And I maybe own 9 hardback biographies about the famed couple.

#obsessmuch?

This is what hope looks like.

Apparantly 19th-century Montgomerians loved Italy's Il Duomo. And I love them for that.

First Baptist Church of Montgomery epitomizes the good 'ole Southern church sterotype: Sunlight pours past stained-glass as it has since 1829, and genuine syrupy accents lilt from pew to pew. Barefoot, curly-headed little girls run around in French hand-sewn dresses like Deep South faries. Hugs replace handshakes. It's home. It's a body of believers that know that Christianity is more than "fire insurance;" but realize that it's a daily living out faith. That it's not trusting in a "Help me, Lord" faith just to pull us through adversity, but it's when you can look at Him regardless of hat you're going through and smile and say, "Yup. I'm going to tell others about this."

That's what the Katherine Wolf story is.

The girl had the kind of outward beauty that made fellow women stop and gawk. Both Samford graduates (go bulldogs!), she and our pastor's son, Jason Wolf, were married and living the dream life on the shores of California. That's when everything--from a worldly viewpoint--went drastically wrong. But miracles and unshakable faith abound instead...

Please listen to her story and

vote for Katherine's show pitch on Oprah.com.

I read the blog of Katherine's mom, Kim Arnold, pretty much like it's my job. It's right up there with Fly Through Our Window for me, and that's a high ranking :)

As a perpetual role-model adopter, these are two strong Southern women you don't want to miss.

Happy 101

Thanks, Elizabeth and Grace in Her Step for tagging me! So I think I now list 10 things that make me happy...

Award Rules:

1. List 10 things that make you happy.

2. Tag 10 bloggers that brighten your day.

3. If you are one of the 10 bloggers awarded, link back to this blog, and pass it along.

1 :: Moments every day when the Lord reminds me that when the world is falling out from underneath me, I'll be found in Him still standing.

2 :: The Pebbles {My 5 besties. How'd we get the name? The Wise Camilla said, "God is my rock, but y'all are my pepples. Aww, shucks.}

3 :: Alpha Delta Pi {Yeahyeahyeah, I know, sappy. But to me, this sorority is more than chanting Pi, Pi, ADPi during rush--they are the net to catch me here at Samford. "We live for each other and for Alpha Delta Pi."}

4 :: Toes in sand, Lilly bathing suit on, waves crashing, and skin warm. Then Bud & Alley's or The Red Bar. Done and done.

5 :: Live music. Correction: DANCING to live music. From Charleston bars to Destin digs, just give me a beat and I'm bouncin'.

6 :: Sundresses + cowgirl boots. Or Jack Rogers.

7 :: Tailgating on the rolling plains of Auburn.

8 :: These ballets - Giselle, Romeo & Juliet, Swan Lake, Serenade, Western Symphony. {True, I haven't been a company member since '06. But I proudly retain my slightly snobbish "ballet is the basis of all dance" mentaility proudly. Go ahead, try me. I'll even wiggle my scarred 10 toes to prove it.}

9 :: Sweet little Montgomery, Alabama. It's family.

10 :: New York City {First trip: an entire summer studying ballet at Joffrey at age 14. Last trip: showing God's love to the roughest parts of Brooklyn and Spanish Harlem. From the glitz to the grime, I ADORE this city and the people that inhabit it.}

Tags
Buckhead Belle
The Modern Traditionalist
Starfish and Sundresses
All That Inspires
A Day in the Life, My World, & The People in It
Something Beautiful
Let the Tide Pull Your Dreams Ashore
A Trip Down South
Southern Gent
Living the Dream

Note to those tagged: The blog gods will probably throw lighting at me, but I have seen some writers not include the award picture when reposting this. I dunno. It may mess with your aesthetic. Plus, I tagged some guys and that gingham is super June Cleaver.

Shady Pi? Not today, sir.

After a flu-induced hiatus, I'm back in action. Well, probably back officially tomorrow as Mama has lovingly shot down a night out at Montgomery's Brew Pub tonight. I mean, is coughing every five minutes that abnormal? I'm just clearing my throat.

Flu '09 Activities

Getting all my meals (read: grits) in bed.

Putting dates in my 2010 Lilly planner.

Texting conversations with one-third of my contacts.

Making pro/con lists for grad school versus the current job market.

Playing Words (aka Scrabble) with Sloan and Carol Anne via iPhone.

Wondering if there is really a bigger audience for Jersey Shore than The City.

Having time to thoughtfully decide my iTunes purchases, which are quite good consequently.

Trying to use J. Crew and Sephora giftcards online, but I don't get the same rush as in store, so I abstained.

Singing "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum and "White Liar" by Miranda Lambert in an appealing raspy voice.

Upping my movie quota astronomically.

So, yeah. I just wanted you to know I haven't forgotten you and your sweet comments :)

Shameless Plug: And I've gotta shout out to one of my most fabulous friends and pledge sisters, Ellen (see above), who is now blogging. This future interior designer simply oozes class, even as we were stressed out, diet Coke-consuming co-rush chairs.

That's me and Elle-the-new-blogger in the middle on Bid Day.

On Being a Debutante

2 cousins in gorgeous dresses and bouquets.

1 entire side of our extended family.

18 of my best friends in the world.

1 good band.

1 pretty wonderful hometown.

Yup--safe to say the weekend was literally a whirlwind ball.

aaaaaaa

Clockwise: The Samford crew, my cousin and I looking at our grandmother's queen portrait, and how gorgeous are my best friends in the world?

Dixie's Heart

I'm one of those types: home's never gonna be anywhere but little Montgomery (Even when I have my loft in the city.) Doing senior thesis research in De Bow's Review, an antebellum journal, I couldn't help but smile when my hometown was mentioned. Here's to hometowns!

"The capitol is located on elevated ground on Capitol Hill. The view from the upper part of the building is very extensive over the surrounding country."

(Still is, and Jeff Davis's house is in it's shadow.)

"There are many handsome private residences, built of brick, and several of them very expensive and magnificent."

(I gotta say I wish more had been preserved...)

"In this capital there are three newspaper establishments, The Montgomery Advertiser, The Confederation, and The Montgomery Mail, whose editors are scholars, and obliging gentlemen."

(Well, well, well, if journalistic traits are still in the water, I hope I drank enough.)

"The inhabitants of this metropolis, as well as of the whole state are citizens of liberal, hospital, intelligent, and obliging character..."

(I like to think they still are.)