Puh-n-kins

I was on Etsy's "Storque" section today and I had a good laugh with this picture. There is a guy, Tom Nardone, who does these extreme pumpkin carvings, like the one above. You are ready more about about it (and do one for yourself) here.

Not MY School

I got wind of this story and was really shocked. Really, at MY school? How interesting...

More later!

ArtWalk and mo'

I love Hattiesburg when the town comes out together and celebrates with art, food, and music. You'd be surprised how much this actually happens. With the Historic Downtown Hattiesburg Association, there is definitely a sense of revitalization. Today was the Fall ArtWalk downtown- lots of fun! My friend Kaycie and I decided to go and check it out. Both of us being from Jackson, we knew what Fondren ArtMix was like and hoped it would be like that.

Around the different restaurants and shops (Southbound Bagel in this picture) there was art displayed with food and good music. The sign next to this band/duo/whatever said "Grateful Dead Cover Band," but I don't think I heard a single Grateful Dead song. He was really good though.
This little kid kept running away from his mom the whole time and just wanted to touch the drum. I am surpised he didn't think it was too loud, because it was loud even from where we were sitting. We got lots of laughs out of this kid.

Here's Kaycie enjoying listening to the guy sing.

After the ArtWalk, I went over to Claire's and I made dinner. We decided to go light because Claire and I had decided earlier in the week we wanted to go have dessert fondue at this relatively new restaurant called Stoney's. It's actually the place where Claire and her fiance John ate on the night they got engaged. So, I cooked and then we headed off to Stoney's.

Sorry this is such a horrible picture. The place was dark and I was obviously a little more concerned about my fondue. Every dessert fondue comes with bananas, strawberries, marshmallows, a brownie, and a slice of cheesecake. Yum! You can choose from milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate. We chose white chocolate. It was amazing. Plus, it's on $15 for two people, which was not bad at all.

I hope you guys had a fabulous weekend as well (thus far)!

Hello loyal friends! It's been a while, eh? I've had fall break, camping, and other fun things going on. Here are some pictures to get you through...

Our family went camping at Clarkco State Park. The weather was perfect! It was fun as always, even though we really missed Ashley and Bryan not being there!

Mr. Pepper had his one-year-old birthday party. He had a "cake" which he shared with George and Spike. Let's just say that this cat is very very very well taken care of.

Yesterday my friends Erin and Deidre and I went downtown to the train depot to see the art exhibit "Breaking the Veils." I didn't have high hopes for it (It was in a train depot... how amazing was it going to be?) but I was so shocked and surprised.

For some reason, this was my favorite piece. It looked a lot like a man with a bow tie. I thought it was really cool.

This is what the inside of the train depot looks like. Are you as amazed as I am? I've never seen such a nice train depot (I say this like I am a train depot expert). All of the works were so cool.

I know it's been a while and I hope to do more soon!

Parent Fashion Weekend

Oh what a good weekend I just had.
I went back home this weekend to get a haircut, go to the fair, and other various things. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend (coined "Parent Fashion Weekend"-more on that later).

My mom and I went to the fair. I believe this is the first time in history that my mom and I went by ourselves. Since we don't ride the rides, we just ate and looked at the car show and animals. They had some of the most interesting car/vehicles, like this old scooter (I believe it is a Vespa). look at how the pedals are still on the floor board and not built into the handles.

The animals were cute as well. However, right next to the piglets there was this station that had a cow with all of the cuts of meat on it and you could press buttons and that area/cut of meat would light up. I was not impressed.

Ah, Parent Fashion Weekend. My dad has come up with "projects" for him (and subsequently, us) to do on the weekends. Apparently, my dad had said he was going to clean out his closet this weekend. By the time Saturday rolled around, he wasn't so keen on doing so.

After coercing him into cleaning out his closet, my sister and I also convinced my mom to do it to. Thus, it became "Parent Fashion Weekend." It was a hard and long fight on some pieces for some of us coughmomcough. There are so many articles of clothing on the dining room table now.

So as my mom and dad took things out of the closet, my sister, MG, and I said "yes" or "no."
It was funny, that's for sure.

More later!

Life's a Circus

Sometimes, life feels like a circus. Or, like today, life WAS a circus. I walk outside my dorm this morning and this is what I see being put up:

The picture doesn't do it justice. This tent is HUGE. Apparently, this is the largest under tent circus. My roommate, Maggie, said, "I can smell the elephants already." Not something your roommate says everyday...

A little while later, there they were...

Really, how many people can say they saw elephants at college. Only a few, only a few.

Bring it ON!

As long as that payment is TO ME, I say, "BRING IT ON."

Have you ever made Apple Brown Betty? Oh my goodness, if you haven't, you should. It's an easy dessert you can make with the simple things you have in your cabinet.

My friend, Claire, and I have started cooking together on the weekends to get new recipes and to simply learn how to cook on our own. Claire is engaged and is trying to find some good, easy meals that she and her fiance, John, can have once they are married. So, we have fun trying things out.

Each time we cook we alternate who gives a recipe for the main dish. Last time I did my mom's recipe of cream cheese, black bean, chicken enchiladas. They are amazing. This time, Claire made Nacho Chicken Casserole (for some reason we have unintentionally done Mexican type dishes). For desserts (also unintentionally) we have been doing Pioneer Woman desserts (Claire calls her Pioneer Lady). Last time we did Apple Dumplings and this time we tried the Apple Brown Betty. Claire jokes that every time now we have to do Mexican and apples.

The only thing we added was some Hagen-Daas vanilla ice cream and it was perfect!

Have you ever seen something you wanted so badly but (as my British Lit teacher would say) it was toe-curling-ly expensive?

My friends, I just had that experience.
I was on Etsy (as always) and found this amazing/weird/awesome bag:

Oh my goodness. That horn is actually part of a naturally shedded deer antler. Weird, right?

At $95 I just can't do it. It would be nice though.

Photo courtesy of talithaleather @ etsy (dot) com.

You Got Served

I've never for any reason been "served papers." Well, I guess until last night. About 10 o'clock last night, there is a knock on our door. I open the door and a girl with a big stack of paper asks me and my roommate to sign the sheet and take our letters. Not knowing what it was, we signed and took our letters. After she left we open our envelopes and this is what we find:

Apparently we are not supposed to have coffee pots in our rooms (though I have for over two years now and no one has said a thing).

Let me just say, normally there is a fire inspection for hazards and the person who inspects your room tells you what is wrong. This year, this woman unlocks our room while my roommate is asleep (I had just walked in from my 8 o'clock class) and was so loud. Not only that, SHE DIDN'T TELL ME ANYTHING WAS WRONG! These people are getting sneaky on us.

(Sigh)

Have you ever been to Tulane? I went last night with a group of students to hear Tim Wise, an anti-racism speaker. The building where the speech was held was AMAZING (check out the link). At the expense of looking like a COMPLETE tourist, I didn't take pictures. This building is completely "smart" and ecologically sound. There are panels of water that cascade all the way from the ceiling to the floor that helps regulate the temperature instead of air conditioning, the carpet is recycled, etc. It was amazing.


The campus is beautiful and we had lots of fun. Now on the the end of the week!