nashville!

Our first stop was Knoxville, TN to visit our friends Danielle & Matt & their beautiful baby girl Jasmine! They were the most wonderful hosts and treated us to a nice dinner at "The Tomato Head", a warm bed, and a true Southern breakfast before we travelled on to Nashville.

Andrew and I attended the National Youth Workers Convention. This was my second year, and once again I came away feeling refreshed, inspired, and excited about my faith. This was the view from our hotel room..

Nashville is such a fun little city with live music practically everywhere you go! They definitely know their country music and their barbeque. The arena off in the distance on the left side is where the convention was held. We had the opportunity to take some amazing seminars during the day listening to awesome speakers, pastors and teachers. Twice a day we all came together in the arena for music and a big room speaker. We would also cruise this strip on our breaks for lunch and dinner.

Cherry smoked pork BBQ platter with sweet potato fries. Delish.

Andrew's catfish tacos.

A few paintings done by our friend Scott Erickson who is a worship artist and painted onstage while the bands performed. He's pretty awesome and you should check him out. 

i'm back!

Andrew and I are home safe & sound from our trip to Nashville. The conference was AMAZING, so more on that later with some photos from the trip..

But for now, Julie from Orchid Gray has beautifully styled a vintage mink fur hat from my shop and I wanted to share her outfit post with you! 

More photos and a sweet story about why she chose this hat here: 

give-away!

Julie from the fabulous Orchid Grey has been sweet enough to host a give-away for my shop on her blog! So be sure to stop here while I'm gone and leave a comment for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Simplethrift!

You have until Monday to enter!

nashville!

Thursday morning Andrew and I are leaving for our road trip to Nashville, and we will be there until Monday! We are attending the National Youth Workers Convention which was held last year in Atlanta. Our evenings will be free and I'm super excited to explore the city & try some good restaurants. 

Have any of you been to Nashville? If anyone has any city tips for me, let me know! I have found the Design Sponge city guide which has some pretty great stuff too.. 

simplethrift holiday: outerwear

A few of my favorites from my holiday collection..

Wouldn't these be lovely for a fancy dinner date in the city or a winter wedding?

vintage MINK COLLAR swing coat.

 vintage lush MINK stole.

vintage WINTER WHITE dress coat.

outfitted: holiday preview!

I am busy working to fill the shop for the upcoming holiday season..lots of sequins & pretty dresses. I especially adore this little velvet number and thought I would share the photos taken by Evan(oh how i miss evan's photography, new camera & fancy lenses..can't wait for his winter break!) 

So get ready for all things sparkly and fancy!

 More holiday items found here in my shop!

etsy frontpage!

It's always nice to wake up and turn on my computer to see one of my items featured on the Etsy homepage. Lucky for me, my little fawn suede oxfords sold soon after! I liked this pretty treasury so I snapped a screenshot to share with you!

vintage wedding feature

Check out my vintage wedding dress featured at "Bride on a Budget" from the Hudson Valley wedding blog!

Bride on a Budget: Vintage Looks That Won't Break the Bank

outfitted: camel & hound

Outfit Details:

Camelhair Vintage coat: thrifted

Houndstooth scarf: thrifted

Leggings: Target

Boots: Extremly old leather boots from Kmart

Mustard knit hat: thrifted

I am trying yet again whether or not to sell this fabulous Camelhair vintage coat.  I wore it out to dinner this week just to get it out of my system.. I am working so hard to simplify my wardrobe but in my line of work, this proves to be difficult when I am constantly finding little gems like this one..

In other news, I have decided to bite the bullet & do a bit of advertising  for the holiday season. So this week I became a sponsor of two awesome style bloggers, Selective Potential & Orchid Grey.  Hop on over to check these ladies out and peek at my little ad in the sidebar!

etsy holiday love.

It's getting to be about that time...

I can hardly wait for Thanksgiving dinner, don't get me wrong..but I also look forward to Thanksgiving because the week after, it's time to go cut down our tree!! 

Aren't these kitchy little decorations sweet from the etsy shop shavingkitsupplies? 

this is hilarious.

this is hilarious. 

watch it, have a good laugh and a great weekend!!

backpacking Part II

Day 2 of the trip was much more leisurely..There are about 7 lakes within the park so we packed our lunch and took a hike to the closest one for a little picnic. Afterwards we came back to camp and spent the late afternoon reading and playing games.

That evening we had a smoke-free fire and feasted on our remaining food and hot chocolate. I went to bed that night warm and happy to be hiking out the next morning :) I survived and I came home much more appreciatve of the little things..like a toilet, running water, and a bed..

backpacking Part I

 So I cannot pretend that I went along on this 2 night adventure willingly.. 

I am not exactly "outdoorsy" in the sense that I long for the mountains, climbing steep rocky hills, cooking over a campfire, using the woods as "facilities" and sleeping in a mummy bag on the cold ground.

 But, I had to do it for this guy...

So we grabbed our packs, sleeping mats, tents and canned food, loaded up the subaru, and headed to upstate New York to Harriman's State Park with our close friends Taylor and Alison.  

Taylor was in charge of the map since he and Alison had taken this trip before. 

 We had to filter water from a stream before we could drink it...so Bear Grylls...

The first night was absolutely freeeezing! We watched a beautiful sunset from our campsite at the top of the mountain with a view of the Manhatten skyline. Then we quickly built a fire to huddle around and cook dinner.

Friends, I am  not going to pretend for one second that I did not have a  major melt down that night and beg to go home the next day.... but the trip got better on day 2..

Part II tomorrow...

back packing trip!

Hello friends!

I have been un-plugged for the past few days and off in the mountains of New York on my very first back packing trip. I am busy playing catch up, responding to emails and filling orders. 

More photos and details on the trip tomorrow!