Summer is Here!

Hi y’all!

I’ve always said this as a joke because Northwesterners like us do not say “y’all”, but I am just now learning that if you refuse to speak “Southern”, you may find yourselves with some miscommunications with Southerners over this very word.

In the South, the word “you” cannot be plural like it can be in the rest of the English-speaking world.  The only way to make “you” plural here is to say “y’all”.  So if you mean “you” (plural), you will not get your meaning across to Southerners unless you say “y’all”.  This actually just happened to us when we hired two of our amazing staff, who had interviewed together.  We loved them both and said we’d like to hire “you” (plural, of course).  Let’s just say that our use of the word “you” instead of “y’all” actually caused confusion about who we were hiring.

So, if you’re in the South but not from the South, realize that those little dish towels that say how many people Southerners are talking about when they say “y’all” and “all y’all”, etc, are not so much a joke as they are useful.  So, if you guys  (our Northwestern way of saying y’all) hear us saying “y’all”, know that it’s for grammatical clarity rather than an attempt to “be” Southern.

Not that there’s anything wrong with being Southern.  It’s just that if you’re not actually Southern, it feels weird to pretend.  The real ones will know the difference, right?  Especially because we say “pop” rather than “Coke” or “soda”.

Anyway, back to this summer.  We’ve been in Tennessee for six years now!  It has been between 90 and 100 degrees for the past couple of weeks and it’s the first time that it feels normal for it to be hot.  I still remember when we moved here in June 2012 and it was over 100 degrees.  Our apartment was nice and cool, and when we opened the door to go outside, little Bennett (aged 3 at the time) just wrinkled up her little face, started screaming, and wouldn’t walk outside.

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This summer we’re spending time at our shop and also at home working on projects.  For those of you who aren’t on Instagram, this 1800’s hardware store fixture just found its way into our house!  I’m loving it!

We cleaned the drawers and left them open for a few days to air out.  A few of them wouldn’t fit and have to be shaved down, so it’s a work in progress.  This is what this wall used to look like:

This used to be my sewing area, but I don’t find sewing all that relaxing so I don’t do it much anymore.  The locker and file cabinet were for storage, so they’re getting relocated to the garage.  We sold the table and were able to make room for this amazing piece!  It was originally part of a hardware store out in the Tennessee country that burned down.  How they salvaged this zillion-pound piece, I’ll never know.  All that was lost in the fire (other than the actual store) was one drawer.  We have 89 drawers.  Any ideas what should go in them?  Since we homeschool, I know a bunch of them will have school supplies in them.  Sewing and craft supplies will go in there, too.  Then there will be about 70 more drawers waiting for a brilliant purpose.  Cookie cutters?  Paint samples?  I’m pretty sure we’ll think of something.

We’re also redecorating the wall behind it and adding light fixtures because this room tends to be dark.  These from Barbara Cosgrove are amazing.  We have her lighting line at our shop, so I got to be the lucky recipient of these:

They look bigger when they’re not hanging.  They are made of clay and have a gold inside!

Here we are, trying to figure out where they’re going (it was night, so pardon the not-the-best lighting)

Looks a bit better during the day.  The gold inside of the shades makes for a nice glow when they’re on (which is not yet, since they’re just hanging there, not wired).

I’ll keep you posted about how it all ends up looking!  And, if you are interested in Barbara Cosgrove lighting, contact us and we’ll get it for you at a discount.  Check out her website for all the options.

And one more thing!  If you’ve been following us on Instagram, you’ve seen this little treasure.  But if not, look what we got (drumroll please)!

This is the local pound’s finest kitten.  His name is Clark, he walks among bags of frozen vegetables (above), we’re allergic to him, and he is the sweetest kitty in the entire world.  We were going to return him because of the allergy thing, but he is so stinkin’ cute that we have to keep him forever.

Here’s more:

Who can resist this darling kitty cat?

Clarkie is a hit.  Lucy, or original kitty, is still very dear, too.  She doesn’t seem to be bothered by Clark at all, and we’re giving her extra cuddles.

Hope you all (y’all) are having a great week!