Let The Joyous New Be Spread: January

Welcome back! We are kicking off out first month of celebration with something very easy. National Croissant Day!

I mean who doesn't love a warm, flaky, croissant fresh out of the oven? 

So, as you can see I made some, and curled up on my couch and watched It's Complicated.

When you get into a new relationship everything is a complicated. You are trying to put that person first in your life, you are doing what you can to make sure that it works out, you are trying to make two lives into one. How about the couple we are talking about was already married and are now divorced? How about when they are sneaking around and trying to start something in secret? How about they are doing this and one of them is married, and the other is just starting something new? Yeah, it's get complicated very quickly.

So, the reason that this movie is the one for this month is there is a great scene with Meryl Streep and Steve Martin at Ms. Streep's bakery and they are making Chocolate Croissants. It's a cute scene, and a funny movie that I do recommend that you watch when you get the chance. 

Like I said these are very easy celebrations so they may not always be that long but we have some great stuff happening this year!

 

What Ought To Be: January

 Hello lovely people! So, here we are at the most complicated of my three projects this year. So, when I originally planned this it was not nearly as crazy. However, I can't seem to help myself. I was going to do one thing, and then ended up adding to it.... so here we are.... and here we go.

So, usually these project I will make a list of 12 things and then do one of those thing every month for the whole year and write about each thing as we go along. There is a list of 12 but I am not going to do one thing per month. The list is 12 areas of improvement that will help to build my confidence. My plan is to rewrite the list every month and see what areas I feel great in, the ones I have slipped on, and then make goals to make the next month even better. So, there is no perfect score. Confidence is ever changing and as we go forward we have to make adjustments. Sometime we adjust things and then we push other things back so you have to readjust. So, lets see the list and I'll tell you how I have been doing. 

1. Closer in Faith: Really change my lifestyle to reflect God and His wonders- So, far I have been keeping up with my Bible reading. My prayer life was doing great and now it's falling behind a bit and I need to refocus on that. I have been seeking God in some amazing things and I am still scared about some stuff that is not yet answered. It doesn't mean he isn't listening, just I need to be more patient.

2. Lose 50 Pounds: start taking better care of myself and go to the gym- My church did a 21 day fast and I was able to complete doing it for the first time. I got rid of some bad eating habits, and I lost some weight. The gym will start next month when I am not at church every night.

3. Cook Better: Do almost all recipes in TCM cookbook- I did make the one recipe that I needed this month. More on that below. 

4. Dress for Success: Dress up more. Embrace the things that I love- I have been getting up early and making sure I have done my hair and makeup before work. I still not have worn some of my dresses yet, which is what I want to do the most. However, I have been wearing my hats and I'm excited about that.

5. Speak up: Don’t shy away from what I think- I made a huge step forward this month in this. I told Bradley that I wanted to produce a show on the Radio. He said it sounds amazing, and that we are going to get started working on it! Last year I would have never been brave enough to open my mouth.

6. Own the Room: learn to walk in confidence- This one still needs a lot of work. I look down at my feet a lot when I walk and I need to change that. 

7. Look People in the eye more- This is kept reminding myself of, but still needs work. I can do it when I am in an interview or with friends, but with people I pass or interact with I am having a hard time.

8. Building Relationships: Make sure to keep up with all friends every month- I have done well, and slipped. I have kept up with some friends because I see them at church, but others I have had a hard time with because they don't live near me, or because of being busy. I will be working on be better at this one.

9. Style: try out a new shirt or outfit I would not normally buy and get it.- I did do this and here is the new shirt that I bought. I really hated this shirt when I saw it on the hanger at Walmart, and that is how I knew I had to buy it. I felt way more comfortable that I thought I would. I am glad that I bought it.

10. Creativity: Working on hobbies that I love- I did get to re-read Redeeming Love for the first time in forever, and I also worked on my blanket that I am making. Those are things that I seem to put to the side when get overwhelmed. I am glad I made time for them.  

11. Spoiling: Doing something for myself. That I would not normally do for me- Oh I bought myself some new stuff for my office job. I have been eyeing this keyboard and this mouse for a while and I finally just bought it. I also got my bluetooth headphones that I have been needing for a long time!

12 Peace: Do I feel at peace with the progress that I have made? Yes. I think that this is a great starting point for me to know what I need to build on in the coming year. 

Now, you may think that this is very manageable, however, you haven't gotten to what I added yet. The "being a better cook" is because of this book.

I have owned this book for about five years. I bought it when I first moved out thinking I would try it. I was mistaken because I wanted to cook by the movies I really loved. I haven't seen a good portion of the movies in this book. So, it's been hiding in a drawer ever since. Well, I looked at it again at the end of the year and thought that working on my cooking skills, and maybe getting me to eat at home more often, would work. So, there are 30 recipes in this book. I am making 29 (I am not cooking chicken liver and no one can make me I will do a personal favorite for that night) and I will make the drinks that go with and watch the movies.

Since we had the church fast in January, I wasn't going to do any for the month. However, my dad's birthday and at the end of the month, and the first recipe is a cake. So, I made him a Beet Red Devil Cake with Chocolate Frosting, the cocktail was a Clover Club Cocktail inspired from the movie The Divorcee.

The classic plot of man woman fall in love. You think that they live happily ever after. However, ever after only lasts about three years. When Norma Shearer finds that her husband is cheating she wants a divorce. From there so go on a scandalous escapade of sleeping with men.

This movie is really a shock if you know anything about pre-code movies. Seeing a pre-code movie, after watching hundreds of movies during the code times, it very shocking! Norma Shearer won Best Actress for her performance in this role, and it's just a good movie.

So, both the Clover Club Cocktail and the Cake turned out really delicious! I was surprised because of the fact that I have never baked a cake before.

As for the movie of the month? Well, the would be I Feel Pretty.

Renee suffers, as well all do, from insecurities. So, often feels lesser than and is always putting herself down. After she suffers a head injury, she suddenly thinks that she is the hottest, smartest, and most awesome girl on the planet. Due to this new realization, she takes chances she never thought she could before, she says what she thinks, and she also learns to love herself. Even if in doing all of these things, she does them in sometimes clumsy and weird ways. 

I love this movie as well. I was worried about watching it because I am not a huge fan of Amy Schumer's stand -up. However, She was wonderful in this movie and I loved that she looked like she was having a ball in everything she was doing. 

So, after a very long winded post, we are finally at the end. The sad thing is I have to do three of those recipes every month, so this one will get longer. However, I am looking forward to a wonderful year. 

Follow The Yellow Brick Road: Januray

 I love Knoxville. I have had that a million times and I will say it a million more! I love Knoxville. I was one of the few people that didn't want to leave this place after high school. I wanted to be here all the time. That love has only grown in the last few years because of some of the wonderful opportunities that I have been able to be apart of. I am really excited because I know that I get to learn so much about my hometown this year and I will be sharing it here. 

We are also going to talking about some famous Knoxvillians that we have come to know over the years. We are going to start of with someone we all wanted, or didn't want, as a little brother from the early 2000s Jake Thomas. 

Now, he is a bit older in this picture than most people might remember him. He is best known for his role of Matt McGuire in the TV show "Lizzie McGuire". He was born here in 1990, and has done very well for himself. He is still an actor, mainly on tv but a few movies, and went to Farragut High School. The movie he is best known for is The Lizzie McGuire Movie.

Lizzie is off to Rome! In this adventure we see Lizzie going to Rome to mark the end of her Middle School years, and to kick off high school. She is hoping to see art, eat good food, and hang out with her best friend Gordo. However, things get a little crazy when she get mistaken for one half of an Italian Pop group. The quest becomes is she going to become and awesome pop start, or is she going to embarrass herself like she did at her middle school graduation?

So, Lizzie is off to Rome, where did my book take me this month? Well, we went to 100 block of Gay Street, and to State Street. 

One the 100 Block stands these two Beautiful buildings. 

The building on the corner is called the Rebori Building. It was the original home the the Lawson Magee Library. In 1915 a man by the name of Rebori, who sold peanuts at his cart on the side of the building, purchased the building at auction. He preferred to sell peanuts, so he rented out the building and still sold his peanuts in the same spot. 

The Sterchi Building, that you can see the name of, was actually were a huge furniture Chain store was working out of. It actually has a country music history too. It was at the center of all of the up and coming country music artists that were playing around there. There was deli across the street that hosted country music and songs were sold. 

Now we go to State Street, right near were Knoxville, was born. The Frist Presbyterian Church on State Street is the first church in all of Knoxville.

The land for the church was given by James White, on of the founders of Knoxville, who gave up his turnip patch for the church and graveyard. The graveyard is actually older than the church. It was around for 20 years before the first church was built. The beautiful building that is there standing there today was completed in 1901, and has two Tiffany Windows. 

The graveyard is the final resting place for a great many founders, and leader in Knoxville. James White is buried here, as you can see above, but so is William Blount. He is one of the signers of the Constitution, and is the only one of those signers not buried in one of the 13 original colonies. He was also a Governor and, very briefly, one of the first two senators for Tennessee. The graveyard has been here since the 1790's and it's a well kept, and beautiful final resting place. 

So, I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson and I hope you will join me next month as well. 

Out with the old, in with 2022!

 Hello wonderful people who are probably not here reading this! Who cares, I don't do this for you all anyways, but if you are here welcome! I am so glad to be here with you in 2022, and I have some great stuff coming up! I am also happy because these blogs will only be three a month again instead of four some months, and three others. However, I do have some really fun, project happening this year so lets go ahead a jump right into what we are doing this year!

So, we are continuing the Wizard of Oz Themes projects this year with three new characters. They are Joy, inspired by the Munchkins, Confidence, inspired by the Apple Trees, and Discover, inspired by the Yellow Brick Road. Now, I tried very hard to make this not so complicated like I did with a few of mine from last year, but that didn't go as planned. I have a few complications with one of these but really it's more complicated that it sounds!

Joy is one of those things that you think you have when you are happy. However, Joy is more just happiness. It's there when you are happy, sad, hurt, there is something about joy that can change the outlook. It's always associated with hope and peace as well. The Joy Project is going to be called "Let the Joyous New Be Spread". So, finding the little things in life that bring you Joy is something that always comes to my mind. Like when I am in Downtown Knoxville, I always think of the noise the bricks make when you walk on them, pulling the string on the Trolley to make when you need to get off, the smell of a honeysuckle vine. I mean it's the little things in life right? Towards the end of last year I realized that there was a few funny national holidays that I thought would be fun to celebrate. Those national holidays only really are around to celebrate the little things. So, I went through some calendars that had them listed and picked out one fun day to celebrate every month. I have found movies that associate with these fine things and it will be fun just to do for a day. 

You can not tell me that when Dorothy starts her trip down the yellow brick road that she does not discover a few things along the way! The Yellow Brick Road is as big as a character in the movie as Dorothy herself is. You say "Yellow Brick Road" and everyone knows what you are talking about which is way the project is called "Follow the Yellow Brick Road". I am very excited about this project because past Daisy already did most of the work. A few years back, local Historian Jack Neely wrote a book called Historic Knoxville. It has all of the statues, landmarks, historic homes, in all of Knoxville. The book is well put together and sections off by homes, cemeteries, and things of that nature. Past Daisy wanted to see all of the things in the book and went ahead a made a google doc that had where all of the things were closest to each other and made a guide to be followed to see everything. Past Daisy didn't get much of a chance to go discover these things because, Covid. So, to my surprise Present Daisy went to go look at that old google doc and found that it's was already divided into 12 sections. So, one section a month for every month and it's going to be great! The coolest little known thing about Knoxville is that it's got a huge art history. There have been so many movies, tv shows, actors, directors, producers, artist, musicians that are from Knoxville, and so many people don't know! So, I made a list of 12 people in movies who are from Knoville, and will watch a film they are in or, that they produced or directed, and will review it! The list of 12 is not even everyone that is from here but it's going to be wonderful!

 

Confidence is by far the most complicated project I have going to me so far. I think I really like making things harder on myself. The reason the Apple Tree are the ones to represent confidence is because they are the only being's in Oz that like themselves so much that they are offended by almost anything anyone says or does to them. At one point they turn to Dorothy and Scarecrow and say "You think my apple aren't what they Ought to be" and that is now I came up with the name "What Ought To Be". Things that I ought to be doing to help my confidence instead of ignoring them. This is also not just in looking good, this is in being a more rounded human. Like in cooking, in dressing up, in looking people in the eyes. I made a list of 12 things I want to work on every month to be more confident in myself. You will get that list, and what else comes with it, when I post about the first month.

So, for whoever is still here I hope you will enjoy my next year of crazy. I already feel like I am behind and I just got started.