Skating is Great!

Since I've been posting about birthdays a lot this past week, I figured I would continue the tradition with a post about my sister's birthday party. Her party with her friends was at Magic Wheels, a skating rink that has been in this town since I was turning 8...and who knows how long before. Seriously, this place is ancient. (also, the title "Skating is Great!" is what is on the outside of the building...this place preaches truth, y'all)

I didn't really know what to expect, but I walked in and it was like a blast from the past...NOTHING HAS CHANGED. I half expected to run into the guy that worked there when I was kid. I remember him well...he looked like the love child of Danny Zuko and The Fonz (if that were even possible). He even had the Danny Zuko walk down...it was impressive. I may have had a small crush.

Sister and her friends skated for a while...but there really wasn't much of a crowd. It was kind of depressing how few people were there, but I guess it was good for the party. At least Sister and her friends had a safe, empty floor to skate on.

They also did a little party in one of the side rooms (which also happen to look the same). It was pizza, ice cream and cake. I still remember how hard it was to move around in those rooms with your skates on. You'd try to get up and just plop right back down because you couldn't get going....ahh good times.

 They did rearrange some stuff in this area, so I guess they did change SOMETHING

I'll be honest, I was dying to get out there and skate with them, but I didn't bring socks. It would be fun to get a group together and have a flashback skating party here...I'll work on this. In the meantime, maybe I'll throw on my skates and skate around the neighborhood.

I hope you all have a great Wednesday! This is my Friday this week because we get off for Fall Break. That's one of the huge perks of working at a University...you get to take some of the breaks with the students!

Monumental Occasion

(make sure you get to the bottom of this post for a special giveaway)

There's nothing better than unpacking boxes! Well, only if they hold things that haven't seen the light in quite a few years. Since my Grandma lived in my house before she downgraded, we still store some of her stuff. We (Paige- that's her in the grey, Mom and I) decided to go through some of it and see if any could go in our upcoming yardsale. We didn't get much yardsale material but we found some AMAZING games.

I didn't know Sorry! was an older game. For some reason I thought that all the games I used to play weren't invented until I was a child. I am DEFINITELY narcissistic. My mom got very excited about Spudsie. I think she actually jumped up and down a little!

Animal Twister?! Yes please! And I can't even tell you how many hours I spent playing Hide N Seek. It was so much fun, even though I always played it alone. Mom said that she and my uncle would play it all the time when they were kiddos. It makes me smile to think that Mom and I played the same game (same board, same pieces) as kids.

Clue was the only game I kept at my house. Mom took the rest to display at her house. I haven't put Clue out yet, but I was thinking I might display it on my built in bookshelves.

Anyone have some good suggestions for what I could do with it?

Now we get to the monumental occasion (as indicated in the title): 

I reached 100 followers!

Reaching those triple digits makes me so happy. Knowing that real, live people are reading my words and looking at my photos is just amazing. I hope you all enjoy the things I post about!

To celebrate this very happy occasion, I'm going to give away something that Mom and I found in our boxes! These are two vintage Coca-Cola bell shaped glasses, both in excellent condition and valued at around $15 (correct me if I'm wrong). I imagine these being used for some Coke floats! You could share one with your sweetie <3 or enjoy a nice cold soda with a friend. I love these glasses, so I want them to go to a good home.

I'm going to make this simple. To enter:

1. leave a comment telling me the best thing you ever found in storage! If you don't have one, just leave a comment to say hi.  Make sure to let me know how to contact you if you win. 

2. tweet about this giveaway (make sure to tag @kristimcmurry2) and comment to let me know. 

Each of these will be a separate entry (and separate comment), so you have two chances to win!

I'll be drawing the winner on Sept 20 (my little sis's birthday!) 

Thanks so much to all my followers. You are all so wonderful! Each comment you leave, makes me so happy... The little *bing* that lets me know I have mail always makes my little heart jump.

Virginia Pearl turns 70

Some of you may remember this post where I posted lots of great family photos. Well...my lovely grandmother was the subject of many of those photos and she turned 70 yesterday! To celebrate we had a family gathering of sorts at my Mom's place.

Clockwise from top: Mom licking her fingers under the Happy Birthday sign; Grandmama posing with her cake from Deaton's; Grandmama with all the grandkids; Me and my Grandmama!

"Are we almost done with pictures?"- Grandmama "Are you kidding? We've barely started!"- the rest of us.

Opening gifts and looking at family albums with her two sisters. 

Clockwise from top left: Kortney's boyfriend Brandon playing with Granddaddy's old pipe; Mom holding up the dress that she wore as a baby, I wore the same dress when I was a baby; Uncle Rich wearing Papaw's (? i think) old glasses. 

We brought out some sentimental things since we had the whole family together <3

Happy Birthday, Grandmama!

And since we're on the topic (sort of), here's a few more photos of my outfit.

This dress was bought from the lovely Etsy shop RustBeltThreads

vintage 1960s AND a lace pattern. absolute perfection.

Dress: RustBeltThreads

Belt: Express

Shoes: Target? Like forever ago. I think I wore those to jr. prom!

Earrings: RyeCreekStudio

Attempting a fun "jump on the bed" picture...not so much. 

I was trying to get a picture of my earrings in the left, but I just got a semi-emo picture of my face. I actually like it though, my freckles look decent here.

Nostalgia. Slides. Family.

There are several very vivid memories that I have from my childhood.  You know, things like crashing my bike into a metal trashcan, riding the Hangman at Opryland, boot scootin' with my Daddy and Papaw, etc.. One other thing I remember is that every time my mother's family got together, my grandfather would go through reels and reels of slides. These were family photos captured mostly by him. Sitting through slides was pure torture back then, but now I long for those days. Each slide had a different story, and there was always laughter a'plenty. I didn't develop an interest in photography until after he passed away, but Granddaddy had a huge hand in my love for the camera.

I could go on an on about Grandmama and Granddaddy, but I'm sure you'd fall asleep at your computer before getting past the first couple of paragraphs. I'll just leave you with some of the slides (thanks to my uncle, who converted them to digital)

Granddaddy was in the Navy, and the middle photograph is of him in Japan. I think the first on was taken in Hawaii. And of course I have to put the picture of him with his kick-butt Impala!

Precious little family. My mom and I look scary alike if you compare pictures from when we were kids. Also, Granddaddy was a fireman...wasn't he awesome?! That house in the first picture was were I spent a lot of my days as a kid. They eventually had to move because the neighborhood was getting rough. I don't know very many people that enjoy drive-by shootings in their front yard.

This is one of my favorite photographs EVER. I'm planning on getting this printed if I can get a hold of the original slide. That's Grandmama proving she can still ride a bike (and mom is the one in the black)

Mom was mad about something...but Uncle rich looks pretty giddy. Grandmama's outfit in the second one is so wonderful. She was a homemaker, so she didn't have fancy clothes, but her casual outfits were super cute.

As you can see, my family believed in hand-me-downs

Mom and her bro. There's one somewhere from Christmas where they each got musical instruments. They are posed like they're playing but they're facing straight ahead, just staring. There's just something about it that is so perfect.

That is just a mere fraction of the number of slides we used to go through...but I wouldn't trade those slide shows for anything in the world.

What are some family traditions that YOU remember from your childhood?

Rue McClanahan

America has lost a great woman today.

I watched The Golden Girls often as a kid, though I didn't really understand as much back then. Recently I've been watching it with my roommate, and I fell in love with Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia all over again! I was sad to hear the news of Rue McClanahan's (Blanche) death today.  I know she'll be honored in lots of ways, but for now here are some photos of Rue and The Golden Girls. She was a very beautiful woman, especially in her younger years.

Here's a little information about her from Wikipedia:


She began acting on Off-Broadway in New York City in 1957, but did not make her Broadway debut until 1969 when she portrayed Sally Weber in the original production of John Sebastian and Murray Schisgal's musical, Jimmy Shine, with Dustin Hoffman in the title role.
Her role as Caroline Johnson on Another World (from July 1970 - September 1971) brought her notoriety. On the show, while taking care of twins Michael and Marianne Randolph, Caroline fell in love with their father, John, and began poisoning their mother, Pat. The short-term role was extended to more than a year before Caroline was finally brought to justice after kidnapping the twins. Once her role on Another World ended, Rue joined the cast of the CBS soap Where the Heart Is, in which she played Margaret Jardin.

In The Golden Girls, broadcast from 1985 until 1992 and in The Golden Palace for one year afterwards, McClanahan portrayed man-crazed Southern belle Blanche Devereaux. She received an Emmy Award in 1987 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on the show. 


An animal welfare advocate and vegetarian, McClanahan was one of the first celebrity supporters of PETA.

In 2003 she appeared in the musical romantic comedy film The Fighting Temptations as Nancy Stringer. She replaced Carole Shelley as Madame Morrible in the musical Wicked on May 31, 2005. She played the role for eight months and departed the cast on January 8, 2006. 

Her autobiography, My First Five Husbands, was released nationwide in 2007.
In June 2008, The Golden Girls was awarded the 'Pop Culture' award at the Sixth Annual TV Land Awards. 

McClanahan's last acting role was in the cable series Sordid Lives on the Logo network, which premiered July 23, 2008, playing Peggy Ingram.

We'll miss you Rue! 

Film/Disposables

A couple of months ago, I developed about 4 rolls of film and 3 disposable cameras from the past four years. It was interesting to see what I had taken pictures of, and most of the earlier ones were boring. I love being able to forget about technical skills and just take a picture! Obviously the pictures are pretty bad quality, but I love them anyway <3

 -This is me taking a lame picture of myself in the mirror with my film camera. This was probably my sophomore year of college. I miss being that skinny...

- I haven't the slightest clue where this was taken.

-Mehilah at my church. This was a couple of years ago, and she has changed a lot since then. Her hair is now down to her butt!!! HA

-I don't know what happened here. I can tell there is some sort of cracked surface, but I can see the playground toys as well. I guess it's a reflection...who knows. I like it

-This is why I love film. Two great views in Gulf Shores when I went with my family

-My cute kitty with his toy dog.

-A lot of photography students took a trip to Nashville to visit the Frist and two photographers, Jeremy Cowart and David Bean. It was a great trip! I took a little disposable with me and had fun catching people off guard.

-Me and Alanna took a random trip to Nashville to shop and such. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some film strips.

-This was on the way to Nashville. I love skies like this

-We got to go to Urban Outfitters! LOVE! ; We love to pose by the crazy statues in Nashville...like this 5 foot ice cream cone ; I got a little crazy in the car ; Alanna tries to get away from the camera...but I caught her.

-One of the loves of my life. This is my little sister, Zoey. She's THE BEST!


I hope these weren't too boring. I think it's important to document your life, even if it's on a cheap disposable camera. Sometimes carrying that big dslr around is just not practical.

<3<3<3 Kristi