Retirement

Hmm, should we officially retire this blog?

There seems to not be much activity anymore...

But there definitely seems to be activity in the

weather for the next 10 days...RAIN!

Spring (I WISH!)

I wish I could claim that these were from my yard, but alas, a friend from work so kindly brought them over. They are the only "spring" I have so far considering everything else is at this stage...

I sooo miss the South....

Hillsong

First Wednesdays at Church of the Highlands are always worship nights. There was a rumor that Darlene from Hillsong would be leading worship, so you can imagine our delight when the Hillsong band showed up for two hours of praise and worship last night! They are playing in Atlanta Monday, so it's pretty awesome that they were able to swoop down to little old Birmingham, AL and treat us...

First Underground Masterplan

Someone awesome told me about this, and I wanted to share the news...

Apparently Helsinki, the recently announced World Design Capital for 2012, is to have the world's first underground city plan. The majority of the Finnish capital's centre can already be accessed through various underground links, and there are already a surprising amount of existing venues and utilities. These include central bus stations, which are located below street level and high-energy consuming data centers. Apparently the city has already over 9 million square meters of underground spaces!
With, as it seems, more to come....

Click here for link to video on masterplan.

New In Town

A Restaurant called "Mix." Sleek white interiors, a huge selection of breads and pastries, it's quickly becoming a favorite in Birmingham...

Cursive writing anyone?

Inspired

Initiated by Andrew and Lydia Thomson, a creative small group has turned into a free-for-all Bham gathering that is now hosted at SC headquarters. We meet about once every other month on a Thursday and share anything we get inspired about: Inspiration Thursday. The people that come now have no idea it was originally a COH small group. And that's what I like about it...

Good crowd:

United Pursuit

Today I stumbled upon this wonderful music from Knoxville Tennessee.

I wanted to share this video...

from their website:

"A musical collective bound together by friendship, united in vision, and a life lived together in community. United Pursuit defies today’s worship genre norms, always reaching for more . Their sound is diverse as their members, ranging from soaring worship anthems to powerful ballads, mixed in with folk influences and even a bit of gospel soul. What started as a dream, now has found its expression in a destiny-driven group of friends spanning this nation. Nathan Fray states their purpose clearly: “Our mission is to create a culture of worship and of hosting God’s presence, all centered around community living. It’s in this place of God’s life-giving presence that our songs are born and we pray will stir the heart of a generation to love Jesus and pursue Him with everything. This is our united pursuit.”

A couple days ago Scott was “casually” looking through the MLS listings when he stumbled upon a new house on the market. The home is one minute away from where we are renting now, and right next door to our good friends BJ and Emily. It was late (after 10pm), but we were anxious to see it in person. So, we went for a little drive. As we turned the corner and leaned forward in our seats our mouths dropped and brows rose. We were wide-eyed and grinning at first sight. Scott said, “wanna see if we can look at it tomorrow?” And, we did. The inside was just as pleasing as we hoped. It made our architectural hearts sing. The layout, scale, proportions, and quality of the spaces were excellent! We were sold.

Introducing The Smith’s first home…

Isn't it lovely?

Fire

A couple weeks ago a building caught fire downtown. It was the Powell School and the first and oldest school still in existence in downtown Birmingham. Thankfully it was vacant at the time (except for the vagrants that reportedly began the blaze). It was brutal. We are still waiting to hear if they will tear it down or if some generous soul will step forward to help us rebuild it. Sunday I went to take daytime photos. Two favorites:

More photos here.

A peek into the sketchbook of Michelle

Theme - Things Found on Restaurant Napkins

For the first month or two, every idea I attempted turned out in ruins. So, over a couple of weeks time, I had friends doodle on random napkins, took their doodles, glued them into my sketchbook, and went from there! Here's a preview of a few pages.

Note: I did not finish every page, and many times I finished a page I ended up not using the napkin at all, and several pages were left unfinished, but I mailed it anyway! You are seeing the pages I considered "finished." :) Also note, some of my inspiration came from you guys!

www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

A recent viewing of The Book of Eli made me think of this photo I took a couple weeks ago when were taking a drive around Birmingham:

An old abandoned warehouse and smokestacks, Ensley, AL

yellow siding + wood floors

It's funny when you know a place by the person who lives there.

It's like their thoughts and dreams and passions are suspended in the air like dust hanging in the sunlight. I wonder if you were to rest in their home long enough and breathe in that full air, would all those little beautiful things that make them them become a part of you, as well?

I present to you my dear friend, miss allison tyler.

I think so

IN SEARCH OF EUSTACE

At 2:07am on the 9th of October 1992 my life changed forever. My daughter Rachael was born...

Rachael is her own person. She has her faith and beliefs. She has an understanding of others and she has her passions and points of view (and don't I know it). She smiles when she wants and cries likewise. Her naivety and innocence inspires me and her humility assures me of perhaps something as parents we got right.

Here she is photographed by her father...

ali introduced me to this article :)

http://theanthropologist.net/#/DavidEustace/InSearchOfEustace/Portraits

Tags Around Town:

Check this out--new website!!

www.chapmansisson.com

NYE nashville

happy new year!

got to listen to this gal in nashville new years eve!