Bonnet, Bowler, Beanie, Beret

"When you wear a hat, it is like medicine for the soul..."
- Anonymous

Lately, I've been thinking we need to bring the hat back into everyday wear.

You know, everyday wear as in - not just for royal weddings and couture fashion extravaganzas.

Seriously, what could be more dashing/daring/darling/dapper than these stylish toppers?

1920's Cloche Hat

And you men aren't exempt from this look! Sinatra loved a good head warmer:

"Cock your hat - angles are attitudes." -Frank Sinatra

Even US Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, has something to say on this subject...

The Death of the Hat

Once every man wore a hat.

In the ashen newsreels,
the avenues of cities
are broad rivers flowing with hats.

The ballparks swelled with thousands of strawhats,
brims and bands,
rows of men smoking
and cheering in shirtsleeves.

Hats were the law.
They went without saying.
You noticed a man without a hat in a crowd.

You bought them from Adams or Dobbs
who branded your initials in gold
on the inside band...

I officially declare the Hat Revolution begun.

Hats Off,

How To Enjoy Autumn 101

1. Purchase pumpkins, apples, and mums from your local farm or orchard.

2.Pull out your best apple cider recipes. Serve in toile mugs with cinnamon sticks stirrers.

3.Make s'mores by a campfire.

4. Buy cloves and cinnamon. Throw them in a pot along with orange peels and some boiling water. Homemade potpourri is the best!

5. Purchase a kitschy scarecrow from your local craft store. Name him.

6.Bundle up, go outside, and appreciate the colors. Find the best acorns and leaves and savor them for awhile. Put them in your pockets. Hold them up to the light.

7. Constantly be on the lookout for leaves with the best "crunchage".

8. Go to the county fair and walk through the quaint haunted house. Ride the ferris wheel. Eat caramel apples and cotton candy.

9. Go to a corn maze. Throw away the map and just run around in the dark with a flashlight. With friends.

10. Only eat things A.) Covered in caramel B.) Having to do with apples and pumpkins.

11. Try to work the words "autumn" and "fall" into every conversation. At least twice.

12. Take a drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

13. Wear plaid and jewel tones.

14. Invest in a pair of socks covered in leaves or pumpkins.

15. Read "fall-books." Some of my favorites are The Perilous Gard, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and any Sherlock Holmes adventures or Agatha Christie novels. Also, John Updike has a great children's book entitled A Child's Calendar with some great fall poems.

16. Watch mystery movies like Arsenic and Old Lace, The Village, and Bob Hope's The Cat and the Canary.

17. Go on a hayride.

18. Make a jack-o-lantern for Halloween. Then make another.

19. Buy a candy-corn scented candle.

20. Have a pumpkiny pancake breakfast with apple cider syrup and hot chocolate.

21. Incorporate nutmeg into your life as much as possible.

22. Buy new leather boots and a fuzzy scarf.

23. Watch It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown once every day. On Saturdays, watch it twice.

24. Rake leaves together until you have a massive pile. Jump in them. Be gleeful and child-like as you do this.

25. Be happy. Because fall is here!

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

~George Eliot~

Enjoy,

Feeling A Bit Like Robert Frost Lately...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

There is a reason this poem graces the pages of every middle school literature anthology in America. It also makes sense that the immensely approachable Frost won a Pulitzer at least four times. This poem is real. It describes what all of us, 7th graders or MA graduates (as is soon to be my story), feel at some point or another.

I begin my last (!) semester of grad school this Monday. How quickly/slowly the time has gone! And after? I do not know what will happen. Perhaps an adjunct teaching position at my alma mater? International travel (My husband and I seem to have an unquenchable thirst for all things international)? Teaching homeschool groups English and Spanish? Publishing (writing is a given)? Heaven forbid, more school? I know that the possibilities are endless! I will try to keep you all posted on what is soon to be an exciting and scary season of our lives and will try to be a bit more regular with my posts as well!

A Goal Completed

Hello!

Just wanted to post a couple pictures of Stuart's "Tar Heel" 10 miler a few weeks ago! This was his first race, and he did f-a-b-u-l-o-u-s! I was so proud of him! He had trained hard for this for several months, and was so excited about running around his old stomping grounds.

So we got up at 4am on April 10th and drove to Chapel Hill, NC. It was a long day, but a lot of fun for everyone!

Here he is before the 10 miles.

Noah (my brother-in-law) and I both went to root Stuart on, which he said encouraged him a great deal. We would hurry to the various mile markers and shout his name and clap for him when he passed. As you can see, he always had a big grin on when we did that!


I believe Stuart averaged about 8 1/2 minutes per mile, which we thought was super great, especially for his very first race.

I'm sure there will be lots more races to come in the future!

Off for a run....

Long Time, No Blog.

Hello Everyone,

It has been a long time, huh? Fortunately, this week I have a small breather from school and I wanted to catch up with all my blog world friends. I hope all of you are well and that life is going swimmingly.

Here's a short update, to prove that I really have been taking pictures the last few months!

January:

I started school, and life ended as Stuart and I knew it. Late nights, early mornings, many nights with little to no sleep, fast meals, eating out, whiny students, getting tough on whiny students, learning how to be a teacher on the fly, thinking about what to write my thesis on, endless streams of email, deadlines, deluges of 10-15 page research papers to write, irritating professors, learning how to be a student and a teacher at the same time, meeting lots of really cool people, and chaos in general has since taken over our lives. Welcome to the world of academia.

Stuart 27th birthday! It was a great event! He requested we go to Ruby Tuesday to get one of his favorite meals: the "Smokehouse Burger." So we did! And we had a small party at home with presents and of course, his favorite chocolate cake.


We also had a Tar Heels theme for his birthday decorations. You can see one of the streamers in the back has fallen down!

Other January events: Going to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" with my brother Andrew and his family. So great to see them! We enjoyed spending time with the girls, and much to my surprise, they weren't scared of the roaring dinosaurs one bit! When I asked Zoe if she was worried about the dinosaurs (because her eyes were as big as saucers), she just said, "No. He'll eat those people over there!" and pointed to the other side of the coliseum. Haha. I love her so much.

February:

Valentine's Day was especially fantastic this year. We went out to eat at this great restaurant called "Main Street 221," which has a German flare to it. I think that was the name. Stuart would know for sure. He always remembers restaurant names. He gets it from his dad I think. Anyway, this is the Valentine I made for Stu-Baker.



And this is me opening my V-Day gift from Stuart, which was absolutely fabulous! It was a picture album of all the things we did in 2009 together. He made it on Kodak Gallery during his lunch breaks while I was at work. He said it took him about a month or so to make it and get it just perfect. And it was! I cried. It was the best Valentine's we've ever had together! The book consists of 85 pages of pictures in several different layouts on a pretty background and Stuart's captions. Precious! We are thinking of making it a tradition for each year!

Other February Events: Finding out my brother and his wife are expecting their third baby. If all goes well, I'll be an aunt for the 10th time!


March:

Big month! I finished up one of my grad classes after several grueling weeks of projects (yay!), Stuart and I officially joined our church and attended a reception at our pastor's house, I had a wonderful Spring Break in New Bern, North Carolina with Stuart and my bro, Harrison, and I attended a lingerie shower for my lovely sister-in-law Mary-Alice, who I only get to share a last name with for a few more weeks. We also had some great fellowship with our friends Everett and Mary Mounts, who are friends from my old church in Danville. They are so encouraging to us and we loved spending time with them! Here are a few pics of the shower and Spring Break....

The lovely table of refreshments set up for the bride-to-be....


Michael Stuart- the only boy allowed at the party!



Mary-Alice enjoying some shower treats....


The guest of honor enjoying a cuppa!


Mom Graydon served up punch to everyone!



Next up - Spring Break!

The water at Atlantic Beach was freezing, but that didn't stop me from dipping my toes in....



Stuart the beach bum!


Harrison entertained us the entire week with his crazy antics and impersonations. Here he is experimenting with the effects of static electricity on his hair.....



So, that about wraps it up for this post. I will try to be more diligent in my updates, but no promises! : )

Things we are looking forward to in April....

*Stuart's first 10 mile run in Chapel Hill, NC.
*Mary and Fred's wedding!

See you all in the funny papers!

Happy January!

What a joy to be writing this post to all of you out there in this new, wonderful year of 2010! Stuart and I had a wonderful trip home to see family and friends, and we hope you all did as well!

A few short thoughts from me and I'm off to enjoy the evening and the movie Up with Stuart (which I've heard is actually pretty fantastic)!

1. I'm in grad school mode right now. This is a very busy week I have ahead of me, filled with test taking, book reading for early assignments, and several tasks to complete at LU, such as getting an office badge made and visiting Human Resources. It is my last week of freedom, so I'm trying to enjoy it as well as get everything on my list done!

2. Stuart's 27th birthday is this Friday! So this week is all about keeping birthday surprises from the birthday boy. I would tell you what I'm getting him, but he might be reading this.....

3. As we speak, Stuart is hanging some shelves my brother and sister-in-law so generously gave to us up in our kitchen. We also bought some other furniture for the kitchen while we were at home as well as a few accessories. I am so excited about this! Everything is coming along so nicely and it feels great to have at least one room that seems to be almost done! I really adore interior design and I enjoy scrounging around antique and home stores looking for that little item that says, "Staley!" on it.

4. Time for a few blog changes! I'm not sure if I'm going to change my blog background (although I've been thinking about it), but I am changing up a few other things. Obviously, I'm not doing the "100 books" challenge anymore (see #5 for more info), so that'll be coming down, but I probably will keep up something to do with my reading. This year will obviously be filled with more academic readings, but I am hoping to fit in some biographies as well. And since it is a new year, I thought I would replace The Importance of Being Earnest quotes with a new book! I haven't decided what yet. All in all, just be on the lookout for some switch-ups. Got to keep life interesting you know!

5. Soooo, I didn't make it to 100 books in 2009, but I did make it to 54! Over half way! I was extremely happy with this, as the reason I gave myself the exhorbitant goal of 100 books was so I would push myself to read more. I was looking back over my list for the year and thinking, "Wow! I read so many great stories and authors last year!" I am also super proud of Stuart, who read 9 books this year! He said that I inspired him with my passion for books (awww) and that he was also concerned about his brain "rotting away" after his college graduation. After I told him about some of the benefits of reading, and some of the sad statistics about adult readers, he was hooked! We are both committed to reading and studying our whole lives, and handing down this wonderful gift to our children too. I strongly urge all of you to read! Even if it is only 1 book a year, set a goal for yourself and start! It will reward you your whole life through....


So, that is about it for now around Neverland! Hope you all are having a great 2010 so far!

Love,

We're No Scrooges....

Merry Christmas!

As the cheery sounds of "It's a Marshmallow World" dance down our hallways, I am writing this blog post to give you a peek of our very first Christmas at Neverland!

I have immensely enjoyed our decorations thus far. As of today, I am done with tutoring until next year (I think Christmas break is even better as a teacher than it was as a student), and I am basking in the simple pleasures of the season; taking a few extra moments to shake packages under our red and silver Christmas tree, standing under the mistletoe with Stuart (many, many times a day!), and reading my favorite Christmas stories.

I hope you and your loved ones can find time to do the same in this over-too-quickly time of year!

Enjoy the photos!

Our staircase wrapped in Christmas garland...



Our front door Christmas wreath....


A close up. I love the butterflies and the fruit, even though it was a giant pain getting the latter attached!



This is the miniature tree we put up in the office for Stuart. I went up there one day, and peeked in and it made me sad that I was enjoying all of the decorations everywhere else in the house while he was stuck at the desk. So, voila! He has his own Christmas cheer near his desk!


This is a portion of my Christmas library. All of the downstairs windows are sporting their own Christmas titles, including some of my childhood favorites like Madeline's Christmas... it is so fun to decorate with books!



This is Iorek (pronounced "your-ick"), and he actually doubles as Christmas and Valentine's decor. Look at him, living the life on our bed....Stuart gave him to me, because he loves to give me stuffed animals...


Our sophisticated, not cheesy at all, snowman countdown piece.....

Ah...this is my "A Christmas Carol" table. This year most of it consists of snow, because I am slowly building my Jim Shore figurine collection. I have two more to get, and some other copies of the book as well. I just love it though! Especially Jacob Marley's miniature chains....such a great Christmas story! I don't why, but Chuckie D. (I call him that because we're pretty close) just makes me want to cry like a baby....



Here is our first beautiful Christmas tree! We've had one neighbor stop by and compliment us on it and the wreath! And I must admit, Stuart and I are very proud of it. We worked hard coordinating the colors together...well, Stuart told me what he envisioned and I coordinated, but still, it was a team effort! We're thinking about adding other trees as the years go on....huh. It is funny, but I never pictured us as "Christmas people." You know, the ones who have 12 trees in their house and all that, but we have had such a good time decorating together, that I think we might be after all! Maybe next year we'll add a UNC tree for Stuart and a Victorian one for me! I'm also thinking about a Travel tree. It is our tradition to buy a Christmas ornament wherever we go, and we've accumulated quite a few! It would be fun to have them all on one tree as a tribute to our adventures together!


Okay, our stockings were so fun to pick out! We went to Target together and decided to pick out each other's stocking. Our only rule was that it had to "reflect" the other's personality. And all I can say is...wow. Stuart knowingly picked out a pink Shabby Chic stocking for me, trimmed with pink velvet and adorned with a jeweled crown. I was more worried about Stuart's...mine was so obviously me, but his was harder to pin down. Then I saw it! A reindeer stocking dressed in green (a color Stuart is in half of the time), with the little reindeer holding a chalkboard. Augh! Stuart loves chalkboards. Stuart has a chalkboard. I remember when I would visit him at UNC, I would write little love notes on the chalkboard he had for him to see when he would practice his math problems on it. And whenever we made a meal together there, we would make up a name for our imaginary restaurant and I would write it on the board in artistic lettering. Anyway, the stocking was such a perfect representation of that piece of his personality that of course I picked it up and waved it in triumph! We've hung them on our little banister at home...


In short, we're really embracing our Christmas together! We've watched several Christmas movies together, and are making many new traditions together, but trying to keep some old ones as well. Stuart was actually leaning towards not going home for Christmas, but having our own celebration here, and just going home for New Year's Eve, but eventually decided against it because both of our families are expecting us already. So, we're keeping that tradition for now! Also, for those of you who don't know it, Bedford is actually "The Christmas Capital of Virginia." Seriously. We have a sign and everything. We've gone to look at some great lights, but missed the town meeting in the square with the hot chocolate, carriage rides, and the decorating of the town Christmas tree. Also we missed the Christmas parade. We just found out too late because it is our first year here. Next year we'll be there because we love living in a small town and want to show our support!

We're trying to do something Christmas oriented every night, so tonight I think we're decorating Christmas cookies together, and I'm trying to find "Charlie Brown's Christmas" or the cartoon "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" because Stuart hasn't seen either one of them. Sadness. They are two of my favorites! When he first told me that I thought he was teasing me, but no! There are really people who haven't seen these Christmas classics! One thing we do have in common is our love for "Mickey's Christmas Carol." We ordered it off of Amazon last year and love it, it brings back great memories of childhood for both! And of course we both love Patrick Stuart in "A Christmas Carol" as well as "It's a Wonderful Life" and many others!

I encourage all you bloggers to do something fun this last weekend before Christmas! It only comes once a year!

Signing Off,

Typical Staley

This picture sequence pretty much sums up our relationship....

Haley enjoying a book, soaking up a good storyline....


Stuart enjoying a book, seeking intellectual stimulation and very interested in what he's reading....


Haley getting jealous and saying, "Hey, I want to be what you're interested in! I'm intellectually stimulating and cute!"


And as usual, he falls for my wiles hook, line, and sinker!

Evil laugh....

Turkey and Such

I'm just going to give a quick recap of our Thanksgiving week in photographs....

Enjoy!


Stuart relaxing on the couch at my Mom and Dad's before lunch...

Stuart stocking up on the Thanksgiving goodies (especially the potato casserole!)



My fantastic parents! They were also the hosts of our first Thanksgiving dinner that day! When we went around the table and shared what we were thankful for, it was unanimous...Mom's restored health, her safety through her thyroid surgery, and most of all....a cancer free body! Thank you, Lord!


The whole Thanksgiving crew (we missed you Young and Williams families!)

On to Thanksgiving #2! This is me holding my always happy nephew, Michael. What a cutie! I'm only sad that I don't get to see my newest nephew, Matthew Thomas, because he's on the other side of the world from me!

Anyway, this Thanksgiving was held at Stuart's aunt and uncle's home. There were over 30 people there! Crazy!



Apparently, everyone was tired after eating except Mary......


And this last picture is of my niece Zara the day after Thanksgiving. She was helping us decorate the Christmas tree. It was adorable. She would watch my dad unravel the lights and try to help him, which of course, complicated things! Her whole face lit up when we finally turned the lights on for the first time. Here she is with some ornaments.....

All in all, it was a great week! Except for the part where Stuart and Harrison talked me into going to Wal-Mart in Danville at 1am to view all the Black Friday mayhem. I was dead on my feet by the time we arrived there. All that Thanksgiving food sinking into my body no doubt! I'm a night owl at heart, always lurking around until early hours of the morning, reading, cleaning, or, in tonight's case, updating our blog. So imagine Stuart and Harrison's surprise when I, the ringleader of all nighttime activities, zoned out and trudged around Wal-Mart after them like a zombie......When we got back, I slid in between the sheets while Stuart and Harrison went to the kitchen for ice cream. All Stuart could say was,

"I can't believe you're in bed before me!"

I didn't hear the rest.....

Happy Christmas-ing!

It Ain't Easy Being Green... or... How We Spent Our Weekend

This past weekend was really wonderful and really, really awful all at the same time....which in my experience is a lot like life in general. Great times corresponding with really hard situations...but I digress! On to the good, the bad, and the scary...

Friday

A great day! Stuart was on what I like to call his "Friday High" all day long. I think for him, the anticipation of the weekend is better than the weekend itself sometimes! He likes for me to stay in the office with him sometimes if I'm not tutoring or doing other chores around the house, so on Friday afternoon I basked in the sunshine filled office with a worn copy of Little Women and my journal, keeping him company while he worked. Bliss! We had plans later that night to eat at Moe's Southwestern Grill, go shoe shopping, and see this:






Those of you who know me know I am a huge fan of all things A Christmas Carol (and all things Charles Dickens for that matter), and this was the perfect opportunity to kick off the holiday season! What I didn't know or expect was that it was digitally animated (think Polar Express with Tom Hanks). We actually saw it in 3D, which means we had to wear those goofy glasses they charge you a fortune for. But! No matter to us! We were on a date, and Stuart of course had me giggling like crazy with his glasses and general hilarity. The storyline really didn't vary much from the book version, and the visuals were really stunning, especially with the 3D effects. Stuart was a little disappointed that it wasn't more humorous (being that Jim Carrey was playing pretty much every role in the movie), but still thought it was very well done. We shared our usual Coke Icee and popcorn and were two very contented lovers!


Saturday

Mostly bad! I woke up sick, sick, sick. Ugh. All I could do was curl up with my heating pad and try and rest. Achy, dizzy, headache.... No fun Saturday adventures for us! Or so I thought. Stuart very sweetly stayed with me and talked to me, and somewhere during that conversation we decided to paint the kitchen...for real. No more deliberating on the green swatches splattered against our wall! Just pick a green and go with it! So we did! I blame that decision on the Extra Strength Tylenol....no really....because there is no way I would have spent all of Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and Monday afternoon painting if I hadn't been feeling...extra powerful. But we love it! Sure, it took forever because I needed to rest quite often and we had to tape up 3 million things, but hey...

it is so done....

Here's a picture of the painful taping process...



Don't have one of the finished product yet, because I don't consider it one! So you'll have to be patient!

Well, after collapsing into bed on Saturday night, I thought the excitement was over. No no! At 3:45ish I woke up not feeling too well (I went to sleep with a bucket by my bed...I hate nausea, don't you?) and was pretty restless. I got up to go to the restroom and then I slid beneath the covers once again and tried to fall asleep....

So there I was...

minding my own business.....

trying to go to sleep.....

trying not to be sick.......

when................................................................................



I heard a noise. A car actually. Somewhat in the distance. Which isn't highly unusual being that we live in a neighborhood and all, but still.... I noted it.

And then....my stomach tensed.


Was that a gunshot?

I thought, "No, it's just the car backfiring. It sounds like it has a really loud engine and all that, so that must be what it is. How obnoxious!"

But then all in a rush, I heard tires squealing, and the engine roaring closer and closer and then...

another gunshot!

A really loud gunshot.

"Stuart!" I cried ( in what can only be described as a panic-stricken voice), sitting up like a rocket in bed.

Stuart was awake in an instant saying, "I heard it! I heard it! It was in my dream! Gunshots in my dream!" (We've kind of laughed about this since then, because his reaction was so fast but still so muffled and sleepy sounding. If I hadn't been so freaked, I probably would have laughed right then!)

We ran down the hallway and into the office, both of which are on the second floor of our house. The office has 5 windows in it, and you can see everything that's going on outside, so that was naturally where we headed. Instinctively, we dropped into a crawl once we hit the office, not knowing what might be going on outside. Stuart warned me to stay down as he looked out of the windows, but whoever it was had turned around in our cul de sac and gotten the heck out of dodge. Needless to say, we were exhausted, shaken up, and worried. What on earth had happened? We found out later from some neighbors that no one was hurt, but some windows were shot out of at least one of the houses being built around us. Sooo, in the last couple of days I haven't been sleeping too well, and tense up every time I hear a car driving by. I don't know if it was a prank or what, but it definitely messes with your security, you know? And we live in a really safe, family friendly area, so nobody is really sure why this happened as of right now.

Sunday

Well, after a not so restful night of being sick and worrying about being murdered in my bed (you know, the usual), we slept in and missed church. Stuart let me sleep. And sleep. And sleep. I woke up about noon, still not feeling like myself, but a bit better with no nausea. We pretty much just rested and painted a little and that night, since the kitchen was totally destroyed, we did something absolutely unheard of in the Graydon household. We went out to dinner for the second time in one weekend. Ruby Tuesday is only about 5 minutes from our house, so we got all cleaned up (which made me feel a lot better in and of itself) and headed out the door, talking about how approx. 4 years earlier (November 5, 2005 to be exact), on our first date at the Colonial Ball, we had no idea that on this night approx. 4 years later we would be married and painting our kitchen and going to Ruby Tuesday because we were tired and our appliances were all covered in plastic (I'm sure all you married couples know this game). We snapped a fast photo as we headed out...


See? Not a speck of green or a single bullet hole on us or in us!


Well, that was the first weekend in November for us! Hope yours was a little less exciting than ours was!

Kicking off the holidays with a bang-bang,