The Starling's Journey

Navigating through weird

September 4, 2015 by JSJ

So, I just started typing out this blog post and the first paragraph basically turned out to be all about how crazy I am. I deleted it because, well, first off I don’t want anyone worrying about me and second I don’t want anyone having any ammunition should they decide they want to try to commit me as a part of some evil plan. Yes, yes, I watch way too many movies.

I don’t know though. I really have been feeling weird. Just weird. Not even sick or anything like that, just weird. No other word to describe it. It almost kinda freaks me out but at the same time, I think I’m just going to chalk it up to some crazy things happening out there with the stars and planets and see it as maybe I’m just becoming more..me. Does that make sense? Probably not. How about, learning me. That works a little bit. I don’t know. It’s hard for me to articulate how I’m feeling or anything really that’s going on in my head lately so I guess that’s why I’ve been MIA here (and everywhere else).

After our trip to the Dirty Dancing Festival, I just started to head into a valley I suppose. Perfectly normal, ah such is life kinda thing. Hopefully I will snap out of it soon but I’m certainly working my behind off trying to stay positive and really keep moving forward. I think a lot of times these valley times are hard to get out of because low can feel so low, it’s like…does this ever end?! Those thoughts perpetuate never ending low places I believe though, so I’m really trying to get out of that sort of mental behavior.

So enough with the deep stuff but that’s all I’ve got today! I’m crossing my fingers that this 3 day weekend will really give me some rejuvenation. I hope it does the same for you! Cheers to committing to positivity even when we’re in valleys or things seem super weird.

Happy Labor Day weekend all!

Catch up on my recent trip to the Dirty Dancing Festival here, here and here ♥

The Dirty Dancing Festival: Saturday- August 15 & Sunday- August 16, 2015

September 2, 2015 by JSJ

Hey yall!!!

I’m super stoked to dive back into talking about our trip to the Dirty Dancing Festival today!!! I was originally planning to post the second day’s events coughcough last week BUT my week got away from me for many reasons (more on that later) so I decided to combine two posts into one since Sunday was just the day that we headed back home. If you missed the first two installments of this little shindig, just check the links at the bottom and you can get caught up ;)

So! We’ve already covered the basics about the festival and the events of Friday, the first day of the festival. Today I want to share mainly about our busiest day, Saturday.

The festival program

Saturday was the day of the main event. This was the day where the vendors would be out, the performances would be happening and the dance classes would occur. Everything was beginning at 9am. Breakfast at the lodge was from 8am to 9:30am. After feeling the comfort of the bed in our room (no seriously, most comfortable bed ever), we decided we would sleep in, get breakfast, lounge on that comfy bed, then get up and get ready to go. Breakfast was SO good and the view was lovely. It was a little chilly, but with a sweater, it was near perfect.

A quick photo I snapped of Andre at breakfast

After some lounge time in our room, we got ready to head back out to the park to check out the festivities!

We made time for a little selfie action outside our room sign

I had to get an independent selfie because the lighting on that side of the deck was perfection

Then I had to get a car selfie because I just got these sunglasses at some store for $5 and I’m kinda obessed with them

Upon arriving at the beginning of places where you could park to walk to the festival (after a good bit of traffic that we didn’t mind at all because the drive/view was kinda soothing), my husband decided that he had found a space that may or may not be a space, but he was going to park there anyway.

Possible motorcycle parking space?

He said we fit just enough. So after juuust a minute of questioning if this was ok, I decided to roll with it because a ton of people started parking a couple spaces down from us in what clearly was not designated parking space. At least we had lines. Kinda. We were going to have to walk about 1/2 a mile (warning: I have no concept for milage) to the park but it wasn’t a bad walk as there was a boardwalk that was shaded by trees on either side and a beautiful view of the lake that began with the view of this little lake beach!

We could have gone and enjoyed it but we weren’t prepared to do so. It wasn’t expensive at all at $8 per person. Across the street is the Bed and Breakfast where Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey stayed while filming in Lake Lure. We definitely are planning to hit this spot up next time we come!

Of course now that I’m drafting this, I am realizing we didn’t take any photos at the actual festival. I really wanted to get a photo of us in front of the festival sign but it wasn’t up when we were there. I’m not sure if they had it up then took it down but I was bummed. You might already know this as I haven’t been able to stop mentioning it. ha!

We were going to take one of the dance classes being offered but one of the down sides of the festival was that there wasn’t enough water and the line for the one vendor that still had water was SO long (being a fairly new festival, I expected this would probably happen so I wasn’t ill about it or anything but I do wish I would have brought my own water bottle).

After walking around the festival for a bit and watching a couple of the performances, we decided to walk back down the boardwalk and grab lunch at a restaurant that had an amazing view of the lake. It was so hot walking back though that we totally decided to skip sitting outside and sit in the bar. Surprise, surprise! Turns out, that area had huge windows with an awesome view too.

our view at lunch

We did eat at the festival so at the restaurant we just had a drink (water too! ha!) and a small appetizer. Afterwards we went back to the car and headed back to the lodge to rest up before going back to the park to watch the lake lift competition later that evening. Having the lodge so close to the park was amazing. We went into the bar area and got ourselves a glass of wine and went out to enjoy the breeze on the lakeside deck. Silly selfies happened of course.

We went back to the park only to find that the lake lift competition had been cancelled due to thunder and lightening. SAD TIMES! I was so excited to watch that but public safety is of course the priority. We went back to the lodge to shower, relax, mingle and get dinner at the in house restaurant before the after party later that night.

My handsome date!

Dinner was wonderful, the service was great as well and the view was gorgeous!

Plz excuse my husband’s finger in this photo!

Then it was off to the after party!!

The party was held at a little tiki bar not too far up the road from where the festival events were held. It was a lot of fun just sitting and watching everyone up and dancing to all the old school music they were playing, but we did get out on the dance floor ourselves a couple times!

I really was having a fun time, but sleepyheadedness got the best of me so we decided to turn in early. The next day, Sunday, we had one last breakfast out by the lake and packed up to start our journey home. And even though we weren’t able to get a photo with the dirty dancing sign, we got a photo with our lodge sign!

the casual/comfy/crazy apparel for the drive home…

So there you have it! Those are the last details of our trip to the Dirty Dancing festival! We really did have a wonderful time. Yes, there were some things about it that needed tweaking (people were very vocal about it on facebook….) but I thought it was great. For a festival that has only been up and running for 6 years to see the growth that it has is great and I know it will continue to get better as the years progress and more options are available to the organizers.

I would honestly say I recommend hitting this event up for sure if you want a reason to steal away with your honey for the weekend. Andre and I were very relaxed with our approach and expectations and we came away knowing that we would definitely be visiting this event again in the future!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week!

Catch up on my previous Dirty Dancing Posts..

The Dirty Dancing Festival: Lake Lure, NC

The Dirty Dancing Festival: Friday- August 14, 2015

A Dirty Dancing re-cast!

The Dirty Dancing Festival: Friday- August 14, 2015

August 24, 2015 by JSJ

Our “we made it!” photo

Happy Monday everyone!

I know, Monday is the worst for some of you but I’m super excited today because I’m spilling all the beans about my trip to the Dirty Dancing Festival! If you were here Friday, you got the basic details about the festival- when, where, accommodations- you can check that post out here to catch up. I highly recommend checking out the lodge where we stayed because if you’re ever in the area, it’s a cozy little spot to secure a stay with. We loved it. The walk along the deck to our room looked something like this:

I guess I took this photo on the ‘square’ setting! ha!

It felt hidden away and private, but still with gorgeous views. Our room was on the very end of the deck so even though we seemed to be the youngest guests there, it still felt nice to have that extra secluded feeling. We stayed in the Secret Garden room. There were so many things we loved about it (great tub, AMAZING bed) but we might try a different room next time just because they all seem so cool!

Upon arriving, we had just enough time to settle in and get ready to head to the movie screening. The park where the festivities were happening was actually super close to the lodge so we ended up having enough time to stop by the ‘mingling hour’ the lodge hosts every evening for the guests. It includes a complimentary glass of wine so you know that motived me to hurry up and get ready ;) We snapped a quick selfie or two before heading down to explore the deck.

The wonderful concierge (who was gracious enough to assist us with our luggage) told us about some renovations happening on the deck below. There wasn’t any disruption during our stay and guests were still able to take the path down to the seating area, although at the time it might not have looked like it. They seemed to be more than halfway through some renovations of the bottom deck. I think he said a bathroom was going down there, they had built some sort of stage (probably for weddings, etc.) and were staining brand new furniture. Hopefully we will get to see the finished product in the future!

Still working on that whole ‘posing while not feeling awkward’ thing

The view minus me

An awesome house across the lake (with a view of some of the new construction)

After taking a short walk around the grounds it was time to head to the park for the movie screening. This is when we ran into this cutie pie-

I never did get his name but Andre said he had heard about him. He wasn’t nervous around people but he definitely didn’t seem like he cared to be pet, a strange thing for us to comprehend seeing as our cats adore to be pet all the time. It was nice to see his face when coming and going though :)

We decided to get to the park an hour early in hopes of securing a good seat. We were glad we got there as early as we did, although if we were to go again, we would probably go even a little earlier. Fortunately, we still had seats with a good view of the screen.

I didn’t get a picture of the movie playing because my phone died!

That is a close up of the amazinngggggg house in the background of the photo of the projector screen. Look at it again, you’ll se the house waaay up in the distance in the top right hand corner of the photo. Crazzzyyyy. I wish my phone hadn’t of died I would have taken a picture of it at night with the gigantic lights that illuminate the whole front. I told Andre I thought it might just be a hotel. I think he’s still convinced it’s a house but if it is, it must get used to play the homes of cartel leaders in movies because that’s exactly what it looked like.

We decided to go ahead and begin our picnic as we were waiting for it to get dark so the movie could start!

Our picnic consisted of potato salad, cranberry chicken salad with a hoagie type roll to put it on and watermelon (of course!). To drink we had lemonade…which I promptly knocked everywhere not too long after I took this photo. Thank goodness we brought backups. ha!

What I found to be super exciting was that there was never a long line for the bathroom. That was great. The mountain views were amazing as well! It was a perfect backdrop for a wonderful evening. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a photo with the sign and they didn’t have it up the next day for some reason. That was definitely a bummer!

What was fortunate though was that it didn’t rain as the forecast had called for. We were laughing about the fact that I always have an umbrella and I didn’t that night. We decided to go ahead and make a plan for if it started raining and we decided that we would stick it out no matter what. We would finish the movie. and that we did! I loved how people were cheering for certain parts like, the first time Pat Sway came on screen, nobody puts baby in the corner and so on. It was a lot of fun!

Can’t wait to share more festival events with you all on Wednesday! Hope you’re having a great start to your week!!

The Dirty Dancing Festival: Lake Lure, NC

August 21, 2015 by JSJ

Well hello there!!!

I’m super excited to start talking about this today because I’ve been waiting to share about this for the longest time. I talked on Monday about having done something last weekend that I had been waiting for months to do and it was attend the Dirty Dancing Festival in Lake Lure, North Carolina!

I just found out that this was even a thing earlier this year, around April I think, on facebook. I told Andrew about it and he booked us a room at The Lodge on Lake Lure that same day. We’ve always loved watching that movie together so it was something we knew we had to try at least once. And the fact that it was only a 3 hour drive away?! Umm hello…amazing!! It was such a great experience all around, I loved it. I was so excited to share with you all so I started writing a post that turned out I could break into three separate posts altogether it was so long. ha! It was a super event filled weekend and I took a TON of photos. Except a photo of us in front of the festival sign of course, but more on that later.

The photo above is a panorama of the festival on Friday evening, the night of the movie screening. This was taken right when we got there, before they had put the screen up. Yes. it was that packed before they even put the screen up and then it filled all the way up to the other tent up there on the left. Apparently it was the largest turn out for the movie that they have had in the 6 years they’ve been doing the festival! It was super cool to be a part of something so new, especially in honor of something so fun that is so universally loved. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love every smooth talkin’ line Patrick Swayze recites in that movie? He’s so cool, I feel like a lot of men can sit through that movie without too much grumbling even.

I’m so excited for y’all to see how much fun we had I just want to publish the posts one right after the other right now! But that would probably be a little overwhelming, no? So I just drafted this teaser post real quick, muahahahahah!

See you next week, friends. Have a great weekend!

P.S- to get the full idea of my love for Dirty Dancing, check out my Dirty Dancing re-cast list!

Another real time post.

August 20, 2015 by JSJ

So I talked yesterday about balance.

It was specifically in reference to finding balance between a strict structured lifestyle and a free flowing one. I read through that post and found that:

A. my posts tend to be a lot longer than I realize they are

and

B. I am not an inch closer to progression on the matter.

BUT- I also realized that I’m beginning to understand myself just a liiiiiiittle bit more, so hopefully that’s a step towards progression…which is progress I guess?

I’m started to sound crazy again.

I just think that as hard of a time as I have had trying to just get out how I feel about whatever it is I’m even talking about, it’s starting to make sense to me a little bit. It may not to you (sorry! ha!) but I’m starting to understand myself a little better and am learning how to build and improve in my own life.

This is why I came here to this blog in the first place.

It’s the smallest little flicker of light, but it’s there so I’m going to hold on to it and give gratitude so that this knowledge of self might spread like wildfire.

I’m happy to be here and I’m happy you’re here (if you’re here ;) ) and you might have ended up here for no other reason than just to see that you’re not alone in feeling like you have absolutely no clue what you’re doing. ♥

Lots of love to you

Weekend Happenings!

August 17, 2015 by JSJ

Via

I can’t lie and say I know what legend that’s from or if it is a legend at all and someone didn’t just make it up for a pinterest graphic, but what I can tell you is that I love it. It sounds like it’s from a story I would have loved as a child or a sci-fi movie that I would love now as an adult (wait, am I an adult?).

I also can’t say that this post includes the entirety of my weekend happenings. I did something I’ve been waiting to do for MONTHS now and I just got home yesterday so the post will have to wait until a little later in the week. I’ve got sooo many pictures to go through. See, I’m doing much better!

What I can tell you that’s been going on (beyond this past weekend) is some seriously crazy dreams. So, no, I’m not awake at night possibly in someone else’s dreams but if you have been having a bout of insomnia…you are possibly awake in mine. The crazy thing is though, I can remember almost all of them in great detail. I haven’t been writing them down (I’m about to change that..) but I can still remember them so vividly. It’s weird.

I’ve even had a repeat of a dream I had literally years ago, that I still remember. What’s even more weird is that the scenery from that dream showed up in a movie a few years after I had it. I know that sounds like I borderline need to be institutionalized or maybe saw the movie poster and just didn’t remember, and that’s fine. I know, and I’m the only one that needs to know that I’m not insane. Unless I am?! Kidding. I’m kidding. About the insane thing, not the dream thing because I definitely had that dream about 2 years before that movie was even talked about.

And no, I’m not pregnant. When researching crazy dreams, you get many a article on how it happens in pregnancy a lot, but it seems it’s later on down the line anyway.

A weekend update on a Wednesday: July 4th

July 8, 2015 by JSJ

Umm..hello you all!!!

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since I was last here. When I realized that yesterday, it hit me that this past week has FLOWN by! I guess it’s because after I got home on Wednesday from my trip to my hometown (part one, part two) my husband had off from work the very next day through YESTERDAY! That’s right, a whole SIX days off!!

He is in the restaurant biz so if you know anything about that, you know it can be rare to have almost an entire week off…and over a holiday? Whaaaaa?! So, I’ve been off frolicking with him. It’s been awesome. We didn’t plan any trip or anything, we just stayed home and celebrated the 4th with friends. Sometimes planning a trip over a long period of time off from work can be more stress than fun (not always, just sometimes!) then you feel like you need a vacation from your vacation…but what we chose to do was laid back and actually relaxing. Even clean up from the day after the 4th was surprisingly easy. I think it was just what we needed.

Honestly, I did yet another terrible job at photo documentation. I WILL GET BETTER AT THIS! Not sure if I’m trying to convince you or myself…

We made pickles on Thursday for the first time! We used cucumbers from our garden, the recipe was great and they turned out awesome. I don’t know that I can ever go back to store bought pickles again. After seeing and tasting these it really makes me question why the heck store bought pickles are…yellow..ya know? Anyways… I do think that for my tangy taste buds I would add an extra helping of vinegar ;)

Making Pickles with this recipe from diynatural.com

So, we had people over on Friday and I was assuming it was just going to be people we knew, a laid back little adventure, but there ended up being a few people there that I hadn’t met. They were nice and a wee bit younger than me so I found myself chilling looking like this:

yoga pants, favorite sweatshirt. Ya know, the usual.

Toooottally feeling like this:

Even though we were just at my house. Ps- I found this on IG somewhere srry idk where! bad blogger!

Saturday I helped a girlfriend move the first part of the day. She had to put stuff in storage because she’s moving to Florida. I’m so sad! But strangely enough we didn’t do a long drawn out goodbye. I think we both feel like it doesn’t matter that she’s moving, our friendship is solid and I like that. But I will still miss you Hay!!

I have got to start practicing better posture.

Following helping Hayley was grilling, drinking domestic beer and not taking photos. I did manage to get a day photo and a night photo. I really wish I would have gotten a picture of our outfits. They were casually festive. Andre’s day shirt had random red stars all over it and it’s epic. It’s vintage from his dad from the 70’s. It’s super see through though and he spilled chili on it so changed for the evening when we went out to the bar and went with a t-shirt to pay a different sort of respect. I put on heels and makeup. All around it was a fun day!

Day

Night

Sunday was an easy clean up, hangover free and relaxing. No photos documented this day because it was filled with junk food, Netflix and some good ol’ fashioned alone time. Monday things picked up a little bit with our 4th of July Folf (Frisbee Golf or Disc Golf) tournament. We have a course on our property and love hosting friends to come play! I say we but I mean Andre and his dad. I walk out there sometimes but I am president of the wives club so I usually just sit inside and drink wine with the women. Or alone if I’m the only women. I like to go out there in the evenings though when it’s blue. I’ll have to remember to take a photo out there during my favorite time of day. It’s so serene.

Snapshot with the tournament winner!! ♥

So that’s my little 6 day long staycation! Ok so maybe just 5. Tuesday’s photos&update will appear tomorrow when I’m back here for The Makeup Mix up ;) !! Whewww was I thrown right out of my comfort zone. Can’t wait to share! I’m sending you lots of warm and fuzzy energy, hoping you made it safe through the holiday and are having a wonderful week!!

Weekend Happenings!

June 29, 2015 by JSJ

Hey, hey it’s Monday, ya knoo-ooooow.

K I’m done. Does anyone else sing unrelated lyrics to familiar tunes?

Anyway!

Ok so my week/weekend had been nuts and I often wonder if you guys hate me because I don’t take enough pictures. Ok so hate is an intense word but really I am so terrible about preserving the moment in pictures that I’m embarrassed. I’m sorta kinda a blogger now so I need to get my shxt together right?!

So without further ado- here is a mimnial picture (as in just one) post updating you on my weekend happenings.

Friday. So if you read Friday’s post, you know that I was in Wilmington last week helping my grandparents, visiting friends and family and so on. Well, I was still in Wilmington on Friday. I spend that day continuing to help my grandparents get settled in their place and that’s pretty much that. Morning until dark. Whew.

Saturday was more eventful in that after helping my grandparents with some things, I went to see the new movie DOPE with my cousin after visiting with my other grandparent for a bit. Yea I know, how lucky am I that my grandparents (among other relatives) all live in one city? Love it! After the movie, we had some crab dip and sparkling wine at a restaurant we enjoy then it was straight to bed for me because I’m lame. Translation: I have no children and I still crash. Lord help me when I am a momma. I feel like I say that a lot.

Sunday was spent finishing up some things my grandmother needed help with as well as packing up my things for my journey back to my husband and kitty babies. I was able to find some quiet time on the front porch of my grandparents’ house with a glass of wine and catch a view of the beautiful colors the sun put on display as it set over the river.

My no filter iphone photo. NC is such a beautiful place.

Lots was happening last week and weekend! I’m always thankful for opportunities to see friends and family although I’m never able to fit everything in that I want to do no matter how long I stay. I suppose I should pride myself on the fact that I get lost in the moments rather than feel the need to take a thousand photos (I feel like I say that a lot) but I really do want to get better about taking pictures. The reason is not just the blog (although I’m hoping it will hold me accountable to my goal) but it’s moreso just because my friend Niki really showed me how important taking photos can end up being. Photographs can be such a blessing and I want to stop taking them for granted I suppose. Does that make any sense?

Anyway. I had a lovely weekend with the ones I love and I hope you did too. Cheers to new adventures in the week ahead!

Five Favorites on Friday!

June 5, 2015 by JSJ

It’s Friday! Friday! Gotta get down on…

no?

Ok.

Hellooooo glorious friends and family! (Hey Papa!)

My Papa gets a special shout out today because it’s National Donut Day! Whoop Whoop! We LOVE donuts and we just so happen to live right around the corner from Britt’s Donuts. If you’ve never heard of them, people use words like “heavenly” to describe these things. They’ve been on a bunch of best donut shops list nationally, they are the bomb. The best part? They don’t need ANY bells and whistles. Just a good ol’ glazed donut will knock your socks off. That is if you’re up for waiting…sometimes up to AN HOUR AND A HALF…in line. It’s insane but not a single person says it isn’t worth it. People literally come from all over to try these bad boys. I wish I had a photo but I don’t (are you surprised?). I’ll get one next time I go back to my hometown.

So I guess that’s my first favorite thing! National Donut Day/Britt’s Donuts. Should that be 2 things?

I’ve been watching Graceland on Netflix this week and it’s quickly become a fav for sure. The new season starts on the 25th of this month and I’m pretty stoked. I still have to get through season 2 but I think I can make it happen by then. Obviously because I was able to watch season one this week. ha! Hi, I’m Jlynn and I’m a Nextflix binger. Now that I mention it, I should probably just go ahead and add Netflix to this list. Netflix is my favorite. I just said Netflix like a hundred time. Over exaggeration. Ok moving on!

I guess another favorite thing is my title because it’s totally obnoxious (just like today’s post!). I see those link ups but I never know which one to join! I’ve recently discovered that I can join as many as I want in one post. I’m about ta go HAM. But today, I’m chillin’ with my girl Miranda for Coffee Chat (even though coffee is on the list of 5 things that aren’t my favorite. gasp!) because that’s another one of my favorite things. Seriously, I love it. She posts fun links that I love. Every one of them is always great.

Speaking of links and things that are my favorite….

Watch this little girl cry upon finding out her baby brother will one day grow up. If this is old news than I’m sorry I’m so lame but I just saw this today.

You’ll have to excuse me, this week has been rather slow for me, which has not been my favorite. So I guess for my final favorite thing (even though this makes 7), this cute little photo I found on pinterest. It makes me happy to look at it so it made me happy to share it with you! I hope your weekend is full of happy thoughts and my love is with you for hanging out through my random rambles today. I guess we’ll see if my head is cleared up come Monday :) Happy Weekend, yall!

Via

***Linking up with Miranda for Coffee Chat!!

A Poem

June 3, 2015 by JSJ

Over the weekend, one of the eventful moments I was able to be a part of was the 2nd birthday party of my sweet friend Nikita’s baby girl. I was nervous at first but there was so much love and joy at the celebration of this firecracker of a little girl that all that was eased within moments of arriving. I found myself a little emotional during the singing of the happy birthday song but couldn’t help but smile at the baby girl all cuddled up on her daddy’s chest. I couldn’t have been more honored that Andrew and I were able to be there for that special moment.

Before the weekend commenced, I was sitting on my couch just thinking about Niki and all the joy she still brings to so many lives. I was inspired with a poem right there in that moment and I felt in a strange way that she could hear me. After a brief chat and an expression of my poem I felt that I wanted to share it with her daughter for when she’s older and more recently (today in fact!), with all of you. There are so many pieces of life that inspire me and Niki is largely one of those. She inspires me to live a most joyful life, to love everyone and to be myself.

I’ve been terrified to post any of my poems here so I figured I would start with this one. The woman who inspired it, I think, would be proud of me for doing something that for me, requires much bravery.

Stars.

The last year of her life was just one day long.

She continued to inspire even after she was gone.

A moment of light that shines way into the distance.

And carries on into future existence.

-JCS

Nikita was a shining star in the life of everyone who met her even for just a moment and even still today although her new life is up there in the heavens. With love.