When my husband, Taylor, and I were dating, my dear friend Kristin would throw a Halloween party at the Greenhouse Bar in Nashville, Tennessee. I absolutely loved it, as Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. Any chance for a creative costume was right up my alley. Taylor, on the other hand, dreaded Halloween. He hated a costume. And his number one rule was no dressing like a girl, so my Judd’s idea was out the window. He would have made a perfect Winona, though.

At the beginning of the month, I made an unplanned trip back to my home town of Jackson, Mississippi, to be with a friend, who is much more like family, while we said goodbye to his saint of a mother. While it was an extremely sad time, it was also a joyful reunion and celebration of life. After the service, my mother and I made the two hour trip from Jackson back toward her home in Oxford. As we were driving, I found myself saying, “Let’s stop into the discount lumber to see if their Christmas ribbon is out yet” (a statement not uncommon to hear around those parts).

I’ve been asked recently about my website, the colors and symbols I chose. Why the blue? Why the bee? So, I thought I would explain how everything came to fruition.

Growing up in Mississippi, I always knew it was officially fall when the state fair came to town. Each year, during the first week of October, giant rides, scary fun houses, food booths filled with fried everything, and of course the towering Ferris wheel with its neon lights would magically appear on the one hundred acres of the Mississippi state fair grounds in Jackson.

I don’t know what got into my Uncle Ed’s mind to put a baby alligator in my grandmother’s pond. There were so many fish that needed to be caught! The bream and bass were happy as can be in their habitat, not worrying about the predator about to enter their world…

I admired myself in the mirror, like the scene in Runaway Bride where Julia Roberts gracefully moves like a bell in her stunning dress for her third wedding. I quietly thought about where I could cut corners in the wedding budget to make sure this dress would be mine, but my calculations were all too soon interrupted by my mother, “One more appointment! We can’t be late.”…

This past weekend, I visited my happy place- Oxford, Mississippi. Oxford is a sleepy college town rich in culture. It is filled with incredible writers both past and present, SEC football, and extremely delicious southern food. As I visited a popular eatery, lovingly referred to as “chicken on a stick”, I couldn’t help but remember one of my favorite and somewhat embarrassing stories…