Tumbleweeds Gift Guide for the Best Friend

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We hope you enjoy this sweet gift guide for your best friend! Have you started holiday shopping yet? We're a little bit obsessed. 

ps. Sorry for the silence around here, it hasn't been an easy week, or an easy month for that matter. I hope to be blogging a lot more often. Thanks for sticking around. I love you all. - Beca

Sluggo's North with Rae and Travis

Today has been pretty rad so far and I am taking advantage of Doug taking an early evening nap to actually sit down and stop moving. We woke up pretty early, grabbed some coffee and headed south east into Georgia for some serious estate sale shopping. We haven't been junking as much as normal, for no reason in particular, except that it's been go-go-go work-work-work lifestyle lately. However, we made a really solid work plan for the next few weeks, and before we go strong, we thought we would take a day to ourselves and actually leave the house. We visited some awesome estate sales, spent too much money, drove all over Chattanooga and northern Georgia, and all before Lunch. Around lunch time, we hit it back to the city and met up with our pals Rae and Travis at Sluggo's North for lunch.

Sweet baby Jesus, it was good. We were starving, and had planned on getting a burger on the way, but we're late, as usual, so we just hauled ass to get there and eat. The food was incredible, the customer service was incredible. Ashley, one of the owners, had to have been the nicest he could possibly be! Funny story, when Doug was a teenager, he used to go to punk rock shows at Sluggo's in Pensacola. It was a venue, and the owners moved up to Chattanooga and opened up another venue with a 100% vegan cafe. 

I got the lentil burger (I think, or mushroom) patty melt. Whatever it was made of, it was delicious. There is a lot of mustard on it, which I should have known, so next time I'll ask for no mustard, but even that didn't stop picky little me from eating every single bite. And a giant salad was perfect for this semi-hot, windy day in Tennessee. Doug got the BBQ Sub, Rae and Travis both got the Club. I don't know why, but I keep wanting to say that everyone got a BLT. Not true. Subs and clubs. Doug also got the sweet potato mash, and I think I ate half of that too.

And, because it seemed only appropriate, we all got dessert. Coconut cream pie! Coconut cream pie that I can eat!! Coconut cream pie with no milk in it! It was top notch. I ate every single bite of that too. No doubt. And not to mention that our lunch was amazing, we had some pretty awesome lunch dates to share it with. I can be super awkward in real life. Especially because I know all of you think i am hilariously awesome, so I have a lot to live up to (joking.....) But meeting Rae was really rad and maybe it's the southern in them, but there wasn't a single weird quiet moment the entire time. 

Oh snap, did I mention that they have the cutest freaking pugs ever!?!? I have only ever had bad experiences with pugs. Either they are mean, or maybe they could just smell monster the pug hater on me, but these two sweet ladies were too die for sweet.

After lunch, Doug gave Travis a tour of the van, and we attempted to introduce our dogs. I haven't been leaving Ollie at home because of his eye infection, so he just goes everywhere with us, and Charlie the lump tags along too. Ollie, of course, the oaf that he is scared the bujesus out of little Priscilla so he had to go back into the van to sit in the drivers seat and sulk. Charlie, the grumpiest dog alive tried to act tough, but really he just wanted to be cuddled. Here;s proof of our awesome dog-momness.

I like meeting other extreme dog owners. I feel less crazy. Really. Y'all are awesome. On the way home, Doug told Ollie "We're the only parents you'll ever have, so you better stop acting like a butthole so we don't disown you." I laughed until I cried. Did I mention Ollie is being the worst dog ever right now. I don't know what his deal is. I think he has too much energy or something since he doesnt have a big yard to run around in, but he isn't listening, he growled/snapped at Doug last night when they were playing, and has been acting generally like a disgruntled teenager. Life of a dog mom...haha.  

Anyways, I'm going to wake Doug up so we can go meet up with some friends to get dinner. Busy day off. Then back to work tonight. 

How was your weekend so far? Did you do anything totally awesome? Tell me about it!

xo,

Beca 

The Pinpoint Method

I recently discovered that our friend Kelly of the super rad Bueno Bueno sisters is working on a brand new project! The pinpoint Method is a fantastic journey across America to meet with creative designers and work with/learn from/collaborate with them. All will be put into a design lifestyle documentary at the end of her journey.

If you know me, one of the most important things in the world to me, and to Doug, is supporting other artists and especially friends as sweet and genuine as Kelly and co. I know times are tough for everyone, but if you have a few extra dollars to spare and want to make a contribution to the art community, pop on over to The Pinpoint Method's website and take a peek. You can also like the facebook page, tweet about the project and share a link on your blog!! I really want to see this project reach fruition and can't wait to see where the journey goes!

WEBSITE // FACEBOOK // BLOG // CONTRIBUTE

xo,

Beca

Play Date with Patrick

We love nothing more than our coffee + play dates with Patrick and Chelsea. We are certainly going to miss them once we get out to Tennessee. Monster loves Patrick, and they are too ridiculously cute together.

I better get at least one of these play dates in before we move. I am so happy to have met Chelsea and her little family while in San Diego!

Do your pups have play date friends, too?

xo,

Beca

Zoo is Food for the Soul

We went to the zoo today, got a soft pretzel (uh..not raw, but we've been ridiculously awesome with what we put in our bodies, so it's okay...I did have an awesome banana, blueberry, strawberry, pear cranberry and avocado smoothie today for lunch, sounds weird but it was awesome.) I felt so great today, and the zoo is probably one of my favorite spots. (ps, whats up with my bangs. I wish they would just grow already!)

Today has also been so full of exciting news. We can fully share with everyone on Monday, but in short, we did an interview this morning for an editorial feature on our sunglasses! It was really exciting and we can't wait to share the whole thing on Monday!

With everything happening recently, I am trying to be more organized and be an overall responsible handmade shop owner. I have always been pretty responsible when it comes to shipping and the shop, but the volume of items to be shipped was much lower until recently. Also, we FINALLY got our CA business license. Oops. Now just waiting for our sellers permit to come in the mail. I guess I'm not that responsible...but better late than never, and the people at the Business Bureau said that we are okay with being a little late, as long as we're not making $100,000 MILLION dollars a year, you know. Trust me, we're not. ;) Do you little biz people have all your paperwork together? Was it easy or hard? This is kind of what our life looks like right now and I am absolutely loving it.

After chatting with Carla and Cal earlier, I am super pumped to work a little project of my own. I have been itching to paint more, and not just future cake orders, but really paint. I can't wait to share what I started working on! Those girls are best and I am so excited to have friends I can brainstorm ideas with.

So, that's my day. It was a great day off. We stayed super busy, squeezed in a trip to the zoo, took an afternoon nap, started and finished reading the June Book Club book, ate pretty great, healthy food and drank way too much coffee!! Tomorrow I am going to announce the July Book Club book!

I have two big cake orders tomorrow and want to get back to painting before I go to bed!!

xo,

Beca

Also, on a whim, I entered this crazy free trip to Paris giveaway. I have little to no hope of actually winning, but if you want to have little to no hope of going to Paris for free, you can enter too!

Funday Monday

All kinds of fun things going on today.

Check out these bad boys that Doug finished today! Are they not incredible, or what?

Inspired by this lovely character.

Also, we've stuck with our raw challenge so far. I like to take photos of food, and this included. Doug had a banana smoothie for breakfast (with 100% juice and ice) and I had a blueberry banana smoothie (same, 100% juice and ice) and for lunch, an apple, strawberry, walnut, and avocado salad. I know you are all totally interested in what we ate today...right? Ha! But here it is anyways!

I went grocery shopping after work and discovered that it is WAY less expensive to eat raw than not. I expected to pay about the same and my total was about $20 less than my usual weekly trip to the store. I like that a lot. Like I said, i don't know how long we'll do this for, but I want to lose 15 pounds by the first day of summer (June 21st?) and I am hoping this will help!

And, most importantly, why haven't you taken a little visit to my pal Danielle's blog for the most amazing photos I have ever seen in my life. Here's one just to get you going.

(is your day complete now? Mine is.)

I have a bunch of work to do around the house and stuff to pack up to mail off tomorrow. And I'm hungry, so have a great Monday!

xo,

Beca

Sweet Treats

I know that I have been posting a lot of the stuff that I make at work lately, but it has become kind of all-consuming. Today was kind of neat because I started the morning trying out these hot chocolate cupcakes that my pal Kaylah shared on her blog yesterday.

I am not super good at fondant, but the more I practice, I'm sure the better I will get. I like the little lipstick on the edge of the cup! I definitely want to try these again, but make them a little taller and work on making my fondant clean and straight and smooth. We live and we learn!

I also had a birthday cake for a golf loving teenage. I think it came out pretty wonderfully. And modest little me doesn't say that often. i am mostly in love with the little details of the golf ball and the fondant flag.

Doug and I woke up at 5:30 this morning and went to Kobey's swap meet. He needed some supplies and I wanted to get some local honeycomb! So excited, because we usually go so late, the man is always out of it, but this morning, he had plenty. I ended up making these beauties right before the end of my shift.

I have been angsting to make some peanut butter honeycomb cupcakes since I saw this post on Elsie's blog for her bridal shower. Honey and PB is such a good mix and I am such a sucker for honeycomb. Like, I've paid $17 for a cheese plate at Blind Lady Ale House and justified the price because it had honeycomb on it!

Anyways, it's my dear friend's birthday tonight and we are going to URBN which is cool, since I haven't been, but sucks because I missed Ainsley's birthday party there last week. Then we are going to see Chris Hall at the Tin Can downtown. I wish I had tomorrow off so I could sleep in, but no such luck. Work at 7am..boo. So I'm going to take a nap right now.

What are you doing this weekend?

xo,

Bec

Too Tired, but Still Here

(source)

Today started off really sad/bad because I had to go to work before Doug left for Las Vegas and I was already missing him. It' so hard when your boyfriend is also your best friend. I don't know what I'm going to do this week. I think clean and reorganize and try to complete some goals. I'm going to share some of my goals with yall tomorrow. But, my day turned around when Ainsley picked me up for a fun friend pre-birthday date. It was a blast, considering we had never met before and only know each other through our blogs and twitter. But I knew we would get along and have fun.

Because I don't have a camera this week, so I didn't take ANY photos. But, Ainsley is so sweet, she blogged about our awesome day. And trust me, ridiculous sushi chefs, tigers blood and birthday bliss were all documented. Mmmm, Tiger's Blood shaved ice. So good. Anyways, it was super nice to hang out with a new friend and I can't wait to do it again. I'm sooo tired after the past few days of work though. And for some reason I am not feeling super inspired. I think I'm just too exhausted. Working so much and trying to keep up with our shop and all our projects. I can't even keep my house clean.

I can't even make it through the new episode of 16 & Pregnant. What is wrong with me?

xo,

Beca

Spring has Sprung

I really like when people give me the opportunity to be creative and have few requests. This order for birthday cupcakes were simple. A variety of our cupcakes, with vanilla butter cream, decorated in any way for an adult. I have really been excited about spring-esque pastries lately, and especially the idea of cupcakes looking like a bouquet of flowers. What's better than flowers, that you can eat!!?

I hope the birthday girl loves them. I know I have mentioned before, one of my favorite things about being a pastry chef is that I get to be a silent partner in the celebration of someone's special day. It also puts a lot of pressure on my shoulders, because if it isn't what the customer expects or wants, I feel like I've ruined a really special day. Wedding cakes are really scary, because I know how important they are. I have, thankfully, had nothing but good experiences with weddings though. Let's keep it that way!

Anyways, today was brutal. My feet and legs hurt so bad after work, but I still took Charlie on a really long beach walk while Doug went skating. Now I'm exhausted.

Also, excited about my friend-sushi-date tomorrow with Ainsley, who's birthday is coming up. If you don't already read her blog, you should head on over there and say hello.

That's all for now. I am going to help Doug pack for his trip, and then go to sleep, before I pass out in front of the TV.

xo,

Beca

Pals

My pretty pal Micaela sent me a pretty little package (say that 10 times fast!) last week and I wanted to share the beauties that made my day!

Thank you friend! I am so happy to know you and I love every treasure you sent to me.

Ya'll should go check out Micaela's blog. She's super sweet and wonderful!

If you want to be pen pals, email me at tumbleweeds.shop{at}gmail{dot}com.

I love sending little presents and I love getting mail!

xo,

Bec

Project Restyle - Coffee Table Before

Two for one, yo!

(Enjoying my third cup of coffee this morning, thanks D!)

I guess I got a lot more done in a shorter amount of time than I expected. I still need to do the dishes and remember to eat lunch. My morning was full of productivity. Shipped out everything that I needed to, found this horribly heavy coffee table a few blocks down from our house that I thought would be a lot easier to carry home. It was SO effing heavy! But, we made it home and I am going to strip all this ugly black and gold paint, sand down all the chips and finish it dark.

Ok, I probably won't do most of that, Doug will probably do most of it, but it was my idea, so I'm going to go ahead and take credit for it. I'll post up photos here and in the Project Restyle
Flickr when it is done. Hopefully this weekend! Also, I am going to start using flickr, so if you want to follow my photosteam (is that how it works?) here is the link.
<3

I don't have an after photo yet, obviously, since I just lugged this baby home. I need a nap before work! Just kidding, I have a couple of cake rounds to make. And a boatload of blue butter cream. Hooray!

xo,

Beca

Chris Hall

Because the world, even my blog world, doesn't always revolve around me, I wanted to share a good friend of ours with you. Chris Hall.



He's like a little brother to us. Crashes on our couch and eats all our pizza, but we love him. We also love his music. So, I thought today, I would share a video he did with another good friend, Isaiah Toothtaker of Machina Muerte (and werdemup) Isaiah has a hip-hop label, world famous tattoo shop Staring Without Caring, and he's one rad dude. He's putting out Chris' first album "Brown Bottle Blues" soon. (flyer design by Marc Nava)

WERDEMUP presents CHRIS HALL TTT from Isaiah Toothtaker on Vimeo.

Anyways. Chris plays acoustic guitar and writes a majority of the songs he performs. He plays a lot of local shows, mostly at The Red Room downtown and you should check out his music page and come to his next show.

(This is a photo from when he played at Doug's last solo show "Never is Forever" Stas Yamnitskiy took this photo.)

And he has a super cool dog named Talulah (his birthday present from us!!) that is the apple of his eye. She's a sweetheart and she and Monster cuddle for hours.

(Photo by Doug Switalski)

If you want to book a show with Chris, get a hold of him here

More on the chaos of today later. xo!