I say YES to 25 years of planning, dreaming and wishing...

My 25th wedding anniversary is on March 10th. Stephen (aka Fred Sanford) and I are at the beach for the weekend to celebrate. We always stay in the same place. Nothing fancy, just our style. Before coming we talked about the different things we might do, restaurants we might want to try, etc.... One of the places Stephen wanted to go was a BBQ place in a small town in South Carolina. He saw it on a Food Network show hosted by Andrew Zimern. Sounds intriguing, huh? I mean it was on Food Network so it has to good, right?? Well, when we drove up I was like, "Um, are you sure this is it?" "Do you think it's safe to go in?" "I'm NOT going in!" Anyway, I went in. We ordered. I got a BBQ sandwich, he got the BBQ plate with beans and slaw. We also ordered some homemade pork skins (that alone made it worth it!) Another up note, we got it to go. As we were driving, I pulled my sandwich out of the bag and opened the container. No bread under or over this pile of BBQ. So my sandwich quickly became a BBQ plate with no sides. It was pretty tasty, a little too spicy for my taste buds but Stephen was WAY slobbering over his plate, complete with sides. To make up for having no bread on my breadless sandwich I basically ate a whole bag of pork skins. Clearly, not a wasted trip. Fellow southerners, you know exactly what I mean.
As we continued to travel down the road we talked about the night's plans. Where we would eat dinner, maybe a movie, the Carolina Opry, the mall...No decisions were made. There was plenty of time to decide. So, we checked into the hotel, he quickly checked ESPN, I just as quickly turned on HGTV. Dinner came up again and the decision was made. Stephen went to Food Lion to get a frozen pizza(redneck) and gelato (bougie) . It was perfect.
This pretty much sums up our relationship. We are dreamers. We make lots of plans. We wish a lot. Some plans are epic failures, some dreams have never woken up, some wishes are still floating on the whispers of a dandelion. But, I am not disappointed. I get to plan, dream and wish with my best friend. In all of the things that didn't come to fruition, there are countless other things that have been better than we could have planned, better than we could have dreamed, better than we could have wished.
25 years ago we made a promise to love each other for better or worse. We recognized the "worse" when we saw it but we have also recognized (and are so grateful) the "better". The worse has been forgiven and tucked away to remind us of what we've come through. The better continues to be the road ahead, the trip worth taking even when there is no bread on your BBQ sandwich. It's the trip where plans are planned, dreams are dreamed and wishes are wished.
Ultimately, our plans are not our own anyway. 25 years have taught us to rely on the master travel agent and He says this about plans. "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord,plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
These two BougieRednecks are ready for the next 25 years of plans, dreams and wishes.

A new adventure.....more redneck than bougie.

So. We have a new adventure on our hands. Not only is BougieRedneck a way of life, a blog name, an expression of my creative side, it's now an online "store" name. Yep, it's a little crazy. Let me tell you how it started.
My husband watches those picker shows and that other one where they bid on storage buildings to only be surprised by it's contents. Anyway, it started there. He found a place where they have storage wars within driving distance and started to check them out. One day the itch got too strong and he scratched. He bought the contents of a storage building on the sly. He knew I would freak out at first. By nature I am NOT a risk taker but he also knows me well enough to know that I just need a little time to process and get on board. I was only a little mad but it didn't last long. I could see his vision. I just needed my own eyes to open. This investment turned out to be quite profitable. He basically doubled his money. Since then he's been a scavenger, I mean a collector of sorts. I lovingly call him Fred Sanford. I guess that makes me his Elizabeth.
The next phase of this journey came when my grandmother passed away. Her house and several buildings has the contents of her shared life with my grandfather who passed away a few years earlier. Roughly, 85 years worth of the belongings of a crafter, a hunter, a cook, a gardener, a reader, a crocheter, a ceramics maker, a painter, a Dollar General lover, a furniture lover (especially recliners),......you get the point. It's a lot of stuff. As we are sorting out her belongings we have quickly discovered that not only is there a lifetime of stuff there is a lifetime of memories that need to be handled thoughtfully. There are many beautiful, interesting, functional and sentimental items that the public will never see but the other stuff......well, let's just say Fred and Elizabeth realize that BougieRedneck has the potential to become an extension of what Stephen already started. Now it just has a name.
We are always "looking" now. We have that picker eye, that hope in the restoration/repurposing process. And let's face it, we have a very real hope for self-sufficiency. You see, our long term goal is to be business owners. Stephen aka Fred wants to reopen his family's community convenient store (Black's Grocery) and I want BougieRedneck to become more than an online/pick up at the corner business. We both want to grow old buying, selling and creating relationships with the amazing people we meet on this journey. It's a busy, stressful, crazy life but this BougieRedneck girl wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy New Year! The last couple of weeks of 2014 was full of Christmas, family, food, creativity and MESS. As I waited to take my Christmas stuff down and pack it away I was anxious to put a new plan into action. I acquired two trunks that are now in my living room. One is used as a coffee table, the other is between two overstuffed chairs. Up until this year, my Christmas decorations have been in my closet. Let me back up, I do not, I repeat DO NOT keep clothes in my closet. I keep them in my bathroom cabinets. I mean it's where I get ready, why wouldn't I?? Right? Right. Anyway, my closet has basically been a storage room and I was a little tired of it. Not because I wanted my clothes in there. I wanted a craft room. A place where my daughter could put ALL her craft things that are spread across multiple rooms in the house. She's a mini BougieRedneck ;) I wanted a place to keep those things, for us to go and create with them and shut the door. Simple, right?? Hmmm......not so much.
My plan was put into action on December 26th. I didn't waste any time!! As I carefully put the Christmas things away, I was excited that most every item fit in the two trunks, plus a few things in a small dresser I keep behind the front door. Like my closet, that dresser does not have clothes in it either.
Now on to the closet...to start with I put a folding narrow table to do our work on. On the shelving, I put all the supplies we had. Some things are stored in baskets to give in a more polished look (there's the bougie). I also have an over the door shoe hanger that I keep smaller items in the pockets. This is a huge space saver! Because there is no outlet in the closet, I ran an extension cord (there's the redneck) in there for the glue gun and anything I may need to plug in. Finally, to make the space extra special I hung up things from my kid's childhood that I had packed away. It really gives the space a special feel. Sometimes I just go in there and look. It makes me happy.