Nashville baby

This is us having our picture taken at the Marc Jacobs store on Melrose. Jack hated the skunk, but he loved the moustache.

Just after Jack was born, our good friend Kelly moved back to Nashville. We were devastated. Before I met Nipper, I took Kelly's headshots when she was a young actress in LA. She's still young, but no longer and actress. When she decided she was going to move there full time, after being a summer Oakwood kid, I happened to have a room available. She decided to move in, and went back to Nashville to get her stuff. I think I must have met Nipper the next day. By the time she got back to LA, three weeks later, Nipper Knapp and I knew we were getting married. Oops. 18 year old girl moves to LA, and her roommate springs a fiance on her. It turned out fine. We got married and Nipper moved in 6 months later. We were all roommates for about a year then Kelly decided that living with a married couple, while adorable, was overrated and moved into her own cute little place.

Over the years she cooked many a delicious southern fried dinner for us. She made the best desserts, pecan pies, cookie bars, and the yummiest casserole, whose ingredient list, I wish I'd never learned. Something about mayonnaise, chicken, and cheese. 

She kept us well fed while she was in LA. She was the only other person besides Nipper in the delivery room when Jack was born. 

YES, that's me on my sidekick texting someone five minutes after giving birth. 

She was his first babysitter, when Nipper had to go work when Jack was five days old, and I needed a nap. She was also the first person Jack ever pooped on. Way to go kiddo. 

This was taken when he was five days old. He poo'd right on her cute green shirt. 

So it's taken me a bit, and she's been back to LA twice, including a surprise trip on Jack's second birthday, but this weekend, our friend Allie and I made the trip to Nashville to visit her. She bought a house this summer, and we were dying to see her new place, and see what her new life is like. 

This is all three of us (plus Jack) at Malibu Vineyards a few days before Kelly moved back to Nashville. We're all doing our best Polaroid face.

Well Hello Nashville! I had forgotten how beautiful it is! Nipper Knapp and I spent a few days there in the middle of a cross country road trip a few years back. We went to Tootsies, and Hatch Show Prints, and a few other honky tonks. But this time around, with the girls, I was able to shop and eat until nap time, and then shop and eat some more. Kelly's house is so cute, I seriously don't understand why she doesn't open up her own design business. (nudge nudge, hint hint, wink wink) I got a million little ideas for our house, that I'll inflict on Nipper in the coming months. Can anyone say ferns?

On the way from the airport we stopped at Chik-fil-a, because while we have two here in LA, they are 4000 miles from any place you ever go. Then Kelly took us to Las Paletas. Dude, my entire purpose in life is to find something like this in LA. I'm sure there are probably a ton of them, and I'm just a fool for not finding them sooner. Living in Highland Park, we are basically as close to Mexico as you can get in the LA county borders. These two sisters from Mexico opened this place a little while back. It's a simple shop that sells nothing but gourmet Mexican style popsicles. They have flavors like chocolate chili, dulce de leche, rose petal, and avocado. They are $2.50 a piece, and we ate a different one every day we were there. 

This is nothing to do with anything, but Las Paletas and several other places we stopped over the weekend, are on a road called "Granny White Pike". Which I think is pretty awesome. Sometimes when Kelly and Allie were singing along with country music in the front seat, I put myself in a trance, by repeating the phrase "Granny White Pike" over and over in my mind. Sorry ladies. 


Friday afternoon Kelly drove us to Franklin, which is the cutest little town ever (y'all). The town was getting ready for some kind of civil war unknown soldier funeral reenactment the following day. So we saw all manner of people in costumes on the street. Either that or ladies still wear hoop skirts and bonnets, and I am just living in my urban liberal bubble. It's possible. 


We had lunch at a place called Puckett's Grocery. I could have stayed all afternoon. We all had pulled pork with bbq sauce, with the yummiest selection of sides. Corn cakes, biscuits, mashed potatoes. I ate baked beans which I'm pretty sure I haven't had since I was 6 years old. I don't even think I remembered that baked beans existed until I saw them there on the menu, and had my little Proustian madeleine moment. BAKED BEANS ARE DELICIOUS PEOPLE!  


There are tons of cute shops there, including Emmaline,  that is what Dianne Merrick, here in LA, should be like, but isn't. They've managed to pick every cute piece from lots of great designers without all the filler pieces. Good stuff. 


Saturday morning we went to Marche for brunch with some of Kelly's friends. This little place is dreamy. It's a perfect little French market and cafe. We had blood orange mimosas and perfect quiche and salads and croissants and homemade jam. YUM! The place was filled with hipsters and families, and our waiter was adorable and super friendly. It was sort of a mini version of Cafe Midi here in LA, minus David Schwimmer. 

Imogene + Willie storefront

Matt and Carrie Eddmenson, the coolest shopkeepers ever

Ok, this leaves the place that knocked my socks off. I'm seriously smitten.  I can't stop going on their blog, and someday, I'd like for the couple who owns this place to adopt me, or at least be my very best friends in the whole world. The store is called Imogene + Willie and I love it. It's located in the 12 South neighborhood in an old gas station that they retrofitted themselves earlier this year. Basically, they sell very well chosen vintage Pendletons, vintage boots, pretty cashmere sweaters, turkish scarves, leather jackets, and high end denim. They have a line of their own perfect little pieces, including a denim smock dress that has a high ruffled collar and pockets, and buttons up the front, that I'm not sure why I didn't buy. Damn damn damn you Imogene + Willie! What can't I quit you. 

They have SERIOUS denim knowledge, having worked with some of the best denim lines for 20 years. They custom fit or custom make jeans right there in the shop. They have an incredible array of patterns from many well known denim lines that they've worked with over the years. I have a weak spot for a particular jean that hasn't been sold since 2002. When I mentioned the name, they new the style number and kind of denim it was made with offhand. It might cost a bit, but if you are pining for a replacement pair of the only jeans that ever made your booty look just so, they can make it. Oh and did I mention they are sweet as pie? Usually this is just the kind of place that makes me break out in hives, and wish I'd never been born. But everyone there was friendly and helpful including the shop labrador retriever who didn't try to sniff my crotch, not even once. Good dog. If you find yourself anywhere near Nashville, go there, say hello, fall in love.