Monday Mural - The World is a Village

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Located in Grandin Village by "Toobz" Muir

In Grandin Village, outside the coffee shop Cups, Toobz has rendered giant-sized likenesses of Roanoke’s dame of diversity, Pearl Fu, and Grandin Village caretaker James Tarpley in “The World is a Village.” From an article in the Roanoke Times

See more of his work HERE

Linking with Monday Mural

Random 5 Friday - The Jefferson Center

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Jefferson High School 1924-1974
Originally constructed in 1922, Jefferson High School served as Roanoke's largest high school for half a century. Read more about its history HERE

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Fast forward to the year 1989...The Jefferson Center Foundation is born. "Jefferson Center is celebrating the arts renaissance in Virginia’s Blue Ridge and we are proud to be doing it with your support in Shaftman Performance Hall, our community’s theater, which is playing an integral role as a home to great performances." Read more HERE

The Jefferson Center. 541 Luck Avenue. Roanoke, Virginia. 24016 www.jeffcenter.org

Now for some randoms:

1) A rainy weekend in store. Blah...please don't rain on Sunday...have outdoor plans.

2) Click Here for a story about a road trip to Roanoke. You might recognize some of the places from my blog ;)

3) Click Here to see pictures of abandoned places in Virginia. I've got some of my own to add to it.

4) Click Here to see an artist a day. I directed you to artist Michael Ward. He's from Costa Mesa, Ca...not far from my own hometown. I love his retro work!

5) Click Here to see this amazing series of photos called "Where Children Sleep".

Now Click Here to read more randoms @ Nancy's Rural Journal! And have a super-d-dooper weekend ok?!

Signs, Signs - The Candy Store

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The Candy Store. 122 Campbell Ave. SE. Roanoke, Va 24011. P: 540.904.5580

Is this not the most cheeriest of storefronts ever?! Yeah, I know! So of course we went inside! We were so excited, Nick and I, to find candies of our youth and Braden and Dalton were just excited to find candy...haha

I had to have an Abba-Zaba and some BB Bats. I remember walking to 7/11 as a kid and buying chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and banana BB Bats when I was a kid whenever I was at my uncle's house. The 7/11 was right on the corner and safe for a kid of about 10 to walk to, back then that is! I also loved Abba-Zaba's. My own kids hadn't even heard of any of these but now are big fans. When we went to the counter to pay the cashier said "You must be from the west coast".... I of course wondered "Why"? and he said because "Abba-Zaba's were a west coast candy. People out east don't know about them." I said "Well yes I am." haha...so anyways...some of you might know the Abba-Zaba and some not. BUT...if you get the chance, definitely try one...they are SO YUMMY!

Nick wanted a Marathon Bar but the man said they don't make those anymore but sold him the Marathon Bar's English cousin, the Curly Wurly which was just like the Marathon Bar!

I had got the boys some Gold Rocks bubble gum...I used to love these too as a kid! Next visit I have to see if they have Flicks Candy. Anyone remember those? Another of my childhood faves. I also loved the bright colored foil tubes they came in.

We'll be back for sure!

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Linking with Signs, Signs

Snow is gone....creeping back into spring mode!

So what are some of your favorite childhood candies?

ABC Wednesday - K is for Koi Pond

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Up on the 6 level of Center in the Square is this Koi Pond. I showed you a picture of it HERE looking down from the 7th level.

Snow...so like I said yesterday it was snowing like crazy up until about 1 or later. We ended up with a couple of inches. The school never even called a delay. The roads were a mess. 2 kids from the high school crashed on their way in. 1 had slid off the road and I heard the other had flipped his truck. The bus drivers were saying how slick the roads were. I would not want to be the school superintendent right now.

Taking my letter K and linking it with ABC Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday - Lunch @ City Market

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Carrying on from yesterday's post, here's the inside of the City Market Building. We stopped in for lunch one Sunday afternoon not too long ago. I guess Sunday's a fairly quiet around here. We sat upstairs and had it all to ourselves.

Look at this ceiling!

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"The 1922 Georgian-Revival City Market Building standing today was designed by the Lynchburg architecture firm Frye & Chesterman. As a destination for farmers who traded within the city’s network of wholesale dealers, the building met the same important purpose as similar markets in cities across the country, ushering food from local farms to the tables of Roanoke households. It replaced an 1885 market building at the same site, which also served as the Roanoke Opera House and the station of a fire company." For the rest of the story, Click Here!

Linking with Ruby Tuesday Too

It's snowing here right now. Waiting to see if schools get closed. My yard already has a dusting of white. Weather.gov says we may get 3-5 inches. When I went to bed last night they were only predicting a dusting to 1 inch. Who knows?!

Monday Murals - Coke and Billy's

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While lunching inside the City Market Building I took this shot of Billy's from an upstairs window. I remember being in Billy's not too long ago and them telling us that the building was once a hotel. They have incorporated a lot of the old hotel things, such as the front desk into their decor and theme. Researching I have discovered that the building is over 100 years old and was originally the Ames Hotel.

Linking with Monday Murals

Random 5 Friday - Mill Mountain Star

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The Mill Mountain Star was constructed in 1949 to kick off that year's Christmas shopping season. After construction of the star, Roanoke was nicknamed the "Star City of the South". Read more HERE

(click on photo to enlarge)That big building is the Norfolk Southern building.

Now for some randoms!

1) I won a pretty orange knitted hat from Buttons over at Buttons Thoughts. If you've never visited Buttons go on over and say hi. Also you can see pictures of her cute cows modeling the hats she makes. Here's a photo of my Ozzy modeling it for us:

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2) I loved THIS SLIDESHOW of a photographers amazing photos to help rescued dogs find homes.

3) Didja know you can make tons of stuff with old bedsprings? CLICK HERE....yeah, me neither.

4) I love OLD photos and I think it was Denise over at An English Girl Rambles that turned me on to THIS SITE

5) It's spring!! It will be sunny and 70 today and tomorrow...I will enjoy it! Some winter weather sneaks back in on Monday/Tuesday...whatevs...It's still spring!

Go check out more randoms at Nancy's Rural Journal and have a great weekend!

Signs, Signs - AD1914

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I love that they used "AD" when stamping the date on the Center in the Square building...and a few more from up top:

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Linking with Signs, Signs

Happy first day of spring! 60 and sunny here today!

ABC Wednesday - J is for Juxtaposition

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Atop the Center in the Square building. Roanoke does such a nice job of mixing the old with the new.

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Linking with ABC Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday - Street View

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Taken from upstairs at Cornerstone during the St. Pat's Fest on Saturday. See that Center In The Square building over to the right? I'll show you some views from the top tomorrow :)

Linking with Ruby Tuesday Too.

School is on a 1 hour delay today because of ice. The 1 hour delay is completely ridiculous. How will the roads improve in an hour?!

Monday Mural & Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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Some green graffiti I saw in a parking lot on our way home from the St. Patrick's Festival downtown. Linking with Monday Murals....

And here's a few shots of the festival:

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Sunny and warm Saturday at the festival and today we are having a snow day! We ended up with about 1-2 inches of snow this morning. Crazy weather!

Random 5 Friday - Triangle Building in Clifton Forge

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Across the street from Jack Mason's Tavern (yesterday's post) sits this cool old building. This building was owned at the turn of the century by the successful black businessman E.F. Scott. He sold produce and operated a restaurant from this location near the tracks, ran a hotel in the upper stories and a barber shop next door...found that tidbit of info HERE along with histories of other Clifton Forge buildings.

Now let's get random!

1) Finished reading This Rock the other night and this passage made me wonder:

"Lucky the row is turned so the graves face the east," Hank said.
"Why do graves face the east?" I said.
"So the dead will be facing Jesus when he busts through the eastern sky at the Rapture," Hank said. He heaved a big rock out of the hole.
A church faces west, and a grave faces east, I thought. The worshipers and the dead always face east.

I had never heard of this before so of course I had to Google it the next day and found THIS.

2) Dalton is taking a Tech Ed class and studying about engineering bridges. He told me about this video they watched about a bridge called Gallopin Gertie:


3) Saw a series of photos about an abandoned amusement park in Berlin. Immediately thought of Halcyon @ Berlin 365. You can see the set of photos HERE

4) Watched an incredible video of an injured dolphin that was rescued by a diver HERE.

5) Looking forward to the St. Patrick's Day Festival on Saturday. We haven't missed a year since we moved here. It is easily my favorite festival!

Have a great weekend and check out more randoms at Nancy's Rural Journal :)

Oh one more: This Dick's Sporting Goods commercial stopped my boys in their tracks tonight:


They really have a great advertising team don't they?!

Signs, Signs - Jack Mason's Tavern

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Whenever we are in Clifton Forge, we always eat at Jack Mason's Tavern. We love it! I always get the burger because once I find something I really like I stick with it. Nick has tried everything from the steak (which he compares to some of the best steak houses) to sandwiches. The boys always stick with their tried and true chicken nuggets, french fries and sweet tea.

From their website:
"Jack Mason’s Tavern is located in the small, quaint town of Clifton Forge, Virginia. We are a European-style pub, featuring a wide variety of beer, wine and spirits, designed to compliment the classic tavern fare on our menu.

We have designed Jack Mason’s Tavern not just as a restaurant, but also as a fun gathering place for friends and family of all ages. We have a game room featuring pool tables, video games and pinball, as well as 6 large TV’s and a state of the art sound system.

The large fireplace and warm atmosphere will welcome you as you come in to meet with friends or watch your favorite game. We are located directly across from the train station and welcome all of those passing through Clifton Forge, whether by road or rail, to come in and join us for a meal and a toast to Jack."

Click Here to read their menu and see more photos from the inside. See that first photo of the table in front of the map. We sat there last time and had fun finding places on the map. They also have a great selection of books, my favorites being historical photo books of the Clifton Forge area. I love browsing through them when we are waiting for our meal.

Linking with Signs, Signs

ABC Wednesday - I is for Identical

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Identical twins that is. Yeah, I'm not above pimping out my boys for the letter "I". I wanted this to be our last stop on the C&O Heritage Museum tour and couldn't find a way to "implement" (haha) these old carts and things that are outside of the freight depot I showed you yesterday.

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So that concludes our tour. Hope you enjoyed yourselves! Bye!

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Linking with ABC Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday - Freight Depot

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This is the old 1895 freight depot at the C&O Heritage Center. On the inside you will find all sorts of neat old things like:

(click on photo to enlarge) this operating model raiload that presents the key locations along the line, with descriptions of the reasons towns were built where they were and how they grew with the railroad. See that neat, huge grey building? That was the old Railroad YMCA. Sadly it was demolished. What a waste. You can read an interesting tidbit about the railroad and the YMCA HERE and I found these neat old pictures of vintage Clifton Forge postcards HERE

There's also cool old signs:

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Pretty ladies:

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And some knuckleheads ;)

Linking with Ruby Tuesday Too

C & O Rust

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A few of the old rusty trains at C&O Railways Heritage Center. Aren't they great?!

Yawn...so tired...as much as I love Daylight Savings, I dislike how dark it is when my alarm goes off...on top of that I didn't have my hot coffee ready to greet me this morning. Got it ready last night but forgot to add the water to it. Hate when I do that!

Weekend Reflections - C & O Heritage Museum

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Taking you back to the C&O Heritage Center...I love all those colorful reflections! If I remember correctly, this train car was from the Vietnam Era. I remember Nick commenting on the military green and look to it.

Oh, and regarding yesterday's photo with the boys in shorts. Many of you commented on how cold it looks. I should have explained that that was last weekend and it was just a little cool starting out in the morning but turned into a pretty day. Not as cold as it looks! That pile of snow is left over from that big snow (almost 2 feet of it) a couple of weeks back. It's gone but a few parking lots still have a pile or two that refuse to go away! Today the sun is shining, the birds are singing and the temp will be in the 60's! Ahhhh spring!

Linking with Weekend Reflections....Happy Saturday! What fun things do you have planned for the day?

Random 5 Friday - Photobomb

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Kroger parking lot, Daleville.

Last weekend the boys and I were waiting in the car at Kroger while Nick ran in to the bank. The boys noticed these boys shoes and were saying that they liked them. Since I had my camera I zoomed in to get a better look when low and behold, PHOTOBOMB ;)

Now some randoms:

1) Have you seen the new Chevy commercial with the dog? You're going to need a tissue for sure:


2) Today is a snow day. We woke up with a very light dusting, but the roads are icy.

3) I made the most delicious bbq chicken sandwiches with cilantro slaw the other night. I boiled my chicken breasts, then chopped and shredded and mixed with Duke's BBQ sauce (my favorite bottled sauce) but the amazing part was the slaw from Pioneer Woman. You can get the recipe HERE

4) The boys played their last basketball game on Monday evening. We lost so our season is now over. We have our banquet on Monday at Cici's. Now we are ready to start baseball!

5) Daylight savings starts this Sunday. I love longer days! And the countdown to spring? 13 Days, 3 Hours, 11 Minutes, 33 Seconds, as I type!

Visit Nancy at a Rural Journal for more randoms!

Have a great weekend :)

Signs, Signs - Sunbeam

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A block or two away from yesterday's Harrison Museum. I can't tell if this is old or just poor shape. Not in the best area so I guess the sign people don't really care.

Update: Lisa over at Two Bears Farm pointed out that the sign looks handpainted, which after she said something about that, I had to agree...so then I had to turn to Google. I don't believe I have ever seen a handpainted billboard and found a story about hand painted billboards. You can read that HERE. So I take back my comment about the sign people not caring and see that they do infact care enough to keep this bit of Americana! Thanks Lisa for pointing that out to me!

Linking with Signs, Signs

ABC Wednesday - H is for Harrison Museum

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The Harrison Museum of African American Culture. Built in 1916 this building was the first public high school for African American students. Located at 523 Harrison Ave., N.W. Roanoke, VA 24016. I didn't get to go inside since it is closed on Sunday, which is when I snapped this photo. Click Here for more info on the museum. Click Here for more info on early African American education in Virginia.

Linking with ABC Wednesday

Ruby Tuesday - Little Red Caboose

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More from the C&O Heritage Center in Clifton Forge.

“A freshly red-painted train caboose had, for decades now, made its home on a green, little patch of the world outside of the one-room post office. Every small town that I had ever been to had had a caboose.”
― Laura Miller

Linking with Ruby Tuesday Too

Starting out cold today. 10 degrees! School is on a 2 hour delay because of ice. Kind of hoping they upgrade to CLOSED! ;)

Monday Mural - Rooftop Graffiti

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This graffiti is found on the roof of Center in the Square. I wonder why, after all the work they did, they didn't clean up the graffiti? Odd!

Anyways, the weekend's weather was awesome. Yesterday we decided to head downtown and check out the views from atop Center in the Square. Pretty amazing! Had lunch at Queso Southwestern Grill inside the City Market Building. I suggest the shredded beef taco and steak burrito, yum.

Today is a snow day. The snow is falling quick. Not sticking to the roads yet but we have about an inch or so in the yard so far. Guess it's supposed to snow all day with the possibility of 4-8 inches. The Governor has already declared a State of Emergency. Maybe this will be bigger than they think!

Oscars?! Stayed up to watch. Loved Ellen! The only movie I have seen so far was Captain Phillips which was really good. Nick had seen Wolf of Wall Street which he LOVED and has gone on and on about it ever since. I loved that Lupita Nyong'o from 12 Years A Slave. I must see that movie. I loved Matthew McConaughey's speech. Pink...WOW...Angelina Jolie walking out with Sidney Poitier, I love her. And when Ellen bought pizza, she is hilarious! Well, that's my Oscars wrap up ha! Linking with Monday Mural

March Theme Day - People on the Street

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Gosh dang, another City Daily Photo Theme Day. We are already into the 3rd month of the year, wow! So for those of you new to this, each month participants of City Daily Photo vote on a theme and this month the winner was "People on the Street"...sooooo, I present to you, my entry! This was back in August, downtown Roanoke, the Farmer's Market. We had been to the Bacon Fest. It was HOT out that day...that's what I remember most. Hot days and bacon just don't mix! To see more people on the street, or street walkers ;) visit City Daily Photo!

I want to take a second to thank you guys for your concerns about my post yesterday. I wanted to share it so that if someone stumbled across it and happened to be going through something similar, I just wanted to be able to help them out and give them the courage to call the dr! I promise now that I've already been to see my Dr. Jason, I will NOT hesistate a second to call him if I ever see anything peculiar on my skin again! I have the best bloggie friends for being concerned! Thanks again! :)