Slowly but surely I'm experiencing things in Gainesville that make me happier to live here. This is one of them. Free downtown concert series every Friday night. The music is fabulous, the people we were with were fun, and the downtown area is really adorable!

I'm also loving this statue series that is out and about Gainesville right now. Life-sized bronze statues out and about depicting normal activities.

Way to go Gainesville, FL. Keep up with the awesome events, the cute atmosphere, and the great people. But do me a favor and get rid of this awful swampy humidity. I predict that I'll LOVE this place come fall and winter.

♥ Jessa

Oh! P.S. Check out Wayne's new tech post at Piece of Py if you're interested in coding or Python. He's so great and he's already gotten some attention for it.

Wow, this has been a really intense week. Both Wayne and I have had a lot of work to do because we get very little done professionally when we have amazing visitors in our home. So it's flown by, much like this entire summer has.

Last week we were able to attend the Grand Opening of a labor of love for many Gainesville residents! The Citizen's Co-op is now open for business in downtown gainesville. You can join for a one time membership fee of $100 (students can pay in quarterly installments and low income community members can join for only $20) and you receive a portion of what you spend back at year's end as dividends. They focus on selling locally grown and locally sourced foods whenever possible, and in providing transparency above all! It's a really beautiful space, and well stocked!

We're considering becoming investors in the co-op for only $500 per share with an 8% return, which is actually a fantastic return. Are any of you investors or members in your local co-op? What are the pros and cons?

♥ Jessa

We've had a slew of visitors in the new house. First Wayne's mom for 2 weeks, then my father and stepmother for my birthday weekend. Then my gorgeous friend Donna Sue stopped by just for an hour to say hi and Katie came by for a weekend. Then last weekend, my mama and grandma came into town for the weekend. So, we've been surrounded by people we love and who love us. It's a good feeling.

I had a wonderful last minute surprise visit as well with one of my favorite ladies... It just so happens that we needed to take Wayne's mom to the airport in Jacksonville (a place I haven't been in YEARS even though it's only a few hours away) and that is where my little lives! Hopefully she'll take this as a cue to come visit soon. :) Because after Sabrina visits this weekend we have no one lined up!

♥ Jessa

While my mom and Jessica's friend Katie were in town we decided we would all go to the pistol range and shoot off a couple hundred rounds of ammunition. We also kidnapped Justin on the drive to the range since we were going right by his house anyway. Except for me, this was everyones first time shooting a pistol (that wasn't a .22) so I was really looking forward to seeing the smiling faces during this trip. I also took this time to teach our new shooters some proper gun safety and how to hold a weapon. This was a continuous effort throughout the session. Our arsenal on this day consisted of the following handguns.

• Smith & Wesson BODYGUARD 38
• Glock 19 9mm - Gen4

Here is everyone lined up on their target

We drove out to Beckwith's , although I would have preferred to go to Bradford, it was a little too far out to fit into our schedule on this day. Half the group forgot their IDs, but Jessa and I remembered ours so we sent them back to get their IDs while we waited for the lane to open up. Jessa and I were pretty a hundred rounds into the fun when they all finally returned.

Everyone had a great time shooting and with the final clip of the Glock we sent a target all the way down range (25 yards), to see who could do the best at hitting the target. Out of the 15 rounds the five of us shot, we landed 9 on the target. Jessa and I accounted for 6 out of the 9. Yeah, I have to brag on her at some point, she is a natural and shot very well.

And here are some of the targets.

-Wayne

Our next home improvement project was inspired by some absolutely beautiful photographs of homes that used pallets in really new and unusual ways. I found them on Pinterest, a website where you can catalogue inspiration that you find on the internet into different "pinboards." I love it, let me know if you need an invitation. Here are a few links to the pin inspiration that I found...

A pretty single stack with straps to hold the cushion.

A daybed.

A pretty indoor coffee table!

The concept and the construction are both pretty simple.

• Step 1 : PLAN - Plan out what type of furniture arrangement you want and what size pallets you need. We wanted an L shaped couch and a separate stack, as well as a coffee table. We ended up using 48 x 40 stacks for the end of the L and 40 x 40 for the middle, as well as the coffee table and the separate stack.
• Step 2 : FIND pallets. Buy from respectable pallet dealers in poor or rural areas of your town, or pillage from the back of large retailers.
• Step 3 : PAINT - Or don't. That part is up to you. We painted ours white because the bare pallet, while it looked cool, would have looked weird against our $25 thrift store sisal rug.
• Step 4 : SCREW the pallets together. Place the screws into areas that are easily reachable in case you want to make changes but are hidden. We used 3 inch wood screws.
• Step 5 : MAKE or FIND someone who will make you cushions for the pallets. We had ours made by someone who does outdoor cushions for cruise ships. They're fantastic high grade foam covered in canvas fabric.
• Step 6 : SIT back and enjoy. :)

Step 2 : FIND

Step 3 : PAINT

Step 4 : SCREW (we didn't have time to finish painting one of the stacks before the party)

Step 4 : SCREW - It helps if you have fabulous family members that do a lot of the work. :)

Step 6 : SIT

Step 6 : SIT and enjoy the freshly mown backyard

So pretty!

♥ Jessa