#1,752 Loblolly + Beat Bama.

Let me start by saying:

Mississippi is the best in the land of college football today. State beat Texas A&M at home… But College GameDay was in Oxford for the Ole Miss/Bama game… And we won. WE BEAT BAMA. IS THIS REAL LIFE?

And the only one on the show who called it for Ole Miss was the guest, Katy Perry. Who is currently having herself a big time in Oxford tonight at a certain bar on the Square called Funky’s.

I’m so proud of my state! Hotty toddy! I hope my father is alive. He was there in person for the game. I have not heard from him since the win, and he might have stroked out.

In other news, it was just about the best day ever. Loblolly Festival! We finally got to hang out with Michael Foster and his darling wife, Brianna since they actually came down south from Oxford to take tintype photographs at the festival. I spent most of the day there, hustling friends over to take photos, watching the whole photo developing process, and hanging out with everyone in downtown. I haven’t been this exahusted in years (truly), so I’m letting the photos do most of the talking tonight:

There was a lot of this:

 Laura and Ross completely sold out of all the pottery she made for the festival. Such beautiful work!

Oddly, us 4 former coworkers accidently convened on 5th Avenue at the exact same moment. Sam was there to get his portrait done, James and Shannon just wandered up. What are the odds?

But seriously, y’all. Those tintypes. This is how it happens. You get positioned just so, with a brace to hold your head steady.

He puts a thin, small piece of sheet metal in a chemical bath for a few minutes and when the time is right, he rushes out of the dark room with it and puts it inside the camera. He covers his head with the black cloak to see the subject on the viewfinder (upside down), gets it perfectly in focus, then either snaps an instant photo with the flash… Or you have to be completely, perfectly still for 3 seconds while the lens captures the image without a flash.

The metal plate gets rushed back into the darkroom and goes into another chemical bath that turns the metal into a negative instantly. Everything red turns black, everything blue turns white. A few moments later, it’s ready for the final process:

And then it’s waxed and preserved. These tin photographs will last 200 years. Long after you and I are gone. Is that not the coolest?

Even the mayor had one done… And his might have been my favorite all day.

After the crowds were gone, Michael took some new official portraits of Ben and I for the Lucky Luxe website that I am DYING to share with you… But we don’t actually get to have them quite yet. He’s going to be mailing them to us after he cures and waxes them. It was such an amazing experience. I feel like I time traveled today by looking into the lens of that camera.
And after a long, long, long day downtown, we took our favorite 19th century photographers for waffles and omelettes at Huddle House.
We became fast friends, and were all really sad to see them leave. I so hope they’ll come back and visit one day!
Last but not least, the high today was 70 degrees. A cold front came through last night. We wore sweaters and boots and jackets and we DID NOT SWEAT, NOT ONCE, NOT AT ALL. 
What I’m saying is, today might as well have been Christmas. Just ask anyone from Mississippi.