The Lovely Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library!

If you live in Clarksville and haven't been to the local library, you are missing out! Not only does the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library offer virtual means to your favorite books with a library card-- which you can read more about here-- but you can take advantage of so many amazing perks that come with our Public Library here in Clarksville!

For those with kids-- from small children to teens-- the library has a myriad of programs throughout the year! There are near-daily activities for children, both craft times and storytimes to be enjoyed in the children's library! However, once a week in the afternoon, there are also programs for tweens and teens. These crafting activities are extremely fun and usually based on popular trends! While it has been a good while since I went to the teen program, I remember that we made our own Sonic Screwdrivers, inspired by the popular series Doctor Who! Tweens and Teens can also apply to be on the library's Teen Advisory Board, which helps decide on the crafting activities and promote the teen and tween programs.

There are also all age and adult programs at the library. Some of these include the Lego Program, Sunday Movie, and the Anime Club! There is also a program for those of all ages with special needs and their caregivers. For adults, the library hosts a book club and crochet club as well as an open tech lab to get help with computer use such as navigation or setting up an email! For a full calendar of library activities, check here!

The Public Library is an incredible place and the staff has really allowed for great use of the space with all of their available programs. However, whether you want to attend the Sunday movie or just want to check out the wide selection of books, you should consider going to the Public Library soon! 

Prepping Your House for Showing and Selling: Safety Precautions

When you are trying to sell your home, you're usually still living in it. With that in mind, you need to make sure to keep yourself and your belongings safe as potential buyers move in and out for showings and open houses. Some of these things may seem obvious, but in the whirlwind of getting ready, it can be easy to forget the simplest things!

First: be sure to lock away valuables and secure any private documents! Move your jewelry out of the jewelry box, lock any safes you may have in the house. Be sure any important documents, such as ones from your bank, are securely tucked away. While an agent will be with potential buyers through a showing, there is always a possibility someone might get their hands on something they shouldn't.

Second: remove medication from your home. If you need to, keep your medication in a mobile bag you can take with you when you leave the house for showings or else put them away with other valuables in a secured spot.

And third: take down any decorations that include the names of your family, especially kids. While it is unlikely this is something a potential buyer would use, it is better safe than sorry. No stranger should have access to your child's name so be sure to remove any door signs and other such decorations! 

These steps perhaps seem simple, but sometimes the simple things are the easiest to forget! Be sure to lock away valuables, remove medications, and be sure to take down decorations with the names of your family. This will keep you, your belongings, and your family safe as you ready yourself to sell your house!

Ice Cream for Hot Days: Check out Golly G's!

The temperature seems to be rising a little more every day this week, and as we hit heat advisories in Clarksville, it's important to stay cool. Start up the sprinkler, jump in the pool, and get yourself a scoop of ice cream! If you're lacking ideas of where to go for a sweet treat, take my advice and go to Golly G's Coffee, Ice Cream, and Sweets! This local growing chain currently only has three locations within Tennessee-- Sango, Pleasantview, and Greenbriar. The Sango location is (obviously) the one I've attended most, but all of these shops have a certain charm about them reminiscent of an older ice cream parlor. 

Golly G's is the place to go for ice cream for a simple reason: it's made in-house. No generic ice cream in this little restaurant! While there are the staple flavors of chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and mint chip, there are also more creative flavors. Currently, at the Sango location, there are flavors such as blackberry cobbler, oreo speedwagon, whopper, and (my favorite) peanut butter honey. You get any flavor of the ice cream made into a banana split, a hot fudge sundae, a milkshake, or a shake with a shot-- or a milkshake with expresso. Though of course, there are other sweets including the famous Golly G's Giant Cinnamon Roll. If you have a real sweet tooth, order the Golly G: one of the famous giant cinnamon rolls topped with sweet buttercream ice cream and drizzled with caramel sauce.

While there are some lunch options-- and of course, coffee-- the ice cream is to die for. If you're needing a cold, sweet treat? Head to Golly G's at 2622 Madison St!

Clarksville Writers Conference - Sign Up Now!

Our city is lucky to have its own Writers Conference! Despite being a smaller event, having attended the conference twice over the past years, I can attest to its worth. This two-day event is a full buffet of writing workshops and presentations given by published writers. It is relatively inexpensive for a conference of this kind-- a complete package for $225 to include the full two days and the banquet, or different options of lesser expense.

The line-up for this year can be found on the Clarksville Writers Conference website, here! This program is sponsored by the Clarksville-Montgomery County Arts & Heritage Development Council, in partnership with Austin Peay State University and the Tennessee Arts Commission. It will be the sixteenth year of this conference being held, and it's doubtlessly bound to get better as it grows, so make that possible by signing up! If you'll be in town on August 12th and 13th? Sign up to go to the Clarksville Writers Conference! It is not only a chance to grow as a writer but a chance to meet the community of writers around you!

A Local Literary Journal to Support!

For those literary-minded or those just wanting to find something a little different than the ordinary novel to read, this is for you. If you've never heard of a literary journal, they are collections usually made of short stories, essays, and poems by different authors allowing for a broad range in subject matter and style. Perhaps the production of these kinds of books is common knowledge, but I didn't learn about them until I entered college and was able to work with Zone 3 Press at Austin Peay State University.

If you've never gotten a journal from Zone 3, you're missing out. Established in 1986, this nationally distributed journal is printed twice a year. It is a non-profit press that encourages emerging authors which is one of the many reasons you should try to support and promote this locally produced journal that publishes submissions from all over! Zone 3 offers book competitions for poetry collection and nonfiction publishing-- and I can say, owning some of these books myself, that Zone 3 only puts out excellent work. In addition, Zone 3 contributes to the experience of Austin Peay with their visiting writer series. They allow writers to visit and read from their works, and in several cases, these writers have stopped by the creative writing classrooms to share their knowledge. I have sat through a few classes led by visiting writers, and those were some of the most profound class days I experienced. 

If you live in Clarksville and have never heard of Zone 3, it is something you need to learn about now! You can check out the press's full website here, and if you have interest in purchasing one of their journals or contest books, here! I highly recommend An Imperfect Rapture by Kelly Beard as well as A Woman, A Plan, An Outline of a Man by Sarah Kasbeer. I was able to read through both of these during two different semesters of working at Austin Peay, and they were simply amazing!

Why Do I Need a Real Estate Agent?: Networking

Do you have a plan on how to advertise your home when you sell? There are sites, sure-- things like Zillow and even Craigslist. That will surely get some showings, but is it really enough? Friends don't often spread the word that a house is for sale, and sites like Craigslist can get some questionable interest. Overall, this kind of coverage may not get your home sold as quickly and efficiently as you might like.

A perk of having a real estate agent is eliminating the element of advertising on account of the seller. From watching seasoned realtor, Pam Cash of Crye-Lieke Realtors, I can say that advertising homes is one of the big parts of the job. This stretches from taking pictures to posting on sites to let both potential buyers and other realtors know a new home is on the market. Perhaps you're thinking "I can take pictures and post on different sites," but one thing you may be discounting? Seasoned realtors have a network that the average person does not. They know other agents with clients that may be looking for exactly what you're selling that they connect with. They have their own clients who may be searching for the perfect house you have. And if they have neither of those? They have an entire pool of a real estate agency in which they can spread the word of a good house on the market, circulating information that will likely reach the ears of someone who needs to hear about it.

While you may get buyers by self-advertising a for sale by owner home, the pool will most likely be far smaller than the network of potential buyers you'll get with an agent That means, most likely, you won't get as much money for your home as you could. Realtors have a large range of communication and come with a built-in network of connections. They are, overall, invaluable to a good sale.

Prepping Your House for Showing and Selling: Be Mindful of Odors!

This is something that may seem obvious, but in one's own home, this kind of thing might not be so apparent. The idea of 'odors' is not always necessarily a negative thing-- though you should definitely clean the litterbox and take out the garbage! 

The main idea is to try to keep the home's scent neutral. While the smell of a home isn't exactly a selling point, and may not have any large effect, it can help set the mood for the showing. Scents actually have a very large tie to emotions and other psychological factors, and moreover, a showing of a home is the opportunity for potential buyers to put themselves as the owners of the home. Furthermore, there are issues to take into mind such as a potential allergy to an essential oil or else a potential buyer having sensitivity to strong smells. So, be sure to keep this in mind when you're readying for a showing! 

Be careful with what you make in the kitchen before a showing is happening! The smell of cooked fish or sizzling bacon might be a little distracting. Even something as tasty as the smell of fresh-baked cookies may not be fully welcomed-- even though some may encourage the methods to make your home smell just like that. This might come out a stronger scent than anticipated and really-- can you focus when a delicious smell makes you hungry?

You also should be careful with any choice of candle or scent diffuser. Steer away from anything strong-- foods or flowers should take a step back. Look into something neutral, like linen or something foresty. You may also look into a scent exterminating candle.

While scents aren't always bad ones, it's important to keep in mind what your home smells like when you're getting ready for a showing. Be careful with what you cook, and what kind of scent you use when it comes to candles! It's best to keep things neutral as you allow potential buyers to view your home.

Replay Toys Clarksville

Looking for figurines? Vintage toys? Blind boxes, Funko Pops, or maybe some dolls? The new shop on Madison Street, Replay Toys, may be the perfect spot for you to check out! It is a recent addition to our community and an excellent place to find everything I listed!

I went to the shop, Replay Toys, just this week for the first time. Walking in, I was greeted by very friendly employees and several aisles of what were-- in my eyes-- treasures. Two shelves of pops and the unique bags of Loungefly on two more were the first things to explore. While these are newer, Replay Games sells ones that can be very difficult to find as well as discontinued and limited addition items. There is also a case of more delicate figurines that range from superheroes to Disney. While my boyfriend studied a board of Disney pins, I picked out some Hello Kitty blindboxes and then searched through loose figures that were marked incredibly low-- I was not at all disappointed with that I found.

My favorite area was the large expanse of vintage toys, however. There was a large collection of Carebears, boxed Barbies, porcelain Disney princess dolls, and even original in-box Furbies. Of course, that is only a small portion of Replay Toys' stock! I also had fun looking through the incredible supply of anime figurines (which can be difficult to find in without going to Nashville) as well as the vast array of horror memorabilia that included several replicas of Saw's Jigsaw doll. 

Overall, this shop is a place I will definitely be visiting again, and I would suggest to anyone else with an collector's heart. With a frequently fluctuating stock, it's somewhere to peek in whenever in the area!

Spot the Tiny Friend!

 

A Bonus of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Library

The Clarksville-Montgomery County Library is, in my opinion, one of Clarksville's most stunning additions to the community. While I've yet to talk about it on here yet, if you've lived in our fair town, you've probably been there at least once and most likely you have a library card. However, what you may not know is that having a library card with the Clarksville-Montgomery County Library can give you access far beyond the books within the walls of the library.

The library in Clarksville provides two different electronic sources that are connected with your library card and the number on the back. Notably, if your card is more than a few years old, you may require a new one in order to check out these sites! Hoopla and Libby are two free online sources where you can get additional reading material and more, all with the power of your library card.

Hoopla is the application I've used longest, having just found out about Libby. The advantages of Hoopla are that it allows a quick check out without any wait time, and you can also check out things such as movies, television series, and music along with more literary media. I personally use Hoopla strictly for audiobooks, but they have a good range of ebooks and comic books as well. While their variation of titles doesn't reach as far as Libby or paid apps like Audible, I have always been able to find something to peak my attention on the app. The only downfall to this application is the fact you have a limit of seven titles you can check out per month-- but you do get to keep whatever you check out for the entirety of the month and there is never a wait time.

This is perhaps the biggest difference between Libby and Hoopla. Libby, unlike its counterpart, does not have a 'per month' limit. You can have fourteen titles checked out at a time, and once you return them, you can immediately fill those spaces. However, there can be wait times on books as Libby only has a certain number of copies per audiobook / ebook that can be up to several months-- though usually, it is only a couple of weeks. To make up for this, you can place books on hold to get on a virtual 'wait list' to get the title-- I'm currently waiting for the fifth Pretty Little Liars audiobook to become available myself. The final difference between Libby and Hoopla is that, while Libby does not have movies or music, it does have a far more expansive range of titles that can be checked out. 

Personally, I don't have a preference between these two apps-- I use them both and both are free to me thanks to the Clarksville-Montgomery County Library. If you have a library card? You need to take advantage of these amazing applications, and if you don't? What on earth are you waiting for? Get to the library today!

Why Do I Need an Agent?: Avoiding Emotional Sales

Your home is something personal, and selling it can feel just as personal. Saying goodbye to it can be an incredibly emotional process. It can be overwhelming, and it can feel very personal. Unfortunately, those kinds of emotions can make it harder to get to the end goal: selling your home for a fair price. 

Selling a home is overall a negotiation and it comes with criticisms-- what the potential buyers like and don't like, what they think of the property, and other such things. That can be hard to hear and sometimes may even cause an offense when emotions are already running high. Receiving a low offer can be upsetting, even if it's reasonable. It can be easy to overprice one's own home, having personally seen all of its worth. These are things no seller would see themself guilty of, but when it comes to the task of selling a home, the overwhelming emotions can make such decisions harder. A real estate agent does not have these hangups. They create a comfortable boundary between the buyer and seller; they ensure such emotions don't get in the way. Negative feedback can also be delivered in a way that's easier to swallow and help sellers work with the criticisms. 

All in all, selling a house can be much more personal than one really anticipates. It can be emotional, and many who sell their home themself can find such emotions affecting the sale itself. In the end, a realtor can provide a much-needed cushion when selling one's house as they do not have personal ties to a place that has fostered memories within it.