Fun-Filled Weekend - Eureka Springs, AR!!

I have several things I need to blog about so I'm going to post the best one today and save the others for the days following :o)

This past weekend we went to Eureka Springs, AR with our friends Michael and Misty. They had been planning to go for the Volkswagen car show & Jake and I had never been to Eureka Springs or Arkansas for that matter so we decided to go with them a few months back, Since our 2 year anniversary is coming up next month we thought of this as our Anniversary trip! So we left on Friday morning as soon as we dropped Ashley off for school, Ashley was going to her Dad's for the weekend and Mom had agreed to watch Abbey for us, We were child free! :o) On the map it showed ES to be about a 6 hour trip.. it took us 10 hours to get there.. Micheal was telling us how to get there and he took us what I like to call "the back way" never again.. LOL!!! BTW, on the way home I bought a map and chose my route and it took us 6 hours to get home :o) LOL!!

So anyway, the photo you see above was taken in Atoka, OK on our way up, The guys spotted this and wanted this silly pic, Turns out this is actually a smoker/BBQ grill! Awesome!

Here is what I worked on, on the way up in the car while Jake drove Halfway. DW Waltrip! My first one, I loved the way this turned out, Looks great with variegated yarn, I'll definitely be knitting this one again!

When we got in that evening we checked into our Hotel & went and had dinner at a very overpriced German/Czech Restaurant that was so/so. We did a drive thru of downtown, which was adorable, The roads were so narrow and winding but it was beautiful. It reminded me of the little ceramic Christmas villages people set up in their homes. So adorable..

On Saturday we did most of our site seeing, The VW show was early in the morning so we got there around 9am. I won't bore you with every picture I took because I took a lot. But here is an overview & then my favorite car and Jake is now in love with these trucks... Michael will completely convert us before it's over with...




After the VW show we headed to the trolley station to get passes and ride downtown for some shopping! It was even more adorable during the day and there were some fun shops downtown.. here is a photo of Jake and I downtown...


This is the photo of a women's bathroom in a club downtown called "The Wagon Wheel"the story is that this is supposedly one of the most photographed bathrooms. It was on Ripley's believe it or not at one time... A HUGE rock! So weird.. LOL!!


Walking thru downtown and checking out almost all of the shops and having lunch took us awhile, we got the best java chip mocha's fraps at a small coffee store downtown as well, very tasty, better than Starbucks even (yes you did read that right)

After downtown we headed to Quigley's Castle Please follow the link and read the lovely story of a very strong woman and her love of nature and wanting to bring it into her home... here are some pictures of the inside..

The house she built with her children, decorated by her beautiful rocks...


The plants/trees growing from the ground in the house on the first floor....


.. and all the way up to the second floor....


The trees made from her husbands bottles, 14 of them....


The Quigley Castle was so unique and there was just such a peacefulness about the place. I loved it there, It is maintained and taken care of by her Grandchildren and it seems they live there as well, Such a lovely place.. please go visit if your ever that way...

After that we headed back into town to look for dinner when we discovered this!! The worlds largest wind chime! In the Guinness book!! It actually made music! So cool!!

On Sunday we stopped by our last site seeing of the trip on our way out of town. This is called Thorncrown Chapel or AKA "The Glass Chapel" very peaceful and beautiful...

A shot of beautiful Eureka Springs and AR beyond, So pretty there...

and so that was our trip... we had a really good time, It felt great to get away and to have some time for just Jake & I.

I'll leave you with something to laugh about.. our friend Mike is such a goofball and he is the worlds biggest VW nut, So here is what he wore to the VW show... LOL!! People kept stopping and taking pictures of him... it was too funny....

My First Yarn Store!!

On Friday of las week (Aug. 10th) My friend Misty had her bi-monthly Dr's appointment in the city, Normally her husband does take her, But I needed to get to a Target to shop for school finds for Ashley so I asked if I could take her and we could make it a girl's day!

As it turns out The Gourmet Yarn Co. yarn store was only 3 miles from where her Dr's Office was located. I've never been in an exclusive yarn/knitting store before. We don't have those here in Po-Dunk Ardmore, OK (along with many other great "scenes" we do not have) We only have our Good but limited selection of yarns at Hobby Lobby. So stopping was a "must" I was in awe as soon as I walked through the door, Yarn, beautiful yarn everywhere!! I felt a sense of peace fall over me (I'm a simple woman afterall) and the real kicker, There was a knitting area! Where you can sit and knit!! I knew they existed but never had the pleasure of seeing such a wonderful thing. As a Scrapbooker who Crops as often as she can I understand what a Joy it can be to share your crafting with others while doing so together! So I bought my first sock yarn to start my first real pair of socks and an adorable pattern for a top I want to knit for Abbey..

I am a dork and had the very nice lady working to take a photo of Misty, Abbey & I together in the store.. I love Yarn... For those who don't know I am the one on your left...

After spending a good 1.5 hours drooling over yarn there we headed to Red Lobster for lunch. It had been quiet a while for me, The fallback of being in love with someone who doesn't care for Seafood.

After lunch we headed to Michaels, Where Misty and I had a great find! We got these great awesome and WONDERFUL knitting bags, for the low price of $10 a piece! (They were $20 but there were some ugly blue ones on the clearance isle for $10 so Misty finagled them down LOL!!) Here is our wonderful find...

The outside, Such a pretty color, Very feminine!

For those passer by's who wonder what the hell kind of bag I'm carrying check this cute little touch on the front! It' screams for me "YES I KNIT WORLD!!!"

A really bad pic of how things are supposed to be organized inside... maybe someday I will have a pic of how I have things in it.. I love this bag!

After that w headed to Target and picked out a cute Hello Kitty Backpack for Ashley and a few other things school related...That was my trip, We had a great time!

Ashley's First Day of Kindergarten :+)

I've always heard my friends say that their children grow to fast & that it's one of the hardest things to see them get older. Now I know it's true. I thought after Ashley starting Pre-School last year that this year wouldn't be hard on me at all. That's not true.


Last year Ashley went to Pre-school at Chickasaw Headstart, A small school with 5 classrooms total and 20 kids per room each with One teacher & Two Assistants . The Teacher & Assistants drove the buses & picked all of the children in their class up at home. I felt safe knowing these things.. While Ashley doesn't ride the bus (kindergartener's can't ride unless they have an older sibling, not that I'd let her even if she could this year) I take her to school... drop her off at the door, pick her up at the door, safe enough... It's while she's there that I worry.. LOL! They let 3 kindergartener's walk alone down to the cafeteria for breakfast, It makes me worry a little, Just a little. But I just pray she's safe. I'm Mommy, It's my job to worry about these little things right? Being extra careful about our children's safety is never a bad thing. annoying maybe. but never bad.


So Ashley started Kindergarten on Wednesday. Her Teacher's name is Mrs. Allen, She seems okay, but she's not as "down to earth" and Friendly as Mrs. Hodges was last year. She's very different. I hope she's a nice lady and Ashley likes her, I have my worries. Everything is very different from last year of course and Ashley did tell me it's not as fun as last year. Poor thing, every year just get's harder right? But I can't tell her that, I have to try to make her believe that school is fun and learning is a wonderful thing, Because I want great things for her, I want her to be independant and smart, I know she can.


So here are some pictures from our first Day getting there. It was chaos! The new school has um... I'm guessing there to be like 25 classrooms and 20 kids per class.. Large school... onto the pics...

The "Big School"

Ashley's Cubby

Ashley's Desk

The line of cars I wait in to pick her up! Wow...10 minutes we wait.

What's Been Going On...

It's funny, It seems like I've been running my legs off lately, But I can't seem to remember anything I did worth mentioning too much, Just everyday life sort of stuff, But here is some of the things I can remember and have pictures of..

Ashley's been very bored since we got back from Vacation, She had just gotten out of the summer program at her pre-school when we left for our WA vacation. All I can say is thank goodness she wasn't home with me all day everyday for 3 months. She's been getting into a lot of Mischief, bad mischief, A few days ago she cut the cords off of her v-smile. How she snuck scissors past me I'll never understand. She has done a few distructive things since Abbey was born, Even though we try to give her a lot of extra attention and let her be a part of everything, She still seems to be acting out a bit about the changes. With that news, She starts school next Wednesday Kindergarten, full day 8am-3pm. Bliss! That will make me dred next Summer even more.. no preschool program then.. LOL!! We have bought her school supplies and even a few new suits and Mom bought her two pairs of shoes. I do still need to get her a backpack though! argh! I may be doing that tomorrow. a little trip outta town that I Hope works out for me!

Abbey is doing good.. on everything but solid foods, She's not learning to swallow very well or something.. She throws up the things we try, oatmeal baby cereal, banana's, apple sauce.. all back up.. not sure.. worries me. everything worries me. She does keep her formula down and seems in love with her bottle.

The only crafting I've been doing are dishcloths, Because I can sit for a couple of minutes and work a few rows and tend to whatever else.. not enough free time to start a scrapbook layout or play with my new stamp sets I"m dying to play when, Maybe, when school starts.

I did treat myself to something I'd been wanting for some time. Birkenstocks! Or as I prefer to cal them Birki's! I'm in love with these shoes, They are expensive, more expensive than we can afford, That's why they are on easy pay on QVC LOL!! They are so comfy and I LOVE the way they hug my arches!

ugh fankles!!!! Cute shoes though!

I have a new friend, Misty, I've got her started on knitting and now hooked on Dishcloths, Here she is with her first one, Don't tell her I shared, she'd die if If she knew.. hee!

Last weekend my sweet Sister turned 30 years old, Happy Birthday Kristi, we love you much!

That's it for this time folks!

Dishcloth Mode!

Well, I have several things to post.. dishcloths, what's been going on, and other pics for that, So I'm going to do at least 2 seperate blogs :) So this one is about Dishcloths. I've gone dishcloth nuts, They are just fun to knit! So many different patterns to try and I've got Me & Mom hooked on using them and hope to attract more people because frankly Mom and I only really need so many dishcloths right? LOL!!!

So here are the latest....

This Dishcloth is from the Nifty Knit Dishcloths pattern book that I bought at Hobby Lobby, This is the first Dishcloth I've knit from those patterns, It's a bit larger than I really like for my dishcloths to be, So I'm thinking I'll drop a needle size before I knit anymore of these.

This is the Pico Swirl Cloth found here.

This is the Nubbins Cloth... so easy to knit! Great take along.. found here.

This was the July mid-month KAL on the Monthly Dishcloth Group!

This one was snagged almost as soon as I made it. We have a very good friend Named Mike who LOVE's VW's! He is a nut about them, Even has a Tat to prove it! So this one went to him but it was a Mystery KAL on Rachel's Wonderful Group!

Whew! That's it for Dishcloths, It has been the only thing I've been knitting but I do have a Bolero in the works for Ashley and as soon as I Can get some wool I'll be knitting a coco bag to felt :o)

Till'next time! Happy Knitting!

The Simple Things...

I checked my emails this morning and found an adorable E-Card from my loving husband. I've not been in the best mood the last couple of days, A combo of stress and PMS. But he's always loving and supportive even when I'm snapping at him. I just wanted to stop and take time to remember how lucky I am to be blessed with the most perfect husband and beautiful family a girl could ask for.