Vacation {December 19, 2015 - January 3, 2016)

Our vacation was a combination of a staycation, a road trip and a day trip. We did some work on the house including the hallway. After all, a hallway is a room too. That will be a separate blog post.

{Most of the loot from road trip to Granbury, Texas}

On December 23, 2015, we went on a road trip to Granbury, Texas stopping along the way at a few old town squares. We first stopped at Georgetown, Texas. I absolutely loved this square and want to return in April for the Red Poppy Festival. There were several antique stores. And, I was pleasantly surprised to discovered that Thundercloud Subs popped up on the gluten free radar. So, we went there for lunch.

We also stopped by Salado, Texas. I am not going to lie. I was disappointed with the town. There didn't seem to be a legit square! However, we did find two antique stores and a quilt shop.

We took off from there going through some small towns along the way (not stopping). We went through Meridian because they supposedly had a courthouse. Let me tell you, they did have a courthouse; but, the town itself was depressing (dead). Maybe the atmosphere had something to do with my initial impression of the courthouse; but, as much as it is a nice old building, I was not impressed.

We stayed in Granbury, Texas over Christmas and shopped the square. I loved their town square. They had a variety of shops including a quilt store which I will not be returning to due to the fact they snip and tear their fabrics instead of cutting them. I know there is tons of debate (pros and cons) on this method of cutting fabrics. I am not going to argue or debate about it here; but, it always makes me cringe inside. And, I dislike all the little strings it leaves behind not to mention one of my fabrics is now skewed from the force of tearing. I just prefer cutting with scissors or rotary cutter.

Anyway, did you know that Granbury, Texas has a beach? Yes, a beach! I was shocked. I made Dan stop by on the way back to the hotel Christmas Eve. We walked along the shore for a few minutes and it was peaceful. There is just something about being by a body of water that brings peace to my soul. A beach is a plus!

We visited my brother and his family on Christmas day. I had an absolutely wonderful time and was so happy to see the young kids again. My oldest grand-niece (11-years old) gave me a lovely little candle she made herself.

We returned home on December 26, 2015 stopping along the way at a few places. We first stopped in Clifton. Texas. A town square was not present; but, old style town buildings existed along with a couple antique shops. I picked up a cheap bench that I plan to re-purpose for the cats. Once we put it in place, the cats immediately started getting on top of the bench and looking out the window. And no, it's not going to look like this when I'm done.

By the way, I love looking in storefront windows. One of the shops in Clifton. Texas had this humorous Snowman scene. It just made me laugh and I had to snap a picture.

We had lunch in Waco, Texas. While there, I went searching online for antique and quilt shops. I discovered there was a quilt shop called Tomorrow's Quilt nearby and their facebook page indicated they were having an after Christmas sale. So, I told Dan that we are going and I am so glad we did because I ended up purchasing fabrics for 50% off which included clearance fabrics!

And then, we went to McGregor, Texas. There is a store called Cedar Chest Antique Mall. Holy Moly! That place is HUGE!

I ended up grabbing a three legged table for $20 at a booth in "The Market" part of the antique mall. I plan to clean, strengthen and either paint/stain the table. In the meantime, Dan is using it for what I intended which makes me happy.

By the way, I found a mini lane chest that had an image by Patty Butters with a 1996 copyright by Lane. It was Dan who saw the tiny copyright and determined that was legit. I never seen anything like this before and assumed someone ruined the box. You can see a hint of the image on the box between the his and her signs in the top picture.

We arrived home real late but happy. At least, I was happy. Dan was just tired. Ha!

We took a day trip on January 2nd to Lockhart and New Braunfels on January 2nd. Again, the purpose was old town squares and antiquing.

I don't know how I ended up with six mini lane chests from our adventure of the day. But, both Dan and I were shocked! I often would never see one on trips like this one. And, all of them were reasonably priced!

There are subtle differences among them. Some have feet. Some have what I called a slightly raised bottom and others are extremely plain (no feet or ridges on the bottom).

I need to document what I have and share the history I have found on the chests in the near future.

We also purchased the above confusing item for $36. We cannot figure out if it is a nightstand or an end table because it has a weird cutout hole for electronics in the back of the item. but, we plan to replace the backing, sand everything down and paint the item re-purposing it in our house.

And on the last day (January 3) of our vacation which also happened to be Dan's birthday, we went to a RV Supersale Show. It was a fun adventure!

Gone Shopping

Bluebonnet Patchwork Trails Shop Hop

Fabric Tuesday: Quilt Shop Hop

My sewing machine died last Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Dan took it to the shop for me as it is located near where he works. While there, he found out it will be at least two weeks before I get my "baby" back.

Say what?!?

I then drowned my sorrows in M&M minis.

But, my mood lifted when I remembered that I was going Shop Hopping on Thursday.

I had this written down in my calendar and plans was in the works long before my machine broke. I had no plans to buy anything in particular nor did I specifically shop for certain things. I wanted to explore the quilt shops in the area. I thought that this was a good way to go exploring and hide in the crowds at the same time. I also set a personal limit to what I could spend. All in all, I think I did rather well.

Here is my loot. First of all, I got all these Fat Quarter fabrics

FREE!

Each shop gave out a free fat quarter to the hoppers. How cool is that?

I was doing fine money-wise until I fell in love with a line of fabrics.


I bought the top six fabrics at the first shop I saw these. The bottom two were bought on the second day at another shop. The line is called "Max & Whiskers" by Basic Grey for Moda.

{By the way, after I looked at the above picture, I thought the dog word fabric (bottom left) might not be part of the line. So, I looked at the selvage and sure enough, it is from a different line called "Man's Best Friend" by Leanne Anderson of Whole Country Caboodle for Henry Glass & Co.}

Isn't this just too cute?

When I got home the first night, I had to go online to my favorite online quilt shop to see if they had more fabrics in that line. Yup, they did. So, I ordered more! Ha! I'm also going to look for and order a few more that this particular shop did not have.

Anyway, moving on.

I found this fabric in the last shop on the second day.

The picture doesn't do justice to the colors. I loved the paisleys and the colors. But, as I debated on it, I could not justify spending money. What would I use it for? So, I wandered the shop and then suddenly, I realized that the colors could very well match the line of fabrics that I purchased. So, I went back and examined it and came to the conclusion that it will match. I ended up buying some. It is called "Priscilla's Paisley" for The Alexander Henry Fabrics.



Perfect Match! I'm not so sure about the dog words fabric. I will wait until the rest of the fabrics in this particular line comes in and then make a determination on whether or not to keep or reject it.

That is all for now! I will post the fabrics for the entire line once I get them all in. I hope you enjoyed this silly smiley loaded post!

.......

The Road Trip Home

Since we had no obligations for Tuesday, we decided to leave early. We were out and about when we made this decision. So, we returned to the hotel arriving around 10:30am. We packed like maniacs. I now know I can pack up my crap in a hurry. We were out of there by 11:04am – a record breaking time. And oh, I think I got enough exercise for that day running to and from the vehicle at the hotel.

We decided to lunch at Lambert’s Cafe before leaving town.


The weather was horrid. But, that didn’t stop me from trying to take pictures of the place. It’s very interesting.



This place accepts cash and checks only. So, be prepared ahead of time. It is also very pricey. So, have a hearty appetite to make it your worthwhile. And, be prepared to wait awhile to be seated as it’s a VERY popular place.


Giant Checkers board game uses beat up lids from Thermos jugs. People could play this game while waiting in line to get in.

The walls are covered with pictures, license plates, and tin signs. There were flags of all kinds hanging from the ceiling. There will be people coming around with sides such as Fried Okra, Fried taters, Black Eye Peas, and Macaroni and sweet Tomatoes. And, there will be a person that tosses rolls to you from time to time if you desire one.

I had a hamburger, which wasn’t all that spectacular. Dan had a steak and he said it was very good.

And then we headed on out intentionally going through a funky interchange. We were inside Oklahoma within a hour.

Since it was a long drive, I was bored, and it was a gloomy day, I decided to challenge myself by taking pictures while we were on the move (mostly 70 miles per hour) to keep the boredom and doldrums away. It was a lot a fun not to mention a waste of time because the vast majority of the pictures were a total waste. Ha!

However, I did capture a few pictures that I liked while on the move.


We saw a lot of Hayfields in Oklahoma


I chased a lot of sun rays through the state. It’s not easy trying to capture a picture like this through a passenger window while on the move.


This was taken near the border of Texas while still in Oklahoma. The sun was setting.


We did stop once because I wanted to take pictures of a silo with a tree growing on top. I first saw this on the way to Missouri and wanted to take pictures; but, we didn’t stop. At the time, there were a bunch of goats taking refuge from the sun under the tree beside the silo. And, the weather was beautiful that day.

I now wish we had stopped back then because the weather was awful on our return trip home. And, there were no goats this time around. Oh well. Maybe another time I will capture a priceless image.

We arrived in Sherman, Texas around 9:00pm. We had the worst night in a hotel that we will never stay at again. We both ended up sick from the effects of lingering smoke.

We learned a valuable lesson – just because we had a wonderful stay in Missouri with a hotel by the same name (chain), it doesn’t mean another would be the same experience. We will now stick with our standby hotels and not deviate from them unless we’ve checked out hotel review sites beforehand.

One good thing that came out from this experience is that while rushing to get out of the place early the next morning, I spied this underneath a stairwell…


What the heck? I looked up. And, Lo and behold..


juvenile Barn Swallows


I couldn’t linger because the babies’ parents and older siblings (Dan said there were four of them) were beginning to make a racket and were pitching a fit concerning me. I didn’t want to trouble them too much. I felt blessed by this little discovery. Good things can happen in bad places.

We continued on down the road, grabbing some breakfast from a nearby gas station. I didn’t want take a chance at the hotel's free continental breakfast. I wanted out of there like a bat out of a cave.

While we continued our trek home, I spied a billboard ad for quilt store located in Waxahachie, TX. We decided to stop and explore.

It’s a very nice little “town” and the Square (downtown) is in good condition. I believe I would like to come back here and explore as it looks like it has plenty of antique stores and the “town” has character.


We eventually found the Common Threads Quilting store. I explored the store and didn’t see much I absolutely had to have. However, I thought the prices were reasonable in this little shop. I did make a couple of purchases.


Pillowcase kit & Apron Pattern

I am sorely in need of a new pillowcase for my extra pillow. My sister-in-law made and gave to me a Garfield pillowcase eons ago and it’s not going to last much longer. So, I decided to purchase this kit in hopes of learning how to make them. And, the price seemed reasonable.

As for the apron pattern, I’ve become such an Apron fanatic lately. However, I don’t like paying the high prices of the aprons I’ve seen for sale. I saw this pattern for sale in the Missouri Quilt stores; but, the prices were a little too high for me. However, it was under $10 at this quilt shop. So, I decided to get it.

I’m NOT a seamstress. I am amateur quilter. I don’t sew clothes nor do I know how. But, hopefully, I’ll be able to figure this one out when I’m ready to make one.

We both decided to linger and explore one antique store before moving on. I love rummaging. I love shops that sell “junk”. However, there are only a few things I will ever purchase and the price must be right for this thrifty gal. When I spied this…


Longaberger basket for $9.00, I had to get it!

I believe that the basket itself was once part of a retired 1999 item called “Santa’s Helper” – it looked like a sled. Somehow, the “runners” got lost. But, I didn’t care. The basket itself is still excellent shape not to mention serviceable. And, it’s Longaberger! Ha! The only thing this particular basket is lacking is a protector. Maybe I will find one off eBay someday.

You have to understand, I love the Longaberger baskets. The quality is outstanding. But, you often pay for what you get. And, forget about the retired baskets. Translation: prices are often sky high and out of my budget range.

Maybe I’ll show off my tiny collection of Longaberger baskets here someday.

And now, we return to our regular scheduled programming. (Enough with the babbling.)

We stopped to take pictures of a house I fell in love with on the way in downtown Waxahachie. These pictures do not do justice to the house itself.




We had lunch in Italy, Texas, which was just down the road aways from Waxahachie. We can now claim to have eaten in Italy. Ha! The place we chose was Grandy’s . We used to eat at Grandy’s when they had a few in Houston. But, they disappeared and we missed them. The sides are still the same – absolutely delicious. And, the chicken is still very good. To me, Grandy’s is better than KFC or Chick-fil-A – the food is good and the prices decent. I sure wish we had some where we live.

Then we continued on our merry journey, arrived home around 3:00pm and returned to life as we know it. In other words, we lived happily ever after! Ha!

Bead, Quilt and Honey stores

On Monday morning of our sixth day of vacation, we went shopping! We were on the hunt for some antique and quilt stores. We found several stores online that were nearby our hotel and mapped them out. We went to the furthest one out first, which was an antique store. It was loaded with junk and much to my disappointment, closed.

Dan saw a Bead shop on the way up to the antique store; so, when I saw the place on the way back, I told him to stop.


Like the good chauffeur and doting husband that he is, he did (stop).

I have a confession to make.

*takes a deep breath*

I’m a bead-aholic and I refuse to quit. Ha! However, I do try to be good about making purchases.


This shop is one of the coolest "dual" shops I’ve ever been in. You walk inside the door and on the left side is all leather and related merchandise – anything a leather worker would happen to want or need, he’d find it here (most likely). They had all kinds of stuff including tools, furs, fasteners, hardware and more. On the right is the bead shop. It is like they divided the humongous place down the middle, placed the registers smack dab in the center, decided who gets what side, and then worked in harmony forever. Ha! Both sides were decent sized “stores”.

Anyway, I quickly roamed amongst the leather and then made a beeline to the beads. They had tons of beads. I was in bead heaven. I roamed and looked over everything and found some decent bargains.


My Bead Purchases

I got creative with Dan’s help – we turned all the strings of beads I purchased into a framed flower for this picture. Isn’t it cute? I know. I know. Silly. Ha! The strands that form the petals were $2 each and the ones that form the stem and frame were $1 each. I thought I did very well considering these were nice glass beads.

And then, we continued on down to the quilt shops. We stopped by the Quilt Sampler first. This store has a very unassuming storefront. It wasn’t worth the effort of taking a picture. Don’t let unassuming or boring storefronts deceive you. This was one of the best shops I’ve entered in a long time. It was loaded to the rafters with merchandise, fabrics, and the like. I had a blast wandering the store. And yes, I bought stuff.


The Loot

The fabrics are Fat Quarters. (Check out Fat Quarters and Other Signs of Madness for a definition and a humorous blog post on the insanity of collecting Fat Quarters.) These fabrics were on sale – buy 5 for $1 each. How could a fabric-aholic pass this up? Especially when she still needs a few more faux plaids and stripes for a project she plans to do someday? Not! Resistance is futile! Ha!

I picked up the book and immediately loved some of the ideas. I quickly located my husband to show it to him. It is an expensive book. I didn’t want to get it if he didn’t think it was good (he’d be doing most of the work). When I returned to him, he said to go ahead and get it. Yeah!

While my husband was perusing the book, I finished up wandering the store. I came across a quilt top hanging on a wall that was made from a pattern called "Baby Charms" by Bean Counter Quilts. The quilt top they made was the larger version for a boy -- it was so darn cute. The pattern can be used for girls too. So, I decided to purchase the pattern. I hope to make a baby quilt someday soon. Mother’s Maxine quilt project comes first.

After I finished this shop, we went to another quilt shop called Merrily We Quilt Along which also had a unassuming storefront. In fact, we almost didn’t find it. This place practically had an entire tiny shopping strip. A portion of the store has a tea room. I didn’t find anything I absolutely must have. Personally, I liked the first quilt store we went to.

Then we decided to call it quits and go to lunch. We heard about Honey Heaven and the Bee-stro café while at the first Farmer’s Market we attended. I wanted to go there, mainly to see the live hive and to get some honey. So, we went there to have lunch. The storefront was unassuming.

What’s with the boring or unassuming storefront signs??? I don’t get it. It certainly isn't attracting customers. And, not worth taking pictures.

Dan had the BBQ Beef sandwich. Let me tell you upfront, I dislike beef for the most part. However, when I tried a little piece, I immediately liked it. It was tender and not chewy (which I hate). I told Dan if I could have Beef brisket like that, I’d eat it. He said it was delicious. I had a grilled honey mustard chicken breast sandwich, which was okay.

We then explored the store, which was in the back of the place. There is a LIVE beehive in the back of the store. It was AWESOME! You can see a small picture of hive in the “bee tour” section of the website. That picture doesn’t do it justice. The whole thing swivels and there is a PVC pipe which the bees travel through to get in and out of the place. This place can also be educational for young kids (adults too). I’ve always been fascinated with bees and hoped to have a hive or two or three someday. Heh. That will probably never happen. However, it did bring back memories of Daddy and his bees when I was a young kid.


I ended up purchasing two bottles of honey at what I thought was a reasonable price. So far, I like the honey. I mostly drizzle honey on top of a heel of bread with butter. Yum!

My Vacation in Bullet Points

Tuesday, 6/29 Through Wednesday, 7/7

The only thing special we did this time around was try to go to local restaurants (or to chains that we don't typically have where we live). By the way, I haven't even looked at the pictures I've taken. Those will have to wait until a later date.

Tuesday:
• Took off earlier than planned. Departure: Tuesday, 6/29, around 1 pm
• I exclaimed to Dan that “sound isn’t all that cracked up to be” after talking with Mother on phone which hurt my ear something awful. (Sometimes, certain sounds will cause my ear drum to vibrate in an awful painful way.)
• Met my youngest niece, who is also my Goddaughter, and her husband in Dallas. We had a wonderful visit with them!
• Dinner: Taco Tuesday at Rosa’s Café. Two words: Good Eats!
• I forgot to take pictures! :-(
• Crashed at La Quinta for the night in Sherman, TX

Wednesday:
• Continued on down the road early in the morning.
• Crossed “Clear Boggy Creek" in OK. Isn’t this an oxymoron?
• Soon crossed “Muddy Boggy River” in OK. Too funny!
• we had a fun diversion in Eufaula, OK. We had to find a car wash due to sludge / oil being splashed all over the vehicle. (we had passed a truck carrying sludge/oil).
• Had lunch at “Amish restaurant and Country Store” in Muskogee, OK. We both had Chicken Tetrazzini with two sides. It was delicious – almost like have home cooked food.
• We found it interesting that Missouri has decimal points on the mile markers, which is in increments (or decrements) of two-tenths.
• Crossed "Pond Creek" in MO. So, which is it?
• Arrived at our destination, Springfield, MO, around 4 pm and relaxed for a bit.
• Visited and had dinner with Dan’s Mom.

Thursday:
• Went to a Farmer’s Market. Now, this was what I considered to be a true farmers market – most of the vendors were selling food. I did get a beautiful pendant from a lone vendor selling jewelry. And, another vendor got us interested in going to their little restaurant, which we did go to later in the week.
• Visited with Dan’s Mother most of the afternoon.
• Dan’s youngest brother, Billy, and his family came over and we all visited awhile.
• Dinner with Billy and his family along with Dan’s Mom at Buckingham BBQ – It was okay; but, not as good as Texas BBQ. :-)

Friday:
• Went to Big Surf Water Park. We choose this park because it was cheaper than Branson’s. It was a nice little park – loved the wave pool. I almost drowned in it though – the water came up over my head and entered my sinuses and up my ear canals – hurt my ears and sinuses. Anyway, we decided we will be going to Branson’s water park next time we go to MO because this park was just a little too tame for us.
• Dressed up and went to Friday Night Farmers Market in Downtown Springfield – a huge disappointment.
• Dinner at Big Whiskeys Pub & Grill. Food wasn’t great and both of us forgot that smoking was allowed in bars. I was fine until a lady lit up and smoked right next to us. (The smell of smoke affects me something awful.) The food wasn’t all that great either.

Saturday:
• Eureka Springs, AR
• Historic Downtown Branson
• Went next door to Branson Landing. This was not here the last time we were there. A nice little shopping strip right along the river.
• All day trip / outing. I was so tired that I snoozed a little on the way home…
• Dinner at a Steak N Shake. Delicious! Old Timey feel. At the time we went, there was a car show in the parking lot – lots of cool old cars including a beat up old rusty truck with a brand new engine – made us laugh! Too cute.

Sunday:
• Met Dan’s brother, Newt, and his family, at Linda’s (Dan’s Mom) place. His young son is precious.
• Lunch at Zio’s Italian Kitchen with Newt and his family along with Dan’s Mom. Food was delicious.
• Visited with Dan’s brother, Mike, and his family (his wife along with two younger kids) in the afternoon – a very nice visit.

Monday:
• Quilt Sampler Inc. which was a very good store. The front is unassuming; but, when you step inside, it’s a wonderful shop full of fabrics, quilts on display that also have kits.
• Merrily We Quilt Along also has an unassuming store front. In fact, we had a hard time finding this place. I liked Quilt Sampler better. But, it was nice. And, this place also has a tea room next door.
• Springfield Leather Co., which also had a bead store. I saw this store and wanted to stop. It was unplanned. If I see a bead store, I most likely will want to stop and take a look. This place was very nice and unique. One half is an all leather store and the other half is beads. I had a good time roaming the bead portion of the store.
• Lunch at Honey Heaven and The Bee-stro Café. We found out about this place at the first farmers market we went to. It sounded fascinating.
• Met with Dan’s brother, Darby and his family. The kids were too cute. Their oldest is very active young boy and the twin babies are absolutely adorable.
• We had dinner with them along with Dan's Mom at a Mexican restaurant (which I can't remember the name of). Food was good. It was cute watching Darby and his wife struggle to get their oldest boy to eat.

Tuesday:
• Since we had no obligations for today, we decided to leave early.
• Lunch at Lambert’s Cafe.
• Visited with Dan’s Mom one last time and then headed on out.
• Went through a funky interchange, the first one in the USA.
• Arrived in Sherman, TX around 9:00pm.
• We were very happy and pleased with the hotel we stayed at in Springfield, MO. We decided to stay at the same hotel (chain) in Sherman – never, never, never again will we assume that it’ll be the same kind of place. I guess it all depends upon the owner/manager. Since it was very late, we decided to just crash in spite of issues. It was the most horrid experience ever!

Wednesday:
• Woke up early feeling pretty sick. I made Dan get up and we got the heck out of that place. Never again. Did I say that before? I struggled with feeling like I had smoker’s lungs all day.
• We stopped in Waxahachie, TX. I fell in love with a house on the way in. I explored Common Threads Quilting shop and we both explored an antique store. It’s a very nice little “town” and the square (downtown) is in good condition. I believe I would like to come back here and explore as it looks like it has plenty of antique stores and the “town” has character.
• We had lunch in Italy. Now, we can claim to have eaten in Italy. Ha!
• We arrived home a little after 3:30pm. We more or less crashed; but, we had to go out and get a few supplies to survive on (such as bread and milk).

Overall, we had a very nice vacation. Our stay in Springfield was trouble free and very nice. I loved meeting and visiting with everyone, especially the young kids and babies. The only bad experience was our last night in Sherman, TX. Never again. I keep saying that, do I not?