irene

In college I had to write a paper about presidential leadership. Presidential as in Washington or Jefferson or Garfield or Arthur or Cleveland or Nixon or Reagan. The ones that currently occupy a big white house. THOSE presidents.

The professor assigned a commander in chief to everyone in the class. I got #35. He was otherwise known as John F. Kennedy.

My paper was terrific except for the small glaring omission of his assassination. I mean, what did his assassination have to do with leadership anyway? IMHO it felt as if everyone talked about #35's demise rather than his time in office, and this paper was all about leadership so it made sense to exclude that one tiny detail. Right?

WRONG-O! The professor laughed -- cackled actually -- and handed the paper back with instructions to rewrite it pronto. Apparently the assassination has EVERYTHING to do with Kennedy's leadership. Dang.

This is what was going through my mind this morning as I set out to give you, my peeps, a blog post about my latest craft project.

Huh? Kennedy to craft projects?

Bear with me just a smidge longer, mkay?

*Ahem!* Back to it....

So this morning I was going to give you the lowdown on how I spent hours in front of the TV last night making button flowers and omit the whole Hurricane Irene schmaltz. That's when I realized the omission of Irene's visit this weekend would be heinous and cause you, my peeps, to mimic my professor of old by guffawing and asking for a rewrite.

Irene has been all over the news. The only way you could have missed her is if you were in Antarctica this weekend. She has excited news producers like a blizzard and caused Matt and Ann to have Sunday morning duties. She is dancing with everyone along the east coast before retiring for the night, and having some serious economic impacts along the way. Everyone knows Irene.

The good news is we escaped Irene's wrath with just heavy winds and about 5" of rain last night. The house is dry, the power remained on, the cat was happy to have us home, and it was a relatively easy night.

This was our biggest excitement. We heard a "thud" early in the evening that turned out to be part of the neighbor's tree crashing down on our adjoining fence. Easy schmeasy (because it's their fence!!!). This morning the yard has lots of leaves and tree branches littering the grass, but nothing else. We are very lucky to have escaped the brunt of the storm. 

Conversely, this is what the inside of my house looks like. YIKES! I baked for a while after returning from my afternoon hair appointment (my southern roots were showing) so the kitchen looks about the same. Tsk tsk.  It was great to have a night at home where the creative juice-o-meter was reading "high" and we didn't have anything else that was begging to be done. Or at least not begging loud enough for me to hear it, *blush* so I was comfortable leaving the mess overnight. Hopefully I can get a few more done this morning. 

That's my Cape May mug in the foreground keeping watch over the button mess. :-) 

There you have it, peeps. Irene has left the building, leaving a crater in the fence and a mess in the house. It's been a good weekend! I hope you have escaped relatively unscathed as well. 

vacation excursion #4 :: blue ridge parkway

It was our last day in Asheville and we were headed north. Towards home. 

But not without a final excursion/adventure to complete the vacation. 

Welcome to the Blue Ridge Parkway!

It was a breathtakingly beautiful drive. 

This here picture was taken with my cell phone. 

Love how you can still see all the different hues of blue and the layers of mountains.

We were driving when the Turkey leaned out of the car window to get this picture of the lake.

He didn't use my cell phone. Thankfully.

Cute. But we forgot to take off our glasses. 

But it's also kinda cool because of the reflection of the clouds on the lenses.

Aha! No glasses. Squinting in the sun, though. 

And the breeze meant the Turkey kept getting my hair in his mouth. 

Eeeuw!

Purdy! 

He kept moving the camera and cutting me out of the picture! 

We laughed. 

Or, as it looks like, *I* laughed! 

 

 The Parkway is a 2-lane, twisty, turny road cut through the mountains. 

The speed limit is 45mph but we barely ever got that fast. 

The views were just too gorgeous to miss. 

So after about 30 miles on the Parkway -- and 2.5 hours -- 

we took the first exit we saw. I can't tell you where it went, but it was 

No Man's Land. Maybe even No Mountain Man's Land. 

There were a few trailers every once in a while, but no cell service, 

and definitely no amenities. 

We just kept going NW until we found the interstate. :-) 

And we were home 7 hours later. 

It was a GREAT trip! 

Four* thumbs up for Asheville and its environs!

*two thumbs from each of us

senior year

We interrupt the regularly scheduled vacation posts to bring you the following:

Today was the Turkey's first day of his senior year. For the first time in a few years he didn't complain when I took the traditional first-day-of-school pictures, either. (Wow. Three "firsts" in two sentences.)

Doesn't he look handsome? A beard, shorter hair, and contacts -- 

he's going back to the hallowed halls a different man. 

I can't wait to hear what his friends think of his new look. 

Today was also the first day he drove to school. 

Four! Four "firsts!" Ha ha ha ha ha ha! (Thank you, Count.)

So many "firsts" before 6:45am. Don't know if I can take much more.

He's a senior. 

Wonder if he qualifies for the early bird discount at the Country Buffet?

vacation excursion #3 :: artsy asheville

Velvet and fringe steering wheel covers! Squeee! If they only had one that would match the red Zoom Zoom...

Day three in Asheville was spent downtown exploring some of the art galleries and artsy-fartsy boutiques. Oh Em Gee, it was pure heaven! Even the Turkey, the non-shopper he is, was in a happy zone as we wandered through store after store after store after store. (Maybe this was due to our stop at the Chocolate Lounge -- more on that later -- but who cares?! He was having fun!)

Fun sculptures made of recycled metal were in many of the stores. This flying pig with the pink wings was one of my favorites. Not favorite enough to plop down the cashola, but the kid had sass coming out of his porky non-existent pores! (Amazon has a better picture here but no pink wings.)  

The floral arrangements at one gallery had me swooning. The Turkey about crawled under a chair when I found the proprietor and asked her if I could purchase some of her displays, though. They were THAT cool! She didn't let me leave the store with any of her display flowers but I was permitted to take photos, and she did give me some tips on making the flowers. Stay tuned for the bloom-making shindig soon.

Chocolate Lounge alert! That's the pot de creme we shared at French Broad Chocolate Lounge. They should change their name to Yummyville.

 

 This is what chocolate does.  

There are no words. 

Just giggle fits. 

 

These fishy critters almost found a new home in my kitchen. 

(And why did Blogger suddenly change from flush left to centered? Must check this out.) 

But the artsy piece de resistance was at Kress: 

Button bouquets! The size, the texture, the creativity, the use of felt, and the pure whimsy was just loveloveloveloveloveloveloveLOVE!  She built each flower and then tied them together like bouquets, using buttons that were artistic in their own right. Beautimous! 

Even the single strands were cool all bunched together. 

But it was the bouquets that brought me my wallet to its knees. Seriously, peeps. $30 each per bouquet? (To give you an idea, there are five individual bouquets in the photo above.) I looked at them, mentally deconstructed each flower and bloom, and calculated it might be beneficial to make one myself. How hard could it be, right? 

Again, stay tuned...

vacation excursion #2 :: a small french chalet

You might recognize the boy in front of the house. That's the Turkey. (Just in case you didn't recognize him after all.) The small french chalet *cough* behind him is most often referred to as Biltmore.

That's right, peeps. Vacation day #2 was spent exploring the house and the grounds of this small french chalet ginormous and magnificent palatial estate. It was gorge-yush!!!

 The kitty cats on either side of the front door were purring stoic. Meow? 

Here you can see the puddy-tats flanking the front door. There. Look closely. They are really small in the picture. Here they look a lot like our cat at home. But this doesn't look like our guard cat at home:

The Turkey couldn't even get both of us in the picture when I was petting him. Or her.

Past the cats we entered the house an stepped back to the turn of the 20th century. (ie, no air conditioning.) We spent two hours touring the house, poking in bedrooms, wandering down hallways, traipsing up and down the staircases, listening to the organ in the dining room, wondering what it was like to really live there, and just generally gawking. Seriously, it's super grand. Even my almost-17-year-old was entranced by the tour. If you haven't been there yet, go. Go now! Tidy up the kitchen, pack a bag, and get thee gone!

Or go after you see these to further whet your whistle: 

The fields were lined with rows of sunflowers. They kept going as far as the eye could see. Lovely.

We spent two hours in the house, drove over to Antler Hill Village on the property, had lunch at Cedric's, toured the winery, walked through the gardens and conservatory, wondered why my gardener doesn't do stuff like that (probably because he lives in my imagination), took lots of pictures, drove back through the property, took more pictures, and turned towards home the hotel because we were both on overload. All-in-all it was a seven-hour excursion. SEVEN hours!

Since I'm starting to conclude this blog post it's time to let your fingers do some clicking and check out Biltmore. If you haven't visited the estate yet, pack yer bags and go. G'head. Make like a banana and split to Asheville! You won't regret it.

Pinky promise. ;-)

blog redeaux

So? Whaddya think of the redecorating?

I've been mulling around a blog make-over for some time and had some rare unprogrammed moments yesterday to make it happen. I washed the moments down with an infusion of creativity and, voila!, a blog redeaux!

Grab a drink at the sidebar and stay a while. You'll find friendly peeps, snippets of life, and healthy doses of fun and whimsy. Enjoy!

vacation excursion #1 :: prospecting

Our first full day of vacation was spent prospecting for gems at Hiddenite Gems. It's located in Hiddenite, NC. (Go figure.) We went creeking and sluicing there, and came home with pounds of rocks and minerals. Here's a glimpse at some of our treasure:

And here's a look at our dirty, filthy, muddy, fun day acquiring the stones:

 After parking we headed down this road -- yes, the one where the sign says, "permitted access only" *giggle* -- and checked in. We paid $10 per person for creeking and sluicing, and a few bucks more to rent the tools of the trade. It was definitely an inexpensive way to spend the day! 

And since the sky was overcast and the Mountain Man who checked us in swore on his arthritic joints it was going to rain, we headed to creek first. It was definitely not crowded and the water was clear and cool.

This is basically what one does in the creek -- using the shovel or your hands put dirt in the sieve and then let water wash the dirt away, check the leftovers for treasures. Treasures like that black rock in the bottom right of the sieve. That's a black quartz. Ooooh! Aaaah!

Here's that same black quartz up close along with one of it's neighbors. I've forgotten if that neighbor is a quartz or something else. Egads.)

After a couple hours in the creek we wandered back up the hill to the sluiceway. It's the same concept of pawing through mud to find a treasure but with a twist.

(Didya catch that "couple hours in the creek?" Me? HOURS in the creek? Uh huh. Holla y'all!)

 Upon reaching the sluiceway you pick up one of these buckets that have been hauled up from the mine. The dirt is red and clay-like.

 

... and then you slap some of that red clay-like dirt in the sieve, shake it up, let the water wash the stones, use the brush to clean some things off, and voila! Treasure!

What they don't tell you is the benches on the sluiceway are meant for people who are 4' tall and anyone whose height exceeds that should expect their knees to be sufficiently squished. It was also the dirtiest portion of our day. We had red clay and dirt everywhere and were still finding remnants days later!

The Hiddenite Peeps do augment the buckets with some pre-discovered stones so you're guaranteed some gems via sluicing. The rocks were slightly larger than what we found in the creek, and it was more social there, too. The staff would walk around and help identify stones, and most of the other prospectors there were chatty. Even my normally shy Turkey was engaging in conversation!

In total, we spent four hours at the creek and one hour on the sluiceway, with a picnic lunch in between. (If you ever go to Hiddenite Gems be sure to pack your own lunch. The only sustenance available on site is a soda machine.) We left a sapphire and a ruby with the lapidary there. We also left said lapidary with some cash to cut and polish the stones, and expect to see the final gems in 6-8 weeks. That leaves us with about 10 pounds of rock waiting at home for a rock tumbler or a winning lottery ticket so we can have them cut, too.

Hiddenite Gems = two thumbs up for fun and educational entertainment!

north carolina getaway

Hello, my turkeys! We are just getting home from a lovely vacation. It was a jam-packed 5 days of fun in and around Asheville, North Carolina. 

As you can see above, we did the majestic Biltmore. Just walking around the house and gardens and winery and then stopping for lunch was far more than a Gilligan. No three hour tour here!  Try ... drum roll, please ... SEVEN hours! I was a little concerned my Turkey would be bored with touring the house but he was absolutely enthralled. (Score one for mom!)

We also went digging for gems at Hiddenite Gems. This is the creek (or "crick" if you're in the south) where we found some good treasures. Our toes (and butts) were wet a lot, and the water was cool and clear.

Between creeking that day we did some sluicing which was a filthy, muddy, dirty, and fun experience. (Who knew I, the girlie girl, would ever put "filthy" and "fun" in the same sentence?!) We found garnets, sapphires, lots of good quartz, smoky topaz, amethyst, some pretty blue things that I have promptly forgotten the name of, and lots of other gems. Serious fun!

Awww. We took several self portraits throughout our time away and this is one of my favorites. Just had to share. :-) 

Day 3 was all about shopping and exploring downtown Asheville. Lots of great art galleries and craft stores and whimsical places. I am officially in love with the button bouquets found at Kress, and kicking myself for not purchasing one while we were there.

Mid-day we headed to French Broad Chocolate Lounge for some pot de creme and house made sodas. It was a marvelous, yummy and much-needed break. Be sure to check out the Chocolate Lounge if you're ever in Asheville.

And on the last day we did anything but rest and say "it was good." Nope. We headed for the breathtaking Blue Ridge Parkway. Up in the mountains it was 70 degrees and breezy -- gorgeous! We were able to keep the windows down most of the way, rolling them up a bit when we hit 5300 feet and it was really chilly.

After 30 miles or so the Turkey was in the Ihavetotallyreachedmylimitforsightseeing zone so we turned off and headed for civilization. Or what we thought was going to be civilization. It took us a while of twisting and turning and wondering who would live in THAT trailer at the bottom of a mountain before we found the Way Out.

Eight hours later we were home. Our beds have never felt so good! It was a great vacation but great to be home, too.

More pictures to follow, my turkeys!