A Welcome Trip out & Stash-Busting

Yes, this girl had a very welcome and nice time out yesterday. It was so needed. Sometimes we just got to re tank, don't you think?

My friend Karna invited me out to lunch to a little town called Hardy, in northern Arkansas. This little jem of a town is filled with many crafts people and also other little shops.

This is my friend Karna

First we went to this little restaurant called "Words / Afterwords"

I would have probably not found this nice little Restaurant on my own.

It was kind of on a back road and I never saw it on previous visits.

I was told at time they have Live music here

Nice Artists were featured here.

These paintings are for sale

Look at this beautiful coffee/tea bar

There was also an added porch with this wonderful stone fire place.

Wouldn't you love to eat there on a cold day?

Some kids from the local school painted these table.

I see some future artist.

As we were sitting there, to our surprise we ran into some more of our crafty friends,

Penny and Melissa. You can find Penny's blog here

All in all it was a very enjoyable lunch. Really hope we can do it again sometime

soon. I felt much more relaxed afterwards.

Before we went back home, Karna and I visited a few more of the little stores around 

town. The last one was "Hardy Pottery", which is one of my favorites.

After lunch it was back to work.

Now on to my Stash-Busting. Yes, I have decided, a little late I admit, to participate in the Stash-Busting Challenge:

As you will see momentarily, it is a very much needed event in my crafts room. Sometimes you don't even realize how much yarn one girl can stash. To top that of, I have a fabric stash and also a painting stash that need to be worked on.

This is just some of my yarn stash. Holly Molly! There are a lot of future projects in there, wouldn't you say.

This is the first drawer I will be working on: The Cotton Yarn. I have already started and will share my first finished project with you tomorrow.

Wow, that was a long post, huh? Would like to wish you all a nice and relaxing weekend now. Hope to catch you on the flip side.

What a week

Wow what an eventful week. But first I would like to say Good Morning and wishing you all a good upcoming week. How was your weekend? Did you all get any crafting done?

Here in my neck of the woods it continues to rain and I will be so glad when that is done with. It feels more like fall with these temperatures and all this wet weather. But lets look on the bright side, they say " April Showers bring May flowers". Well ok than, lets get started, because I would sure love to see some beautiful flowers and would also like to get new flowers set out and the veggies planted in the big garden.

Well last week we went back to Alabama to pick up my stuff that I have still in storage there. Sorry to say we came back empty handed due to the Tornado's that hit the area hard. We did get to witness it all and it wasn't a pretty site. Here a few images of what we saw:

 The above pictures is after, when we had to stand in a long line for gas. We got lucky after 3 hours to get enough to leave Cullman to head home.

Arriving home, we were surrounded by flooding, including some main traveled roads. The town of Pocahontas was under water, only the roof showing from the local Wal-Mart.

Needless to say we will be very glad when things get back to normal arround here as well. I had a call from Alabama, where at least some of the areas once again have power and are able to get the food they need. I keep thinking about all those poor people in Tuscaloosa, who have lost so much and will have years of rebuilding. They need a lot of help and many volunteers.

Tomorrow I will return with some crafting news, because as bad as it was, as long as we had daylight we got to do a little crocheting. For now I will say Good Night and see you soon.

Hardy, Arkansas

Hallo Friends,

As you have probably noticed I have once again been absence for the last few days. My plight with the Internet continues. In order to write my blog, I have to stay up during the hours of 1 and 5 in the morning, which are not the kind of hours I like to keep. Sorry to gripe to you again. We are currently 5 people in the house, all of us having computers and between us we are only aloud 375 MB during the daytime hours. With e-mail downloads, etc. it is almost impossible. Take my word for it. After that the connection slows down to slower the dial up speed. Scary isn't it in these times of fast DSL or Cable connections. Until I find another solution to this problem, I hope you will all bare with me. Thanks!

The weather here has been absolutely beautiful and almost perfect. Could live with temperatures like these all year round. How has it been where you live?

Have some News to tell. Last weekend we went to the little town of Hardy, Arkansas. It is a crafts Mecca. The whole little town is nothing but crafts stores and a couple of Restaurants. We saw so many wonderful handmade items and artisans, from Quilting to Oil Paintings. Since it is not to far from where I live and since the prices for rent are very low, I have decided, starting next March I will have my own little shop here. I will be carrying crafts from other crafters in the area, (They will also be featured in my online Store shortly), plus my own of course. I am looking very much forward to this opportunity and it has been a dream of mine. Will also have my yarn for sell in the shop. Here now a looksy at the town of Hardy:

Here now a little humor about the town. At one time these buildings were used by the Ladies of the Night to do their business. Men from the Railroad that runs through town were frequent visitors.

Hope you enjoyed this little trip with me. Will sure you more and share more with you about it in the Future. For now I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Until we can see each other again, Take Care!

What I been up to

Today I have to share something with you all and hope I don't bore you with my personal stuff.

Because of economic reasons I moved back to Mississippi in February of this year. I had previously lived here in Ms. for 10 years and thought my chances would be better back here where I knew more people and was told, were more opportunities. Well, it turned out not to be the case. So what do we do when Life hands us Lemons? We make Lemonade, lol. Therefor I will make another move and this time to Houston Texas. I will be staying with my girlfriend Mausi and am looking forward to that and hopefully many other opportunities. Now I hope you will all cross your fingers for me. It really is exciting on one hand, as I have never been to Houston, but is also a little scary to make such a big move. I think you all know what I mean.

As Mausi is also a crafter, I am looking forward to having someone to share my passion with. It will be nice to share a cup of Java and a crafting idea with someone else close by. Hopefully that will get my crafting mojo flowing again.

So I will be moving this coming weekend and should be back for my Tuesday question next week. Hope you all will be patient with me until than.

Until than you all take Care, have a good week and weekend and I will be looking forward to sharing more crafts and life with you than. Bye for now!!!

Memory Lane

Hallo Dear Friends,

For some reason I have been going down memory lane over the last few days. Can't really explain why and what brought it about, but there it is.

As some of you know, I was born and raised in Germany and came to live in the USA as an adult. I've actually lived here now longer than over there, so you wouldn't think that I would miss that much from there,  but I do. Thought I would show you some of those things and share memory lane with you.

This is  Kassel (where I was born) and the Herkules (Herkules is the statue on top of this old castle). As a child my grandparents would take us all the way to the top. The view was amazing. In the summertime you will see water cascading down these steps, ending in a pool on the bottom. What a site to see. All the way around is forest areas, where you can just walk, have picnics and enjoy nature. There are many old trees my cousin Martina and I have climbed in this area, as we were just like two tomboys with no fear. As for the grandparents.....you can just imagine.

I also miss these.....Outdoor Cafe's. How many hours did we linger over a good cup of coffee and some strawberry cake? Here we would debate current events, talk about just everyday life and just plain enjoy sitting in the fresh air. It was always a place where friends would linger.

Johannisbeeren .....or how you call them here: Currents. My grandma's garden were filled with them in the summertime. She would make marmelade and wonderful pie's with them. Personally I always thought they were best eaten right of the bush.

Big Farmers markets: We bought all our fruit and vegetables from here. Except for wintertime, I don't ever remember not having flowers sitting on the tables around the home.

Fachwerkhaeuser: Old fashioned german architecture. To me this style of building has so much character and look homier to me.

Flower boxes on the windows. Don't you think they are beautiful and add so much character?

Hand painted Art on homes ......

The below picture is of a motel my grandparents owned until they passed on. The building on the right has been added till than. Across the street was a huge garden where the guest could enjoy sitting about, enjoying their morning coffee or just watch their children play by the little pond. How many a frog was not safe from us children, lol. The area was called Bad Waldeck and was near a lake called Edersee which also had a huge dam. It's an area for summer enjoyment like boating, sailing and swimming. Nearby was also Schloss (Castle) Waldeck and a big Tourist attraction. Oh the stories I could tell of all the trouble my cousins, siblings and I got into.

The End....

Thanks for coming along on this little trip down memory lane. Hope you enjoyed it a little bit and won't be bored when I return down this lane a few more times along the way.

Wishing you All a wonderful day, filled with sunshine, family and friends, and "Craftiness".

Tuesday Question and a short Trip

Hallo Friends!    Did you all know that knitting for an hour burns 102 calories? I wonder how fast you would have to knit, lol.


Tuesday Question: What is the best way to weave in the ends of the yarn? I have crocheted for years and am still not sure. I have heard and been shone many different ways, but would really like to know which way is best so nothing unravels at a later time. So How do you all do it?

Last week Thursday, my friend D. ask me to take a little trip with her to Jackson, Mississippi, where she had to take care of some personal business, but as it is a 3 hour ride, she wanted some company. Well seeing that I just Love to travel anywhere, I could not resist and went along. We had a lot of fun together, just chatting and singing silly to some country songs on the radio. After she finished her business, we decided to make a little tour through downtown to see something new. We ended up at the State building, which neither of us had seen on previous visits. It's a beautiful old building and we decided to also check out the inside. It was certainly worth the visit.

Here a view of the outside of the State Capitol:

And here a look on the inside:

Isn't this old water fountain beautiful?

 This was at the Governor's office.....wonder if he was home???

 We also walk to another floor, where the Supreme Court was located. Now we can say we have been to the Supreme Court. We are just glad it wasn't for something serious.

We signed the big book at the Governor's office, and with that we signed ourselves into the history books.

This picture of the round tower within the building, doesn't do it justice. The way the light was showing through it, was just brilliant. Actually the architecture of this old house was gorgeous and one could feel the history of it just walking in it's walls.

All in all, I was very glad I went along for the ride. It was a beautiful and fun day with a nice friend.

Now I will bit you all farewell and hope we see each other again soon. "Happy Hooking" to you All!!