::ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND BACK ...THE CONCLUSION::

Hey all!

My apologies for not posting about the book giveaway this week yet.  I got whisked away to the Emerald Coast.  The weather has been lovely here all week with the exception of one storm that passed through. 

I was loving the sand and sun so much that I totally forgot to post the final installment of our trip across the country.

One of the must haves to see when in Washington state is Cour D'Alene.  Not sure on that spelling.  It has a charming downtown with lots of shops.  The particular day we went there was a farmers market.  My daughter was so excited.  She bought a lavender plant.  She can't wait for it to flower so she can dry them out and decorate with them or make sachets.  Before we headed out to Cour D'Alene though we stopped off at the Buck Knife factory.  If you have following this blog for any length of time you know we used to homeschool and I am a sucker for  a "field trip."  The family indulged me on this one even though we don't homeschool anymore.  The tour is free.  It was interesting to see the process on how the knives are made.  They are quality knives.  Quality means expensive..and rightfully so.  Handcrafted won't come cheap.  Our tour guide suggested that a great way to purchase a Buck Knife is to buy the off cuts.  Basically, there is nothing wrong with the knife, but to Buck Knives if there is a discoloring or some of that nature it doesn't make it to the sales bin.  If you have ever seen there knives they are flawless and they don't sell anything less than that.

Here is a pic of the downtown.

They have a wonderful Brazilian steakhouse to eat at if you ever get the chance to visit there.    I think it's called Ipenema's.  If you have perused my pinterest board you will see a Brazilian lemonade recipe pinned.  I had to find the recipe of that drink we had there.  It is fabulous and non-alcoholic.  We loved them.  Hoping to make some of that beverage when we get back home.

We also took a drive around while visiting in Cour D'Alene.  Check out the scenery.  It's breathtakingly beautiful.  I don't think I did it justice with my photos.

Check out the rock face going around the moutain below.

Then the long awaited day came y'all! 

I was beyond excited I tell you.  I had my daughter there with me and it was a beautiful day.  The folks shopping at the Farm Chicks were the nicest people.  There were so many vendors and so many things to see and be bought.  My daughter and I found the textile table right off and spent way too much time there.  Had we not pulled away and looked at other things I do believe I would of spent all my money at that table.  They had vintage table cloths, chenille, vintage quilt tops and quilts.  Oh my, daughter and I love textiles, so it was hard to walk away from that table.  I did however purchase two things and will post those when we get back home.  I don't have pics of them in my camera yet.

Heather from http://postroadvintage.com/blog said she would have a booth there and invited folks to stop by and say "hello" if they would be at the Farm Chicks.  I did make a point to find her booth and say "hello", but their booth was bustling with folks and I didn't want to tie up her time chatting with her when she could be talking to potential buyers.    Hopefully I didn't freak her out.  I did ask if she was Heather  when we got there and she seemed quite surprised that I knew her name.   Sorry if I freaked you out Heather.  She was just as sweet as she could be though.  If you have a chance, stop by her blog and check it out.  Here are some pics of their booth

The highlight of the day at the Farm Chicks was being able to meet Heather Bullard and Serena.  Serena was gracious enough to autograph my Farm Chicks cookbook and Heather autographed a Country Living magazine for me.  Serena was so excited that her folks were there with her for the first time at one of her shows.  She even introduced us to them.  They were both so down to earth and were happy to take pictueres with anyone that asked.  Thank you both for being so sweet.

That's the end of our tour out west for now.  I have tons more pictures we took on our way back home traveling through South Dakota, but I don't want to bore y'all.

Friday morning I will posting the cookbook  giveaway.  It's a good one to y'all, so don't miss it.
Have a great day!
CherylPin It Now!

::ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND BACK, PART 2

I am back with the second installment of our trip across the country. Tomorrow I will be wrapping up our trip.  I have lots other posts lined up already that I am waiting to share with you.  Until then, grab a cuppa sweet tea and enjoy.

We went through parts of Wyoming and Colorado and the landscape was just beautiful.  The rock formations were everywhere.  So beautiful

We stopped at a rest stop and right near the rest top must of been the edge of someones ranch because I was able to get a pretty close picture of this horse.

Then we came upon this state.....

It was a beautiful state to drive through, but it was BIG!  I thought we would never get out of Montana.  We did eventutally.   We stayed the night in Billings and woke up to snow!  Can you believe that?  Yep, there it was May 26th and it was snowing.  So part of our trip was in snowy weather.  Loved it!  It was cold though.  I had only brought a zippered hoodie as any kind of jacket to wear.  The further west we got, the cooler it got.  Meanwhile, back home in LA we hear it's 95 degrees.

If it seems that some pics may be a little out of focus its because I took most of the pictures in the car while in the backseat while my hubby was going 75 mph.  So bare with me.

Believe it or not we finally made it out of Montana.  Beautiful country, but a BIG state!  I can't tell you how happy I was to see Idaho. We finally made it to Washington and met up with my sweet daughter  and her sweet friend.

Remember our one big reason for heading to Washington was to attend the Farm Chicks show, but first we decided to head to downtown  Spokane and check out the sites.

Right through the middle of downtown Spokane has falls that go through it.  What is really amazing is that during the fall and winter months there is no water rushing through, but once the spring thaw hits, this is what happens.....

Water rushing down and lots of it.  

Here is something I don't normally do; mainly because I am the one behind the camera.  Here is me and my husband on a bridge over the falls.  I wasn't too crazy about walking out on this bridge to take this picture.  It kinda freaked me out, but I did it.

And then I saw this sign and I said to everyone, "Okay, that is my cue to get outta here.  Let's look at something else."  I didn't want any slipsy oopsies.  So we moved on.

I think at some point the Worlds Fair was held here and so there is a lot of fun stuff for kids to ride and climb,etc.

We thought this sculpture was the funniest thing in the park.  So we decided to be a little silly and pose with it.

This radio flyer wagon was my most favorite thing to see.  It's huge as you can see.  What looks like the handle to the far right is also ...........

 a slide!

We had great fun in the park! 

Come back tomorrow for the third and final installment of our cross country adventure.

Be sure to stop back on Monday.  I will be doing book giveaways and sharing some projects with you.

Enjoy your day!

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::ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND BACK::

May was a pretty big month for us. Our son graduated! The weeks leading up to graduation were jam packed with all sorts of things. Sports dinners, senior dinners, blah,blah. You know how it is if you have children in college. Anyhow, graduation night finally came and we were so proud of son. Here is a pic that Mr. Quiltingmemories took after the ceremony.

Two days after graduation we packed up the car and headed west.  Washington state to be exact.  We would meet up with our daughter there as well as head to the Farm Chicks show.

It took us four days to head out there.  We went through fourteens states all in all.  We started out going through Louisiana and then Texas and Oklahoma and Kansas.  I tried to take pictures of each  welcome to this state sign, but I wasn't always successful.  The first one I took was Kansas.  So, here you go.

We saw lots of these.  Not sure what they are.  If anyone knows what they are, we would sure love to know.  We didn't just see these in Texas and Kansas; we saw them all over. Even up in Montana.

We saw lots of cows as you can imagine there was lots of open land along the way.  There is a funny story behind the photo below.  Mr. Quiltingmemories actually pulled over so I could take this picture.  They cows were not cooperating with me for the photo and Mr. Quiltingmemories started to moo!  Yes, he actually mooed at the cows.  Surprisingly they finally turned in our direction and I got this shot.  It reminds me a little of the laughing  cows commercial.

This week I will do a three part series on the rest of our cross country adventure.  

Next week I hope to have a new face for the blog.  I will be updating it and trying to make it easier to navigate past posts as well as current ones. I  will also being putting up a new header as well.  Be on the look out for a new series in the side bar that I will be running.  I am calling it "Simple Summer Fare."  There will be  breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert editions. I will be adding links so you can follow on Pinterest as well.

Until then, have a great evening and a blessed week.

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{{HAPPY 2012!!}}

Happy New Year!  I hope your Christmas was merry and filled with good food and family.

December was a busy month for us.  We had family visit the first week of the month and then I took a vacation the last week of the month.

We've lived here in Louisiana for a year and a half now.  We are always learning new things about this state.  Over the holidays we were watching PBS and they had a special on the little town of Natchitoches.  Yeah, it's a mouthful to pronounce and not the way you would think.  It's pronounced (Nack i tish)  with the "i" being short.

 It's a quaint town.  One of the oldest that was established in 1714.  It also was the backdrop to the movie Steel Magnolias.  They have a lovely historic downtown district full of shops, dining and antique stores.  But that is not why we packed up the kids and the dog and drove two hours to see this place.  You see, they have something called the Festival of Lights each year.  Last year we missed it, so this year my sweet husband took as all up there to see it.  It starts the first weekend in December and goes all the way until the December 30th.  Except this year they extended it into New Year.

The town is full of old charm.  I love architecture and had to get a picture of this old bank building to share with you.  Look at all the details with the dental molding and the shutters and the beautiful iron railing on the balconies.

They had horse drawn carriage rides

We walked into a few boutique shops and a toystore and a general merchandise store.  That store was cool.  It had a little bit of everything in it.  Here is my family taking it all in and "chiefing it" as we like to call it.  Other wise known as walking ahead and leaving other family members in the dust.  (insert loving snicker here)

It was just starting to get dark when we were heading to a restroom.  We had been walking all afternoon and had eaten lunch and that wonderful glass or two of sweet tea was starting to kick in.  I love the old fashioned style street sign and  the way the lights twinkled in the background.  I took the picture in hopes of maybe getting some of the that magic "bokeh" in the background, but I wasn't successful.  Still need to practice.

Here is the same area at night.

Down on the riverbank is where the rest of the lights are.  Nothing extravagant, but simple and sweet.  I loved it.  This year marks their 85th year celebrating the Festival of Lights.  Here are just a few pictures of the lights at night.

Even amidst all the twinkling of the lights they still managed to share the "true reason for the season."



I enjoyed our trip there.  The hubs took the scenic route.  He knows I love that stuff.  I enjoyed time with family and I enjoyed the lights!

The younger generation  in our family even indulged me in a phot op.  I LOVE those sweet faces.

Tomorrow I will be sharing my word for the new year.

Have a blessed day!

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