Scrapbook Update

Here is the layout I was working on when the chair broke. It is the first in a serious of layouts about our winter vacation in 2005-2006 to a ski resort. This is sort of an intro page and a pocket page to stash all the cute brochures and stuff from the trip. Next will be a ski layout, a layout about our cabin, and a layout about the reindeer we met that live there. It is pretty simple and uses some Chatterbox paper I had been hoarding (I am using chatterbox all the way through these trip pages), some brads, and some round tags. I am also going to use the detail where the paper is split and folded back on all the trip pages to unify them. Pretty simple page. The trickiest part was printing the journalling right on the page. My 12x12 printer is notorious for barfing ink all over the place (something to do with the time Greg dropped it on the ground!) so it is nerve racking to run a piece of cardstock through when you don't know if it will come out nicely or covered in extra ink. This one worked out great with only one smudge!

Ouch!

A funny thing happened to me this weekend. I was scrapbooking away and got up to get a drink. I went to sit back down and the stinking chair broke in half! I found myself on the floor laughing and crying at the same time. It's a little humiliating to break a chair and considering I only fell about 2 feet I still banged my butt and elbow pretty hard. But at the same time it was far to comical not to laugh so I of course had to grab my camera and take a photo.

The saddest part of this story is that this is the SECOND chair that I have broken by sitting in it! Apparently I need to exercise my big butt a little more! In my butt's defense these brown chairs were chairs we found on the curb in the neighborhood. They were being tossed out so we grabbed them and I recovered the seats. So they were pretty old and a little wobbly to start with....Just so you know!

Good Eats

We had what may have been our last homemade pizza of the season last weekend. If you read this blog you may have guessed we like to eat homemade pizza since I talk about it here all the time. I make it almost once a week and we love it. The weather has taken a turn for the better and we have had 70+ temps for the last 4 days which means that my baking days are numbered. The temps are supposed to drop back down but probably not low enough to keep using the oven. Good-by home baked pizza, we will miss you!

On a happy note we have a new favorite. Greg has been perfecting a simple carmel corn recipe and it is pretty darn good. I knew there was a reason I keep him around! It is made with a little Earth Balance Margarine, some cane sugar, a squirt of agave to prevent burning heated on the stove and then drizzled over popcorn made in the microwave popper. The best thing about this dish is that it is really light on the carmel so you get just a hint of sweet with a bit of salty. Plus it can be made without an oven so we can enjoy this all summer. If he ever writes down the recipe I will share it with you but right now he just eyeballs it.

Just a couple good things that come out of our kitchen!

The sign of the times

My latest project involves admitting that the digital age it here. My new favorite thing to do while I scrapbook is to watch DVDs on the computer which sits next to my scrap table. Unfortunately some of my favorite scrapbooking movies I only have on VHS (like Working Girl). I was on Amazon.com the other day ordering a DVD for Greg when I decided it was time to make the switch. I ordered DVD versions of all my favorite VHS movies. Well, all my VHS movies were my favorite so I ended up ordering a lot of DVDs! I also took the opportunity to get some other movies I always wanted to have copies of. The video cabinet which was filled to the gills suddenly has lots of extra room now that it is stocked with slim DVD cases.
We sent most of the VHS to work with Greg. They have VCRs in the patient rooms in the clinic and were really excited for some new movies (the nurses watch videos when things are slow, shhhh). Now, I am the first to admit that my video collection is 99% chick flicks and 85% from the 1980s and 100% movies I have seen 10+ times. When I scrapbook I can only play movies I have seen 100x because otherwise I will become distracted and actually watch the movie instead of scrapping. If I have seen it a 100x I can just listen and glance occasionally and still know what is going on. It is a system that has worked for me for years now.

Scrapbook Update

The rain has stopped. I think it is over and I hope that as the storm moves on it brings some real spring weather in behind it.

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to go to Michael's with Peh and Alice and pick up some craft stuff. One thing I found was a box of printed notecards for making cards. So I took the opportunity to whip up these bad boys using the printed cards and some rub-on expressions and lots of embellishments I had laying around. Fun, quick and easy!

The real reason I went to Michaels was to pick up some foam sheets. You know that ones for kids craft projects. I took the foam sheets and cut them into 1 inch strips (the sheets were 12x17 and my strips are 1x12) and punched holes in them and made them into album spacers. These spacers can cost $2 a pair at the scrapbook store. I probably made 40 for under $2. Plus I bought black foam to go with my black albums. I would highly recommend this if you have large stuffed albums and need some spacers to fill up the binding area. My albums came with 4 cardboard spacers for free but I think the foam are much nicer. I also made a huge amount of 8" ones for my mini books too. You can buy extender posts at the hardware store for a lot less than at the scrapbook store too in case you didn't know.

Rain Rain Go Away!

We are having a Nor'easter right now. It started on Sunday and so far has dumped 7 inches of rain on us. There is mass flooding all over the place. Today the rain has slowed a bit which is nice but they said on the news it was because we are in the middle of the storm and it is the head and tail that dump the most rain so we should expect more. This is a photo of our backyard right now. We have never had this much rain at once. The paths are completely filled with water (they are at least 6 inches deep). The water has receded a bit because yesterday the water covered the cement paths as well. I decided to work from home today so I could stay dry. Hopefully it will be over by tomorrow's commute!

Questions Questions Questions

Ok, I searched through comments looking for questions that have been asked. Here is what I found and my answers:

You like the Cure? Did I ever know that?-Peh
Probably not. I was a much bigger fan in high school and college since my best friend was a huge Cure fan. Greg and I still pull out their albums on a regular basis.

Do you have fake nails, yet? Can they do a French manicure of half chewed nails, like mine? Could you ask Eric is there is something good for hair and nails?-Mom
Fake nails are too high maintenance for me. Mine are all real baby. They can paint a French manicure on almost anything. They do it on toes all the time now and they are pretty short. The nails not the toes. When you come out next I think it is time to initiate you into the world of nail pampering!

As for supplements, Eric once suggested one to me but I can’t remember what it was. A friend of mine suggests Evening Primrose Oil, 400mg Magnesium daily, and a vitamin B complex. She has had good success with that but reminds you that a typical hair cycle is 2-3 months so it takes a while to see a difference.

The dorm I lived in my freshman year in Pullman, Davis Hall, had silverfish. They never went anywhere but the floor there. Do yours travel up onto the desk?-mom
For the most part my silverfish stay on the floor. Twice they climbed on my desk but one of those times I was vacuuming up their friends so it may have been a moment of distress (in the silverfish’s defense). I sucked it up with the vacuum. Bwaaahhaaaahaaaa.

Yum! Post your yummy ricotta filling sometime. -mom
See post here. It really is da bomb as far as fake cheese goes.

Where did you get the cute advent calendar?-mom
I inherited it when I said “I do”. It was Greg’s as a child made by his talented Aunt Linda.

Speaking of chocolate... do you know about max brenner restaurant where they serve chocolate pizza? –Alice
They put one of those restaurants in at 14th street right near my work. We may need to go check it out!

Since there weren’t a lot of questions once I went back and looked, I thought I would add a few here from an on-line quiz I found:

What’s your name spelt backwards?
Knahskiurc (and spelt is a grain!)

What did you do last night?
Made homemade pizza, watched LOST and worked on my laptop on grant management stuff. Did some dishes and went to bed.

The last thing you downloaded onto your computer?
I am taking a digital scrapbooking class online through Big Picture Scrapbooking. While I haven’t had time to do the assignments yet I did download the class materials today.

Have you ever licked a 9 volt battery?
What? Yuck!

Last time you swam in a pool?
On our Anniversary last summer the hotel we stayed at had a shorty pool and we went for a dip. “Hanging” in the pool isn’t as cool when you are an adult.

What are you wearing?
Wide-leg jeans, a black long cami, and a super cute brown jacket I picked up at H&M last time I was there. Oh and copper colored ballet flats. There is a big meeting today at work so I had to dress up a little.

How many cars have you owned?
I personally have only owned 1 car and that is my current Toyota Tercel. My parents were kind enough to buy me a Chevy Celebrity (Eduardo the Quick), a Chevy Nova (Super Nova), and let me borrow a Mazda B-2000 truck. If you could drive that truck you could manage any clutch in the world! All have great memories. I should scrapbook them someday.

Type of music you dislike most?
Well Greg redefines this for me regularly by bringing home lots of new stuff for me to hate. Right now it is Calypso.

Are you registered to vote?
Of course. For a while it turned out I was registered in 2 states at the same time. I am sure that is some kind of federal offense.

Do you have cable?
Nope, though TiVo makes me want to change my ways. We purposefully don’t buy it for self-preservation. If I had cable I would lose my job because I would never go to work.

What kind of computer do you use?
Is this some kind of secret marketing survey? I have a Dell desktop and my new work Thinkpad Laptop.

Ever made a prank phone call?
When I was younger my friend Ida and I would call a number and then I would make baby noises into the phone and she would get on and pretend to be the mom and apologize that her baby had called them by mistake. So ridiculous on so many levels but we thought it was hilarious!

You like anyone right now?
Ok, apparently this survey is for junior high school students. Yes, my husband!

Furthest place you ever traveled?
France or Spain. If I was not a total loser when it comes to Geography I would know which one was farther away!

Shower, morning or night?
Of course it depends on the hair. Short hair requires morning showers to prevent bed head. One nice thing about my long hair is I can sleep on it wet and it stays down. So right now it is night showers.

Favorite pizza toppings?
Black Olives and Follow Your Heart Vegan Cheese. YUM!

Chips or popcorn?
Candy!

What cell phone provider do you have?
Why does this matter? T-Mobil

Orange Juice or apple?
At home it’s always orange juice because it is calcium fortified! At church during coffee hour they have both kinds of juice and I always choose apple. Hmmm?

Who were the last people you sat at lunch with?
Huh? Junior High question again. I usually eat lunch at my desk while I work. No time for breaks.

favorite chocolate bar?
Riter Sport Dark Chocolate with Marzipan filling.

Have you ever won a trophy?
I have never “won” a trophy because that would suggest I was good at some kind of sporting event and I am not. I was given a trophy in bowling as a kid. I was in the Popsicle league. We got a Popsicle after every game. Of course we were really jealous of the kids in the pizza league!

Ever ordered from an infomercial?
Unfortunately many times. I have tried and returned many products in my lifetime but I am a bit less of a sucker now a days.

Sprite or 7-UP?
Water

Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school/work?
I did have to wear a uniform when I worked at Camelot at the mall. I really hideous shirt and khaki pants. At the hospital I wore scrubs.

Ever thrown up in public?
Yep and as an adult even. I had terrible food poisoning (raw cookie dough) and it hit me on the train. I got off the train and puked into my lunch sack. Then I caught a train going back toward my house and Greg met me at the station (it was 5am) and walked me home since we had no car. I threw up about every block into the gutter. I lived 12 blocks from the train so that is a lot of puking in public. I refused to take a cab because I didn’t want to throw up in the cab. I got home just in time for the puking to stop and the diarrhea to start. Fun memories! Only in NYC!

Where would you like to go right now?
Home

What kind of back pack do you have, and what's in it?
Ok, this is definitely for kids in Junior High!

Thanks for playing!

Scrapbook Update #2

Many years ago I my family had a dog named Mitzi. When she died in 1999 I made a memory book of her for my sister. I also made one for myself but never finished it. Most the photos had been glued to pages but I never did any journalling. Well I recently decided to re-do the album during my album changeover project (making them all black). I wanted to re-make the Mitzi album in my favorite 8x8 size using a line of dog products by KI Memories that was adorable. I offered to make one for Rachel too for her new dog Misha but she said she already had a dog album. I was able to finish the whole thing over the weekend. It is only 10 layouts which made it pretty quick. Plus the coordinated products made it easy. I didn't have many photos of Mitzi but I had lots of memories to record.

Scrapbook Update

I had a really hard time getting online over the weekend and over the last part of last week. I have been really chugging along at work with no time to post lately and when I try at home the wireless is not available.

Anyway, this weekend because of the Easter Holiday I had no BSF meeting which meant that Saturday (and part of Sunday) was scrapbook day. I managed to finish a couple layouts below and one medium sized project which I will show tomorrow.

This first layout is from Valentine's day 05. There are lots of fun embellishments on this page. Foam letters, chipboard hearts, a flower brad, leather flowers, and some giant brads I recently picked up.

Next is a layout about craft club highlighting the project we made and everyone working. I used my own handwriting on this layout and for once didn't hate it. Some little ribbons and a bunch of flowers. The background paper was a mocha color even though it looks grey in this photo.

Both of these layouts went pretty quick because of my sketches I did in advance but in both there were some mis-calculations that I had to overcome. On the valentine's layout I had miss added the photo sizes and had to swap some stuff around to fill the space. The craft club layout was supposed to have a photo of me on the left but then I realized I didn't have a photo of me so I had to improvise with a photo of the project. I am still loving the sketches and preplanning I did.

For Tomorrow...

One thing I am really bad at is replying to the comments you readers leave. SORRY! To make it up to you tomorrow or Thursday I am going to dig through the archive and answer some of your questions. If there is anything you want to know, leave me a comment today!

Spa Review

My trip to the spa ended up being very nice. I started out with a facial, my first ever. The facialist was really nice. Upon inspection she determined that my skin was VERY dry (which I already knew) so after a deep cleaning and mild exfoliation I got about 15 minutes of steam and a hydrating mask. During the steam bath I received a hand and arm massage and treatment of the skin on my neck and chest. The steam opened my pours nicely for "extractions". That is such a nice way of saying they pop your zits and squeeze blackheads. Luckily I don't have very many of either (remember my skin is dry and flaky instead!) so it was relatively painless and quick. She made some product suggestions which I turned down. I don't need a $60 pot of moisturizer. The stuff I have works fine, I just don't use it very liberally. Overall I enjoyed the facial a great deal and my skin felt great when it was over.

Next I moved onto a hot stone massage. The therapist asked me if I wanted it to be relaxing or if I wanted her to work out any knots she found. I said work away! The stones were hot but not too much so. Plus they use them mainly on the back of the body which I find much less sensitive to hot and cold (at least in the shower). It felt really nice to have her work on my back. That is until she found my shoulders. I carry most of my tension in my neck and shoulders. The minute she touched them she made a comment about how knotted up and tense they were. She worked them really hard (with the stone!) to get the knots out. It hurts but I knew it would. Then it was on to my arms and legs. The hand massage was FANTASTIC. Greg! learn how to give a hand massage! Then I flipped over and she worked for a while on my neck. She asked me if I get a lot of headaches (yes) and told me it was because I have no mobility in my neck. I already knew this as well as my turning radius has decreased over the last few months. After all the neck work I am happy to report I can turn my head 360 degrees around. Just kidding, but I am back to normal. Now I just need to remember to stretch it regularly. Lastly I got a 15 minute foot massage. I can't tell you how happy I was that I had gotten that pedicure since she sat with my feet practically at eye level and worked them for so long. No dead skin and mangle toe nails there! It felt really good when it was over but it always hurts to have my non-existent arches rubbed a lot. After it was over she told me to take my time getting up. I could have taken a 3 hour nap at that point on the table I was so loose and relaxed. But I got up and hit the showers to clean off all the oils, especially in my hair from the scalp massage.

Not something I can afford to do regularly but it was fun to be pampered for an afternoon. To keep the momentum going I am getting my hair trimmed and my roots done tomorrow. I will be ready for summer in no time!

Friday I'm in Love

I have the Cure song, Friday I'm in Love on my brain right now. I have been really digging the random song function on my ipod lately.

Today was another "work at home Friday". My third in a row. I didn't multi-task as much as I did last Friday (I baked cookies, did laundry, cleaned, etc in between work tasks) but I did get some grant management stuff done that is about 5 months overdue. It is a really good feeling because I finally have a handle on one grant 6 months before our next report which is when I usually go into crisis mode catching up and dealing with problems. Now I feel like I know about the problems and actually have time to fix them and prepare for the report well in advance. This is the way it is supposed to work in a perfect world. A world where I am not just reacting to problems and being bogged down with other stupid stuff. Of course I have 5 other grants to catch up on too! But I decided last week to tackle one per week and I am starting with the biggest ones (this one is a 5 million dollar grant). Progress is good. I have one work at home Friday left next week and then my boss is back in town and I have to work at work, so I am enjoying them while I can.

In preparation for my spa day tomorrow I stopped off at the local nail salon on Thursday for a Mani, Pedi, and leg wax. I know it is kind of ridiculous to do all this prep work to visit the spa, but seriously if I showed up with my gnarly toe nails and the forest of hair on my legs to this fancy pants spa I think they would turn me away! Plus I love a fresh french manicure! I stare at my fingers for days. I was going to take a photo of all my pretty nails but never got around to it. Sorry!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Wonderful Wednesday

My life is so boring that I have resorted to titles like "Wonderful Wednesday". So sad! It seems these days all I really do it work so there isn't much to say. So here are some random tidbits with links.

We have had really beautiful weather the last 2 days and temps so warm I have worn SHORT sleeves to work. I am so ready for spring I can hardly stand it. It is amazing what a little sun does for one's mood. Yesterday I took a walk around the park with my co-worker in the afternoon so we could soak in the sun. The park was bursting with people all equally desperate to synthesis some vitamin D!

Then on the way home the subway was completely backed up due to a "collapsed building" at 116th street. Collapsed building? How does that happen? Of course that is all the info we got at the time. They were routing both local and express trains on the same track so it was REALLY slow going and took me almost 2 hours to get home. Thankfully I had my ipod to keep me company.

For my birthday (almost a year ago! YIKES) I got a gift certificate for a Hot Stone Massage at a Spa in SoHo. Well today I finally made an appointment and this Saturday I am getting the Massage and also a facial at Mezzanine Spa. I have never had a facial before so I hope it is nice. I also wanted a super fancy pedicure but the weather isn't really warm enough for sandals yet and I can't bring myself to spend $100 on a pedicure only to slip it into socks and shoes. I will let them pick at my face instead. I'll have a report next week!

My office is infested with SilverFish. It is so disgusting. They scurry around under my desk. Apparently they are like roaches in that they will survive a nuclear fall out and they are pretty much impossible to get rid of. I have no idea why they have moved into my office since they prefer humid places like bathrooms but they have set up camp behind my desk (which is too heavy to move by the way). I curse them and step on them but they don't take the hint. I am over being grossed out and instead am just mad. I am convinced that the reason that my old computer died is because the silverfish sabotaged it in retaliation for the countless siblings I have squashed with my pointy shoes.

That is all that is fit to print today (just barely fit). Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Scrapbook Update

It is such a beautiful day out today. Too bad I am stuck inside at my desk.

I completed 3 more layouts last weekend. The first is this layout of my trip to the Martha Steward show. I copied a BH layout but used the Martha logo colors. Pretty simple really. Just cardstock, eyelets, ribbon, and some velvet letter stickers. Just what I like, clean lines and very graphic layout.

The next layout highlights my 30th birthday. It is a bit busier and uses an entire package of velvet rub-on flowers, some snaps, and lots of rhinestones. i also incorportated my birthday button and some ticket stubs.

Lastly is this layout of Greg's parents visit. This one has chipboard letters, and some paper flowers with brad centers. The funny thing about this one is that when I glued the photos down to the patterned paper I really hated the way it was looking. But once I had added all the embellishments I was actually VERY pleased with the way it turned out. Simple but cute. My favorite of the 3.


All of these layouts were ones I sketched in advance and ordered the photos pre-sized. So far this is working really well. It isn't making me ultra fast since I still have to pick papers, colors, and embellishments and I am slow at that, but it does give me a nice jump start.

Prayer Update

For those BSFers who prayed on Saturday for my Grandma I wanted to give you an update. My grandma had a fall a few days ago and fractured a vertebra in her spine. My mom was able to visit her in the hospital and she is doing well. The specialist says that it is a compression fracture and if she wears a back brace for a minimum of 12 weeks it should heal in time. My uncle has been building an addition to her house so she can live completely on the first floor (she lives alone now). This is really wonderful news. Thank you everyone for your prayers. Please continue to pray for healing and steady feet so she doesn't fall again.

Praise God!

Scrapbook Update

On Sunday I managed to do a couple layouts. I am not really happy with either of them but I figure that it has been a while since I worked on anything so I just need to get my mojo back.
This first one is from a trip to the Hampton's we took last year. I LOVE the color palate but felt that it fell short with the embellishments. There are shell buttons, shell sequins and a starfish charm as well as the big metal letters for the title. I also used some of my old favorite photo corners! The colored ones are hard to find these days so it is a good thing I have a punch to make my own.
This next layout I really hate. I like the photo placement, the 29s, and the big {} but I am not loving the rest. But my motto now is JUST DO IT so instead of ripping it all apart and starting over I just ran with it and figured I would do better next time. This was for Greg's 29th Birthday.

Best Laid Plans

We ended up with about 4 inches of snow accumulation from last nights storm which Greg helped shovel this morning. I woke up with a pretty bad headache and then when I tried to boot up the computer it had a fatal error. So Greg has spent most of the day on the phone with Dell support. Turns out our Windows Operating System had a fatal error and had to be reinstalled which erased our harddrive. Now we are reloading software and files and I just spent the last 2 hours hunting down as many of my fonts online as I could remember I had. We do have a back-up drive but probably haven't updated it in a month so we are still trying to figure out what we lost.

Long story short, I haven't done any scrapbooking yet. We'll see what happens tomorrow! It sounds like Greg is making popcorn in the kitchen. That will be a nice treat!

Freezing Friday

On Wednesday it was so warm (almost 70 degrees) and beautiful out I took my camera to work and snapped photos of the neighborhood while wearing only a hooded sweatshirt to stay warm. I really thought it was the beginning of something special! I cought this squirrel and bird fighting. The squirrel stuck its head in the hole of the tree and the bird swooped in and pecked it in the butt. It was pretty funny and happened right over my head.

Today it is 30 degrees and has been snowing all day. We are due for a Noreaster tonight and they expect 4-8 inches of snow by tomorrow. What is up with that? I had the benefit of working from home today which was nice and was able to get my taxes done (refund check on the way! WHOOHOO!).

This weekend I am determined to get some scrapbooking done. I even tried to convince Greg he should go away on Saturday to school to work so I could have the place to myself to create. With the snow I am sure he will stay home and hog the computer and get in my way but I don't care. I won't let it stop me from doing so layouts. Have a great weekend!

Yummy Treats

On the way home from Amish Country we took a detour through Bethleham PA to visit a place called Vegan Treats. This bakery makes really yummy vegan deserts and supplies many of the restaurants in NYC with fresh vegan goodies. We thought we would swing by and sample some yummy treats at their source. They had mini versions of their cakes and treats to buy (you have to order full sized stuff in advance) so we picked out a few things to take with us. Of course they are adorable to look at but how will they taste?

I picked out a cherry cheesecake. Sorry I took the picture after a couple bites. It was creamy and delicious. I had been craving cheesecake for the whole trip so this really hit the spot.

Greg loves anything peanut butter so he chose a peanut butter bomb brownie. This had peanut butter mousse on top of a brownie overed in chocolae ganache and peanut butter drizzle. Yum! Even I liked it.

Then we got one of their specialties to take home and have a day later. Chocolate encased strawberry shortcake. We cut into is on Monday night and it was super yummy. We both wished there were more strawberries in it but it was really good.

Amish Country

One of the main reasons I was MIA last week was that I had planned to take Friday off from work so Greg and I could go down to Lancaster PA for a little weekend vacation. In order to do that I was working around the clock to get caught up. Even then there was a crisis on Friday and I had to go all the way into the city for 2 hours to straighten is out (and discover there was actually no crisis as all!). Greg and I drove to Lancaster on Friday afternoon and arrived at our hotel around 8pm. We were supposed to go to a dinner theater production of The Full Monty that night but the 3 hour drive ended up being a 5 hour drive including 1 hour just to get over the George Washington Bridge and out of Manhattan, so we missed the show. Instead we enjoyed a nice quiet dinner in the hotel restaurant. The food was horrible but the conversation was very nice.

Oh, yeah. Our hotel was shaped and themed as a river boat! I can't forget that detail. A big riverboat maker from Lancaster decided to build a hotel like one of his famous riverboats in his home town. It had fake seagull noises playing outside, a Victorian lobby, and rooms with boat decorations. It was actually very nice inside. We just love strange attractions like this!

Saturday morning we headed out for a mud sale. These are huge auctions that are used to raise money for the local firehouse in the area. They are a big social occasion for the Amish people and a chance for us "English" people to mingle with the Amish. You can identify the Amish men by their straw hats in the photo. When we arrived Greg and I were shocked at how big it was. Now the Amish feel it is against their religion to have their photo taken so I was only able to get an overall shot of the scene. This picture shows the main part of the auction. There were actually 7-8 auctions taking place at the same time in different areas in the field. This was mostly farm equipment, tools, animals, and buggies (you can see all the grey Amish buggies lined up on the right). In another area was a massive furniture tent, a huge building for crafts and then a whole separate building for quilts plus food carts (the Amish love Auntie Ann's Pretzels apparently). We didn't bid on anything but it was cool to walk around and people watch and take it all in. We got to peek inside the buggies too. They don't lie when they call it a mud sale. The entire field is just a mud pit and are shoes were caked by the time we left. Note to self, next time bring boots!

The rest of the weekend involved touring the countryside, shopping, eating, and a nap on Saturday. We tried to visit the Mennonite Society because they have a life sized replica of the biblical Tabernacle which you can tour but we were 20 minutes late for the last tour (they were still on winter hours) which was a bummer.

Overall it was a nice and relaxing weekend.