A Little Yarn Shop and the Best Corndog Ever

Good corndogs are not cheap!

 At least once a summer (at least) I have to treat myself to a good old-fashioned corndog! Oh yeh. And preferably, it is fresh cooked at some theme park somewhere and I get to enjoy it in the fresh air. Afterall, good food on a stick should be enjoyed while you're walking around! The other day we were at Silver Dollar City and happened upon Butterfield's Onion Patch--best known for cooking those blooming onions, which I plan to try next time. But this time I was on a mission to have a corndog and visit the Yarn Patch (another store with "patch" in its name). My husband and daughter were and always are on a mission to ride as many roller coasters as possible.

The line did not seem very long--but they were cooking everything fresh on order, so it took a while. That's when I noticed these three little adorable sisters who were standing in front of me. So cute--just huddling and making their plans.

Finally we made it up to order. The girl who took our order was so sweet and told my husband he had a beautiful family. Made our day. So did the corndog--sooo good.

We walked for a little bit and then found a great table. This was our view of a waterfall while we ate.

 This was the sign on the wall over our table. There is lots of cute and vintage-style signage all around Silver Dollar City--it is an 1890's style theme park except for all the amazing high-tech roller coasters. Even their newest "wooden" roller coaster, Outlaw Run, is one of my daughter's favorites -- very smooth ride she says.

I confess--I couldn't eat my whole corndog. Hubby helped. But I was happy, and I was off down this little path to find the Yarn Patch.

 All of the flowers were in full bloom everywhere.

And there it was--oh how I love a little shop full of yarn. I get a lot of my yarn from Michaels and Hobby Lobby, so visiting a specialty shop is always a treat.

 The Yarn Patch had skeins and skeins of everything from raw to hand-dyed to ready-to-spin yarn! They also had little ready-knit goodies of all kinds. What really made me happy was when I walked in the door, there was a lady weaving at her loom. Love, love, love. I could have talked to her all day about spinning, weaving, knitting, and yarn, yarn, yarn. I don't know how to spin, and I did take a weaving class long ago for several weeks, and i guess that's why I'm completely fascinated when I see a loom or a spinning wheel!

Maybe I need to learn how to spin?

The very sweet lady told me that she had purchased this loom when it was completely broken down and rusted out--she and her husband restored it. After chatting for a while, I had to yarn shop!

So, I'd had my corndog, picked out my yarn, had a delightful conversation and I was ready to move on with my day. I had some blueberry preserves to pick up at the big store on the way out of SDC, and hubby and daughter had a hankerin' to ride the barn swing!

The Barn Swing ride!

I really want to weave again sometime.

A nice shady place to knit and have tea.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch Happy, Have a Corndog

My Little Sewing Box - 1960's House Beautiful Mags

I like boxes...lunch boxes, flower boxes, jewelry boxes, and my new sewing box. I had a 40% coupon, an extra hour to make a craft store run, and a craving for some sewing goodies--so this is what I ended up with! The coupon saved me over $8, and I found a shelf full of this cute new stuff from a brand called "Sewology." I like it! I picked out the cutest sewing box I saw.  I do have quite a bit of my own organizationology when it comes to my sewing and crafting stuff--but when I saw this little box, I realized I needed a cozy, handy place to keep a few often-used items. PLUS: it has a handle!

Also, it has a built-in pin cushion in the lid! In my mind, that's a perfect place to keep already-threaded needles. I couldn't wait to load it up with some sewing goodies that had been laying around and I was not ready to put them completely away. 

I tucked in some of my favorite threads, one of my pairs of stork scissors, a needle book I made, and my favorite Chinese store pin cushion in a mini version to hold extra straight pins.

Aren't they cute? I love these little guys.

I think part of what makes anything you do fun is enjoying the process and even the tools you use to do it. Like in the kitchen, I love using orange, pink, and purple spoons to stir with, and I even have the cutest purple chef's knife! I have fun mixing bowls and cute pans too--love it!

My cute sewing box reminds me of when I was little, and my mom gave me an old jewelry box--in my mind it looked just like a treasure box. So that's what it became. I kept my sea shells, crayons, Barbie shoes, necklaces, pop bottle tops and anything shiny in it. My teenage sister tried to trade me out of it one day and she managed to get it away from me for about half a day one summer--but I got it back and she could not bully it out of my clutches ever again! I loved my little treasure box, and I think I held onto it for years and years. I guess you could call that "boxology."

Sew.....with my cute little sewing box all loaded up now with tools and some project pieces, I am moving along with my little knit dress project. And from there--I've got to do a cross-stitch quilt this summer, and I must get back in the writing mode--I've been playing too much! That's why I love summer.

Joseph says "Hi" to everyone. Here's his summer schedule: get up when Mommy does. Eat  breakfast. Play in the back yard and watch for bunnies in the garden until it's too hot. Come inside and lay on the cool tiles for about half an hour. Lunch. Have Mommy comb me. Nap under Mommy's desk (she put a pillow on a footstool so it's my hideaway). Get up. Stretch. Play on the greenhouse. Nap on the Greenhouse. Dinner. Hang around Daddy. Nap on the big bed. Hang with Mommy. Have a territory issue with Minnie. Take a bath when Minnie does. Watch a little TV. Nite-nite. Midnight snack.

Oooh...I have another find to share. I visited my favorite flea market and found some old House Beautiful magazines! So fun--they were a dollar, so I snatched up a couple of them. It's not only fun looking at decor from the early sixties when I was little, but it's fun looking at those old ads too.

I hope you enjoy every day of summer!

Inside a 1967 issue of House Beautiful

A flowerbox of dreams, in my own front yard.

Shopping Downtown

You can't be blue when you've had the perfect Saturday morning downtown. 

White mocha frappes at Bocha Mocha...shopping the most unique little stores with well-loved and handmade goodies...and then lunch at a quaint little place called Saint Michaels. I had the perfect burger. Perfect. No blueness here! All happiness. Especially when my daughter found a gorgeous satin cross-body made by a French lady. It will be her bag of choice for months!

"You can buy happiness...for a little while."

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, and Shop a Little.

Honey? I'm Home!

It was time to meet one of my dearest friends and have lunch at our favorite girly place. 

Honey Heaven is a local shop and tearoom here in the Ozarks that I adore. I heart honey--and I love the rooms at Honey Heaven stuffed with painted furniture and antiques, fat bee motifs, and the cutest gifts and goodies (like chubby painted tea pots and tins of bee bar lotion). I have actually gotten craft ideas from their gift shop items (I'm known to troll places for ideas)--and I'm thinking of making a series of bee embroidered pillows to sell here. I wish I would have snapped a pic of the actual tearoom areas! I had bees on the brain! Guess I'll take more pics on my next visit. 

Honey mustard chips

Sharon and I always look forward to the honey-mustard chips they serve while you're at your table trying to catch up on the latest gossip and peruse the menu. We both love the Garden of Eden Quiche--filled with roasted veggies. Sharon got it again this time. So yummy! And of course you always get a salad and a mini muffin on your plate. I also had raspberry ice tea--and if that wasn't heaven...Sharon ordered the honey cream cake for dessert. Oh my. It all tasted fresh and delish.

Sharon next to the bees in the Honey Room!

Me and the bees!

 After we caught up on everything going on in our lives and finished off a great lunch, we went to their special Honey Room in the back of the shop...where a hive of real honey bees live (their glass hive is connected to a pipe in the wall that lets them exit and enter from the outside as they please). We have a lot concern for honey bees right now, because lately their very existence has been threatened by pests and diseases worldwide. We need our bees! These busy guys and their queen are fun to watch in a glass hive.

Honey Heaven's real beehive.

There's nothing like shopping in a real honey shop where there are shelves and shelves of local honey in a variety of flavors, honey based salad dressings, and my daughter's favorite treat: honey sticks. I was on the lookout for a big honey bear of Honey Heaven's own Orange Blossom Honey. I wanted the large one this time, because we completely used up a small container of it already--using it all winter in mugs and mugs of hot tea and piped onto flaky biscuits. 

Honey has a lot of benefits...so I thought I'd share a few with you.

• Honey (depending on the quality of its nectar and pollen sources) contains vitamins B1, B2, C, B6, B5 and B3. Now I think that should be written more like, Vitamin Bee-1, but maybe I should embroider that.
• Honey is good for your skin, and attracts water.
• Honey helps sore throats.
• Honey can soothe a mild tummy ache.
• Honey has been known to be effective in the treatment of ulcers.
• Many bee-lieve honey is the most wholesome sweetener.

So this is why bears have good skin, never cough or complain about their tummies! ;)

I forgot to pick up one of my other favorite items, while I was there, which is a good tin of bee lotion. Very nice to use on dry heels in the winter and rub on your cuticles when you've been gardening and have had your hands in water a lot!

I found a photo of a fat bee from my cutting flower garden last year. One of the reasons I plant the cutting flowers, like zinnias, right next to the tomatoes, herbs and other veggies is, of course, to attract the bees for a fuller and healthier garden bounty.

I hope you have a dreamy little shop near you, like Honey Heaven, to have a tearoom lunch once in a while and a little bit of shopping--all good for healthy eating, writing, dreaming and stitching!