Happy Thanksgiving

May you and your family

be blessed on Thanksgiving

and throughout the rest

of the year

National Gingerbread House Competition

My good friend, Dare, competes every year in the National Gingerbread House Competition in Asheville, NC at the Grove Park Inn. Last year was the first year I was able to attend and I loved it so much that I wanted to go back this year. Luckily, Haylee's birthday party was the weekend before so I was able to attend.

We left bright and early on Sunday and it started raining the closer we got to Asheville. We were so worried about unloading her piece in the pouring rain but Grove Park Inn allowed the competitors to back up their vehicle under an overhang so they wouldn't get wet. So that was nice. That evening Grove Park Inn had a Meet and Greet for the competitors and their guests.

pretty ice sculpture

On the following day the judges look at the many pieces and makes their decisions. There were more than 150 entries this year, they were judged on overall appearance, originality/creativity, difficulty, precision and consistency of theme. The entries could not be any bigger than 24x24x24 and made of 75% gingerbread. Except for the base, the entries are constructed entirely of edible materials. There were four categories: Adult, Teen (13-17 yrs), Youth (9-12 yrs) and Child (5-8 yrs). The awards ceremony was at 5:30 and competitors start lining up around 4:00. While she was in line I went outside and sat at the back of Grove Park Inn. I love looking at the mountains.

It was hard to get pictures of the mountains since it was late afternoon and the sun was in the back of the hotel. Then I went inside and sat in a rocking chair in front of the massive 14' stone fireplace. It's hard to get a rocking chair as everyone wants to sit in front of the fireplace. 

It was so nice and cozy warm. There are two fireplaces in the lobby but only one was lit.Then it was time to head back downstairs for the awards ceremony.

all the entries

the judges

Dare's piece

Grand Prize Winner from Wisconsin

Second Place from Tennessee

tied for Third Place from California

tied for Third Place from North Carolina

There were so many great pieces that I don't see how the judges make up their mind. You can see the winners in the Teen, Youth, and Child categories and all the other beautiful pieces on my Facebook page. I can't wait till next year!

Happy Birthday, Haylee!

A few words just to show, 

Just how much we love you 

And we wanted you to know. 

You may, one day, outgrow our laps,

But you'll never outgrow our hearts.

Happy Birthday, Haylee!

We love you!

All Hallows' Eve

When witches go riding,

and black cats are seen,

the moon laughs and whispers,

'tis Halloween.

The kids dressed up for free food at Moe's. Aren't they the cutest?

Batman (Noah) and Robin (Jackson)

Princess Sophia

Princess Sophia and Princess Bloom from Winx Club

Dinosaur

Happy Birthday, Tammy!

Happy Birthday, Tammy!

We love you!

Next Cruise, Booked

Tonight I booked our next cruise? Can you guess where we are going?

How about now?

We are going back to Alaska!

Our friends, Bruce and Dare, have been wanting to take a cruise to Alaska for a couple years now. We were thinking about going in 2015; however, with us using so much vacation when we go to Illinois for Christmas every other year that wouldn't work. We are going to Illinois for Christmas this year so that would mean in 2015 we would go to Illinois so it wouldn't work for us to take a cruise that year. Dare wants to go next year and has been trying to persuade us for months now to go with them. After thinking about the vacation issue we decided to give in and go next year. That means we need to save a lot of money between now and July 1st when the balance is due. 

The last trip to Alaska in 2006 was just a cruise so we have decided to add the land tour this time. We are doing a 3-night land tour before the cruise. We fly into Fairbanks on September 13th. We decided to fly in a day early since it takes so long to fly to Alaska. It's about a 16 hour trip and we figured we are going to be really tired when we get there since we will still be on Eastern time and have been traveling since 6:00 am. The 14th will be spent at our leisure. Not quite sure yet what we will be doing. The following morning we take a riverboat cruise down the Chena River then travel to Denali for the night. On the 16th we tour Denali National Park then head to Mt. McKinley for the night. On the 17th we will take a train from Talkeetna to Whittier where we will board the ship. I'm looking forward to the train ride and seeing the beautiful scenery and hopefully some critters.

The cruise begins at 8:30 pm on the 17th. It's a 7-day Voyage of the Glaciers cruise. Our first couple days will be spent cruising Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. We will be stopping at the same three Alaska ports we had visited on our first cruise - Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan. The ship arrives in Vancouver on the 24th where we will catch a flight home.

The weather this time will be chilly. On our first cruise we went in August and it was in the high 50's, low 60's. This time it will be in the high 40's, low 50's. Not looking forward to that but that just means we need to pack warmer clothes.

We are really excited and can't wait till September 13, 2014!

Necklace Rack

I have been wanting somewhere to put my necklaces so they wouldn't get all tangled up. Right now they have been in my jewelry box and it seems like it never fails that when I want to wear one it's all tangled up with another necklace. So I have been looking on Etsy for a jewelry rack. I saw this one and thought I could make this and it be way cheaper.

However, I don't think that happened. By the time I bought the wood, trim, stain and door knobs I think the price was close to the one on Etsy but at least I can say I made it myself. Right?

The board is the same length as the one on Etsy, I figured it was a good size rack. I looked everywhere for the onlay but I couldn't find one that was small enough. So I gave up on that and decided to add some trim instead. Now the door knobs. I looked at Home Depot, Lowe's, Target and Wal-Mart and none of them had the old timey knobs that I wanted. So I decided to look on Etsy and eBay. I found some on eBay that I liked. I decided on two clear glass knobs, a cobalt blue glass knob, a white rose ceramic knob and royal blue rose knob. Jeff put the rack together for me then I stained it. I wanted the same look as the one on Etsy, the distressed look but I looked everywhere for distressed paint and I couldn't find it. Evidently, to get that look there are ten million steps to achieve it and I didn't want to do all that. I finally found a stain, white wash pickling stain that I used instead. After, I stained it and let it dry for a couple days, Jeff put the knobs on. It's hanging up by my bathroom sink above my towel rack. One day I will paint the bathroom walls a light blue to match the royal blue rose knob. That will be my next big project as I want to also put up bead board in there. Maybe next year. Anyway, overall I liked how it turned out. What do you think?