harvest homecoming

Every year I have an annual date with my husband's uncle, Uncle Johnny. We stroll through downtown New Albany, Indiana as the town celebrates their fall festival.


Every year we are on a mission: to get the best chicken dumplings & apple dumplings.

We are dumpling kinda people.

Every year we are successful. We are successful because we go to the same places: The Redmen's Club for their yummy chicken dumplings & the Elm Street Presbyterians for their whole apple scrumptious dumplings.

We always have a tale to tell...but this year (in the 5 years we have had this annual date), I was FINALLY able to get to eat THE DONUTS.



The average wait time is 2 hrs. Yes. People stand in line for 2 hours to devour their limit of 2 dozens per order.

Every year Uncle Johnny tells me he will stand in line for me, but I never do it. This year I was lucky. There were only 4 people in line. We jumped in line.

Granted we caused a massive line to form behind us because I screamed out, "There are only 4 people in line?!", but no matter we were order number 5.

And how many did I actually order? 3 donuts. As the Masons told me, I am the 1st person to ever only get 3. Hehehe..what can I say. I barely finished my 3rd one on our drive home. But oh my...I can see why people wait.

Well this year after hearing me speak of "the best dumplings" Trisha Lou wanted to go, so this Sunday...we went.

I took her to the "bootleg" booth for the Redmen's Club. They sell their dumplings outside their back door. It feels so sneaky, but is so fun. They even got the lovely cook to come out and smile for us. Even though she refused to tell me her name when she found out this was going on my blog. She said she was too embarrassed by her hair & oven mitt hands. I think she was adorable.

We then strolled among the booths.

Truth be told....we secretly hope to have a booth there next year. We love crafting. We love working together. We love harvest.

Now the question is...what lovely wares would our booth consist of?

We have a few ideas that we are playing with. I am just so ADD when it comes to crafts....oh me oh my.

So I am curious.

What booths immediately cause you to go look?

What types of accessories or doodads have a gravitational pull on you? {for me..jewelry, hair accessories, bath & body, and kid stuff...they get me every time}



Here is to our plan Miss Trisha Lou! I can picture our little booth now. :)

Cheers~
e

i *heart* my uncommon slice of suburbia

I may be exhausted (I started my 1st rotation in pharmacy..and it was a LONG 10 hour day), but I am beaming.

I won my 1st ever ANYTHING!

You heard it right...from grade school bingo to a free coke from McDonald's monopoly. Nada.

But I won a giveaway!

I won a $60 gift certificate to CSN from Kristin at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia. Kristin is one of those people that I have been blessed to have in my little world for not only home decor eye candy, but for true friendship. She is an amazing. She is always cheering me on in school and in life. Thank you for your inspiration....

Peek into her kitchen....it is sheer bliss to me.

But this great room....is perfection.

Thank you Kristin and thank you to all my friends for making my little corner of the blog world a wonderful place to dream & create beauty.

Cheers~
e

no exams for one week = a night out

I have come to the conclusion that pharmacy school is ruining my addiction to home decorating, home projects, and blogging. Oh yes...and it is creating a slight sleep debt.

Needless to say, I ENJOYED my Mother's Day on Sunday and my Girls' Night Out on Saturday.

As luck would have it, we have a week off this week (we have NO exams this week -- lots of quizzes, but NO EXAMS), so my best friends at school went out on the town Saturday night to celebrate the upcoming wedding of our dear friend Jessica.

Katie, Jessica, Me, Crystal, Jill, & Trisha

We ate a 5 star meal at my favorite restaurant in Louisville (if you come visit me -- you can bet I will take you there)...and then...well we embraced the evening at Howl at the Moon. Believe it or not, we drank very little. I truly believe we were intoxicated by sheer freedom.

And somehow...all of us lovely ladies ended up on the stage.

And we got "paid."

We didn't even noticed this message till we were about to leave...our husbands were coming to gather us if we didn't vacate. :)

Meet the girls in green and pink:

We had such a delightful evening. It was so wonderful to not think about pharmacy. It was fun to laugh, and dance, and indulge in being a girl with friends.

Who would have thought that 4 of of us would end up STUCK in an elevator with 4 other people for a good chunk of time. No joke! We were stuck, and it thoroughly has made me embrace stairs.

Cheers~
e

P.S. Hopefully you would still trust all of us with your medications after seeing our little outing.

blogging and butterflies

Here is my latest design inspiration (from TJ Maxx) for an upcoming project AFTER finals:

How darling! And truth be told...I think I can make it even better! I can not WAIT for Spring Break!!! I am oozing with project and ideas. :)

Speaking of school...I should be studying, but I wanted to share with you about my delightful adventure to Indy.

This Saturday was BEYOND pleasant! Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick & Beckie from Infarrantly Creative hosted a wonderful gathering for Indiana bloggers: a Goodwill Shop & Hop. Not only was it a WONDERFUL excuse to not study this Saturday, but it was ever so inspiring to meet other lovely ladies who delight in treasure hunting. I was actually nervous about going. Had a few butterflies myself....but oh what a wonderful day it was!
I just want to thank these ladies for their hospitality, inspiration, and friendship. I would also like to thank Goodwill for the gift card! I won a gift card in a drawing that allowed me to purchase all my finds (no worries..I will reveal to you next week the BEFOREs as well as the AFTERs).

I also plan to indulge in my glorious gift bag and share with you all my loot. I have a few projects in mind that will be perfect. :)

So many projects..and only 2 weeks! Get ready for a whirlwind of fun.

Cheers~
e

a heart filled thank you

Thank you all for your sweet words and endearing thoughts. The support I have found among all of you strengthens my soul with a much stronger fiber than I ever could have imagined. Just for an update, Lola is scheduled to have a second MRI with a focus on her gallbladder. It is a numbing process but she is doing better. We are just so hopeful that she will soon be discharged and can start some rehab therapy in pursuit of a better quality of life. Thurgood was running on all cylinders by Saturday. I believe he was battling a little bug. Taking my test on Friday with him not being 100% made for an interesting testing environment. With my phone on vibrate and set up against the wall, I anxiously awaited to get “the call” during my test, but luckily two hours went by and nothing. The rest of the day was filled with nonstop Mommy and Thurgood time.

Now to share with you some happy pictures from a baby shower for one of my best friends, Christine, that documents Thurgood’s first boy-girl tiff AND his first kiss…with Abby the 3 year old daughter of my other best friend Stephanie). I am THRILLED that I captured these..and they are in EXACT order as the events happened.

The stuffed puppy that caused it all...the fight and the makeup.

I found the two behind the screen while the fight was at its intensity. I asked Thurgood what was wrong. He said, "Abby, won't share her puppy." I LOVE this picture!

The act that caused them to be friends again. Abby said, "Sorry." Then gave him his 1st kiss!

Look at Thurgood's smile. Oh my will I have my hands full.

So looks like we have the beginnings of an arranged marriage or the beginnings of friends for life. ...either way, Steph and I will be thrilled.

Thank you again friends for being just that...my friends.

Cheers~
e

back on the pharm

It is official…I am back in school for the Winter Quarter. As much as it pains me to walk back into lovely, chilly Auditorium A after being home for 2 weeks and free from the bondage of studying, I find myself delighted by the fact that I only have 2 more quarters of class work before rotations. How exciting! And then, I find myself slightly terrified, only because I have 2 more quarters of class work and then it falls on me, my ability, and my knowledge base. How scary!

I have been a student (or captive) of Pharmacy School since July 2007. We are a 3 year accelerated program which means, we sit in the same chair from 8 am to 4 pm. We sit and are sponges Monday thru Friday…or at least try to be. We have are failings and Facebook.

Sometimes I find myself in ADD mode and find myself daydreaming, and yes, surfing the web. It is rather difficult to go from teaching to being a student, but here I am. I sit in the front row (or what is deemed the front row…the very front row is reserved for those of us wanting to be punished) and try my best to be my best.

Amid Pharmaceutics, Med Chem, & Therapeutics, I have met some wonderful people. I firmly believe that is why I can still walk into Auditorium A every day. Regardless of what boring lecture or dreadful exam awaits, once I step thru that door, I will see the faces of friends. Yes we all claim to have made friends in school..but these people are different. They complete me and empower me. Among them I have found everyday heroes, but more importantly, best friends…cherished souls that remind me every day how to laugh, how to remain strong, how to savor lunch, and how to realize that grades are just a measured moment of ability in time....and for a recovering academic, that is a breath of fresh air.

Now...they will kill me for this, but here is a glimpse of our world.


I call "home" that spot to the right of one of my best friend's MASSIVE laptop. She works on a Hummer of a computer while my micro machine humbly sits by. And yes, I am not in the picture...hehehe. :)
Cheers~
e