wine, beer, snap, tatt

 Yesterday me and the family went to our town's first ever WINE FESTIVAL.

Yes, folks. An "alternative" event that I DIDN'T host!

When I heard of the town getting a wine festival, I was a bit afraid for them taking such a big leap because I know from experience, Texarkana doesn't take to kindly to anything.... different.

Most Texarkana people like carnivals, monster truck rallies, rodeos and gun and knife shows.

This event was for "everyone else".

Texarkana, you nailed it!

Every vendor was a local business or restaurant. There were no loud buzzing trailers selling funnels cakes and over priced nachos. No blow up Spongebobs on a stick and no rowdy kids bopping each other with bootleg rainbow colored light sabers and best of all there wasn't a redneck in sight. 

At the festival we ran into a good friend...

 and more friends... and some others that I cut out so this post wouldn't run on for days...

Mingled with good people...

Saw some good arts and crafts...

 Ate some gooooood food - I'm munching on crawfish and grits and duck fat fries...

  Fell in love with this trailer. I thought about buying it off the vendor but I didn't have the cash and it didn't have a toilet.... or room for anything besides, making tea, sleeping and eating... and pooping in a paint can maybe. 

  Since beer was only being sold from one tent, the line was pretty long and we were pretty much done with the festival any way so we all went to a little pub thingy downtown called Hopkins Icehouse for some affordable cold beer to drink on the patio.

I think this looks says, "A little IPA for me too, eh dad?"

Muffaletta sliders. Yum.

 Baby toes. Yum.

 Helping tourists...

Being tourists...

I've always wanted to do the whole get a photo taken on State Line thing.

  And the night ended with a bang...

 er... ended with pain more like.

I finally got that tattoo I've been trying to get for the past two years! I just couldn't find the right mehndi design that spoke to me but this one does. This is my fifth tattoo and my first one in six years and I hope to get many many more. Maybe next time I'll get one on my left tonsil.

And before I go, dig this: I opened up an Amazon fundraising store for our travel trailer adventures. Check out THIS POST to see how it works and why I've started it and all that good stuff or click the banner below to check it out. Thanks!

YAY!

Time to go blog-stalk YOU now.

BYE!

a Hollieween party

Last night I hosted my 3rd annual Hollieween party and as usual, the turnout was small. Very small (4 guests)  but I'm sure that's because 99% of my friends have moved hundreds of miles away over the past three years and I haven't made any new ones. What few friends I do have left, most are unmarried and childless and I think they're kind of turned off by the whole "Hollie's a wife and mommy now so that makes her uncool" thing so they've stopped coming around... oh well, more candy and beer for me.

But at least now I've learned that on the subject of party guests, it's definitely quality that matters. Not quantity.

For the party I dressed us all as hobbits. The original idea was to just dress River as a hobbit but then I realized that we all have the clothes to put together hobbit outfits. So there you have it, a family of hobbits.

Since I'm not fond spending tons of money on costumes the only thing I bought were our pointy ears, the elven brooches and rubber cavemen feet that I "hobbited" up with wood stain and hair.

I used wig hair on my feet and snipped a lock of my husband hair for his. Everyone was pretty grossed out by that.

For my costume I wore an old thrifted skirt and blouse, husband's vintage vest and a cape bought at last year's Renaissance faire.

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Here's the before and after on my hobbit feet. I used gel wood stain topped with my own liquid foundation makeup for a better skin tone match.

For River I cropped some old pants,  made his cape out of one the husband's old tee shirts and drew swirling hair on his little feet with eyeliner. The vest and shirt are handmedowns.

The husband wore old cropped work pants, thrifted suspenders, Renaissance faire cape and a shirt from his days of Civil War reenacting. 

A couple of days before the party, I spent a great amount of time decorating. Well, I didn't just do it for the party. I LOVE Halloween and I love low cost "use-what-ya-got" DIY projects.

The only thing bought for my tiny "laboratory" were spiderwebs and battery operated tea lights for a bit of subtle illumination behind my DIY specimen jars.

Ghost farts!!

(Packed cellophane, water and food coloring)

River and my friend Jennifer. 

During the party we played an impromptu trivia game I invented based off one of my favorite books Where are they buried: how did they die?. The book is full of mini-bios about some of the world's most famous people, how they died and directions to their graves. The game was to guess how these celebs died based on info given about their age at the time of death, the era they lived in and their lifestyle. 

The end results of the game? Lots and lots of lung cancer. 

  And here's one of my favorite Halloween revamps. Cheap strawberry wine turned into delicious virgin blood. MUAHAHAHA!

I love love love love Halloween. I just can't get enough of it and if it were up to me, I'd keep my home decorated like this year round, dress up in different costumes and have a party every weekend.

So how do you feel about Halloween? Any special plans for this year?

Sunday Wunday

The Deep Thinker is 4 weeks weeks old now.

Yesterday I gave myself my bi-monthly permanent relaxer. A lot of women wouldn't dare give themselves a relaxer at home because if it's done improperly it can result in chemical burns and severe hair damage. Luckily my mom was a hair stylist so I learned how to do it the right right way. This is me pre-relaxer. I aim to look like the Michelle Obama lookalike model here. Joke.

A random photo of some "It's a boy" Hershey's kisses. I can't believe they've lasted so long. Everyday I'm tempted to just dump the whole bowl into my mouth and chow down... foil, paper flags and all.

Another random photo and a random fact about me: The Princess and the Frog is my mostest favorite Disney movie of all time. Never seen it? You're missing out. A black Disney princess from the 1920s in New Orleans? Um, yeah. Awesome.

The husband brought home some wonderful goodies Saturday evening. You can never go wrong with a variety pack. My favorite so far is the Ranger India Pale Ale. It's so light and crispy.

he husband also scored some free wine. The owner of our favorite liquor store gave him a free bottle of Gnarly Head when he bought this new wine (Pettite Petit) he just got it. I like the Pettite Petit but I'm not a fan of the Gnarly Head. Too manly for my taste. But hey, free wine!

Keeping up with my New Years resolution: Paint my nails more or buy less nail polish. I love this color so much I actually painted my toes to match... if you know me, you'd know that's super rare. I'm not a fan of matching. This is LA Colors brand nail polish. It's usually only $1 and it comes in the most amazing assortment of colors.

And of course... RIVER! He's turning out to be quite a handsome little guy! I was a little worried about how he would turn out considering what strange looking babies me and husband were.

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Bonus:

My sister, 4. My mom, 28. Me, 2 weeks old.