Jonquil Festival

Saturday me and family went to the Jonquil Festival in at the Historic Washington State Park in Washington, AR. Washington State Park is a little village town thingy that has been preserved and kind of frozen in time -  the 1800s.  I was under the impression the festival would be more like my renaissance faire but in the 1800s. Nah. Just a festival - corndogs and blow up toys kind of stuff. The festival was still pretty nice though - lots to do and see. There were a few ladies in hoop skirts and shawls giving tours of the historic buildings on site, but that required a $5 pass. I figured that money would be better spent on... you know... food.

I like food.

The collage of above has pics of merch from my favorite sellers. I totally bought a tie-dye onesie for Cedar from the groovy dude in the upper right corner.

This Native dude was luring people into his booth like the pied piper with his flute.

The scenery was very lovely with the blossoms and trees and super green grass from last week's excessive rain fall that caused flooding in much of the area.

Above I'm in the backyard of one the Purdom House.

Below we're romping in the yard of a restaurant that's been there since - you guess it - the 1800s. 

A cute little parade passed by as we were playing.

WHAT WE BOUGHT:

Caleb had a genuine leather work belt custom sized for him on site.

I got 2 jars of homemade jelly: plum and peach jalapeno

A mini handmade pecan pie (the official pie of Texas) for the kids. We don't do sweets much so the kids have never had pie before. 

Handmade Indian sandalwood soap samples

Tie-dyed onesie for Cedar

A handmade gourd birdhouse thing. It's big and weird! I love it!

Stringed brass bells made by my friends who had a booth at the festival. I already have two strands for home decor but I want another strand for my gypsy queen costume.

WHAT I WORE:

DIY kaftan turned jacket thingy. I cut the kaftan open last week and forgot to finish it off so as the husband was loading the car I used a few tiny dabs of hot glue to temporarily finish off the seams.

I did the hair wrap the night before myself. The dangly bits in the middle are from a broken bracelet and the cowry shell doodad is from my collection of costume making stuff. I have tons more!

Sunglasses - Romancing the Stone clearance

Necklaces - cheap eBay finds

Dress - handmedown

A better view

So how was your weekend?

What'd you do?

So the thing about prune juice is...

So the thing about prune juice is... it's never ok to drink three cups of it.

EVER.

EVAR!!

I just needed a little help you know? I thought, the more the better right?

I  left my husband a note to see this morning that said, "please check on me before you go to work." I was terrified I would shrivel up in the middle of the night.

Oh, is this too much information? Not a ladylike subject?

 Too bad. You knew what you were getting into when you came here.

HA HA HA!!!

The good news is I survived, lived to tell the tale and was able to edit this photos from Sunday.

PicMonkey has new features to play with!! 

Ahem, that's an affiliate link there. Sorry.

Not sorry.

So Cedar  wasn't much in the mood for photos.

It took about twenty tries to get a shot of her thrifted Dorothy shoes.

River's sporting a vest handmade by his Granny.

And his new obsession is this mini American flag.

Or "frwaaa" as he calls it.

What we're wearing:

Pretty much everything was thrifted, eBay'd, handed down or found stupid cheap on retail clearance.

So, um, How are you doing?

Staying regular?

Oh! that reminds me!

I wrote a post about the Squatty Potty over at my other blog. It's a fun read if you care about - you know... pooping and stuff.

was there an earthquake on your side of the room?

I said to the husband, "Here, let's hurry and get some pictures so we can change clothes and take the babies to the park." I handed him the camera.

Snap. Snap. Snap.

"Alright, that should be enough. Thanks, babe."

Out of about 15 photos, these were the best.

There will be no do-overs as these pics were taken yesterday.

Time to go find the dang tripod.

 

▲Blurry Outfit Under $15▲

New neon melon dress: Ross Dress for Less

Scarf (turned into vest) - eBay

Wet Spot Studded Boots - Handmedowns

New Sunglasses - Romancing the Stone clearance

The video below is so full of truth!

that time I bought some stuff and punched a priest in the face

Ok, well I didn't punch a priest but I did do a little shopping the other day. You know - alone, free to go wherever I want, do whatever I want and punch whomever I like.

I really want to punch someone.

Not out of anger, I just wanna know what it's like.

Well, I punched my sister many years ago for playing a prank on me. She was mean, I was sensitive and my young fragile mind couldn't take a joke.  I was aiming for her face and gave her a bop right in the boobies but sibling strikes don't count. 

So, I went to an indoor flea market I used to sell at and got some stuff. Since I used to have a booth there, I know what kind of goodies that place has. It's a dangerous place to shop if you're broke. The kind of place you go to and the wind up sitting in your car weeping because you couldn't stop yourself from spending your last $50 on an upright piano and sixteen vintage romance novels.

Got my husband this $1 tie.

Got this vintage German style serving tray for $8. That's more than I usually pay for home decor but shucks, I really wanted it. I looked it up online and it's going for $6-$40 so I got a pretty decent deal - or at least that's what I'll keep telling myself.

 In case you haven't noticed by now, I love global home decor - authentic and reproductions.  I love it all. Whenever I go to a flea market or chain thrift store I always look for stuff from around the world. Folks receive souvenirs from friends and family's vacations and they're like: 

"Oh, nice - a whatchadoodle from Asia. This will look great in my kitchen right next to the tiny sombrero and tiny bottle of rancid tequila you got me fifteen years ago from Mexico." 

...and then it ends up in my hands for next to nothing. Keep chunking your gifts away! I'll gladly take them!

I checked in on Romancing the Stone's closing sale and got these feather things BOGO-free. I think I remember seeing them online as Christmas tree ornaments along with the God's-eyes I got a couple weeks ago. So I added them to my little DIY wall hanging thing - whatever this is going on here. I don't like how it's turned out but I'm just too darn lazy to plug in my glue gun and do it right.

Too lazy to plug in a glue gun? Now, that's DANG lazy.

These sunglasses were BOGO-free too!! Two pair for $5.

So, that's all I've got to share for now.

Who would YOU like to punch in the face?

I would love to punch the fictional character April from the show Parks and Recreation.

I hate that character so much that I stopped watching the show.

VD for me! VD for you! VD for everyone!

The husband took me to Shreveport, LA for a Valentines evening date. At first he had something ridiculously elaborate planned - something to do with a hotel and wasting money on romantic whatnots but I begged him to change the plan after I discovered he failed to find an overnight babysitter. Who wants to keep a 1 and 3 year old overnight at the last minute Valentines weekend? Um, no one.

He took me to a restaurant we pass all the time but have never been to. It's a fantastic Cajun place called the Blind Tiger. The inside wasn't as hep as the name suggested but the food made up for all that. 

I forgot my camera so enjoy these terrible Instagram photos from our evening.

The fried shrimp and remoulade was so good I almost cried.

After dinner we went to a casino.

I had no intentions of doing any serious gambling - I've just never been inside a casino before and I was wildly curious about what happens in these dens of shame and addiction.

We walked around and watched the people smoking their cigarettes, drinking their domestics, eyes glued to the screen of the flashing slot machines.

All of the machines beeped and sang out in the same note so there was a steady pleasant hum of electronic victories all around.

The air smelled heavily of hand soap.

It was actually rather enjoyable.

I couldn't remember if it was on my bucket list to simply go to a casino or gamble at a casino, so I put a dollar in a machine and pressed a button to make sure I was getting the full experience.

I won nothing but a strangely arousing experience.

We got back into town before our coach turned back into a pumpkin, picked up the kids from their aunt's and took a couple pics. Here's what I wore:

Dress - Ross Dress for Less, $10

Necklace - eBay

Boots - Handmedowns

Other jewelry and accessories - cheap retail and internet findings

Legs - Haven't shaved in months

Bosom - getting bigger?

 And here's what Cedar wore to church on Valentines morning. Yes it's a Minnie Mouse dress. Not Minnie Mouse-ish. It is a Minnie Mouse dress minus the ears. HEE HEE!! I found it on clearance at Kmart for $5 and I couldn't pass up a dress that can serve double duty as both a Valentines Day AND Halloween outfit.

So how was your Valentines Day?

How's your colon feeling?

Do you wanna make out?

Mardi Blah

It's wacky. It's festive. It's steeped in tradition.

It's MARDI GRAS 

(er, Mardi Gras Saturday really - Mardi Gras is Tuesday)

This is Texarkana's third Mardi Gras parade and the area was packed. I like to see that! The parade, which is supposed to be the highlight of the day was kind of lame - but hey, we got to eat some awesome gumbo, fried pork... stuff... and we got to have a nice family outing.

We've all be sick for about a month. We're just spreading the same germs around and it's driving me nuts. I've been running a mild fever for a couple days, I'm coughing up bits of lung but I was more than ready to get out the darn house. Can't keep me from Mardi Gras!

GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! GUMBO! 

What's gumbo you ask? It's a cajun stew I guess you could call it? It's crawfish in some kind of brown stuff, served over rice. You can add anything to your gumbo - traditionally shrimp, andouille, alligator (chicken if you've no gator) and crab.

I think I'm in the wrong line of business. I wanna blow bubbles for a living!

Does this outfit look familiar?

Since I decided to pass on participating in the parade I loaned out my costuming to a good friend who was walking with the rest of the faire folk. Isn't she adorable??

 Isn't this lamé gown awesome? She made it herself. Ruff, hat and all.She's one of my gypsies at the faire and a very, very loyal faire supporter.

 The dress below is also handmade. The lady below is a professional seamstress and sells costumes at the faire. She makes all her own stuff and wedding gowns and all sorts of awesomeness. 

 I got to catch up with the rest of the crew. Isn't it weird seeing me with the guys wearing street clothes?

Why did I pass on the parade? Well me and my husband were going to sign up for a ballroom dancing workshop (true) but we realized at the last minute it was scheduled for the same day as the parade. We REALLY wanted to do the dance class but I got pretty irritated that a city organization would schedule something like that DURING a major event also hosted by the city. So it was kind of my way of boycotting the workshop I guess.

This town isn't big enough for event competition. We all need to work together and when I see stuff like that, I see red. 

I didn't walk with the faire group because well, I'm sick and also I wanted to actually SEE a parade, not be in it. This was the second parade of got to watch and not participate in since I was a little girl. I've been in parades all my life! 

Cray!

Oh, and here's my face... and a Mardi Gras headband I bought for Cedar but thought it would look better on me.

Did you do anything for Mardi Gras this Saturday? Got any plans for Tuesday?