Our two day road trip turned into one day. Hubby and I planned to drive to Lancaster, PA on Wednesday morning ( 4 hour drive) for the day. I was going to shop til I dropped, we were going to have dinner at Dienners, our favorite Amish restaurant, and spend the night. We planned to get up early and have breakfast at Dienners and then head on back towards Carlisle PA for the Fall Carlisle Car Show. Hubby was going to do 'his thing' & he also has a buddy that sets up at the show so he was going to hang out with him for awhile too. My plans were to meet up with Teresa of Teresa's Primitive Treasures, Ree of Raggedy Rees Printables and Michelle of Briarpatch Prims. (Michelle used to be the owner of Primitive Times Magazine). Teresa is the Director of the Harrisburg/Lancaster Chapter of APJ (A Primitive Journey - see the button on the top left of my sidebar). While I don't belong to that chapter, our chapter here in Pittsburgh does not yet have a director. Teresa thought it would be a great idea since I was going to be in the area to have a Chapter meeting so I could take part in it. I also thought it was a great idea and was really looking forward to it. Teresa, Michelle and Ree were going to pick me up at the Carlisle Fairgrounds at 9 am. and we were going to drive to Millersburg PA to The Brickhouse, owned by Patty of Porch Sitting Time blog. We were going to go to an Amish shop and then back to Patty's to make some of Teresa's awesome orange ornies and order pizza for lunch. Last I heard there was going to be 8 of us. Teresa was going to have me back at the Fairgrounds at 4 pm when Tom and I were going to head for home, stopping first at Hoss's Steak House for dinner.
WELLLLLL..... that's NOT what happened. I woke up at 4:30 Wednesday morning to take my shower and get ready because Tom wanted to leave the house before 5:45 am. When I finished my shower, I woke him up and he got ready and turned on the TV to catch the weather report. It did NOT look good for Thursday, they were calling for torrential downpours from the hurricane coming up the East Coast. Now Tom is undecided if we should even make the trip at all.
After a few minutes of feeling bad for me because he knows I was looking forward to Lancaster and meeting up with my prim friends, he suggests that we instead drive to Bedford PA which is 2 hours away so that I could shop at
Founders Crossing for some prim crafts.
( Now I have to tell you right now I am getting extremely annoyed, because I'm trying to tell a story here and FoxFire keeps crashing on me, I can't tell you how many times I lost this post because I didn't SAVE it on time....Grrrrr.)
Back to my story. I told Tom that would be fine, whatever he wanted to do. So we get on the road and the closer we get to Bedford , he decides that Carlisle is only one more hour away and the day was sunny and warm, why didn't we do Carlisle for a couple hours and THEN head back to Bedford. Fine.
About 10:30 am he was leaning towards going with our original plan and going on up to Lancaster. That was UNTIL we started hearing a variety of vendors at Carlisle discussing the weather for Thursday - 4-6 inches of rain, winds at 19 mph and flooding. Tom changed his mind again and he was ready to head back towards Bedford and Pittsburgh.
I called Teresa to explain why my plans had changed and she admitted that her own husband was thinking she should cancel the get-together herself. I didn't feel quite so bad about the change in my plans now that I knew she was thinking the same thing. What we did do however was arrange to meet about a half hour down the PA Turnpike as she had some Sweet Annie for me. Once Tom arranged to have the items he bought brought out the front gate to load in our truck we were on our way. It was great to see Teresa again. The last time I saw her was at the Prim Mart Convention in Harrisburg in May of 2009. Boy did she have Sweet Annie for me!!!
2 nice bags full! Teresa also made me one of her awesome Key Fobs!
We probably gabbed for a good 1/2 hour and then we were on our way again. The Sweet Annie smelled awesome all the way home.
We stopped at
Founders Crossing in Bedford. At one time it was either a Murphy's 5 & 10 or a Grants or a McCrory's. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more handmade prim crafts than there was ( the last time I was there, a couple years ago, there was quite a bit). But the pickings were still wonderful and I bought a berry wreath, berry garland, some Fall floral & pumpkin picks, and a rusty star pocket.
I would have bought more, but thought I'd save my money for our next trip in November to St. Charles, IL. There are a few 'new' spots I want to check out in Sandwich IL called the Farmer's Daughter, The Red Geranium and The Village Peddler. Thanks to Michelle's Cozy Cottage for her post about these great shops to visit in the Chicago area. I can't wait to check them out.
When we got home Wednesday night, Tom unpacked the truck and it really wasn't until the next morning that I noticed that my berry garland wasn't in the bag from Founders Crossing. Tom double checked in the truck and it just wasn't there. I called the store when they opened the next morning and they had it. They promised to mail it to me that afternoon. I received it the next day ( yesterday).
As it turns out we made the right decision to head home Wednesday. Tom talked to his buddy who was set up at the Fairgrounds and he said the lower section of the Fairground was flooded and it was pouring steadily all day Thursday. No vendors were open and no shoppers. It would have been a wasted day.
I made this Snowman Angel with Embroidered Tree for Teresa. It's a pattern from Threadbare Primitives. I may make another one or two to add to my selling blog.
The pattern called for the tree star to be made from doubled homespun, turned and stuffed with polyester filling. I had the hardest time with this, I don't have the nimblest fingers any longer, lol. I did try, and got so frustrated I instead made the star from green felt. There was also supposed to be a star ornie on the end of the hat.......this guy got a big rusty bell instead.
Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable weekend!
