Being the truck broke down I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do any local shopping….but Kelli and the old suburban of ours came to the rescue.
Kelli and I went to Squeaky Windmill’s soap vending show. Bonnie who lives just in the next town over to the west of us and writes a fun blog Insulated Overall is also a soap maker. I love her soaps. We took Neighbor Girl with. I let her pick out a bar of soap for her teacher and one for her mom for Christmas. I’m trying really hard to expose her to “girl things” like a shopping day, gifting, and thinking of others. It’s fun to take her places and she’s really good when we do. Here’s Kelli and I with our soaps.
From there Kelli and I went on to Decorah. I wanted to go to a mini art and craft show. Most of the people vending we knew. This girl we know best. She’s one of my childcare moms. She’s Annie and she has Indigo Studios. Annie is primarily a painter.
She does awesome things with dried flowers too. Check out these necklaces. I ended up buying one. Kelli did too. Kelli’s is black and has a four leafed clover in it. Mine was black too but mine had a mini fern.
She had some blank cards I loved and bought too.
Kelli and I both got some. We loved the ones that were made based on this painting. I actually love this painting but have no place for it.  Getting the cards was the next best thing.
I am in love with her color sense. It’s the colors I love too.
She has a series of Mother and Child paintings that are great…. The big chunky frame on the bottom painting was neat.
Here are more of the Mother and Child paintings.  Check out the fun Christmas pillows too.
Kelli caved and ordered an “H” just like the “R” shown below. It was gorgeous. Kelli collects “H” things. I think this one is going to end up being her favorite!
Annie had this “H’ already done but Kelli opted for the bigger size and the black frame. This one was pretty too though.
Check out the pretty tree…and I loved the Christmas tags. I don’t do very fancy wrapping but if I did, I would have gotten some of them too.
I did get one of these pendant banners too. I got a shorter one though.
This was a fun piece she had too….antlers and flowers. How cool would this be with a last initial painted in between?
If anyone is interested in any of Annie’s goodies, here is a link to her Facebook Page. If you don’t do Facebook you can always message me at rogjok@iowatelecom.net. I’ll help you get in contact with her. She does awesome work!!
We bought a couple other things while we were there and did some more Christmas shopping. I think I’m mostly done. Buck and Lora’s baby is due on December 11th. They didn’t find out if it was a boy or girl so once it’s born, I’ll be buying one more present. Happily most of things are wrapped too!!
Once home Neighbor Girl ended up coming over. She was over on Wednesday and was helping with my Thanksgiving meal prep things. I was making a strawberry/pretzel dessert…she thought it looked great. She ended up coming back over on Friday and when she walking in the door the first thing she asked me was if there was any of the strawberry/pretzel dessert left over. Well there wasn’t. She was sad. So when I was in town I had picked up what we needed to make two more of the desserts.
I had told her when we were in town that I’d pick up the ingredients so she immediately started bugging me to see if we could make the dessert….so we did.
We both ended up making a dessert. I ended up having to walk her home. She had her hands full with the things that I had sent with her…plus she had road her scooter over too. It was a fun day shopping small with people I love…and hanging out with Neighbor Girl in the evening.
P.S. We took pictures and are going to be adding the recipe for the strawberry/pretzel dessert in the upcoming month.
The neighbor girl is a very lucky young lady to have you in her life. You are such a blessing to her!
We love that dessert with raspberries. My friends call it a salad. ha!
You are making wonderful memories for Neighbor Girl. I had a neighbor, across the street, who taught me things and did things with me when I was young. She was very sweet and a great help when my father died (I was 8) and my mom had to go to work. She died when I was about 17. I think of her when I knit, embroider and make her yummy pound cake recipe. She was a second mom to me!
In my house it is usually made with raspberries because we grow them in the garden. We don’t have much luck with growing strawberries! :0 Either way it is a good salad/dessert!
awsome day love hearing or reading about it how is your throat that was the last time i read anything about you hope its better