the Littlest Sullivan: What a Weekend!!

Oh my goodness! I have had the most wonderful, crazy, busy weekend and I just had to blog about it because I don't want to forget it!

Friday, mom, Ryan and I went to the Country Living Fair held at Stone Mountain Park. It was far and away the very best festival we have EVER been to! Pretty much every tent was offering something really amazing - so much so that we didn't know what to spend our money on. They were having classes and demonstrations all day long, and we sat in on a class about rug hooking. It was awesome! Rug hooking is something that I have wanted to get into for a very long time, and I always figured that it was pretty much the same thing as needlepunch, which I am really good at, but turns out it is actually much different. I learned so much and got literally ALL of the information that I need to start doing this as another hobby (and for profit...have you ever SEEN how much people charge for a hand-hooked rug?? Let's just say that the going price is SEVERAL hundred dollars!) Also, the lady teaching the class, Leslie Mccabe, sat with me and showed me how to do it, then she let me practice on her equipment! I think that I totally showed up the other ladies who tried it (both were over 50 and claimed that they had been hooking rugs for years!)

Leslie Mccabe and I!!

Mom and I both got some fantastic "treasures"...I got some handmade pottery dishes for Ryan's primitive kitchen, a great primitive crow stitchery, and some funky "Trophy Wife" tags for me and mom. There was also an artist there that mom and I both really admire - her name is Jeri Landers, and she does paper cuttings as well as write children's books and illustrate them. We have seen her at festivals before and we always buy from her. She is local, and a really nice person, plus her work is beautiful! She has started to do soldered charms, like the ones that mom and I both collect, with her paper cuttings in them. I got one with bunnies in it, as well a copy of her first book, which she signed for Ryan and wrote her a special note in the front cover.

My treasures from the first day!

We also saw Sue Whitney at the Fair - she is "famous" in our little world - she is frequently in magazines we like and she has written several books on Junk Market Style.

Sue Whitney!!

Mom got her picture taken with the "Ask A Country Vet" Doctor! He was extremely nice, and talked to us for a long time. As I was taking Sue Whitney's picture, he asked "is that lady famous or something?" haha. He seemed really underwhelmed that he wrote for Country Living magazine! He just kept saying "I'm just a vet from Ohio!"

There was bluegrass music floating through the trees and pumpkins were everywhere. The weather was gorgeous and I just wanted to live there, it was so perfect! I literally could not sleep Friday night because I had so many ideas running through my head of things I saw at the Fair that I wanted to make!!!

Friday night, my parents took us to try a new Mexican restaurant that I had heard good things about. It was good, but not as good as "our" Mexican restaurant in Loganville.

Saturday morning, I had a photo shoot for a little boy's first birthday, as well as some shots of him with his parents. They picked a great location and the pictures came out really nicely. I had a lot of fun shooting them - I am loving my "job"!!

After I got home from the shoot, there was a festival going on up in Snellville, so we went to check it out. Mom and I had initially wanted to get a booth at this festival, and we really should have because it was really horrible and we could have made a KILLING!! We would have been the BEST booth by FAR!! But Beren's Frozen Custard was there and Dave and I got some custard, so it wasn't a total waste of time!

Saturday night, Dave and I volunteered to be chaperones for the church youth group's trip to the corn maze. We had a really good time there as well, and got to know some of the youth a little better. There was an amazing sunset that night and the sky lit up with gorgeous colors of orange, red and blue. Then when the moon came up over the maze, it was peeking in and out from behind feathery clouds and looked as if a witch would fly in front of it any minute! It was so pretty!! Oh, and I got to pet sheep and goats, so I was one happy girl!!

Sunday morning we had a great guest speaker at church, and we really enjoyed his sermon. After church, mom, Ryan and I took Dave to the Country Living Fair so he could enjoy it as well. We had a great time, but we were a little disappointed because we didn't get there until 2:00 pm and even though the Fair wasn't over until 5:00, many of the vendors were beginning to pack up their things! The Fair was like a ghost town - there was almost NO people there and we pretty much had it all to ourselves! I am so glad that we had gone on Friday as well, because I would have been much more underwhelmed if Sunday had been my only experience there. Ryan got a TON of attention in her fabulous orange Halloween tutu. We could hear the "ooo's" and "ahh's" and the "look at that baby!'s" from 20 yards away. She was definitely the Belle of the Ball!

I bought a paper ribbon handmade from vintage papers and antique ribbon - it was one of the things that kept me up Friday night thinking about it, so I figured it was well worth the price! I am SOOO happy that I bought it...it may seem like junk to many of you, but I was so taken by it for some reason. It is my favorite treasure from the entire Fair. Oh, and did I mention that I can not WAIT to try and make one myself??!!

Other than that, we have just been chugging right along! Ryan is growing like a weed...I have already had to sort through her clothes and put away lots of things that she has outgrown. She is very alert and aware now. She holds her head up SO good, and a few nights ago she rolled from her belly to her side all by herself (she couldn't make it all the way over, but I thought it was a pretty big accomplishment for such a wee little girl!) She has a pretty good grasp on the difference between day and night. She still gets up twice a night to eat, but typically goes right back to sleep for us. She stays awake most of the day, with a few naps here and there. She has gotten to taste a few new flavors...just things that we may be eating that are mushy, I will put just a dab on my finger and let her taste...she has had vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry frozen custard, pumpkin cheesecake, and the inside of a peanut butter buckeye. Mom will let her suck on a Twizzler now and then, and she got a little bit of diluted apple juice one day. Sometimes we will put some milk in a saucer and dab our finger in it and let her have it that way...she typically cries when we stop giving it to her...I imagine that it is way better than formula!

Ryan has had lots and lots of visitors as well. Here are some pictures of friends and family that came to see her recently...

Ryan and grandpa