Brown County

should be called Fall County - or Beautiful County. Maybe Brown is a name to mislead - like Greenland and Iceland... Anyway the leaves there are gorgeous!! We went up early yesterday morning - early is best because the amount of people is unbelievable!! Plus, we were there when the sun was out - wasn't out much yesterday!!

We had a lovely time!! We wanted to go to Nashville IN but by the time we finished looking at leaves there were so so many people in town that we decided to skip it. The town looks really cute filled with cute shops. We decided to go back another day early - when we first drove through town there was hardly a soul in sight. so maybe in Novemeber - or wait until December when they have their Christmas lights up....who knows!!
We decided to go to French Lick IN There is a hotel there - the West Baden Springs Resort. It has a fabulous history!! The springs were discovered in 1778. The original hotel was opened in 1845 but burned down in 1901. The new hotel was built and opened in 1902 with an amazing 200 foot dome!! The place was a hospital - a school and then closed. It was re-opened in 2007 after being closed for 75 years.  There are pictures inside of how bad it looked before they restored it. I didn't expect it to be as beautiful - and huge as it is. If you ever get the chance to see it - do it!! We hope to stay a night or two soon.

click on this to make it bigger

a mosaic terrazzo tile floor composed of 2 million one-inch squares of marble was installed in the Atrium by Italian artisans

In December we went to to Indianapolis to see replicas of the angels they found in the dome - they believe they were painted by the Italian artisans. You can click the links to see the stories. I wasn't so impressed with the angels until now that I've seen the hotel. Wow! We managed to get in some letterboxing  then we went over to the casino - that hotel/casino is as big as a city - crazy big!! The casino was full of cigarette smoke and we lost $22 in about 10 minutes on the machines. Losing is no fun. so then we went back to the West Baden hotel for dessert and coffee - the center of the dome changes color at night  - beautiful!!I didn't have my phone so no pictures. I had a chocolate dome dessert - the hard shell glittered!! It had a tiny square of chocolate with the hotel name printed on it - wow! Scott had carrot cake - fabulous!!
This morning we went to breakfast in town and took some pictures of our neighborhood leaves -

turkey vultures - amazing - huge!! There are 2 off camera as well - yikes!!

I haven't finished any projects. I decided to just go back to working on one. I couldn't figure out why I can't get as much done as I used to. The sad truth is my other job (the one that paid really really well) allowed me to stitch so I stitched probably 30 hours more a week than I get to now. Trying to do more than one project is foolish with the amount of time I have. I started Harvest Keeper and I was loving working on it - then the frogging started. I have had a frog on my back for this whole project - I don't understand!! Every ten stitches there is an error. No matter how close I pay attention it still happens. Just one of those projects!! I also never understand how I buy the exact fabric and thread and mine is always less variegated and the fabric darker. I realize it's all hand dyed but always darker? always less variegated? The Little House mystery sampler was like that too - and I ordered the kit!!! Weird.

Orleans IN

Bloomington IN

 I found a website for spirilizing recipes (found it on Skinnytaste's facebook page of course!!) Most of the recipes are outrageously fattening so I won't be trying them but occasionally she posts one we can try. This is raw beets spiralized with sunflower seeds, goat cheese and a balsamic glaze (Scott found a bottle of it at Walmart) I didn't like it - the beets taste better cooked - oddly they have more flavor when cooked! It was a lot of work to eat it to - really crunchy!! The next one I try is "black bean and butternut squash noodle tacos" sounds interesting - right!!  The site is Inspiralized but be careful - some of the recipes have so much fat - you could of had a cheeseburger.

looks pretty though

A few weekends ago we ended up in Cleveland - I love that city!! We went to the West Side Market (of course) We bought chicken sausages, ground beef, bread, fresh made noodles and some butter sauce, raviolis, dried fruit. We freeze most of it and use it as needed - it's wonderful to have fresh made things to cook with - (not factory made) plus the market is a wonderful experience.

I also had some time in a cross stitch store - super fun!! I bought a pattern and fabric for some hornbook ornaments - the designer is Milady's Needle. I will have to show you a picture next time.

 Scott decided to put jute in the wine box but the damn cat would not stop eating it and throwing it up again - grrrr so we had to go back to burlap. dumb cat.

Scott bought me a fabulous bracelet

 We found these fun wood blocks at The Primitive Porch in Berlin Ohio

 We bought a twig wreath at Hobby Lobby - for less than $20 and put star lights on it over the fireplace.

I love this room - so cozy and inviting!! Winter is coming and we will be burning wood in that fireplace!!

fun yarn bombing

I hope you are having a lovely colorful Fall. Thanks for stopping by!!