RagsReborn Gifts' December Craft Shows

What a whirlwind couple of months!! I have been lucky enough to participate in at least one craft show per week since late September. One might think I'd be stressed out, burned out, and ready to quit after so many shows but that is wrong... I absolutely LOVE this!! Holiday craft show season is my absolute favorite. I have worked hard the entire year to be able to showcase my handmade items during these few months. Right now, I am one happy and proud sewist. ("sewist" - combination of the words sew and artist; to describe someone who creates sewn works of art)

And now it's time for my annual plea to shop local. While you're holiday shopping this year, might I suggest visiting a local craft fair? There are so many different local shopping events happening this time of year. I have the ones I will be participating in listed below.  I've been shopping local for my gift list since I started RagsReborn a few years ago and I plan to do so again this year. Please everyone, let's support our local entrepreneurs. (I'm marked as "going" on all of these on Facebook; if you'd like some more details, please let me know and I'll be happy to send you an invite.)

Sleigh Bells Market
Saturday December 3, 2017
12pm - 6pm
Oklahoma City Public Farmers Market 311 S Klein Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK 73102

The Heart of Christmas Craft & Vendor Fair
Saturday December 9, 2017
10am - 4pm
Events at Ten West Main 10 West Main Street, Yukon, OK 73099

Erica & Wes go to Ft. Worth, TX, pt.2

Ahhh Sunday, day 2 in Fort Worth (if you missed day 1, you can read about it here- http://ragsreborn.blogspot.com/2017/11/erica-wes-go-to-ft-worth-tx-pt1.html.) Sunday was art museum day because the Modern Art Museum is free on Sundays... and we're a frugal pair. LOL I am not the biggest fan of contemporary art (mostly because I don't "get" it and, honestly, while I understand that art is supposed to provoke you and start a conversation, I really just rather enjoy it), but I took to The Modern a lot more than I anticipated I would. I actually would recommend going, even if modern art isn't your "thing" because the museum housed a large variety of art and I'm sure you can find one exhibit you'll enjoy. My favorite part was the Sculpture Garden. There weren't too many sculptures (as Wes pointed out) but the ones they had were very unique. There was a larger-than-life horse made from tree branches and two life-sized metal trees that were shaped as if the wind was blowing them into each other. The trees were positioned near the reflective pool that surrounded the museum so you could see their mirror image from the second floor.

Also at the museum was the Haunt exhibit. Its a collection of photographs taken at various haunted houses throughout the nation. I wouldn't say the photographs were scary (there were little children present and they didn't seem frightened) but the photographs were definitely disturbing. I think they were meant to be more jarring than "scary" in the traditional sense, but if I had seen the images in person at a haunted house, I would have been creeped out. Wes says they weren't scary (frightening, jarring, disturbing, etc.) at all, so it could just be me. He said he just saw it as any other art form; an artist's expression. I am more of a wimp than he is and this is probably also another reason why I don't fully appreciate contemporary art. LOL Anyway...since the gift shop didn't offer any replicas of the entangled trees, I bought a gradient puzzle. It is literally a 500 puzzle piece puzzle that is nothing but green fading into blue color. Its going to be awesome. 

After the art museum, we headed to Buc-ee's... the greatest gas station in the entire universe. This was our third time visiting Buc-ee's and I'm officially making it a tradition to stop here every time we are in or drive through Texas. Buc-ee's is large (a bazillion gas pumps!), clean, friendly, reasonably priced and has both convenient store type snacks and a hot food deli. I mean seriously, there is so much food at Buc-ee's! There is a beef jerky bar, fudge stand, walls and walls of snacks, tons of drinks, sandwiches, salads and cheese plates, the list goes on and on. And there are souvenirs galore!

While at Buc-ee's, I noticed that Texans love hitching stuff to their trucks... RVs, boats, go karts, other trucks...

We had lunch at Buc-ee's and then did some shopping. For lunch, I ordered the Signature Spicy burrito with added guacamole and Wes ordered the chicken tenders plate. My burrito was probably the size of my face. LOL The food was good. I would say it is comparable to sit-down restaurant quality food and surpasses any other gas station food I've ever eaten. The only downside is that there is not an area to sit down and eat; no tables inside or outside. Wes hypothesized that it was to deter loiters and panhandlers. We ended up eating in my car, which was fine because there was plenty of parking. After lunch, I bought some Beaver Nuggets (puffed caramel corn) and Beaver Nug-ee's (spicy puffed corn cheese balls) for the ride back and we headed home. There was a football game in Texas that weekend so the drive back into Oklahoma was slow going. Although it was a slow drive, I preferred it over the insanity of the construction and Texas traffic. All in all, a good trip.

Sadie & Athena loved their Buc-ee's souvenirs! 

Erica & Wes go to Ft. Worth, TX, pt.1

At the Active Pool at the Fort Worth Water Gardens.

In the midst of craft show madness, I was still able to sneak in a weekend getaway last month. Wes & I took a short trip to Fort Worth, Texas for our annual El-versary. (If you don't know what that is, it is the anniversary of when we drove to Las Vegas to have our wedding vows renewed by an Elvis impersonator. Read about it here http://ragsreborn.blogspot.com/2015/11/erica-wes-do-las-vegas.html). We chose Fort Worth because we had originally just planned to drive to Pauls Valley, OK to eat a meal at Punkin's. But since Texas was so close, we drove the extra hour and a half to do some touristy stuff after lunch (which turned into a weekend's worth of activities).

You might be asking, why did we drive so dang far just to eat lunch? Well, because Elvis supposedly ate at Punkin's! And the food was really good. I got the catfish plate; the catfish and tarter sauce was amazing. Sadly, the fries were a bit bland and the hush puppies were too sweet for my liking. But the fish was so good, I really didn't want any sides to fill up on anyway. Wes got the sliced brisket bar-b-que sandwich, which he said was good except the bun wasn't baked all the way. I think his favorite part was the bar-b-que sauce. He praised it for being tangy instead of sweet. I had a few house potato chips off of his plate and thought they were way better than my fries. I will probably substitute poato chips for fries the next time we eat there. They also had a house pickle bar that I was pretty excited for. I actually love trying restaurant "house" anything just to taste their version of it.

Traffic into Texas was crazy, as usual, but we made it safely to our hotel at the 3pm check in time. Yay, a chance to relax. NOT! The night before, Wes booked us a room at the La Qunita through Travelocity. Unbeknownst to us, rather than simply removing availability from Travelocity, the La Qunita continued to accept reservations but on the following day, started kicking out reservations made through third party travel sites because they were over booked. So when we arrived, an incredibly unenthused clerk told us that our reservation was one of the unlucky ones that was kicked out and there is nothing she could do. We drove around in more crazy traffic (and construction!) and ended up at a Hampton Inn, which was probably a better choice anyway.

After de-stressing a bit (and venting about how much we hate La Qunita), we headed out for our evening's activities. Our first stop was the Fort Worth Water Gardens. The gardens represent a "cooling oasis in the concrete jungle." The area expanded a pretty large section of downtown Fort Worth and consisted of three pools and a large concrete mountain. Wes enjoyed climbing up the gigantic concrete slabs to the top of the mountain. On a normal day, I would have enjoyed it as well but on this particular evening, I was wearing a sundress and my fear of exposing myself got the better of me. I slowly ascended and descended the mountain taking extra care to maintain my dress in proper position. LOL The three pools are the Active Pool (which was a gigantic water fall), the Quiet Pool (which was a shallow meditation pool) and the Aerating Pool (which was a bunch of color-changing spray fountains). Both mine and Wes' favorite was the Active Pool. The pool is made up of several concrete steps of various sizes that are unevenly spaced and lead down to a large pool at the bottom. Completely surrounding the steps is a loud rushing waterfall. The loudness of the waterfall was probably my favorite part. We both thought the Active Pool would be an accident waiting to happen but, surprisingly, only one family has been killed there. And after their tragedy, the city reconstructed the pool to make it safer. Standing at the bottom of the pool and watching the water cascading almost 40 feet down terraces and steps all around me was a pretty neat experience. I would recommend this as a destination if you're ever in Fort Worth (and the best part is that its free!)

We stayed downtown and walked (almost a mile! Wes says it was 0.8 miles.) to dinner at Rodeo Goat (a trendy beer & burger joint). I was surprised by how dark it was downtown. There were barely any street lamps and none of the establishments were well lit. We got to Rodeo Goat at the traditional dinner time and most people would expect a wait time. I say most people because the patrons behind us (two douchey-looking frat boys) were aghast that they had to wait to be seated. Their exact words were, "This restaurant has a wait?" The hostess confirmed and asked how many would be at their table. They gave her more attitude and walked away. Rude. The wait was only about five minutes before Wes & I were seated. Rodeo Goat was another delicious meal. I got the Nanny Goat and Wes got the Olivia Darlin'. I was in love with my burger... seriously soooooo good. The patty was cooked just right (nice n' juicy!) and it was topped with plenty of fragrant goat cheese. It also paired well with my Rahr & Sons Pumpkin Ale.  

After dinner, we were faced with another stressful drive home (well, mostly I was faced with it since I did all of the driving). There is construction on literally every freeway in Fort Worth. Normal construction isn't bad but this construction was insane. The signs signaling lane and exit closures were incorrect, the lanes were not properly marked and even if they were, I couldn't see them because nothing (NOTHING!) was lit. Fort Worth is the darkest city I have ever driven in. Someone, please petition your senator to use tax money to put in some street lights! Besides the roads, we had a very enjoyable Saturday. Sunday adventures to come in next week's blog! 

Here's a preview... we got to the Modern Art Museum.