Make it Perfect Meets Prints Charming

Living where I did, in Australia, in the lovely leafy suburb of Leichhardt, I was lucky to live so close to the Prints Charming studio and shop, through many visits and purchases of their beautiful fabric, embroidery panels etc,  I got to know the ladies Kath & Kirsten, so lovely are these ladies (they probably won't remember it, as it was before I shopped there regularly) that Kath, on a day where the shop was closed but a class was on, kindly let me into the shop to purchase some fabric for my lovely friend Lesley, the urgency was my friend lives in London and I was flying out the next day, she saved my bacon that day as I'd had the list of fabrics for ages naughty me.

The ladies also very kindly donated a raffle prize to the playgroup in Annandale I was chairperson of when I organised the Christmas Raffle - I mean how nice is that, they are truly wonderful ladies. My only regret is I still haven't managed to their fabulous screen printing class or their wonderful embroidery class. I did manage to book onto the screen printing class but then we got the news we were moving to Chicago so I couldn't do it, but I will one day.

Living in Australia and being a crafty lady I was also lucky to come across the Make it Perfect patterns - great patterns, great styles and easy to make, the first skirt I ever made for myself was the Versatile Wrap and I've made 3 of those now, so what could be more perfect ? well what was more perfect was Toni Coward the lady behind Make it Perfect made a book.

And I love this book - I have made 3 pairs of the 2-in-1 shorts, 2 Picnic in the Park Capelet and 1 Kid's Vest so far out of this book, I have the tea party skirt, Frothy Skirt, Gelato Skirt (for me) and Snug as a Bug PJ's bookmarked to make next.

But want I wanted to show you was the result of the Prints Charming fabric meeting one of the Make it Perfect Patterns by showing you the lovely Picnic in the Park Capelets - which I love and my girls love too, both of them straight away picked this fabulous Prints Charming fabric, Ruby wanted a pink inside and Tilly wanted purple so here are the results I hope you like them.

Here are my cheeky monkeys modelling their capes - as you can see they do dress themselves. 

Road Trip - Day 14 & 15 - Homeward Bound

After our night in Pittsburgh, we set off early and said goodbye to Pennsylvania and hello to Ohio as we made our way to Cleveland. 

Mr C really wanted to go to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame  Museum - Rock on Cleveland, so we left Mr C there, whilst the girls and I visited the Science Museum next door - the girls had lots of fun, discovering, playing & experimenting, the best bit for them was seeing a science show all about liquid Nitrogen, making robot frogs, and the real frog display it was fun, we then went up to the children's play area which the girls loved and they had a good play there before it was time to leave and make our way to Toledo our stop for the night before our last stretch to Chicago.

Our last day on the road saw us leave Toledo, travel through Indiana close to the Michigan border and make our way back into Illinois and back home to Chicago - it took us 4 hours to get home and that included a brunch stop at an IHOP restaurant, but finally we made it home safe and sound after 2 weeks on the road and one fantastic road trip.

A road trip I would do all over again tomorrow and travelling with a 5 & 3 year old was a great experience although challenging at points, and we had our moments, but more than anything it was a great experience for them and we all thoroughly enjoyed it, it was fun, we didn't need to rely on DVD players (this time) to keep them entertained, instead the girls had packed their own little suitcases full of toys they wanted to bring and play with and they had their colouring books and fantastic marker pen rolls made be. We made sure we didn't travel too far every day and planned kid friendly trips/activities to keep them busy, we always had snacks and drinks on hand for those I'm thirsty/hungry moments, but most of all you just have to get on and do it, otherwise you'd never travel with kids and when I think where my girls have been since they have been born they are pretty well travelled.

Road Trip - Day 13 - Leaving Pennsylvania via Gettysburg

Today was our last day at the farm stay so after another delicious Amish breakfast complete with homemade bread (I make my own bread too but this one was exceptional) I had to buy the Busy Mother's cook book - a cook book Martha's recipes are in including the bread recipe which I am keen to try out.

After breakfast the girls disappeared playing on the farm, whilst we dressed and packed up the car ready for the start of our journey home to Chicago.

The girls enjoyed their last play with Stephen Jr and Malinda, then it was time for goodbyes and for us to be on our way, it was hard dragging the girls away but finally we did and we got on our way, we had a quick stop at King's Hardware where we picked up an Amish scooter for myself, don't laugh but this scooter is ace and my girls are so fast on their scooters now I can't keep up, so now I have my own scooter complete with a basket. After the scooter purchase we got on our way, our next stop was Pittsburg for the night via Gettysburg.

So we took the original historic Lincoln Highway out of Lancaster County, the Lincoln Highway was the first/original highway in America, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally it flowed through 13 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinios, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California, we truly travelled through history, one of the highlights was seeing an old fashioned MacDonalds sign

Our reason to see Gettysburg was to visit the Gettysburg National Military Park - a place rich in history as the Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War and it was where Abraham Lincoln (the then president of the USA) made the famous Gettysburg Address. It was a very interesting place and gave a great insight into the Civil War - it was truly amazing, the best bit was the painting called the "Battle of Gettysburg"  it was an enormous circular painting of The Battle of Gettysburg, also known as the Gettysburg Cyclorama (a type of 360° cylindrical painting) painted by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux in 1864 and it re-creates Pickett’s Charge, a climactic Confederate attack on Union forces during the pivotal Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.

 After leaving the museum we bumped in Abe Lincoln well a statue of him, then we made our way back along the Lincoln Highway to Pittsburgh our stop for the night.

Although still in the beautiful Pennsylvania we were well and truly on our way home, next stop Cleveland Ohio and another new state for me.

Road Trip - Days 12 - Strasburg

This morning began with another delicious Amish breakfast, the girls were keen to finish to go and play with Stephen and Malinda, so whilst they were playing we showered and dressed, then the girls went with Stephen egg collecting, not many eggs today, only one Tilly found, which Martha said was unusual.

After the egg collecting we then had a traditional buggy ride - you see the Amish don't own cars but instead use a horse and buggy and it's the norm, we saw so many of them out and about, so we were lucky we were able to ride on the family buggy, the ride took us to a neighbours farm to drop off some gas. It was a great ride and the girls loved it

After the buggy ride we went out for the day to Strasborg to ride the Steam train. I have a love of steam trains, you see I grew up in York home to the National Railway Museum, where there is a great collection of steam trains, and back home in Haxby we lived near a railway crossing on the York to Scarborough line and every summer the steam trains would run from York to Scarborough so we were lucky to see the steam engines pass by every day.

My most special memory of steam trains is one year my Mum & Nanna took us on a steam train ride to Scarborough, I'll never forget it, it was actually my brothers birthday and mum took us down to York station under the pretence of looking around the steam train - it was the famous Mallard my brothers favourite, anyway we got on board and had a look around (took our seats) when the train set off, my brother was so surprised until we explain it was his birthday present I have never seen him so happy, we had a fantastic train ride to Scarborough and a lovely day there.

My other great steam train ride was in Lithgow, in the Blue Mountains in Australia, whilst I was backpacking I took a trip out to Lithgow to go to the Zig Zag Railway and ride the steam engine, I could never imagine that day, being on my own, I would get invited to ride up in the actual steam engine, I was so lucky, it was a great ride and whilst having general chit chat with the driver and telling him about the (York) National Railway Museum he told me he had been there.

Anyway sorry for the digression and to get back to the point, so knowing at Strasburg there was a steam train ride I was there eager to go, in addition to the steam train ride, there was a museum and train related rides for the kids. We decided to do just the steam train ride so the four of us choose to travel in the open air carriage and we enjoyed our 45 min round trip tour through the Amish country side to Paradise and back again. It was a lovely ride.

After our steam train ride, we had lunch in Strasburg and visited a local winery, and on our way back home we saw one of the famous covered bridges that were typical to the area many years ago but only few remain.

So back to the Homestead it was and again the girls sought out Stephen Jr and had a play out in the garden, in fact the girls just go out and play, one minute they are there and the next minute they are nowhere to be seen just out playing around the farm and discovering.

I must admit I found the Amish/Mennonites very interesting, which prompted me to find out more, The Amish are known for their simple living, plain dress and reluctance to adopt many conveniences of modern technology including cars and electricity. They get around by using buggy's pulled by horses, fields are farmed the traditional way using the working horse to pull the plough or machinery needed to harvest the crop.

The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Anabaptists  in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the early 18th century, many Amish and Mennonites emigrated to Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. Today, the most traditional descendants of the Amish continue to speak Pennsylvania German, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch which is what we heard Martha speaking to her children.

I love the fact the Amish haven't been influenced by modern technology and continue to do things the old fashioned way or their way, it keeps good traditions in the family, they truly are a family/community unit, bound by their faith and traditions, it's lovely to see and heart warming - I think Mr C was a bit worried for awhile about how much I did love their lifestyle...

In one way it has been a very humbling stay, seeing the women and men work so hard every day, the amazing family & community unit they have, the big loving families - it's normal here for woman to have 8 or so children.

Having said that, all of us did thoroughly enjoy our farm stay and we'd recommend it to anyone who'd like to sample this way of life for a little bit or just getaway for some peace and quiet. I wish we could have stayed longer but this was our last evening at the farm stay and our last night in Lancaster County so we dined at Yoder's a local Amish smorgasbord which we enjoyed, before we retired for the evening.

Road Trip - Day 11 Cherry Creek Farm

After a yummy traditional Amish breakfast, a run around with the kids, some egg collecting and a quick change we headed for Cherry Crest Farm  - where we were told there was an amazing (corn) maize maze. I expected we'd probably have a few hours there, then could do Strasburg on the way back.... little did I know how great this place was for the kids and we'd end up spending all day there

To begin admission was only $15 each and this entitled us to unlimited entry until September now that is a good deal if we were local to the area, we started by going on the tractor ride around the farm, we got to hear about the history and how the farm had been diary farm etc, then it was back to the maze area, where in addition to the maze, there was plenty of other things to do....

Big bounce mats, race carts, hay stack obstacle course, playgrounds, gem dig, hay stack tunnels, a super chute slide, and hay stack slide - we all had a go on the big bounce mats, I rode the go carts as did Ruby and we all went on the big slides that was so much fun and the girls spent ages at the playground, it was gone 2pm and we hadn't even had lunch or done the maze, there was so much to do, so after a quick lunch, a small tractor ride for the girls, a look in the discovery centre, where we held a few baby chicks, saw a baby goat, feed a goat and looked at the pigs we finally made it into the maze.

Go Team Chaplin

The maze was huge, it was a-maze-ing, we had 3 choices to do - follow the yellow flags and that took us round the outside of the maze and only took 15 mins to do - not enough of a challenge for us Chaplins though, the orange had more of a challenge and you could collect some of maze pieces around the maze time 45 mins, and red the ultimate challenge collect all 15 maze pieces plus solve a crossword puzzle time 2hrs to complete, we decided to do the orange challenge, but we got so engrossed in the challenge we decided to find and collect all 15 pieces and we nearly did it but we ran out of time (the maze was closing) and we only missed it by 2 pieces in the end we'd been in there nearly 2 hours and the girls loved it.  It was a great day out.

Back to the farm we went, the girls hunted out Stephen to play with whilst we chilled out for an hour, then it was time for dinner and we ended up choosing to have dinner at  Stoudt's Brewing Company  it's one of the pioneering craft breweries in America, and offers a variety of amazing Lagers and Ales. I tried the Scarlet Lady Ale - an English style ale and it was delicious and went well with my Weiss wurst dinner.

After dinner it was back to the farm, and after we'd put the kids to bed, Mr C and I enjoyed a couple more Scarlet Lady's whilst watching a movie on the Mac.

Road Trip - Day 10 - Intercourse

After being treated to a lovely breakfast by Hilda we set off in search of Intercourse - a town in the Lancaster County and what a gorgeous town it was, full of Amish furniture (they could put Ikea to shame - good quality, handmade & cheap) produce, craft, fabric, wool, antiques, food, candles, quilts, soaps, and shops that sold lots of nik nak type of things it was great. My first stop was at Lancaster Yarn Shop  where I got some gorgeous wool for a cardigan I'm knitting, the yarn shop also sold hand dyed wool from the region I was very tempted.

We then came across a great place called Kettle Kitchen Village - it was a place full of shops, over 40 local shops in one outdoor shopping village, filled with homemade Lancaster County food, fresh baked goods and tasty canned goods - it was truly an awesome place and well worth a visit, it was a place to get buggy rides, have pony rides, there was a little farm area and playground for the kids it was lovely, the girls had a pony ride each of course.

Next stop I found a fabric shop a fantastic fabric shop so much better than my local one in Chicago for choice, I was very surprised but then the area is rich in homemade quilts. I did manage a purchase of fabric I've been after for ages.

Next stop back to the village for lunch then it was time to head to our official farm stay - our home for the next 3 days.

So we arrived at The Homestead our Amish farm stay for the next 3 nights/4 days, on arrival we met Martha our host, Martha is married to Stephen and they have 8 children (9 but the eldest boy died) ranging from 17 years to 23 months old, and each have a role in the family - the older girls help mum out and work outside the house but within the Amish Community, the boys help look after the farm, we were always seeing the older boys tending to the farm, mowing the lawns, milking Caramel the 3 teat-ed Jersey Cow, mucking out the stables etc, even Stephen Jr aged 5 had jobs to do, he took out the trash and collected the eggs, Ruby and Tilly took to Stephen Jr and Malinda (23 months) and helped Stephen Jr with his chores as well as playing with them all the time.

After settling in, we had heard that the best ice cream in the USA was sold from a dairy farm down the road, well we couldn't pass up that opportunity now could we, so off we went to Lapp Valley Farm to sample the delicious ice cream and truly delicious it was and why is it so delicious because it's made from the milk of Jersey cows -  The Lapp family who own the farm make all their ice cream & other dairy products on the farm itself from the milk produced by the Jersey cows (this milk is noted for the higher butterfat, calcium, and protein). Ruby now calls the beautiful Jersey cow an ice cream cow.

Ever seen a drive through Ice Cream shop? No well not only did the farm serve fantastic ice cream in the shop it also had a drive through, how cool is that? and what did we see, not a car that pulled up, but an Amish buggy, it pulled right up to the drive through window, they ordered their goods, paid for them and left, we were so glad to have witnessed this.

After our ice cream I dropped Mr C & the girls off at the farm driveway, whilst I went back to Intercourse for some needles to get started on my next knitting project with the Yarn I had bought earlier - I just couldn't wait to get started.

Whilst I was out, the girls got acquainted with the children, and helped milk Caramel, I joined them whilst Caramel was still being milked, which Ruby had a go at, we then visited the horses and the girls played in the barn, they also discovered a great play house.

After a lovely smorgasbord dinner at  Shady Maples dinner it was time to retire - we'd had such a busy day it was lovely to retire to our room with no TV for distraction.

Road Trip - Day 8 & 9 Back To The States & Amish Farm Stay -Pennsylvania

Leaving Niagara Falls was sad, we'd had such a fantastic time there, but it was time to head back into the States for the next part of our road trip.

So after brunch at Denny's and postcards written we set off in search of a Totem Pole and woodcarving place, but we couldn't find it so we decided to get on the road to our next stop St Mary's - Pennsylvania

We took the Rainbow Bridge out of Canada and into the States, you can also view the Niagara Falls from the States but the best views are on the Canadian side, although the crossing over Rainbow Bridge did provide a great lookout over the falls too. We didn't stop for a look on this side but headed south through New York State to Pennsylvania.

Driving through Pennsylvania was truly beautiful, we stopped for an hour in a little town called Ridgeway before continuing onto St Mary's our stop for the night and to break up the journey to our 4 day Amish farm stay in Lancaster County.

We arrived at our farm stay via the neighbours first as our farm stay was fully booked (which we knew in advance) so the lovely neighbours kindly took us in (something they do when the farm stay is full). It was a gorgeous house with a suspended bed the girls loved, there were horses nearby which the girls got chance to feed them an apple each very exciting for a 5 & 3 year old.

Hilda and Michael who we stayed with are Mennonites - Mennonites are very similar to the Amish but not as strict with their dress,they have electricity and are more modern, although still strong in their faith.

The Amish & Mennonites are truly fascinating, I was very keen to learn more about them and through talking to them and reading about them I found out more which I will share later.