The Annual Chaplin Family Road Trip - Day 3 & 4

Day 3 - Nashville Tennessee - 14th July

As much as we were very tempted to stay and have a relaxing day at the hotel, Nashville beckoned, so after a swim in the outdoor pool we headed into Nashville in time for lunch at the famous Jack's BBQ which was fabulous, after lunch, and completely on the spur of the moment we popped inside a bar to see a country music band and have a quick beer. The band and music was great, near the end they took requests and rather humbly sang a Taylor Swift song for our girls.

After our little music adventure, Mr C wanted to visit the shop of the American Pickers, a TV show we enjoy here, only 8 blocks walk he said, in heat of 100f, 8 blocks soon turned into a few miles of walking in no shade, but we finally made it, in need of a drink.

The American Pickers shop was great, it was a wonderful collection of American history not all things were for sale but it was good to visit and was very interesting.

We certainly weren't going to walk back so we took a taxi back into Nashville to visit Hatch Show Print - a letterpress printing making company who started their business creating show posters in the late 1800's and they have been famous ever since.

Not only a retail shop, but you can see into the print side of the company and see them printing up posters, each one unique.

And afterwards we couldn't resist a quick visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame retail shop - where the girls tried out the (fake) guitars - I think Tilly may be born for stardom.

After a long but great afternoon in Nashville we headed back to the hotel for a lovely dinner at Cascades, a restaurant in the hotel.

We retreated back to our rooms for a night cap of Jim Beam Fire whilst watching the lovely water/light show from our balcony.

Day 4 - Nashville, TN to Gatlingburg TN - 15th July

After a quick breakfast and swim we hit the road as we had quite a drive to Gatlingburg, 215 miles, our next stop for our Smoky Mountains adventure.

Our journey to Gatlingburg was rather uninteresting, we stopped a Cracker Barrel for lunch, then I saw a big sign on the freeway for a Yarn shop and made Mr C drive off to it, it was a lovely yarn shop too and I purchased some wool for a project.

On our way into Gatlingburg we passed through Pigeon Forge, home of Dollywood, passing through Pigeon Forge was an eye opener, full of attractions, on both sides of the road, such as Ripley's Believe it or not, Hollywood Wax Museum, carnival rides, lots of car racing rides, the girls couldn't get enough.

Once through Pigeon Forge, it wasn't long before we hit Gatlingburg, the gateway into the Smoky Mountains. The Smoky Mountains are America's most popular and visited National Park, more so than Yellowstone Park and The Grand Canyon put together.

After a short but winding trip into the Mountains, we reached our destination for the next 3 nights, the elegant Buckberry Lodge.

After settling in, and checking out the views of the Smoky Mountains from our room, we headed back down the mountain, for dinner in Gatlingburg and a wander around the shops, stopping to see laffy taffy being made, and sampling Moonshine.

Our visit to Dollywood coming up next.

The Annual Chaplin Family Road Trip - Day 1 & 2

We've just finished our 3rd Annual USA road trip and boy did we have a good time.

This year our road trip was extra special because we had Grannie & Grandad (Mr C's parents) join us so on Saturday 12th July with 2 cars packed to the brim we set off for our annual road trip adventure to cover 10 US states, 2,500 miles over 15 days.

Day 1 - Chicago, IL to Louisville, Kentucky 12th July

At promptly 7.30am we left behind the comforts of our home to enjoy life on the road, our first stop today a mere 310 miles away - Louisville, Kentucky. 

After driving through torrential rain coming through and out of Chicago, we finally hit better driving conditions in Indiana where we stopped for our usual annual road trip breakfast stop at the one and only Denny's. 

We arrived in Louisville, Kentucky late afternoon, in time for the girls to have a swim before dinner, which they enjoy, Grannie and I took them in. Friends were also traveling down this part of the country enroute to Nashville and had too stopped in Louisville, so we met up with them for dinner at an amazing eatery called Hammerheads - best BBQ ever I can't recommend it - loved the duck tacos.

Day 2 - Louisville, KY to Nashville, Tennessee

The next day Grannie, Grandad and Mr C took a morning walk around Louisville before breakfast, and before we took to the road.

Kentucky is well known and famous for it's horses and Bourbon, although the girls are more interested in horses, we were more interested in the Kentucky Bourbon Trail (even though none of us drink Bourbon) - many many famous bourbon brands are born out of the Kentucky blue grass hills, Jim Beam, Maker's Mark & Woodford Reserve to name a few.

Kentucky takes pride in the fact that, 95% of this corn-based, caramel colored sipping icon is distilled, aged and bottled right here in the state’s Bourbon Country - it's big business indeed.

As we had a long drive to Tennessee ahead of us, we didn't have time to do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, we will do this another time, so we picked one distillery to try and that was the iconic Jim Beam, while we waited for it to open, we took ourselves off to a quaint little town named as America's most beautiful small town in America. It was very beautiful, but as it was a Sunday very little was open.

At noon we ventured back to Jim Beam and had a great time looking around the distillery, learning about the history of Jim Beam, seeing how the barrels were made and stored and of course sampling a little of their finest Bourbon.

 

Although we aren't big Bourbon fans at all, we were still keen to try a few, maybe to see what we were indeed missing and I have to say, although none of us were too keen on the straight bourbon, we all did enjoy the flavored Bourbons, and they was a lot to choose from, honey, maple, cinnamon, cherry etc,  we all loved the Jim Beam Fire - flavored with cinnamon it was delish and a purchase of this was made.

After our visit to this fine distillery was over, we drove a further 152 miles to Nashville, Tennessee to stay the spectacular Gaylord Opryland Hotel, this is a premier hotel, under one spectacular glass atrium roof, which is a climate-controlled, there was an indoor river, the place had 9 acres of amazing indoor gardens, cascading waterfalls, lots of restuarants, shops, pools etc, it was truly wonderful, we could have easily spent a day just exploring the place.

In the evening we explored Nashville, home of America's Country music, had a lovely dinner where they served beer out of mason jars, very country. 

We had a great evening out, we didn't see any bands that night as the bars were strictly over 21 after 6pm, but we did enjoy having a good look around Nashville at night.

More Nashville adventures to come.

Pinterest Challenge meets Teacher Appreciation Week

My Pinterest challenge is still going strong but it has been awhile since I actually picked something from one of my boards and set to make it, every week I tend to use my pinterest boards for meal inspirations and baking ideas.

A favorite dinner of ours is Roasted Red Pepper and Italian Sausage Pasta and I make it regularly - the girls usually have it without the sausage and I don't complain about that, I am just so pleased they love the roasted red pepper sauce on their pasta.

And only on Saturday last week I baked these lovely Sour Cream Chocolate Chip muffins from my baking board. And on Wednesday this week I baked a batch of these absolutely scrummy yummy Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies

But onto what I made this week - as it is Teacher Appreciation Week here in the US, a week spent celebrating our wonderful teachers for the wonderful job they do teaching our kids.

Our school celebrates the teachers, by buying them lunches, gift cards, presents, door decorating etc etc, our class did a great job of celebrating Ruby's teacher.

So a quick look through my Pinterest boards and I found the perfect item to make Ms Waller - a personalized zippered pouch - tutorial by Make It Perfect.

Very easy to make and quick to sew up. I made one for Ruby's Teacher and one for Tilly's pre-school Teacher - both girls wrote their teachers name on a little piece of white fabric and both drew a little heart too. I just embroidered over their own handwriting - just to add the personal touch.

And here they are

Pouches are fully lined and the front panel is slightly quilted (to some degree). It was the perfect excuse to use up my scraps - most of this fabric is Bella by Lotta Jansdotter with a little bit of Prints Charming Starburst in there.

I love these pouches so much I'm going to make myself one - I'm hoping I can find enough of the Bella scraps left to do so.

Kids Clothes Week Spring 2014

I love participating Kids Clothes Week (KCW) it's my favorite excuse to hid away in my sewing room for a week, only coming out for cups of tea, well I wish anyway.

As we were on vacation the actual week of KCW, I had my KCW last week and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Well I was enjoying myself, until my sewing machine decided to get a little playful with me, turns out a good clean of the bobbin area, and a sharper needle solved the problem.

My first project of the week was a new pattern from Make It Perfect, one of my favorite designers, her new pattern is the Mini Shearwater Kaftan for kids and with Summer hopefully not too far away I thought this would be the perfect top to make my girls - it will be great for the beach.

Here's how I spent my week....

Day 1 - I spent the first day cutting out the pattern pieces.

Day 2 - I started sewing the pieces together, until it was time to sew the sleeves on, and this is when my sewing machine decided to flip out on me, so I thought it was a good time to stop and have a look at it.

Day 3 - Machine cleaned and a sharper needle put in place, the fabric I was using was very lightweight, I made the bias binding and it wasn't long before the Kaftan was finished.

Day 4 - I started the 2nd Kaftan and got as far as sewing the sleeves on, which was great progress (and ok I'll admit it I managed slightly longer than 1 hour in my room)

Day 5 - 2nd Kaftan complete and another one started, I have the Kaftan bug.

Day 6 - 3rd Kaftan was nearly completed today, pieces all cut out and sewn together.
day 7 - I finished the 3rd Kaftan and got started on my 4th which is a present for a little lady friend of ours.
 
And here are the finished Kaftans

Kaftan 1 - made from a very lightweight fabric I bought in Sydney about 8 years ago that I was going to make myself a top with. I never did get around to making that top.

Kaftan 2 - as modeled by my gorgeous (if I do say so myself) Ruby - she picked out this lovely fabric from my stash, which again I bought about 8 years ago in Sydney, which I used to make myself a skirt on a sewing course with my friend Lesley (and yes Lesley I still have the unfinished skirt...somewhere....)

Kaftan 3 - Fabric from my favorite Fabric Designers - Prints Charming - I love love their fabrics and was lucky to pick up about 2 metres of this fabric, for very little, in one of their fantastic sales. I do miss having them on my door step.

And if you live in Sydney you have to do one of their screen printing classes - go book it now you will not be disappointed.

Kaftan Review (after making 3 in one week) - I am totally in love with this pattern - hands down it is probably the best pattern I have ever bought and sewn, the attention to detail is fab, right down to the fact the sleeves have a tab sewn onto the inside so you can fold the sleeves up on warmer days, and it has side slits and a lovely front planket detail - I love it. Pattern is very easy to follow, once I had completed the first one, I whipped out the 2nd and 3rd in no time.

I would highly recommend this pattern.

I plan to make the girls at least 4 more each, with summer coming up and long lazy days at the beach these will be absolutely perfect.

And it has inspired me to get my Make it Perfect Kaftan pattern out to make up a couple for myself.

Easter Sunday & A Different Egg Hunt

Happy Easter All

Another special time of the year when we spend time with our families and friends celebrating Easter, whether it be at Church or at home, it is always nice to be surrounded by family, enjoying an Easter Egg hunt and family Easter Lunch.

As we live away from all our family, and being a little family of four, this never stops us from celebrating together and this year we decided to think outside the box and do our Easter Egg hunt, a little differently - we did an Easter Egg Treasure Hunt and it was so much fun

After breakfast(as I told the girls the Easter Bunny doesn't arrive until breakfast is eaten and they are dressed, this gives Mr C time to go and hide the eggs) the girls were straight into it, finding the letter/clue the Easter Bunny had left in their baskets.

Ruby read the clue, whilst Tilly tried on the basket for size, and off we went on our treasure hunt, it was fun, deciphering the clues and finding the hidden treats

They went all over the house, in the attic, their bedroom, even the bath and lego boxes held little Easter treats

Once all the clues had been read by Ruby, and the treats found inside, it was time to head outside for the garden hunt.

On your marks, get set,

GOOOOOOOO............

and they were off to find the eggs, it was so much fun.

The girls thought the egg hunt was over once they came inside, but we had one last little surprise - an Easter Egg and a small Lego Friends pouch for them.
I absolutely adore this age they still believe in the Easter Bunny it is priceless.

Although we don't go to Church, the religious side of Easter is still important to us, for our children to know that Easter isn't just about the Easter Bunny or receiving Easter Eggs and gifts, but that there is a religious reason why is it celebrated and each year we take time to explain this.

Now on with our Easter Sunday, homemade hot cross buns for breakfast, a play at the park as the weather was so beautiful, Ruby finally mastered the her bike and was off, she did lap after lap of the school playground and proudly so, much to Tilly's disappointment though, as Tilly has been riding Ruby's bike for several months now, poor Tilly doesn't have a big bike to use anymore.

And to end the day we enjoyed a lovely family roast ham dinner to complete our day.

Happy Easter.