We were up at eight to eat before heading out to Stone Mountain for the last day of the Yellow Daisy Festival. This is a humongous crafts fair annually held the weekend after Labor Day. Booths are set up along little paths mostly under the trees. James and I were both short of shuteye—I had another screaming nightmare and afterwards he couldn't get back to sleep—so we wandered around a bit sleepily for a while.

I can't say it was a disappointment, but I notice that many of the people that we used to like to see and have bought from in the past weren't there: none of the bread knife people and only one of the collapsible wooden basket people were there. The Alabama gentleman we bought our table and chairs and medicine cabinet from hasn't come since 2003. The people with the wasabi ginger sauce weren't there and the person who made the German pyramids (I had resolved to buy one this year; I've always wanted one and the prices were good, rather than $300-$500 from German importers) was also absent. So was the lady I bought my cute little "fox in the canoe" from. There was a lot more art, some of it not our taste, some quite beautiful, but out of our price range. There was also a lot more of "cutesy kids' stuff" like quilted rompers or dresses the baby will grow out of after one wearing.

Other stuff, had I not been out of work for two months, I would have bought: one of the collapsible wooden bread bowls, the bird feeders on top of copper poles with glass bead trimming, another one of the Christmas CDs (I bought the hammered dulcimer one, but went by the bamboo flute one reluctantly; I would have liked to have bought some of the hammered dulcimer Celtic music, too), one of the leaf bottles of maple syrup (after we use the syrup, the leaf would be a great fall motif decoration with some orange-food-colored water in it). We did get some more Big Kahuna barbecue sauce (this will last for a year at the rate we use it) and I got an 8" pine lazy susan for the kitchen table. We also got our yearly sampler of eight pieces of Ginny's fudge; we'll have half a square for dessert until it runs out.

On the way home we stopped back at Trellis Oaks to see the Stonemont model, which had been locked yesterday. It's basically a bigger main floor version of the Dubois we saw yesterday; the bonus room downstairs is also huge, but the bedroom with it is smaller and doesn't have a walk-in closet, and the laundry room is smaller. The master bedroom is a tiny bit bigger but ironically the bathroom is a tiny bit smaller. The dining room has a trey ceiling. Big deal. The kitchen did have a few more cabinets. And it didn't have the little front porch.

We also went back in the Dubois and had fun pretending to lay it out.

We had to stop at Lowe's, so on our way home from there we stopped at something called Brookwood Park, which the sign said was "from the mid-200s." When we actually got to the place, the sign out front said "from the 290s" (and when we went in the model home, the cheapest house they had for sale was $333,000). It was kind of a neat complex, in that it had its own private park, with a gazebo and a playground; it was big enough to look like a park in a little town. And also its own private walking trail.

The model house looked like something out of Designer's Challenge, which is the HGTV series where people actually have spent $35,000 to redecorate their teenage daughter's room. You walked in this huge foyer and to your left was a little office where the salesperson was and a small bathroom. To your right was a formal dining room with wainscoting. In front of you was a big living room/den with a cathedral ceiling. (Let me say that I consider cathedral ceilings a waste of good space which can be used for another room.)

Okay, I had to admit the kitchen was gorgeous: big tall cabinets with four shelves instead of three, an island in the middle, room for a huge fridge, double ovens. And there was room for a tall bar table with two stools and a small breakfast nook table with four chairs with lots of floor space left over. Needless to say, James the chef drooled over that kitchen.

The master bedroom was huge. Our whole upper floor would fit in it. Then there was the bathroom, which looked like a bathroom in an expensive hotel suite. The shower was big enough for two {nudge, nudge, wink, wink} and the garden tub was a jacuzzi.

Upstairs there were two bedrooms, a smaller child's room, and a bigger room that was evidently for the daughter of the house: it was decorated in hideous pink and lime green and had a walk-in closet big enough to have a window in it. There was also an extra bedroom/office, and a bathroom. At the top of the stairs was a bit open to the upper part of the living room, lined with a railing. I had to laugh. I could see Pidgie flying around and perching up on that railing while I bellowed "Pigwidgeon Errol Young! Get down from there! Willow! Go get brother!"

Just too "wow," man.

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:35:00 PM

Comments: Post a Comment