I ate at Pappy's!

Drew and I aren't super foodies, but we try to get in our fair share of Food Network recommended restaurants from some of their famous shows. I have an app on my phone for TV Food Maps where you can type in where you are and it will bring up restaurants that were on Food Network and the Travel Channel.

So, on our way to St. Louis for Drew's work conference I decided to look up what fine eateries are in STL. One of the restaurants sparked my memory because I remember seeing it on the tv. Drew and I utilized the free night his conference gave to check out Pappy's Smokehouse which is voted one of the Travel Channel's top 100 places to eat in the United States! Of course, Pappy's is a BBQ joint that specializes in what else, but RIBS!



Pappy's is a small restauarant with BBQ sauce bottles lining the top of their ceiling. Hundreds of bottles accompany the picnic large picnic tables with red and white table cloths. You stand in line to order your food before taking your seat. When you round the corner to place your order, you see all of the articles, awards, and celebrity photos. I saw Pappy's Smokehouse on the Food Network's Food Feuds hosted by Michael Simon. Though Adam from Man Vs. Food has an item on the menu named after him. Unfortuntately, it was like 42.00 and there were out of hot links.

The Adam Bomb






Therefore, Drew and I both decided on ordering a half slab of ribs which came with 2 sides. Drew ordered baked beans and cole slaw, typical bbq sides. I settled on the FRIED corn on the cob and slaw. The corn had a light batter on the kernels. It was interesting. Tasted good, but interesting texture. But most importantly, the ribs were delicious! They had a dry rub with the options for sauce on the table. No sauce for me though. The ribs had so much meat on them! All in all, it was a very belly-filling adventure. Definitely one for the travel journal.


Sorry, I had to try before I took the picture!

We left with full bellies and t-shirts from Pappy's!

Welcome to Miles' Home!

With sale season in full swing now, my suitcase stays packed all the time. Only taking out dirty laundry and necessary items for time at home before packing again. With Miss Gabby Mae joining our family in the spring, it means that her bag stays packed as well. Due to the fact that we stay at hotels every weekend, we have to make sure they are pet friendly.

Princess Gabby Mae


After a quick wisdom teeth pulling last Thursday, my nurses Drew and Gabby loaded my half awake, swollen self into the car and headed to the Design in Mind Sale. After the sale on Friday, we headed south to our second sale of the weekend. All of the hotels listed in the catalog were full or not pet friendly. Scrambling to find us a room on the way south, I utilized my Dog Friendly Hotel App on phone to check hotels in the area. After a few more phone calls we settled on the Hotel Indigo. I had never stayed at one of these, but Drew had. He gave it good reviews.

The Hotel Indigo in Columbus, Indiana is a top notch hotel. And boy, are they pet friendly. When you walk through the doors to the lobby you are greeted by Miles, a cute, fluffy poodle-like dog. He lives there. He has a bed and dog bowl as well as toys all over the lobby. But as we found out, he likes to sleep on the check in desk. When we told them we had a dog, they gave Gabby a baggie full of treats for her stay.

They had won us over with the awesome doggie amenities, but the room was really nice as well. The whole hotel was bright and modern, which made it so inviting!






I don't usually do hotel reviews because we stay at so many. Some better than others, but I felt this one definitely deserved a shout out.

Pride of the KY State Fair!

Bring on the greasy food, hoochy shorts, and tiptoeing children....

Oh the fair....
Most people go to the state fair with their families to ride the rides, eat greasy food, and check out the exhibits. I can count the number of times I have been to the Kentucky State Fair for that purpose. ONCE. My trips to the state fair have included competing in FFA contests, working the state fair as a KY FFA State Officer, or of course, exhibiting or watching livestock. This year was no different. Though we didn't take anything to show, we had clients that were exhibiting their animals.

Before we headed to the fair though, Drew announced one day that this year at the fair he would be consuming a Fried Derby Pie; as this was one of the "special" foods at the fair this year. So after the livestock show was over, we set off to find Drew's fried goodness. Luckily, it was at the same booth as Fried KoolAid. Which we did not try. It looked like playdoh. But ta-da we did find the Fried Derby Pie. Drew's food review stated that is was pretty good, but had a lot of nuts. Nuts, being the reason I did not try it.





While Drew and Lauren tasted the Fried Derby Pie, mom and I stayed with the good stuff. Fried pickles and veggies!! YUM!

The following day, Drew and I ventured back up to the fair to see Matt Nathanson, Train, and Maroon 5 in concert. It was a very good concert and we had pretty good seats. Here are few photos from the evening!

Brining art to life!

My dear mentor Crystal Young (Crystal Cattle) is doing a giveaway with The Farmer's Trophy Wife through their blocks. If you are not a follower of either, you should be.

Bringing a boring Tuesday to life, they are giving away a 20x30 canvas print of one of Crystal's photos that she has taken. Of course, in true competitive spirit, I have already entered in every possible way I can. I love canvas prints and I know exactly which one I would choose if I won and I know exactly where it would go. Hello bedroom!

Being a hobby photographer like I am, I have dreamed of a day when I had nice photos taken by myself that I could make a collage on my wall. Show off my work! Until then I will dream of winning the work of a dear friend and mentor until September 2nd!

Wish me luck!!!

Address Wreath

Because we all need a little DIY

I really enjoy doing crafts. I love doing crafts and being able to give them to your friends and family. Its a gift you worked on, took the time to plan out, and put in hours of work for that particular person in mind. It is special.

Since discovering Pinterest (if you haven't, hurry go now, I'll wait) I have been finding all kinds of DIY and craft projects. AND since, I have a new house to decorate, making crafts is even more fun.

One of the first items I found I wanted to make was this really cool Address Wreath for our front door.



All I needed was:
1- 14" grapevine wreath
wooden numbers
Acyrlic paint
Fake flowers
and my trusty glue gun

I sat down one evening painted my letters. They started a burgundy color, but I changed them because you couldn't see on our door. While my letters were drying, I arranged and hot glued my flowers to the grapevine. After they were dry, I glued the numbers to my wreath and Ta Da! A wreath was created. I'm pretty excited about the end product and it looks wonderful on our door!

Have crafting!

Makes Perfect Scents!

I'll be honest with you. Since graduating from college, the job market is pretty sucky right now. I've searched, googled, applied, and interviewed. Somedays searching for jobs just makes things really dark and low. My husband can attest to that. I mean you go to college for four years, get a degree, and then head out into the real world at one of the worst possible times.

Of course, I was looking for something in agriculture. And of course, I wanted still be able to work for the family business, which I seem to love a little more everyday. (You might ask me that again around Christmas after fall sale season). After many tears, discussions, and thoughts, I have decided to start selling Scentsy to earn some income. In the meantime, I'm still job searching and doing the DP thing. It gives me the freedom I have been looking for, and you know what? I'm really excited about it. Something I have felt like I've needed.

I have some other things in the plans for the future, but right now things are slow going. So we'll see. AS for right now though, I think you need to check out my website http://hollihatmaker.scentsy.us and check out our products. The new catalog items come out on September 1st! Until then though, in the month of August items are 10% off! What is great is you can be my friend from wherever and I can share this product with you through my website. You can order right off of it and it will be shipped right to your door!

Somethings in life haven't seemed to make much sense since graduating college, but finally something seems to be making perfect scents!

:)

Won't you be my neighbor?!

Well, its finally official and over.

The Hatmaker's are homeowners!



I haven't been too vocal about the fact that we were purchasing our very first home because I was nervous. It is a long process with lots of paperwork and name signing. And truly, the faith of my happiness and our new home was in the hands of the bank/mortgage people. I didn't want to get too over zealous. I even asked our loan officer one time if I could continue packing.

But now, thankfully the waiting is over. We closed on our new home 2 weeks ago today. That was a Friday and we were able to begin moving on the following Monday at 6pm. Of course, the weather for most of the United States has been HOT, and it was no different moving. We kept everyone drinking lots of water.

After about two and a half days, we were successfully moved out of the townhouse and into our HOME. It was a very weird, but rewarding feeling. Nothing big, just a small little starter home for Drew, Gabby, and I. I'm thinking about getting a fish?



There are not many photos of the new house just yet because I don't want to share them with the world with boxes all in them. But soon. Now, its time to unpack the boxes and make into a warm, cozy, decorated home. One of our new neighbors even brought us some brownies to welcome us to the neighborhood!

I promise to work on the pictures soon!