Cranberries, ICE Resin, and a Hike

It has certainly been a busy weekend.  It started early with us having Friday off, and we got going at a good time to go to the Cranberry Festival located a little over an hour north of us in Warrens, Wisconsin.  It is full of crafters, flea market booths, food, and, of course, cranberries in every way imaginable from a huge cranberry whoopie pie to cranberry and apple pie to celebrate the cranberry harvest.  Unfortunately I didn't bring our camera, or I'd show you a picture or two.  It was a beautiful fall day, and this little town of less than 400 was bursting at the seams with thousands of people.  We had a great time, and I found a few things at the flea market booths. (The cranberry apple pie was delicious, too!)

On Saturday Mom and I took an ICE Resin class at the local bead shop.  I had always wanted to "play" with resin but also wanted to know what I was doing and what sort of techniques were available.  We learned a great deal and had fun. I tried to do different things (in the time allotted) regarding what the teacher discussed.  I wasn't impressed with what the resin did to my little feathers, but it was worth trying just to know.  It's pretty amazing stuff, and I'll probably do some more in the future. 

After church on Sunday we did some hiking.  Again...no camera.  There is a state park that has a nice trail that goes back into a gorge.  It has a rippling brook, deep sides to the gorge...and the trees were luminous!  It was gorgeous and was a wonderful hike.  This picture is from a news site (click here for the CREDIT), and, no, this is not us...but this gives you an idea of how pretty it is. 
It was a busy weekend.  I'm glad we took advantage of the nice weather and got out and did things...while we still can since winter is around the corner. 

Mmmmmm!

I just discovered this at Walmart. We had never seen it before. Have you? It has probably been around for the last 10 years....but this cranberry version of Stove Top is super yum. It was on the end of one of the aisles. I tried to find it in our regular grocery store, but with all the varieties of Stove Top available, this one wasn't anywhere to be seen. We like cranberries anyway. They give a nice little sweet bite to whatever they are in AND they sure make a dish or cookie pretty with their gorgeous, deep reddish-pink color. I always keep a container of Stove Top on hand in case I ever need a REALLY quick meal. I open up a can of chicken and stick it in the water with the butter before putting in the stuffing. *ching* Instant yummy meal in about 8 minutes. Anyway, if you haven't tried this...I'd recommend it. Yum!