On Your Toes

EXTRA! EXTRA! Kentucky Won and is the host of our Second Annual Taste of USA! Thanks to all who voted, to Tera and Julie who helped develop the new approach, and to Cheryl for making turning our idea into a reality! Lots of planning to come.

Now onto today's topic.

The other day I was walking across campus for a meeting and Nicole, the campus employee whose job is to stand at the gate greeting visitors, flagged me down to tell me she liked my toe nail polish.

Now, I (Claudia, by the way) don't consider myself a girly, girly, so being noticed for something as feminine as toe nail polish was a real compliment. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the girl changing my own oil, splitting my own wood for the fireplace, or spending my weekend sitting in a tree stand waiting for prey of the season, but manicures, pedicures, and outfits topped off with accessories are new to me. Lipstick is still no where in my repertoire.

Nicole and I had a quick exchange about my toes. She asked what color my polish was (no idea) and then offered up that her favorite color was something called, "Amped Up." When I arrived at the meeting to which I was headed, I shared the story of my fun exchange and she immediately chimed in that her favorite color was Cherry Jubilee.

All this talk about toe nail polish immediately made brought me back to the years I spent working at Southern Methodist University (SMU) with a student named, Erin. Erin was a terrific student and her "signature" was flip flops on her feet. It had to be sleeting or inches of snow had to be covering the ground for Erin to give up her flip flops for something with a covered toe. SMU is in Dallas, which is to say it didn't sleet or snow very often - if at all. Erin, the girl from Michigan, with a bone to pick with cold weather, could almost always be seen in flip flops.

Erin's favorite color... Hoola Hoop. In fact, Erin would tell me to ask her about the color of her nail polish just so she could have the chance to say it... "Hoola Hoop." It is kind of fun to say, I have to admit. Go ahead try it. Say it out loud, just once, "Hoola Hoop."

You might be wondering where I'm going with all of this. It's summer, toe nail polish is in, and we're a blog about creativity. Only Crayola rivals the creativity that goes in to naming colors for nail polish bottles. Crayola and Highlowaha, that is.

I thought it would be fun to spend today using our creativity to develop fun new names for toe nail polish. "And the Rocket's Red Glare," "Cherry Tomatoes," or "Bubble Yum" are just a few of my attempts at fun names.

How about you? Below are a few colors. This weekend, let's paint the toe red and take a shot at creating our own nail polish names. Who knows, there could even be a fun prize in it for the name that most strikes my fancy.

Signing off until Monday...

Festival Fun!

In small towns across America the late spring and summer months are marked by festivals and farmers markets. I like these small town festivals because I think they give us a small chance to, as Peggy would remind us, "stop and smell the roses" or as Katie posted the other day "live for the moment". Without having to venture too far from home we can be transported into another place with carnival games, rides, street vendors and food on a stick.

This weekend is "Main Street Days" here in Grapevine, Texas. It is raining again here today so Bal and I made it our goal to get to the festival last night. I checked with my boss and he let me leave work at 4 so that I could get Lily and get to the festival. Bal and I met and parked at a local children's park and walked into the festival

(rather than paying the ten dollars to park close by).

Then we spent the next few hours roaming Main Street and taking in the sights, sounds and smells. Around every corner were amazing street vendors many of whom would fit right into our creative community. At major intersections there were opportunities to try your hand at riding a bucking bronco, scuba

diving, kayaking and more. We stopped to let Lily explore the petting zoo (she clung tightly to me the entire time) and bounce in the bounce house for a few minutes before we continued on our tour. As we reached the one end of the festival we came across two vendors one with soft serve ice cream and one with chocolate covered frozen bananas. Since it was 88 degrees in Grapevine yesterday these vendors were doing bang up business and the Snow clan contributed. $10 later and Bal was enjoying his ice cream treat while Lily munched happily on a frozen banana.

By the time we left the festival I was feeling like we had gotten a taste of summer, had enjoyed a nice slow evening as a family and had let Lily truly be a kid. It was a ton of fun and I've got pictures to prove it:

But this isn't all about the festival in my town. No, I've taken some time this morning to research some fun festivals coming to YOUR town. So hang tight.

Peggy and Cristine and any other Northern Illinois/Southern Wisconsin readers:

How about hitting the Naperville Ribfest over the 4th of July? Boasting the "best barbeque you'll ever taste" and "fun for every age" it might just be the way to spend your holiday.

Maureen and other New York, New Jersey readers:

It looked like a great option for you is action in early September for the National Estuaries Day "Little Neck Bay Festival". Join the community at Alley Pond Park for games, crafts, canoe rides and more.

Kat and other Arkansas readers:

Seems like you have a fun festival happening this week as well with Crawdad Days in Harrison, AR. Held the third weekend of May on the banks of Lake Harrison and in historic downtown and boasts, "hot music, hot cars, hot food, hot fun!" Sounds like it!

Chaotic and other South Texas readers:

How about checking out the Kyle, Texas "Fair on the Square" in early September?

Held at Gregg-Clarke park it has a BBQ cook-off, parade, arts, crafts, food and a WHOLE LOT MORE!

Cassie, Robin, Stacie, Melanie and other Louisville readers:

You all, I'm sure know the fun of the St. James Art Fair but we are talking summer fun. So, how about checking out the Locust Grove Family Picnic? This fun event is June 14th and costs only $5 for a carload of people and you can enjoy all of great food along with bluegrass music, and watching "slow" crafters spinning, weaving, making pottery, soap, rughooking and so much more!

Brian and the Pennsylvania crowd:

It seems like your best bet for festival fun is to scoot on over to West Virginia to Fairview for "Mayhem on the Mountain" a fun music festival located in Indian Meadows Campground. It's an overnight event so gather up your friends and camp out while enjoying the summer music fun the last weekend of May.

Tera, Treye and all the Cleveland/Erie folks:

Evidently the Great Lakes is the place to be for summer festival fun. The website I found says nearly every weekend there is a festival to attend. The one that looked the most exciting to me was the "Hessler Street Festival" held in late May. With the normal festival activities they say that patrons literally are dancing in the street. But you can also check out Great American Ribfest, Twin Fest (a festival of twins), 185th Slavic Street Festival and a whole slew of others.

Alright, so now you have NO excuses not to have some summer festival fun. I've given you the scoop in your area but...I'm sure that you living there no so much more. So chime in today and give the scoop on what festival folks in your area should be attending and why.

Have a happy Saturday.

Signing off until Monday...