Spring Bazaar Smash N Grab

'Tis that time of year where the Bazaar's start poppin' up again! Here's my post from the Fall Bazaar I attended. 

So, since Eric wasn't able to attend the last Bazaar, he told me he wanted to go to the Spring one (we got a heads up a few weeks ago about one coming up). Fine and dandy because I was interested in getting some more of those cool shopping bags like I snagged last time. We left early in the morning and made our way over to Germany, got there right when it opened and the parking situation was LOADS better than last time! I mean, literally..it was a total 180*. Great parking, friendly volunteers and plenty of areas where you can sit in the outdoor food court. They definitely get a "thumbs up" from me!

We get inside and it seemed like there were less vendors this time around (several booths I was specifically looking for weren't there), so that was a little disappointing. Like I was expecting, the Polish Pottery guys were there, so, we looked through all of their goodies to see if they had anything we couldn't live without. Eric's comment made me laugh when he saw all the different patterns..."Oh my gosh, it's like patterns were thrown up onto the pottery". Yeah, pretty much. Nothing screamed "take me", so we moved onto various other vendors. I kept passing by all of the antique guys because they had really cool things, but, the cool things were very expensive. It made me chuckle a little bit when I know I bought a speculoos cookie press of a windmill for 10 euros (at the time, it cost me roughly $13) , while these guys were wanting $95 for the same thing. NO THANKS!

There were even vendors from Italy (how cool is that?) and they were selling some really pretty carnival masks. Thing is, Eric and I are going to Venice this year for our wedding anniversary and I plan on getting a mask from there. I think it's a lil more "special" to get it from that actual country than getting it at a shopping event. Besides, I always get something from a country I visit, so might as well get a bitchin' mask with a cool story :) 

Oh yeah...did I forget to mention that they have funnel cakes at these events? Eric definitely took advantage of our "cheat day", that's for sure since he hasn't had any since the California Mid-State fair back in..uhhhh....2008! He had a funnel cake, brisket sandwich and a few hot dogs, lol. I just had a funnel cake since that's all I could honestly handle...during the time I had my 1 cake, he ate everything that I had listed for him. Piggy!

Here's all the stuff we ended up with..not to shabby!

These are the two grocery bags I picked up. I LOVE that the white one has little fruits and snacks all over it!

Then we came across a couple from Bavaria that made their own teas..AND they're caffeine free!! They smelled amazing in the tins, and they actually had some brewing for you to sample (we tried the tropical cocktail)..it was awesome! So, I got the Strawberry & Kiwi for myself, Eric got the Peach and we got the Tropical Cocktail to share :) The wife was really sweet and said if we ended up ever wanting to order more, we can just send her an email and she'd gladly ship it over to Belgium (yay!)

One of the German vendors was having a sale on linens, so I snatched this damask fabric so I can turn it into a table runner:

About a year or so ago, I bought some cast iron keys for decoration, but I was wanting a few more sets to add to my "key holder" that I have near the back entry of the house. Well, I managed to find two other sets at the Bazaar! The gal who had them was VERY nice cause I was a few bucks short, so she did a mini euro conversion for me (the vendors were only allowed to take Dollars) so she could make a sale and  I could give 'em a new home:

Last, but not least, are the Italian roof tile paintings. I glanced at the vendors stuff real fast, but nothing caught my eye because the majority of his paintings were very Tuscan. Well, as I was walking away, Eric says "Hey, they have Fleur Di Leis". That sealed his fate:

Yes, they have a website: here you go

"Hand painted roof tiles obtained from centuries old tiles. The tiles are taken from aged houses in the area of Venice, that are going to be renovated. Using the same technique as for the ceramics, we obtain a nice object ready to hand on a wall, with a vetrified surface that assures a lifetime product. All the decorations are made by master craftsmen in our factory in Nove. Thanks to this, we can personalize them for you."

Truth be told, these buggers are HEAVY! Combined, they gotta weigh about 15lbs..no joke. I gotta figure out how I'm gonna hang 'em! Otherwise, they'll be decoration in my office by sitting on my desk, lol. Yes, they're different heights..it's rather fitting that Eric picked the purple one (tall) and I picked the blue one (the short pudgy one). Oh, and it made me giggle that they're from the Venice area. I can get away with bringing a carnival mask on the plane since it'd be within my weight limit, but one of these guys would DEFINITELY cost me extra money for the flight!!

All in all, it was a good day! :)

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Week 8

Good grief..it's week 8 already!?!

At this point, I've lost 15lbs since the beginning of March. Not too shabby! Although, I still have another 40lbs to go before I head back to California later this year (17 more weeks!).

Hopefully I'll be able to kick into high gear with my workouts since my knee is feeling LOADS better!

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Happy Fruit

In March, I was trolling through one of my favorite websites, which is Etsy, to see if I could find some fake fruit for my kitchen. In case you don't know what Etsy is, it's a site where people can sell custom made things to other people. Kinda like a stepping stone for people who want to start selling to the public when it comes to trying a home business, in a sense. There have been stories about people whose Etsy stores have taken off so well, that they've expanded into very lucrative companies (how cool is that?). So, I figured that'd be a good place to look for some decorations since I wanted something cute in terms of fruit (ha) and not your typical plastic stuff. 

When I originally set out on this mission, I was thinking about using the fruit in my Trog since that's what normally sits on my kitchen table. Yes, it should be filled with REAL fruit, but we go through ours so fast that I'd like to have something in there rather than a empty bowl. Makes sense, right? Well, I found this seller who makes these SUPER adorable pieces of fruit out of wood! The store is called "Arts of the Heart" . After trollin' through all of the different thing the she makes, I went ahead and contacted her to have a "grocery list" of things made: 4 bananas, 3 apples, 3 pears, 3 oranges and 2 eaten apples. She was totally up to the challenge with the oranges since I guess she never really made them before (Eric says they look like tangelos) , but I think she did an awesome job with everything!

All the pieces are made by hand, so they all have a unique look. Plus, they're small, which helps with their cuteness!

Remember when I got my scale a few weeks ago? Well, since the fruit are a cute small size, I figured they'd look better with the scale rather than the trog, otherwise, I'd have to order a small army of fruit to fill it up.

They actually look pretty awesome with the scale!

Now, I need to find something for the other tray. I'm really torn between getting chocolate chip cookies or a cheeseburger with fries, LOL. 

Decisions decisions...

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Sneezy Wheezy Beautiful Pollen Girl

It's officially spring time here in lovely Belgium. The birds are singing, the sun is (was) shining, the temperature has been rather enjoyable. So, what does that mean aside from being able to rock some flip flops and wear capris? 

The flowers come into bloom.

For anyone who suffers from allergies, in all honestly, you'd probably die here in the spring. Especially those who have serious problems with pollen. Sure, you can take all sorts of medicines and what not, but I don't think you're understanding the severity of what I'm talking about. So, to help give you an idea, I took a picture of my Xterra for your viewing pleasure:

That's not dirt on the hood...that's pollen.

 

When I was looking at my windshield, there was this nice, thick layer all over it. I hopped in the truck, turned on the windshield wipers and I was AMAZED at all the junk that was swished around. 

My whole truck looks fuzzy!

This all accumulated over about a two day period. Freaking ridiculous! I was at my friends house the other day and while we were sitting in her dining room (it looked out into the backyard), you could see TONS of pollen flying through the air with Dandy-Lion puffs floating around. It was kinda crazy since it looked like springs version of snow. 

Mother Nature must've felt a little bad for dirtying up my wheels because she kinda said sorry by raining today. So, most of the pollen washed off except for a few spots..but hey, at least my truck doesn't look like a new spring chick!

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Motivate

I'm currently on my eighth week of changing my eating habits and it's definitely turned into a regular routine for me. By sticking to my plan and having one designated "cheat" day a week, it's helped me stay on track and all that jazz. Since I've done that, I sleep better, feel LOADS better with more energy, my skin looks better and my hair actually feels softer (go figure, right?)

I don't think some people realize how hard it is to actually lose weight. Obviously it's a commitment to eat better, be more active and such..but even with those factors, it can still be a challenge to get slimmer despite all of your best efforts. I remember my Dad telling me many moons ago, "It took time to put it on. It'll take time to take it off."...damn him for being right. Rome wasn't built in a night, ha. It's definitely going to take time to get off as much as I'm wanting to lose, but I rather do it the healthy way than crash dieting for the rest of my life.

 
I just get a little irritated with some people who sit there and preach about weight loss when they've never really experienced being overweight. I understand that there's some people who want to lose 5 or 10 pounds..that's not considered fat. When your weight is causing physical pain in your back, knees, hips and effecting your social life, then I think you'd be able to understand where I'm coming from. I've had people straight up tell me "Just lose the weight". HEY! If it was that easy, don't you think I'd have it done? It's NOT all that easy for everyone. My husband drives me nuts because he can drop 10lbs in a week by practically yawning...I'd be lucky if I lost 1 lb. Weight loss for women is SO much harder than it is for guys, and it's the guys that tell me to drop the weight. THANKS! NOT HELPING! Even when I played water polo, I was still "thick". It feels like I'm destined to be curvy, but I'm making it a point to be a HEALTHY curvy. It's a daily battle that I gotta deal with, but, it'll make me feel better in the long run. When I run across sites like this one, I'm in awe as to how cruel some people can be towards overweight individuals. Yes, I personally know of several people who always say they want to lose weight, but do nothing about it...but then there's people out there who are legitimately trying their damnest and putting out an immense amount of effort to better themselves. Yet, all fat people are lazy. Yup. Rather upsetting to deal with from time to time...anway...

I know my weight loss partner, Stef, has been hitting some pesky speed bumps with her progress, but I'm sure she'll pull through just fine and the weight will just start to fall off. With my weight loss crawling and Stef's being stubborn, I decided to look up some quotes that might possibly help motivate us, if not give us a chuckle, and get us back on track to pushing ourselves towards our goals :)

Motivation for weight loss:

When we lose twenty pounds... we may be losing the twenty best pounds we have!  We may be losing the pounds that contain our genius, our humanity, our love and honesty.  ~Woody Allen

Your stomach shouldn't be a waist basket.  ~Author Unknown

A diet is the penalty we pay for exceeding the feed limit.  ~Author Unknown

More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.  ~John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society

The cardiologist's diet:  If it tastes good, spit it out.  ~Author Unknown

Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out, but they can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake.  ~Author Unknown

In the Middle Ages, they had guillotines, stretch racks, whips and cahins.  Nowadays, we have a much more effective torture device called the bathroom scale.  ~Stephen Phillips

It's okay to be fat.  So you're fat.  Just be fat and shut up about it.  ~Roseanne Barr

I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on.  ~Jean Kerr, "Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall," The Snake Has All the Lines, 1958

People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas.  ~Author Unknown

When friends tell you how awesome you look, drop the "I still have more to go" crap.  You worked hard and you deserve the compliment!  ~Jillian Michaels

The one way to get thin is to re-establish a purpose in life.  ~Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave

Albert Einstein, who discovered that a tiny amount of mass is equal to a huge amount of energy, which explains why, as Einstein himself so eloquently put it in a famous 1939 speech to the Physics Department at Princeton, "You have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers."  ~Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 50

Reality check:  you can never, ever, use weight loss to solve problems that are not related to your weight.  At your goal weight or not, you still have to live with yourself and deal with your problems.  You will still have the same husband, the same job, the same kids, and the same life.  Losing weight is not a cure for life.  ~Phillip C. McGraw, The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom, 2003

If nature had intended our skeletons to be visible it would have put them on the outside of our bodies.  ~Elmer Rice

I keep trying to lose weight... but it keeps finding me!  ~Author Unknown

I never worry about diets.  The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.  ~Mae West

I've been on a diet for two weeks and all I've lost is fourteen days.  ~Totie Fields

Rich, fatty foods are like destiny:  they too, shape our ends.  ~Author Unknown

The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight, because by then your body and your fat are really good friends.  ~Author Unknown

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts.  Coincidence?  I think not!  ~Author Unknown

The biggest seller is cookbooks and the second is diet books - how not to eat what you've just learned how to cook.  ~Andy Rooney

Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.  ~Peter De Vries

If hunger is not the problem, then eating is not the solution.  ~Author Unknown

Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.  ~Author Unknown

If I had been around when Rubens was painting, I would have been revered as a fabulous model.  Kate Moss?  Well, she would have been the paintbrush.  ~Dawn French

No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat.  Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.  ~George Bernard Shaw

The first thing you lose on a diet is your sense of humor.  ~Author Unknown

Food is like sex:  when you abstain, even the worst stuff begins to look good.  ~Beth McCollister

I go up and down the scale so often that if they ever perform an autopsy on me they'll find me like a strip of bacon - a streak of lean and a streak of fat.  ~Texas Guinan

Life itself is the proper binge.  ~Julia Child

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they are sticking to their diets.  ~Author Unknown

I recently had my annual physical examination, which I get once every seven years, and when the nurse weighed me, I was shocked to discover how much stronger the Earth's gravitational pull has become since 1990.  ~Dave Barry

Dieting is wishful shrinking.  ~Author Unknown

It is a hard matter, my fellow citizens, to argue with the belly, since it has no ears.  ~Plutarch

Bigger snacks mean bigger slacks.  ~Author Unknown

I'm allergic to food.  Every time I eat it breaks out into fat.  ~Jennifer Greene Duncan

Food has replaced sex in my life; now, I can't even get into my own pants.  ~Author Unknown

A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.  ~Author Unknown

I have gained and lost the same ten pounds so many times over and over again my cellulite must have déjà vu.  ~Jane Wagner

It's not women's fault that diets don't work.  It's not perversity of lack of willpower.  God did this - in Her great wisdom.  ~Dr. Wayne Callaway
 

To lengthen your life, shorten your meals.  ~Proverb

You can't lose weight by talking about it.  You have to keep your mouth shut.  ~Author Unknown

I think I just ate my willpower.  ~Author Unknown

If you really want to be depressed, weigh yourself in grams.  ~Jason Love

Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.  ~Author Unknown

I am a nutritional overachiever.  ~Author Unknown
 

Dieting is not a piece of cake.  ~Author Unknown

You know it's time to diet when you push away from the table and the table moves.  ~Quoted in The Cockle Bur

If food is your best friend, it's also your worst enemy.  ~Edward "Grandpa" Jones, 1978

I have a great diet.  You're allowed to eat anything you want, but you must eat it with naked fat people.  ~Ed Bluestone

A diet is a plan, generally hopeless, for reducing your weight, which tests your will power but does little for your waistline.  ~Herbert B. Prochnow

I'm not overweight.  I'm just nine inches too short.  ~Shelley Winters

Dieters live life in the fasting lane.  ~Author Unknown

People say that losing weight is no walk in the park.  When I hear that I think, yeah, that's the problem.  ~Chris Adams

To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.  ~Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876

I'm on a 90-day wonder diet.  Thus far, I've lost 45 days.  ~Author Unknown
 

Flabbergasted, adj.  Appalled over how much weight you have gained.  ~Author Unknown

I'm in shape.  Round is a shape... isn't it?  ~Author Unknown

I've been on a constant diet for the last two decades.  I've lost a total of 789 pounds.  By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.  ~Erma Bombeck

I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food.  ~Erma Bombeck

Forget about calories - everything makes thin people thinner, and fat people fatter.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.  ~Benjamin Franklin

When I buy cookies I eat just four and throw the rest away.  But first I spray them with Raid so I won't dig them out of the garbage later.  Be careful, though, because that Raid really doesn't taste that bad.  ~Janette Barber

Clogged with yesterday's excess, the body drags the mind down with it.  ~Horace

They are sick that surfeit with too much, as they that starve with nothing.  ~William Shakespeare

We never repent of having eaten too little.  ~Thomas Jefferson, 1825

History is apt to judge harshly those who sacrifice tomorrow for today.  ~Harold MacMillan

It would be far easier to lose weight permanently if replacement parts weren't so handy in the refrigerator.  ~Hugh Allen

A waist is a terrible thing to mind.  ~Tom Wilson

I'm not overweight, I'm undertall.  ~Author Unknown

The leading cause of death among fashion models is falling through street grates.  ~Dave Barry

Not afraid of heights - afraid of widths.  ~Author Unknown

Gluttony is not a secret vice.  ~Orson Welles

If you have formed the habit of checking on every new diet that comes along, you will find that, mercifully, they all blur together, leaving you with only one definite piece of information:  french-fried potatoes are out.  ~Jean Kerr

All people are made alike -
of bones and flesh and dinner -
Only the dinners are different.
~Gertrude Louise Cheney

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four.  Unless there are three other people.  ~Orson Welles

We're the country that has more food to eat than any other country in the world, and with more diets to keep us from eating it.  ~Author Unknown

The only way to lose weight is to check it as airline baggage.  ~Peggy Ryan

Fat is not a moral problem.  It's an oral problem.  ~Jane Thomas Noland

Never eat more than you can lift.  ~Miss Piggy

If you wish to grow thinner, diminish your dinner.  ~H.S. Leigh

Obesity is a mental state, a disease brought on by boredom and disappointment.  ~Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave

Probably nothing in the world arouses more false hopes than the first four hours of a diet.  ~Dan Bennett

Obesity is really widespread.  ~Joseph O. Kern II

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*Click*Click*Click*

Living overseas is awesome...for the most part. Yes, I get to travel around to cool places, see lots of historical places, or lounge in a country that people dream of visiting. BUT, shopping here is a pain in the ass, especially if you're wanting to find something that you could easily buy in the US. 

Since I live in a tiny community, and if we're wanting something along the lines of books, gadgets and whatever else you can think of, we normally end up going to our "local" sister base that's over in The Netherlands. Yes, I know I could buy off of the economy, but I rather not pay in Euros when I can get something in Dollars! Well, that particular base has a VERY limited selection when it comes to things you want (and their clothing selection is less than desirable) and if you even attempt to do a special order, you could be waiting MONTHS for it to arrive. 

This is where these guys come in:

I think the majority of overseas families end up ordering from Amazon (unless you're stationed at a massive base with a fabulous BX) because you can always get what you're wanting, the majority of the time it's cheaper than what it'd cost in the store, and you're able to read peoples feedback on that product rather than just taking a sales persons word. Amazon must be LOVIN' us because we tend to buy all sorts of various things through them: game consoles, game console controllers, video games, movies, tv shows, dog stuff, electronics, baby wipes (ha), candy...you name it, we've probably bought it. Eric ends up doing all the ordering because they seem to love him, so things will get here within two weeks. Whenever I order something, the mail fairy decides to take it on a vacation to the Bermuda Triangle and I'll either never see it, or it shows up in two months. 

Since Eric got me the Kindle 3G for Christmas, it has become WAY too easy to buy my books.

This whole "one-click" option lets me buy a ton of books, which my bank account doesn't totally appreciate. I currently have a ten books I NEED to read, but, I managed to get a some for free (yay classics!I admit...I do something rather sneaky. Whenever we go up to the local base to do our grocery shopping, we'll stop in at the bookstore there to scope out any new titles we might be interested in. Then, I'll add them to my "wishlist" on my Blackberry so when I get home, I can download them or add them to my Kindle Wishlist. Yes, shame on me. I know I should buy from the store, but that completely defeats the purpose of me having a Kindle in the first place. I'm a "touchy/ feely" type of shopper, so when I see a book I might like, I open it up and read the insert to see if it's something that might interest me. The whole reason why we got Kindles (yes, all three of us have one) is because we won't have a ton of weight due to books when the time comes for us to move again. When we moved from California to Belgium, about 400 pounds worth of books were left in storage. Yeah. We're a reading type of family.

The titles I currently have are:

To Defy A King (currently reading; loving it so far)
The Hangman's Daughter
Water For Elephants
Sins of the House of Borgia
Pale Rose of England
Sookie Stackhouse Series ( 8 books )
Relic (book 1 of Pendergast series)
Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire
Dracula
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

My Wishlist:

Reliquary (book 2 of Pendergast series)
The Cabinet of Curiousities ( book 3 Pendergast series)
Still Life with Crows ( book 4 Pendergast series)
Brimstone ( book 5 Pendergast series)
Dance of Death ( book 6 Pendergast series)
The Book of the Dead (book 7 Pendergast series)
The Wheel of Darkness (book 8 Pendergast series)
Cemetery Dance ( book 9 Pendergast series)
Ghost Girl
Ghost Girl: Lovesick
Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution
Red Riding Hood
Beautiful Darkness
Beautiful Creatures
Wicked
Blue Bloods Series ( 7 books)

Yeah, LOTS of reading in my future! Speaking of which, I wanna get back to reading "To Defy A King" :) I giggled when I opened up the cover for my Kindle because there was a picture of John Steinbeck as the screen saver.

The reason why I giggled is because I was just thinking about when I go home later this year, and his picture pops up. We're actually from the same town, which is Salinas, California...we even went to the same high school (yes, it's an old school that was established in 1882). I dunno, just a coincidence that he popped up when I was thinking about home :)

Sorry for the totally random post! lol

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End of Week 7

Ohhhh my goshhhh... my weight loss is dragging! A pound a week is starting to drive me nuts, especially since I'm eating healthy! I know...I know..some weight loss is better than no weight loss, but still. I've been stuck in the 240's for a while now and I'd definitely appreciate it once I hit the 230's.

 

Oh...and it's driving me nuts that I always land on .4!!! Seriously, wtf! lol... I'm just shy of losing 15lbs since I started, so not too shabby. Hopefully I can make additional progress this coming week since I really do want to slim down, especially before I go home! 

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"Wanna put your teapot in my box?"

Tis' that time where women get that itch for Polish pottery and make the great migration to Poland to get it. I know it probably sounds silly to drive all the way over there to get pottery, but, it's totally worth it. 

The last time I went to Boleslawiec, the trip was rather stressful and not all that enjoyable. In all honesty, I was rather hesitant to even go back there because I know the town is rather...uhhh...dumpy. Ya see, Poland is extremely under developed and so incredibly poor, it's blatantly obvious once you enter the country, literally. One of the gals I know here is leaving soon and she wanted to go to Poland for one last "smash and grab" for some pottery, so, I figured we could make a girls trip out of it since I know some other gals wanted to get some stuff. Polish pottery is literally some of the best in the world, mainly because it's made extremely well and you can do all sorts of stuff with it. If you go online to buy any of it, it's outrageously expensive verses what you'd pay in the actual store. 

Once we managed to figure out who all was going (we originally started out with 6 people, but ended up going with only 4), we rented a 9 seater van from Germany since you REALLY do need a lot of luggage space to bring back your Polish treasures. When I picked the van up from Enterprise, it was a little funny to see the guy write down all the countries I'd be traveling through: Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Poland. Makes me feel like a seasoned traveler! lol

 This van was enormous! I ended up nicknaming it "BOB", which means "Big Ole' Bitch"...the funny part is, the guy that helped me through Enterprise was named Bob. Go figure!

Tons of room for me as well as my co-pilot :)

Plenty of seating space for the ladies. Only two sat in the back, so they each had a row of seats to themselves.

A little added pressure to take care of the van, was that this thing was very brand new. I mean, BRAND NEW. It only had 407 kilometers on it!

Here's the "before" picture of the storage space before it's loaded up with lots of pottery:

We ended up leaving early on Thursday morning to make our way to the pottery capital. From what I remembered from the last trip, it takes about eleven hours to get there due to crappy traffic and what not. LUCKILY, we got there in eight and a half this time..and that was including pit stops! I was VERY happy with that considering there was tons of road construction last time, although, there was some on this trip, but not nearly as bad. The only bad thing during the drive was that a random rock came, literally, out of no where and chipped the wind shield :( I'm hoping it's not gonna cost an arm and a leg to fix since it's a rental car!

Before we got into Poland, I warned two of the gals (this was their first time going to Poland) that the country was really poor, and it literally felt like we were going into Sleepy Hallow because everything looked dried up, dead, and crumbling. Not very "welcoming" looking. Well, sure enough..it's like the second we crossed the Polish border, the road conditions went from "fabulous" to "AGH!"...ya see, when places "patch" up roads, they use tar in pot holes, wait for it to settle then level out the excess tar so it's a smooth surface to drive on. Not in Poland! They left the gloppy, goopy piles of tar in the holes, so you got to drive over massive bumps, dips, and whatever else you can think of. I'm honestly surprised the tires on the van didn't pop off! The speed limits varied from 40 kilometers (roughly 25 mph) an hour to 60 kilometers (roughly 40 mph)...ON A HIGHWAY! I really wish I could've taken a picture of the conditions, but it was impossible since I was driving (a manual) and I had to keep shifting and adjusting the speed due to the ever changing road. It literally felt like someone hooked the van up to one of those old school vibrating weight loss machines and turned it on HIGH for...ohh...50 miles. It SUCKED!

 

Actually...here's a better visual:

After testing out BOBs suspension and all of us getting rather nauseated from the jostling we had received, we finally made our way into Boleslawiec to find our hotel. Apparently my Tom Tom was a bit confused because it directed me to an area that wasn't any where near our hotel, but after a half hour of being lost, asking (hand signing) for directions from some locals, we finally ended up locating the Hotel Elite. 

Oh.... what is there to say about the Hotel Elite. The term "never again" comes to mind. I was actually quite angry with this place by the time we left...correction, by the time I got our room keys and got into our rooms. The "hotel", which is actually a motel, stated that it was a smoke free place...when in fact, you can CLEARLY smell cigarettes in the room. Then, they tried to mask the smell with an overpowering, headache causing perfume. Sorry, but the perfume made it 10x worse..and...the bedding had burn holes from the cigarettes. Yup! Now, when I booked the room, I booked two doubles, which is supposed to have two twin beds. The double room we got had a full size bed and a cot shoved in the corner of the room with barely any bedding on it. Seriously? The BATHROOM was bigger than the room with the beds. I wasn't happy, nor was my roommate, so I went down to the front desk to ask about getting a different room. The gal picked when she felt like understanding and speaking  English...when I asked for a different room, she said "No, no English. Sorry", but when I said "Ok, we'll be leaving and find a different hotel then."..all of a sudden, she understood and said "Oh, here. You can have two single rooms instead for the same price". Funny how that works! Truth be told, the singles weren't all that much better, but at least the perfume wasn't AS bad.

The light in the bathroom was tempermental...sometimes it'd work, sometimes it wouldn't. LOL. And, you only got one towel, which was barely large enough to be considered a "small" towel. Oh...and no room service for new towels. Ha.

And here's their sign to warn you about the step...ya know...you see it once you've hit the floor and see it since it's by the staircase you're walking up. The other sign is hidden behind a couch ...oh so visible.

 

Between guys talking VERY loudly / rough housing on our floor and the other gals floor (one floor above us) at...ohh....1am-3am,  guys (possibly) moving furniture at all hours of the night, the free breakfast you were supposed to have that never really happened since their restaurant was never open, and their lack of customer service, I can easily say I'll never stay there again and I will NEVER recommend that place to anyone. Ever. EVER.

We set out early the next day to attack all the pottery stores since there were several places we needed to go to (I think we went to ten different locations). I thought every where opened at 7am, but apparently I was totally wrong since no one opened till 8am, SO, we killed some time at one of the local gas stations and had breakfast there since no one else was open (literally). Once 8am rolled around, we went to one place I remember going to last time since they have a massive selection of stuff. They even had my chile pepper pattern!! I was so excited! 

As you can see, there's A LOT to choose from! It can get a little over whelming when you're trying to figure out what type of pattern you like. But, if you already know what you're looking for, it's way easier to get your goodies. Since this place had the majority of the plates & bowls I was looking for, the majority of the other stores we went to were basically to pick up extra goodies and what not.

Tons of deep dishes, bowls and platters...

Teapots, deep bakers, stools, jars, canisters, etc..

Of course I went to my favorite place, which is "Happy Pottery". They're the place I originally bought my pattern from since they're the factory store for Vena (the company that makes my print). I managed to score some cool things there as well as a Christmas ornament that matched my chile pepper stuff (don't laugh!)

Shopping and spending money really works up your appetite, so we took a break and went over to one of the local restaurants for some lunch. Oh my gosh..this place was AWESOME! SO delicious! Their menu was in Polish, English and German, and your options varied from salads, steaks, potato pancakes, fish, etc. Since I love me some perogies, I ordered the spinach perogies with a side of onion soup. UHHH MAZING! Actually, all of us ordered the soup and were extremely happy with it, then all of our extra goodies were just as delicious. So, I'm glad I picked this random place..I'll definitely go there again the next time I'm in town. 

Fabulous onion soup with garlic toast:

Spinach perogies...seriously, the best perogies I've ever had:

One of the pages from the menu; Shannon wanted a picture of it since it offered steak with "moldy" cheese. The price is in Polish Zloty, so you're looking at about $8 a plate!

After lunch and recharging our batteries, we set out again to finish invading the stores. In fact, we actually made second and third trips to some places that we really liked. We made VERY good time with our shopping! I mean, we were completely finished by 5pm! Given, we had been shopping nonstop since 8am, but still, I was anticipating on spending a day or two on pottery shopping, so the fact that it was done in a day made me &  the gals very happy! 

Here's Marissa at one of the places we made a second stop at:

Josie & Marissa having a tea party:

Here's an "after" picture of BOB full of our pottery  :) Keep in mind, it's two boxes deep, so there's more behind the ones you see in the front. No, it's not a sickness. I swear.

Happy campers!

We made our way back to the hotel, relaxed a little bit before heading to the restaurant that's next door for dinner. They went over there the night before and had drinks, so they were familiar with it while I ended up going to bed very early since I had a throbbing headache after all the driving I did. Turns out, they got to experience quite a few of the drinks, lol.

They had everything except the #8 Black Russian:

SO, when we went in there to eat after all the shopping, the waitress that had served them the night before smiled when she saw us walk in. This was gonna be good, lol. The drinks were not along the lines of what we were used to. Well, and the fact that the waitress was using a manual to make stuff made things very entertaining, but here's a perfect example as to what I'm talking about:

Apparently, this is a White Russian. Ummm...

The drinks that they ordered looked nothing like what we're used to. When one of the gals ordered a Long Island Iced tea, it came out looking like a 7 & 7...and she looked like it was poisoning her every time she took a sip of it. Then when time came to order dessert, they were telling me about this thing they ordered that they thought was an apple strudel..and it totally wasn't that. So, I figured I'd just randomly pick some thing and hope for the best. This is what I ended up with:

Turns out that I picked an Apple Strudel even though that's not what it was listed as! Ha!

During dinner, we all agreed that we'd go ahead and head home a day early since we had all finished our shopping...plus we didn't want to deal with the hotel any more than we had to. My headache started to come back in full swing, so I turned in early while the rest of the gals stayed in the restaurant for a few more hours to drink and be merry. When it was time to leave the next morning, we checked out and the hotel staff wasn't comprehending why we were wanting to leave early. Your hotel sucks, nuff said. Then we rolled over to the gas station to top off the van, grabbed some junk food for the road since one of the gals had a ton of Polish Zloty to burn. In fact, we were able to get a ton of stuff in there for very little money... one of the gals even ended up with some spiffy tiger glasses!

Luckily, we didn't have to deal with the crazy road on our way out of the country. It seriously looked like Poland ran out of funding for their road maintenance, so one side of the highway was done while the other side was completely horrible with warning signs, lol. After dropping off everyone, we managed to add 1760 kilometers ( 1,093 miles) round trip...the original 60 kilometers pictured earlier were from me driving BOB home from The Netherlands.

And once everyone's boxes were unloaded, you can see how much was actually mine:

Once I got home, it felt like Christmas all over again cause I was so excited to unpack everything! Tons and tons of stuff! I'll list prices since people tend to ask me how much stuff was, even weeks down the road...and I have a horrible memory. SO, hopefully this will be helpful for those people, as well as myself, when prices are asked! If you click on the picture, it'll get larger so you can see things better...

From left to right:

 Chili Pepper platter with handles: 148.20 Zloty = $54.15

Chili Pepper dinner plates: 52.50 Zloty (each) = $19.18

 Chili Pepper leaf shaped bowl: 41.10 Zloty (each) = $15

 Chili Pepper small plate: 22.50 Zloty (each) = $8.22

Chili Pepper large bowl: 84.40 Zloty = $30.84

Chili Pepper cereal bowl: 44.30 Zloty (each) = $16.18

Chili Pepper tiny bowl: 26.20 Zloty (each) = $9.57

Chili Pepper napkin holder: 20.30 Zloty = $7.41

Chili Pepper ornament: 22.10 Zloty = $8.07

Floral clock: 172.30 Zloty = $62.96

Humidifier: 22 Zloty = $8

Oil bottle #1: 45 Zloty = $16.44

Oil bottle #2: 37 Zloty = $13.52

Oil bottle #3:  57.10 Zloty = $20.86

Chile Pepper soup plate: 52.50 Zloty (each)  = $19.18

Christmas tree: 10 Zloty = $3.65

Tiny bowl with red flower: 14.70 Zloty = $5.37

Corks (three different ones) totaled up to 26.60 Zloty = $9.72
 

I managed to find some cute lil Bubble mugs! Plus, I found one that's perfect for Stef since she asked me to find one for her while I was shopping, she loves cows! How perfect is the cow bubble mug??

Star mug: 17.59 Zloty = $6.42

 Poinsettia Mug: 37.60 Zloty = $13.74

Blue flower mug: 32.10 Zloty = $11.73

Orange flower mug: 44.40 Zloty = $16.22

A sugar jar with my pattern, but I'll most likely use it as a coin jar :) 

(69.30 Zloty = $25.30)

A small round baker which will be perfect for hot dips or small chili's. I was REALLY excited when I found it in this pattern! The chili peppers are cute and all, but I like the grapes for fancier things, if that makes sense. (82 Zloty = $30)

I even managed to find a nice rectangular baker with the same pattern (170 Zloty = $62):

I was damned and determined to find myself a teapot! Last time, I didn't find one in a pattern that I liked, and I definitely wanted something that was cheery and bright. I originally started out looking for one with a sunflower pattern, but all I could find was the warmer portion with sunflowers, but no teapot. For reference, the warmer is pretty nifty because you stick a candle inside of it and it keeps your teapot warm. When we made our way over to one store, I saw this one and instantly fell inlove! I showed it to Eric and the first thing he said was, "It looks like a hippy barfed up flowers"...nice, hunh?

Floral teapot: 68.90 Zloty = $25.17

Teapot warmer: 43.30 Zloty = $15.82

Regardless of what he thinks, I totally love it and it's the perfect size!

SUPER cute chicks! I really wish I would've picked up a few more... I know when I go back again, they won't have 'em since they're an Easter kinda thing. ( 12.18 Zloty (each) = $4.45)

Most random thing from the trip is...Leroy. When we walked into one of the stores, I instantly spotted him by the main entry way. The colors on him are really vibrant and I kept looking and looking... then debating.. I figured I'd wait it out till later in the day since I knew we'd be coming back. Once we were done with the majority of our shopping and we went back there to get some gifts for people, Leroy had moved and wasn't where he was when I left. So, I figured someone had bought him. Ohhhh well. Once I started walking around the store some more, turns out they moved him to a different area. I got all excited, which told me I needed him. Since I had given one of the gals a Polish pottery platter I had bought from my last trip, she wanted to pay me for it but I didn't remember what it had cost me. Luckily, the place I bought it from had the exact same one there with the price. Leroy turned out to cost less than the platter, so she ended up getting him for me in exchange. Nice, hunh? He's so quirky, but I love him! I know he's meant to go in a garden or something like that, but I'll find a nice little spot for him in the house somewhere.

I even picked up a wicker basket. Honestly, I needed it because of all of the individual purchases I made..so the stores just put my pottery in bags verses the safety of a box. So, I just put 'em all in the basket, which worked quite well! ( 48 Zloty = $17.54 )

Some gals from here have made comments about the Air Force plate I picked up from my last trip and asked if I could snag one for 'em if I found anymore. Luckily, the same store I bought mine from had several available, so I grabbed two since one lives here while the other lives in the States:
(100 Zloty = $36.55)

Here's Eric's disapproving look regarding Leroy and my teapot. I think he's just jealous that I didn't find a teapot that was manly for him.

Aside from the hotel flop, I actually had a great time! The gals I went with were awesome, hilarious and were all around great shopping buddies.There's a possibility we'll be going back again in December, but we'll see :) Hopefully the winter won't be too rough or snowy, otherwise, we might have to postpone till February so we won't have to deal with icy roads and all that nonsense.

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