A Few Random Things

I keep meaning to do a Thursday 13 post to catch up on a few random things, but that hasn’t happened.  So, here’s a random catch-up post. 

Our hyacinths have bloomed!  I planted them a few years ago, and I don’t always have the best luck with bulbs, so it always makes me very happy to see them bloom.

The daffodils have also bloomed.  We didn’t plant these, but there are tons of them.  Fortunately, whoever did plant them has much better luck than I do with bulbs.

I love it when everything starts blooming!  We’re not beyond the possibility of more cold weather, or even snow, yet, but it definitely feels like we’re getting closer to enjoying warm weather every day.  We’ve even had a few days of perfect hammock weather.  I absolutely love spending part of a gorgeous day reading in the hammock.

Last weekend, Nick and I did a paint-and-sip event in Greenville, SC.  We have wanted to do one for a long time, but the timing has never worked out.  Lately, we’ve been trying to plan our weekends ahead of time, so we were finally able to find one with a painting we liked and get reservations for it.  It was so much fun! 

I’m not sure how much it varies from state to state based on liquor laws, but at this one, you bring your own beverage (I’m not positive, but I think it had to be beer or wine, not hard liquor), and the venue provides cups and napkins.   The event we did was adults (18 and over) only, and anyone drinking had to be 21.  Most people brought beer and/or wine in a cooler.  We opted for non-alcoholic drinks.  I love the mango sweet tea from Quick Trip, and we don’t have one near us, so I always get that whenever we’re near a Quick Trip.  You can also bring snacks, but I don’t see how you would have time for snacks.  I also kept getting paint all over my hands, so it would have been a pain to try and eat like that.

It's assigned seating (you’re supposed to let them know how many people are in your group when you make your reservation).  The easels, canvas, brushes, and paint are all set up, with a nametag and a picture of what the painting is supposed to look like.

Then they guide you through the whole thing.  This was a couple’s picture, so each person painted one half of it on their canvas, and they’d tell you when you needed to line certain parts of it up. 

You had to mix some of the colors, but they walked you through how to do that.  Then you had to dry the painting with a hairdryer before you put the leaves on the tree.

I’m almost as messy when I paint as I am when I cook!  It’s a good thing we didn’t bring snacks because I probably would have gotten paint on them. 

Here’s our finished painting hanging on our living room wall. 

I think it’s safe to say that neither one of us has a future as an artist!  But we’re both fairly happy with how our painting turned out, and it was a lot of fun.  We definitely want to do another one sometime.

We opted to go to Greenville in time for an early dinner and ate at Pita House.  The food is amazing!  I had the kibbi and grape leaves plate, and a pistachio baklava.  Everything was so good!  It’s right across the street from the main campus of Greenville Technical College, which is where I went for my Associate’s Degree, so it’s always a little nostalgic to go there. 

Lastly, I finally updated my Blogger profile and profile picture.  We were dressed up for something a few weeks ago, and I remembered to take a picture, so I used that one.  The last one was from 2007 when I had short hair and sometimes wore contacts instead of glasses.  I decided it was time for an update since I have longer hair, haven’t worn contacts since 2008, and am definitely not thirty-something anymore. 

So what have you been up to lately?  Does it look like spring for you yet?  

The Poinsett Bridge

We enjoyed a rare treat on Saturday.  We had a day that was sunny and relatively warm!  Temperatures reached the mid-fifties, which basically doubled Wednesday’s temperatures, and was a vast improvement over barely getting above freezing the rest of the week. 

We decided to take advantage of the nice day and spend a little time outside.  We’ve been talking about going to the Poinsett Bridge for a while now.  It’s really not terribly far from home, but somehow we had just never made the time to go see it.  In keeping with the plan to actually do things this year, and not just talk about doing things, we decided to go see it on Saturday.  I took Dramamine, we loaded the dogs into the car, and we drove to the bridge. 

The Poinsett Bridge is almost 200 years old, and is thought to be the oldest bridge in South Carolina.  It was built as part of the roadway connecting the low country of South Carolina to the mountains of North Carolina. 

It was a very pretty, very curvy drive to the bridge.  If you have plans to go see the Poinsett Bridge, and have any issues with motion sickness, you’ll want to take Dramamine or whatever you usually do to keep from getting sick. 

The bridge is part of the Greenville County Parks system, so it’s well marked, there’s plenty of parking (across the road from the bridge), and there are a few walking trails around.

There was still some snow on the ground when we went, and everything was very muddy.  We didn’t think about the mud when we decided to go.  I’d like to go back sometime when it’s dry, and when there are leaves on the tress.  I think it would be even more beautiful then.

I didn’t actually take any pictures on the bridge.  It was really muddy, and I didn’t want to traipse through the mud.  In all honesty, too, I think the bridge is much more impressive viewed from below than from on top or walking across it. 

The creek is very pretty, and the moss and ferns were incredibly vibrant against everything else that’s still so colorless.  I always seem to be drawn to water and greenery, so that’s what most of my pictures are of.

I’m glad we saw the bridge.  We both enjoy history, and it was neat to see how people used to travel back and forth between our two home states.

Can you tell I liked the moss?

This made me so happy!  It looks like spring is coming, despite the snow.