Made By Smree

  Recently, as part of the re-launch of the K-Friends program sponsored by the Korea Tourism Organization, individuals were asked to “Find your favorite Korea”, which meant to find something related to Korea in your city, or nearby.  Since I live in the Southern US, this seemed a daunting task, but ended up being a fun experience overall!  A nearby restaurant serves what they call ‘Asian fusion’ cuisine, which includes a dish called kimchi fries. Kimchi is a traditional Korean food and is considered a staple part of a Korean diet.  According to VisitKorea.or , it’s served with every meal in Korea. It typically consists of spiced and fermented Napa cabbage or radish, but can be made with other vegetables too. The kimchi fries dish consisted of stir-fried kimchi, bulgogi beef, cheese, mild Korean sauce, sour cream, scallions and sesame seeds, served over crispy french fries.   Prior to this, I had never tried kimchi or bulgogi beef, but they are truly delici...

Last year was my first ever experience visiting the Carolina Renaissance Festival, and I loved it. So naturally we decided to go back again this year. I didn't take as many photos this time around, but I did get a few! I wore my crocheted cloak, since it was bitterly cold for the majority of the day. It was perfect, as it was lovely and warm, but also quite comfortable and easy to wear. Plus I had one of the shopkeepers gush over it and so I was able to share where to find the pattern/etc with her. That was fun! :) This was while we were waiting for the Moonie show to start. Moonie was a new show for this year, and I sincerely hope he comes back. His show was hysterical, and he is an amazing talent. His act was mostly juggling, with some other acrobatics worked in. The line that his sign is hanging from? He walked it while juggling flaming torches. Yeah. It was awesome. There he is! Moonie himself.  Here's a little video of part of his act.  ...

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit Shatley Springs for the first time. It was absolutely beautiful there.  For those not in the know, Shatley Springs is in a town waaay up near the North Carolina/Virginia line called Crumpler. The land was originally purchased by a Mr. Martin Shatley in 1890, and it was in that year he discovered the spring. Supposedly, the water from the spring has natural healing qualities. (Check out the History and Testimonial sections of the Shatley Springs website for more on all this. It's an interesting read, I promise!) Roses at the door to the restaurant Presently, Shatley Springs is an inn (they have cabins you can rent), and also restaurant. They serve family style breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can also order individual plates, but really, the family style is the best bargain. And it's delicious .  Family style breakfast was $10 a person, and included country ham, sausage, bacon, grits, eggs, biscuits, gr...

When I was younger, I used to LOVE watching figure skating on TV. It's a beautiful sport, it really is, and I used to daydream about being able to glide across the ice as gracefully as the skaters I saw.   Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to try my luck at ice skating. I roller skated (and roller bladed) quite often, but as there was a distinct lack of ice skating rinks in my area, my hopes of learning never came to be. And as time went, it became one of those things I said I would do 'some day'.  Fast forward to December of 2012.   I heard on the radio that there was an ice skating rink that had been set up at a nearby speedway as part of their Christmas events. I did some research, and found it was surprisingly affordable ($12 for the entire day, skate rental included). I mentioned it to a friend, who was just as excited as I was to find out about it, and we made plans to go. Our original plans kept getting thwarted, but luck...