I was so fortunate to get to meet another blogger yesterday! I had lunch and a little bit of shopping with this sweet lady.
Meet Marci from Stone Cottage Adventures. Her blog is wonderful and I have been a follower of hers for a while. When she posted this, Arkansas Missouri Railroad, about a train ride she took, I realized she was not all that far away from me. We emailed back and forth for a while and then made a plan to meet here at Sandstone Gardens in Joplin.
Doesn't that just look like a fabulous place to meet another blogger? It was a little over a one hour drive for both of us.
I was late. I hate being late, but I had forgotten a little gift bag I wanted to take to Marci and when I went back to get it, my car was billowing smoke out the back. I hurried down the road and borrowed my mother-in-laws car (I told you she's a saint!). But now I was late! Ughhh! And I was very nervous, which was silly, because Marci is the nicest lady you could ever meet!
Sandstone Gardens in Joplin is a massive place that sells rooms and rooms of gorgeous home decor as well as awesome outdoor decor like huge stone fountains, fireplaces, and garden statuary.
Something for everyone for sure! They have an awesome Bistro inside which has wonderful food.
Because the hostess told us they fill up fast at lunch time, we decided to eat first. Our poor waiter!! All we could do was talk, talk, talk about blogging. We did have a wonderful lunch. Marci had soup and salad and I had Salmon Croquettes and salad. (I always tell myself I'll get something else when I get there, but I always get the salmon.) We both had bread pudding for dessert. Yumm!
Marci is a sensible girl and lives a healthy lifestyle that I may be too lazy to attempt right now. I admire her for it and she is inspiring for sure! She knows a ton of stuff about herbs and is interested in making her own soaps, salves and lotions. I'm a lotion freak so I was happy when she taught me that a petroleum based lotion is not the best thing for my skin!
You can learn a lot about Marci just by reading her "One Year, 20 Wishes" post. (I love that idea and I plan to post about that myself soon!)
We walked through the building and admired all of the home decor and of course, talked about how we could "make this ourselves"! The whole place was decked out for Christmas and was very beautiful.
We learned pretty quickly that we have two things in common....we don't love glitter (there was tons of it on everything!) and we are both very tactile and love to touch stuff. Sometimes we reached out to touch the same thing at the same time!
They don't like for you to take pictures in Sandstone Gardens, which is too bad, because I would love to share it with you. The pictures I took were from an old blog they use to have. I did break the rules to take a picture of Marci and we snagged a stranger to take one of us together in one of their 3 greenhouses!
Yes, that's right, they have 3 greenhouse areas that are just full of fun stuff!
I loved meeting Marci and I hope to do it again! She suggested maybe we could meet quarterly, which sounds like fun to me! I kind of want to head in her direction next time and see some of the interesting things she talked about and maybe try a class or two that she mentioned.
If you get a chance to meet another blogger, GO FOR IT!! It's so nice to have a chance to talk about blogging with someone who "knows"!! Marci was so nice and so very interesting. Check out her blog, Stone Cottage AdStone Cottage Adventures, to learn more about her! Thank you Marci for driving an hour and spending a Saturday afternoon with me! I enjoyed it so much!
I am meeting one more blogger before the end of the year and I am looking forward to it! We're going to have lunch and do a little "junkin" together and I can't wait!!
I was late. I hate being late, but I had forgotten a little gift bag I wanted to take to Marci and when I went back to get it, my car was billowing smoke out the back. I hurried down the road and borrowed my mother-in-laws car (I told you she's a saint!). But now I was late! Ughhh! And I was very nervous, which was silly, because Marci is the nicest lady you could ever meet!
Sandstone Gardens in Joplin is a massive place that sells rooms and rooms of gorgeous home decor as well as awesome outdoor decor like huge stone fountains, fireplaces, and garden statuary.
Something for everyone for sure! They have an awesome Bistro inside which has wonderful food.
Because the hostess told us they fill up fast at lunch time, we decided to eat first. Our poor waiter!! All we could do was talk, talk, talk about blogging. We did have a wonderful lunch. Marci had soup and salad and I had Salmon Croquettes and salad. (I always tell myself I'll get something else when I get there, but I always get the salmon.) We both had bread pudding for dessert. Yumm!
Marci is a sensible girl and lives a healthy lifestyle that I may be too lazy to attempt right now. I admire her for it and she is inspiring for sure! She knows a ton of stuff about herbs and is interested in making her own soaps, salves and lotions. I'm a lotion freak so I was happy when she taught me that a petroleum based lotion is not the best thing for my skin!
You can learn a lot about Marci just by reading her "One Year, 20 Wishes" post. (I love that idea and I plan to post about that myself soon!)
We walked through the building and admired all of the home decor and of course, talked about how we could "make this ourselves"! The whole place was decked out for Christmas and was very beautiful.
We learned pretty quickly that we have two things in common....we don't love glitter (there was tons of it on everything!) and we are both very tactile and love to touch stuff. Sometimes we reached out to touch the same thing at the same time!
They don't like for you to take pictures in Sandstone Gardens, which is too bad, because I would love to share it with you. The pictures I took were from an old blog they use to have. I did break the rules to take a picture of Marci and we snagged a stranger to take one of us together in one of their 3 greenhouses!
If you get a chance to meet another blogger, GO FOR IT!! It's so nice to have a chance to talk about blogging with someone who "knows"!! Marci was so nice and so very interesting. Check out her blog, Stone Cottage AdStone Cottage Adventures, to learn more about her! Thank you Marci for driving an hour and spending a Saturday afternoon with me! I enjoyed it so much!
How awesome that you got to meet up! I get to meet one of my favorite bloggers in a few weeks, hurray.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only one who looks at things and thinks. I can make that!!!
That place is gorgeous! I love Marci's blog, too. I just drool over the entrance to her lovely little stone cottage. So glad you got to meet her. I can't wait to meet you!
ReplyDeleteOh, Danni! What a wonderful post! I so loved our afternoon together! I smiled all the way home, dreaming of our next "Blogger Play Date"! How close are you to the Laura Ingalls Wilder home? Baker Creek Seeds? Ozark Folkways and Crystal Bridges are both close to me. 'Can't wait to see you again! -Marci @ Stone Cottage Adventures
ReplyDeleteNow Danni, this is the kind of stuff to be envious about. How great is that to be able to meet someone with the same interests and having such a fun time doing it!
ReplyDeleteI am so far away from everybody. Quite isolated. Maybe I could find another blogger 2 hours away!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun Danni! I hope to someday sit down and talk, talk, talk with another blogger too. I bet it's really great to get insight from someone else who does the same thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd that PLACE! Oh my! What an amazing spot.
That place is amazing! Oh it sounds like you two had a ball, play dates LOL
ReplyDeleteoh how fun! Is it too far to make a road trip?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great day you had, Danni! How fun meeting a fellow blogger and getting to meet up at a beautiful space. Megan
ReplyDeleteYou are so lucky to meet such lovely fellow bloggers Danni! The venue looks absolutely stunning!!!! I wish I could pop over for lunch and a play date :-)
ReplyDeleteAh Danni! What a beautiful afternoon it must have been! She looks like such a sweetie and I had the pleasure of reading her posts and following along. It is something on my bucket list...to meet some of the amazing people I've connected with through blogging! Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteHow cool is that place!?! WOW! And to think you got to share it with another blogger. I went over to read several of Marci's posts. I loved the twenty wishes.
ReplyDeleteYou got to meet another blogger!!! I would have loved to have been included at that lunch. To talk with someone that 'knows' and 'gets it' would be so much fun. I hope next year, I'll be added to the list of bloggers you got to meet.
ReplyDeleteCould there be a more perfect place to meet a fellow blogger for the first time?! That is so cool that you two were able to meet! Such a fun post to read, Danni. I hope we can meet too. I'd love for all 5 of us (IC girls) to meet...on my wish list. :)
ReplyDelete