Happy Almost Christmas! (Or Happy post-Hanukkah, or Congrats on almost surviving 2017! or insert whatever greeting floats your boat here!)

I really only have two things to write about this week – I usually just skip the week and put those items on the next list when that happens, but my first one involves a lot of photos and text, so let’s just go with it!

BTW, we’re possibly getting our first snow of the season tonight and I DO NOT APPROVE. That is all.

 

1. I really thought my trip to Eureka Springs back in October would be the last one of the year – the drive down there is all narrow, super-twisty Arkansas roads and you just don’t even want to consider it in icky winter weather. (Most businesses even close from after Christmas until Mardi Gras.) However, Thursday was somehow like 70 degrees despite being the official first day of winter, so I took advantage of the rare sunshine and hopped in the car to head down for a little bit of wandering around town (and to pick up another bottle of my favorite olive oil.)

I love just wandering downtown, surrounded by historic buildings that now host quirky boutique shops. This time I read a historic marker that proclaimed a gift shop the former law office of F.O. Butt. Apparently Festivus Orestus Butt started practicing law at 18 or 19 after Arakansas decided to overlook his “disability of minority” (I guess you had to be at least 21?) and later served in the state senate and became Eureka Springs mayor for three terms, then practiced law until he died at 97. This is why I love this weirdo town – its history is full of this kind of colorful character! (I still haven’t posted about my visit to the Eureka Springs Historical Museum several months ago! Oops.) I really can’t put into words how quirky this little artist/historic/hippie town in Northwest Arkansas truly is.   ut here are a few photos from this week’s visit:

 

There are several carved gnomes around town. I think someone at the Art Colony makes them? Side note- I got SO many comments on my “Coffee is my BFF” shirt. It’s from the Target sleepwear section but I wear it as a regular top fairly often, but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten more than one or two comments on it before. Apparently everyone in Eureka is a caffeine addict?

 

“Yeah, this seems like a good enough place to build a house,” said someone in 1879.

You might remember the creepy silhouette guy from previous Eureka posts…

 

To be honest, now that it’s happened I’m shocked it didn’t happen sooner, but someone finally decided to “upgrade” him. 😂

 

 

Sorry that this photo of the 1886 Crescent Hotel is kinda crooked, but Eureka Springs is known as the “Alps of the Ozarks” for a reason. It’s amazing that 90% of my photos around town aren’t tilted at a crazy angle TBH.

Anyway, the point of this pic is that THE CRESCENT IS BUILDING AN ICE SKATING RINK. As my favorite hotel that is a former girls school and faux cancer hospital (see my post about the Crescent Hotel Ghost Tour here…), the Crescent is a place I feel compelled to visit almost every time I’m in town, but after seeing the ice rink under construction on Instagram and hearing about the garden full of Christmas trees decorated to raise money for charity, I knew I had to stop by on this trip.

The most important part of the historic hotel is the resident cat, Jasper, and I make a point to pet him every time I’m there if possible. He wasn’t in any of his usual spots, so I was worried that I was going to miss him this time (although the staff is always awesome about helping me find him!) but then I looked under one of the trees in the lobby…

He’s pretty much the best.

Apparently I JUST missed a huge car accident on my way home. Traffic was held up for over 20 minutes, there were tons of police and a fire truck and ambulance, and I guess the person/people involve got airlifted out by helicopter. There was still debris all over the road when we were finally allowed to pass in one lane, but thankfully I didn’t end up with (another) flat tire this time! It’s always creepy to think that wow, if I’d spent five fewer minutes down on the lobby floor looking like a dork and taking cat photos, I could have been the car smashed into pieces across the narrow two-lane road.

 

2. I was sent a variety of nail polishes from Surya Brasil recently… well, apparently they actually sent them back in October but I just found them near my back door a couple of weeks ago. (The package was in a weird spot that I never look. UPS guy did a little TOO good of a job of hiding it!) I was excited to try these out because they’re vegan and cruelty-free, and made without the scary ingredients that a lot of nail polishes contain like parabens and formaldehyde.

Another thing I love is that the colors look just like they do on the website. There can always be a little variance depending on what kind of screen you’re using, but the colors are exactly what I expected based on how they appear online. I decided to do some Christmas-y nails using the Eclectus Parrot and Chameleon colors.

 

How it appears online…

and IRL

Please ignore that my nails look like a five year old painted them. 

I like how smoothly the polish glides on, and while the big brush makes it easy to cover a lot of the nail in one swoop, it can also result in a little sloppiness if you’re not careful. I only needed one coat to get vibrant color, which is nice. They did chip on the tips after just a couple of days, but for me the animal/eco-friendly aspects outweigh that.

They also sent me their non-acetone nail polish remover, plus blue, coral, and brown nail polishes, so I’ll share feedback on those once I get a chance to try them! (I like doing wintery blue nails for New Year’s, and I’m really excited to try the sparkly Peacock blue polish!) You can find their full array of nail products here, and they also offer a wide array of products for hair and skin care.

 

Stay warm if you’re somewhere cold and dreary, and may your holiday weekend be a great one!