2009 Tourist season has begun...

...with a fury!!! Wow, I can't believe how many tourists were in town last weekend. Many people came to town just for the spring library book sale, which makes me very happy. We broke the record again for the most money made in a book sale. Many thanks to the hard work of the Friends of the Library who make our two yearly sales possible.

All the businesses are up and running for the season, from shops, to restaurants, to hotels. We even heard of a new old-fashioned soda fountain which will be opening on Main Street soon! I think that will fit in great here.

Thirst Rescheduled

Due to the record-breaking ice storm during the last week of January, we had to cancel the first Thursday Thirst book club. The date for the first meeting has been rescheduled to February 26th. We hope you'll join us in the Library Annex at 6pm to talk about Twilight!

Eureka tourism

The recession hasn't really affected our town as much as most of the country, I suspect, since we are a tourist "hot spot." People may have cut back on expensive, exotic locations, but they are still taking vacations to small American towns like ours. Because tourism is so unpredictable, our town has always had a high turnover of businesses in town, even before the recession. It is common to see small business for sale signs in several shop windows, especially during the slow winter season.

I am confident that people will continue visiting Eureka Springs because it seems that this town makes a positive impression and stays with people, urging them to return. I know it happened to us, and all the people we've met that continue to visit or have decided to move here permanently.

Stampede!

New Year's Eve was interesting this year. My in-laws traded their Las Vegas timeshare with one in Branson, so we spent the week between Christmas and New Year's there with them in the condo. It was nice to visit with relatives, but the overall feel and pace of Branson is just not "us", if you know what I mean. Let's just say that Eureka Springs and Branson are just about as opposite as two towns can get.

How about a little comparison:
Traffic - Eureka Springs: zero. Branson: tons, all the time.
Tourists - Eureka Springs: mostly artsy types who appreciate history and old architecture. Branson: retirees who like to golf and appreciate cheesy entertainment.
Prices - Eureka Springs: very reasonable. Branson: very overpriced.
Overall Feeling - Eureka Springs: relaxing, stress free, and friendly. Branson: hurried, stressful, and people treated somewhat like cattle.

Anyway, we held out pretty well until the final night of our visit, New Year's Eve at the Dixie Stampede. The night started off with a bang when my husband refused to be in the "required" family photos taken before entering the arena. His mother even said, "Thanks for ruining my evening." The pre-show was very entertaining and probably our favorite part. The guy was a world class juggler who could balance huge things like chairs and ladders on his chin. Then we were "herded" into the horse arena, which is set up like a stadium with rows in front of the seats so the wait staff can run by and serve your food. The riding was very good, and I wish there had been more of it. The trick riding only lasted a couple of minutes. The horses were beautiful, dressed in english saddles and still decorated for Christmas.

The food was very tasty, but it was unnerving when we were eating chicken and they started doing chicken races down below. Then they passed out pork loin, and what was next in the show? You guessed it - the baby pig races!! That part really bothered me, but I don't think many of the other guests were even aware that we were eating and being entertained by the same animal simultaneously.

Anyway, we ended our trip feeling very "overdosed" by Branson. I don't think we will go back for a very long time.

Thursday Thirst

I am excited to announce a new book club I am starting to discuss horror literature. It will be held on the last Thursday of each month, at 6pm - starting January 29th.

We will start by discussing the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Meet with us in the Library Annex building at 192 Spring Street.

Baby Jesus missing again

Since there are newly installed security cameras in several downtown locations, you would think the baby Jesus in the Nativity Scene would be safe this year, right? Wrong! Even though it was chained to a cinder block, someone stole the entire thing! Were they caught on camera? Yes. Could the perpetrator be identified? No.

This is a yearly tradition of sorts in Eureka, and the Jesus is usually found and returned, with the wrongdoer paying a fine and getting a slap on the wrist. I think maybe it is time to give this one a rest and just let the baby Jesus be.

Stair-step town

Eureka Springs has been nicknamed "The Stairstep Town" because of all the walking trails and steps built into the mountains connecting neighborhood streets. You can't truly see Eureka if you stay in your car. Sure, the architecture on the main streets is beautiful, but when you are walking along meandering trails is when the town's true beauty is revealed.

Besides, it is much better for your health anyway. Who needs diet pills when you have fresh mountain air, interesting scenery, and walking trails and steps. In fact, back when the area was known for its healing springs, many believed that it was a combination of the spring water, the exercise, and all the time outdoors that healed people.

Eureka Springs School of the Arts

Our daughter was fortunate enough to receive a scholarship to attend a summer art class at ESSA, and we are very happy with the experience. She originally wanted the painting class, but she was enrolled in "Working with Metals" instead. There was another class which used airbrush and stencil techniques to make T-shirts. She was somewhat skeptical to work with metal, but after the first day, she told me, "Mom, I love working with metal!" She made a variety of Christmas ornaments, jewelry, metal boxes, and more.

I was so glad she thrived, especially since she was the only girl in the class. The instructors were Mary Springer and Eleanor Lux and they did a wonderful job teaching my daughter. They definitely made an impact and my daughter feels that she can try lots of new art techniques that she may have not thought of trying before. Thank you ESSA! I definitely recommend these summer classes for school age children.

Yard Sales - oh my!

August 1st and 2nd is the 14th annual Yards and Yards of Yard Sales event organized by the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce. We paid the $15 to be "official participants" and to be included on the map given to visitors looking for bargains.

I've been scouring through all our closets, the garage, and the basement to find things worthy of selling at our yard sale. We have a pretty wide variety of items this time, from baby gear (our three year old refuses to sit in a stroller any more), to appliances, to electronics and household items. It's strange how many promotional pens I've found with the names of companies I've never heard of. I suppose the life of a pen is much like the life of money, changing hands so many times it ends up very far away from its origin.

Anyway, I hope this year's yard sales are a big success and that we can sell lots of stuff and make a little bit of money!

Socializing

We've lived in Eureka for over two years now, and I'm happy to report that we've made plenty of friends. Thanks to my job at the library, I have a group of friends to go out on the town with. I've never been a big drinker, (you'll never find a wine refrigerator in my house!) but I enjoy going to bars with friends to visit and hang out.

Since I see so many of the locals at the library and the school, it seems a lot easier to make friends. I recognize most people and am not as shy as I used to be about starting conversations. It seems that living in a small town has made me less introverted. Now if we could only get my husband out of the house more often...

Eureka sounds nice

There are no shortage of wind chimes here in Eureka Springs. In fact, the world's largest tuned musical wind chime is here! It hangs from a huge oak tree and the overall length is over 35 feet. You can visit it in the parking lot of Celestial Windz Harmonic Bizaar, just south of town on highway 23.

It is very common to hear bells while walking around our town and it fits perfectly with the architecture and the overall relaxed and magical feeling. Most residences sport at least one wind chime on their porch, and many of the businesses hang them outside too. The old churches chime their bells also and it sounds spectacular. Just one more thing to add to the long list of things I love about Eureka Springs!

Everything is relative

My husband was talking with a friend about our plan to drastically cut our living expenses, so we can semi-retire and continue make our living through art, music, web ventures, and of course, my coveted library job. His friend lives in Boston, and he commented that $1,000 a month would barely buy daily coffee in Boston.

Everything is relative, and while the cost of living there is probably much higher than here, Boston jobs also pay a lot more to make up the difference. For example, the median household income in Boston is $42,500, while here in Eureka Springs, the median household income is only $26,600. Another issue that Eureka Springs residents have to contend with is the tourism market and the fact that most of the town virtually shuts down for several months in the winter, making some workers stretch nine months of income out over the entire year. I'm lucky that the library remains busy all twelve months.

Glorious spring!

We had plenty of rain last week, as you may have heard in the news. It wasn't that bad in our area, but the Beaver suspension bridge was closed for a couple of days due to the lake rising above the bridge by a couple of feet. Good thing there is another way into Beavertown over land - it's just a much longer drive. As a result of all the rain, everything is blooming here and it is gorgeous!

This is bad news for those who suffer from seasonal allergies. I have never had problems with allergies, but my husband sure does and I feel so bad for him. At least there are air purifiers to treat the air indoors, but this time of year has the nicest weather, so who wants to stay inside? I hope neither of my children develop seasonal allergies. So far they don't seem to be affected by weather changes, aside from picking up common colds from school.

Signs of spring

Yay! Spring is finally here! Some of the flowers around town are blooming and I heard my first mourning dove "coo" of the season (which happens to be one of my favorite sounds). Many of the trees are just starting to show little buds on the branches, too.

The kids are officially on Spring Break now, and it seems that we needed it more this year for some reason. I just can't seem to catch up since the time changed last weekend, so hopefully this week I can regroup and gear up for the rest of the school year.

Library business cards?

Speaking of previous lives, our college life was also something entirely different. My husband and I were both Fine Arts majors, going for our Bachelor's degrees, with emphasis on computer graphics and advertising design. In college, one of my favorite areas of study involved company branding and logo design. I enjoyed coming up with a new "look" for a company and incorporating it into business cards, envelopes, and letterhead. Of course, in college it was much easier because art was all encompassing back then. We lived and breathed art almost 100% of the time.

Now that we have children and there is so much going on in our lives, I can't even find the time to come up with snappy business cards for myself. So I tried a website logo creator called LogoYes with much success. The free demo is simple and fun. First, you select what "image" you want to project for your company, the choices being High-Tech, Bold, or Flair. I chose "Flair" since I am a creative, artistic person. The next step is choosing your industry from a list of thirty choices. Based on the industry selected, you then go to the next step, picking a symbol for your card and the text to go on it. I was impressed by the large selection of images to choose from and the many different font styles. The final step is arranging the layout and choosing colors.

Since I work at the library, and I couldn't think of anything else to put on a business card for myself since I am into so many different things, I decided to make one that we could discreetly hand out in the library to patrons to remind them of proper library etiquette. What do you think?

Our previous life

A few years ago, my husband and I were living what I now refer to as "our previous life." We were living what most would consider the American Dream, but we just weren't satisfied. We were working on Bachelor's Degrees in college while both working in the telecom industry. We were very surprised when we worked temporary assignments through a temp agency and both of us were offered full-time jobs without even a college degree. We thought we were so lucky to have "landed" these high paying jobs at such a young age.

I quit my job when I was pregnant with our first child, but my husband stayed on with his corporate job and we were saving money like mad, since he made more than we needed to live on. He continued doing well and climbing the corporate ladder. There was a point about four years into his job when he realized that he was not happy at all. He knew all the ins and outs of telecom, all the engineering gargon like CAT6, CAT5, T1, T2, and patch panels, but didn't feel like he was making a valuable contribution to society.

At that time, we were also living in a very large town and thought maybe it was the town that was getting us down. So we moved to a much smaller town, but he kept the same job. That helped a bit, and we realized that we did enjoy a small town much better, but the job was still a problem. All the corporate politics and threat of layoffs got to be too much and we decided to risk everything, quit the fancy job, and move halfway across the country to a small town we have adored since the first time we visited here.

We are struggling somewhat to make ends meet and our tax return is nothing short of embarrassing, but we are happy and that's what counts. I have a dream job, working in the historic Carnegie public library, and my husband is working on several online ventures. Our children are safe and we know most of the people in town after only living here about two years. Our new life is good.

Goodall's Grocery

Today was the grand opening of Goodall's Grocery, a new food market downtown at 55 Center Street. This was the former location of Tatoo's Eureka Style.

I just had to check it out because I thought that place would be too small for a grocery store. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. They had a little of everything, from dairy products, to canned goods, to school supplies, to baby diapers! They had a nice spread of goodies for the grand opening and the atmosphere was very pleasant. The prices were higher than a traditional grocery store, but the convenience may be worth it for residents who live downtown and can walk to the store.

Christmas Eve skate party

This year was the first ever Christmas Eve Skate Party here in Eureka Springs. They are hoping to make it an annual tradition, and based on this year's turnout, I'd say there is a good chance it will continue (depending on weather, of course). I was amazed at the skill of all the young skaters in town. Some boys were only seven or eight years old, skating in the park, doing tricks in the bowl and half-pipe just like the adults.

Our daughter was interested in the skating, but our younger son understandably only wanted to play on the playground. So we spent time in both areas, enjoying the beautiful day (60 degrees on Christmas Eve!). One thing that was very interesting was a customized mini-van in the parking lot. It was painted to look like a space shuttle, complete with rocket boosters on the back. I've seen plenty of customized car spoilers and bras, but this van was truly a spectacle. We drive a mini-van too, and never thought much could be done to customize it. I guess we were wrong.

Candlelight tour a success

Yesterday was the 25th annual "Candlelight Tour of Homes" here in beautiful Eureka Springs. This year, the library was on the tour, along with one church, four Bed & Breakfasts, and nine houses. Since I work on Saturdays at the library, I got to dress in Victorian style and visit with many people participating in the tour. The tour benefits the Preservation Society and it is their biggest fund raiser.

The weather was gorgeous, in the upper fifties, and the feeling was very festive. Many of the visitors even dressed Victorian and there were bands and choirs spaced along the tour to add Christmas music and cheer to the event. Eureka Springs is the perfect town for an event like this, with all the different styles of architecture from the Victorian era. It will be interesting to see how the town changes once there are new condos for sale right next to the Crescent Hotel, which is one of the oldest hotels in town. I am anxious to see how the two coexist and how the change effects the town, if at all.

Christmas Parade

This year's Christmas Parade was last Friday night and we enjoyed it much more than last year. For one, it was much warmer. So I didn't have the kids complaining about their freezing hands the whole time. My husband was sick last year, so I was alone with both kids and that was a bit difficult. This year, we all went and had a great time.

My daughter brought her camera and took about a hundred pictures and was really into it. I was shocked when she picked up some candy that was thrown off a float and she holds her hand out to me and says, "Mom, could you please do something with this candy? Quick! I'm going to miss my shot." She was actually more concerned with getting a good photo than with the candy. Very surprising for a six year old.

She got some good pictures, but we haven't downloaded them yet. My husband uploaded some of his pictures from the parade to his Eureka Springs Pictures website.