Squirrel's Nest Getaway - Day Two

Not time for stitching yet.  We have a free day today and we are going to Longaberger Basket Headquarters.  It was a couple hours drive.  Luckily, my BFF is driving and she been there before and knows her way around.  Our first stop is the basket building.  I have seen pictures of it but seeing it in person is fun.

The dark parts are windows.  There is one car in the parking lot.  That is our first hint that fewer people are visiting.  It is fun to see the inside of the building as there is a glass ceiling and you can see the handles through it.  The only person that we saw there was the receptionist.  Then we drove out to the Longaberger Manufacturing buildings.  Many of the parking lots were blocked off as they weren't needed.  There was a great deal of parking for buses but there was just one bus there.  We went through the Welcome Center and out to the large store building.

See the basket in the middle of the picture?  There is a bench inside, that's how big it is.  Beyond the bench is a huge two story building that is filled with stores. 

 There is much more than baskets there.  Food, bedding, lamps, wrought iron stuff, clothes, bags.  It is amazing.  We spend hours shopping.  Everything is pretty expensive but you can find some great sales.  I found a large bag that was half price and I couldn't pass it up.    At these stitching events, stitchers often have these fancy-dancy Vera Bradley bags.  I don't have one, so I bought a Longaberger bag that will be my "plane bag" and my stitching bag.  Cool.  I got Claire a sweet Easter basket that is shaped like an egg.  I was most tempted by the seconds room.  There were some good prices on baskets and you could hardly tell that they were seconds.  I almost got two more baskets.  But I have many baskets at home and at one time I made baskets.  I knew I didn't need any baskets.  I also knew we had a four o'clock appointment to make a basket out in the barn.  So I resisted.  We went into the town of Dresden to see the little stores in their downtown area and to get a drink somewhere.  We were disappointed that all the little stores were gone, closed.  We did see the world's largest woven basket though.

We went back to the manufacturing buildings.  You used to be able to tour the manufacturing floor but no longer.  We went in the barn to wait for our appointment to make a basket.  There were three different baskets you could choose from.  I chose the chore basket and my BFF chose the napkin basket.  You get to choose what color accent that you want to use and either dark or light stain.  There are many accessories that you can buy for them too like plastic liners and a various styles of cloth liners.  
I had the most fun making  my basket.  Longaberger baskets are very strong and sturdy and now I know why.  They use two strips at a time in the weaving.  I also learned how they get them so perfectly tightly woven.

 Here is the lady, Heidi, that helped us make the baskets.  (I'm having a bad hair day evidently) You got to pick out 6 little metal accents for around the top edge.  I was tickled pink with my basket.  My BFF liked her basket too.

Longaberger has a golf course nearby and we stopped there to have something to eat.  It is in a beautiful setting.

But it was too hot to eat outside.

The drive back to our hotel was fine but we still had a hard time finding it.  Boy, were we tired.  It was one of those nights where I just wanted to go to bed way before my usual time.  We are very excited as tomorrow is stitching!

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