The quaint German town of Hermann sits in the picturesque wine country, right off the banks of the Missouri river. It was founded in 1837 by the German settlers because the sparkling river and rolling, dark-soiled hills reminded them of their homeland. To this day, the town is bustling with business from specialty shops, the railroad which runs just along the riverbanks and of course, the famous wineries. Today, Pj, my mother in law, Tracey and I met a fellow stay at home mommy and her husband for the annual Hermann Wurstfest (sausage festival) at the Stone Hill Winery, one of Missouri's best wineries. Pj grew up in Germany while his father was in the army, stationed in Butzbach, which is just 45 minutes outside of Frankfurt. Pj, his mom and sister always have wonderful stories to tell about life in Germany.




The weather was supposed to be in the 60's but on the highest point of the town, we were caught in a chilly wind. It turned out to be more of a sausage "tasting" than a festival. We spent the majority of the day standing in a line, waiting to taste some tiny niblets of "just okay" sausage. The only musical entertainment was a very talented little lady playing the accordion. Fortunately, our friends brought some wine and cheese curds so we ditched standing in line and found a spot to sit, chat and be merry. Sad as dead animal heads on a wall can be, this kind of made me laugh. When I was a kid, my grandma had a wildebeest head on her mantle. They told us that his name was Willy the Wildebeest and he ran through the wall of the house and that his back end was hanging out the other side. The inside of the winery was loaded with taxidermy heads of various beasties and it made me wonder if the other side of the wall was covered in furry beastie butts....


We made a pit stop to the town sweet shop on the way out....what delicious truffles they had. On a warmer day, I will be exploring this little town in more depth. There -has- to be a great shop with vintage treasures in this place!!
On the way to the winery, we saw a sign for a church rummage sale. We were unable to find the church at first, but my mother in law wouldn't give up the hunt for a rummage sale, so we made many turns and climbed a few steep hills till we finally found a tiny church nestled in with some houses with a sign "rummage sale today". It wasn't much of a rummage sale....more of a "rummaged sale". They only had a few tables with miscellaneous garage-sale items..no vintage, no fun! :( Luckily we spotted a garage sale on the way to the winery and I picked up a cardigan and vintage blender for a few bucks! *yay*


My outfit today was a dress that I just finished sewing. I used a modern Butterick pattern B5417. I love the detail on the sleeve and overall 40's vintage style. My shoes are my favorite part of this outfit, though. Pj bought them for my birthday while we were on our honeymoon in St. Augustine, Florida (just 4 days after my 23rd birthday). While antiquing in uptown, St. Augustine, we found a really chic little shop carrying lots of colorful scarves, silky skirts these shoes and a bunch of boho/hippie type clothes. I fell madly in love with these wooden carved fish shoes so my sweet new husband let me bring them home with us.

Dress-handmade by me- modern Butterick pattern B5417
shoes- St. Augustine, FL boutique
Earrings-Creve Coeur Antique mall
Snood-Chad Theatrical