Artful Adventures

It Was a Great Day!

 

Jessie, our first born, came out to spend the day with us for my birthday a week or so ago.  It was nice, very nice actually, since we don't often get those "one on one" kind of days with her.  It was just a low key day, just the way we wanted it.  We decided to go over to The Flying Pig, since I've hardly been there at all this summer.  I think I've mentioned that recently, but you seriously feel like family when you're there, and you'd miss your family, right?  Gary likes to always drive a new route to wherever we go, always promoting a car full of groans, as some of short cuts add on a ton of time:)  But this one was perfect!  I couldn't make it to the Art Studio Tour this year, and I really wanted to see Bren Sibilsky's sculpture work.  If you haven't clicked on her name, do yourself a favor and do so, seriously, she's so talented!  Brenda lives just on the outskirts of Algoma, but coming in from the other side of the Flying Pig, so we took that route so I could see where she lives and her sign proclaims that "The Idea Factory"-it's perfect!  Can''t wait to call & go see her!  For anyone wanting to give sculpting a hand, she also teaches at the Peninsula Art School.  So, on with the tour----we came up on this little park, and I do really mean little, but it's charming in a rustic teeny kind of way, and I do want to go back. 

We stopped & had to do a little exploring, the place was full of tangled tree roots and even some of the trees-couldn't you just see those couple of archways for fairies? 

Everywhere you walked, there were those crazy roots and green rocks that lined both sides of the water.  Having been raised "up north", this kind of thing is like going home, finding little creeks, swimming in a river, finding magic wherever it seemed it should be.  Now on to "The Pig" for a cup of coffee, a little birthday treat, and a glimpse of their fall gardens.  Come on up here sometime, and we'll show off the magic that's hidden in this farmland!

  
 

Thank You!

 

Now that Gary's a few weeks post op, has a new slime green cast that he can put a little weight on while still walking with crutches, things are slowly starting to get back to normal here.  Maybe not normal, but at least more manageable.  Enough that I can start trying to play catch up a bit, kind of like a puppy chasing it's tail:)  We're calling Monday morning to have the hospital bed taken out of the living room, now that he can manage steps-carefully.  Life will slowly return to normal, it will.  But he did want to make sure that a huge THANK YOU was said for all of you that sent him cards & well wishes, we both appreciated it more than you can know.  I owe so many people for all the help we've had, generous friends that gave up their time to help us out, so much that another post soon will be devoted to just that.  See, another "catch up", not necessarily in the order of events, but it'll get done-one day at a time.   

Jeremy's home for the week end, perfect timing as a quarter of beef we ordered was ready to be picked up today, so his help in hauling it down to the freezer in the basement was more than welcomed.  We got the meat from a couple that we met at the Flying Pig, actually it seems like everytime we'd go there, Lynn would walk in right after us, something we've joked around about with him & his wife quite often.  This was the first time we'd been to their farm, named Guardians of the Field Farm, an absolutely perfect name for a beautiful place.  They have a huge old farmhouse painted yellow, with the widest wrap around porch that I've ever seen, all of the outbuildings painted barn red, and all of this on the end of a dead end road.  It's a beautiful, peaceful place, perfect!  And so fitting for their personalities, as Jeremy commented when we left that Lynn was such a gentle soul, and he's so right.  The whole family seems to have that trait and are in perfect harmony with all that surrounds them.   

Now I'm backtracking a little, the first stop for today was at Kele Alpaca where I dropped off some collages for their annual Holiday sale coming up next week end.  We had a chance to peek a little at some of the handcrafted art that was already there, but by next week end it'll be packed to the rafters with everything from paintings, jewelry, purses (I always get a purse there!), yarns & fibers, clothing, and everything in between in the old restored log building where the sale is held.  It was nice to have a few minutes to visit with LeAnna & Amanda for a bit and then we were on our way.  Our last stop was at the Flying Pig for a cup of coffee and to have a few laughs with 2 sisters ( they could put on their own sister act!) Pat & Marcy in the picture above, who are holding down the fort while Susan & Robyn are on vacation, due back in a day or so I think.  Can't wait to hear about their adventures finding new artists, visiting art galleries & checking out the surroundings.  Tomorrow Jessie & Michelle are coming out, so we'll all be together, eating chili that we made tonight and watching the Packer/Bear game-it should be fun!  I'll leave yuo now with this saying that's painted on a wall by the coffee bar at The Flying Pig, I love it! 

Day on the Farm

This past Saturday was the annual Day on the Farm event, held at Kele Alpaca.  Farm events around here aren't that uncommon, but this one had a twist-alpacas instead of cows:)  It's also an event for the entire family with free admission, and the proceeds from a silent auction, food sales, and donations, being shared between the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) and ArtBeet.  VIP provides services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in Kewaunee County, and ArtBeet is a non-profit group to promote thearts in Kewaunee County.  All for great causes and fun for everyone!  There were demonstrations on spinning the Alpaca fibers-

felting----

and weaving.

There was live music all day--

kids got to take alpaca on a walk--

a lot of walks, all day long!

There was an area where kids got their faces painted, good food & drink, and watching Deb standing like a statue all day-seriously, it was hot, I don't know how she did it!

It also was home for the first ever art fair for ArtBeet!

An obstacle course was on the grounds where folks could walk an alpaca through it.  They kept switching out the alpacas throughout the day to keep them fresh, like I said, it was hot!

All in all, it was a good day!  You can read more about the specifics of the event here and here.  Most important, it was a day that families could do something together and not break the bank, artists & lots of volunteers came together for a worthy cause  making it a beautiful day!  After the event, there was food & drink for all who helped make it happen and after that, it was on to The Flying Pig for a concert-but more about that tomorrow:)  And here's LeAnna, who along with Keith makes it all happen at Kele, taking a quick & much needed break.

Alpacas & Architecture

So what did you do exciting for the holiday week end?  We didn't go far, but did take in the everyday sights of the area, visited some friends, and just chilled out.  Had Gary not retired last year, this would have been his week end to work, so he was thoroughly enjoying being able to just go & do whatever he wanted.  It was kind of funny, a little like a kid on Christmas morning:)  We drove through the little town of Kewaunee yesterday, and went down Dodge Street, which has some of the coolest old homes, all renovated, painted up in fun colors, some are Bed & Breakfasts, a few single family homes, but all fun.  So thought we'd share a few of the house in that few blocks.  Hope you enjoy! 

Too bad there wasn't a little sun shining, but you should still be able to see all the trim work, they paid attention to detail! 

Still trying to get used to the new format here on typepad, need to get my sizing figured out!  It's funny how each of these house are painted a different color, I always wondered if they held a meeting or something to make sure they were all painted different colors. You can't tell by the picture, but this one is painted a shade of pink.  I remember when they started it, thinking it was an odd color, but they did it up right!  If you look close at the shingles near the peak on the front, the different colors form flowers.  And the gardens are spectacular here!  All done up in pink, a wonderful arbor to walk under, with a matching martin house behind it in the yard.  it's called Hollyhock House and is a bed & breakfast-it would be tempting to stay there, I have a feeling that the inside is spectacular!  Blue is my least favorite color for a house, but once again they paid attention to detail & pulled it off!  These homes are huge, maybe they give tours at Christmas or something-----something to watch for! A pair of gargoyles flank each side of the driveway of the first house in the picture, a perfect fit for the house.  Are you still with me on this little tour?  I'm really hoping you enjoy seeing these homes as much as we did!  From here, we went on up Hwy 42 to go to a little antique shop that we both like.  It's run by the nicest man, and his big old black dog named "Bear", I always breath a little sigh of relief each spring when I see that the dog is still there, he's old now & has a snow white muzzle, and the man obviously adores him.  He is pretty cute-the dog, that is:)  We picked up a bunch of old books there, one is an old dictionary that had several dried flowers and a 4 leaf clover pressed between the pages.  Makes me wonder who did it, what was the significance, there had to be a story behind it!  From there we stopped in at Amanda's to drop off some extra plants we dug up, dropped off a couple of chairs to see if her husband could spot weld them to fix them, and have a cup of coffee-nice visit!  From there, we went abut a mile up the road to Kele Alpacas to get a picture of the new baby Alpaca that was born during the week, and were treated to getting to watch them shear one of the older ones.  A lot of work goes into this process to make those wonderful soft fibers that you fiber artists love to use!  A specially made table keeps the animals safe, as well as those shearing, so it's a relatively stress free situation for all.  Kieth & LeAnna were so calm, had a system worked out, that they didn't even really have to talk-they all knew just what had to be done and when.  They're a couple of the nicest people we've had the pleasure to meet out here, so it's always a treat to pop in, see the critters, & chat for a bit.  Here's "Gabby" with her new haircut:)  There's not much left to them after you remove all the "fluff" is there?  Such sweet animals-when I was grooming my dogs for show, they weren't nearly as well behaved! And here's the baby (they're called a crea" with her mama.  We took so many photos of her, it was hard to choose, but this one will do:)  Gary walked right into the field with them to take the pictures, and the baby was curious enough to walk right up close to him.  They have the longest, blackest eyelashes that you've ever seen!  No visit to Kele would be complete without a pictuer of Ajax!  He's 16 years old, and a great ambassador for the breed, always curious, friendly, and willing to pose for a picture:)  When I met him, is when I fell in love with alpacas, how could you not??  Now I want to follow this shearing thing through with LeAnna, watch how she turns the fibers into roving, uses the spinning wheel, all that fun stuff!  One of these days, I'd love to try the spinning wheel out-not sure if I'd be any good at it, but it looks like fun and would have the potential to be calming-maybe not in the learning phase, though-lol!  Today was beautiful-80 degrees & sunny-finally!  It was warm enough to actually be able to sit on the lake for awhile, first time this year, and it felt good.  When we got home I picked up a book to read that I had barely started the day before, but more about that tomorrow.  Fair warning though, you're going to want the book-it's a great one!!