Kutztown Folk Festival

Hey stranger! It's been a while! (Totally, 100% my fault.) As always, life has been happening, and I've been trying to enjoy it. I have a few posts planned for this month: Orioles Baseball, 4th of July, and then today. I'm also going to Louisville at the end of the month, and hope to have some great things to share with you then. How fast has this summer gone by?! I mean, seriously!

Anyway, so yesterday, my mom and I had one of our mother-daughter dates and this time, our adventures took us to Kutztown, PA. It's home to a university (who knew?), and also the Kutztown Folk Festival, which has been in operation since 1949. It celebrates Pennsylvania Dutch culture through the showcasing and selling of fine crafts, farming essentials, trades, quilts, and food. It's fantastic! It was a 2.5 hour drive for us, but it soon proved to be well worth the trip. Admission is $14 for adults, and gets cheaper from there. You can also find $2 off coupons online. The best part: parking is free! You can walk your dogs as you browse, and there are tons of things for children to do. Almost every station has an interactive element to get kids involved. There's also the only mule-powered carousel in the world. I took a picture, but I felt so bad for the mule . . . so I'm not going to post it. However, it's something for the kids, if they'd enjoy it.

Once you get into the Festival, there are just so many things to look at. You have blacksmiths, wood turners, metal workers, quilters, copper sprinklers, jewelry, pottery . . . literally everything you can imagine. Not to mention the food - fresh brick-oven baked breads, cinnamon rolls, pies, pretzels, meats, freshly brewed root and birch beers and sarsaparilla. Oh. My. Goodness. We could have stayed forever. It was so cool! And what honestly made it cool was that everyone that was there represented their craft, whether that was woodworkers, doormat makers (out of tires), bee cultivators, whatever. There was a glassblowing presentation. Each vendor sits and works on their specialty as you browse so you can see that the things you are buying are legit. 

The Quilt Barn was literally like a museum - for real, people were sitting on chairs and admiring the quilts. This is because Quilters pride themselves on doing every stitch by hand, if you're the real deal. My great-grandmother used to make quilts, and they are prized possessions in my family. This is why they're so valuable. You can cheat and do them on sewing machines, but deep down in your heart, you'd know you were a cheater. Anyway, every July 4 weekend, there is a massive quilt auction. Last year, one quilt sold for over $15,000!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the food that we had, but on the list was a GIANT cinnamon roll, eggplant fries with marinara, and an all-beef hot dog with sauerkraut. As well as fresh birch and root beers. Trust me, ALL diets were harmed in the making of this post ;) Enjoy!

 

 

 

National Gallery of Art

Wednesdays are usually mom days. That means my mom and I hang out, whether it's watching TV at her house, or going to the gym, or eating somewhere new for lunch. Today has been a day that we've been planning for a couple of weeks - homeleave was originally planned to start today (which means all the boarding school kids go home for the rest of the week), but because of the excess of snow days, we had to cut it short. So, we parked by the Jefferson Memorial, as usual. It's quite a hike, but it's free parking and the walk isn't bad if you're into DC, I guess.

We could only manage to make it to the National Gallery of Art, which was our main goal anyway. It doesn't compare to any other galleries I've been to recently. The national galleries are always the best: Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh, Bernini, Degas, Rothko. And the atmosphere is always amazing. They had a special archives gallery based on the recent release of Monuments Men, and though it was small, it was really great. Other exhibits included Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections, Modern German Prints and Drawings from the Kainen Collection, and the showcase of The Dying Gaul: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece from the Capitoline Museum, Rome. The latter was made in marble in the 1st or 2nd century AD and its showing in the National Gallery marks the first time it has left Rome since 1797 (before, it was housed in the Louvre until 1816 - can anyone guess why?).

The Dying Gaul

My mom usually isn't into these kinds of things, but I appreciate how she can find something to like in pretty much any situation, whether it be Bike Week in Daytona or the National Gallery in DC. She walked around commenting and analyzing the pieces, being more drawn to the ones feature nature and splendid amounts of detail as their focal points.

Although it was cold today, it ended up being a good day to be inside admiring art. We had a great lunch (with gelato for dessert) at the café downstairs, and then headed home after the long trek back the car.

One of my favorites, Lake Lucern by Albert Bierstadt.

Hercules in bronze.

Nymph of Spring

Nymph of the Forest

Adieu Caribou! xoxo

Artist Is Working

I'm in the middle of a Tumblr introspection challenge, and today was "Love Yourself Day." I was challenged to drink some tea, listen to good music, and read a book. I only did one thing out of those three, but I made it my own twist. I slept in until 11, took my time getting ready this morning, and then set out on a mini-adventure.

I've been in the mood for art lately. Since I started work at 4 today, I couldn't go to DC. I remembered that Hagerstown has a nice Art Museum in its city park, but it's closed on Mondays. So, I found the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in Downtown Frederick. I don't go into Frederick often and when I do, it's never downtown. I don't know the roads very well, but I decided it couldn't be that hard to find the art center, right? I had just watched a Do Lecture about a couple who sold everything they had and decided to bike down the Pacific Coastal Highway, from Washington State to the Mexican border, and one of the running themes that stuck with me was, "If you're not uncomfortable at least once a day, then you're not doing something memorable." Watch it here, and check out the site. There are a lot of cool lectures.

So, with that being in mind, I decided to do something uncomfortable. I listened to some wonderful music on the ride to and from Frederick, and I drank water instead of tea, read artist info instead of books. I got there and basically had the whole gallery to myself. It was filled with photography, watercolors, and acrylic pieces by local artists. It's small, and runs on donations, so if you ever go, don't be afraid to give them your pocket change or a check. Their gift store is amazing, with a lot of prints and hand-crafted jewelry and accessories. Frederick is definitely a cultural city; it has old, historic aspects but also a great contemporary food, art, and music scene. Worth the trip, every time.

Afterward, I walked along the Carroll Creek Promenade, which is always wonderful. The creek was frozen solid, and there weren't a lot of people out because of the cold, understandably. I was able to spend an hour in the area before heading to the Visitor Center, which has only been in its current location for three years. The lady at the front desk gave me a ton of brochures and suggested a 14-min movie that runs on a loop. It's actually really good, so if you go there, plan 14 minutes for it, and pick up maps on the C&O Canal, the Appalachian Trail, and the Civil War landmarks in the VA-MD area.

Lastly, on my way home, I swung by Sweet Frog and got some frozen yogurt. Everyone was nice that I came across today, and I came into work feeling peaceful and rejuvenated. It was definitely a "Love Yourself Day" for sure. So much fun.

Where my car was parked - a cute antique store on Carroll Ave.

Cheesecake fro-yo with strawberries, blueberries and a graham cracker dusting.