Back to art! My first Halloween Painting

I love Halloween and I love cupcakes!
These are just to show how the worked progressed

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. My childhood memories were getting to choose a costume, have a little party at school and then go trick or treating with my plastic pumpkin bucket. This painting reminds me of the Halloween cupcakes that were brought in with cute little plastic decorations on top of them. My boys are lucky enough to go to a school that lets the kids were a costume in the school's parade. They parade past each other then go back to their class for some fruit juice and treats. I know some people like to make Halloween into something more than a chance to play dress up and get treats but to me that is what Halloween represents. One day a year you can be anything you want and eat sweets. What do you like best about Halloween?

More Pics From Bishop Hill

Plants for sale in a neat old wire stand.
Swedeish Flag with begonias decorating the front of the Red Oak Inn restaurant.
The front of the old colony store. There are large groupings of beautiful zinnias on the left side of the building. My favs:)
We were told that these ornately painted horses are a good luck symbol in Sweden. I'm not even sure that I captured half of what they had on their shelves in the Colony Store. They also have moose painted like the horses (shown towards the top of the picture).

Oh how I love places with a sense of history, charm and a relaxed atmosphere. Bishop Hill not only has an art gallery in an old iron works building, a super cute restaurant with fabulous food but an old time colony store! There is really something for everyone in there; candy in jars, kitchen goodies, Christmas ornaments made in Sweden. My ten year old son got to write in his end of year book at school all of his favorites and he listed this place. Definitely like mother like son.

Feline, Friends, Fair and Fun

This is a picture of Jasper trying to figure how to break into the art world. He has scaled to the top of the Museum of Modern Art. Now if only he could get in there. He would show them all his talent!
My niece and my oldest son taking the Sky Glider at the Iowa State Fair. The weather was fabulous and it was a picture perfect day.
Aunt Charlene and I standing outside the restaurant in Bishop Hill.
Aunt Charlene really liked this idea and may end up making one of her own.
My little boy enjoying the view 150 feet off the ground.

This Iowa State Fair is listed in "The 1,000 Places to See Before You Die" and it truly is so much fun! My must see list includes:

5. The fabulously decorated cakes(think Food Network cake competitions but not as tall)in the Elwell Family Center
4. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources building with the huge aquariums holding Iowa's native fish species
3. The Big slide (the kids love this giant slide painted in yellow and green)
2. The giant butter cow in the Agricultural Building (love the exhibits in there!)
1. The Cultural Center my favorites are the miniature houses and rooms they are so elaborately done. I wish I would've taken pictures but I was busy keeping my eyes on the kids:) This is my favorite building because it has all types of art from photography to paintings to tie-dye.

The third picture is Aunt Charlene and I standing in front of one of my favorite restaurants in the world! See the pink cake box in her hands? She bought a yummy strawberry rhubarb pie for Uncle Bob. I wonder who's going to churn the ice cream for this pie?

The fourth picture is of an angel done in wool scraps. Aunt Charlene thought this was a very cool idea. This gal knows how to make do with what she has. The more I visit with her the more I realize just how much we have in common. She loves arts and crafts, never likes to make more than one of things and loves yard sales. She and Uncle Bob are up visiting for a long weekend at my parents house and the four of them are having so much fun running around! We passed the casino on the way to the restaurant and Aunt Charlene said she lost 800 at the casino Friday night. Knowing her thrifty spirit I wisely guessed that is was 800 pennies.

The last picture is of one of the twins riding high above St. Louis. The building the ferris wheel sits on top of is the City Museum. It is eleven stories tall. I love St. Louis and all the free things you can do there. We so enjoyed the zoo, art museum, the Basillica of St. Louis and the best part? All free!

Mississippi Valley Fair - I made the local news!

Hello all! My family works really hard one week out of the year serving up sweet corn and potatoes to hungry fairgoers. The local news anchorman stopped by to work at our booth and here is the cute video. I'm in the green shirt helping Jason Fechner, hunky newsman, prepare one of our delicious baked potatoes. 
I am going to have to start watching the evening news again just to see this guy. He was a lot of fun! Oh and the tall guy at the end is my Dad.