Worth The Stop

While up in the Sturgeon Bay area, we visited the Door County Historical Museum. We were astounded by this little museum. The exhibits are interesting, the museum is thoughtfully planned to make use of every available inch of space, and it's free!

Of the many, many exhibits, a couple really stood out from the rest (at least for me).

First, there were some fiber-related exhibits.







I really enjoyed that the museum made an effort to have a photo of the person to whom the item belonged.

This next item was quite a curiosity for me. For those of you who are looking for that hard-to-shop-for-loved-one or for the person who has everything -



Any of you recognize what this is?



Yes, you read that correctly.

A human hair wreath. Fascinating and, at the same time, a bit creepy.

Part of the museum has exhibits focusing on men from the area who fought in the civil war. This quirky bloke caught my interest.



To fully appreciate why he caught my attention, click the photo to enlarge and read the short biography.

Vacation, Part 2

Summer vacation had it moments of...

swimming,



reading on the beach, (my favorite place to find wonderful summer reading is Persephone Books)



flying kites Grandma had made,



taking a ferry to Washington Island, then to Rock Island,





and sunsets galore.

And What Did You Do On Your Summer Vacation?

The last week in July my family all vacationed together in the southern Door County area of northern WI. All total - 22 people all together in one place for a week.

It was sorta like this.



But with knitting.

Insert Witty French Phrase Here

A few weeks ago, some friends and I took a road trip to Milwaukee. The five of us first went to Bastille Days which, in my opinion, was a bit disappointing. The strolling minstrels and street performers were a bit creepy;

(this was one exception)


the vendors, for the most part, were all offering the same types of goods (tie-dyed clothes, bags, jewelry); and there was very little French cuisine available from food vendors. There was one crepes stand and that was about it for "authentic" cuisine.

When the French eat cheese, I don't think it's in this form -



We took a whirl around the festival, shopped a tiny bit, then on our way back to the car, investigated a place that we noticed on our way to the festival - the Grohmann Museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

This place is a hidden gem!! I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it before.

What caught our attention when we were passing by were statues on the top of the building, which turned out to be the rooftop sculpture garden.

Admission was only $5 and we spent nearly 3 hours exploring the collections.



The collections are based on the theme of Man At Work. They even had fiber-related work covered.









Even the mosaic floor of the entrance has fiber-related art.



One area of the museum focuses on the steel works that were once in Milwaukee. In that collection, this stove in particular caught my eye.

Oh, to have a stove that looks like a cathedral.

In Memoriam - Joyce Williams

Joyce was such a dynamo - so much talent in such a little package.

How I would have loved to spend a day in the playground of her mind. "Latvian Dreams" and "Armenian Knitting" were just the tip of the iceberg.

This is a photo from knitting camp - when Joyce was showing the beautiful shawl she had knit - from a doily pattern.



She always had a story to tell and had a 50,000 watt smile.



You are sorely missed.

Rest in peace, Joyce.