Lake Mills

For my sweet cousin Nikki's graduation, my family and I visited Lake Mills Wisconsin. My husband and I drew a card for her and I made a sign for the card box and wrapped it. While we were there we also had a great rainy day walking about. I am so very inspired. Oh how I love little towns....see what I mean.

This is the card that Joe and I drew. Joe drew Nikki first looking at one of her grad picts for reference. It looks so much like her. After he drew her I added in all of the scrolls, border, words, and stars. We had to snap a quick picture cause we don't travel with scanners and it needed to go in the box asap.

This is the card box that I wrapped and then made a sign for. I just drew it up super quick and taped it down. I like drawing borders especially when they are swirly.

On our rainy walk I saw this beautiful garden and I had to take a closer look.

This Venus statue is hidden in a garden just to the side of a driveway belonging to an old church building. The church is currently a residential building that is up for sale.

I went even closer and took her from a different side. She stands in the very middle of a maze-like walking path around her made up of short hedges.

These are peonies along the border of the driveway. There were many, many bushes of these beautiful dew filled flowers.

You can see how large and full the blooms are. So pretty. These were just outside of the little Venus maze garden.

Across the driveway there was a small little alcove that I was so curios about.

So I walked closer.

And there was a charming seated area under a trellis full of vines. I really wish I could buy this place. I can see me being so very happy here.

Here is the church building from across the street. Notice all the details like the tower, the stained glass window, and the stairway.

Walking a bit closer. 

This is one of the side doors. The roof and vines are so charming.

This is the largest window. Everything looked a bit gray that day. I can only imagine how stunningly magical it must look in the sun.

Another way to get in. I found three, but I am sure there are more.

I so wish could buy this lovely property, but alas it doesn't live where I do and it's price is only in my fantasy range.

Although I found myself very taken with the Church, continuing on our walk there was still more to be seen. This building is the towns library. Architecturally I am so drawn to the brick, the roof line, the little steeple, and the gingerbread doorway. It's located along the main street, that borders a central park.

This house is just one example of the charming buildings that make up the neighborhoods of this little town. There are so many pretty houses including many built in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

While walking along the main streets there were plenty of artistic stops to be found. I found this vintage store called Calamity Jane, which was not open that day, but it had a great entryway to look at threw the window. I pressed my camera/phone up to the glass to get a pict of this amazing and useful cabinet. I was so drawn to the colors of it and it’s staged really well with all those accessories. I challenge any girly girl to not like this piece.

If you want to buy the featured church building or just to see the spectacular pictures of the inside visit this site. www.cynthiaweston.com As amazing and fairy tale as the outside looks the inside is truly enchanting! If you do buy it please let me visit you! As an update they seem to have taken down the pictures or maybe the site is just not working for me today, either way it’s worth a try.

To see more about the shop Calamity Jane visit their Facebook at www.facebook.com/calamityjaneswi?sk=wall And be sure to stop by if you find yourself in lake mills.

fairy sketch love

For the spring art crawl I had hoped to draw many fairies. I wanted to have framed sketches of pretty fairies filling a whole wall, lots and lots and lots and lots of them. Although I still hope to do that, this fairy was the very special only one I had a chance to draw. She was so sweet in her expression, so hopeful, so understanding, and compassionate. She was so well received that I was commissioned to draw her again for a very special gift. This fairy has found a wonderful home, twice, and I was so honored to know that a seemingly simple drawing can mean so much to so many. Sometimes it's not about how many fairies I could have drawn, it's the one that I did draw and got to hang up on the wall.

I am really loving drawing on this particular paper. It is a rag paper that I drew my previous fairy from"i want to draw another fairy" post.  I can easily erase with my kneaded eraser and it doesn't leave a lot of marks because of the texture in the paper. I also really like the creamy color that makes all the drawings have a warm glow.