08.21.17 Art and Architecture (Wisconsin - Part 2)

Kerry's butterfly

**We now return to our regularly scheduled programming**

We didn't JUST eat pie for week - Kerry also toured me around south central Wisconsin to see some wonderful sights.

Before we went to Hubbard Avenue for our first slice, we had a wonderful morning at the Vinery Stained Glass Studio taking a fused glass class.  Since going to the Corning Museum of Glass last summer, and recently spending time at Salado Glassworks, I've become more and more interested in learning about glass and with an eye towards incorporating it into my jewelry.

With our finished garden stakes

For over than 30 years, the Vinery has offered art glass supplies and classes in Madison.  Kerry had taken classes there already, including a fused glass class where she made a butterfly garden stake.  As luck would have it - there was another garden stake class scheduled for the first weekend I was there - so we signed up.

We had a great time creating our floral stakes - two each.  We decided that we would each keep one of our own, and swap one - as keepsakes from our week together. When we picked them up - we were delighted to see that our designs were being featured on the the flyer for the next class!

Our next "art" outing  was a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's home and architecture school at Taliesin.  Wright's family had deep roots in Spring Green, Wisconsin, which is only about an hour from Madison, so Kerry signed us up for a half day tour of the campus - which included both the school he built and the home where he lived most of his tumultuous life.




We got there early, giving me time to wander through the gift shop in the visitors center where I spotted, among other things, some lovely glass earrings (it was clear fused glass was going to be a theme for this trip).






I was further intrigued when I turned the earring card over and learned that the artists - both immigrants - create their work using both original art and recycled glass.

Earrings from Momo Glassworks

We took the tour - which I highly recommend if you are ever in the area - and we returned to the visitors center. Without much more hemming and hawing, I decided that I needed this pair of earrings, and that they would make a wonderful souvenir.

In addition to traipsing through the buildings at Taliesin, we walked off our many slices of pie on a number of other outings...

We spent a wonderful day in the artists community of Mineral Point where we wandered in and out of delightful shops (and maybe did a little holiday shopping - but of course - I can't post pictures of those purchases here).

One of the many gorgeous restored
wagons at the Circus World Museum

As I mentioned in my previous post, Baraboo was the home of the Ringling Brothers, and while there, we visited the Circus World Museum.  There was plenty to walk around and see, including  their wonderful collection of restored circus wagons and an hour long one ring show under their big top!


On our way home - after our pie - we stopped at Wollersheim Winery for a tour and tasting (and of course, more cheese).










We spent the last day before the guys rolled in from their week in Iowa exploring downtown Madison - including another Frank Lloyd Wright landmark - Monona Terrace, with beautiful gardens facing the state capitol and a rooftop cafe overlooking Lake Monona.

It was a wonderful week - and I have some lovely mementos of my trip - but more than any trinket I could pack up and bring home, I am grateful for the time with my college roommate and friend of more than 30 years.  We picked up - talking, laughing, cooking and eating - right where we left off when we were much younger...and we don't plan to wait nearly so long to do it again.

Until next time.

08.16.17 Charlottesville

I graduated from the University of Virginia in 1985.  This is my class ring.  Since this is ostensibly a jewelry blog, here's a picture - but this is not a typical post.  It's not going up on a Monday, and it's not about jewelry - it's about Charlottesville.

What happened last weekend in this city that I hold near and dear has shaken me to my core.  I've seen several posts along the lines of "can't we all just get along" or "can't we just talk about something else"?

No and no...and because I write a blog, I am going to use it to speak out.

We can't "all just get along". I will never, ever, ever "get along" with people who are filled with hatred and spew vile, racist, xenophobic, homophobic rhetoric and march through our streets with symbols of Nazism and weapons in an attempt to intimidate and harm people who don't look or think like they do.

We can't "talk about something else" because that's how we got here. Talking about our country's history is hard - because there is a whole lot of ugly stuff - but we can't move forward until we acknowledge that as great as our nation is (and I do believe that), much of it was built by slaves - and there continue to be white men (not exclusively, but largely) who want to hold on to wealth and power at the expense of everyone else.

We must acknowledge that the man who currently sits in the Oval Office is an avowed racist who knew exactly what he was doing when he courted white supremacists in order to win both the nomination of the Republican party and the electoral vote.

The Nazis who marched through Charlottesville don't scare me nearly as much as the people who just "want to be nice". As a survivor of WWII who has been quoted recently said:

"Nice people make the best Nazis. They got along, refused to make waves and looked the other way when things got ugly."

08.07.17 On Wisconsin!

Photo credit: justsomething.co

Greetings readers!  I told you I had lots of plans this summer - and I recently spent a week of it in America's Dairyland.

My college roommate and her husband have a lovely home (and a beautiful garden) just outside Madison, WI (which, for purposes of this trip, is not too far from Iowa - certainly not as far away as Texas).

This matters because our husbands thought it would be great fun to get on their bikes and ride upwards of 400 miles across Iowa in a week...so they signed up for RAGBRAI (the Des Moines Register's Great Bike Ride Across Iowa).

Kerry's garden

Kerry and I had absolutely no interest in the ride, and thought it would be much more fun to spend some time together catching up and doing touristy things - so that's exactly what we did.  We went on an art and pie filled tour of south central Wisconsin.

I had always planned to write a blog post about the trip - but turns out - it's going to take two. So, here's Wisconsin - part 1.

One of many pie updates -
apple and cherry

With her quick wit and mad baking skills, Kerry was the inspiration behind my Cherry Pi pendant, which I took to her as a hostess gift.

In return, she saw to it that I was appropriately "pie'd" during my visit (as were the guys, who sent regular updates with photos of the slices they ate along their route).  It's important to understand that pie and cheese are to Wisconsin as barbecue and tacos are to Texas...and people have very strong feelings about them.

Our pies - apple walnut caramel and chocolate silk

Our pie tour started in Madison, at the Hubbard Avenue Diner, where we went after taking a glass fusing class (details about that in the next post).  Words and photos don't do these slices justice - the apples and walnuts were still crisp (a must, as I have learned - the fruit should still be recognizable, and not mush), the crust was flaky, and I ate every bite.



On our way home, we made a stop at Carr Valley Cheese.  I told you - these people take their cheese very, very seriously.

That's a whole lotta cheese!

From there, we went home and enjoyed wine, cheese and the gorgeous weather (which was a wonderful respite from the 100s we'd been having in Austin).

The following day, Kerry made our next pie, which was probably my favorite all week...perhaps because it was made by request, and contained some of my favorite flavors - tomato, basil and cheese.

That's right, not all pies are sweet, there are lots of recipes for savory pies...and this one took the cake (so to speak)!

I kept eating this one - for lunch and dinner - all week!

Kerry makes baking pie look deceptively easy - as does any artist who is a master at their craft.  She puts flour, butter, salt, water and some magic into her food processor; plops the dough out onto her floured counter, pulls out her rolling pin and - voilà - pie crust.

The next day we took a short road trip to Baraboo, the home of the Ringling Brothers, to visit the Circus World Museum and dine at the Log Cabin Restaurant where we had (you guessed it) more pie.

Peanut butter cream for Kerry, caramel apple for me

You can order pie as a side item (instead of french fries or a vegetable) and Kerry told me in advance that was the way to go.  I was glad she did, because even with just a turkey sandwich for lunch - I couldn't finish my dessert.

You'd think by now I might be pie'd out - but I wasn't.  There were two more fruit pies in my future...peach and mixed berry...the last of which Kerry sent home with us, and I polished off before diving into almost two weeks of ignored emails and held snail mail.

We didn't JUST eat pie - we had some great Italian food (including cannoli for dessert) and saw some wonderful sights. But the pie was so good, it deserved it's own post.

More about the trip next time...