My husband Steve and I are celebrating our 11th Wedding Anniversary today! So we decided that since the kids are at Great Grandma's we'd go down to the Lakefront Festival of Arts. I love going to art shows! Plus, after we were done looking at the booths we could walk around the Art Museum. So off to Milwaukee we headed!
It was hot, but windy at the same time. Luckily, all the booths were housed underneath this long white tent. It was nice to be out of the sun when looking at all the wonderful treasures, but it did make it a little muggy in there. I would have taken some pictures to share with everyone, but the artists don't like photographs taken of their work and I can understand that. I had fun looking at all the blown glass. There was even a guy that had blown glass vases that had a ceramic look to them. The colors swirled and they had rough matte texture. I have no idea how he accomplished a look like that. They were amazing! I love coming to shows like this and seeing other people's inspired works of art. It gets all of my creative juices flowing.
The Art Museum itself had some really great works of art. I didn't see any impressionist paintings which made me a little sad. I'm not sure we saw all the different rooms. I get turned around pretty easily in museums. I was able to see some art by Georgia O'Keefe, whom I love. They also had some antique furniture on display. I got to see a beautiful floor lamp by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a chair/table with a stained glass panel by Frank Lloyd Wright and some stained glass windows by other artists. I love viewing antique stained glass. It's amazing the work that they were able to create with the limited tools and materials they had in those times.
So you might be wondering why I'm standing in the fountain. Well, for one thing it was hot and my feet felt like they were on fire, but there's actually a story behind this photo. The night I graduated from College, my friend Heidi and I went to a bar/restaurant to meet a boy (Steve) and some of his friends to celebrate our graduation. Well, you can say that Steve and I had our first date that night. We had fun listening to music, but decided to take a walk so we could get away from all the noise and talk. So we walked for awhile and eventually sat down on the front step of one of the local businesses. We talked some more and I positioned myself so I was facing him. I was trying to make it easy for him to lean in and kiss me. So I waited and waited and waited. No kiss. Then suddenly he jumps up and says he's going to jump into the fountain across the street. I have no idea why he thought that would be a good idea, but soon I was laughing so hard it didn't matter. He jumped into the fountain and promptly slipped and landed on his butt! He came back across the street completely drenched. He sat back down next to me, dripping water all over the place. A couple happened to be walking by just then and Steve said to them, "I just jumped in the fountain!" The guy says, "Why'd you do that?" Steve responds, "To win the heart of this beautiful young lady!" A completely cheesy line, but coming from a man like Steve it was very sweet. I'd like to say he leaned over and kissed me right then, but his shyness got the best of him. His friends showed up and he was getting ready to head home. At that point, I knew I had to take matters into my own hands. I said, "Are you going to kiss me or what?" Well, I got the sweetest answer.
So after all these years I figured it was my turn to jump in the fountain. Thank you for these awesome 11 years. I'm looking forward to more.
