Weekend fun!

Mixed in with Art Crawl preparations, I've been able to enjoy the past few days of beautiful fall weather, complete with some artsy activities.

Friday afternoon hubby and I took off to enjoy a bit of the Fresh Art Tour--basically a studio crawl in the Maiden Rock-Stockholm-Pepin area of Wisconsin. It's just a little over an hour drive from the Cities and so worth the trip. Especially lovely along the river bluffs with the leaves changing color in the fall.

Our first stop was in Maiden Rock. We visited Swan Song and Secret Heart Gallery--two lovely galleries/homes located next to one another on Hwy 35 as you drive into town. Both are worth the visit. They are primarily open on the weekends in the summer. I will be back next year for sure!

We made a quick run through Stockholm, where we enjoyed several stops at local galleries/shops. Stockholm is my favorite town. It always makes me happy when I visit. It has that lovely small town vibe mixed with artsy flair. Perfect combo, if you ask me. You can see some of my Stockholm pics on this earlier post.

Following our delicious pie at the Stockholm Pie Company (crust second only to my mom's), we headed out of town to check out some other artist studios. We stopped at the sculpture studio of Myklebust + Sears. The drive alone with quite the treat, but we also had a lovely visit there and learned that they are working on some large public pieces that will be featured at the light rail station a few blocks away. I realized that I have also seen their work other places in the Twin Cities. 

We continued to meander and finished our tour at the Hilsgen Family Farm, where they featured lovely hand-woven rugs and tasty gourmet goat cheese. I loved visiting their goats.

Saturday, after I dropped hubby off for an acting gig, I spent an hour strolling through the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Certainly, not enough time to take in much of the collection, but enough time to get my day off to a great start. I need to head back there soon for a much longer visit.

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon at a Mentor Introduction session for the Warm Mentor program--I will write more about that later. Following all that, I picked up hubby and we headed to Trotter's to take down my art that has been hanging there for two months. It was a nice to have my work out in the public. And excellent timing to get it all back in time for the Art Crawl.

Today we enjoyed a beautiful, beautiful day at Target Field. The sun shone on us brightly for nearly the entire game! Unfortunately we lost, but are headed to the playoffs. We are not likely to go to any of the postseason games, so this was our last game of the season. I LOVE baseball & the Twins...and can't believe the regular season is over. Of course, we still have lots of baseball to enjoy--since we plan to keep winning all the way through till the World Series!

I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend!

Now I'll be buckling down and finishing preparations for the Crawl. Tomorrow I'll be locked up in the studio, finishing a little painting and varnishing.