Estate Sale Goodies, The House on The Rock, and a Sketch

Last Friday I went to an estate sale in Lansing. The woman to whom the estate had belonged was an artist. I've never been to such an event before. There was stuff everywhere and I had to dig in drawers to find some of the things that I ended up purchasing. I bought ten watercolor paper pads - actually one of them is a block; three different sets of oil pastels; a package of oil chalks; one package of pastel sticks; ten softcover art books; two hard cover art books; and a brand new watercolor palette. It was a good experience except for the fact that it was 90º and most of the things I wanted to look at were in an upstairs studio - hot! hot! hot!

On Saturday morning we left for a wedding in Madison, Wisconsin, with a stop in Milwaukee to see my Aunt Mary. It was an awful trip - way too much traffic - way too much time spent in a car - ugh! By the time we arrived at our hotel in Madison, it was 5:30 in the afternoon and we were beat. The stay at the hotel was good. Three of the hubster's brothers were there and one of his sisters and a nephew too. Needless to say, breakfasts at the hotel were fun and friendly. The wedding was lovely - the bride was quite beautiful - but it was outside and the dress I wore was lined. We were outside for about two hours before having dinner inside an air conditioned facility. The site of the wedding, Quivey's, was a great place for such an occasion. On Monday, we arose early, had breakfast and hit the road once again. On the way home, traffic was better, but still we were in the car way too long and were very glad to be home again when we arrived around 5:30. The water has receded quite a bit in the creek, but the basement still has a bit of water and lots of fine mud. Ugh!


Because the wedding on Sunday wasn't until 3 pm, several of us went to the House on the Rock earlier in the day and the guys really liked it. I was dying in the heat, but did see some wonderful sights. There were a couple of bookcases filled with old books and it was heartbreaking to be that close and not be able to choose the ones I wanted. They were exactly the kind of books that I look for to repurpose.

I did manage to get a quick sketch done using as a reference a photo from The Retirement Chronicles. Joan was kind enough to give me permission. Do check out her blog; she is a wonderful photographer. I'm afraid that I have yet to learn to use a piece of paper to protect my work and I smeared the ink a bit.

I am meeting up with Kip today and we are going spanortin'. I hope to have a good story to tell tomorrow, as well as a bit of art. I have a bit of work to do before I meet up with her, so I'd best get on my horse!


xoxo