Salt Art Fun

 After wine tasting, the weather cleared up some so Danielle and I decided to head to Smith Park for Art in the Park. They said they would have a variety of crafts and just to stop in. 

Just like the City Carnival, it was geared towards elementary school kids and tweens. It said all ages. Yeah not really for adults. There was sponge painting, nail polish, bracelet making, play doh creations, and other things that just did not interest us. 

There was one thing that we decided wasn't too easy and decided since we drove all the way here, we might as well partake. That was salt painting.

Salt painting is rather simple.

1. Draw a design on paper with glue. 

2. Pour salt over glue

3. Using water color paints or water with food coloring in it, paint the salt.

4. Let Dry. This step is very, very important. Failure to let it dry, will result in the colors running and the artwork.  I learned this the hard way.

Okay so it was not a masterpiece art project, I was hoping for but as Danielle said, it got us out of the house and gave us something to do. 

Hopefully next year Mother Nature cooperates so they can do balloon paint art. If not, I'm not going. 

This is a great activity if you have kids that like art and need to burn off some creative energy. If you are an adult looking for a fun art project, check out the local libraries. 

A Midweek Wine Tasting

 Danielle and I talked about going to Art in the Park at Smith Park but the weather wasn't really cooperating. She then mentions that Club Liquor was having a wine tasting and it was free. Free wine? Of course, I'll leave the house for that.

The featured wine of the evening was Heitz Cellar, a wine out of Napa Valley, CA. Neither of us ever heard of them but we were willing to try them. 

There were four wines to taste -- all Cabernet Sauvignons, just from different years. There were also a few nibbles.. salami and tomatoes to munch one.

My favorite was the last wine we tried which was the 2010 vintage. I'm not a huge Cabernet Sauvignon fan because it's usually a dry red but this one was really good. Danielle said we couldn't afford any bottles. It was good but not that good anyways. The hubby won't like it.

I did not know Club Liquor did wine tastings but I would definitely go to another one given the chance. It was a nice time with good wine. Now I just need to figure out how to learn about their tastings.

5198. Go to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center

 While Andrea and I were strolling through the Kohler Arts Festival, I mentioned I don't think I ever been in the Arts Center. Since it was warm out and the Arts Center was air conditioned going inside didn't seem like a bad idea especially since neither of us had an urge to buy art.

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is located near downtown Sheboygan and is open Tuesday through Sunday and is free to visit. The building used to be the Kohler Mansion.

The first exhibit we checked out was Woody De Othello: Hope Omens. This was a ceramic sculpture exhibit. The sculptures were very good but I couldn't pose as the sculptures. It runs through September 25th.

We checked out the pin exhibit that was created by a blind women who can tell colors by the heat they give off. During COVID not all the colors were available so her pieces were a lot more monochromatic.

The Sarah Zapata: a resilience of things not seen exhibit was a fiber arts exhibit. Her work was unusual. I don't normally thing of rugs and other fabrics as art but her sculptures were very cool. Her exhibit is there until August 28th.

I really enjoyed the In The Adjacent Possible exhibit. It was bright and colorful. It features various artists and will be there until March 2023. 

Andrea made me sit in the green shag chair that was part of the exhibit.

Of course I had to do a tree poise as well

No visit to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center is complete without checking out the bathrooms. Each one is unique. Where else do you check out the restrooms just to see what they look like?

Outside around the Art Center is various stone sculptures. You definitely need to check out some of them. My favorite was the castle.

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is worth checking out. Their exhibits are very modern and fun. I would go back and see future exhibits. 

5212. Go to Kohler Arts Festival in Sheboygan

 I promised Andrea I'd come down to Sheboygan after my last Sheboygan adventure and we'd go to the Art Preserve. I get to her house and she was like we could go to the Art Preserve or we could go to the Kohler  Arts Festival. Since the Arts Festival was closer to the beach where we needed to do a photo shoot, I opted for the Arts Festival.

The Midsummer Festival of the Arts is located in and around City Green and the Kohler Art Center. We found parking a block or so away and walked down to the festival. 

There was a stage with music. It was a Hispanic band that was quite good.

Several food trucks lines up on the street including this really cool one that had poke bowls. Since we already had lunch, we skipped the food trucks and opted for ice cream down by the lake later.

Since we weren't too crazy about wandering around outside of the Art Center looking at art we weren't going to buy and pretend to be interested in it, we opted to check out the Kohler Art Center. You can read more about that here. 

After touring the museum, we headed back outside and visited the craft tent. Inside they were featuring fiber arts and we could make our own coin purse using various fiber art materials.. plastic yard craft sheets, felt, fabric, yarn, embroidery floss, etc. There was glue and needles to help with the construction of the coin purse. 

Needless to say we weren't the greatest fiber artists. I forgot to sew the red circles on before creating my coin purse so I had to glue them and then attempt to stitch them on to hold them better. Andrea said she'd finish at home.

The Midsummer Festival of the Arts is fun for the whole family. Even though we didn't really check out the art vendors, there was still plenty to see and do... and eat. If I'm in the area again next year, I would stop by and check it out again.

Veggie Tales -- Swiss Chard

 I am not a huge vegetable fan especially leafy green ones. I stick to the basic veggies: Carrots, green beans, corn, peas, cucumber, radishes, and shredded lettuce. I hate tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower -- the later two I can tolerate if they are raw. If put in front of me and challenged, I will at least try most things. However, I am not going out of my way to eat my veggies.

When I went to the cooking club at the library, we were nearly forced to take some vegetables from the community garden. I snipped some parsley and a little kale. I stayed far from the Swiss chard.. it looked too much like Rhubarb. However, the librarian pretty much insisted that I take swiss chard. I figured I'd mix it with the kale for a salad. I was told it was better cooked. Cooked?? Um.. not so much.

When I got home, I started looking for Swiss Chard recipes on Pinterest. I found a lot of recipes for cooked swiss chard. I found a recipe for pasta, sausage, and swiss chard. Since I had to fend for myself this week and had some kielbasa in the freezer, I figured I would make this instead of sauerkraut casserole.

Fast forward to Thursday. I went to make dinner. First I chopped the swiss chard The stem into bite size pieces and rolled the leaves and then sliced them into pieces.

Then I read the recipe and ran into an issue. I had no tomato paste. Okay no problem, I will just skip it. As I kept reading, I thought the broth won't work without the tomato paste. Time to improvise.

After cooking the sausage and swiss chard, I decided to add some lemon juice since I heard that lemon and swiss chard went well together. I was slightly worried about the lemon and kielbasa but I figured I'd worry about that later. I also added the red pepper flakes and garlic from the original recipe along with lemon pepper seasoning.

Once the pasta and sausage was done, I mixed the sausage and swiss chard mixture into the pasta.

Then I sprinkled it with the parmesan cheese and dug in.

It was amazing. Because I diced the swiss chard small, it was not really noticeable. I only used 1 swiss chard leaf so that might be part of why I didn't really taste it. 

 I will definitely make it again. Maybe I will even make the real recipe. I just have to get some swiss chard.

313. Go to a carnival

Menasha Parks and Rec was having a city carnival in Smith Park I wanted to go because I've never been to a carnival and it sounded like fun. Danielle agreed to come along. However she said we've been to a carnival when we went to Chicken Fest in Darboy the other year. I was like that is a festival not a carnival. Stacy agreed with Danielle and apparently festivals and carnivals are interchangeable. Who know?

The Menasha City Carnival was not a whole of fun. They claimed games and fun for all ages but apparently they really meant kids. Tickets were $5 for 20 tickets but there wasn't enough activities that I would spend my $20 tickets on. There were a lot of games, some inflatables, and even the library. The only game that looked half way fun was the mini golf and of course it had a line. So much for playing games at the carnival. Party on the Plaza in Little Chute had better games.

We saw there was going to be Jeff McMullen, entertainer, at 6 pm. We grabbed a seat at the picnic table in the shade and waited for the show to begin. Jeff McMullen is a magician. He is very personable and great with the kids. However for two adults, he was very annoying. We stayed about 5 minutes into the show and decided we had enough. 

The highlight of the night was the walk back to the car where I walked the balance beam. I managed not to fall off or kill myself. It was quite fun.

Now that I've "been to a carnival", I really should find a better one to go to. There is nothing wrong with the Menasha City Carnival if you are between the ages of 2 and 10. After that, find a bigger carnival to attend. 

6816. Make homemade granola

 For the cookie exchange, Janis made homemade granola. That stuff was addictive as heck. She gave us the recipe and I was meaning to make some. Finally I was sick of yogurt and decided to make her granola. 

The recipe is fairly straight forward. I just didn't have nuts or dried fruit in the house.

First you mix all the ingredients besides the nuts and fruit together.

Spread it on a baking sheet and bake. 

Stir periodically while baking.

Tip: Make sure you get put it in a bowl or something after you take it out of the oven so it doesn't dry on the foil and make it harder to get it off.

Mix in your fruit and nuts or my case chocolate chips and coconut.

Enjoy.

It is super easy and super tasty. I will definitely make it again and maybe will remember to get walnuts or almonds for a nutty crunch. I should also get dried cherries or cranberries for a fruity mix in. We'll see about that. I liked the chocolate and peanut butter chips to give it sweetness.