I love art festivals!

Yesterday Chris and I went to the Winter Park Art Festival with our friends.  The first task was to find a parking spot.  That took forever and ended up costing $5, but in the end it was worth it!  We met with Nick and Federica to have lunch.  Lunch was alright, but I was anxious to get to the art festival.  We walked around for 2.5 hours and saw a ton of amazing art work.  I have to admit though, that I didn't see anything that made me think I just had to have it... not like the cute frog prints I purchased last weekend.  Another thing that I noticed was that I could not afford most of the prints at this show.  Most places wanted $75 for a print!  Being that I am a graduate student, it really made me appreciate the prints I purchased for $20 each of the cute frogs.  For that reason, I would like to say a big THANK YOU to Rob Kaz for not overpricing his amazing art work so that I could still enjoy it!

The one thing that I especially love about art festivals, no matter what the cost of the artwork, is that I always leave feeling inspired!  I just want to run home and pull out my sketch book and find a pencil and eraser.  I've decided that I want to take painting classes, since that is something I never really took in school.  In high school, I took classes on drawing and pottery, but never really on painting.  I have no idea when or where I will find a class or the time, but eventually I will get there.

Along the walk through the festival, I passed people with what looked like frozen yogurt with fresh fruit on top!  That became an absolute must find for me!  I love frozen yogurt!  Eventually we found my new favorite dessert place... Tutti Frutti!  Seriously, how did I not know about this place before now?!?!  I had a mixture of pomegranate and death by chocolate frozen yogurt and topped it with dark chocolate, coconut, granola, kiwi, strawberries, blackberries, and mango... yes, I know that is a ton, but I just kept finding more things that looked good!  I love that you can get whatever you want and then you pay based on weight.  Brilliant!  I was in heaven!

 That just looks delicious, does it?!  Be prepared to see more pictures of that delicious dessert in the future!

After the art festival, Chris and I went to pick up our amazing tree sculpture that we purchased at the art festival last weekend.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  The leaves are made of rubber and the trunk of aluminum.  That is an actual piece of wood that it is sitting on.  The artist, Dale the Tree Mon, does not currently have a website for me to link to, but if you are interested in his work let me know, and I can give you his e-mail address.  I found out that he has some of his artificial bonsai trees on Joe Bonsai's site... check them out here!  Here is our tree, sitting on our dresser:

Today it is rainy out, which makes me feel especially lazy.  I have done a lot of sleeping and relaxing.  Now it is time to work on my poster for my research.  I'd like to go for a run  later, but that will depend on the weather.  I have already spent three days not running, so I would love get out there today for at least a little run.  I am also feeling much better and the ringing in my ear seems less frequent so far today!  Yay!!!

I thought I'd end this by sharing a few pictures of my super adorable niece, Joy.  The pictures were taken with my sister's phone, so the quality is poor, but she is too cute not to share!

 Finally, check out the Thorlo Experia Sock Giveaway at Endurance Isn't Only Physical.  Speaking of socks, what kind of socks do you all wear when running?  I am discovering that I desperately need some new socks.  I even tried "borrowing" Chris's, but of course they are too big.

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday!!!!