Busy weekend and LOTS of pictures

Bud and I went down to Grand Rapids Thursday evening. We were planning to attend a wedding on Saturday and took an extra day to spend it with Eva and Jessica attending the Grand Rapids Art Prize downtown. It was a rainy morning on Friday but Eva and I set out for downtown. This is one of the outside displays.

This display and all the sculptures are made from bent nails. It was very cool, with lots of details when you looked at it.

Some of the displays were inside. This piece was in the BOB, a building downtown. It is made from different

Jessica took the afternoon off and joined us. The weather improved and we continued to explore. This is a sculpture that was outside. It was made from leftover metal.

Bud went to visit a friend in the morning and joined us for lunch too. Look in the background and you can see a profile sculpture. I can't remember what it was made from but we decided this would make a funny picture.

This was one of the inside displays, a paper mache' (sorry I can't spell that word) It looked so realistic and beautiful. I felt it captured the grace of the animals well.

Here we had a 'sound exhibit' which Eva and Jessica relaxed and listened to.

This piece had a message. In the background you see two children carrying water. All around the pool were plastic bottles that are used to carry water. The bottles had messages about clean and safe water for the world. Art with a message can be very powerful.

Here we have a penny sculpture made out of different pennies that have aged into different tones of copper.

This statue is made completely from toothpicks that were shaped into this mermaid.

This carving was down by the river. I looked at it from above and thought of Sara. I think this would be one that she would find fascinating.

We looked at this piece on Sunday when we went back down for lunch. This is made completely from Rubix cubes.

That is it for the Art Prize experience. If you are interested in seeing more of the pieces, you should google it and check out the details of the pieces. I am glad that we were able to go and enjoy it with Eva and Jessica. I think it is a great thing for Grand Rapids and would recommend it to anyone.

Well, Bud wasn't into the art as much as us girls so he joined us for lunch and did some chores for Eva. Here he is working on cutting down a fence that Eva is thinking of using as a headboard in the upstairs guest room. It was kind of dirty and a bit unstable. He put a stabilizing piece on the bottom and cut it off. It was ready for Eva to 'do her magic' when she is ready. I am always amazed at her ability to take 'found objects' and turn them into something that looks great in her house.

He also installed a new vent for the downstairs bathroom and inserted a 'privacy' covering for that window so that when you are taking a shower, people can't see in. The window goes out toward the back yard but you are a little exposed if someone decided to look in the window.

There was a little excitement on Friday morning. I mentioned that it was a little rainy and windy that morning. Well, a BIG tree in the woods behind the neighbor's house split in the wind and fell down. This one large branch fell in their backyard.

Another branch fell toward Eva's house but got caught up in the trees. It is now 'hung up' there waiting to fall or for someone to come and cut it up.

The branch is resting right in the corner of the yard.

You can see it right up in the trees. Eva found out who owns the property behind the house and a neighbor is looking into how to get this taken care of soon.

The third branch fell into the woods. It will leave a little hole in the trees but I am sure that it will fill in soon.

Sunday we went downtown again for lunch. Doug was able to join us. He had a rugby game in Ohio on Friday. We celebrated his upcoming 40th birthday with lunch.

Funny birthday cards are part of our family fun.

The Victoria Secret bag should have been a clue to the gift enclosed.

Doug and his 'ruffled' birthday gift. It was fun.

Lots of fun and birthday treats closed out our weekend in Grand Rapids.

Saturday afternoon and evening we did attend a wedding south of Grand Rapids. That was a beautiful and fun event too.

I guess I slipped this picture in here because we did visit this exhibit on Sunday after lunch.

It was a great weekend. So many pictures but I did have trouble picking the best. I encourage you to go to the Art Prize website and find some more information about he wonderful and creative artists if any of these pieces were of interest to you.