Casa de Leche is located in the Gold Parking Lot near one of the main entrances to the Puyallup Fairgrounds. My Spanish is rusty (or almost non existant), but it seems to me that it translate to the house of milk. The fun cow shaped sculpture was created by Bruce and Shannon Anderson and is part of Puyallup’s Arts Downtown’s Permanent Art Collection. The Anderson’s website can be found here http://www.andersenstudios.com/index.html
There is only one place to buy jewelry made from the heather plant and that is from the Heathergems Factory in Pitlockry, Perthshire, Scotland, UK. The making of the gems is a cool process. First the roots of the heather plant are gathered and cleaned, then they are cut and dyed different colors from local, natural dyes and then they are bound tightly. Over time they roots compressed into a single multicolored piece which can then be cut and shaped like stone. Once shaped, the gem is shellacked and mounted for jewelry.
My World Childcare at 5915 Orchard Street is closed, but their wonderful mural remains! I didn’t find much about the business except that their motto was “Helping your child discover their world”. But really the story here is the vivid mural featuring children playing, reading and working. I hope whoever leases the building next appreciates the artwork and lets it remain.
Childhood’s End at 222 4th Avenue West in Olympia is one of my very favorite galleries. They feature Northwest and national artists and have a delightful combination of unusual and lovely decorative and functional items. Today I bought a pair of earrings that feature a tree design.The exterior wall of the store has this dramatic mural.
http://www.childhoods-end-gallery.com/
The Tacoma Glassblowing Studio at 114 South 23rd Street in Tacoma offers glass art that is lovely and unique. We got there almost at closing and were told that there was no rush. We came for the charity bake sale to benefit orphans in Romania, but ended up with a lovely blue class ball and information on taking a glass blowing class. Dear daughter is pretty enthused about the possibility.
I especially liked the way the evening light made their pumpkin glass pieces glow. They make pumpkins year round and in the fall they have pumpkin patches in different spots. How cool is that?! I’m looking forward to going to a couple already. 🙂
Their website is here www.tacomaglassblowing.com
On our way home from Long Beach, we visited the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge at 3888 State Route 101, Ilwaco, WA 98624. It was really a treat! There is a small display room in the ranger’s work area and of course a delightful ranger. There is a short, level boardwalk area with plenty of interesting art. The boardwalk goes next to a pond, which was full of newts! For the more ambitious walkers, there is a trail that is relatively steep and has nature facts along the way. It is a lovely and challenging walk and at the end is a meditative labyrinth.
Their website is here http://www.fws.gov/willapa/
A spring day during spring break, what a gift! So I made my dear daughter on a walk along Dock Street an East D Street (the East D Street Grade Separation Project) to look at the concrete images honoring Washington State Ferry Boats. We walked from Freighthouse Square along East D Street which is elevated over the rail tracks. Along the way are depictions of various ferries and Fire Boat #1. Each one has the general outline of its named boat. It is a nice touch. On Dock Street I stopped to snap the panorama above.
Each year the YWCA has a benefit for their domestic violence prevention & intervention programs. This year it was at Larson’s Mercedes-Benz of Tacoma at 1701 Alexander Avenue in Fife. It was great.Their showroom was filled with more quality wearable art then I’ve ever seen in one place and it was an added bonus that it supports the YWCA’s excellent mission. I walked away with a lovely necklace and a pin for my friend. While I was there I checked out a new Mercedes-Benz (I can dream!).
What was funny is that when I came home I took the Fife exit onto I-5 and pulled in right behind my husband’s blue truck. Really, what are the chances?
I guess we’ve reached that stage of life where we are looking at colleges. Today is my dear daughter’s birthday and we celebrated by going to visit DigiPen Institute of Technology at 9931 Willows Rd NE Redmond, WA 98052. Digipen has five undergraduate degree programs
So, it is a pretty narrow focus, but they have a great reputation for what they do.
