Awake in Woodstock!

These are photos of the Historic Opera House on the square in Woodstock, Illinois

I thought this would be a great building to live in. It had this incredible architecture going for it.

How time flies when you're celebrating! I've been working hard to get ready for the Gathering (The annual conference for the International Society of Glass Beadmakers - ISGB). Then, we took a break and went to Illinois for Independence Day. As my friend Janel would say...There goes "Swirl Girl" again. June and July are always packed with so many things to do I tend to swirl around from this and that until I am a bit dizzier than normal.

The park in the Center of Woodstock, Illinois

While at our daughters in Wonder Lake (outside of Chicago) we got to relax and do some shopping. I know, lots of people don't find shopping relaxing but I'm chronic window browser and love to see new buildings, old towns, shops packed full of antiques, and anything over two stories tall. Kate (DD) took me to the nearby town of Woodstock.

Twice a week they have a farmers market that surrounds the town square. It was heaven to me. Fresh flowers, super fresh vegetables, soapmakers, eggs, bakers, farmers with fresh free range organic meat, and so on it went. They even had entertainment in the Gazebo. How fun. We filled a few bags on the square for dinner and then moved on to a few of the stores. I found some antique Milagros to add to my sugar skull designs and did some ooh and ahhhh at tons of antiques and jewelry.

Around the Woodstock Square they also had what many towns have been doing. It's the painting of a resin (fiberglass maybe?) animal and then the sculptures are displayed around the town. Woodstock's theme was "Rock On". They were all rocking horses on boxes. These were petty exceptionally done and cleaver so after I edit the photos I'll post some tomorrow for you to see.

The Woodstock claim to 15 minutes of fame is the fact that the movie "Ground Hog Day" was filmed there. I get it! It's a beautiful town. Now I'm going to have to go and rent the movie and see what has changed over all of these years.

And last, but always fun, on July 4Th we went to the Woodstock Theatre for a matinee. It's an old fashioned theatre but they were showing four current selections. We saw Eclipse for a whooping $4.00. Can you believe that? Oh, and...the popcorn was great and the employees all seemed to have on the old fashioned kind of theatre uniforms I used to have as a kid (I worked in a old theatre at 16). Are we done yet? No! They had free refills on popcorn and pop AND when you were leaving the theatre there was an attendant at the door with a huge bowl of hard candy. He was saying goodbye and expressing that he hoped you enjoyed your movie, "Would you like a piece of candy?" I will delightfully and honestly say I have never been treated nicer or had a better time for four dollars.

Now that I'm refreshed and rested it's back to the beads. Hope you like the photos!