I love my little town

Today on our way to church we stumbled across the Fine Arts & Wine Festival happening on our little Main Street.  I don't know why, but community events like this get me all excited.  I think I just love the small town feel it brings and the fact that I "belong" to that community and get to be a part of it.

Also, I saw a sign for Chicken on a Stick.  If you're selling sketchy street food from a cart I'm totally there.  Sick, I know.  But it's always so delicious!

Anyways... we decided to check it out after we got home from church.  Awesome decision!!!

There are a ton of cute little shops and boutiques all along main street that I had not gotten to explore yet.  I dragged poor Doad into every single one of them today.  I couldn't resist all the cute decorative pieces - they were great inspiration for me since I'm in the middle of painting and decorating my craft room! :)

There was also a chalk station.  Anyone could draw on a square and then judges voted on them at the end.  Prizes were based on age category and ranged from chalk sets to gift cards for some of the local shops.  These were a few of my favorites:

After we got through all the boutiques we made it to the main festival area.  It was almost like Etsy in a festival! A large majority of the booths were handmade jewelry shops, but there were also hand carved wood pieces, candles, pottery, and my personal favorite, painted gourds!  Then there were the wine booths and of course a fresh local cheese booth (what wine festival is complete without cheese?)

Seriously, aren't those painted gourds amazing? I wish I could paint like that.


We live near the train tracks and what used to be an old train station.  It's a restaurant now, but next to it there are some old boxcars with model trains set up inside them.  I can't wait to take my nephew, The Cuteness, to see these trains.  I know he will love them.

Oh, and also there was belly-dancing.  

AKA, dancing with canes?  You're welcome for that.

Maybe I'm just a belly dancing newb, but I expected it to be more like this: (Without the candle on your head)

.... Moving on.  

I had so much fun feeling like part of the community, exploring with my prize of a husband who didn't mind being dragged to look at every jewelry booth on the street, and soaking up the wonderful, spring sunshine. I really love this little town that we've moved to.  How quickly and easily it has become home. :)