Every year I look forward to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival. It's always bloody hot, always crowded and always a good time. For those of you who don't know, Cherry Creek is an affluent neighborhood in Denver, and one of my favorite areas. The houses are older and gorgeous and I dream of getting to tour one or two of them someday in my lifetime. I always try to sweet talk my dad into driving up and down the streets so I can gaze at the houses, but he rarely gives into me...but, that's ok.
Anyway, going to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival has been a family tradition for years. We enjoy lunch together, stroll up and down each street checking out the vendors and we end the day by getting snappy with each other because the heat has finally to gotten to all three of us. It's grand!
This year was no different than any other. We got down to Cherry Creek early, did an initial stroll down a couple of streets and then ate before the crowds arrived at The Cherry Cricket. The Cherry Cricket is a bit of a dive bar and grill that serves up incredible hamburgers! My best friend Jamie and I love this place, Iowa Girl Eats and her husband have raved about it and it was recently featured in Denver's 5280 magazine. I highly recommend chowing down here if you're ever in Denver.
Anyway, going to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival has been a family tradition for years. We enjoy lunch together, stroll up and down each street checking out the vendors and we end the day by getting snappy with each other because the heat has finally to gotten to all three of us. It's grand!
This year was no different than any other. We got down to Cherry Creek early, did an initial stroll down a couple of streets and then ate before the crowds arrived at The Cherry Cricket. The Cherry Cricket is a bit of a dive bar and grill that serves up incredible hamburgers! My best friend Jamie and I love this place, Iowa Girl Eats and her husband have raved about it and it was recently featured in Denver's 5280 magazine. I highly recommend chowing down here if you're ever in Denver.
(horrible, horrible picture of me)So, we wandered up and down each street, checking out the vendors that caught our eye. Mom and I are always drawn to the jewelry, and both of my parents love fused and blown glass. We saw gorgeous oils on canvas, unique sculptural pieces and beautiful photographs. I bought one abstract of the Denver city skyline that has taken up residence at work and really brightens up my office, and I bought a hand painted photograph that I've been coveting for 2 years now. I love photography (probably because I really don't have much skill myself) and I have a thing for European city scenes. This photograph caught my eye at a previous years' Cherry Creek Arts Festival and I have literally been thinking about it ever since. It's of a man walking next to the grafiti strewn Berlin Wall in 1989. It's stark, war-torn, poor, realistic and extremely powerful. I just had to have it this year, and I cannot wait to get it framed and hung up!
After a few hours, all three of us had hit our limit of sweating and moving through the crowds, so we headed into the Cherry Creek Mall to cool down and do a little more shopping. I happily got lost in Anthropologie (and bought the cutest mug and ruffled top) for a bit and Mom and Dad browsed through kitchen accessories. We were all happy, no longer sweaty and ready to call it a day. Cherry Creek Arts Festival 2010 was a success!
And, on the way out of town, I snapped a quick pic of one of my favorite sculptures:
Sounds like you had so much fun! Fun fact - there is this brigade of women in Denver who crochet stuff and leave their pieces around town, over the winter they made legwarmers for these statues! haha. It's considered graffiti so the city never leaves their stuff up, but I think it's hilarious and rebelious and I love it :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had so much fun! Fun fact - there is this brigade of women in Denver who crochet stuff and leave their pieces around town, over the winter they made legwarmers for these statues! haha. It's considered graffiti so the city never leaves their stuff up, but I think it's hilarious and rebelious and I love it :)
ReplyDeleteOMG, seriously love it! I think it's weird that crochet pieces would be considered graffiti. haha!
ReplyDeleteOh SOUNDS really fuN!! Look at your long thin fingers in that picture of you!! LUCKY!
ReplyDeleteMy friend has been driving across the country for a week now (moving to CA) and she was in Colorado the other day when I was talking to her...she was driving through the rockies I think. I was jealous.