Creepy Creatures and Cars at German Fest

This weekend, my mom and I visited German Fest in Milwaukee. It was a beautiful sunny day, but there were a still a few spooky sights to see. The woodcarver you might remember from last year's German Fest blog post was there. Some of his creepy masks were on display, like this one:

Do you think this is a witch or a troll? I could go either way on that.

And this creature I think is a Perchten, like the one from last year.

It looks like a real bloodsucker, whatever it is. The artist:

These two didn't go with the sculptor's display. That's not to say he didn't make them, because I'm not sure who did. They're a little eerie in their own right.

I don't even know what was going on here! Haha! It doesn't look good.

I always look forward to seeing the German car show at the festival and I especially like getting a photo of this skeleton driver each year. I've seen skeletons in the driver's seat at a few car shows and I always appreciate it!

You can't see him in the driver's seat here, but the skeleton is in this car:

And for all you Halloween lovers out there, I photographed some bright, orange vintage cars. A bug that I can imagine a jack-o-lantern face decal on:

A Karmann Ghia:

Speaking of cars you guys will appreciate, we saw this one on the road that day:

Cute Social Distortion skeleton. I guess it was skeleton/car day.

This German Fest mascot was far from spooky in any way, but he was far too adorable not to include. This is "Fritzie".

For any of you who'd like to see a little more of German Fest and what it's all about, here's the festival's web site:

German Fest Milwaukee

Happy New Year!

I hope you are all having a happy new year's day, and that 2018 is off to a great start for you. It is off to a very cold start where I am! It's 5° now and according to the internet, it feels like -13° out there. I'm not going to go outside to find out how it feels!

In keeping with the cold theme, and also the New Year theme, I'm going to share some photos I've been saving up of the fresh, clean snow. I thought fresh snow on a bright sunny day is a good symbol for a new year. And come to think of it, this bridge is a symbol in itself - a bridge from one year to the next.

So getting off to our fresh start here... I took this first set of photos on a cold day a few weeks back in the downtown village area. I was in a small park, across this bridge.

It was very peaceful, being the only person out there. I think the temperature had a lot to do with that!

Aren't blue shadows on the snow pretty?

This one is of the bridge railing. That snow doesn't even look real. It looks like some kind of fluffy dessert topping.

A creek runs under the bridge.

You can get an idea of its outline better here.

These rocks looked like a series of mushrooms or marshmallows.

A little bit of snow melting on the bridge:

This photo is my computer's wallpaper now. I really like the look of the red berries against that bright, blue sky.

It's fun to see any sign of plant life in winter. You might remember seeing these berries in one of my autumn blog posts.

This next set of photos was taken in a local park. 

This next picture was one I was hoping to get that day. The sun shining through this area of trees reminds me of The Nightmare Before Christmas, when Jack is walking through the forest, looking at different holiday doors on the trees.

What do you think?

A link for those who don't get the videos:

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Forest Scene

There was this cool situation where part of the water had turned to ice and part had not. We must have been at just the right in-between temperature for that to happen.

I thought it was so pretty when the sun came out and there was this warmth in the trees, next to that ice and snow.

I was trying to photograph the deer that was leaning over and didn't even notice the second one who was looking at me! After I took the photo and looked at my camera, I was like "Wait a second! There's another one?"

Here's something I've never seen - a waterfall that is partially frozen and partially moving.

Do you see the water falling on the right side of this picture?

This old house is near the park. As I'm looking at this photo, I'm noticing how there's very little color in it. It's nearly sepia. I feel like this same image could have been seen for the past century.

And in keeping with the snowy theme... I'm almost afraid to decorate with anything that says "Let it snow". I think it's some superstition that if I say this, a bunch of snow is going to fall. 😄 But these gel clings were too cute to pass up. I found them at Target's after Christmas sale. The after Christmas sale was at 50% off when I was there, but it's probably at least 70% off now. I'd be interested to hear about your after Christmas finds!

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I placed the clings on actual snow to take this picture.

I'll leave you guys with a little trivia gift from MeTV. It's a fun way to start 2018.

14 words and slang terms that turn 50 years old in 2018