My husband’s family has a cottage at Lake Webster in Northern Indiana and awhile back (quite awhile actually) I shared with you some places to shop in the cute tiny town of North Webster.
My last trip up to the lake led to a day of shopping at the nearby Village at Winona, which is a relatively new development of small shops and restaurants set along a canal leading to Winona Lake.
It was busy the day I went with my mother-in-law, Barb, and my cousin-in-law, Beth. Grace College, which is right next door, had its graduation that day and there was some bike fest going on. So it was a sort of festival atmosphere.
I’ll start with our trip to the Canal Street Gallery, which features work from four artists: Merna Eisenbraun, a fiber and jewelry artist; Jennifer Ortega, a watercolor painter; David Marshall, a potter; and Jerry McCoy, a photographer. There’s work from other artists too.
I love the painted pottery above by Kimberly Rorick of Fort Wayne. I don’t think you’d want to fill a whole kitchen, dining room or home with these interesting pieces, but they make
some wonderful accents.
I’m embarrassed to say that the next few photos are filled with wonderful pieces for your home, but I can’t tell you who made most of them.
It’s one thing to do a good job taking photos for a blog post while keeping everything straight. I can manage that. Usually.
But when I’m busy having fun with two family members, well, I get pretty distracted. So…my apologies to you and these wonderful artists.
With that, here are some more photos of the great work at Canal Street.
Such beautiful things!
Next up is the Cranberry Cottage, which you’ll notice right away is not really my style. It’s all cottage and country, which I’m not.
But this store was so fun to shop in! The owner is truly creative and I loved looking around at her great ideas.
Check out the photo below.
The owner used some old porch posts and a great old door to make a covered entry – inside the store. We all loved it!
In the photo below left, an old wooden ladder – decorated with beachy stuff – is used as a separation for two separate areas.
In the photo below right, an old wooden window is used as a sort of awning over the inside of an actual window.
The stores sells decorative items as well as furniture. Check out some more photos below.
Regular readers probably know that I don’t knit or crochet but I was still fascinated by this store – The Island Weaver.
There was just something beautiful about all those colorful yarns!
As part of the festival going on, The Island Weaver had folks out on the shop’s porch weaving and knitting.
I even got to out weaving on a small loom! I think it’s fair to say it’s not going to be my thing, but it was really fascinating to watch the yarns turn into a fabric.
The Island Weaver also offers spinning, weaving and knitting classes.
And I think it’s fair to say – with my uneducated eye – that this shop has all the supplies you’d ever need!
So we’ll move on to Winona Woods, a shop that I love to visit.
(You may remember from my post about the Indiana Artisan Marketplace that I can’t resist woodworkers and their beautiful pieces.)
Winona Woods is a tiny shop and the rest of the house – all the shops are located in houses or at least buildings that resemble houses – is used as a woodshop and office.
But it’s still packed with plenty of things I wanted to take home. I especially love the kaleidoscopes. At $300, though, they were a bit out of my price range, even if they were just beautiful.
Our last stop before we went to paint some pottery was at Whetstone Woodenware, which makes some fantastic things for the kitchen.
It is a beautiful store and the owner told me that his products sell in a number of other locations as well. But if you visit the the Village at Winona shop, you get to see the super-sized wooden spoon below. How fun is that!
So our last stop in the Village at Winona was at Pottery Bayou, a paint-your-own pottery studio. I got so wrapped up in what I was doing that I forgot to take lots of pictures. But here are our pieces – before they were fired. That’s my picture on the right.
If you’re in Northern Indiana, I recommend the Village at Winona as a great afternoon stop. And if you check my Facebook page in the next few weeks, I’ll post a photo of my pitcher after it’s been fired!
