Once upon a time, many moons ago, before snow blanketed our world and various winter sicknesses kept us laid low, James and I decided to take Anouk to Williamsburg for a day. When we left the house it was nice and almost warm but by the time we got there, the temperature had dropped significantly, so we opted to visit the CW museums (for the first time!) instead of doing the usual walk down DoG Street.

The Dewitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum are located in the same building down West Francis Street, and can be accessed with the Colonial Williamsburg day pass or by buying a museums-only ticket (significantly cheaper). They are full of all sorts of fun things to see, like colonial-era pottery and furniture, ordinary household objects to modern folk art (carvings, weavings, and paintings).


Our favorite areas in the Dewitt Wallace Museum were definitely the dollhouse exhibit (so intricate and detailed!) and the selection of quilts and samplers -- James really liked seeing the vintage piano and harpsichords and the musketry exhibit.

The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum featured intriguing tramp art, some quirky folk portraits, and a play area with coloring supplies so A. could create art of her own. They also had some really gorgeous and intricate vintage carousel animals on display -- we spent a lot of time looking at those.

While I think that a lot of the nuance of most of the pieces were lost on Anouk, I do think that both museums really emphasized how ordinary objects can be art. It's something that we talked about a lot while we were there, and have been revisiting in the weeks since we went. A. will oftentimes point out to me, while we're out and about, some small artful detail that I wouldn't have noticed without her perspective. It makes me want to take a closer look at things, too.

Have a good weekend! We promise to be back on a more regular schedule next week.