Wednesday, June 25, 2025

The Courthouse, Raleigh Tavern, and Merchant's Square in Colonial Williamsburg

This is the fifth post of a new travel series.  In this series, we are headed east starting in Wisconsin and going all the way to Virginia to see the home of George Washington and Colonial Williamsburg.  To start at the beginning, go HERE where  we stop in Indiana to celebrate Easter with my daughter, son-in-law, and our grandchildren.


After our tour of The Capitol, it was time to see how more justice was administered in Colonial times so we were off to The Courthouse!


                              The Courthouse


Touring the Courthouse is a different experience than touring any other building in Colonial Williamsburg for it is here where the tourist is not just a spectator, but an active participant.  Before entering the Courthouse, tourists are selected to assume certain roles in an actual court case from the 1700's.  It is all voluntary, whoever is not selected gets to sit in the courtroom and just observe;  which is what my husband and I decided to do.

The roles assigned to those who volunteered to participate were the justice, the attorney, the litigant, the petitioner, and the defendant.  


Once everyone was seated, we heard two cases from actual records from the courthouse during the 18th century.  It was a really fun learning experience!
 


The Courthouse was built between 1770-1771.  There were two small rooms on either side of the courtroom, otherwise this large building was just one courtroom  right in the center of the building.


They had some stocks right outside the courthouse, but it was locked so you couldn't put your head through.


By now, we had seen all three highlights of Colonial Williamsburg:  The Palace, The Capitol, and the Courthouse so we decided to just stroll through the beautiful streets to see what other buildings were open.


Presbyterian Meetinghouse

My husband pretended to be a preacher at the Presbyterian Meetinghouse.



King's Arms Tavern

We stopped at King Arms Tavern which actually is a real restaurant but they told us they were all booked for the day.  You must need to book this restaurant in advance because it was still fairly early in the day when they told us they weren't taking any more reservations.

King's Arms Tavern is a historic tavern known for its authentic 18th century atmosphere, period-dressed servers, live music, and classical colonial cuisine. 


The Raleigh Tavern

Right across the street from the King's Arms Tavern is the Raleigh Tavern which was open for tours.



We had such a great tour guide.  She took us all through the lower portion of the tavern and explained not just the significance of each room, but the building's history, and how taverns were different than today.  Did you know a colonial tavern isn't a place that just serves alcohol but is also where one would get a bed and meal for the night?


The Raleigh Tavern has so much historical significance because it often became the meeting place during the early stages of the American Revolution.


The "Front Desk" of the Raleigh Tavern.  Apparently the bar came down if there ever some unruly customers.



We weren't allowed up on the second floor, but our tour guide did share stories of how people slept in hotels back in the day.  One did not get a room all to themselves, in fact, they didn't even get a bed to themself!  Guests would have to share a bed with a complete stranger, if they got a bed at all.  People also would sleep on the floor of a room, men and women together.  Women would not travel alone, so they would sleep on the side of the room with their male protector whether it'd be a relative or a husband.  Can you just imagine the horror of having to sleep in a bed with a complete stranger?  I cannot.  




After our tour of the Raleigh Tavern we headed back out onto the streets.  There were lots of little shops;  I especially enjoyed this sewing shop.  They sold actual material there with patterns from the 18th century.


Most of the shops sold the same items over and over again.  If you stopped in one shop, chances are the next shop would have the same things:  toy muskets, pewter, porcelain, small food and drink items, etc.  A few stores were specialty shops like the one listed above.  I also saw a jewelry shop.





Perhaps my favorite part of our wanderings in Colonial Williamsburg was discovering this garden.  Oh, what a joy it was to see so many beautiful flowers in April!!!  Back in Wisconsin, I only had daffodils in April.  This was incredible!



I love how the pretty flowers surrounded the vegetable garden.  And the white picket fence was just the cutest!




                                                                   Bruton Parish Church



We spotted a church and having a love for old churches we were excited to go inside.  Bruton Parish Church is an Episcopal Church that still has services today.  It is open to the public for viewing during non-service times, they do ask for a donation to walk inside and view the building.







Merchant's Square



Ok, by now, we're starving.  We haven't eaten since breakfast and kept running out of luck finding food to snack on in Colonial Williamsburg.  Thankfully, right outside of Colonial Williamsburg is "Market Square".  It is loaded with nice places to eat where you don't need a reservation, and gift shops.  It's the cutest place ever!  All the shops and restaurants have a colonial exterior decor. 



There are plenty of tables and chairs to enjoy dining el fresco!






After FINALLY FILLING our empty stomachs with food, we checked out the gift shops.

All the gift shops were so cute and they had quite the variety.  I'm just not much of a gift shop shopper so we didn't buy anything; we just looked around. 





If you're wondering where we ate, well we at the Mellow Mushroom!  I know, funny right?  Drive all the way to Colonial Williamsburg and instead of having a colonial eating experience we have pizza!  Well, the Mellow Mushroom is my husband's and mine favorite pizza place and we don't have any in Wisconsin, so when we travel, if we see a Mellow Mushroom, we are stopping there.

We had a dilly of time getting back to our car parked at the Visitor's Center.  We had to first find a shuttle bus stop and wait for a shuttle only to discover it completely full.  The people in line ahead of us said the bus before them was full too, so we realized we would probably never get a shuttle ride back to the Visitor Center and decided to walk all the way back!  We were pretty sore and tired by the end of the day. But at least now we had some food in our bellies to energize us to make the journey back.

I hope you enjoyed my last post of Colonial Williamsburg.  Next week, we are going to Yorktown!

For more information on Colonial Williamsburg see these posts:



Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

"Deja Hue" Dirty Dozen Design Team Challenge


Over a year ago I wrote in THIS POST that I was given the great honor in the paper-crafting world to join the "Dirty Dozen" on Splitcoaststampers.   Splitcoaststampers is an on-line paper crafting community where crafters can learn new techniques, chit chat with each other, share their art work, and so much more.  One part of this community is "The Dirty Dozen".  This is an invitation only group of crafters whose work is seen as exemplary so they are asked to be part of the Dirty Dozen.  The requirements of the Dirty Dozen is to create six cards for six months centered around a different theme each month.  The cards then are uploaded into the "Dirty Dozen Gallery" and only fan club members are allowed to see them.  After six months, Dirty Dozen members are allowed to post them elsewhere on social media or their blogs.  I've been showing  five different sets of cards each month, and today I am finally going to show you my very last set of cards.

The theme for my last Dirty Dozen Challenge was "Deja Hue".  It was a "Play on Words" challenge.  Deja Vu is the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time.  For this challenge, participants were told that instead of scenes and events, to remember colors (hues).  Some ideas for inspiration were:

  • Be inspired by color combinations
  • Make a new card inspired by the colors of an older card of yours
  • Make a project using a color combination that has had meaning in your life
  • Try any coloring tutorial
There are no hard rules in the Dirty Dozen Challenge so I just focused some of my six cards around color itself.

Stitched Paint Palette


For my first card, I used one of Spellbinder's stitching dies called "Stitched Paint Palette".  I love the sentiment from MFT.  I always feel we should be ourselves in life and not to pretend to be someone we're not. 

To make this card, I cut out all the pieces in the die set and stitched them up.  The color pieces and solid white panel behind the brush were popped up on dimensionals.  I stamped the sentiment in white craft ink and used white embossing powder to really make it pop.


Smooshed Ink


For my next card, I actually did try a coloring technique I found on Pinterest called "Smooshed Ink".  It's the easiest technique in the world; anyone can do it.  Simply take a clear acrylic stamping block, apply several different shades of ink to it, and smoosh it onto your paper.

To make my card, after I did the "Smooshed Ink" technique I stamped some funky flowers in black ink and then embossed them a sparkly black embossing powder.  The sentiment is a die cut.  I added crystals for embellishment.  It is a very simple but interesting card.


Wedding Colors 


Anyone who got married in the 80's probably had peach as their wedding color.  I had peach as my main color with teal as my accent.

To make this card I used the stamp set "Spring Time Wishes" from MFT.  I stamped the girl out twice, once on the main panel and another time on a piece of scrap paper so I could pop her skirt, flowers and hair bow up on dimensionals.  I embossed the background with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then swiped a white ink over the raised portions to pop them out more.  


Paint Palette


This was another easy card to make.  I did the background by just swiping water colors in streaks onto watercolor paper.  Then I cut a paint palette using a die from MFT and adhered all the pieces together.  The background on the paint palette was done with markers.  The sentiment was created with white ink and white embossing powder.


French Painter


For this card I used a new-to-me product called "Lunar Paste" and a stencil.  I put the shiny, textured  inside the stencil holes which created this fun paint splatter background.  The little girl is a stamp from MFT.  I stamped her separately, fussy-cut her out, then popped her up on dimensionals.  The sentiment was adhered with two purple brads. 


Have A Sweet Day


For my last card I chose colors from a Splitcoaststampers color challenge.  

To make this card, I used a Spellbinder's stitching die called "Stitched Ice Cream".  I cut all my pieces out, did some ink blending, and then stitched and assembled.  I sprayed sheer shimmer over the ice cream and added some glitter too.  The cherry has glossy accents on it.  The background was done with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.



I hope you enjoyed my last set of Dirty Dozen cards.  Now I have so many cards, I have no need to make new ones for a long, long time. 

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!