Building sand castles and sculptures is a classic summer activity

In the spirit of celebrating summer, I thought you might enjoy some photos of amazing sand sculptures. Playing in the sand is such a classic summer activity and makes for great family fun. And just like fruit carving, sand carving is a wonderful artistic and creative outlet. Isn’t it a satisfying feeling to make a beautiful and original image out of plain sand or a simple watermelon? Carving and sculpting are so much fun!

Well, to kick off summer, check out some of these photos of sand sculptures from around the world. Maybe you’ll get some ideas for making your own continue reading…

Ok I can’t resist one more ice carving and snow festival post. One of my well traveled readers, Sandra Taylor, mentioned that she lived in Sapporo Japan, a city that is well known for their annual Snow Festival. I started looking at photos of the Sapporo Snow Festival and was again amazed enough to want to share these photos with you.

A carved ice palace at the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan

The last few months have been winter season in many countries and there were a number of ice and snow festival celebrations going on.

continue reading…

In my last post, a guest blogger wrote about how she saw an ice carving expert in action during her vacation. I thought this was interesting because many chefs who do fruit and vegetable carving also do ice carving. I’ve never tried it myself but the technique and the product are certainly beautiful and fascinating.

One of the World’s Largest Ice Carving Festivals

Colorfully Lit Walls of Ice at Ice Festival in Harbin, China

After seeing Jana’s post on ice carving, I thought it would be fun to share with you some truly amazing ice carving sculptures at what is probably THE largest and most impressive ice carving event in the world.

So I’d like to take you with me on a mini vacation to China for the Ice and Snow Festival. Our stop is in the city of Harbin in Northeast China. I hope you don’t mind the cold because winter temperatures here can dip into minus 35 degrees Celsius.  It’s not hard to see why Harbin has made ice carving and snow sculptures an important cultural event! continue reading…