October = Rhinebeck!

Fall brings fiber festivals and October brings Rhinebeck!  I forgot the camera, but today was the Dutchess County Wool and Fiber Festival in Rhinebeck, NY.  The weather was perfect (sunny and in the 60's) and the fiber items were abundant.  To top it off I got to go with another woman from the Unadilla Artisan Guild (it was her first time, which is always fun--seeing someone witness all that fiber and fiber folk in one place).  My feet are aching, but I'm relaxing with a bundle of back issues of "SPIN OFF" magazines tonight and dreaming of what I'll create first with my stash of fleece.

A Weekend with All the Kids Home

Now that Matthew has moved to Bath and Nathanial is soon to be in Maryland, getting all the kids home at once is a special blessing.  This past weekend was one such time.  By looking at the photos I think you'll see that there's never a dull moment.  Just imagine what wasn't caught in pictures...such things as the 2 youngest 'washing chickens' in a bucket! (No chickens perished in the process, but the boys have been duly warned not to do that again!)

Jon and Raven 'morphed'...

I wonder who left this message...(Jon)

 Jon making faces at his little brother...

 Marc was baptized on Sunday.  We took the opportunity to get a family picture.

 Just hanging out on a Sunday afternoon...

Ian and Rachael ...




Ian in a wig that Katelyn found...


Just your ordinary family, right?

Colorful September 'Gifts'

Jonathan has become our resident "Butterfly Farmer" in that he finds butterfly eggs, puts them in a jar and awaits their hatching into caterpillars.  He faithfully feeds the caterpillars their favorite food (dill for swallowtails and milkweed for monarchs) until they enter the chrysallis.  We all keep checking the jars to see if there is any sign of movement from those little pods and call everyone to witness the miracle of the butterfly emerging.  So far we've had 6 butterflies emerge.  This picture is a black eastern swallowtail drying its wings shortly after emerging from the chrysallis.

A local woman has seen some of the items I've made for the Artisan Guild and decided that I might be able to use some antique grain sacks and handkerchiefs that were her grandmothers.  She also blessed me with antique laces and an antique quilt top that her great-great-grandmother had made.  The handstitching is beautiful! (unfortunately, the photo doesn't show the detail)

September brings lots of changes... School schedules return, sweaters need to be pulled out, and fall festivals start.  I attended my first fall fiber festival in early September.  The Endless Mountain Fiber Festival is a small festival that started just a few years ago, but has become a great place to start the fiber festival season.

Whenever I attend a fiber event, I'm re-energized to create using all the wonderful materials available.  (Like the bags full of alpaca and wool waiting in the garage to be washed!)





It's so fun to see what others are doing in the 'fiber world'.  I thought I'd share a few of the ones that caught my eye...

The teapot covers on display were really neat.  I loved this one with the mice (the only kind of mice that I can tolerate!)




This handsome rabbit is needle felted.  It was displayed in a real rabbit cage so I had just passed by it thinking it was another fiber animal for sale. (We don't need anymore of those!)  I heard someone exclaim, "It looks so real!"  I took a second look and had to get a picture to share with the kids.  The artist did an amazing job.

Revisiting August...A Special Surprise

    

When I posted in August I didn't write what was brewing in the wings.  Several months earlier my sisters had called and asked if we could make a trip up to Maine this summer to surprise our parents with a belated 80th birthday party and early 60th wedding anniversary celebration.  Somehow I didn't slip any of the surprise to Mom and Dad during our weekly phone visits and Wayne, Rachael, Katelyn, Jonathan, Ian, and myself made the trip to Maine without them finding out until the party. 

Our dear friends Ed & Sue Walsh blessed us with the use of a camp on the lake in Acton, ME

The 2 boys loved being in the water and we had a challenge getting them out of the lake in order to do other things.










On Friday, Sue and the kids hung out on Sue's farm to have some horse time while Wayne and I took time for a lunch date at Ted's Clams (neither of us had clams, but the shrimp and fish were delicious!).  The boys got to sit on top of Sue's very big Percheron and helped sisters groom the horses.

 Silver is a very special horse to Rachael.  Several years ago Sue and Ed hosted Rachael for a week of horse time in Maine.  Rachael rode Silver and bonded with the dear old boy.  We have a very similar photo of these two taken at that time--they've both aged quite a bit since then!

Friday evening Sue, her daughter Sadie, and granddaughter Abbie, the girls, Jonathan, and I made our way to York Beach to get a taste of the ocean (no trip home to Maine is complete until I have a good inhale of ocean air!).  It was a beautiful summer evening and the beach wasn't very crowded.  The 3 'tourists' had a great time in the c-o-l-d ocean water.  The sunset was beautiful.  The ride back to Acton was quite an adventure because we had to drive through a very strong thunderstorm.  We were glad to get back to our cottage by the lake and find Wayne and Ian waiting for us.

Saturday we headed to Bradbury Mountain State Park--Pownal, Maine's claim to fame.  The family had rented the pavilion at the park so there would be plenty of room for our now very large family (around 45-50 of us!) to hold the celebration.  Family members trickled in and we prepared for the guests of honor...

What a blessing to have our parents here celebrating their 80 (and 1/2) birthdays and their soon to be 60th wedding anniversary! (in January)
 
There were children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren everywhere and a wonderful time followed.  What a blessing to be with the whole family (minus our 3 eldest who had to stay in NY due to jobs and animal care responsibilities).  Cousins that had never met became great playmates.  New family members were introduced to us and we caught up with those we hadn't seen for such a long time.
 
Pictures were taken (I'm waiting to get copies of others since my camera had a shadow on the lens),
but here is one that shows Mom and Dad with most of their great-grandchildren (Seamus joined us later and will be 'photo-shopped' into the 'professional' pics).

The girls joined Aunt Sherrie, and their cousins for a hike up Bradbury Mtn.  It may not be very tall, but there is a beautiful view from the top.

After the party Wayne, the kids, and I went to Dad's & Mom's to visit a bit longer before heading back to Acton.  Dad & I went to South Freeport to buy some lobsters.  I love the view here at the wharf. 

Our time with Mom and Dad flew by.  We knew we had to head back to NY the next day so as evening started to settle in, we said our good-byes and headed back to Acton.

The sky was beautiful as we followed the coast south.  Pictures can never do justice to reality...











This was the scene awaiting us at the lake...a sunset on a wonderful trip to Maine.

Summer Artistic Pursuits

Here are the front and back views of the quilt I made for the woman out of her late husband's t-shirts.  The colors are much brighter than the pictures show, which were very similar to her husbands paintings.

 Because of Jonathan's interest in butterflies (We currently have several caterpillars in various stages of development in jars to watch the transformation process), I had to make a butterfly quilt when I found these batik blocks in a local quilt shop.

This is Jonathan with a rug that Wayne made using a school assignment Jon did when he was younger.  Wayne loved the way Jon wrote the alphabet, squeezing in letters when he realized he was running out of room on the paper.  Wayne decided a rug would be a neat way to preserve Jon's early writings and he incorporated a bit of symbolism in the background color scheme.  All those changing colors are symbolic for Jonathan's attention span--some thoughts run on and on, while others are very brief.  Ah-h-h the joys of Asperger's Syndrome and the blessings of our boy Jonathan!

Long awaited photos

 Here are some pics of Kate's and my trip to Niagara Falls wa-a-ay back in August.

Katelyn bought the hat at the gift shop and told me that maybe I should wear it to cover up the 'wet' look.  The mist from the falls was like walking through clouds so by the end of our walk we were both pretty damp.  Katelyn wears it better! (smile)