40th Annual Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife

The first weekend of October was the 40th Annual Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife. 

I look forward to it every year.

If you are a regular, you just call it the Fall Festival, and it takes place in our beautiful shady (thankfully) Newport News Park, one of the largest city-run parks in the United States.  

It was really a perfect day. In the shade, that is.
I remember the last time I went a few years ago I had a jacket on.
Not this time. It was in the 80s.

First stop?

The animals, of course. 

I made us miss the Virginia State Fair this year, so I asked Jason if this made up for it. 

I think he said no. 

But, does the State Fair have remote control boats? I think not.

cute produce truck.

Cutest camper I've ever seen. 

Here's a look inside the camper. 

Jason's feet would hang out the door if he tried to lay on that bed. 

And you can't see him, but under that tent there is music going on provided by Bob Zentz. 

According to Jason, he plays pretty much every musical instrument in the world. 

Not really, but close. 

I certainly enjoyed him, and looking out over the reservoir while listening to the music wasn't bad either. 

Lots of fun craft vendors and hobbyists participate in the marketplace. 

There are also Juried Crafts at the Fall Festival. 

I didn't get many pictures as I was having too much fun looking. 

This man made cool sculptures and windchimes, etc. out of old air tanks.

Felt. I love felt.

This was not only stained glass, but the artwork within the frames was colored glass bits somehow melted onto the surface to make each scene. They were so pretty in person. 

I'm sure you've heard of scherenschnitte, right? It's paper-cutting. 

I only know the term because I took German in high school. ha

This crafter from our town of West Point was representing with some very cool, and very tiny paper cuttings. 

There was also this guy with a monkey on his shoulder. 

He did magic tricks, card tricks, breathed fire, etc. 

Made bad jokes. He was fun. 

Of course, you can't go to any kind of fare without eating fare food. I wish I'd taken a picture of our lunch, which was an amazing chicken kebab with some kind of yummy spicy rub on it. Ok, so it took the drunk girl (no lie) half an hour to get us our lemonade, but that chicken was worth it. 

And for dessert. Gotta have the funnel cake. No fruit on mine, please. 

It was a gorgeous day. Yes, it was hot, but in the shade it was perfect. 

Have a great weekend. 

Tis the Halloween Season

Happy October!

We all know what that means. 

In celebration of what always feels like a very short month of fun with ghosts and goblins, here is a collage I made of my husband's Halloween office party from last year. 

The theme was a circus freak show but to be more PC, they went with CarnEvil.

click the image for a larger view...if you dare...

Pictured from left to right starting from the top left: What looks like the little shop of human body parts; peep show of grotesque images; talking sculpture of doom; hall of mirrors; more body parts in jar; bloody hand print; shrunken village; skulls galore and more; creepy veggie meat platter clown head; a human sawed in half with guts and all; tattoos; and balloon darts game, where I won a prize on my first throw! 

Tis the season to be scary!


p.s. collage made in Picasa. 

A View of West Point, Virignia #2

Yesterday I posted about the Nature Trail in West Point. 

Today we take a drive through the town.

There are many beautiful homes in this historic little town. Love this house that Jason photographed.

West Point even has a public beach. Yes, that's all of it. 

 Home-ownership here has it's privileges.  This is all private property above.

 I love the roof on that house to the left.

 Saturday morning it was a ghost town. 

We both agree that they need a coffee shop in this town. Anyone want to take care of that? 

Everyone that lives in the downtown area has to come here to the Post Office to get their mail.

Every town needs a water tower. 

And behind the water tower is the Town Hall, Courthouse, and DMV.

 One thing this small town has an abundance of is churches.

The town's main stage.

Not only is the town of West Point quaint, but it's also industrial with a Paper Mill on the west side across route 33 and the downtown area. 

Lots of potential for our photowalk. If you would like to join us on Saturday October 5th  for the 6th Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk, please visit our page here to sign up for our walk in West Point, Virginia.  If you'd like to join a walk in a city near you, please visit the main photowalk site here. 

Join Us: October 5

A View of West Point, Virginia #1

I've posted about this place once before, but Saturday morning we took a walk in West Point, down the nature trail, under one of the twin bridges, and across the way to the West Point Farmers Market.

(all photos taken with our camera phones)

At the corner of Lee Street and 14th Street (Route 33) sits the West Point Pharmacy behind which starts the nature walk across this foot bridge/bike path. 

The gravel road also gives access to the water for kayaking/canoeing. 

You can see one of the twin bridges in the background above. 

 Looking back at the parking lots.

Boat access above.

 It was a gray morning, but the clouds give us good drama.

  The footbridge leads back to dry land.

 There are two look outs along the way. The one above is right next to the bridge.

 This is Route 33, which leads East.

 This is the Mattaponi River leading out to the start of the York River.

  

click to enlarge

Above is a gorgeous panorama Jason took from this spot. 

Now onto the Farmer's Market.

Under the bridge...

...and across the way.

We bought some peppers and potatoes from one vendor and tomatoes from the other. 

It's a small market that day but they both had great pickings. 

  and the walk back to "downtown", if you can call it that. 

Tomorrow I will have some pictures in the town of West Point. 

If you would like to join us on Saturday October 5th  for the 6th Annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk, please visit our page here to sign up for our walk in West Point, Virginia.  If you'd like to join a walk in a city near you, please visit the main photowalk site here. 

As of this post, there are 5579 walkers signed up in 547 cities across the globe.

Join Us: October 5

Hand-Carved Stamp Mermaid Magic

I got this gorgeous mermaid postcard in the mail yesterday from Regina at Creative Kismet. 

Regina is a wonderful artist. She hand-carved the stamps to make this postcard, and I was one of three lucky winners in her postcard giveaway recently. 

You should follow her blog. It's inspiring and it just makes me happy. 

Thank you, Regina!

It Was A Sculpey Christmas

We still have our tree up, so that means I can continue to talk about Christmas, right?

I have been wanting to work with sculpey polymer clay for the longest time, and I finally got the nerve up. 

My family is lucky they received anything at all, because these little figurines turned out so cute, I wanted to keep them all to myself. 

Look at those tiny camp fires, which are about the size of my fingernail. Those tents! That motorcycle!

And that tiny canoe. Probably my favorite thing!

Here they are in front of the butter dish for scale. 

And those little birdies on the trees! 

TINY!

I wish I dreamed up the idea for the camping items on my own, but the inspiration came from The Market Darling's precious campsites (pictured below), which I originally saw in her Etsy shop. 

Talk about cute overload.

via: The Market Darling

 The campsites I made were for my two brothers. One of them got the canoe, and the other got a motorcycle. Also, instead of gluing them to card stock as The Market Darling did, I had my fiance cut two slices from a cherry tree log and I hot-glued the figurines to them. Why didn't I take a picture of them? I don't know. Maybe I can get one of my brothers to take a picture for me to show you. 

My sister and mother each received a snowman, like the one above, some trees and even a gingerbread house. Why didn't I take a picture of them, either? Again, I don't know, but maybe my sister will take a picture for me to show you. hint hint! 

Oh, and also I have to show you what my sister made me for Christmas! 

soon!

Thanks for visiting. 

Clay Girl

This is a special little polymer clay girl. She is about 2 inches tall. 

I will tell you more about her when she is finished.

And yes, we still have the tree up. :)