Strange Folk 2010: A Novel in Several Chapters

Set-Up

Because you can't have enough tinsel.

Rocket Pops

This is a newbie craft, developed after I figured out how to do layered melted crayon molds. I was all freaking out before Strange Folk, on account of I ran out of white crayons (still plenty of reds and blues) after making only four true-to-life rocket pop crayons, and you can't just bring FOUR of something to Strange Folk, unless it's four, like, four hundred dollar somethings. Anyway, I finally figured that I'd just make a ton of randomly-colored rocket pops, too, just to fill out the display.

By Sunday tear-down, wanna guess how many rocket pops I had left?

Four. Every one of them was red, white, and blue.

I Bet She'd Also Like a Record Bowl...

So Matt was sitting at the picnic benches over by the World's Largest Sandbox, watching the girls play, and some guy sitting near him commented to some other women that he'd bought the exact same journal that she was holding. The woman replied that she'd bought the journal for her niece, who liked to write songs. The guy told her that he'd bought his journal for his daughter, an anthropologist, because it was "kinda Indiana Jones-looking" (nota bene: Indiana Jones isn't an anthropologist).

The woman said that her niece travels around the country. "She has an album coming out this month," she added.

The guy said, "Oh, wow. That must be exciting for her."

The woman said, "You might have heard of her. Her name is Taylor Swift."

The guy said, "That doesn't sound familiar. I'll look her up tonight."

My own reply would have been: "Oh, yeah? My daughter's name is Temperance Brennan."

Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

Or, as one customer squealed upon sighting them, "Look! It's a cup full of happiness!"

Go Away!

Do you know what hay means at an outdoor craft fair? Rain, that's what it means. Standing outside our tents in the rain, chatting (on account of there was nothing else to do, like, you know, wait on customers or anything of that nature), I told the guy who had the tent next to me that it had rained at every single craft fair that I have done this year. Because it has.

"What?!?" He shouted.

I was about to reply, "I know, right?", when he exclaimed, "Me, too!!! I thought it was just me!" And he's full-time--he does WAY more craft fairs than I do.

It used to never rain on me. I used to never even own a tent. And now, in the midwest at least, it only rains when I have a craft fair.

Future One-Car Family?

On the way home in the middle of the night, AGAIN in Effingham, something horrible happened to the van. Matt got us home by driving 45 mph the whole way, the maximum speed at which the car would travel before the horrible things happened, and fortunately the highway's minimum posted speed limit.

We can't afford to have any work done to that car, and I mean ANY work, no new tires, no oil changes, nothing, but fortunately I come from a people who know that a non-working vehicle is just four cinderblocks away from being yard art.

Stuff!

I plan to put all the proceeds from Strange Folk toward making Pumpkin+Bear an official biz, so I couldn't do much shopping there, but I did allow myself one spree, at Circa Ceramics across from my tent:

Say hello to my new most favorite coffee mug ever! It has a typewriter on it! Because I'm a writer! Although I don't use a typewriter! That would suck! I love my new mug!

On the last afternoon of the festival, the awesome folks at Rainbow Swirlz organized a little trade. I gave them a baby bag made from a vintage superheroes T-shirt for this great little four-month-old superhero that they happen to have birthed, and they gave me...

Can you see it? In the middle, next to Miss Island of the Blue Dolphins there? Here's a close-up:

It's my new most favorite bag ever. I love it so much that I was wearing it around yesterday before it even had anything in it. Not only is it super, but it reminds me of my family. Willow is the dinosaur. Sydney is the pink. Matt is the RAR.

Or should that be RAWR?

Day 1 of 2

Strange Folk says hi!

Outdoor Girls

At the Hoosier Outdoor Experience, sponsored by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources  (the fishing folks), the girlies indeed had lots of new and precious outdoor experiences:

Bow Hunting



Pony Rides

Shotgun



Motorcycle (see the training wheels?)

Fishing

Bow Fishing

Handmade Instruments and Wood Chip Necklaces

New experiences. Precious memories. And a free coloring book!

How Does My Chia Garden Grow?

Very well, thank you.

Terrific Toys

A day at the children's museum is about as lovely of a mid-week outing as a homeschooling family can get. Once or twice I've made the mistake of bringing the kiddos to the museum when it's very, very crowded (you know, like on a weekend?), and therefore I can accurately evaluate that it's sooooo nice to have such a large and wonderful place nearly all to ourselves.

We described to a sketch artist what we thought the animal might look like whose skull was on display. Hint: our sketch looked NOTHING like the tapir that the animal apparently was.

We molded brown silly putty over T. Rex skull models to make our own T. Rex faces.

We sketched horns and claws:

Willow drew a dinosaur with big red claws and gave it its Latin name--pyro-onyx. Anyone?

The girls helped a docent strip a model T. Rex of its skin and muscles, right down to its plywood bones:

We ate bread and hummus brought from home, and drank chocolate soymilk and orange juice.

We attended a lecture on the workings of the giant water clock--vacuums and siphons, okay, but I still don't get it.

The girls took turns riding Sandy, using nickels from their allowance:

We did a little bit of shopping in the gift shop, an almost unheard-of treat, on account of I had a coupon (and the saga of how the cashier didn't scan my coupon, and I didn't notice until I was home, and my attempts to contact Customer Service to get my partial refund have been ignored? That saga continues, sigh).

The real purpose of our visit, however, was to attend a homeschool class--Terrific Toys. We heard a lecture and examined numerous examples of folk toys from the museum's collections, then had a chance to build several toys of our own. We made masks--

--and wind-up toys, and a pull toy, and Sydney and I made a set of nesting dolls while Willow made a galimoto!

I must tell you, however, that the best part of an uncrowded children's museum is the ability to NOT do stuff with the kiddos. When the children's museum is uncrowded, there are benches that are actually unoccupied, and the gallery space is so open that you can actually supervise your small ones without being all up in their faces, and there are fewer helicopter parents (although there are still always some) to make you feel guilty for not micro-managing your child's play.

If you ever experience a large children's museum under those conditions, and if you're a smart parent, like I am, then you bring a book, and you sit your butt down--

--and you have yourself a lovely time at the children's museum, too.

Journey through Today

Went to dance class.

Went to soccer.

 
Will started soccer VERY grumpy, then forgot that she was grumpy and played happily for almost the entire game, then fell down and remembered that she was grumpy again.

Bought the girls some winter clothes (thank gawd for Goodwill!). Leggings + long-sleeved shirts + snow boots + heavy coat = warm little girls this winter.

 
Still must sew the long-promised flannel nightgowns and long skirts.

Watered the dinosaur fairy gardens:

Found some juice glasses at the Recycling Center that will be the basis of teeny tiny little Strange Folk fairy gardens next week. Am also thinking about creating fairy garden DIY kits.

Adopted two of our four former foster kittens--Gracie and Spots. Good thing that we'd told the shelter we were coming back for them, since as we walked in we spotted a third foster kitten on her way out, with a bright new red collar on her neck and in the arms of a very happy little girl. Fortunately, I managed to muffle the children as they squealed, "Hey, it's Bitey! Hi, Bitey!". Wouldn't want the new family to be warned about that particular kitty's particular bad habit until they were all well at home, at least.

Drank coffee.

Cleaned the living room.

Rearranged furniture until I was able to realize my dream of having the living room stereo, including the record player, in reach of the babies. Was rewarded by babies' insistence on listening to the Alvin and the Chipmunks' Christmas album several times:

Played Monopoly Junior. Skunked by Will.

I've demanded a rematch for tomorrow.

Tied Tutus for My Two, Too

The plan was to tie some tutus for my tent at Strange Folk, but somehow, amongst the GeoSafari and the gumdrops and bamboo skewers and Magic Tree House and the Mythbusters, only these two tutus for my two got tied:

Gotta have your priorities, you know.