weekend fun

Our past two weekends have been so very full and fun.  Seems to be the way with May and October, I think.  They are just such glorious months that so many good and great things are packed in on the weekends.  I admit I'm generally partial to weekends where I spend a lot of time in the garden with tea (often in pajamas until I realize I'm getting a bit dirtier than I'd meant to) and we hardly leave home.  Sometimes, though, a good dose of full-on fun and adventure is good, too.  Last weekend I helped work the taproot tent at the Mother Earth News Fair in Asheville.  Early on Friday I set up a loom for some free-form weaving.  On Saturday I spent the entire day hanging our art show for the after school art program I work for, and then on Sunday I was back out at the fair all day talking to folks about the magazine, weaving, indigo-dying, and making seed bombs with lots of little ones.  It was such fun.  I've subscribed to the magazine from the beginning and have fairly recently begun to write for them a little bit and I mean it when I say I really do love it.  It is such a thoughtfully and artfully curated collection of stories and art and projects.  Add in the fact that there is no advertising in the magazine and voila!~  it is grand.

This past weekend saw us at LEAF, the fabulous Lake Eden Art Festival that takes place just a bit down the road from us twice a year.  We skipped out on Friday because of thunderstorms and instead Claire and I had dinner and watched a movie with our dear friends.  Saturday and Sunday were warm and sunny and there was music and storytelling and hula hooping and dancing and Claire's LEAF favorites, kettle corn and bungee bouncing.  She also fell in love with weaving on a big loom up by the barn, and I so enjoyed watching her serious, concentrated expressions as she wove.  I'd requested NOT to have breakfast in bed on Mother's Day because I wanted to get up early and get in the garden, so instead I was made mid-morning tea and we had a nice visit with a friend who will soon be moving this way from the Austin area.  Papa had done a little shopping around on Saturday as Claire and I listened to Sara Watkins, and he chose a really beautiful necklace for me as a Mother's Day gift.  We don't typically do a lot of gifting, and I was more than pleased with my tea and the card Claire made for me, so the necklace was a very sweet surprise.  After that, back to LEAF (well, actually first there was some bee excitement, but more on that another time) for some more music and sunshine and time with the best of friends.

I'm filled up on sun and fun and as lovely as it all has been, I will say that looking ahead to this coming weekend, I am pleased to see the only thing on the calendar is dinner with good friends.

weekending :: a swap, a festival

I could stare at this bouquet all day long, I think.  I mean goodness, just look at those colors! dahlias are not a flower I have grown myself before.  I think I get intimidated thinking about how you are supposed to dig them up and all....... someone tell me it's easy and I just may dive in.  a friend surprised me with this lovely bouquet when she showed up for the swap this weekend.

so yes, another swap~ this was the seventh one.  as per usual, we had a fun mix of folks and food and drink and goodies.  not as per usual, I didn't take a single photo during the swap.  here's an after shot of the tables though, taken when Mike and I were running around readying the garden for a 31 degree night.  it was probably already down to 40 and here's Claire, hanging around in her old flower girl dress as though she can't be bothered to notice the cold.

this time around I contributed medicines.  elderberry tincture, nettles tincture, tulsi/holy basil tincture, ginger/echinacea syrup, and sore throat/cough syrup.  I came away with two amazing infinity scarves, pumpkin butter, ginger spiced apple butter, hot honey, beeswax candles, a trio of compound butters, mint extract and butter mints, and a lovely pair of essential oil rollers (one uplifting and cooling, and one grounding).  there were many awesome goodies, and a couple that I didn't score but was inspired by were a beautiful fire cider made by Ashley, and an oil pulling/mouthwash set featuring thieves essential oil.  there was laundry soap, hand knits, peanut butter, deodorant (I actually was gifted one of each of the last two as well- these ladies spoil me!), honey lollipops, hand spray, Lisa's incredible rope baskets, Molly's granola and cloth napkins and mulberry jam, and I'm sure I'm probably forgetting some option amazing things.

anyway, the point is...... I love these gatherings.  they feed me in so many ways.  connecting with others with intention and a common goal of sharing our goods with one another and learning from and inspiring each other...... oh it's good stuff.  the community of women who come together at the swaps shifts from time to time, but there are several folks who have become regulars and I love how it has come to feel like we are all a part of the swaps, that it isn't me making it happen, but that we create them together.  and of course, that's true.

the morning after..... easy like Sunday morning.  drip coffee, those incredible dahlias, the amazing autumn light softly filtering in through the cold windows.  a peek at the plants tells me they're fine.  of course they are.  we plant what we plant for the fall because they are frost and cold-hardy.  but still, sometimes I fret.  pretend I have control.

breakfast the morning after a swap is usually pretty special.  for a while it was my friend Jen's lavender-coconut tapioca (what? that's a dessert? pshaw!), which she brought to swaps a couple or few times in a row, possibly due to pressure from me.

today it was toast with some of the vanilla-honey-pecan compound butter that Rachael brought, along with pumpkin butter made by my sweetest of friends, Kassie.  (and then maybe I had the same thing later on as an after dinner snack)

after our slow, easy morning, we headed off to the Lake Eden Arts Festival (LEAF!) with some buddies for the afternoon.  this is a wonderful music-and-art-and-so-much-more festival that happens to take place about 6 miles down the road twice a year.  Claire loves it and looks forward to it all year (well, twice a year, actually).  the lineup is always superb (my highlight this time was Rising Appalachia- I adore those ladies, and there was a ton of New Orleans jazz and funk and zydeco and so much more), there is a ton of international music, there is great food...... and it's in a beautiful location.  it happens to be held at the camp where I worked on the farm this summer and it turns out that gig is worth a couple passes(!).  score!

today we mostly snacked (tacos! spicy kombucha on tap! kettle corn!) and let the kids play.

thank you, glorious October weekend.
weekending with Karen and friends~

late spring swap :: (live and in person)

oh my.  every time, every single time- I come away from these thinking it can't possibly get any better and that no way can these incredible people keep coming up with more variety and more fabulous goodies (and that they don't get bored but keep coming back to my swap parties!).   but it does, and they do.  and do you see how beautifully everyone packages their stuff? my goodness!

this afternoon 14 swappers convened in our backyard and we ate and drank and connected and then finally, we swapped.  this time around I contributed sets of photo cards, some plant starts, a couple dozen eggs, a bottle of maple syrup, and some salve.  Mike made the two pollinator boxes pictured above.  I came away with Irish Cream, rosemary-infused honey, loads of lip balm, a digestion support tincture that was combined with a stick of first aid salve, body butter, strawberry-rhubarb jam, blueberry relish, and two awesome (and functional!) wall hangings made by a friend by transferring photos to wood.  Mike chose some orange/tea tree cleaner and another one of the wall hangings (it's possible I swayed his first choice and urged him to grab that little blue wall hanging for me after he drew #1 from the jar and I, after absent-mindedly forgetting someone when we drew numbers, traded my own #3 for her #14, because what kind of host would I be if I didn't).

I am honored to have a core group of swappers (and so loving the new faces joining in) who keep coming back and help keep this thing going.  each time I learn a little something about how to pull it off more smoothly (though often I forget those things until after subsequent swaps) and I think we're getting to a place where (even though swapping close to 150 items takes a good chunk of time- between 2 and 2 1/2 hours) it is feeling efficient and fun for all involved.  if only I could remember to go around at the beginning and have everyone tell a bit about what they brought instead of briefly going over the logistics and then diving in.  I suppose I get a bit amped up once everyone has finally arrived, set up their things, and numbers have been drawn.  I start feeling a bit of that jazzy hostess-energy and like I need to get things started so we can get down to business.  if you happen to be at the next swap, please do gently remind me to chill out and take the five minutes to go around the beautiful circle of ladies (and gentleman) to allow everyone to talk a bit about what they brought.

in the mean time, I can't wait to dive into this box of beauty.
friends, that is a whole lot of goodness right there.

mother's day weekend

it's that time of year again.  LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival- an amazing festival that happens twice a year about 10 minutes away) was this past weekend and since the kids at art perform I get a free pass for the day.  Mike was working, but Claire and I made a FULL DAY of it.  there was kettle corn and bungee bouncing and rolling in the giant hamster ball thing (which to me looks hot and uncomfortable and not really so much fun).  she got to see her favorite children's hip hop performer, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, and afterwards we had ice cream for lunch (goat cheese with bing cherry for me, please!).  then we listened to Martha Redbone and there was some pizza.  there was swinging and sunshine, friends and good music.  it was fun and exhausting and occasionally overwhelming.  there was, as always, an incredible parade full of puppets and circus performers and drumming.  and in the end, there were some spicy noodles for mama and a cookie for her, eaten during a fire show where she got to watch the wonderful children's librarian from our local library (who happens to be one of her favorite people) spin fire.  and then it was 9:45pm and we were so close to seeing Xavier Rudd (who I hadn't seen since she was still in my belly) so I talked her into staying a bit longer and listened to about a half hour of his show with her asleep over my shoulder.  of course that meant we got a late shuttle back to the car and didn't crawl into bed until midnight (!), but all was well.  after all, it isn't as though we do this kind of thing every day.

and then of course, Sunday morning.  I woke up after papa got home from work and when I went into the kitchen I was sent away.  so I took to the hammock and by the time he was done with his secret doings she had woken up and together they served me 'breakfast in hammock' (something I could really get used to).  she proudly poured my coffee and told me how it was her idea to put the OJ pulp into my yogurt.  minutes later, Mike came out with baby Broccoli carrying breakfast for her mama.  Claire got quite the kick out of that and I thought it was a very sweet thing for him to do.  we passed the rest of the day reading, gardening, and then playing and having pizza with friends.  

*weekending with Karen and the gang