Nothing like a beautiful fall day...

It was a gorgeous fall day yesterday!  Just the right temperature, sunny, and bustling with folks either setting up their booths, wandering the collections, or just enjoying all the tasty vittles.    I was so thankful for my dad's help as this was my fist ever festival and it took me a bit to figure out how to get set up.  I think he ran home to get me something three different times!  Good thing they live right down the street. Within a couple hours of organizing, rearranging, and putting the final touches on pricing, I was sitting down to the spinning wheel with the visiting elementary students flocking over to see what I was doing.

Today looks like it is going to be another beautiful day today!  And all the lumberjacking festivities and horse pull start up at 11am!  So we'll be heading back down to start setting up for the day here in a few minutes.  So head on down and enjoy a day of festivities reminiscent of the past.

6th Annual Johnny Appleseed Festival - This Weekend!

Well this weekend I will be a vendor at the 6th annual Johnny Appleseed Festival hosted in my hometown of Sheffield, Pennsylvania.  It will be my first ever vending event!  My feelings are a mix of excitement and  apprehension.  Excitement because I get go home for a weekend, spend time with my family, watch some crazy Appalachian Mountain lumberjacks, and share my products with the world.  Okay, well maybe not the whole world, but certainly a small part of it.  Apprehension because I've had such a busy past month with a series of (sometimes unfortunate) events, that I had hoped to have a better variety of products made. But I suppose I will just go with what I got, and make the best of it!  I've got at  bunch of colorful baskets, bits of fiber and yarn, and some wax dipped origami stars.  And best of all, I'll be sitting right by the horse pull!  One of my all time favorite events.  Weather permitting, I may bring a couple of my angora rabbits to pluck as a fiber demonstration as well as my spinning wheel and knitting needles.  I'll also be sharing that booth with a friend of mine who makes some wonderful hoops (yes folks, for 'hula' hooping).

So if you're out and about this weekend, and anywhere near Sheffield, or if you're looking for a beautiful drive with a unique festival at the end of the road, head on up to the heart of the Allegheny's!  You won't be sorry!  See you there!

A Homesteading Weekend

Last weekend was great!  My sister and I had fun from beginning to end.  If you didn't catch the last post, we attended the second Mother Earth News Fair at Seven Springs, PA.  Talk about homesteading and sustainable living galore.  They had everything from livestock and cooking, to foraging and hammocks.  Seriously folks, if you can thing of it, there was probably a lecture or workshop on it.  In fact, there was SO much to do and see that it would have taken you a week to see and attend everything (if you had a week).  We had to do a little strategic planning to figure out what we wanted to see and when.  They great thing about going with my sister was that we pretty much were interested in the same things, and outside of maybe two lectures, we took in the same information.

So it was great from the start!  We had booked a 'rustic' cabin at Kooser State Park for the weekend.  I'm glad we made our reservations ahead of time, as I think every single cabin was spoken for.  Let me say, for 'rustic' we sure made out pretty darn well:



Other than the absent bathroom, it had all the amenities you could ever want.  Seriously, I think I could live just fine in one of these if it had a water closet of sorts.  We got all settled in, made some dinner in the wood stove and spent the evening folding and waxing origami stars, pickin' on the strumstick, and chatting up our excitement for the upcoming day.

Waxed Origami Stars

The next morning we arrived at Seven Springs by 8:15am, hoping to get a close parking spot (which we did).  The outdoor grounds were opened by 9am and my sister seemed to make a beeline for the livestock.  I don't think it was intentional; maybe some unseen driving force, or the subliminal whisper of, "over here."  Whatever it was, she made it to the meat rabbits in break neck time, and by 9:15 had bought herself a pair of Silver Fox does and one buck from Mule's Eared Farm.  Well that was fast.  We happened to run into Jenna Woginrich of Cold Antler Farm (one of my favorite authors and bloggers) purchasing herself a Silver Fox doe.  She was one of the keynote speakers at the fair that weekend.  We were able to attend two of her seminars on Raising Meat Rabbits (I guess that was fitting, seeings how we just bought three) and Living A Sustainable Life.  Both were great.  She's a great speaker as well.  Before I forget, here's my sister, happily holding one of her new rabbits:

A girl and her rabbit.

Well, that's all i have to tell for tonight as my computer is about out of power!  And I suppose it's past my bed time.  I'll share more hopefully later this week (I've only just touched the tip of the iceberg), as well as my preparations for the Johnny Appleseed Festival coming up in my home town this weekend.