I went a little crazier with the berries on Monday morning. We found a few blackberries that were ready to pick, in addition to blueberries and raspberries, and somehow a few bright little flowers made it into our bowl as well.

After saying goodbye to Morgan and Brian, who had to drive back to Baltimore, we headed out to the annual show of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, held at the Sunapee ski resort; it's grassy in the summer, so the bunny slopes are the perfect place for craft tents, and the more dangerous slopes stared down at us from the side of the steep mountain, looking much less ominous than usual without snow on them.

Dude. Crafts everywhere. Handmade, beautiful, inspirational crafts everywhere. I loved it. The first thing I fell in love with was this wall-hanging, which was under a tent containing the works of several talented quilters. I just stared at this thing for about ten minutes and gushed about it to Jack and Kent, then asked the woman who made it a bunch of questions (she's the one holding it in the photo). She was all too happy to chat about her piece, telling me about the Japanese and Thai fabrics and how she chose them, how she appliquéd the circles on, etc. You can't really tell in this photo, but the brown squares behind the circles actually alternate between solid brown and a similarly-colored fabric with subtle stripes, so there's a lot of texture and contrast of stripes with all the circles and squares. Out of all the things I saw that day, this was probably the single most inspirational to me in terms of something I could approach. It was simply beautiful, as you can see.

I have so many photos on my camera and my phone that I won't include them all here, but I've selected a few pieces to share that caught me in some visceral way and screamed their originality at me full-force. Curiously, I didn't take photos of anything we actually bought, I guess because I was taking those things home and didn't feel the need to preserve them digitally.

One of the cutest displays was by a woman who recycles sweaters into stuffed animals, like this green bunny that Kent will be receiving for Christmas from my mom (shh). There were bunnies like this of all different colors and patterns, so it was hard for him (*cough* ME) to select just one, but he (I) finally picked the green one with stripey ears and a stripey bottom.

She also had huge sea turtles with pockets for baby sea turtles, kangaroos with little joeys in front, lions, elephants, and various other animals. I love argyle, so I adored these pigs and wanted to take one home, but budgetary concerns won out over my argyle-pig crush.

Also, here are some chickens that she had on display. Don't they look so aloof and proud of themselves? They totally crack me up. She had some yellow ducks that were similar to these but with a simpler shape, and I think I might attempt a family of ducks if I can find the right salvaged sweater. Recycling unwearable or discarded articles of clothing into new, useful things is such a great idea.

We happened upon these lovely stone jars, carved by hand and so smooth to the touch. Jack's mom has gotten into stone carving, so I thought of her as I held these jars and admired their translucence. And yes, as you see at the bottom of the photo, they were $245 each. That made it easier to keep walking. It struck me as we walked through the various tents what a great eye some of these crafters have for creating eye-catching displays: the focused lighting, the backdrops, and the careful placement of flowers to brighten the display all made their pieces look even more attractive.

And speaking of attractive — wait, no, GORGEOUS — here are some pieces from a silk painter. You can read about my forays into silk painting here and here, but I've realized that my amateur efforts look terribly inferior to her works of art. The things she did with resist are stunning. I have to get all these photos together to share with my friend Linda, who's much more artistic than I and who would likely draw a lot of inspiration from these pieces. Here are a few other things of hers that I couldn't stop looking at:




Several of the artisans had demo tents set up, including this blacksmith. We tarried here for only a few minutes, since it was kind of slow going (pounding the thingy a few times, sticking it back in the fire for a few minutes, pounding it some more), and he didn't have the greatest gift for entertaining a crowd. Still, it was interesting to watch, and Jack admiringly eyed some of his displayed pieces.

And now, the closing photo blitz:



I looked down at our feet while we were standing in one of the craft tents and was feeling very Birkenstocky.



And for completeness' sake, here are our son's feet.



Taking a break from crafts to sit in the sun



Kent got a little impatient with the whole thing after a while. He's making his "EHHHHHH" noise in this photo.



Some lathed wooden bowls



Ribbon dancers



Hanging decoration outside one of the tents. Love it.



A happy couple at breakfast



The house, as seen from the road

We spent a sizable chunk of the day at the craft show, so when we arrived back at the house, I got right to work fixing dinner. I made a veggie lasagna, my second time making it with a bechamel sauce, and oh, the yumminess factor was quite high. I also roasted a head of garlic to go on our good bread from the King Arthur store, and it was all accompanied by a salad with some of the leftover stuff from the fridge.

After dinner and little boy bedtime, we played Apples to Apples, a family favorite. Jack kicked all of our butts with his ability to match adjectives and nouns humorously or ironically. Fun day, fun night.

Next up: Tuesday, wherein we remember Daisy and then travel back home to Louisiana...

Labels: craftiness, family, kitchen adventures, photography, travel

• posted by erica 8/08/2008 09:22:00 AM
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