Mermaid Parade, Coney Island, 2010

yesterday Dillon, Alana and I drove to Coney Island to attend the Mermaid Parade (10th year, i believe). all i can say is WOW! we really had a great time. got some sun, had some fun and saw some spectacular costumes. some of the costumes were quite elaborate and impressive. there were all sorts of folks participating as well. The colors were amazing, some groups played music and danced, some were marching bands, lots of people on stilts. and the backdrop of Coney Island couldn't have been any better. i heard there was upwards to 40,000 people there.

if you want to see the individual pictures, from the event, you can see them here on flickr.

nest spoon pendant

i've been creating some new pieces for my sept. show down in Bloomsbury, NJ. it is a 2 day show. it is about 2 hours from here so i am kidnapping dillon to come and help. we won't have enough coverage for tucker for jeff to go and also with all of kirby's meds, someone has to be there to give her what she needs. dillon and i are spending the 2 nights at a cute little B&B. we'll be on the 3rd floor and we both get our own rooms. i think it will be fun. dillon, will probably be bored!

back from the festival

Well, we are back from the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. we left thurs around 10:00 and it took about 4 1/2 hours to get there (maybe a little longer since i got lost in this one spot). it was a nice pleasant ride and fun to spend that amount of time with dillon, uninterrupted. once we got closer, i set my GPS to take us on more of the backroads, so the scenery was much nicer (although, hard to find a restroom!) as we approached the festival we rounded this curve and saw big huge road signs saying "slow down, festival ahead". rounding the next curve, we were greeted with lots of color, tents, people, activities and more! it was quite a sight seeing all these tents set up along the ridge of the mountains. we turned off into the festival parking area and immediately saw Abby and her mom, Peggy. (abby is dillon's girlfriend). you could tell she was excited that he had arrived. after our hello's, Peggy, tell us that due to severe rain the day before, that our actual campsite is not accessible by car at the moment due to massive amounts of MUD and that we will have to carry everything up by hand or wagon. Yikes! so, 3 trips later up and down this muddy hill (thank god i had my rain boots), we finally finished (the last trip almost doing me in as i was alone loading the wagon and after safely getting it over a little careen area, the darn thing tipped over and our stuff was everywhere. thank goodness i was on a grassy knoll - no mud! but to top it off, it was sooooooooooo hot and muggy. we were sweating buckets when all was said and done. after setting up our tent, we all split up for awhile, since Peggy's camp, was set up down the hill (she was in a pop up camper and had to stay there until the roads opened). dillon wient with peggy and abby, while i stayed up the hill to set up our beds and organize our stuff. when i was done, it was back down the hill again to find their camp. then i went on an ice run to the "village" where most of the activities took place (food, vendors, concerts, dancing, etc.) this was a very well organized event. i was amazed at the village and enjoyed walking around and seeing the sights. there were lots of cool vendors; although, only 2 of them were handmade items (yay), the rest being imports (sorry, but ick). i immediately bought something from one guy who made all kinds of awesome jewerly from old antique spoons. i bought a pair of earrings and wish i had bought a few other pairs for gifts. i really enjoyed his things.

back to Peggy's camp with the ice and dinner. we just had some burgers, fruit and chips, but let me tell you, that was the best darn, hard earned burger! not too mention, Peggy made margarita's! some other friends arrived, so it was meet and greet everyone. after dinner we all headed over to the village. there were concerts going on and i went and listened to this folk band (i was calling them "fiddle rock") - called The Horse Flies. i so enjoyed their music that i bought their latest CD. the kids went to the dance tent and i stayed to watch them dance for awhile before calling it quits and heading back to my tent. dillon showed up some time later and crashed. i had a hard time sleeping though, because the sheets were damp from all the humidity (gross). also, it's kind of drag to have to keep getting up to walk to the portapotty. (don't forget, i haven't been camping since college!) you have to carry your flash light so that you don't trip over tent lines, but once inside the potty, i coudn't figure out what to do with my flashlight, except put it in my mouth (and it was a chunky flashlight...........)aww, the joy of camping.

we were wakened quite early in the morning to the sound of the port-a-potty next to our tent being emptied and cleaned. (lovely at 7:30am!) but again, i have to say, they did a good job of empty them and keeping them clean and stocked with toilet paper. for breakfast dillon and i had cereal in our tent, since we were the only ones at the campsite. then we washed our hair (with water in jugs i brought) and brushed our teeth and then headed back to base camp. they were all eating breakfast and the kids were going their separate ways, so i decided to go for a drive to try and find a store to pick up some things we all forgot (trashbags!) by the time i got back, the road to our campsite had been opened, so i got to drive right up - yipee! what a difference a road makes. i put my car in 4 wheel drive though, just in case. the rest of the festival was more of the same, music (we went to see a folk version of Beatlemania, which was cool), eating, dancing, etc.

we left on saturday. packing up wasn't as bad as i thought it would be and so much easier with the car there. we stopped at some falls before driving home, which was really pretty. 20 minute hike in and out, but well worth it. next post, i'll show pics. we had a nice leisurely drive home. dillon was quite tired (well, me too!) so he napped on and off. abby called him the next day and said it started raining again with hail and that tents were falling down and they all had to pack up quickly and get out before the roads got muddy again and they all were stuck there. i said, i'm glad we left when we did!

getting ready for a show

art shows/festivals/craft fairs are alot of fun - but so much work! i've been doing them for about 4 years now. i'm no where near set up like some of the other folks who do this full time; with the tents and special shelving, etc. my booth is very whimiscal, cottagey, shabby chic, homemade, etc. i find discards on the road (screens, shutters, doors) and along with some vintage chicken coop screens, i just sort of create a backdrop for my tables. then, of course, i have fun "merchandising" my stuff and decorating my back drop. i make my husband do all the grunt work while i supervise. (hehe) then he gets to relax while i unpack everything and display them all. usually the week before a show bring all my stuff from the basement, price things, organize, get bags (i recycle shopping bags). i also do a mock set up of my booth and then create display ideas. my new idea was to build 4 miniature shelves to drill into these old louvre doors (the narrow kind, for a closet probably). i will cover the shelves with vintage hankies. it just a way to bring some height into my display. and don't worry, i'll definitely take pictures. then today, i made a display for my new jewelry line using an old vintage easel that i picked up who knows where and has been sitting in my closet for an eternity waiting to be used in some cool and creative way. here are some pictures from a few shows of my booth:

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here is the jewelry display i made for the show on sunday: