Friday, September 30, 2011

Family Fiber Fest

The hot roar of summer has slowed to a slow, warm, autumn trickle.  Days are still shorts-and-sandals, but nights are fleece jackets and knit hats.  Mountainside maples burn cardinal-red by day, forest fires settle to smoke-laden valleys by night.  I love it.

We went camping last weekend, a much-needed break from working on the house and moving and all-around stress.  I feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and laughed when we came home to discover our storage unit had been left open all weekend.  I knew nothing would be missing, but still...don't think I would have cared.  One less thing to move.

I still have bits of summer to post...since Juniper and I came home from the Pacific it's been one-thing-after-another, but...you know.

Right back to it:

:: So...after a week at my mom's we drove on up to my family's 15th annual Family Fiber Fest, better known as FFF.  This is where my step-mom and my aunts (and a token "adopted" sister) on my dad's side all get together to knit, weave, sew, make jewelry, cards and exchange ideas.  This is not a bunch of grandma's getting together to gossip and crochet acrylic toilet paper covers.  They are serious, and what they make is nothing short of art.  Us cousins join the Fest when time and pocketbooks allow.  This year, there were two of us, plus my mom.  The first day consists of show-and-tell (showing off all things handmade in the last year), the exchange of handmade gifts, and a wee bit of champagne.





And then, it's down to business:  
That's me, the super chubs preggo on the right ^.  You don't need to see my belly to know I'm pregnant because this time, my whole body is pregnant.  Oy.  I was all distraught about this for a while, but then realized that A) I am growing a whole new human being, and B) I only have two more months to be super chubs pregnant and the rest of my life to be something else.  (When I mentioned this to my husband, he said, Yeah, you can be super chubs and not pregnant.  Ha.  We've always been straight-up with each other.)   

:: Meals are shared and with that many women, there is never a shortage of food.

Check it out:  
That's my rya knot lap weaving project.  Juniper sometimes napped and other times fell into the hands of grandpa or grandma or one of many aunts and I actually got to work on some projects!
    Romping with grandma L.  

J bug completely distracting Aunt J from her own lap weaving project.  

Before we even arrived, my dad had gone and found a huge appliance box and made Juniper her own little house, complete with a window and sill.  Young June Bug is very lucky to have such a spunky, creative grandpa.  Plus, he was the only one nimble enough to climb in the box with her.  

Other times, Juniper would demand, More amimals.  Meaning, she wanted grandpops to show his photos of African mammals.  She loved that. 

Grandma L had borrowed this playpen thingy complete with phone, music, mirrors and such.  Juniper would open the door, demand to the nearest adult, In?  And then, Dancing!   
(When we got home, she would construct her own corral with books, toys and other floor debris, and demand the same thing.  In?  Dancing!)

  Before we left on this trip, bugs was saying short, demanding sentences like, Open the curtain or, Shut the door.  But on this trip, two things happened: Juniper became completely obsessed with airplanes and started belting out some full, long sentences.  We'd flown on a plane to get to my mom's, we'd read a book about planes for a week straight (over and over and over...Juniper asking, More? More?), and my dad practically lives within spitting distance of a small, puddle-jumper airport.  I thought she'd get all gooey about boats in the water, but no, it was airplanes.  Airplane!  Up in the sky.  Over and over and over.  A month later, the obsession has not waned.  She sees and hears airplanes faster than a dog can smell bacon.  Helicopters too, which she calls hachitopters.   After we flew back home, she started into the more sinister sentence: Airplanes on the ground, boom boom.  We're still not sure what that means, exactly.   

:: Juniper and I often snuck in some afternoon excursions into the woods.  
Bugs was probably more into picking her grandpa's well-tended flowers, but I found the short, soft woodland trails refreshing after an entire summer of not-enough-hiking.  

Playing beepaboo with Grandma L.  

People find this hard to believe, but Juniper is camera shy.  Seriously.  I work hard to get good, candid photos of my little bean.  Aside from the occasional Toddler Day, she is a super happy, laughing, smiling, talking, singing, dancing fun little chickadee.  But...break out the camera and the smile fades, the laugh stops and all she wants is to play with the buttons and look at the LCD screen on the back.  I love these photos ^ because she was having so much fun with a new, borrowed, toy and my dad and I both had cameras and she couldn't escape us! 
 Random note: The wooden fruit and bread set was borrowed from my dad's massage therapist whose daughter has a daughter close to Juniper's age.  And that's the crazy thing about the blogging world.  I follow the therapist's daughter's blog and she follows mine and we've never met, but now our kids have exchanged germs via a borrowed toy.  Totally crazy.  And wonderful.  


:: How many families out there have an annual Fiber Fest?  Not many, I'm guessing.  I'm so lucky that my grandma's creativity has rolled through the generations.  I hope my cousins and I continue the tradition and our daughters after us.  Would that be a miracle, in this day and age? 

3 comments:

  1. So awesome. You *have* to keep the fiber fest going. :)

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  2. Love your blog, can't even imagine how you manage to keep it up! Tell your Dad and Linden they both look great. Kelli is also expecting third child (twins turned 1 in August) in January, I always update her on you, Juniper and your pregnancy. Keep up the good work, you'd probably be amazed at the people who read your updates and look at the beautiful photos!

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  3. What a great idea, my family does not have a fiver fest but I would love it if we did. Your little bug is scrumptious and your blog inspiring! Hope to be back again very soon, x Ashley (p.s. You look exactly how a preggers mama should! Lovely;))

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