Lilac Festival 2012: My Favorite Booths

I usually am too busy enjoying the experience of going to a craft show to take a lot of pictures, but I was able to take a few yesterday when I went to the Lilac Festival! (next weekend is the last weekend this year!)

First up is my friend and fellow RNEST member, Erin of Sunshyne Silverwear!  I really love her recycled spoon pendants!  If you go to the Lilac Festival this weekend, you should check her out! (as well as RNESTer Francesca DeCaire, who makes beautiful lampworked beads & jewelry!)

I bought another pendant for myself.  It's made from a spoon handle.  I have a thing for the leaf skeleton design.  I also like the pieces she has with feathers embedded in the resin.

These are some spoons my mom gave to Erin (FYI: Erin gives discounts on her jewelry when you give her spoons!  Especially if they're real silver!)

This silver spoon is my Dad's "birth record spoon".  Mom is having Erin make her a pendant out of it.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!

This booth (I think the company name is Blue Gecko?) is one I go to every year to buy my annual summer dress.  I like the tie-dyed smocked dresses.  I wear them all summer.  I used to buy sarongs until I had acquired too many and decided I really liked the dresses!  The hardest part is deciding which one to buy!  The lady recognizes me every year (since I am usually wearing a dress I've bought there!) and usually gives mom and I some sort of deal on what we buy, since we are annual repeat customers.

(FYI, they are not in the "craft show" section of the festival.  They are in the Commercial/Not-for-profit section across the park, closer tot he food vendors.)

Lilac Festival 2011: Part 5 (Hair Accessories)

Mom and I love these hair clips! We buy one almost every year! This year was the first year I didn't buy one, because I have all the sizes I need now. These are great, because the stick is attached, so you can't lose it!

These ladies always remember us from previous years. We see them every year, sometimes twice a year, since they go to the Remsen Barn Festival as well! They love us, since we're good advertising for them when we hang around the booth! We always joke that I should just hang out all day at the booth and help them demonstrate their product. Since I have such long, thick hair, it's good for demonstrating just how much hair the clips can hold. You always need to get a smaller size than you think you'll need. These things can hold a lot of hair! I tried their largest one (the extra-large size) and put my hair up in a bun with it, and it was still a little loose! I usually use the small or extra small size to put the sides of my hair up. I've had photos of them in previous posts. The photo above is Mom wearing either a large or a medium.

These are the only photos I took at the craft show at the Lilac Festival. When I'm shopping, I'm too busy having fun and don't think of taking pictures! Plus, I know some people can be weird about people taking pictures of their work or their booth, due to the fear of copycats.

Lilac Festival 2011: Part 4 (The "Monet Tree")

Mom and I found this cool tree in the Highland Park garden...

I've seen this kind of tree before, but I have no idea what it is called. I call it the "Monet Tree", since the patterned, multicolored reminds me of an Impressionistic painting!

Lilac Festival 2011: Part 3 (Cherry Blossoms)

In addition to the pretty flowering trees we found in Highland Park on Saturday, was the Flowering Cherry Tree. From far away, at the bottom of a hill, I thought it was another magnolia, but when we got closer, we realized it was something else. Mom and I didn't even know what kind of tree it was at first (although I guessed Cherry Tree!). We even had a man ask us what kind of tree it was while I was taking pictures. The tree I was taking pictures of only had the scientific name, but the tree next to it had a sign with its common name.

(I did NOT pick these blossoms off the tree! We found them on the ground!)

Love this close-up!

*Next Post: "Lilac Festival 2011: Part 4 (The Monet Tree)"

Lilac Festival 2011: Part 2 (Magnolias)

Highland Park doesn't just have lilac bushes. There are a lot of other plants and trees there too. And there are some beautiful magnolia trees there that are in bloom at the same time of year that the lilacs are.

I love how the ground beneath the tree was carpeted with petals! When the wind would blow, a new batch of petals would come fluttering to the ground. It was so gorgeous! Moments like that remind me of the movies!

I LOVE this photo I took (above), but I need to take it into Photoshop and edit out that stupid yellow rope! They had that section roped off from some reason. Our theory was that it was to prevent children from trampling the plants that bordered the path.

I love magnolia trees! I'd love to have one in my yard!

*Next post: "Lilac Festival: Part 3 (Cherry Blossoms)"

Lilac Festival 2011: Part 1 (Lilacs)

I went to the Rochester Lilac Festival with my mom on Saturday. We like to go together every year. They have a big craft show on the 2 weekends. Someday I will build up the guts to have my own booth there to sell my plush critters! But for now, it kind of intimidates me...although I have a lot of support behind me from friends and strangers alike who are encouraging me to just go for it!

Mom and I got to the Festival early. Her car had an appointment for an oil change, so I picked her up from the dealership around 8:10am and we got to Highland park around 8:30am. The place we always park wasn't even officially "open" yet, but the lady was really nice and let us in. All the craft vendors will still setting up, so Mom and I went to see the lilacs first.

I love that dress! It's my favorite summer dress! I actually bought it last year at the Lilac Festival. I have one more from the same booth (well, two, now that I bought another one this weekend), but this one, with its bright colors, is still my favorite.

Mom enjoying the scent of white lilacs.

It had rained all night the night before. The sky was still overcast and the air was still damp and it felt like it was ready to rain again at any moment. But it was perfect conditions for the scent of lilacs! The smell was wonderful! I know there are lots of lilac scented soaps and perfumes out there (there were tons at the vendor booths) but none of them ever capture really the real scent of a live lilac in bloom. (I actually really dislike flowery perfumes in general).

I have a memory of when I was on a walk with my girl scout troop, when I lived in Kansas when I was a kid. I might have been 6 or 7 years old. During the walk, I caught the scent of lilacs and exclaimed "It smells like New York!"... because I had memories of the smell from our old back yard in upstate New York. (I have strong associations with scents. For example: the smell of woodstoves "smells like winter" to me). I didn't realize that the "New York" smell was from lilacs. I'm not sure I even knew what a lilac was. All I knew was the smell. I think it's kind of funny that years later, I would move to a city in New York state that has a whole festival dedicated to the flower!

When I was taking the following photos, Mom said "It's too bad you can't smell pictures!"

I know...but the flowers are still pretty!

The previous rain was not only great for the smell, but it made for some beautiful pictures as well. I love the water droplets that were still on the petals!

Oh, how I love the Macro setting! It is my best friend because I love close ups!

One of my RNEST friends recently opened up a separate Etsy shop for her photography. After taking these photos, I've toyed with the idea as well. Although...I know SO many photographers. It seems like everyone and their brother is a photographer nowadays.

If I ever decided to do it, I would just need to find a good place to print them professionally (I'm not sure if it's acceptable to just get them printed at Wal-Mart!). I probably won't do it anytime soon though. Focusing on doing the plush is enough for me right now.

*Next post: "Lilac Festival 2011: Part 2 (Magnolias)"

Treasury Tuesday BONUS: The Lilac Festival is Coming!

Treasury Tuesday BONUS! This Etsy Treasury is inspired by one of my favorite local festivals...Rochester's Lilac Festival! The festival starts this upcoming weekend on May 13th and goes to May 22nd, with craft fairs on the 2 weekends.

The Lilac Festival is Coming!

Many of the items featured are from fellow RNEST members, others are simply from artists who live or have lived in Rochester, and some items just have colors that remind me of the beautiful lilacs in Highland Park. I'm looking forward to going this year!

Lilac Festival 2010

I went to the Rochester Lilac Festival with my mom this morning. It's a tradition for us. We try to go every year. We went early today to try to beat the crowds (and the rain that was supposed to come in the afternoon).

The craft show was fun. Mom and I have certain vendors that we go to every year. Today I wanted to get another dress from a clothing company called Blue Gecko (I bought one last weekend when I went to the festival with my friends from church). I wish I'd taken some pictures of the booth and clothing, but I was too busy shopping for a dress. After I bought my dress, Mom ended up buying the same dress I did (Aww! Mother-Daughter matchy matchy-ness!)

Mom and I were also planning on going to the booth of Scentastics, an essential oil vendor we buy from every year. But we were disappointed to find that they weren't there this year! We can order from them online but Mom and I said today "you can't smell over the internet!"... and smelling the oils is half the fun! Our going theory is that the festival was scheduled later in the month than usual (at least one of the weekends usually falls on Mother's Day weekend), so the vendor couldn't make it (they're from Vermont). I took the picture below to help me remember what oils I already have!

We stopped at the Turkish Culture Center booth and Mom had some Turkish coffee... (I passed. I don't drink coffee.)

Turkish coffee is made by boiling very finely ground coffee and sugar...

Then when it is served, the grounds settle to the bottom of the cup.

We also each had our silhouettes hand-cut. The artist offered to do them as a demonstration, with no obligation for us to buy them...but they were so gorgeous that Mom bought them for me. She has 2 hand-cut silhouettes in her house, one of her in the late 70's and one of me in 1985 when I was 3 years old. And she thought it would be cool for me to have this to hang in my own house.

Can you tell which is me and which is my mom? How can you tell?