hometown tourist: the oregon country fair

"Hometown Tourist" is an occasional series in which I tell tales about our adventures around town, and actually, the whole state of Oregon. Take a peek and come exploring with us!

Phew! It was actually a little bit of a challenge narrowing our photos of this year's Oregon Country Fair in Veneta.

1) wizard and flamingo costumes on a break under some trees

2) "sexy" recycling bins (the fair aims to be 100% waste free)

3) energy park beyond the crowd

4) the famous condom rose booth has been there forever

5) tree costumes sans occupants

6) drums for sale on a vendor cart

7) totem pole costume made of recyclables (mostly corrugated cardboard)

8) vendor booth with costumes and leather flower clips

9) sign at the entrance to "Ark Park" (Archaeology Park)

10) fire-starting demonstration at Ark Park

11) northwest tipi

12) utilikilts; one of the fair's fashion trends

13) musicians performing a set in the shade

14) mosaic sculpture dragon bench

15) more musicians on the banjo

16) newman's commedia mask company booth (one of our favorites every year)

17) the trumbly designs booth

18) the kids' art booth

19) a nifty papier mache shark costume and an incongruous man in a suit and bowler

20) puppet theater, with large puppets

21) entrance to the hoarse chorale stage area

22) twig dragon hide-out and young musicians

23) metal flower sculptures and a Leave it to Beaver-ish sign

24) painted hawk (or falcon?) outside the baths and sauna at the ritz

25) etched glaze pottery from yogagoat pottery

26) large kaleidoscope sculpture near the entrance to the fair

27) the kaleidoscope shows through to the person on the other side

28) the shape of this gigantic globe vexes him

29) walking towards the car and the setting sun

Everyone who lives here should go once, or at least that's how the saying goes. :)

Thanks for reading! Does your hometown or the surrounding area celebrate a large, three-day hippie festival in the middle of summer? Do tell!

p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.

a long, long, time ago, in a college far, far away . . . (a frog's tale)

When I graduated high school, I was seventeen years old and still hadn't formulated a plan for college. I knew, vaguely, that I should go (lacking marketable skills outside of retail cashiering), but though a good friend's mom had tried to light a fire under me a year or so earlier, the idea of choosing from hundreds of schools, applying, getting accepted, packing up all my stuff, moving hours away from home, applying for financial aid and scholarships, and enrolling in classes seemed way beyond my ability. So aside from taking my SATs and requesting countless college brochures, I didn't actively apply myself to the challenge. I was afraid.

If I'd really thought it out, I would probably have seen this: that the person who tried to light that fire (Bonnie, I'm looking at you) would have helped me, if I had asked. In fact, I had numerous adults in my life who would have helped me if I had asked (parents, a stellar aunt, a language teacher who thought I was great). But that's not something I accepted or thought of then. I thought I was all alone.

I was lucky, or perhaps some unknown benefactor interceded on my behalf; I still don't know, seventeen years later, how the nearby college got a hold of my grades and SAT scores. I probably owe someone a huge debt of gratitude there. Because one day, after the time for choosing a college had passed me by, the college chose me. A phone call was answered, a partial scholarship was offered, and before I knew it, I was an eighteen-year-old freshman in college. Lucky.

All of which I'm writing about now because soon, I turn 35. I graduated high school a little over seventeen years ago, half a lifetime now. And there are still lessons I haven't learned completely.

But there are others I have. Like that change can be scary, but that I shouldn't fear it. Sometimes, change brings the greatest things to my life, like a guy with a big heart who tells the best jokes (my husband), or a little boy who can light up a room with a smile while simultaneously driving me crazy (my son).

And trying new things, stepping outside my comfort zone, can yield huge rewards, or at least teach me something about myself, like moving to a new city and graduating from a different college. Like starting new jobs and making new friends and running a business. Or, as I found out this week, taking a rock climbing class.

Asking for help is still hard for me, and being awake and alert to the unseen helpers around me is still something I struggle with (I'm disgustingly self-centered sometimes). But I'm still evolving. And that's as important as having evolved.

All of which, strangely, leads me to my friend Froggy, here.

Froggy was one of the projects I made in Sculpture 101 (or similar) class my very first quarter of college. Yup. He's almost as old now as I was when I made him. Carved from a block of plaster cast in a bucket, Froggy made me see everyday materials in a new light. One of the students watching me make him in class later commented during a critique that he could tell, while I was making him, that I was in love with what I was doing.

Froggy has seen quite a life, moving with me eight times, I think, in the past seventeen years. He's all banged up, but oddly enough, the big chunk out of his cheek came only weeks after he was finished, when a roommate's bongo drum was knocked over by one of his cats, and cracked Froggy's cheek off.

But though Froggy's seen it all and been battered around by bongos and babies, he's not done for. He's still evolving, too.

Thanks to a little Milk Paint, Froggy's looking fresh as a forget-me-not.

He's doing the same thing I'm constantly doing; adding something new and different to a solid base.

I still (as you know) love making things. A particular joy of mine is taking old things and reworking them. And that's what I'm thinking about as I start my 36th year.

Thanks for reading. Froggy thanks you too.

p.s. you can make these photographs larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.

thrift store finds: the ones that got away

Contrary to popular belief, I do not, in fact, take home every cool thing I find at thrift and re-sale stores. Sometimes I limit myself to just taking photos of things I like. So here's a little photo dump of some of the things I've loved and left.

This leather folding chair must've been one of the coolest chairs I've seen lately. I don't really need more chairs in my life (our house is still the same size it's always been), but the kiddo and I visited it about a half dozen times before someone else bought it off the sales floor and saved me from myself.

Big industrial mixer-thingy? Really cool looking. No use for it in the world.

Big honkin' antique piano with little doors that slide open to show the hammers? It was almost ours. It should have been ours. If there'd been some way to get it home, it would have been ours. It was only $50.

There was a whole set of these dictionary/encyclopedias one day at the Village; I loved the hand-marbled end papers, and if the books hadn't been so musty, large, pricey, and only sensical as a set, I might have trucked them home. Instead, I just photographed the paper, and just like that, I saved $150 and a ton of shelf space in my house. I might turn the pattern into a fabric design or something.

I don't even know what this is. My left brain says, "air conditioning condenser", but I don't know where my left brain is pulling that from. My right brain says "pretty copper tubing! Maybe it could be a sculpture or something!" But my right brain is (face it) a little crazy sometimes, and my left brain smacked her hand away.

Modern Science Problems is a handsome book. I didn't get past the cover because it was super-musty smelling, and I don't like to introduce mustiness into my book collection. But the illustrations on the cover promised more inside. St. Vinnie's has such great book selections.

I like the idea of this 1970s kitchen measurements/equivalents chart (spotted at Goodwill), but the typography layout didn't do it for me, and I couldn't see past the glaring spelling error. It made me wonder if the measurements would be off, too. Still, I like the idea of a kitchen chart for measurements, and I hope to work up something similar in the near future.

Inexplicably, this elf's house cookie jar (with a sign reading "Cookie Club" above the door) was in a summer window display at the Assistance League charity shop, along with wet suits, boogie boards, and sandcastle molds. 'Round these parts, the cookie club meets all year. Super cute cookie jar. Doesn't go with anything we own, except the gnome seatbelt covers I made for the kiddo's car seat. And we already have a cookie jar.

I thought these hand-stitched chair seats were pretty nifty, but again, we don't need chairs and again, they're not really our style, so I photographed them and moved on. Not five minutes later, the kiddo and I saw a couple of dudes rolling them past in a shopping cart, so they found a happy home almost immediately.

More chairs. I loved the super-tall backs on these and the old leather seats. I clearly have a chair problem.

1950s nightstand in terrible shape. I liked the lines, though, and imagined it all refinished and shiny. I could be really beautiful. But the projects are piling up around here as it is. I mean, aside from the fact that there's no room in our bedroom for a nightstand. It's not the right time, little nightstand, but someday, maybe. Stay alive. I will find you.

Metal cabinet with a fancy latch. No use for it, really, but that doesn't mean I didn't think it over. Flammable liquid storage, maybe? I don't know. Something.

These pretty lucite boxes would make awesome art storage. I had all five of these piled into my cart one day at Bring, but they weren't priced, as far as I could tell. If you'll look closely at right-side hinge on the second case from the bottom, you might make out the number "10". As in $10 each. Because these are special, "lab-quality plastic" donated from the semi-conductor plant that closed. I have no lab use for these, so I can't justify $10 per box, but maybe someone else can! They had dozens of them in stock.

More chairs! I know. I'm seeking help. Fact is, two blogs I regularly visit had featured egg-shaped 1970s wicker chairs (here and here) recently; they're coming back into style. I went back to get one (for the backyard, maybe?) after spending the afternoon thinking it over, and both were sold. At $12.50 apiece, I knew they wouldn't last.

I don't collect Pyrex, but I know a lot of people do. I considered buying it for my Etsy vintage shop. This peachy one was sweet, but honestly, glass and dishware don't sell particularly well in my shop, so I passed on this until I clear a couple more items from my inventory.

Blue portable record player. Love it. No personal use for it. A little too pricey to ship. So it stayed on the shelf for another 24-hours (tops), until someone whisked it away to a new home.

If I didn't already have too many glass vases, this elegant glass globe would have hopped into my cart. But I do have too many glass vases, so it stayed at the Village.

1970s electric organ. I thought it was cute and it reminded me of the one our neighbors had when we were kids. But I'm holding out for a real piano. I still regret not snapping up the one I showed you earlier, and having this would in no way make up for it.

Finally, these. These huge, light-up letters from an old Pepsi-Cola bottling company sign. There are two "P"s in Pepsi. There was one in a (claimed) shopping cart at the front of the store, along with the "s" (the "a" was already gone). If I'd been there awhile earlier, I could have found the first letter of each of our names. As it was, the only three left weren't useful; once again, saved by the bell.

So there you have it! A ton of great secondhand finds I left behind. Which isn't to say I didn't bring home some nifty things recently. I totally did. But I'm gonna save those for another day.

How about you? What have you been finding and leaving behind?

p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that!

Linking up to:

Simple Design's Thrift Haul
Cap Creations' Thrifty Love
Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures