Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival

Hello, how was your weekend?  We attended the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF) in Canby, OR on Saturday.  We took the "quiet and well-behaved" boys with us as we thought they'd like seeing the sheep, goats, alpacas and rabbits.  One of my blog friends Kathy at Running with Rocket blog was planning on attending so I texted her when we were heading to the festival and we met up there for the first time.  She is a very talented seamstress and gifted the boys with a zipper bag to keep their treasures in.  She and her husband have a vintage bi-plane, live on an air park and have their plane in their own hanger!  You'll have to check out her blog.

Kathy jumped right in to help us corral the boys and try to keep them out of trouble.  I think we needed a few more people to help with that.  LOL!  Kathy and I walked among the vendor tents together and I snapped a photo of a basket of colorful wool all ready for spinning.  

We headed straight to the barns so they boys could see the animals.. I just missed a photo of Hayden communing with this white Pygora goat, they were nose to nose, very cute.  Pygoras are a cross between Pygmy and Angora goats.

I loved this one as it was a rusty red with a warm beige coat.  The boys weren't afraid of the animals.. it may have been the other way around.  LOL!

I would love to spin this fiber into yarn!

There were lots of Angora goats as they were showing them to the judges while we were there.They are SO cute with their hair in their eyes.

A photo of the judge checking each animal and then placing them in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

I fell in love with this little one with the grey curly locks of silky fiber.

I'd never seen this breed, called Teeswaters.  The beautiful fluffy long hair looks like a dream to spin.

These two little black sheep were so cute, they looked liked twins.

Next to them was this big black boy who was very curious about my wool bag, nibble nibble.

3 shorn Alpacas - black, white and tan.. they are SO cute!

Dayle stayed with the boys by a big grassy area for them to run and play and Kathy and I headed off to look at the activities.  More braided carded and dyed hanks of ready to spin wool.

There were many stalls of yarn all spun and dyed in addition to the ready-to-spin wool, alpaca, mohair and silk.

The baskets.. oh the baskets.. I fell in love with the pink and green striped one, but my dear long suffering husband informed me.. "You don't need another basket!".  ::sigh::  He's right.. dang.  But I'm still sorry I didn't get it.  :-)

Which one do you like?  The handles are wrapped in leather and they are very well made.. love them!  I do have about 4 of them.. :-)

In years past there would be a large circle of spinners, this year they were here and there.  

Amongst the spinners was a lone man weaving.  Very nice pattern!

I then went into the big building and found more wonderful and colorful things.

My eyes were drawn to these shiny colorful hanks of silk.  Me wantie!

Already spun.. oh drool.. 

At this point they announced that the festival was closing for the day.  I asked another shopper if she'd take a photo of Kathy and I.  I hope to be able to meet Kathy again, she was a lot of fun and I felt like we'd been friends for a long time.  

Kathy and I chatted on a bench out front while I called Dayle and told him where we were - he and the boys joined us and we visited while the "quiet and well-behaved boys" amused themselves.

OK.. must be time to head home.  :-)

As we drove away we passed this wonderful old Railroad Station which is a museum now.  I love old RR station buildings.

And to top it off, a Union Pacific train came by - Dayle was an engineer with this company for over 30 years and spent his last years with the company running trains by this very spot.  

I'm heading off to swim soon -- I miss my swim partner, Gracie.  She's on a wonderful trip to see friends and family - so I have to go all by myself.  :-)  I hope your week ahead brings you joy and happiness.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Pendleton Mill Store and Washougal River

If you are a crafter you will understand this story of lust, adventure and greed.. :-)  A few weeks ago I got a Pendleton bag.. to support the Warm Springs Indian Museum.. and it doesn't have a pocket for my glasses so I started looking online for a Pendleton one.. none of them were "it" so I started formulating an idea of making one myself!  But I needed some awesome woven Indian blanket material.  Right?  So, it just happens that across the Mighty Columbia River there is a charming Mill Store where you can get close-out items and fabrics, blankets, bags, clothing, jackets.. you get the idea.  SO... I convinced my long-suffering husband that an adventure was what we needed yesterday.  We also took our quiet, well-behaved grandsons with us.  :-D

When I eyed the rack of woven wool fabric bolts on this rack my eye went ZOING.. right to the turquoise and fire colored one.  None other would do.  I asked the nice young salesgirl to show me how much I'd need to get one whole design section.  To learn more about the Pendleton company, click HERE.

I also loved this sage green, red and gold-brown design.

Which design SPEAKS to you?

I showed great.. massive even.. restraint in the blanket and bag area.  They also are making a whole line of thick cotton beach towels.. yum.. no, Teresa, no!

The unassuming store front.  While I was getting my fabric, Dayle was trying to keep an eye on the quiet, well-behaved grandsons who were hiding in the clothes racks and touching the antique carding machine.. much to the chagrin of the nice salesgirl.. I gave him the keys to the car and sent them outside.  :-)

Then we took a drive UP memory lane.  When the kids were VERY small I used to take them up the Washougal River to a special swimming hole, called Dougan Falls.  There is a bridge over the area, this is looking downriver.

This is looking straight down at the big swimming hole where I would float my 1 year old baby.. Travis.. in a floating baby ring and I would swim and dive down in the water.  The older kids would play in the shallower water.

This is the view from the other side of the bridge.. the boys were amazed and excited by the waterfall.. it sounded awesome, too.

Isn't it gorgeous?

You can see the forested mountains beyond and the blue sky and clouds reflected in the water.  Joy.

Before we left the sun came out and made the forest glow.. did I tell you that we are in Washington State, directly across the Columbia River from where we live up on the cliffs of Corbett, Oregon.

I walked a ways down the trail and was amazed that I used to haul 3 kids, floaties and picnic stuff down that steep descent - in my young mother years.  

We then headed down the river towards home.. this was another scene from a bridge lower on the river.  We were amazed at how many homes were built up this river gorge from when we were young.

Further down the river.

So we made our way down the river and then headed East up the Columbia Gorge and came around a corner and I pulled off the road.. here is our gorge from the other side bathed in a warm golden evening light.

We pulled into Beacon Rock State Park to get a gander at this fabulous 840 foot high basalt volcanic plug.  

The golden evening glow on one gigantic rock.

Members of the Portland Yacht Club were there for a cruise-in.. we chatted with a few of the members for a bit.  There were some serious partying going on in the cockpits of those boats.  :-)

We let the boys run out some of their energy, up and down the boat dock ramp and around this big grassy area.  On Caleb's first run DOWN the steep ramp, he hit the dock and tripped and rolled.. he stood up and shouted, "I'm fine!".  But he brought home a bit of a scraped knee.

We finally pulled in at the farm at 7 pm.  A big day!  This morning I laid out my wonderful fabric to admire it.  Also, I forgot to show you this delightful trio of velvet pumpkins I acquired from Etsy.  I love them!  Want some?  Click HERE.

Now I need to get my other pumpkins out and do a bit of gourd overload.. lol!  

And now.. time to get ready to go to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival.. better known as OFFF.  We are taking the boys along to see the sheep, Angora goats and rabbits, Llamas and Alpacas.. and me?  I will be looking at yarn and the ladies spinning.  Shall I take my camera?  Ya think?  Okay.. if you insist.  I hope you're having a spectacular weekend!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Fields of Dahlias in the Rain

Yesterday my husband and I went on a fun day out and about.  We first went out to lunch at the Claim Jumper restaurant and both had a chicken pot pie and salad.  Then we drove on to Aurora to an antique shop to have another look at something that my friend Shirley had seen and told me about.  More about that later.  Then we headed back through Canby and went to visit the Swan Island Dahlia farm.  I just love it there.  Dahlias amaze me in how many different varieties of flowers there are!  You get to see this field as you're nearing the farm entrance.

A ways further and more varieties and waves of color.

This sign marks the entrance.  

The rain began the night before our excursion, but I drove very carefully as the roads were slick with no rain for 2 months.  We parked and went directly into the little flower shed where there are buckets of cut bouquets of dahlias - I selected 2 different ones in bright orange.  Then we began walking through the rows of flowers and admiring the blooms.. one more amazing than the next, so many colors, so many shapes.

I really like the stripy-ness of this one.

This is a big pompom shape and the colors just make me swoon.

The bees like them too.  It even braved the rain to look for pollen!

Don't you love the tubular design of this one?

There are BIG ones...

And bigger ones.. 

Spidery ones.. the color on this one.. I loved!  We used to have Dahlias but lost them all in an early freeze one year.  Dayle used to dig the tubers up each year but this one time the weather beat him to it.

This one was one of the biggest ones.. they call them "dinner plate" sized.  When I was a very young child, my mom would pick these and put them on the heads of my sister and I, like hats and take photos of us.  Really, she did.  So, I guess you can say I've had a close relationship with Dahlias my whole life.

This one amazed me with it's curly petals.

This one was the very largest of all.  Pretty!

They have a wonderful koi pond there.. the fish are HUGE!  The biggest ones were 2 and a half to 3 feet long!

The farm is so pretty, this was the view from our parked car, they have a lot of picnic tables for visitors to use.  They also had a fun looking gift shop but unfortunately it was closed.

Some of the other visitors to the farm walking among the rows of flowers.

We took a wrong turn when we were leaving and came upon these gigantic pumpkins, they were at least 3 feet in diameter!  I like this photo as there are flowers beyond the gourds and also a sweet vintage red farm truck in the background.  

I cut the stems and put my two bunches in this one vase.. the orange just makes me feel happy.

This is what we got from the antique shop.  An old vintage frame filled with old arrowheads.  I've always wanted some and now we have them on the wall in our family room.  I'm part Cherokee Indian and the old arrowheads always called to me.

I had to add this photo of a Japanese maple tree that was outside the restaurant, the colors of the leaves are just beautiful as they turn from green to red.

I will be heading to the pool soon.  It's different to swim when it's raining.. you really have to push yourself out the door.  :-)  I hope all is well with you.  Thanks for visiting, I hope you didn't mind having a flower overload.  LOL!
((hugs)), Teresa :-)