Pacifica Winter Arts Festival

For those of you within driving distance of Southern Oregon be sure to put the 12th Annual Pacifica Winter Arts Festival on your calendar. It's this coming weekend, Dec 4th & 5th from 10-5pm each day.  Pacifica's 500 acres are on what used to be the old Steve Miller Band Ranch (14615 Watergap Rd., Williams, OR). We, artists, will have our booths set up in the old recording studio. There is live music, lots of beautiful items from local artists for sale and food and refreshments available. I will be there with my handwovens, hand-dyed sock yarns and felted goodies. I don't generally bring roving for sale to this event but will if someone requests something in particular. Hope to see a big crowd as usual, it's a very fun festival.

Frozen pipe.....

It certainly is chilly out this morning, chilly enough that when Sam was in the shower he ran out of water - yikes, pipe frozen somewhere. Found it down at the pump house. We still haven't figured out when they built this house why they put in a submerisble pump but have pipe coming above ground for a few inches. In our last house (which we built) everything was totally underground below the freeze line - didn't even have a pump house, only evidence of where the well was located was the pump liner and cap sitting at ground level. So, Sam ran down the hill with a flashlight and my heat gun to thaw the pipe out, luckily it wasn't split, a clamp on light is now down there for heat, heat tape to come later today. What a rude way to start the morning.

So, on the fiber front - no pictures to share at the moment. I'm working on Christmas gifts which can't be shown on the blog right now. Switched from the loom to the sewing machine and was having great fun yesterday stitching away. Three years ago I bought a Bernina to replace my old faithful Sears model that I had since 1973. It's the most incredible machine, I would highly recommend Bernina to anyone looking for a new machine. As for my old Sears machine, which was the top of the line when I got it, it's in the storage room, I can't bear to get rid of it, it's still a great machine needing service only once in 36 years.

I spent Saturday at the arts fair, bad economy evident........not anywhere near the numbers of folks milling through as usual, and not as much spending. I didn't sell as many handwoven scarves but sold numerous hand-dyed silk scarves which are 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of handwoven. I sold many other items in the moderate price range, sure glad I have varied prices in the booth or I may not have sold anything. So, taking into account my hours spent at the fair it was still worthwhile.

Finished mug rugs

Here are the finished mug rugs, there are 4 in a pile. There's actually another pile of red ones but they didn't fit in the picture. These were awaiting tags when I took the picture. I can't believe that warp was on the small loom for so long, glad it's off. Hopefully these will sell quickly.

Spent the better part of the day getting things ready for the Pacifica Fine Arts & Crafts Winter Festival this coming up Saturday........checked my bag supply, change in the cashbox, etc. Tomorrow I'll get everything packed up in plastic bins for transporting and make monster-size almond macaroon cookies that I donate to be sold at the festival. Friday afternoon is decorating and booth set-up - miles of garland, lights & red bows and more evergreen swags with red bows than one can imagine.

Weather has been foggy and cold for almost 2 weeks now. It's a chill-to-the-bone cold that doesn't subside. There have been areas less than 15 miles away with sun but the fog hangs low near us. Just up the road on the Sexton Pass it's been 20 degrees warmer and sunny because it's above the fog. So, we just keep the fire going to stay warm & cozy indoors. The only bright spot is that there is no snow in the forecast for the festival this weekend - it's threatened many years and there have been horribly icy roads for my drive in the morning in the past.

Pacifica Winter Arts Festival

Well, it's over for another year - very fun time yesterday in my booth at the Pacifica Winter Arts Festival. I got to visit with many old friends and new when I wasn't busy writing up sales. I wasn't sure what to expect with the economy but it ended up being a great sale. Higher priced shawls and scarves didn't sell as well but medium priced items sold very well. Some items are back up in my etsy shop for sale, more here in the studio in stock............and hopefully at some point this week photo taking to get more items up in etsy to replace those that sold yesterday. But first it's back to gift making - Christmas is sneaking up on me way too quickly.