National Folk Festival 2009

I went with my Grandparents Mackay and Aunt Char to the 2009 National Folk Festival in Butte Montana. It was really fun and all the acts were really amazing. Butte is a really cool town if you like old brick buildings with great old type. It is an old mining town. Now that they don't do much mining they have a lot of festivals. Next up: Evil Knievel Days! Don't miss it!

This is the mining thing at the "Original Stage." I'm glad the row of porta potties made it into the picture.
It's a baby of a baby! The tiny ponies are always cute but the baby of the pony was Char's favorite. They said it was three pounds when it was born. It was all tired from a big day of riding in the horse trailer.
These crazy guys were from Prince Edward Island. Albert and Chuck they call themselves.
Cajun music complete with crab on the accordion.
This is a typical view obstruction at the Folk Festival.

What better way to celebrate my nation's independence than by watching kids chase a calf with money taped to it?

Happy Birthday America!

Idaho = beautiful

Utah Arts Festival

I volunteered at the AIGA booth tonight at the Utah Arts Festival. At the booth one could either buy a pre-made vinyl bag from recycled billboards around Utah OR make one themselves from a different no-sew pattern. I made one at the training meeting and they are pretty cool (when I was walking past the REI the other day I heard a 12 year old boy tell his friend it was the coolest bag he had ever seen. Yeah. The bags have those kind of credentials). So I recommend making one to any of you who might be on the fence about going to the festival.

After the huge rainstorm, I left the safety of the booth and wandered the festival. There was only one booth I cared about and I am IN LOVE. I almost never want to buy other artist's stuff. I've been working on trying to care about Art for Art's sake. I usually like things to be useful or personally meaningful. And maybe I'm just a sucker for this kind of stuff because there is typograpy on it but take a look at this:

Artist: Chris Roberts-Antieau
"fabric paintings" composed from freehand-cut cloth shapes, hung behind glass in hand-painted frames.


I dedicate this one to Becca, Amy and Jen:
This one with the beans on fire is what I wanted to buy:
They are all fabric applique with beautiful hand-painted frames. The really detailed ones are really huge. So amazing. Her son was the one manning the booth. He said it was the first time they had been to an art fair, they usually showed at galleries (ok, I was just listening to him tell some other ladies he was trying to get to buy some stuff). He is like 22 and was wearing gigantic old man farmer over-alls, I think just to make it seem small-scale, but the pants were were brand new looking, no manure stains on the knees, and I just read on the website that her work has been featured in Oprah's magazine. So they are doing just fine. I only wish I had at LEAST $600 I really didn't need so I could have a fabric painting of some lady burning beans hanging in my kitchen right now.

Women's Mountain Bike Shoes for sale

I have a new-ish set of mountain bike shoes and pedals for sale. They are a women's size 40 (approximately U.S. size 7). I have only had them for about 3 months. I really love them, I just got the wrong kind of shoes so I need to sell these and get new ones. The guy at the bike store told me to get mountain bike shoes so I could walk easier in them, but on long rides they put my legs to sleep. Apparently road bike shoes are more appropriate for road bikes. They are in great condition. If anyone is interested, the ad on ksl is located here.

the new place

My roommates and I moved around the block to a great new house. Thanks to everyone who helped us move! I am posting some pictures 1). Because it really is awesome and 2) to show my friends who are moving here later in the summer how amazing it is. Pictures don't really do it justice and I didn't take any of the bedrooms, but here goes:


Outside front view. I didn't do a good job taking this picture. There are tons of roses all up and down the sides of the fence. The rain has hammered them a little, but they are beautiful.


Half-mowed back yard. It is really hard to mow when it is really really wet. There is a hot tub but I guess the people who rented this place a couple of times ago broke it. Thanks to them.

This is the dining room/living room view. There is a gas fireplace in the living room that you can't see from here. The roses are from our yard.

The kitchen/office nook. Yes that is a pull-down ironing board with a smaller sleeve board.

Another view of the kitchen. I should have put the dishes away. But at least they are clean...

Out of focus picture of the upstairs bathroom. The tub and toilet are pink. My room is in the basement so I don't really use this bathroom and I was nervous taking a picture of someone else's bathroom. That is why the picture stinks. But the bathroom is cute. The bathroom in the basement is all white but also very nice.

Downstairs living room area. My roommate has a couch we are going to put down here, we just have to go pick it up in Midway. I like to call this the Rock Band room, because it is perfect for that kind of thing, but we don't have Rock Band.
Really cool light fixture by the Rock Band room.

So that is our new house! Come visit anytime!

Memorial day to Escalante

I had the best camping trip in Escalante this last weekend. It was rainy (Seth learned in church that the locals had fasted for rain) but great anyway.
This is a hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls

Sarah and I on the giant lizard in front of the visitors center in Escalante

We went to the Petrified Forest

We had a great campfire sing-along that even the neighbors came over to join in. The Toot Sweets accompanied and She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain has never been so crazy.

Sarah and I "won the lottery" as the park ranger put it when his cash register quit working the second we got there so he let us into Bryce Canyon for free!

On our way home we decided to stop somewhere to cook the rest of our food and the only place we could find was a church. It conveniently stopped raining just for our dinner. No one questioned us. Maybe they get a lot of vagabonds in Marysvale Utah.