As I mentioned last week-ish, during that phase when I was posting zippo, I went to the Smithsonian folklife festival with Bodwin, Ruadhan, Mapgirl, and Kevin.  It was blazing hot, but the festival covered Virginia, Northern Ireland, and the Mekong Delta.  So we couldn’t miss it.

I tell you, I have never considered so decorating a vehicle.  I am a slug, I tell you.  Entirely devoid of artistic inspiration.  I don’t think you can appreciate the insane amount of work that went into this bus from here.  Just trust me–they worked hard.

In addition to the wacky bus, there were some cool exhibits, particularly on ancient Ireland.  Shocker, me focusing on that.  Lookit!  A mini roundhouse.

I want us to make a full-sized roundhouse so badly, but it never really occurred to me to make a little one to use at demos.  I may have been hit in the head too many times for the thinking parts to be working right, these days.

And there were some repro tools, including a nalbinding needle,

And some lovely repro pots

And a cool repro stone figure

Tommy Sands was playing at the festival, so I filmed him singing “There Were Roses.”   If you’re not familiar with Tommy and you’re at all interested in pacifism or peace in Northern Ireland, get familiar with Tommy.  And have a few pints with him if you ever get the chance–he’s loaded with good stories and generally wheedles lots of free drinks out of the publican.

We also went to our friends Barry and Sarah’s wedding up in Pittsburgh.  Where I took horrible photos because I am just too shaky sometimes.  Espresso doesn’t want me to be a photo-journalist.

I came away with clearer photos, but none of the happy couple together.  We had a lovely time, and Barry and Sarah seemed to have a good time too, which is very important in a wedding.

And then I went right back to the two sweatshops, one for web monkeys (I finished the big bad new site), and one for Crazy Lanea, tailor to the Celts.  Here is the larger portion of the fabric pile I started with.

About two-thirds of that has been cut into pieces for clothing.  I’m actually sewing several things for myself this year, because the pile of fabric I was hoarding for personal use was taking up far too much space.  I’m a bit panicked over how much work I need to do before next Saturday, so, er, let’s distract the crazy girl with cat pictures before she cries, shall we?

Scott got a sander:

So Yarrow got a new toy:

Which he proceeded to defend rather viciously:

That face generally comes right before Speedwell falls prey to his housemate.  Poor Speedwell.  As usual, he hid from the camera.

Back to sweatshop.

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