holiday mayhem pt 2!

The second fair we did was Renegade SF, right before the holidays. We *almost* didn't make it, due to horrendous time-management on my part (have I mentioned that I bought myself a small library of time-management self-help books over Christmas?), but due to extreme level-headedness and late-night-driving-willingness from Alex, we made it up to SF in time for the fair.
It took place at Ft. Mason, which was meaningful for two reasons. 1) My aunt Priscilla, who has always been one of my craft heroes, had her weavings in a show there almost precisely thirty years previous, and 2) while taking a fantastic architectural daylighting class in grad school, from another hero, Cris Benton, my group project was to build a large model of this precise building to use as a basis for daylighting analysis. So I was very, very familiar with the building, having once built every truss by hand...

We were blessed with fantastic, entertaining neighbors (Christine from Chocolate and Steel, who I've been lucky enough to sit next to at a previous fair and new friends Papaver Vert and Jen Hewett. I gave my mom a pincushion/bowl from Papaver and I think it was my favorite gift--with the possible exception of Alex and my new membership to the Society for Industrial Archaeology--and if I had nieces instead of nephews I would have given them Jen's Michelle Obama paper doll book, so instead I bought one for myself.) And yet again Alex (migraine or no migraine)and Lucy (and all the vegan snacks she brought) pitched in while I recovered from sleep deprivation.
Many bay area friends, some from the grad school way-back machine, stopped by, including my two favorite twins, Aurora and Amalia, who I tried to teach some bookbinding skills:

In contrast to the warmth and fuzziness inside the fair, it was cold and rainy outside:

and I was so, so glad to have my brand new (some might say overkill but I say: just right!) very warm mega-parka along for the trip:

After the fair we headed east to Carson City to see Alex's mother. I was finally able to pitch in on the driving, and we made it over the pass *just* before they started enforcing chains. By the time we got to Nevada it was beautifully wintery, and we had a nice time staying in casinos in the snow.

We hit one of our favorite birding spots, between Carson and Reno, and it was pretty much frozen over. Not as many hawks as usual, but the whiteout made it easier to spot/enjoy the few that were out and frolicking in the snow.




and may I say yet again how happy I am with my new parka.