11 49 pm pst   [ a day so fair ]

Even though Matthew and I are on vacation, we woke up early to help Alexandra and her mum set up for today's craft fair.

Arranging gourds, jewelry, and keychains took quite a while, but was exceptionally fun. Alexandra and her mum have an incredible talent for craft work. Actually, I really don't understnad the distinction between craft and art. I consider both of them to be amazing artists.

Their wares included ornaments and various other holiday decorations. The little gourd reindeer were so precious. Alexandra makes beaded necklaces, bracelets, keychains, and earrings. I am hoping to soon set up a website for her where she can sell her jewelry online. She does breathtaking work!

Matthew and Alexandra both have the eye for arranging, so I left them to it while I put pricetags on earring. I am exceptionally skilled at menial, anal tasks such as sorting and labelling. I was in my element placing the earring pairs on their little racks. The gourds caught my attention much moreso than anything else. Some had plants in them, others were bird feeders, and yet others were ornaments.

Alexandra is quite skilled with the wood burning tool, and in addition to displaying some of her wonderful pieces, so was on site personalizing gourds with inscriptions and whatnot. The customers kept her busy.

Matthew was fascinated by the silk hand paining in the next door booth. The artist was kind enough to share extensive info on her techniques and processes.

It must be so satisfying to make a living off of one's art/craft. I have no doubt that it is difficult, but some of the people showcasing their work seemed to be doing well enough on the sales.

Of course, I adored allof the gourds which housed plants, and I had my eye on a particular keychain with a hand on the end.

Once in high school, I spent an evening making gourds with alexandra. i selected a small plump gourd with a long twisty stem. He just begged to be an elephand, so I attached feet and a bean to the end of his trunk. I used the wood burning tool to add eyes and ears, and then he was complete.

Like my mother and I, Alexandra most prefers functionality in her craft. For that reason, we both liked the match holder. My mom and I prefer to collect functional and utilitarian antiques [myself moreso than my mother].

As I have said before, the utilitarian nature of clothing makes it one of the most desirable collectibles to me. Of course, its fragility makes wearing such pieces a known risk, which I suppose is part of the fun...

My mom likes themed collections. She's gone through telephones, angels, mermaids, antique toasters, and antique corkscrews. She is currently stuck on cameo earrings, if you can imagine.

in his childhood, my father had the traditional coin and stamp collections, which I have since inherited by virtue of him leaving them at our house when he moved out. But my childhood collections were crystals and matchbooks. I also adored baseball cards -- a collection which I look forward to passing on to my children.

Isn't this gourd just stunning? There's something about the way that it looks as though it is peeling which really tickles me. I can't wait to move into my own space again so I can fill it with dozens of little trinkets which delight me.

Of course, Matthew have wildly different design sensabilities, so deorating a house together will certainly be quite an experience. I have faith that we can work anything out. We do work so well together.

And after you were so kind to indulge so many pictures of my sweet Pie yesterday, I had to slip one in today. Here he is setting up his camera so that the pictures could be viewed on the television (the advantage of this escapes me).

We are planning to spend the coming Friday through Sunday in Las Vegas with his parents. I am excited.

To top this evening off, we had a splendid dinner with Charles, including a bit of his new song Shake afterwards. I spent to way too much treated my man to sushi, but it was worth it for the lovely and relaxing evening. Charles thankfully didn't get too grouchy when I poked and prodded until he shared some of his precious music. Here we are captivated as Charles stumbled across his old journal design.