Alison: For my 16 year old (!) daughter

I made this today from photos I took while visiting my daughter in Germany. She turned 16 recently and is just an amazing person. I have been so fulfilled sharing a life with her. Here you go, Zee!

Showtime

Hats.

Dolls.

Crafty shows.

We will be at the Enosburg Opera House November 12, from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Come visit us!

Kelee: Fall in Vermont Necklaces

Fall in Vermont is just as amazing as it's reputation suggest. Here, it is it's own season all unto itself. With it's own food and own traditions. The nights are chilly. The sky is blue, unless it's gray. The leaves are colored. Really colored.

I can think of two different trees that noticeably changed colors in the Mississippi Delta (not counting those weird Bradford Pears everyone went all hot and heavy over a few years back). Not two types of trees, but two specific trees. One was on the side of a cotton field on Old Carter Road between Yazoo City and Silver City. The other was in front of a white house in Isola. I'd always heard of people traveling to Vermont to leaf peep, but I never understood the concept.

“Yall are going to fly all the way to Vermont to look at colored leaves? But you can just drive down Old Carter Road and see that pretty yellow tree. Then imagine there are a bunch of them. Besides, it's cotton season.”

 A cotton field is lovely all to itself – white as far as the eyes can see in all directions and a fine, snowy dust of DDT falling from cropdusters flying overhead. Combines littering the side of the roads with fallen white cotton like flower girls preparing the aisle for a bride. And for what the leaves lack in color, the fall Delta sunsets make up for. I remember one year where the sunsets were almost overwhelming in their beauty. My father explained to me that is was because the light was reflecting off of the ash from a volcano that had erupted in South America and probably killed or maimed lots of people. Ah, the romanticized notions of a young schoolgirl. Crushed.

But fall in Vermont is a celebration of color. An explosion. Like Mother Nature ate a big box of colors and then threw up over everything. I hadn't really thought of it, but I'd sort of assumed that when leaves changed colors, they did it all at once. On a per leaf basis, however, they change over time. 

So one leaf can be half summer green and half brilliant red. Often in a tie-dyed pattern that could put the hippiest hippies to shame. Seriously, this is why the hippies hate fall. What?!

The intensity of the color was also surprising. The red is not a hint of red or tinted red.

It's Transvestite Lipstick Red. 

The yellow is, um, the color of something that is like totally yellow.

And the green is somehow different from spring green but every bit as bold. 

It all seems more fleeting than spring, Ponyboy. These leaves so vibrant and red one day, are crunchy and brown the next. I guess we could get all metaphory about spring and fall and birth and death, but my husband has been forcing me to watch the original Star Trek series and my metaphoring abilities have become as squinting as Captain Kirk's eyes.

When I walk my kids to school or on the various other exciting outings (bank, post office, and library) around the Village of Enosburg Falls, I am blown away by the colors. Every day it's different and lovely in its own way. Otto and I took a walk in the rain with the camera to gather these pictures, except the one of Kirk, of course. That's Otto by the fountain with his Perry the Platypus umbrella.

And, finally, nature inspired me to make art!

New polymer necklaces inspired by the colors of fall in Vermont.

Nature is so bold this time of year. It's only natural to want to celebrate it by adorning your neck with the same boldness.

Isn't it?

Yes, totally natural.

Now, go image search "fall in Vermont" and be amazed at the big picture of the gorgeosity of the big picture. Or better yet, come see it for yourself.