Sunday, October 30, 2016

706.

How-do y'all.

Well, I'm happy to say it was a fun and funny day.

My date and I had a good ole time.

We attended a rollicking festival at a vineyard about 40 minutes from my home. It wasn't my first time so I knew it would be a blast, based on previous attendance.

The fete began at noon; we arrived at 20 after and found that available parking was already threatening to have us walking to the pavilion from the boondocks.

Judging from the number of vehicles, I expected us to have a hard time finding an open table. Oddly, there were several tables that appeared entirely empty. We chose two seats at one, dropped the cooler, the extra bag, and my jacket (to hold our seats) then galavanted off to greet other attendees and check out the vendors and food trucks.

We met one couple who I think we both enjoyed meeting more than anyone else we met.

They were Cynthia and Tom Wilson, vendors at the festival. Not only are they really cool people but  they have the awesome job of raising the much-loved alpacas that are part of their extended family.

Two of the alpacas, mommy Mocha and her baby Luna, were on-site. The others stayed home to keep the other farm family members minding their p's and q's.

Neither my date nor I had previously seen alpacas live and in person before today. We both fell in love with them. They are beautiful creatures, mostly gentle-natured but also high-spirited on occasion.

We asked a ton of questions and the Wilsons were kind enough to share the fascinating story of their alpacas with us.

If anyone is curious about the alpaca, Open Herd is Cynthia and Tom's website.

There were lots more vendors but only one other caught my eye long enough for me to stop.

A woman named Kristina Tomkie, who runs "my little design company", designs and creates greeting cards by hand.

Lovely little things they are.

As a creative spirit, I have an appreciation for the time and effort others put into their works of art. Not all of it is enticing enough to get me to open my wallet but greeting cards just happen to be my thing because I actually like sending actual cards via snail mail.

There's something delectable about receiving a card in the mail. Even if there's nothing handwritten in it other than a signature, I feel like someone was thinking about me for the amount of time it took him/her/them to buy and sign the card, address and stamp the envelope, mail the card, wait for me to acknowledge receipt.

Over time, I have amassed a collection of hundreds of greeting cards. Partly because I have a tendency to buy a card for a special occasion, bring it home, lose it, then return to the store to purchase another.

Sometime after mailing the subsequently purchased card, I find the first one et voila, an extra card for my collection.

Any who, while I can (and do) get greeting cards for cheap I don't mind paying a little extra from time to time for something original.

It satisfies my impulse to encourage other creative folk and I hope the recipient can see that I thought enough of him/her/them to send something different.

Without going further afield (because I'm nodding), if anyone wants to check out Kristina's cards they're here: My Little Design Company.

Okay y'all, I'm outta here.

Good night everyone.

Sweet dreams...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun time!

Bliss said...

Hi Jenn! It was and I'm thankful. So many smiling people, friendly dogs, beautiful scenery... I attend a festival at this vineyard twice yearly as long as the weather is dry the week before and the day of.