How We Faire

A Merry Band of Makers, after fifteen hours of Maker Faire awesomeness.
~16 maker, thinkers, tinkerers, artists, engineers
~From Flagstaff, So Cal, Santa Cruz, and San Luis Obispo
~16, 8, and if your brakes fail en route- 24 hours, on the road

This was easily one of our most challenging journeys to get to the The Greatest Show and Tell on Earth, and I cannot deny, there were several times I was ready to turn around and head home. And yeah, when the brakes fail on your RV, you pretty much start making it a plan to get everyone home, safely. But, we had a lot riding on this particular Faire, and so we just kept doing our best, moving forward, and, somehow, it came together.

There we are... absent friends in our hearts, at the end of an amazing day. It was after ten o'clock, and we were still celebrating and feeling the rush of inspiration and energy that comes from sharing STEAM ~Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math~ with tens of thousands of enthused, talented, curious, fun people.

After our very first visit to Maker Faire, in 2010, we knew we had to be a part of the Maker movement, and so we started a Young Makers Club. It fits with our interests in FIRST, and robotics, our love of inventing and creating, our passions for playing and sharing. We are happy that every year since that first visit we have encouraged more people, new people, to come to Maker Faire Bay Area.

This year, Max was a first time presenter at Maker Faire. It was amazing. He was amazing. I cannot wait to share some highlights from his demonstrations. And, our youngest Maker, Maria, returned with new lessons in wool felting. She was patient and dedicated to sharing her interest and skills, and a lot of new wool felting enthusiasts were born, thanks to Maria!

I'll be sharing more... more thoughts and reflections, more pictures. And I would like to add something, here... I want you to feel inspired, and lifted. I admit, sometimes I see amazing, beautiful places and activities on the Internet, and there is a moment of envy, of feeling left out. If you can't come to a Maker Faire, if you missed this time, if you're trying to get to a Maker Faire... I want these posts to include you, to be a sharing experience, and I hope they encourage you, too. Because the Maker movement, the DIY community, FIRST, and STEAM education are growing, and spreading, and you can be a part of it. I hope the fun we had, the experiences we share, motivate you, encourage you, inspire you, because we would love to see you at Maker Faire 2014!

She's A Lone Free Ranger

She is Penny.
Lucky Penny.
Henny Penny.
She has a silver tail.
She dashes, quicksilver, through the garden
Tiny Penny, unassuming, last to come for supper,
first to wander off and find her own way.
Dear Penny, you are a darling daring chook.

{this moment}

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.
A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

:: Inspired by Soule Mama ::

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments, for all to find and see.

The Peonies Are Here

If it's early spring, and I've found a fragrant bouquet of sweet peas, I know in my heart that I have found my favorite flowers. However, when I was watering our flower pots in the front yard, I stooped to smell the pert, white carnations, and when I inhaled their floral spice, I declared these are my favorite flowers.
Last summer we planted zinnias, whose colors burst with vibrancy and heat, and they have me recall long ago summers, and the flowers my mother grew, and I feel such an affinity for those, my favorite flowers. Lilacs, pansies, petunias, dahlias, cosmos, poppies, plumeria, daffodils, wisteria, apple blossoms, roses, lupines... peonies. In any given moment, I always seem to know, with absolute certainty, my favorite. Do you have a favorite flower, too?

I Won A Bet

Not five pounds. Not seven, nine, or ten pounds! Paul, Janece, and Geoff await the crucial results...

We were figuring out how much each section of roof on the Chicken run is weighing, and Geoff picked up a measured and cut roll of the hardware cloth... five pounds, he figured.
No way, I declared. You see, I measure all mass in terms of five pound sacks of flour. New born baby? That's probably about a sack and a half. Healthy cat? Oh, maybe two sacks. It's solid science, I tell ya. Seeing the roll of wire, and having lifted a few in my life, I knew it had to be more than one sack of flour, and I said, it's ten pounds, at least.

Geoff picked it up, and raised his guess to seven pounds. Paul guessed ten pounds, and William chose nine pounds. Decisively, I detected 2.4 sacks of flour, and said twelve pounds! Out came the hanging scale, and a carabiner. Yup. I guessed it right!

The prize? A pair of unders, custom bedazzled, with the _gift_ that came in my Mother's Day Piñata. Which do I explain first, the piñata tradition, or the bedazzler?

I know this much, I should have held out for a better prize!

Dust If You Must

After a lovely weekend with friends, of sewing, baking, playing, and adding to the coop and run... I feel grand.

Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there’s not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world’s out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it’s not kind.
And when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.

by Rose Milligan

I Love The Water

Dear Jennifer,
Thank you for sharing this video. Sometimes, I think the things we enjoy the most are those that resonate, that reflect back the truth we believe, the ideals we hold up, admire. I want to say, in a modest, unassuming way... I see the water. I feel it all around me. But I do sometimes forget, or maybe it's that it overwhelms me, and I feel it like a weight, a too expansive realm. I woke up feeling a bit of that heaviness.

The commencement speech, by David Foster Wallace pulled me out of a bit of a spiral. I needed this, Jennifer. Thank you.

And hey, however any of you are feeling today, I hope you will listen to this speech. It's up lifting... not a grand remedy, not a superficial trifle, but the kind of truth that simply resonates and raises your thoughts, and spirit.