what do you do when mel gibson invades your little town to film “edge of darkness“?

look, it’s jaz! going about her townie business on her bike. (as seen on masslive.)

you fire up plen aire and the fire pit for some s’mores, hot chocolate and a viewing of state and main, of course.

why? watch this:

as it turns out, people will show up for a mamet-fest after all.

the twist craft fair came and went this weekend. tom and i are completely exhausted, but it was fabulous and fun.

my table:

before:

it was a great location, right on the corner of two aisles.

after:

recognize the table covering?

traci was so sweet to help me set up. she is such a rockstar.

the fair opened at 5pm friday evening. people were lined up all the way down the hall to get in - it was the place to be and be seen. our table was swarming with people. luckily a few of them were friendly faces:

that’s eleanor modeling the twist bag given to the first 100 shoppers and one of my barrettes. i can’t believe that i don’t have pictures of all the other friends that stopped by over the two days. but thank you to all of you for visiting, hanging out, and giving me much needed chances to step away from the table. and thanks to all of you who supported from afar. a special shout-out goes to katy who provided me with coffee when i was desperate. and to tom, who was awesome in every way all weekend.

there was a dj:

a disco ball:

and lots of shoppers:

so many shoppers that, even though it was scheduled to close at 9pm, the organizers didn’t kick people out until almost 9:45. tired, we headed home and (in spite of my craft-related injury) decided to craft into the wee hours of the morning to make more items to fill in the table - we had 10 hours ahead of us and didn’t want to run out of stuff.

saturday was much more laid back compared to the crazy of friday, but fun in its own way.

(yes, we rearranged the table many, many times.)

i had more time to chat with some of the amazing vendors. co-worker, and awesome-girl, christa was there. check out her knit ties:

i love them. you should go buy some for all the boys and girls you know.

there were crafters from both near and far. the fancy ladies at the egg-a-go-go booth were great, and seemed happy to take some of my money. local gals whispering willow and anselblue kept me laughing and make beautiful stuff - go see for yourself. oh, and i may have special ordered a t-shirt from meghan burch…oops.

it was a great craft show. i would totally do it all again.

last night we had our second back yard movie night. this reminded me that i never mentioned our first back yard movie night!

canvas + pipe + tie-downs = movie screen:

nominations were made, votes were cast, a film choice was made.

as everyone arrived, the concession stand (our kitchen, filled with delicious audience contributions) opened:

with goodies in-hand, sweatshirts on, and the fire blazing, we got settled in for the first show:

raising arizona

the boston symphony orchestra just happened to decide to perform beethovan’s 9th symphony at tanglewood on katy’s birthday last week. so, of course, we all packed a picnic and made a day of it.

the weather was amazing. it was possibly the most perfect day of the summer.

(l to r: tom, me, gl, andre, eleanor)

get us all together and you are likely to find:
pimm’s cups

(the birthday girl enjoying the tasty beverage)

lots of food

(clockwise beginning upper left: tom, me, gl, eleanor, chris, molly, josh, pete)

yarn

technology

(andre)

and laughing

(l to r: traci, audrey, pete)

not a bad way to spend a day.

need more picnic-action? go here or here.

thanks, jaz, for filling in some of the pictures

uh huh. interesting…

what did i do? oh, thanks for asking. well, i went to the demolition derby!

it was crazy fun. in fact, it was way more fun than it should have been.

the initial crash was disconcerting, but after that, it was just hysterical.
and inspiring to all the little girl derby fans in the crowd (the girl sitting in front of me was super into it):

a young woman came from behind and won the derby! yay!

the demolition derby was actually part of the cummington fair. so, tom, me and some friends spent the evening having a grand ol’ time wandering around before and after the derby.

the fair was pretty nice, and there was lots to be seen. totally worth an evening out. (sorry, jeffy and eileen, apparently we took you to completely the wrong fair! next time we’ll time it a week sooner and go to this one instead.)

but there was something slightly…off…about the whole thing. there were lots of ride and game knock-offs. for example, instead of whack-a-mole, there was:

instead of the scrambler, there was:

and instead of skee ball, there was:

the examples were everywhere!

another thing that was everywhere - super tasty carnival food.
among many other things, bill partook of jack’s buns:

snicker, snicker

as it turns out, you only need some cars being crushed, a cool summer evening, good friends and fried dough to have a fabulous friday night. who knew?

tonight was an important night:

the pioneer valley’s western mass destruction took on the garden state roller girls. how could we not go?

the girls were awesome:

funny, athletic, tough, competitive:

it ended up being a very close game. the last few minutes were gripping! and even though i was wearing this shirt:

i was cheering just as loud as everyone else when the western mass team won the bout.

the boys played too. our local dirty dozen took on the new york shock exchange:

they were great fun to watch, too. though, oddly, the guys seemed to be less hard-hitting, and less awesome on their skates than the girls. oh, and ny kicked the western ma team’s butts.

roller derby is a really fun sport. we are pretty sure tom should be a roller derby ref. we just have to figure out what his name will be. “bunson honeyspew”? “mr. whiskers”? “atom tom”? add your suggestions in the comments!