On the Road...

Welcome to the Recycadelic Revolution!

[Brought to you by your very own traveling trash fairy, at your service, inspiring radical respect for the earth!]

So far this festival season has been a success! Here is a backlog to bring you all up to speed:

I packed up all my things and hit the road out of New Orleans on Sunday, May 3rd, 2014.  We were a caravan consisting of a van, a car, and 5 wonderful people.  On the way out, we stopped at the Tree of Life in Audubon Park--the biggest tree in Nola.  In the shade, we ate 6 pounds of boiled crawfish and drank 24 oz (champagne of) beers.  It was wonderful way to say farewell to New Orleans, till next year! 

We headed to Mississippi, where we camped for a few nights and swam in the Gulf of Mexico.

On the beautiful beaches in Mississippi, I collected trash from the sand and separated some select items to use in recycled art projects, such as a small, light blue bubble wand, and some black rubber coils. I met a wonderful lady and played with her beautiful daughter on the beach, a girl about 7 years old. We collected hermit crabs and watched them long enough to see their little legs come out and drag their shells over a sand bar. The water was very shallow, and I swam out pretty far.  It was a lovely day.

I visited a local thrift store to pick out materials to re-purpose into recycled art.  For top hats, I bought a bunch of corduroy (which hippies love because it's groovy) and some psychedelic patterned black and white pants for cutting up.  Also, headbands, and some pins. Also a long-handled Easter basket.

I started on my first hat at our campground in Mississippi. It was a hot day, and I struggled with getting the dimensions just right on the cardboard. 

The next morning, we broke camp and headed to Florida, to attend the Purple Hatter's Ball at the Spirit of Suwanee Music Park in Live Oak. I finished the first top hat in the van.  It was black crushed velvet on the outside, with psychedelic purple paisley fabric on the inside.  I added a purple and white silk tie around the base and a small, Mardi Gras style mask with purple and green feathers.  Perfect for Purple Hatters Ball!

 

The van broke down on the way, but we got it all sorted out. We spent the night with a lovely family who my road dog had met a month prior at Swanee.  In fact, the couple met at Swanee 11 years ago and now have two beautiful girls!  I worked on the next few hats, cutting out all the cardboard for four more hats and laying out the fabric.

We left for Suwanee the next morning, arriving at night.  I finished my second hat that evening-- baby blue corduroy with black velvet stripes, a blue, white, and gold silk tie, a blue ribbon flower, a butterfly on a wire, a piece of yellow quartz, a clock pin, and the blue heart-shaped bubble wand.  Very alice in wonderland.

It was a lovely festival!! The highlights were seeing Rising Appalachia for the first time, a musical group led by two sisters who sing and play the banjo and fiddle.   Here is a YouTube video of them performing the song Occupy at Purple Hatter's Ball.

The other highlight was meeting Pocahontas--a stunningly beautiful woman with tan skin, long black hair, and shiny gold temporary tattoos all over her body.  She turned out to be part Cherokee. When we met, I told her she looked just like Pocahontas and asked if she knew "Colors of the Wind."  Much to my delight, she burst into the song, with the most beautiful voice! I felt giddy like a little girl at Disneyland! Turns out, her name is Dannica Marie and she is a singer with a new album out.  Like her music page on Facebook and listen to her beautiful voice!

Purple Hatter's Ball was absolutely wonderful, even though I didn't sell any hats.  I did, however, receive lots of compliments and pick up lots of MOOP (Matter Out Of Place). I also collected aluminum tabs from cans to make jewelery.  On to the next!

To Be Continued...