Oregon Lavender Festival

Hubby and I spent a wonderful Saturday celebrating Lavender….that’s right Lavandula, the lovely, fragrant plant and all of it by-products. 

In Oregon some of us, reserve the second weekend in July for the Oregon Lavender Festival, when the lavender is at its peek and local growers are in the middle of harvest.  Statewide some 24 nurseries, who specialize in growing lavender, are open to the public this weekend….all offering plants, bouquets and many other lavender crafted items for sale, along with special activities.

We choose to take a pleasant, twenty mile drive through Oregon’s Wine Country to the little town of Yamhill to visit Beulah Park, the location of the Yamhill Lavender Festival.  There we sampled wonderful food, bought a really cool tee shirt, admired an art show and saw some awesome, inspiring crafts made by the nicest, friendliest crafters ever!

For a few weeks before the event, artist are invited to go into the lavender fields to paint plein air and to enter their work into the judged art show.  These are just a few examples.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the work was framed under glass, sorry for the reflections and glare, but I think you get the idea….there was some beautiful work in this show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our tour of the crafts area started with this demonstration of lavender oil distillation.  There was some really fragrant steam coming of the piece of equipment!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, I discovered this wonderful booth full of goodies and inspiration by Kristin at Moontea.

She is carving her own stamps, stamping and, also, doing silk screening on paper and fabric.

 

 

Are these cute, or what?  To learn more go to www.moonteaartwork.com.

 

 

 

After all that goodness, I found MORE in Susan Faye’s booth.  Darling, darling potpourri bags designed and printed by Susan.

Susan has an Etsy store where you can see and buy her colorful and whimsical art, go to www.SusanFaye.etsy.com.

Janet at Winged Thingz raises parrots and preserves their feathers between glass to make these lovely charms.  Visit her at www.parrots.com.

Then I met the this generous woman who makes beautiful books and teaches her craft.  Learn more at www.focusonbookarts.org.

I’m sorry I don’t have contact information on the rest of these talented crafters, but they all deserve credit for the high quality crafts they are producing….like this woman who is making lovely arrangements of dried botanicals between glass and framing them.

Beautiful, healthy plants locally grown and for sale……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And last, but not least…….what bird, do you know, who would not absolutely LOVE to live in this house……

A fun day!  If you live in Oregon, and you like lavender, you should plan on being a part of this fun festival next year.