Let Me Introduce You To My Town-Renaissance Faire- Part 9

October 31, 2023October 15, 2023Leave a comment

Last year, I found that Walmart was selling the game Hanfordopoly. It’s like Monopoly, but for my town. Well, I had to buy it! Then Lauren and I went around town and took pictures of each of the places on the game board. It was so much fun! I can’t wait to introduce you to our sweet little town and some of its history.

If you haven’t read the other My Town posts, you can read them here:

Part 1 – Freddy the Firetruck

Part 2 – Hanford Mall

Part 3 – Fox Theater

Part 4 – Civic Auditorium and Civic Park

Part 5 – Downtown Hanford

Part 6 – The Plunge

Part 7 – Kings Art Center

Part 8 – Hanford Library

This fall my husband and I went to the Renaissance Faire. I don’t think I had been for 20 something years. My husband says we took the kids when they were younger, but I don’t remember. 🙄 My memories of it from my youth aren’t very good, but now going back, it wasn’t so bad.

“Return to the English Renaissance with Henry VIII and his court, at the Hanford Civic Center Auditorium. Arts, Crafts, Comedy, Music, Dance Shows, Interact with Costume Performers, Food, Drinks, and much more; FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY!” This was the 44th year of the Faire. That’s a lot of Faire’s!

You see many people in costumes, both vendors and guests! It was a very warm day, so I don’t know how they survived in all those layers!!

There are tents set up all over Civic Park. There are a lot of different events that happen throughout the couple of days. Come on by to watch some belly dancing!

Of course, most of the park is filled with vendors selling all sorts of Renaissance products. These tankards were so cool, but I can’t see spending that much on a mug. They were all wrapped with leather with those fabulous designs.

So many beautiful rocks! My great uncle was a ‘rock hound’, and these booths always remind me of him. I wish I had learned more about rocks and gemstones. My mom still has some of the rocks from him and a couple pieces of jewelry made from opals he found. A lot of his rocks were also donated to our Christian school for a rock garden.

These are some old types of games that were played during the Renaissance time. I didn’t get all the instructions on how to play so I can’t tell you anything about them.

There were many places selling beautiful jewelry and other ornamental items.

Maybe a weapon? These were just plastic ones, but there were plenty of places selling the real thing too. These would be great for Halloween too!

These wooden rocking horses/unicorns were amazing! They were huge! You could pay a fee to sit on them and have your pictures taken. They actually rocked back and forth too. I can’t imagine how long these took to carve!

I was watching these fancy royals as they were looking at some bling. I was kind of laughing because the one gentleman had on a Burger King crown. The taller man was trying on rings. He turned to me and said “It’s so great to be king and be able to wear all this bling!” So, I met the king!

I’m really glad we took the time to go to the Faire this year! It was nice to see how much it has evolved since the last time I had been there. Do you have faire’s like this in your town too?

Let Me Introduce You To My Town-Kings County Library- Part 8

October 24, 2023October 15, 2023Leave a comment

Part 1-Freddy the Firetruck and Carousel

Part 2– Hanford Mall

Part 3– Fox Theatre

Part 4-Civic Auditorium and Civic Park

Part 5– Downtown Hanford

Part 6– The Plunge

Part 7 – Kings Art Center

Today we visit the library! I love to read, especially a good mystery! I have borrowed so many books and still do, I just reserve them online now! When my kids were little we borrowed books, videos and went to story time here!

The current library opened in August 1968. In July 1975 two libraries were consolidated, and the Hanford library became a branch of the Kings County Library. This building is very 1960’s looking. Not my favorite building, but I love the books inside!

I really love how the children’s section looks! It didn’t look this way when my kids were young, it is a more recent remodel.

I just love the rows and rows of books! So many good ones to choose from.

There are also some computers in various places and games for the kids

Her is just one of the many rows for adults. This is the mystery section, of course!

Does your library still have these stools? I remember being fascinated by them as a kid, the way they would go down a little when you stood on them. Simple pleasures. 🙂

I like this colorful little area! It just makes me happy. Libraries have come a long way from the drab and dreary places they used to be.

There is a small loft area at this end of the library. I went up and took this picture so you could see the layout a little easier. The opening at the right side of the curves in the ceiling is the kids area.

I thought these pictures were so neat! The first one on the left is the original library. It is now the Carnegie Museum. I will cover that one a little later. The second picture is inside the Carnegie. The third picture is inside the Civic Auditorium. I covered that one in Part 4. I’m not sure what event this picture is from, but it’s cool to see the inside of the building.

Here we have the current library. 1. When it was first built, 2. at night, and 3. inside. Looks much like it does today.

Do you still go to the library today? What’s your favorite genre? I still would rather have an actual book rather than a kindle or other media device. There is just something about holding a book!

Welcome Fall! Part 2

October 19, 2023October 11, 20232 Comments

Good morning! I previously posted this back in 2018. I still really like how it turned out! It’s funny looking back at some of the items in the room and see how it has changed in the last few years. My shelves are definitely much fuller now than they were then!

Welcome back! Today is Part 2 of my early fall tour. You can go here for Part 1. Today, come on into the dining room!

I decided on my color scheme after visiting Michaels and seeing the pretty soft colors in the flowers. I also found these black and white plates at Goodwill and knew they would be perfect. They could be used for so many different tablescapes.

I found the antler candle holder at Goodwill also and spray painted it silver and added some twine for some texture.

I used soft green lambs ear greenery, grasses, white flowers, acorns, and burlap flowers. I love that the runner is fall with pumpkins on it, but it is still in the teal color. I also added white candles to soften the look.

I have had these ceramic pinecones for a long time. I’m not even sure where they came from, but I love to use them every year.

The shelves stayed neutral with some touches of orange. I also used my wooden pumpkin box to store some extra dishes.

I’m still loving my bar cart too! It’s always fun to decorate for each season.

Thank you so much stopping by today! Hope you have a wonderful week!

Let Me Introduce You To My Town-Kings Art Center-Part 7

October 17, 2023September 23, 2023Leave a comment

Part 1-Freddy the Firetruck and Carousel

Part 2– Hanford Mall

Part 3– Fox Theatre

Part 4-Civic Auditorium and Civic Park

Part 5– Downtown Hanford

Part 6– The Plunge

Today we have the Kings Art Center. The Kings Art Center was opened in 1989 and it hosts gallery showings throughout the year, as well as art classes for adults and children. My kids took art classes here when they were kids.

‘The Kings Art Center provides hands-on art education coupled with high quality exhibitions of artwork from throughout California as well as from local artists. Together, our education and exhibition programs provide a comprehensive visual art and cultural experience to our visitors.’

The Common Threads Quilts and Agriculture Show is the exhibit showing right now. So many beautiful quilts! I really admire the people who make these because this is something I have not done and don’t think I have the patience to do so!

This western quilt was huge! I can’t imagine how long this would have taken.

We live in a farming community, so this Christmas quilt is perfect for our town.

Flamingos!! I love flamingos! This quilt is so cute!!

One really cool art auction they are doing is old skateboards. Artists paint designs on the skateboards and there are amazing designs! The proceeds from this are going to benefit the central valley youth.

Aren’t they so cool! There are so many creative people!!

That’s all I have for you today! Be sure to check out my other post on my hometown if you have missed any. Stay tuned for more!

Parisian Halloween Witch Hat

October 12, 2023October 1, 20238 Comments

Hello! I remembered I had this Halloween Witch Hat post from last year, and it turned out so cute, I thought I would share it again! Enjoy!!

It’s time again for the witches, ghosts and goblins to come out! I don’t decorate much for Halloween anymore, now that the girls are older, but we did when they were little. Planning the costume was always a big deal. Then there were the pumpkins to carve or decorate. I have a couple boxes full of foam pumpkins that have been made into elephants, dragons, Garfield, and our dogs! I even have a light up hedgehog! I will have to show you that one sometime. It’s pretty cool! Even though I don’t do much Halloween decorating, when I saw this cute witch hat over at Madeinaday.com, I knew I wanted to try one too.

I didn’t make mine quite as large as Kim did. I wanted to make one for Lauren, because she collects these little decorative hats to display in her bedroom and I thought this would make a nice addition. Here is the list of the supplies:

Supplies:

Floracraft® Make It: Fun® Foam, (2) 3inch discs, (2) 6 inch disc and (2) 17 inch cones
1 sheet of black poster board
2 7/16×36 inch dowels, cut down to around 19 inches each
Black & white contrasting fabric, 1/2 yard of each
Black fuzzy fabric, 1/2 yard
Coordinating ribbon for base
2 flowers
Roll of black tulle
Hot glue & gun, low temp
Black acrylic paint and brush
Black aluminum floral wire 4.6m
Scissors

The cones I bought were only 6″ tall, so then I needed less fabric too. I only bought 1/4 of a yard. I used felt in place of the fuzzy fabric too. In other words, there are lots of ways to make this!

I started out by painting the foam disks with the black paint. This gave them time to dry while I worked on the other parts. I also painted the dowel black.

I traced around a bowl to make my circle (I forgot to buy black poster board, so I just used cardboard, but I did have to cover both sides so the cardboard wouldn’t show). Then I cut the piece of sparkly felt a little bit larger so it could wrap around the edges and be glued down.

I added another piece on this back side to cover the cardboard.

I cut about 2 inches of the styrofoam off the end of the cone. This gives the wire more room to bend once you add the fabric. Poke the piece of wire down into the cone until it feel secure.

Here is the fabric I bought. You could never guess who this was for, right?!

I wrapped some around the cone just to see how much I would need, and then cut a piece off the end of the fabric. After I figured out just how I wanted the design to go, I glued it around the cone. See how the tip bends over? Make sure you have enough wire so you can make the tip of the hat floppy!

After the fabric was glued to the cone, I glued the sparkly felt brim to the bottom of the come. Now for the decorating and embellishing! Here are a few of the things I found: glittery tulle, a feathery ponytail holder and a pink flower clip and some black and silver ribbon.

I don’t have pictures of adding this to the hat, because I couldn’t glue and take pictures at the same time! I first added the tulle in ruffles around the middle, then added the feathers with the flower on top of the feathers. I added the ribbon around the edge of each of the black disks. Once everything was ready, I Poked the dowel through the disks first then the brim of the hat. I had to use a sharp tool to get through the felt. Then I pushed the cone onto the dowel. Once it was far enough on, I put glue on the brim and pushed it up against the cone and let dry.

Here it is!