Before I go on, you must know the correct pronunciation of Appalachian.  It's app-uh-lach-un, NOT app-uh-lay-chun.  On Mother's Day, we went down to Coney Island to the Appalachian Festival.

I wore Juliana in the Moby wrap.  Totally unrelated to the festival, but see that cyst over her right eye?  She's got an appointment with the opthamolgist in June.  Our pediatrician thinks she'll need it surgically removed when she's a little older.

Liam rode in the stroller.  We walked around looking at all the exhibits.  We saw a blacksmith with his furnace.  We watched people make lye soap.  We watched a spinning demo and listened to the demonstrator talk about dyeing yarn.  She was talking about natural dyeing with indigo and cochineal. 

We stopped to check out the animals.  There were chickens, pigs, goats, and donkeys.

Here's a llama.

We took a break in the shade by the Ohio River.

The river is high right now.  Those trees in the water are supposed to be the river's edge. 

We browsed through several shops.  There was pottery, wind chimes, handmade soap, quilts, and all sorts of little crafty things.  The first place we stopped had some gorgeous bags.  On our way out, I stopped back and bought two.

I gave Mom the smaller brown bag for her Mother's Day gift and kept the larger blue one for myself.  The bags are made from vintage blankets, sweaters, and other vintage fabrics.  There were some with handles made of old men's ties and belts.  There were pillows and window valences.  She had some really cute headbands made of various prints of vintage fabrics.  I wish I would've bought a couple of those now.  Good news to you…she has an Etsy shop!  She's just getting started, but I'm going to keep checking back because her stuff is really nice and is well made.

I am glad we went, but I was left a little, I don't know, disappointed by the festival.  The point of the festival is to celebrate Appalachian culture.  The organization that puts this on says that 300,000 Cincinnatians have Appalachian roots.  As a native Appalachian, I thought things were a little hokey, maybe stereotypey.  Nothing really reminded me of home.  Now, before you think that I lived there in the 20th century and that things are very different now than then, they're really not.  My grandparents lived in a little log cabin.  Clothes were washed with a ringer washer and hung to dry.  There was no central air or a furnace of any sort.  All of our meat came from their animals.  Everything in the garden was frozen or canned and stored in a dirt floor root cellar.  Water was from a well.  My grandma cooked on a coal stove. 

I did hear a couple of attendees singing the Deliverance banjo theme.  Sigh.  I think it's all well and good to celebrate Appalachian culture, but I think the festival fell short of educating and showing real Appalachian culture.  That being said, it was a fun family outing on a beautiful day, and I scored a cute bag!