Musical fun with Brook Falls Farm

The Highlands Festival was full of wonderful music, with some really great bands gracing its two stages. But on Sunday, KLC hosted music for the kids and let them play along, thanks to our friend Deb of Morning Door and Brook Falls Farm.

Here's Deb making shakers with our first group.

We started by making musical shakers made from recycled materials. First we cut brown paper, collected from Amazon shipping boxes, to the proper size to wrap around a toilet paper rolls. Then we decorated the paper with markers and stickers. Next we wrapped the paper around the roll and used string, rubber bands or tape to seal the bottom. We added a few tablespoons of birdseed to the roll (rice or dried beans would work too) and sealed it on top. To finish of our shaker, we added feathers to the ends.

Then is was time to sing along with Deb and her musical friends. She brought lots of great instruments to try out as well -- lots of tambourines and drums!

We'll see Deb again really soon. On Saturday, October 5, she's hosting her own event: The Middleville Music Festival! Deb also offers great music lesson -- guitar, piano and voice -- for kids in and around Stillwater, NJ!

Fiber Arts at the Highlands Festival at Waterloo

KLC was lucky enough to attend the Highlands Festival at Waterloo last weekend. In addition to bringing great crafts to the Festival, we met some amazing crafters. One of my favorites were the ladies from the Simpatico Fiber Collective. Rebecca and Julianne are handspinners, knitters, weavers and felters working in rural Hunterdon County. They sell beautiful, wearable fiber art and supplies for knitters and spinners.

Rebecca Dioda

 Julianne Targan

In addition to their lovely wearable art, they're happy to share their knowledge with those who would like to learn. Those are my kinds of people! So enjoy this short video of Rebecca explaining how her parlor spinning wheel works. (There's a good bit of simple machines science in there.)

I've tried my hand at spinning, and let me tell you, it's not as easy as Rebecca makes it look! She uses that amazing yarn to create all kinds of wonderful knitted creations, like the shawl below.

In this clip, Joanne explains the basics of needle felting. This is a really relaxing hobby I've recently discovered. She creates amazing projects with her felting, and she felts woven fabrics that she creates as well.