Our First Festival: Flavor of Federal Way

Hello my dear friends and readers,

First I want to THANK YOU for all the love and support you gave me here on the blog as well as on my social media, and via personal messages! I deeply appreciate your kind words and wishes - I read them all! I am eager to tell you everything about my experience of Flavor of Federal Way, the Multicultural Festival that we were honored and excited to be a part of.

There will be going back and forth with sartorial and festival stories in this post, as they mixed and mingled in my so called real life this past weekend. This Summer, at least from my perspective, is unusually hot, especially for August. And as it happens in hot and dry weather, there are lots of forest fires across the USA and Canada. The last couple of weeks were especially bad with smoky air, and as I am writing this and looking out my window, the islands across the Sound (which are usually so clearly visible that it seems I can reach them with my hand if I just stretch it a little) completely disappeared in smoke! We took a short walk yesterday, and Justin used a mask to protect his lungs - they recommend it for people with asthma when it's that bad out. I didn't use a mask and definitely felt just how yucky the air was. It's getting worse today and tomorrow, before it clears again. The more miraculous this past Saturday seems - with the bluest skies and freshest air, warm, but not sticky hot, with a nice breeze! Everything just came together so perfectly for the first festival - both for the city of Federal Way and for me as a children's book author.

Even my long-awaited haircut, although it was scheduled many months ago, somehow was just perfectly on time for this event! I finally feel like myself, with my fresh pixie cut. I stubbornly refused to go to any other salon (while my wonderful hair stylist Erica was on maternity leave) and let my hair grow wild for half a year. Let's just say it was interesting, but I probably won't do it again - I am a pixie girl for sure. Which isn't in sync with my love of retro style clothes, but contrasts are good in my book - life is full of contradictions, and why shouldn't be style. 

This year, I ordered a few cotton dresses from eShakti, and this is one of them. I adore the cut and gigantic gingham, and I wore it a lot. I do believe that shirt dresses look wonderful on every type of body and appropriate for any circumstances. You can dress them up and down and go from casual to office to dressy just changing the accessories. My pick was these vintage sunflower clip-on earrings and beaded cherry purse, and a pineapple brooch which I bought on clearance. I wore it on a date with my guy. A refreshing fruit cocktail anyone?

There were so many things to prepare before the festival! Books to order (they didn't make it on time), signs, posters and free materials to give away, such as cards and coloring pages. I also was in a hurry to finish my website which was on my to-do list since forever, and what do you know - Anya's skills came in handy! She built a website for her school project last year, and she was confident that she could make one for me too. We came up with the design together and I just had to write some texts and select photos etc., and Justin connected it to the name I picked for myself 10 years ago, but mainly it was Anya's work, and I think she did a fantastic job! You can find my new site here: 

ChickenlegHouse.com

Special thank you to those of you who supported our books by purchasing and/or providing feedback! Even though some reviews for whatever reason got rejected by the Amazon automatic system, I was still able to use them in my printed materials and on the site - nothing was a waste! As a new, unknown author I can use all the help I can get to make my books more visible to the potential audience, and reader reviews, as you know, are always the best recommendation, so heartfelt THANK YOU!

  

You might not know that I actually am not a rookie when it comes to festivals - I used to be a vendor on arts and crafts shows, festivals and fairs years ago when I had a small business selling beautiful Russian artwork by my brother Andrei Lialin and other artisans (you can learn more about Andrei's art on his site HERE, and see his work in progress, as well as us working at shows HERE). When my daughter was little, I drove to different big and small towns and to different states. That was on weekends. And on weekdays, when she slept, I was writing. I wrote everything, from poems and stories to articles which were published in newspapers... and that was a full life, let me tell you. Years passed by, and I switched my focus to other things, and all of the festival supplies I had are now long gone - either donated, or worn out and completely torn apart. So we bought a new folding table, chairs, and ordered a new tent which is actually much sturdier compared to our old one, and we hope it will serve us for many years. Justin is quite happy with how easy it is to set up and highly recommends it to those who are looking for a commercial tent, and it's not an advertisement (HERE). We were delighted to learn that it is made in the UK (I believe I heard it speaking to us with a British accent, though it was a breezy day, and who knows what the wind had delivered...).

Even though it was the first Annual Multicultural Festival for the city, we were really impressed with the level of organization! The volunteers we met were just fantastic and extremely helpful. We were so busy during the event talking to customers, answering their questions, listening to their stories (that has always been a favorite part of this work to me, getting to know people - so many have fascinating stories to share!) that we missed most of the performers, but the little bits that we saw or overheard were great! I re-posted some of the performances on my Facebook: AnyaStories, but you can find even more on the festival's page HERE. Justin took a selfie with one of the most unusual visitors - SkyMan, the Real Life Superhero from Federal Way, WA. Do read about this young man, his social activism and the fascinating slice of modern culture! SkyMan's blog and FB page. 

My family AMAZED me once again with their help and support - they were there every step, from getting ready through setting up a tent and to tearing down after the event. Festivals look fun, but they are actually a lot of work, and I am deeply appreciative of Justin and Anya's efforts to pull it together for our little team - I couldn't have done it alone. Like I mentioned, meeting people is one of the most interesting parts about this work. I had a chance to reconnect with some of my old friends and acquaintances, hear them talk so genuinely warmly and with gratitude about the community work I've done in the past, and that meant a lot to me, more than I can tell you now... We also met fun new people: some shared their Russian heritage with me, which I always enjoy; many admired Andrei's birch bark boxes (not a lot is left of his exclusive collection). We met people from all continents, speaking all sorts of languages! One of the visitors entertained us by playing a didgeridoo - the ancient aboriginal wind instrument from Australia (I wasn't aware of it much).

When it was time for my Story Time, I put down a few blankets right on the green grass, away from the stage, and a few children appeared immediately, as they heard the announcement. I must say I felt anxious before the event, but when I woke up on the day of the festival, I felt surprisingly calm and happy - and I just knew it would be a great day! I was truly in my element that day, feeling content and true to myself. I missed working with children so much! I love their spontaneous, genuine reactions, their infinite curiosity and open-mindedness, their willingness to try something completely new and unknown, their bright eyes and big smiles! And I am so honored to share my stories with them! For my very multicultural little group, I read SUPERSEAL in English and sang Head and Shoulders in Russian. The kids in my group spoke English, Russian, Korean and Lao! It was a bit hard to read in a big open space with loud music in the background, but we had great time!

For my display, I printed out short book descriptions and reader reviews, framed them and used stacks of my books. Unfortunately, our large order did not arrive on time, but we had some on our hands, and I think in the end our display looked quite attractive. When all was done and most of festival visitors were gone, I asked Justin to snap a few pictures of my outfit for the blog. You've seen this blouse too many times this Summer, and the red eyelet skirt isn't new either. Both Anya and I wore hand-carved birch bark earrings which are perfect for Summer, extremely lightweight (I even forgot that I wore them!) and go well with my folksy outfit!

The festival was a great success, and for us it wasn't about profit. We wouldn't turn down more sales (at this point, we only paid for the folding table, he-he), of course, but our main goal for the event was beyond profit. We were there to connect with our community, present the Russian culture (we were the only representatives of our vast country and ancient culture in the festival!) and introduce our beautiful children's books to families, and we absolutely fulfilled our intent. We are looking forward to connecting with our community at the first opportunity again, but for now, if you live in Federal Way or nearby, do keep in touch! You can find all the information about our work and our books on these two sites:

ChickenlegHouse.com

and

AnyaStories.com

Thank you, Federal Way, for the wonderful festival!!!

Outfit #1

Dress - eShakti

Earrings, purse - vintage

Sandals - Dansko (old)

Hat - Old Navy (old)

Pin - Chico's (clearance)

Outfit #2

Blouse - Lane Bryant (old)

Skirt - Teresa for Eloquii (old)

Sandals - Merrell (old)

Earrings - birch bark hand-crafted in Russia

Linking with Patti's Visible Monday!

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