My last stop on my way home was a visit to Friendship Hill--the home of Albert Gallatin who was Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson and Madison. He authorized the expenditures for the Louisiana Purchase and the funding for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. His home is in southwest PA and a bit off the highway. But there is a lot of ground space and the tents hosted a wide variety of trades, craftspeople, and food. As I had been here previously I didn't do too much touring in the mansion.
This layout is probably based on a sketch though I can't find which one I used. (On the other hand, maybe I got creative!) The visit was in September and the title of the event had "Fall" in it so I chose fall-themed papers. These are from the Hello Autumn collection. The journal box is Old CM but the orange sort of matched. It's really the only decoration on the page but I think that it's enough.
The array of stands was impressive. There were people spinning, tatting (making lace), weaving, and of course a blacksmith's forge. I liked just observing them but the portrayers would answer any questions on their tasks.
This layout is one that I made at a scrapbook store in Hershey several years ago. I find that as I get to the end of an album, I'm aching to get it finished quickly so I pull out more of my pre-made pages or use a wallpaper technique. When I made the layout I had no plans for how to use it. These photos were colorful enough to stand up to the dots and stripes and the paper colors were muted enough to fit the fall theme. Again, no additional stickers but there is a lot of print on the pages so it's not really missing.
The rear of the property overlooks the Monongahela River. I would love to be able to just sit in that pavilion and watch the water flow by. The house did a decent job of quieting the noise of the festival though there were some firing demonstrations back there. On the right page, you see a fife and drum corps from a nearby college. They played lots of period tunes (revolutionary war style).
So the secret of this layout is that the left page didn't originally go there. I had made that as part of my July class. Our prompt for the day was a photo and it had included some water and trees just like the left photo so that was my inspiration. The background is wallpaper--that is an older piece of CM and the design was pre-printed. I added the title on a large tag sticker and a smaller blue circle but not much else. I used the lines on the paper for journaling directly on the page. And then I put it away in a box to be brought out later.
My original layout was 2 pages of the fife and drum corps and that used a Croptoberfest layout from a couple of years ago. (You can tell that because I did not use the photo mats as intended--I just used them as pretty paper behind a variety of photos.) I had completed the album when I came across the Monongahela page in my stash. I toyed with having it be inside the back cover of the album but there was no way to put a page protector on it. Eventually, I sacrificed the left page of the fife and drum corps, and looking back, I think I made the right decision.
The last page highlights a banker. This is a vendor I've not seen before at any historic event. What I found unique about this tent was that he did not start when everyone else did. Apparently "bankers hours" was a concept from long ago! I stayed long enough for him to arrive but I did leave shortly after as I had several more hours of driving ahead of me before getting home (and by the time I got home I had driven several thousand miles!)
As I said, I was getting close to finishing the album so I pulled pre-made pages. This one had been sitting in my stash for a while. I think I picked it up at a scrapbook yard sale. While I could have chosen a bank theme, I decided to keep the Fall pages going right to the end. It is all wallpaper. The leaves are printed on it. The only real embellishment is the title which is a diecut title. I matted the photos a bit and the page (and the album) was done!
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