Cellpic Sunday

Cellpic Sunday—The Country Fair

~ MaryG ~ 7 Comments

My church runs an annual “country fair” which serves as both a fundraiser for the church and a fall festival for the town. A portion of the proceeds are donated to a local nonprofit each year.

It’s always in early October and it has been going on for decades. Different teams work to prepare and then implement the various revenue areas: the book sale, the country store, “trash & treasure,” face painting, bake sale, etc.

For the past few years, I’ve worked jewelry. We get a tremendous amount of jewelry donated by members and friends of the church throughout the year—everything from diamond rings to Mardi Gras beads.

Sorting, pricing and displaying it is a big job! There are about five of us that usually handle this task, with Julie being our fearless leader. Julie is a former Peace Corps volunteer and retired high school teacher with an eye for precious metals. She’s extremely good at making sure we don’t accidentally give away a real gold ring or a vintage sterling brooch for $5.

She tends to monitor and sell the “real jewelry” at the fair while the rest of us sell the mounds and mounds of “costume jewelry.” She can be tough when needed, especially on the early birds who are clearly looking to score some real gold for next to nothing.

Julie has permanently dedicated a significant portion of her basement to donated jewelry, props on which to display jewelry, and tools to evaluate and repair jewelry.

Here’s my snap of Julie the Jewelry Queen setting up necklace displays in the church office the night before the Country Fair.

And here’s a cell pic of our group in action yesterday. (It was taken by our minister.)

Posted for John’s Cellpic Sunday.

Most of us wear our church t-shirts to work at the fair which have our shared UU values on the back.

Cellpic Sunday—tiny old things

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

A tiny silver turtle, a fish, a bird, a duck and a frog—60-year old birthday candle holders.

A gift from a dear friend of my mother—a 3x “boy mom” who so loved little girls—on the occasion of my first birthday (we think).

Passed by my mother to me, I used them when I remembered. (The candle holes are narrow, so candles must be shaved to fit.)

Now they are polished and ready to go to my daughter.

We pass things on.

They use what they wish.

I first took a picture of them on a silver coaster, but they were hard to see. Lesson learned: use a contrasting background when photographing still objects.

Posted for John’s Cellpic Sunday

Cellpic Sunday – ultra wide lens

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments

I no longer own a 35mm camera, so all my pics are cell pics these days, but it’s fun to join in a creative group activity like John’s Cellpic Sunday.

Goosewing Beach Preserve, Little Compton, Rhode Island, USA, August 2025

I took this with the ultra wide lens (0.5x) on my iPhone 15. I like it because it captures lots of beach & sky and my legs look very long and tan and no cellulite is visible at that angle. They almost look like my old legs from my lifeguard days.