So Cindy M and I went to the Grand Rivers Craft Fair down by Kentucky Lake (it’s like 45 minutes away – down the street from the famous Patti’s that I’ve never been to) – and boy were we impressed!

The people and the vendors were friendly (of course it was early so nobody and heat stroke yet) and there was an excellent selection of crafts – actual crafts for that matter, none of that factory produced stuff glued to a log and called craft. 

They even had the gourd guy there (I didn’t get his card – ’cause I suck). He had a flat bed trailer with bins made out of fencing and all the bins had different sizes and types of dried gourds! From the tiny spinning gourds for 4 for a $1 to 2 1/2 foot tall bottle gourds for $15 each.  The prices were more than reasonable and the selection was amazing! Cindy M got a dipper gourd – I believe she’s going to make an actual dipper out of it.

Of course there were at least 3 gourd crafters there (not counting Gourd Man). One was a bit ho-hum, one was pretty good, but the 3rd one gave me tons of ideas. Don’t get me wrong – her gourds were lovely – they just were not done to my style so of course now I have to make my own. (My gourds are doing well – but I’ll talk about that in the next post).

This lady had done everything imaginable with her gourds.  She had jewelry and bowls. She had cut sections out of some, all the way around, and used the ’spokes’ left in the gourd to weave around – the gourd acted as the ribs of the basket and then she took reeds or whatever and wove around it – it was so cool! Some had removeable tops, like boxes, and several of those were lined with fabric on the inside.  She’d made little nativity people with little gourds and then used a bigger gourd to serve as the barn – several of those had lights put in the top! She’d even used wood clay to sculpt ears and snouts on some of the smaller ones to make mice and bears.  She had used leather dyes to color them, glued on dyed gourd seeds in pictures (there was a chicken made of seeds on one gourd!), wood burning, beads, you name it and she had it!

My favorite vendor by far though was Ken Herman of Moonlight Glass.  He’s out of Grantsburg, IL 62943 (phone # 618-658-2761).  He does ‘Unique Handblown Glass Art’ – and can I just say Squuueeeeee! We stopped because we saw a skeleton hand… made out of glass! A clear glass skeleton hand was serving as his business card holder – it was like $125 and so totally worth it! If I wasn’t broker than dirt I’d have had me a glass skeleton hand (and yes the country is coming out in this post apparently).  The sculpture next it was of a pretty flower… eating a guy! It was hilarius! And reasonably priced around $150. Now he did have regular things as well – for those of you who don’t share my sense of humor but the time and effort he put in to these things was awe inspiring – and none of it boring – even the normal stuff didn’t look like your typical mall kiosk offerings. There was a beautiful sculpture of a group of flowers pulled together by a spider web with a garden spider in the middle – absolutely beautiful. If you don’t know what to get someone quirky for the holidays – call this guy.

Then there was Debbie Schmidt of Dream Catcher Artworks – she does Portraits (human & animal) & Landscapes. She’s at 539 Lower Alsup Rd, TN Ridge, TN 37178 (phone # 931-721-3649). She also does lessons.  The art was beautiful – I’m thinking of have a portrait done of 3 of dearly departed fur-babies.

Wildlife Creations by Tony Campbell made me think of my hubby – they do, of course, wonderful wildlife paintings (think ducks and deer!). They are at Box 582 Clarkton, MO 63837 (Phone # 573-448-5590). www.tonycampbellwildlifecreations.com

Blue Malibu Jewelry had Cindy M drooling – they had a gorgeous wirewrapped sapphire bracelet that she was eyeing.  They do hancrafted jewelry made with sterling silver and gold-filled wire. Jill Gentry is the artist from Glasgow, KY (phone # 270-678-7192).

And finally there was B & L Baking Sheets.  They state that theirs is “The last baking sheet you will ever need to buy!” The crafters were David & Lynn Mayes (phone # 931-552-6134) and they can be emailed at lifetimebaking@charter.net . They make cookie/baking sheets with a lifetime guarantee – and let me tell you, they were Very nice. 

Cindy M and I didn’t buy a whole lot (she got the gourd and I bought a hankie bunny) – but it was totally due to finances and nothing to do with the selection.  I haven’t seen a selection this good at any of the other events I’ve been to (and I do mean ANY). It’s worth a look, although I’m sure the crafters would appreciate a bit more than that – I can guarantee you’ll find something you want there and the prices were very reasonable as well. There was something for everyone – from affordable to ‘ouch’, but even the ‘ouches’ were worth it.  I didn’t see a single one of those unfortunate vendors who thought their stuff was worth more than gold (you know ‘em – you’ve seen ‘em – you run from them quickly!).

So take the kids (there’s a park amidst it all) – they’ll find teepee’s and wood swords, take hubby – he’ll find ducks, deer, and outdoor furniture; and there’s stuff for you too.

They have a food court in the middle – with folks grilling and frying away. The only thing missing was a live band. I give the Grand Rivers Craft Fair five stars!

For fellow crafters who would like to set up a booth there next time – call 270-928-4411.

Cindy M and I went to the State Fair!

And it was Awesome! It was everything a fair should be! The Arts! The Crafts! The Animals! Squee! Our feet were numb by the time we were done!

There were lots of beautiful decorated gourds – this one being our favorite.

Here’s the Miniature Basket winners.

Quilt Displays.

The Cakes were spectacular – I actually have tons of pictures.

I was really interested in how things were displayed - especially after my disappointment with our local show – and I was thrilled! You can see above how the quilts and cakes were done.  The gourds were on a large island pedestal surrounded by a picket fence (decorative and secure!). Here’s the display for the canning categories.

And the 2-D Art display…

Most of the Knitting/Crochet Items were in waist high glass display cases – as were the baked goods.  The needlework section was a combination of glass cases and 2-D boards like above.  The Spinning and Weaving entries were on an island pedestal like the gourds.

It was so awesome!

And then we went to through the animals!  And I am so taking my Baby Buns next year – and we’re going to take 1st, 2nd, and 3rd!  There were tons of English Angoras but only 3 Frenchies (there may have been 2 more but they had wandered off apparently).  The 1st place bunny was beautiful but the other 2… well I wouldn’t have brought mine if they looked like that.  I think one might have been sick.

So next year… I’m going, bunnies and crafts and maybe some veggies and gourds too! I think we should all go and participate – whose with me?!

Friday Night Live was a blast!  Paul D and Val J joined me at the booth with their respective men folk. Surprisingly I think the guys even enjoyed it (they got to hang out with each other and have ‘manly time’ while ‘being there’ for us! It was win-win! ).

We gave out all the business cards and all the Challenge flyers (I made flyers for with the rules and categories for the 37 Projects Challenge).  We met lots of nice folks and sold enough things to cover the space rental.  We would have come out ahead but I bought a $100 awning – I see it as an investment though, so I’m still counting this as a win.

Gordon’s wooden rocking motorcycle was the main attraction and I definitely don’t think we would have had the foot traffic we got without it.

Hopefully we’ll see more action here on the site!

If anyone gets wind of any other events we can get into, let me know!

We’re setting up a booth at the Friday Night Live event held tonight in downtown Madisonville! I’ll be there with my knit items, flower pins/bows/magnets, and christmas table decorations.  We’ll also have some purses from Paula D and I believe Mr. G is going to bring one of his wooden motorcycle rocking horses; we’ll be taking orders on those.

So come on down and check it out! 5-9 PM tonight!

The visit to the fairgrounds last night was very… very, very sad. The vast majority of the entries were uninspiring (to be polite). There was an afghan that looked like it had been on someone’s bed for the last 10 years, a very nice cross stitch piece that was obviously a kit (don’t know if that was against the rules or not but come on!), a 2^nd place quilt was one of those preprinted fabric panels sewn onto a back… and one of the gourds was an apple gourd, painted like an apple. There was a pretty lace apron… that was stained.

***OK – so that fabric panel quilt was legit – when I was retyping the full category list for posting there is a category for printed panel… but still***

On the bright side, there was some very nice black & white photography, the 2 smocked pieces (by the same person) were cute, and there was a darling crocheted child’s dress with a beret.

To make the whole dismal affair even drearier, the items were all just kind of tossed up onto metal retail shelving that looked like it had been salvaged from the old Roses store when it closed 15 years ago. I mean, come on people! Goody’s just went out of business a few months ago.  Are you telling me in this town of doctors and lawyers galore that no one could scrape up a bit of dough to buy new-ish displays from them? They were cheap as hell!  Cindy M got 20 torso mannequins for like $15.

I was heartily disappointed.

I’m thinking about speaking with our county extension agent about the whole thing.

And I’m a bit more determined about the ’37 Projects’.  In fact I’m starting a new category on here just for that.

I’ve decided that for # 4 (Counted Cross Stitch Sampler) – I’m going to do an homage to the Mario Brothers… ‘cause they’re awesome.

For # 3 (Counted Cross Stitch Picture) – I’m going to look into that photo to cross stitch conversion software… If it’s cheap enough I may take some photos of a gothic still-life type thing and turn that into a cross stitch pattern.

I may have to talk to my man Eric D about setting up a 37 Projects page…

NOW I CHALLENGE YOU ALL!

I want you to match me! I know 37 projects is a lot – and I doubt I’ll actually DO 37 projects… but we need a better Crafter presence at these Community Events. So I want you to make a list of the categories you are interested in participating in and match me Completed Object for Completed Object! There’s only 1 entry per category but a lot of craft types have several categories – (there’s at least 6 for cross stitch and 10 or 12 for quilting, etc).

So come on! Get started! Send me your lists and progress reports! Send me pictures of your FO’s and I’ll post them here! I’m thinking there might even be a $50 gift certificate to the craft store of your choice in it for the winner…

It’s the 1^st Annual 37 Projects Challenge!