Craft Anyway!: 31st Annual Essex Fall Craft & Fine Arts Show

Every year for the past four years I have joined my grandmother, aka Nonny, and aunt, Keli, in Essex Junction, Vermont for their annual fall craft show. Kaeleigh went with us the first and second years, but wasn't old enough to really appreciate the idea of a craft show. This year, however, she tagged along again and fully enjoyed herself.

Here's a picture of the four generations about half way through the day:

This show always has hundreds of vendors, so we do a process of "shop first, buy later." When we find a vendor we'd like to buy from, we write them down so that at the end of the day we can go back and get what we want. This way we don't 1) overspend early in the day and 2) have to lug around big, heavy, or awkward items all day.

Kaeleigh caught onto the process pretty quickly, which she made evident when she found the vendor selling Hello Kitty themed jewelry. She spotted Hello Kitty from five booths down and took off running. When I caught up to her she said, "We have to write this one down!" We all had our good laugh and kept on shopping.

She also loved these super cool glass bead earrings by Novation Glass, so she got those as well.

And Momma had to get herself some awesome new stuff, including this really fun wooden pumpkin to add to our fall decor.

The pianist, Sergei Novikov, that was selling these CD's is at the show every year playing his music at the entrance.

I don't know why we never stopped to check out his merchandise in the past, but we did this year and all four of us fell in love with his soothing and relaxing music. I chose to buy his Christmas Piano Album Part 2 because I thought it would be great to play while visiting with guests during the holidays. I think I'll be getting one or two of his other albums next year.

I've been searching for little tin stars like these up in Northern NY to a version of this project for next year's patriotic holidays, but have had no luck in finding them small enough.

But, voila, there was a vendor (actually the same one that I bought the wooden pumpkin from) selling these babies in every size you could ever need. I only bought three, now I'm wishing I had bought more. Darn. It. All.

Food. I can never leave this show without food of some kind.

This sweet red pepper jelly by Catamount Specialties of Vermont is OUT OF THIS WORLD. I bought two jars and I plan to ~~eat every drop of it myself~~ share it with guests.

This next contraption is a special one.

If I hadn't actually seen what this baby is used for, I couldn't have even made a guess. Last year I bought some super cool vertical potted plant hangers, called hanging "Potgenies." I don't have a picture of those, but this year I bought this vertical potted plant stand, the Original "Potgenie." Once it's actually set up, this is what it looks like.