Because I've only mentioned it a few times before (or 20), I wanted to mention again just how much we love Asheville. Every visit is wonderful and The Big Crafty was no exception.
I love the organized chaos that occurs as vendors are setting up for events. It's fun to watch. All the carrying, pulling, moving, organizing, re-organizing...
But, enough about us.
As usual, I ditched Wayne and wandered around with my camera visiting with vendors and taking pictures. There was SO much to see... The festival was amazing: 170+ vendors spread around pack square and inside the Art Gallery. I'm afraid I missed quite a bit, but I've included a few of the booths and vendors that stood out for me.
Here's a mantra that I was so excited to see. It was on a table surrounded by lovely jewelry by Gritgoods.
These reusable bags by the high fiber co were adorable and are a great green option.
I was drawn to the booth of Etchville and her lovely etched glasses. Wayne was quite obsessed for a while with Portlandia and in homage, she had glasses with birds of them that said "Put a Bird on It". I also adored her "olive you" bottles.
I have a bit of a problem with bags. No clue why. Boxes too. I like stuff you can put stuff in. These Nana clutches caught my eye immediately. Not only could you put stuff in them, but they were handmade with gorgeous fabrics. I particularily admired the vintage (or vintage inspired?) dot fabric.
Close to us was a jewelry vendor with a gorgeous display. You can tell Just Kenzie Jewelry puts quite a bit of time into deciding how to display her wares.
Yet another bag vendor I liked. Urban Olive's laptop bags were adorable.
Jordan Grace had beautiful illustrations, t-shirts and goodies. They were all slightly quirky and wonderfully appealing.
So, Robin from Lemons with a Pea made me laugh out loud. Literally. She had posters galore that were too funny. Plus, she's really nice (and that always helps). As soon as we got home I looked her up and was excited to see that she has salvaged wood blocks that she paints with her sayings and calls them (appropriately) "blocks of awesome." Nuf said.
Another thing I'm constantly drawn to is fabirc. I have boxes of the stuff, all waiting for me to learn how to sew. Any day now. I was drooling over the handprinted fabric by Sara Lee Parker.
An award for the most interesting display (in my mind at least) goes to the booth by Whittler's Roost. They were selling necklaces and I loved how they were hanging on all the walls inside these wooden circles. You can see the gaps where they had already sold quite a few before I managed to snap a picture.
I recognized the Button Florist from the Handmade Market. Much fun!
When we got hungry, there was no shortage of food to be had. Rosetta's Kitchen had a truck as did the Gypsy Queen Cuisine, one of the first successful Kickstarter projects I was familiar with. Wayne got a falafel and gave me a bite. Just one. That's all he was willing to spare. It was amazing!
And, of course, they had music as well.
We spent the day beside Melanie from Asheville Hoops. She was selling (and demonstrating) hula hoops. All day Wayne was staring longingly at people as they tried it out. At the end of the day he finally gave in and gave it a shot. He was good at it! Needless to say, one went home with us and he has been hoola-ing (is that a real word?!?) every day since. :)
One again, a fantastic festival in our favorite city. We're looking forward to being back at the end of the month for Bele Chere.