Warren's Cranberry Festival

On Saturday I went to the Warren's Cranberry Festival with my best friend Debbie. Debbie and I have been best buds for over 15 years now. We met at the school bus stop when our children were in Kindergarten (those kiddies are 20 years old now!). We started talking at the bus stop and have never stopped. We are never lacking for things to say when we are together! LOL!

Anyhow, the Warren's Cranberry Festival is held every year right after the harvest of the cranberries. The focus of the festival is cranberries, and you will find plenty of them...and EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING that can be made with cranberries: jams, jellies, sauces, wines, dried cranberries, etc., etc., etc., even Cranberry scented candles. But in addition to cranberries, the festival is a huge Arts and Crafts and Antique show. Its MILES long. We were there all day and probably only covered half of it. Thats why I am dressed so ridiculously in the pictures. Notice the fanny pack and tennis shoes? Not my usual form of dress! LOL! We must have walked 30 miles that day treking back and forth to the truck with all of our 'goodies' that we could no longer carry.

Because my blog is about 'Creating Beauty in My life', I wanted to share these pictures so you can see all the wonderful artwork these artists have created and how I plan on using them in my home. This first set of pictures are metal roosters made of scrap metal and welded together. I really, really, really wanted the big 5 foot tall metal rooster for my country garden. I thought he was so cute and whimsical. But it cost close to $200.00 and I didn't think my hubby would be happy with me if I brought him home. So I purchased the little one I'm holding instead. Now he is sitting happily on my shelf in my sunroom, but I will put him in the garden in the spring.

Debbie and I had a good laugh when we saw this chair. It says 'Sit for free. 5 min limit'. We thought that was so funny and probably came in handy for lots of tired shoppers.

The number of people who attend this festival every year is amazing. Here is a picture showing how thick the crowd was. Look into the distance at the top of the page. Sometimes the crowds are so thick, you could stand for 5 minutes and not even move a single foot. I love it, but if crowds are'nt for you, you'd better stay home! LOL!

This beautiful metal hummingbird was also made of metal and cost over $3000.00! Can you believe it? It was huge! Look at the pine trees behind it, that will give you an idea of its size. The artist who made this is a High School Teacher who teaches welding and wood projects. All his work was so amazing and beautiful and looked like it belonged in an art gallery, but unfortunately it was all WAY out of my price range.

Here is a picture of an old cranberry sorter. They were actually using it to sort the cranberries. The cranberries are then bagged up and sold as shown.

This artist makes vintage antique signs. I talked to him about creating a sign for my house, but he said it would cost about $200 for the type of sign I wanted. I decided to make my own! LOL!

This is Hillbilly Bob. He was a riot! He had a great presonality. He drove this old car that looked just like the one on 'The Beverly Hillbillies' old t.v. show. He decked out his car with all these funny quotes, antiques, and dead animals. We had a lot of laughs looking at this car!

This bus is an example of how many of the vendors transport their goods and sleep and eat for 3 days. This person parked their bus, and set their goods under an awning attached to the bus. They saved money not having to sleep in a hotel.

Heres just one row of vendor tents. There were probably hundreds, and hundreds of these tents set up.

This pumpkin is one of my purchases. Are you getting the feeling I love rusty metal accents? LOL! I love metal in the garden, because unlike other garden decorations (like concrete, pottery, etc.) it is maintenance free and lasts forever! I never have to worry about it being broken or ruined by the elements of nature. Plus, rusty metal objects look great in my country garden. I placed this in the garden bed next to my front steps. It happily greets my guests and the arrival of fall.

I loved these Ball Jars. They were huge....probably about 2 or 3 feet tall. But they cost $50.00, so I didn't purchase them. They come with an electric candle and you can leave them empty or fill them with something. Here they filled them with dried cranberries of course!

These guys engraved stepping stones for your garden. I would have loved to have purchased one for my yard. But again, too pricey. First you had to buy the stone from them (starting at $100) and then pay another $3.00 per letter for the engraving. I said to Debbie, "If I would have known they were here, I would have brought my own stone from home! I have so much stone in my yard, its just piling up and we don't know what to do with it all." We've created garden paths and retaining walls with some of our stone, but alot goes unused. I don't know if I have the right type of stone to engrave with though. I think they used limestone.

Heres Debbie. Isn't she a cutie? I loved this sunflower she bought and wanted one for my own garden, but she got the last one. Oh well, theres always next year!

I hope you enjoyed my pictures and the story of my little adventure. Tomorrow I plan on posting my February 5 x 7 calender. I've been chasing around alot for the past 4 days with my son and haven't been able to craft much. I also haven't gotten around to my household duties either. My son Jordan said to me yesterday 'There'd better be some clean pants in my drawer tomorrow, or I'll be going to school in just my underwear!" He's so funny sometimes. He just got his driver's license and its really helped on the amount of time I have to spend in the car, but I still have to drive him alot because I need the car too!

Till tomorrow, Amy