50...

At this time of the year there's one thing in abundance and that is Holiday Craft Fairs. 

This was my first year to attend the Annual Holiday Fair at the La Crosse Convention Center. It was actually a lot smaller than I had anticipated with 130 vendors. But if you're going to finally go, a 50th celebration isn't a bad time.  The halls were festive and bustling with anticipation of a shopping frenzy. There were door prizes every hour, local entertainment in the food area, photo ops with Santa, appearances by Rudolph AND... 

in honor of the occasion awaiting eager shoppers were the Westby royalty donning their tiaras holding onto celebratory balloons for the kiddos and acting as greeters to the throngs of women shoppers. There
was nary a male in sight as this fair is strategically planned at the beginning of Deer Season. ( I capitalize that for you to truly get its importance in this area.)  With the men gone, these women are psyched to shop.

And shop they do during this 4-day extravaganza... you would never know we were in a recession. According to Laurel who decorates crystal glasses, she sold more in the first 2 days this year than in all 4 of last year's.

There can never be enough Packer fans

Personally I like the artistic side of going and seeing what's new.  People are ingeneous as to the 'schatzkes' they create of stuff we never knew we needed. 

Whether it's home decor/ clothing accessories/food stuff, there's always a new twist. Speaking of twists...

One booth featured a demo of rusty barbed wire being bent into names/ words of your choice. Hey, those probably don't need dusting!

Popular were booths with bottles filled with little lights. I say you can never have enough of those.

Vendors came equipped with their sewing machines/ their materials to continue creating. Altho' there was prefab stuff made in China, local handmade abounded. 

Family like branches on a tree, will grow in different directions. Yet our roots remain the same.

Upcyling is big whether it's old sweaters becoming mittens/ jackets/ wool being shrunken to make bags, hats, head bands/ using old windows/ pieces of wood with sayings seems to really be big now.

So if you need something for that special someone, you can find it at a fair and you never know, you just may end up keeping it yourself. 

My solution is just buy two...