Last Saturday, we stopped at the Canal Market District in Newark, Ohio to check out Mary Mary’s Crafts since we saw on their Facebook page that MMC was a vendor listed for the day (I have purchased items from them in the past). They offer beautiful and fun hand painted and sewn items, as well as crocheted hats; we found some items for ourselves, as well as Christmas gifts for family members. We also stopped at a clay sculpture artist’s station, Mouse Craft (www.mousecraftstore.com), and were very impressed with her little mice and fox characters. In addition, her Nativity scene was so precious and unique: Joseph had a hammer and a measuring tool hanging around his waist, in representation of him being a carpenter. I hope to purchase the seasonal wall art picturing an outdoor scene within a circle formation that she designs at some point too. My plan is to rotate the wall art with the changing of each of the four seasons after purchasing all of them! For example, the summer wall art had a tree with birds, flowers, and other wildlife incorporated.

After enjoying our quick visit with the two vendors at the CMD in Newark, we headed to the Prairie Peddler Festival in Butler, Ohio, where over 200 vendors spread throughout the grounds, many immersed in the woods, which created a most pleasant experience. We went to the Prairie Peddler Festival for the first time last year and wanted to return this year since we had so much fun! We found even more items to purchase this year! This time, we selected many handmade primitive stuffed dolls: The Hunchback of Notre Dame and a ghost mouse/rat carrying a Jack-O’-Lantern from Keep Us In Stitches, Humpty Dumpty from Rebecca K. Babcock, a skinny scarecrow from Aunt Mary’s Garden + Crafts, and a hanging Mothman from Becky Belau, “The Krafty Lady”. We also took home many treasures as Christmas gifts for our family, which we cannot reveal here (HA!). One item we purchased that struck us with its uniqueness and we were educated on by the vendor, KJ at Spearhead Farms, LLC, was a carved out votive candle holder made out of tufa, a porous rock (a type of limestone) formed by calcium carbonate deposits from supersaturated water, with a base of slate cut in the round. The vendor’s additional works were cool too; he sculpted mushrooms from small to very large-in-size. Some of our additional wonderful finds were a thunder drum made from a detailed carved gourd, leather, and wire from Rebecca K. Babcock, a wooden hanging Oct. 31 pumpkin head “doll-like” ornament from Becky Belau, “The Krafty Lady”, and a kitchen towel, which reads, “Home is Where My Dog Is” with a big paw print included on the design from Teri’s got Fur?!. A vendor of whom we are trying to locate her name, designed a snowman we purchased as a gift for someone- such unique and special quality work! We also got to chat with another vendor, of whom we are trying to locate their name, who sold us primitive dolls, such as Dracula, Wolf Man, and Frankenstein, from last year. The same vendor also runs a booth at the Berlin Craft Mall in Berlin, Ohio, which we visited last year as well.
All of these talented artistic vendors truly enabled us to have a fun day in small town Ohio and in Ohio’s countryside full of rolling hills!

From common to unique and rare, Groovy Plants Ranch offers a broad spectrum of plants and garden decorations. Our first visit happened to be during their “Handmade Hoedown” weekend, which included live music and drink trucks on site. Local artist vendors were set up throughout the property. We especially enjoyed looking at some stained glass, Wrappin Osborne’s pottery planter pots and wood with epoxy wall art that mostly had a nature theme, as well as another artist’s works: planter pots made out of cement and rocks. The metal art was also fun to browse; the road runner was my favorite, but cacti, flowers, and armadillos were also portrayed and sculpted using metal.

A mini wooden Bigfoot plant decorative stake was our selected purchase from a vendor and a “Crown of Thorns” cactus, air plant, and Cholla cactus wood (to use as a container for the air plant) were our picks to take home from Groovy Plants Ranch. The property is well organized and beautifully aesthetically arranged for visitors to feel as though they are in a faraway land of natural beauty and fun artistic pots and garden decor that pops with color. A sense of whimsy is also created with the VW van and airplane strategically placed in the broadest range between greenhouses and near the edge of a natural wooded area. While waiting for checkout, we discovered a very old cactus priced at $400 and enjoyed listening to the music. We were especially impressed with the overall atmosphere, reasonable prices, variety, and soil planting stations for those who also purchased a pot. Many places don’t have bonsai trees available, and Groovy Plants Ranch has several healthy bonsai available at a fair price. We plan to purchase one on our next visit!

Just a short drive away and along our way home, we had a nice meal (meatloaf and chicken tenders, biscuits, fried okra, chicken dumplings, and freshly squeezed lemonade) at Cracker Barrel in Sunbury, Ohio, and discovered some cool coffee mugs we purchased as future gifts for our relatives. Browsing around the store after the delicious meal was a pleasure. As a side note, Cracker Barrel really has some beautiful clothing options along with their adorable decorations and tasty old-time favorite candies and gum.

Still in Sunbury, our shopping continued at the Tanger Outlets. Puma, Cole Haan Outlet, and an independent mom-and-pop shop called Humble Heart (home decor) were some of our favorite shopping experiences at Tanger, but Fragrance Outlet stole the show by providing an exciting fragrance experience while we tried various perfumes and colognes and found a couple that we both really liked: Ralph Lauren’s “Safari” for men and Deauville Eau de Parfum Spray for women. It’s difficult to find “Safari”, but Fragrance Outlet had it at a price that was just as rare. We also learned about two fragrances that we plan to purchase at some point now as well. What fun!