We attended the 3rd Annual Lynd Fruit Farm Memorial Crafters’ Event in Pataskala, Ohio on Saturday, May 25th. It ran from 10 am to 4 pm with over 81 booths offering handcrafted items. This is our second year in a row to attend, as we didn’t want to miss it after enjoying it so much last year! Upon entering the pavilion area, one of the first items I spotted that I quickly decided to purchase was an adorable large white porch bunny painted with pink and blue pastel accents on two pieces of large picket fence sporting a pastel ribbon around its neck to match. Forever Pallets www.facebook.com/foeverpallets offers custom signs, doormats, tumblers, and workshops too. The owner kindly held onto the large piece while we continued to shop. Moving onward, next we enjoyed meeting and talking with Nancy of Only Originals; Nancy is a very talented watercolor artist, who paints on used teabags. She shared with us all of the conscious recycling efforts she makes in her artistic process, which is quite admirable. Many birds and nature scenes are painted in her collection; some of the pieces reminded us of our recent trip to Maine. It was a pleasure to enjoy her work and get to talk with Nancy. She is frequently a vendor at Newark, Ohio’s Canal Market District.

Located directly across from Nancy’s Only Originals, my husband overheard two ladies talking about “Icelandic wool” and immediately took interest.  We inquired with the owner of The Naturally Warm Shop and learned that she used an Icelandic wool sweater for the exterior in creating a flaxseed and lavender microwave heating pad.  My husband snatched that up and used it the very next evening.  We really enjoyed conversing with the owner and a fellow customer, who happened to be from Iceland.  What fun we had sharing about our travels!   

After thoroughly enjoying our time in the pavilion, we ventured on to see what the vendors were offering outside.  We met a woodworker and his wife and kindly, the woodworker gave me a wooden heart carved from a Walnut tree.  Coffee tables, bowls, chests, and toys were some of Brown’s WhatKnots beautiful creations!   Our final stop was Glassware Creations by Sherry www.Facebook.com/glasswarecreationsbysherry; her bird baths creatively made of punch bowls and other old glassware were striking!  Birdfeeders, sculptures, and yard stakes were also some fun designs.  I selected an owl garden stake made by compiling a milk glass tray, glass chandelier hangings, glass stones, and candle holders.

Food trucks were also on site, but we had stopped for lunch at the Nutcracker Family Restaurant in Pataskala on the way.  The Meatloaf Stack, which includes meatloaf over mashed potatoes and a large slice of sourdough bread, topped with brown gravy and fried onions served in an iron skillet was delicious!  I opted for onion rings as my side.  For dessert, I chose the wild cherry milkshake, again, delicious!  My husband opted for a tasty Philly cheesecake sandwich and fries.  To read more about the awesome retro decorations at this fabulous nostalgic restaurant, see our 2023 previous post.      

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!