Valley Muse

The Craft Fair Moon

The days are shorter, the lights are dimmer. Now it is time to get ready for the big day.

Ideas have been floating about our heads for months; now we must put them together and make our lists: what we'll need to gather, what we'll need to do.

Over the summer, while we walked the beaches at Campobello Island, we stuffed our pockets and bags with all sorts of rocks. We packed them up and drove them home, where we washed and sorted them, setting aside the most beautiful ones. These, we turn into rock magnets to sell at the craft fair, or give as gifts at Christmastime.

The Campobello beaches provide me with sea glass as well as rocks, which I fashion into necklaces by wrapping wire around and around until it looks just right.

In the woods, I collect acorn tops to use as caps for the flower fairies and tree sprites I make. At home, I gather together silk flowers for dresses and clothes, pipe cleaners for bodies and arms, beads for heads, and yarn for hair. I start to piece together all the elements into colorful flower fairies and tree sprites, and finally, when they are done, I hang them on branches of a pine bough that I've put in a clay pot filled with more Campobello rocks.

We bake granola, chocolate chip bars, and make chocolate peppermint bark. We package everything in bags with labels we've made. We turn our favorite art into art cards and package them in sets of three. We write up bits about our art and ourselves so that when people buy something of ours, they know who made it and where it came from. My brother puts the finishing touches on his sculpey creature magnets and his Santa cards. We've worked hard. --DRP

The Kid's Craft Fair takes place this coming Friday, December 7, from 4:30-8 pm in the River Garden on Main Street in Brattleboro, VT. Over 60 kids of all ages--mostly homeschoolers--are registered to take part. The Fair takes place during the first Friday Gallery Walk and the kick off to Brattleboro's Holly Days celebrations, that last all weekend long. Hope to see you there!