37th Annual Arts Festival

I am absolutely kicking myself this morning! On Saturday, Ben, Emily, and I went to the 37th Annual Arts Festival hosted by the Temple Terrace Arts Council. Out of respect for the artists I only took a few photos.  I foolishly thought everybody would have an online presence I could direct you to (and also so I could buy my Christmas gifts a little at a time) Boy was I ever wrong. It has been all but impossible find most of my favorite vendors from the show. Grrrr! I'll share what I do have, though.

First, this is Temple Terrace:

Okay, maybe this isn't all of Temple Terrace but it is the portion where the art festival was held. It is also the portion that backs up to an elementary school.  I don't know about  you, but I did not have a lake to gaze at out the window while I was supposed to be learning long division. I'm just sayin'.

But I digress.

The weather was perfect for browsing the 150 plus booths there. Again, I wish I had taken more photos. But check out what I did capture. Scott Anderson had beautiful carved furniture and decor.  Embarrassingly, Emily thought one of his cherry wood storage benches was a coffin. He was cool about it, though, and let me take a picture of this amazing urn:

Mr. Anderson made that from this sable palm root:

There was no end of fabulous hand-crafted jewelry to check out.  I adore how Lori Rosenberger of Cracked Up Jewelry set up her booth:

 You'll have to excuse the photo quality. People would not get out of my way. But don't you want to just hang out in her booth with a cup of tea! When I finally start doing shows I might steal a page from Lori's book. Once you are inside that sweet little tent there is a lot of great stuff to keep you there. All of her jewelry and,yes, even the light fixtures you see there, are made from broken china.

Antique Floral and Scroll Heart Pendant

Some jewelry artists had more modern wares. I'll one of everything in Terry Bodeker's shop. Especially these:

Sterling Silver and Cultured Pearl Twist-on Earrings

Speaking of accessories, I loved Jen's Rag Bags.

I'll take this one thank you very much:

Jennifer Manning doesn't appear to have a website, but if you are interested in her bags you can e-mail her at jensragbags@gmail.com.

I also have my eye on this little number for a special girl in my life:

That's right. Those are candy wrappers. Martha Calderon does some AMAZING things with those suckers.  Definitely have a look at her website, Amazolli. (Be sure you surf her site using Internet Explorer. For some reason the photos wouldn't load in Firefox.)

Oh my gosh you guys, there was so much there that I wanted to share with you!  This weekend Ben wants to take us to a renaissance festival and I promise to be bolder about getting photos and information.  A lot of the same artisans are planning to be there.  Unfortunately, I don't think my favorite vendor will be making an appearance:

Somehow, I don't think funnel cake is period appropriate.