This past weekend was time for the Ohio Mart once again that the Stitchery Showcase is normally part of. I'm very sad to say, this year they did not hold the Showcase portion. It's the first time since I've been in high school that I didn't attend. However, I still had a stitchy friend come stay with me for the weekend and we attended the Ohio Mart and had a fantastic time!
We started the day off with a trip to the Stitchers Fair Tent. It's basically like a yard sale of nothing but needlework & quilting items. I picked up some great bargains on fabric for my personal stash and had a nice look through a ton of patterns. As I limit my stash to a specific amount/area, I didn't see any of those that were just screaming at me to buy.
When we left the SFT, we decided to take a walk through the rose garden before the rain set in. They still have a bunch of roses in bloom, and they all smelled wonderful!
They have 100+ artisans booths to look through. I found tons of places I picked up business cards for some possible future online shopping (gotta watch that budget). The only items I purchased were this gorgeous Italian wine bottle cheese platter and a couple of small xmas gifts. (Remember...support handmade & local!)
After a bit of shopping it was definitely lunch time. The Ohio Mart not only features your normal "fair food" like Italian sausage sandwiches & pizza, but they have several other local caterers, etc. that are there. We decided to get lunch from Totally Cooked Catering. They happen to be within walking distance of my house, which smells wonderful when I drive by on my way home from work at night, but also have fantastic food. We both decided to skip the normal fair food and buy a lunch at their tent that consisted of an Ale Braised Beef sandwich on a pretzel roll (it included some sort of awesome horseradish sauce) and Smashed Potato Salad. Definitely worth the $7.00!
Lunch was followed by more browsing through artisan booths, plenty of rain, and some time in the conservatory. Unfortunately it was too late in the season for the butterflies to still be on exhibit, but there was still plenty of beautiful plants to look at. We found all these little mini landscape scenes mixed in also. They're unbelievably cute with the tiny benches, lamps, gazing balls, etc.
And of course, if you know anything about me, what is my favorite thing to do on a Saturday in the Fall? Yep...stitching & football. Good thing my stitchy friend is as much a football fanatic as I am!
It was a great weekend and I'm looking forward to it again next year. Hopefully the Stitchery Showcase will be back in place as I'm already accumulating a stash of items I want to enter. :)
Awesome! I would highly recommend this to everyone. Get out walk in the fresh air among the flowers and trees (the birches are a wonderous sight) and, of course shop the many creative booths, but don't forget the scrumptious choices for lunch and sweets! I had a fantastic time!
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