Last Saturday was a beautiful day, though a little warm, to be at the Arts and Crafts Fair in Hillsboro, Kansas. We recalled last year when it was wet and cold. I went with our daughter and her two children, our precious grandchildren, who were so good for the six hours we tramped around the streets ogling at the booths. This has been one of the largest Arts & Crafts Fairs in Kansas for at least 30 years. The population on this one day swells from 3,000 native souls to twenty to thirty thousand. Many have to park at the fairgrounds and school buses shuttle them to the town square. There didn't seem to be the usual 300+ booths which made it easier to move up and down the streets, even with our awkward stroller.

It's interesting to see the hard work that crafters put into their wares: stuffed animals made out of chenile spreads and patchwork quilts, tie-dyed clothing, dried-flower decorated grapevine wreaths, purses and bags made out of all kinds of material including the tops of leather cowboy boots, wooden toys and furniture, framed artwook, pithy sayings calligraphed on wooden hearts and other shapes, kid's cloth tee-pees, painted and appliqued sweat and t-shirts, to name a few.

Of course, there was the usual tantalizing array of home-made food and baked goods: New Year's Cookies, Verenika, Bierrocks and German sausage, Borscht and noodle soups, Zwiebach, Peppernuts, Kettle Korn, funnel cakes, walking tacos, caramel apples, pie and ice cream. Staying on any kind of diet was impossible.

Walking most of that time was a real test of endurance for this old lady. On our way out of there we enjoyed refreshing sno-cones. I collapsed when I got home and caught up on my fluid intake. When we lived in Hillsboro I had as much fun gazing--out the front window of my quiet, warm, or cool home--at all the people passing by with their arms full of merchandize, as I had shopping. Thank goodness, this fair only comes once a year! I'm sure the planners agree.