Tuesday, October 6, 2009

It's Getting a Bit Crafty In Here

A craft show at a hockey rink? Hell yeah I want to go.

This past weekend we attended the largest craft show in the region. It was massive, immense, two giant buildings worth of arts and crafts in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Building one was the local hockey rink (appropriate) and building two was the local VFW, all in all approximately seven hundred thousand square hectares of locally made stuff. OK I made up that figure completely, and I'm not actually sure how big a hectare is, but there was a lot of stuff.

I really wanted to tag along with Alycia and her Mom to see what the craft show was all about. The largest craft show only comes around once a year, so you gotta get while the gettin' is good.

According to Wikipedia's North Dakota Info, the largest industry in North Dakota is agriculture, followed by petroleum and food processing. But I argue that baby making should also be on the list, possibly as number two, right behind agriculture. The number of baby related items (fleece Minnesota Viking onesie anyone?) and people with babies at the fair was crazy. And in my half hour or so at the craft fair, my impressions of the area were confirmed, there are more young people here with kids than just about any place I've been. Being over 30 and childless definitely puts you in the minority.

I left after a half hour, while Alycia and her Mom forged bravely onward. Alycia did find a new fuzzy hat to keep her very valuable noggin warm in the winter and some cool new mittens.
Alycia and Mama Bear survey the crafts. The two of them are quite the team, and they focus on inspecting just about every booth with a high degree of scrutiny. When it came to this particular craft show/shopping event, they were no match for me.....

1 comment:

Bill said...

A hectare is 2.47 acres or 10,000 square meters (100X100). Shouldn't you be working instead of playing freecell?