The Country Living Fall Fair 2010

This is the first thing I head to when we arrive at the fair. If you look closely, the pumpkins and gourds are placed on stacked hay bails and there is a corn stalk coming out of the middle. A thing of beauty.

The fair is held just outside of Columbus, Ohio at the fairgrounds called Ohio City.

The place is filled with historic buildings and is really beautiful.

We bought the early bird tickets so we could get in at 8:30 am. It did not work out that way as you will see later in the post.

We left at 4:00 am to make sure we would be the first in line.

The fair seemed to be twice as big this year.

I don't know the history of these buildings because each year we are so busy shopping we really don't pay too much attention to the buildings.

What a perfect setting for this fair.


The unfortunate thing this year was that we went on Friday which had a high temp of 90 degrees.


The next day the temps were in the 60's.


That did not stop people though.


It quickly became very crowded.


This place even has it's own garden.


After my gourd/pumpkin stop, this is always the next place I head to. There is nothing quite like a good broom and I bought three. Aren't these beauties?


This is Jim Rantala, the broom maker. If anyone wants a broom, you can contact him at: jrantala@alldial.net This is his email. He does not have a website. Not only are his brooms wonderful, they are also very reasonably priced. I have about 8 of these now and love each one of them.


Plus, look at this guy! How cuet is he? The jolly broom builder!!!


Shabby chic seemed to be the main theme of the fair this year.


Click for a closer look.


I loved this idea. These pumpkins are decorated with black sequins. They look like Cinderella's coach.



Many of the booths had architectural salvage for sale.


And there were many Halloween booths.


I loved the way these ladies used vintage conservatory windows to form a tiny shop.


There was some very nice furniture for sale.


Rustic Fall wreaths.


I loved these cats and rats.


And why didn't I buy this for Christmas? Now I am going to have to make one for myself.


Nice chest.


And while we are on the subject, what is up with this?


This was tempting but big.


The I found this booth.


And did not buy this witch! Why? And her black cat! Why? I get so into taking the pictures that I forget to shop. Damn! Then I come home and look at the pics and ask....WHY??? I really like that witch and cat. Oh well.


But I did buy this.


But I did not buy the JOL. Why? I am blaming a lot of this on the heat.


Cute doll house and figures.


Rustic dolls hung on the fence...ouch!


And then I spotted David Smith the redware maker.


And I got so excited about adding to my redware collection that I forgot to take pics of his work. Tomorrow I will show you what I bought.



I liked the name of this booth.


There was a lot of burlap and wire which is a hot look right now.


Copper pots and Fall flowers.


What a pretty display.


WAIT....who's the guy in the Longaberger basket? I'm buying this one. It's the Blog Tech!!! Good sport you are BT!!! We noticed that he was the absolutely only guy of his age at the entire fair.


The fair seemed to have lots of 'green' items this year.


'Green' ghosts.


This is just one of the things that makes this fair so wonderful and inspirational. All of the signs and planters were decked out with pumpkins and gourds.


Cement witches.


Festive dried gourds.


What a cool way to decorate a Fall table.


Alternative way to display pumpkins.


These ladies were making tansey wreaths. It seemed like every other person we saw was carrying one.


A closeup of one of the sign holders.


Longaberger pumpkins in a Longaberger basket.



A lot of this was being sold.


These lemonade stands were all over the fair.


There was all sorts of fair food to be had.


Very quickly the crowds were unbearable. There were lines to get into the booths. The Blog Tech and I were there for only 45 minutes when we decided enough was enough.


The only thing that would have made me more miserable than the crowds and the heat would be to be her. Sit down, shut up!!!


This serious swinger caused me to rush to the car.



This is what caused us to be late to the fair. It totally closed the main highway down in both directions. A tractor trailer hit a petrol truck. Never a good thing.


We stared at this for the next two hours and arrived at the fair at 10:00 am entirely blowing the early bird concept and the avoiding the heat and crowds concept as well.


After going to the Columbus Market we headed back to the highway six hours later to find this.



See that no turn sign. It had my name all over it. I love to spit in the face of authority. That traffic ate my dust and we took off into the countryside. It was the best detour we ever took and I will show you where we ended up tomorrow.

We had a blast!