prelude to oktoberfest

The annual Oktoberfest celebration in our community is this weekend. It is hosted by the local bank and held on the grounds of their main branch. It's full of everything: fair food (smell the grease?), live music, play space for kids, handcrafted items, local businesses and nonprofits, churches, the local hospital, and more. And for some reason, my favorite, a Blackhawk helicopter. I guess that has to do with my fascination with planes and such, and the fact that this is the kind of apparatus that ferries Kenneth around when he is deployed. It helps me picture him, even though that makes it a bit harder, if you know what I mean.

Look closely at the mug with the cat snacks. 

Do you not love those little mice sticking their faces up?

Anyway, you've heard about the themed gift baskets that the church is doing. They are all done, bowed, and ready for bid. I also got it into my head some time ago that I wanted to make chocolate-covered pretzels to sell. So make them I did! It's very easy, but doing it alone it was a bit time consuming. Still, they look great, and the first batch was sold in its entirety last night when we were setting up the booth! I made 11 more packs last night and then ran out of chocolate. I documented the process, below, minus the actual "dipping" and the finished, packaged look. I also filled these cute little pails (the ones Jayne shipped from Utah) with candy and tied them with ribbon, securing the ribbon with a sticker. Let me tell you, Martha Stewart's adhesive sticker border was the perfect accomplice for the latter. Pictures later of those.

My absolute favorite basket isn't a basket at all. My wonderful friend Nancy Rue, author of great kids, tween and adult books, donated some books from her "Sophie" series. I found a backpack to use as the basket, so they are assembled in the backpack, with some of the books in the bottom to act as counterweight to the books arranged above. There's also a hat, some bookmarks, and bracelets from Nancy. I hope that this sells for a great price.

That's a wrap for now, as I'm headed to the shower and then to the 'fest for a bit. Have a wonderful fall day. It's absolutely gorgeous here!