Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
By Kelli Bowen
This past Saturday the girls, Hubby and I loaded up and headed out for some fall-tastic fun. Our first stop was to the Nome Schoolhouse, a renovated 100 year old school building that has been restored into a beautiful boutique hotel and event center with a working fiber mill. It was “Nomecoming” where there were vendors, the Shepherd Industries store, mill tours, and fiber animals were on display.
We were happy to discover that there were demonstrations happening with different fiber arts and the girls tried their hand at needle felting, weaving and making some fiber-themed arts and crafts! This was more than a 20 minute pop-in. We were there for a couple hours and ended our time seeing some of the critters who supply the fiber.
After getting our craft-on, we headed to Fort Ransom for SVACA (Sheyenne Valley Arts and Crafts Association). We, and everyone else in a tri-county area, cruised down the Sheyenne Scenic Byway and ended up in this little town which had been inundated with crafters, artists, vintners and bakers.
As the colors start to turn from green to golds and reds, the scenic backdrop for this crafting event is PERFECTION. Besides the hundreds of booths sampling and selling their wares, there was a car show, rib cookoff, music, several dining options and my kids’ favorite: sellers of roadside pumpkins. I know, of all the things, this is what they’re most excited for every year.
Getting through the booths is slow going, mainly because every 20 feet we run into an old friend and have to stop and chat, when we aren’t the ones stopping and chatting, we are scooting around others who are doing the same. “Ope-let me sneak right past ya there.” SVACA is not one for the fast-paced efficient-shoppers. SVACA is best enjoyed when a person has nowhere they need to be and have time to just take it all in.
After Miss A and Hubby waited for a walking taco for 45 minutes (the lines are real) and Miss E getting a corndog on a stick, we finished walking around and seeing all of the crafty inspiration. We found a few more treasures, and an Uncle-Jesse-from-Dukes-of-Hazard-lookalike to sell us a few pumpkins, then headed back up the Scenic Byway. After a day of crafts, animals, crafts, food, crafts, and walking, we ALL went to bed early with visions of fall festivals in our heads.
Kelli makes her home in Cass County with her husband, two daughters (10 and 7) and two dogs. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.
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