Celebration of Craft back for holiday shopping

BONNERS FERRY — Friday and Saturday at the Fairgrounds was a bustling of vendors and shoppers like the Whos preparing for Christmas in the classic Dr. Seuss book.

Many crafters and shoppers were making up for last year’s lack of shopping and selling opportunities. For many vendors this was their first time at the Celebration of Craft. Some had been waiting all fall for the opportunity to sell their wares.

There were homemade holiday decorations, 4-foot-tall gnomes, wreaths galore, wood art, fiber art, lotions, soaps and candied sweets.

One vendor, Idaho Custom Wreaths, said that sales were doing great. She said she normally sold wreaths and centerpieces only on Facebook, but had been waiting for the event all fall.

The organizer Kari Arpo said that this year the Celebration of Craft had a lot of traffic. The children’s craft table was filled with young crafters and the Compass Grille provided hot chili between shopping.

“It is awesome to see so much of the community come out and support each other,” Arpo said.

She said that there was so much talent amongst the vendors, adding that part of the joy was just walking from booth to booth.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion were in attendance as well as raffling off a .308 and a .44 Martin. The officials said that the money would be staying in the county to help support the VFW, American Legion and Disabled American Veterans.