The Strawberry Swing: No strawberries but lots of crafts

So, I have been AWOL on the posting game, I’ll admit. Lots of things have been going on for me from my computer crapping out on me and I having to take it in to be fixed to getting a new job. While I did still have my iPad to blog with, my pictures from this event were on my camera and I had no way of tranferring them. Fortunately, I now have my computer back and we can return to business as usual! But, you aren’t here to listen to me give lame excuses for why I’ve have been “behind on the city”. You care about the good stuff, like the Strawberry Swing at the Alexander Majors Barn on State Line Road. Founded in 2011, the Strawberry Swing is all about supporting handmade crafters. 

As a huge supporter, lover and buyer of handmade goods, I was all over this fair. From the moment I arrived, there were quite a few people buying various wares. There was a heavy population of jewelry crafting tables, including Opal and Gold, a local jeweler I discovered at First Fridays. While I do love jewelry (I mean, next to diamonds, they’re a girl’s best friend right), I was on a mission to find a few specific goods. Okay, I was looking for beauty products if you must know, but I also got some baby gifts for a friend who is pregnant along with a few other trinkets. 

My first destination in handmade beauty was a little place called Bazil Essentials that makes an assortment of goods from soap to perfume. Usually I’m all about creating the picture of kissable lips, but I also love to smell good. I decided to go for these roll on perfumes in all three scents: rose jasmine, basil blossom, and vanilla lavender. These perfumes are made with oils rather than a spray and I don’t knowif that makes a difference in terms of how long the scent lasts, but let me just say these perfumes are very strong and the scent lingers on your body throughout the entire day (after all, I don’t buy perfume to smell nice for a couple hours out of the day only to have to reapply and I’m sure none of you do either). It’s probably some of the most high quality perfume I’ve ever bought; it’s all natural and the cost of all three was less than what I would pay for one bottle of perfume at a drug store.

 
Next stop in crafted beauty, I returned to a love of mine that you might remember from my visit to the crossroads; Messner Family Farm. I decided to go for a dark shade of red this time called Amish Rose. there’s no sort of shimmer to this shade like Money Maker but it does give a look of sophistication all in a lip balm.

Next on my craft fair shopping spree, was finding some KC native threads. I always see people walking around sporting their KC gear and I’m almost a little ashamed to say that despite living in KC my whole life, I’ve never had any KC pride clothing (that includes a sports jersey). But, with all the tents selling KC gear, I knew it was time to join the band wagon and sport my KC pride. Instead of buying from a more established tent, I got my shirt from a little shop by the name of X37 Adventures. What I really loved about this shop was that nothing was the same, everything they were selling had its own unique touch. Why? Because this shop is in the business of up cycling; helping charities while building the community. A perfect example of killing two birds with one stone. 

After pampering myself with some new goods, I started on some gifts. While the first people on my list aren’t human, they do act enough like people. My dogs have yet to experience some local KC goodness so it was finally their turn. I saw the Beer Paws table and knew I had found the perfect gift for them. If any of you don’t know what beer paws is, it’s beer for dogs! Relax, it’s not real beer but it is a malt based stock to spice up your pooch’s dinner. Leo and Bleu were eating their food faster than I had ever seen them; I may have turned them into little “puppy-holics”. The Strawberry Swing was at the beginning of August and I was out of beer paws by the middle of the month, just to give you an idea of how much they loved it. 

 

 
My favorite part of the Strawberry Swing was buying baby clothes. I’m sure there are a lot of women reading this who know what it’s like to fawn over little baby clothes that you imagine putting on a child of your own. Luckily for me, I got to indulge and buy a few baby items rather than “aww” at them. This part of the craft fair was a bit of a black out so to speak; I bought a bib and some burping cloths in the girliest print I could find, remembering how excited Jesse was to be having a girl and being able to dress her in pink and frills. The bib and burping cloths were the most sensible thing I bought but I needed a little outfit with ruffles; Jesse hadn’t gotten anything like that yet. Good for me, there was Darwin and Delilah, a little family business that specializes in vintage, up-cycled baby clothing. Everything looked so precious and although the urge was strong to buy “all the things”, I limited myself to an adorable cat print romper with pom-poms on the butt. Not exactly ruffles but Jesse’s baby will look mighty cute either way. Now, you’re thinking the gift spree is over, right? Believe me, so did I–until I passed a little shop that was selling sweet little stuffed animals. And of course in my mind I was thinking I had to get baby one of these.  I opted for a bunny rattle as the shop keeper said babies like to chew on the rabbit ears when they’re teething. Good enough for me. I made my purchase but continued to peruse all the huggable plushies until my credit card reminded how much money I had spent. With a crying wallet, I decided I had caused enough financial damage and it was time to go home, play with my new goodies and write a blog post…three weeks later.