This past weekend I headed down to VA for a Holiday Bunko Party followed by a shopping excursion to a large craft fair in Fredericksburg, VA. It was the perfect time to get into the Holiday spirit, start my Holiday shopping, and get out for the night with some other ladies – even though I only knew 1 of them. But that doesn’t matter, because I can become best friends with anyone in 5 minutes.

The Bunko party was Disney themed and we were told to wear “Disney Holiday” outfits. With only one day to figure my outfit out I started doing some online searching for ideas. I found things that looked like this:

And this:

I just did not have time for all of that. I knew that I was just going to have to wear a Disney character t-shirt with holiday jewelry. To put one of those outfits together I would have to have started in May. I went with a Minnie shirt and jingle bell earrings that I had sitting in a drawer. Done.

The party was really cute. It was hosted by Katie from Adventures By Katie. It all comes down to the little touches when hosting a party. Katie had some cute little touches like these water bottle labels that were Frozen themed:

Everyone had a great night. The only group photo that we have is this semi-blurry group selfie. We were too busy playing the game, chatting, and eating to remember to take out out phones/cameras to take pictures of the evening.

The next morning Katie and I headed to Fredericksburg, VA to go to a craft fair.

According to the website the highlights of the show were:

• 250 Vendors expected – making this the largest craft show ever.
• Wide variety of new and never seen products are coming.
• Wine and Food Samplings – Notaviva Vineyards will be sampling and selling by the glass plus other food samples for all.
• Free Gift Wrapping on Saturday.
• First 300 entering each day will receive Chick-fil-A  Gift Card
• Toys for Tots will be onsite collecting unwrapped new toys and will give out an additional $1 off admission coupon to donors that can be combined with one other coupon.

It was big and there was a lot to see. I had a couple of highlights and a couple of low-lights. I will start with the positive.

Highlights

Todd’s DIRT

First off what is DIRT? It is a 100% all natural gourmet seasoning made with 14 spices. It has a great seasoning that brings out the flavor in your food without covering that flavor up. Now, why call it DIRT you might ask. Todd’s original DIRT resembled a bottle of dirt and grass so the name just stuck. Todd says his DIRT is about three things. Cooking should be fun, easy, and great tasting. It took over 12 years to develop the unique and universal seasoning. Plus, you can put this delicious seasoning mix on anything!

• Beef
• Pork
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Fish
• Crab
• Potatoes
• Vegetables
• Rice
• Pasta
• Soup

Todd was there at the booth and he is a charismatic guy for sure! He was cooking steak with all of his different rubs on them and letting us taste them all. Oh they were delicious. I could have stood there eating all day but we had to move on and see the rest of the show. I may have bought a gift pack for someone’s stocking but I can’t say who just in case he reads this post. You can check Todd and his DIRT out here, and maybe order some for your stockings too!

Murrell’s Mex-Italia Salsa

“You now have the power to eat well without the guilt.” My family LOVES salsa. The boys in my house are “the hotter the better” where I am more of a “mild to medium does just fine”. This company had everything I was looking for and something in-between as well. I tried the ‘medium’ and it was plenty hot for my taste while Katie tried ‘Run The Other Way’ extra hot. Once she took that bite and her eyes started to water I knew it was the one for my husband. This salsa is so fresh. IT has no fat, no cholesterol, it is low in sodium, as well as heart healthy. We are very picky with our salsa (we always go to a local Mexican restaurant and get take-out for just salsa when we eat Mexican food at home) so the fact that everyone at my house liked this salsa definitely means something!

Virginia Reindeer

Now don’t think that I would go to a craft fair and only buy food! The only craft that I bought was one of these guys. I not only bought one for myself but Katie got one and we also got one for my Mother-in-Law as well. We thought these guys were so cute and really not that expensive.

I have zero information on the guy that makes these. But I will say that people were going nuts over his stuff and that he only accepts cash or check. When I asked if they took plastic he said no but you can write me a check. A CHECK? Who the heck carries a checkbook anymore? Maybe my grandma. Well, I guess I was at a craft show…

Anyway it was pretty funny when we hit up the ATM to get cash because everyone else in the ATM line was getting cash to pay the same guy for the reindeer.

As you can see from my picture I chose to get one without the red nose because I didn’t know if I would have room next to an outlet. If I ever see this guy again I want to get the really big reindeer for my front porch!

Low-Lights

• There were no Chick-Fil-A gift cards! We were definitely one of the first 300 in the door and I never saw anyone with the gift cards.
• There were NO trash cans as you walked around. The venders give you samples but then there was nowhere to throw away your toothpicks or little cups. Bad planning.
• The entrance and exits were a joke. They had people going in and coming out of the same tiny entrance way (that also held 1 of the 2 ATM machines) so it was a cluster &#@% for sure. The building has 2 or 3 other really good front door entrance/exits that were blocked off. The people running the event had no clue how to tell you to exit and it was a madhouse by the doors. I felt like I was either going to be trampled by grandma with the cane or grandpa with the walker. Not good planning on their part for sure.
• One of the ATM machines was out of money. Seriously, how bad of planning is that on their part. You want me to spend $8 to $10 to get in to your event and buy stuff and then when I need more money you want me to leave and go to the bank to get it? Again, not good planning on their part.

Overall we had a good time with a lot of laughs and a few purchases. I think the location needs to hire an event planner for their next craft fair though!