Crabtree Festival//Rock N Rib Fest

Saturday was an incredible fall day.  Our first with cool temps, brilliant blue sky and mild breeze which had the leaves singing a lovely tune.  All of this was perfect for several of the first fall festivals throughout the area and I had plans to visit two of them.  Sis had other plans and my honey was taking his Saturday with a good  book and conversation on Shotgun World so I was flying solo.  No problem for me so I grabbed my festival bag and plugged the location into my iphone GPS and I was off.

A short drive to Milton, GA for the Crabapple Art and Antiques Festival.  This small community is nestled between Roswell and Alpharetta, and the local town fathers (and mothers) had  this well planned out for the crowds.  Free public parking everywhere with a shuttle trolly for those needed it, the clang clang of the bell as it turned at each corner was such fun to hear.  The local police had the traffic moving quickly and smoothly so it was easy to find a parking space and I could walk a block to the festival.

This is a gem of festival. Tents filled with quality antique dealers with beautiful primitive wares, victorian pieces and lots of quilts...talented artists offering jewelry and embellishments, one of a kind Halloween and Christmas decorations...and of course, great festival food offered throughout.  I have lots of photos to share.  All enlarge if you click on them.

In the middle of all of this was an area with lots of chairs and benches and live music playing throughout the day. No fees, no parking costs. Just welcome to Milton and the Crabtree Festival and enjoy yourself.

So much to select from and people were carrying items back to their cars non stop. Always a good sign of good prices. 

I adore American Primitive and these school slates are just delightful. 

This dealer had a marvelous display of Victorian items. This old ship caught my eye with all of the hand rigging.  Yea, that is something a seawitch would be drawn to.  Didn't make the purchase as I no longer have a large home but it is always fun to look.

Sometimes simple display says so much.  White pumpkins were everywhere.

Hey, I know this booth owner.  Yup, an old booth friend from when we both rented booths in the same antique store. This talented dealer hand dyes ribbons and offers the most lovely of shades in silks and velvets. 

Luscious, hand dyed velvets.  I purchased a few yards of the brilliant chartreuse you see hiding in the back and then a lovely ombre with muted shades of rust, rose and brown.

Next to my friends ribbon booth was a delightful women who offered a Witches Apothecary.  Such fun to read all of the labels.

More potions for the season.

Don't you just love this display?  So pretty with the brilliant oranges and yellows nestled in with vintage trays, wood boxes and primitive items.

Love the soft colors of these old, tin oil lamps.

Such whimsical faces on these delightful hand made Santa's.  This was a lovely booth of beautifully crafted Santa's and St. Nicks. All one of a kind.

The same artist who created the Santa's also had a Halloween display.  How sweet is this Halloween cat.

Live music played throughout the day.

This festival had marvelous Halloween booths throughout.  This vendor had delightful paper items.

Dogs on leashes were everywhere.  It was so much fun to see them out and about.  They were all enjoying the sunshine and the dropped morsel of food when they could find it.

I came to visit this Festival because of a girlfriend who posted on Facebook she would be showing there.  Susan and her friend always have the nicest displays.  Nice big chest of drawers with a neat Victorian Child witch cut out next to it.  Susan also had a beautiful and large quad plate coffee pot. 

Delightful pumpkin head dolls sitting in a pretty luggage basket.  Susan's sense of whimsy is always fun to see.

This dealer had marvelous oak pieces and I wanted this neat old sandwich board chalkboard but just couldn't bring myself to spend the money. LOL

I love Christmas stockings and these made from vintage feed sacks and old burlap are marvelous.

What a neat surprise.  Two more old friends who also were at the same shop I was were at the Festival. I didn't know they had a space and it was so neat seeing both of them there.  These two gals are just delightful and both have the great knack of finding the coolest stuff. 

Pretty vintage purses and old paste pearls. 

I like mixing old and worn with a little bling.  These pretty antique wall sconces and aluminum tree branches look so well together.

Pretty turn of the century ladies secretary painted shabby white and at a take it home price. 

Pretty wire basket of mini pumpkins. 

These two little dogs would bark at everyone that passed by them. They were so funny to watch.  It was a lovely time at this festival and I will bring sis next year.  Oh, and I came home with a 19th century pudding stoneware mold and a few faux 18th century gravestone heads.

From here, I drove home to meet up with my honey so we can head out to the Rock N Ribfest in Lawrenceville.  This festival was also a first visit and so different from the Crabtree Festival.  Sorry to say that the Rock n Ribfest was more like a mini state fair...very loud with poor parking setup, blaring loudspeakers competing with each other for the loudest messages, mostly commerical business and political booths, just a few art booths, a screaming kids section and a radio station's live music and lines and lines and lines of people trying to get food. 

I had another friend who was showing here and she shared the same observation.  They also stuck her beautiful paintings next to a commerical vendor who was blaring annoying frat boy kind of games over a loudspeaker.  It was horrible. Not a lot of layout planning went into this festival, I'm sorry to share.  It was just way to much overpowering noise and incredibly long lines for food and drink.

 Becky paints family pets and her work is sought after.  She is very active in pet causes.

The day was so windy that she had to take down her tent leaving a few tables for setup.  After we spent a few moments chatting, my honey and I decided to have dinner at the Oyster Bay Seafood Restaurant rather then stand in the long lines for ribs.  Never a disappointment, the Oyster Bay has great food and my honey was happy to order his favorite, their Shrimp Po'Boy and a cold beer.  I had their Angus burger (small one) which is really huge, I ended up bring a third of it home and shared it with my sweet Kota.

The two festivals couldn't be more different and I will go back to the Crabtree Festival next year.  As for the Rock N Ribfest, I will skip it unless they change the setup.  Just wasn't my cup of tea.  Hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  Sea Witch