Despite this past Monday’s rather biblical downpour (I swear I saw kittens and puppies marching two-by-two toward Kempenfelt Bay), it’s safe to state that Kempenfest 2014 was a success! Thousands of people showed up over the three-day event and enjoyed music, food, sunshine (albeit, only briefly, on Monday), and a two-kilometre shoreline stretch of arts, crafts, and antiques.

This was my first year as a vendor at Kempenfest and I have to say – I enjoyed the experience immensely. In fact, I’ll be sending in my application for next year’s 45th Anniversary event as soon as they’re made available!

I was lucky enough to have a spot that introduced me to some new talented and amazing people. And I even did a bit of post-birthday shopping for myself. Care to see my lovelies?

This fun throw pillow not only matches my sofa and love seat to a T, it indulges my nerdy love of cameras and photography! The girls at Cherry Blossom Décor have a whole slew of gorgeous, funky custom made pillows, drapes and art work. Oh, and if you’re not really sure where or how to place your new-found treasures, they’re also professional interior decorators. So they’ve got you covered. 😉

I also picked up this fab little make-up bag (yay for skullies and spikes – never mind that fantastic tea-stained skeleton-print fabric!) from Vanidee Designs. Danielle makes beautiful clothing (I have my eye on a particularly smashing orange print skirt!) and adorable purses & bags. So go check out her Facebook page to have a look at some of her work and see where she’ll be next!

I’m particularly looking forward to seeing what she and our other Kempenfest neighbour, Damian Spaulding (Apostrophe Men’s Apparel) come up with for his clothing line!

And, since I mentioned Damian, this seems like the perfect time to tell you about my most favourite festival barter EVER. Damian’s awesome wife, Lisa (her name is Lisa, how could she be anything but awesome?), is an ICNHA-certified henna artist who has been providing professional henna artistry (her company is Henna Creations) in the Barrie area for the past 8 years. And when she wanted a pair of Weezie World earrings customized to something a bit bolder, I jumped at the chance to create something on-the-spot. And, with the option to do tradesies for a stunning work of body art, how could I say no? So, I turned the earrings on the left into the earrings on the right:

And, in exchange, I was adorned with this fantastically, glittery peacock (which still looks amazing now that it’s  – sadly -glitter-free!)

Lisa’s going to be at the Hamilton Festival of Friends this weekend (Aug. 8, 9, 10), so if you’re in the area and interested in getting safe, professional, gorgeous henna work done, be sure to stop by and say hello!

There were so many other awesome people at Kempenfest (Manitoulin Botanicals and Creations by Crystal were two more of our immediate neighbours) that it would take a blog post at least quadruple the length of this already-hefty entry. I hope to see all of you again. And I hope to repeat this year’s Kempenfest experience!

✺✺ Have a gander at a few more photos! ✺✺
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Oh, and if you think I was kidding about the rain?