Now that Halloween has come and gone, the decorations are coming down and being put away. All the ghost and goblins, enjoying their sugar rushes, have disappeared for yet another year. It’s time to start planning for the next big holiday, no not Thanksgiving, that one takes care of its self. No, I’m talking about Christmas! Yes, it’s early to start shopping, but this weekend there’s a great event to help you along the way.

The 7th annual Elizabethton Woman’s Club Arts and Craft Show will be happening at the Elizabethton Parks & Recreation Center located at 300 W. Mill Street, Elizabethton on November 9-10. Open both Friday and Saturday from

9 AM till 5 PM each day, admission is free.

Once again around 50 different vendors will be on hand, featuring many different styles of beautiful handmade arts and crafts. Items available for purchase this year will include sewing, needlework, crochet, knitting, quilting, pottery, glasswork, woodworking, Christmas decorations, jewelry, leatherworking, photography, and a variety of other mediums.

Jo Voigt is once again overseeing this years event for the Elizabethton Woman’s Club. She’s looking forward to once again having around 50 vendors for the event. “This is our only fundraising event of the year,” Voigt said, “ the money from our projects goes back into the community. Last year we gave every school in the county one $500 scholarship for a senior student. We give to the GFWC of Tennessee, the Elizabethton Woman’s Club, it’s an international service organization club which we are very proud to be a part of. We really enjoy being a part of the organization and we enjoy doing the shows.”

Joyce Denton from Roan Mountain who does wood burnings. Joyce said she started wood burning about five years ago after seeing a class at Wood Crafter’s in Johnson City. “ After a one hour class, I just fell in love with it. I burn on wood, on leather making jewelry, and just recently I got into burning on deer antlers. I find (doing) it very therapeutic, people say you must be very patience doing this, but I find it very relaxing when you get into something you love to do.

Suzy Hooven started making handcrafted jewelry about 10 years ago. “I helped take care of my mother for many years, probably about 12 years after she had a stroke until she passed away, after that felt I really needed to find something, to do something that really gives me joy, I needed to find something that I really enjoyed doing. So I started taking different classes and I started making jewelry, and that’s how I fell in love with it. I found it to be very therapeutic for me. So I started making many different kinds of jewelry until I really found what I really enjoyed. I really like to work with stones, silver, crystals, pearls and turquoise. One of my most popular pieces is a cutout of the state of Tennessee with a crystal in it.”

Dorothy Rasnak makes very elaborate rag rugs and Yo-yo quilts. Dorothy’s daughter Susan, speaking on her behalf said, “She just finds material like cotton and she’ll just sit and cut them into long strips and ball them up and then she gets her crochet needles out and starts crocheting on her rug rags. Now for her Yo-Yo quilts, she takes around a circle and gets her material and then sews on it, then she threads it up.” Susan laughs here saying, “I watched what she does but I can’t explain what exactly she does, she kind of puckers up the threads into those little balls. She takes all these little puffs of material and puts them together. Some of her quilts have as many as four or five thousand of these yo- yo’s in them which is very time consuming, and she does a great job. ”

Kim Rasnak creates and designs some wonderful Christmas decorations. Her daughter Elisha Rasnak brought a couple of wonderful examples of her mother’s crafts. Kim hand makes Christmas door wreaths and also makes wonderful lighted snowmen for the holiday season. Speaking for her mother, Elisha said, “Before my little brother and I started in kindergarten, she (my mom) didn’t have a job, so she tried to find whatever way she could to take care of us. She would make cakes, she would also do floral arranging, and then she started doing the Christmas crafts shows. So every year, I would go and help her set up and keep the booth going. She always tries to find inspiration on the internet or at a craft show and then she does her own spin on the ideas she finds.” For the snowmen, “She just finds any old jar that she can, then she sees the vision for it. She uses glass pickle jars for these and they are all hand painted and she lights them up with Christmas lights.”

Dorothy and Kim Rasnak, Joyce Denton and Suzy Hooven are just four of the fifty very different and talented vendors who will be showing off their skills and artistic ability. They have all been creating beautiful crafts for years. So drop by Friday or Saturday at the Parks and Recreations building and peruse these wonderful artists’ work. Who knows, you might just find that perfect Christmas present for your loved ones waiting for you there.