When I was a kid, my family had a band appropriately named the Trantham Family.  My grandfather built instruments, my dad learned to play them, and as soon as we got old enough stand alone, Daddy taught us to play them too.   This took us lots of cool places, but our favorite of all was the North Carolina State Fair.  For ten days every October, we were part of an educational exhibit called the Village of Yesteryear.  

The Village is different from your average craft show.  All the crafters are experts in their craft, and all are actively demonstrating their skills.  Also, everyone is dressed in period clothing, to add to the illusion of stepping back in time.  It's all about education and nurturing a love of heritage crafts in the next generation.  It totally worked on us.  

As young kids, we were welcomed into booths by all kinds of crafters and learned to knit, weave, throw pots, make stained glass, carve leather, fold paper, make corn shuck dolls, and dye Ukrainian Eggs.  It was a total wonderland.  And it taught us something really important: if there's something we want to do, we should find an expert and give it a try.  We can probably learn to do it.

These experiences led us directly to Cackleberry Studios, the Etsy shop Josh and I have opened with Sara to make money for our adoption.  ​We make Ukrainian Eggshell Jewelry, and we were honored to return to the Village of Yesteryear this year as crafters ourselves. 

Sometimes when you visit places from your childhood you realize they are different than you remember.  Somehow the magic doesn't translate to adulthood.  Not so with the Village.  We had an absolute ball.  We made new friends, reunited with old friends, and were encouraged by world-class artists all week.  We even won 4th place for our booth, and our Ukrainian Egg teacher, Kit Lennon, won 1st!

It was a huge endeavor to be ready for such a long event.  And enough can not be said about our amazing, wonderful, over-the-top supportive parents who took care of our kids while we were away.  As always, they are our biggest blessing.  The best part of the whole experience was when the kids joined us for the last weekend.

It was so fun to watch them learn that they can sew, paint, spin yarn, weave, and even decorate Ukrainian eggs.  All they need is a teacher.

Our kids, especially Andrew, are paying close attention to our adoption fundraising efforts.  We have told them that adoption is really expensive and so we are working hard to get the money to bring Baby Sister home.  They have even helped with some of our fundraisers.  It's been a great lesson that sometimes doing something good costs money.  We are so glad that our new fundraiser helps other people too!  Welcome to the month of Socktober!

For every pack of wacky socks you buy, you help us raise money for our adoption AND We Help Two donates a new pair of thermal socks to our local homeless shelter, Haywood Pathways!  It's a win-win!

Did you know that new socks are the most needed, least donated item in demand at places like Haywood Pathways??  Help us do something about that and get yourself or someone else some awesome funky socks for the fall.  We would love to sell 100 packs and bring 100 pairs of socks to Pathways at Halloween.  What a fun reverse trick-or-treat!  

To order, click this link, or the one under the Fundraising tab, or if you see us, ask us!  We have some socks to sell in person!  We can't wait to see you all rocking your socks!