POPULAR ARTS AND CRAFTS FAIRS CONTINUE TODAY

Thousands crowded into crafts fairs scattered throughout Cape Girardeau and Fruitland Saturday for the first day of the Arts and Crafts Extravaganza.

The arts and crafts fairs will be open again today at the Show Me Center, Osage Community Centre, National Guard Armory and Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau and the Bavarian Halle in Fruitland.

The majority of the crafts fairs are open from 10 to 5, though hours vary from site to site. There is an admission charge at some sites.

At the Osage Community Centre, some 2,000 people visited the arts and crafts fair between 10 a.m. and noon, said Bev Strohmeyer, a volunteer working the fair organized by the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts.

"We had people this morning who were on their way to the Show Me Center. Now we're getting people who have been to the Show Me Center and are coming here," she said.

Strohmeyer, formerly the director of the arts council, came back just for the craft fair, she said.

The arts council sponsored the shows at the Show Me Center and the Osage Centre.

Crafters at the Osage Community Centre were happy with the turnout.

"It's been great," said Goldie Heath of Jonesboro, Ark. Heath specializes in floral arrangements.

"They've been buying good," said Vickie Maddox of Martin, Tenn., whose booth featured gourds painted as Santas and other Christmas decorations.

Maddox got involved in her craft work after seeing a picture of painted gourd decorations.

"I joined the gourd society and we grew 50,000 gourds three years ago. We divided them up and I painted mine," she said, adding she works 18 hours a day on arts and crafts.

She and Ellen Rice of South Fulton, Tenn., drove up together for the weekend fair. This is their first year at the Cape Girardeau extravaganza, "and we'll be back next year," Maddox said.

Rice's booth featured painted wood, metal and fabric crafts. She took tole painting lessons 15 years ago, "and I started working crafts shows," she said.

Mary Ellen Renaud of Lake Saint Louis was scouting out Christmas and birthday presents at the Osage Community Centre.

"I bought some pottery for my daughter-in-law. I bought some rings and I bought a pin, and I still haven't seen this side of it," she said. "But I'm getting ready to."

Christmas decorations and gift items were popular with shoppers, as were decorative items.

"A lot of people are into angels," said Cindy Letgrat of Scott City, who was working a booth with her mother, crafter Marilyn Needham of McClure.

River Valley Crafts sponsored shows at the A.C. Brase Arena Building and Holiday Inn for the weekend, with 440 crafters participating between the two buildings.

"It's been better than last year," said Rick Werner, one of the organizers. "Everybody's selling a lot more. We had probably 500 or 600 people lined up this morning to get in."

Things are already looking good for next year's show, he said.

"Our visitors are all happy and signing up for next year. By tomorrow, we'll be sold out," Werner said.

Andrea McNeill of Johnston City, Ill., has been coming to the weekend crafts fairs for several years.

"I bought Christmas decorations for my office and kettle corn. That's my favorite," she said as she looked over her purchases at the Arena Building.

She'd already been to the Show Me Center Saturday afternoon and was planning on making the whole circuit.