All the Scarecrows!

Our annual Scarecrow Festival is always such a good time! This year we decided to try to get a picture of every single scarecrow that was made. I think a few may have slipped away before we could photograph them, but the rest wound up in this video, which I think is pretty darn charming!

Thanks to everyone who came out and got creative with us! Join us next Thanksgiving weekend, where we'll do it all again! October 7 & 8, 2017.

Thankful

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving, a day in which we take stock of all the things we're thankful for. I'm not too much into traditional holidays, but I can get behind this one. I am so grateful for the abundance of love and laughter that was on display this weekend at our annual Scarecrow Festival.

Families from far and wide came together to make their own scarecrows... and there were some very unique creations!

Proceeds from this year's festival are going to Puppets Without Borders, bringing puppetry and art to kids in Cambodia.

This is our fourth year hosting the Scarecrow Festival, and it is always a ton of fun.

Little-known fact: scarecrows make great travel companions!

We are grateful to our volunteers who helped us out this weekend: Terry Veevers, Debra Tindale, and Brie Kaduc-Stojsic (pictured below, right).

We are deeply thankful for our sponsors, who have supported this festival year after year: Picton Home Hardware, George Emlaw, and City Revival. We couldn't do it without you!

Special thanks to Sandra Sharpe (nee Clarke) who brought her two granddaughters to the festival. Sandra grew up in our house, which was in their family for more than 80 years. Sandra showed the girls around the house, telling them stories from her time here. We are thankful to have this special relationship with the Clarke family.

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you to everyone who made this weekend such a tremendous success.

Scarecrows in the County

Last weekend we hosted our third annual Scarecrow Festival. We always hold this event on the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving because it is such a fun activity for people spending time with their families.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm, with brilliant fall colours all around us.

When people arrive at the farm they are provided with a cross-shaped wooden frame on which to make their scarecrow. We give them a little bit of instruction, and send them to the barn so they can rummage through mountains of clothes to dress their scarecrows.

Then they head back outside to dress and stuff their creations.

Before long, some wonderful characters start to emerge...

... Such as "Eunice", who apparently "works in HR"...

 And this dentally-challenged chap who, er, likes to get high...

Sure, there are your shifty types...

...And your basically beautiful big families...

...And all kids just look insanely cute against a background of straw...

...And then there's some families who just love their kids so much that even their scarecrows have to have babies!

All of the proceeds of this year's festival are going to Puppets Without Borders; a project that will be taking me and Susanne Larner back to Ghana in February 2014, bringing puppetry and art supplies to kids in rural villages.

Me and Brie, rocking the donation box

This Thanksgiving we were super-duper thankful for all of our friends and supporters who helped make this year's Scarecrow Festival such a success: Sandra Henderson, Brie Kaduc-Stojsic, Terry Veevers, Nell Casson, Kelly Roblin, Andy Sheath, Georgia Larner, George Emlaw, Picton Metro, Picton Home Hardware, and City Revival. 

See you next Thanksgiving!

The Scarecrows Strike Again

Our annual Scarecrow Festival took place last Saturday and Sunday over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, and once again, it was a great success.

How can the success of such an event be measured? It could be measured in smiles…

Or laughter…

Or by the number of people who showed up…

Or by the number of scarecrows that were made…

Or by the artistic merit of the creations…

Or by the number of kids who dressed themselves up as scarecrows…

Or by the sheer awesomeness of our weekend visitors…

Or by the money that was raised for Puppets Without Borders… which was nothing to sneeze at!

Although the weather was a little on the windy and chilly side, so many enthusiastic folks and families came out, it was pretty hard for us to resist grinning all weekend long.

Thanks to our generous sponsors for making this year's Scarecrow Festival the glorious event that it was: Picton Home Hardware, George Emlaw, Picton Metro, City Revival, Andrew & Emily’s No Frills and all the folks who made goodies for our bake sale.

We’ll be doing it all again for Thanksgiving 2013 – so see you then!

Scarecrow Festival

This year Small Pond Arts took over the annual Prince Edward County Scarecrow Festival, previously run by our friends at Galloping Goat Gallery.  Each year the festival's proceeds benefit a charity, and this year we chose ArtsCan Circle, an organization that I volunteer with.

We held the event on the Saturday of the Thanksgiving weekend, and the weather was absolutely glorious. 

There were a lot of things I loved about this event. 

I loved the family vibe, so evident at Thanksgiving when families come together.

I loved the way people worked together.  Making a scarecrow is just one of those things that is hard to do alone (and not nearly as much fun!).  Nobody was crying or rushing or complaining or fighting – everybody was just getting it done, in their own time.

ArtsCan volunteer David Joyce (L),  makes a scarecrow
with Executive Director Carol Teal (R)

I loved seeing people exercise their creativity.  I don’t think there were too many in the crowd that would call themselves artists, but everyone was forced to flex their creative muscles to make their scarecrow.

No two scarecrows were the same, but each had its own kooky charm.

How can a barfing pumpkin be so damn cute?!?

There’s something kind of primal about building these life-size images of ourselves, something that we all just know how to do…

Time to get topical: #Occupy Wall Street Scarecrow

And of course I loved raising money for ArtsCan Circle.  If feels really great to have so much fun AND get to make a contribution to an awesome charity.

A huge THANKS to our supporters this year: Picton Home Hardware, Second Time Around, County Photographer Phil Norton, Andrew & Emily’s No Frills, Honey Wagon Farms, George Emlaw, Galloping Goat Gallery, City Revival... we couldn't have done it without you!

See you next year!

SAVE THE DATE: Saturday October 6, 2012