I was invited by a friend to join her for this festival yesterday. I was initially apprehensive…read moreespecially after reading some less than glowing reviews on Facebook but heck, I'm new to the country so I'm going to give almost everything a try (as long as it's within reasonable limits). The drive from Loudon to the festival site was beautiful. I went with low expectations and wanted to check out the food vendors however, the craft exhibitors were pretty interesting too. There were about 18 food trucks and stalls offering a wide variety of festival food. There was BBQ meats, kettle corn, ice cream, Mexican food, Asian food, waffles, espresso-based drinks, pepperoni rolls, butterfly potato, hotdogs, burgers and even an Oktoberfest-themed vendor. I had the Purple Piggy Pulled Pork Sandwich with Purple Mango Slaw, Smoked Mac & Cheese, and Baked Beans (made from scratch and not from a can) from Rolling Smoke Bar-B-Que's food truck. Cooked with wood fire, the tender pulled pork had a lovely smoky flavour. Don't miss the sides at US$4 each for a small portion. Though I've never been a fan of baked beans (scarred for life by canned beans), these were excellently smoky, sweet with maple syrup and was in all, a game changer. There are tons of food samples from dips to chips to slushies to coffee and wine (bring your ID) so you can get an idea of what you're buying. I didn't think I'd wind up buying anything but soon found myself buying quite a few soup kits, herbs, Chai tea, 3 bottles of wine and a handcrafted hardwood coin bank with an antique post office box door. The fair's on this weekend from 10 am to 5 pm. PS: Most of the vendors accept credit cards but bring cash as some only accept cash.

The Mountain Heritage Festival is an outdoor fall craft festival that takes place during three days…read moreeach September near Harper's Ferry. Besides crafts, there are fine arts vendors, music, wine, and food. Craft festivals are NOT my thing but I was invited on an outing and decided to try something new and I was not disappointed. Overview and Vendor Examples: There were close to 200 vendors onsite situated under large tents. Vendors sold items such as art glass, baskets, candles, bath and body products, clothing and accessories, dolls, dried flowers, furniture, jewelry, kitchen accessories, leather, metal, musical instruments, knives, photography, pottery, toys, etc. Some of my favorite non-food vendors were Forest Flower Jewelry which sold beautiful hand pressed flower necklaces, bracelets, etc. I also liked smelling all of the candle scents from the Pennsylvania Soy Candle Company. They went all out and transported a store full of candles to the festival. They had a large variety of scents such as Maple Bacon, Reindeer Poo, Nutty Taffy Apple, etc. There were lots of homemade soaps and lotions to choose from at various vendors as well. I did not intend to purchase anything but I bought a small bud vase, a pearl necklace, and three wine frappes. Food and Drink Samples/Vendors: At the end of the row of tents (or at the beginning if you wanted to start in a different direction), there are some great food and drink samples. I will mention a few favorites. A coffee vendor called Snookie Snookerwitz had vats of coffee and hot chocolate samples with flavors such as cinnamon hot cocoa (delish!), mint cocoa, hazelnut mocha, snickerdoodle latte, etc. Their station was really clean and inviting and the cocoa was great, albeit sugar laden. Meadowcroft Farm displayed a large array of relishes, pickles, salsas, pepper jellies, and jams. Their onion relish was really great. They had interesting items such as cinnamon pickles and cherry pecan jalapeño pepper jelly. One of the most popular vendors was Nectar of the Vine which served samples of mango and pomegranate wine slushies, or frappes as they like to call 'em. The pomegranate slushy was fantastic! I purchased several bags of the mix in various flavors (watermelon, pomegranate, and sangria). The bags were flying off the tables! The other food vendors provided samples of roasted nuts, dips and spreads, jams, syrups and a variety of sauces. You can look up any of these vendors via their website. Good to Know: You can consume wine samples on the grounds, but actual consumption of alcohol is prohibited on the grounds. Parking is attendant-guided, grass parking. Admission cost is $6- $7. The festival is opened daily from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm. I visited on a Friday and it was perfect. It was likely much more crowded on the weekend. I had plenty of space to move about and was not overwhelmed by the crowds except at one clothing station. The vendors were low pressure and did not push their items. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Many of the items are expensive. Plan a budget ahead of time. Even expensive items tend to look less expensive the longer you are browsing. Pack a lunch if you are trying to eat healthy. Food vendors are onsite but they serve items such as ice cream, fries, deep fried vegetables, and burgers. Bring a backpack. Do not try to carry a heavy purse all day. Wear comfortable shoes Bring sunscreen Restrooms are Porta-A-Potties only

North Mountain Arts is a cute little store in an old house with lots of unique goods. Kristen, the…read moreowner, sells jewelry, pottery, fair trade items, unique home decor accessories, local honey, hand cut soaps, and more. She's very nice and helpful! I actually have been taking pottery classes from her in her little studio in the back of the shop. She has two pottery wheels set up, as well as a slab roller. She offers lessons in both wheel and slab, studio rental time, as well as per item kiln firings. I highly recommend this little gem!

If every you wanted a treasure hunt, this is the place to go!! This store is crammed with all sorts…read moreof wonderful things, from fine yarns, locally made preserves, jewelry, fine woodcrafting, pottery, fiber arts, and *so* much more! All I would wish for is a bigger store to browse through and more money to spend there! I always find treasures!

Great place for kids and grown ups who enjoy creating art. There are canvas, ceramics, mosaic etc…read moreto choose from. We enjoyed painting and making art that we put up at home. They have birthday parties or sip n paint, the owner is flexible and works to create a package.

Located in one of those huge plazas in Germantown, it's a ceramic painting studio! The woman who…read moreowns it, Senora Roxana, is super hospitable, helpful and kind! From outside, you see a bunch of unpainted (and painted) ceramics in the windows. Once you step in, there are some tables scattered around to paint at straight ahead, and there's a chart on the wall to the left that shows how different colors look with 1 coating vs. 3 coatings. It's all very cool! So with Mother's Day coming up, I decided to get some crafts done for mine, and they should be ready just in time for the holiday! Senora Roxana was willing to answer any questions we had, and was willing to give recommendations where needed. All in all, it's a super fun place to be, and great for parties, for kids and adults alike! They're relatively new, so I hope they flourish! I need to return and get some stuff done for my house!

Disclaimer: This review is purely based off of my interactions when trying to book for a birthday…read moreparty. I am also leaving this review so that others do not have my experience and are not mislead. I was looking around at different options for my daughter's joint 8th and 9th birthday party. Last year we had their party at mocatinas and it was so impressive. I was trying to find something that would be equally as good. I found the Conche chocolate and cake studio and was interested in their party package. I contacted them and even on their Yelp page they advertise pictures of the parties in a private studio. We thought that was really awesome and wanted to do their cake pop making party. At no point during my discussion with their employee did they disclose that this party would not be at their private studio. There were so many chances they had to let me know during our conversations. I finally was given a contract by them and quoted over $800 for the party. We were happy to pay that but during that conversation I realized that it was casually mentioned it would be held in a restaurant. I paused right there and carefully re read everything. I made sure to ask questions and confirmed that not only would the party not be held in their private studio that the owner advertised on this very Yelp page, it would be held at a completely different restaurant. Not even the conche restaurant and no private at all. I think it's incredibly sneaky to charge someone $800 and not give a full disclaimer that this would not be held at the advertised location. Also in my personal opinion it's greedy. I told their employee I cannot justify paying that amount for a children's birthday party held in the corner of a restaurant open to the public. When initially it was advertised as private and even showed pictures. I called them out and said you do know that you have a private studio advertised right? They tried to come up with an alternative solution to put the kids in a "cramped room". While still charging $800 lol. No thank you. We have booked somewhere else. This sort of situation turns me off from even eating at their other restaurant. It's a complete lack of general care. I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else and I really hope people read this review so they are aware that children's birthday parties are held at a random corner of a rest and not the advertised private space on this page.

Not only do they sell some of the most unique and delicious chocolates and cakes I've ever tasted -…read morethey also offer a wide variety of classes so you can learn how to make them yourself. There are mommy and me chocolate sculpture classes for the little ones to more complex classes for adults. You can also order custom cakes and chocolates here, host a team building exercise or private party (gingerbread house classes are available for Christmas!) This is Charlie's Chocolate Factory for the real world.

This was my first visit since the second generation took over the business. Still following the…read morewell known patterns that were established by his father and adding some items with different artistic touches. Dirk's father would be pleased.

Foxcross Pottery has NOT closed. Del Martin is still producing some of the finest pieces you will…read morefind anywhere, and at prices that are incredibly reasonable. If you want the best, visit Foxcross any weekend.

I have been here with friends and they loved it! I also saw small kids here doing an art project…read morewith their parents. great for all ages!

My husband and I came up that way for our first wedding anniversary Sunday of Memorial Day weekend…read more Not may shops were open, but this little gem was. What an absolutely beautiful selection of art! The wonderful lady that owns the place was also very nice to stop and talk to for a few minutes. If you're in the area, stop by; you won't be sorry you did!

Always very little inventory! They show alot on display, but they are out of most of what they…read moreshow. This is the second time we've been here and experienced the same thing the first time. Once you're there you feel the need to pick something. But its an expensive activity so next time I will definitely choose one of the other 2 studios in Frederick that do the same thing. I like this place, too bad they don't stock up.

I really love coming to this pottery studio. I don't feel rushed when I paint. The cost is…read morecomprised of the pottery cost and then half of the pottery cost for the studio fee. I normally spend 2 hours here. The employees are the sweetest and are extremely helpful.

Do not take stained glass classes here!…read more Thought this would be a fun thing to do, purchased a class for myself and my wife....wrong! The owner has no teaching ability whatsoever. Instead of an overview of the whole process, she just jumped straight into how to score and cut glass. Would be nice to know what the whole course would cover, what we would do, etc. The cutters we used were designed to be filled with oil (to lubricate the wheel and keep small chips of glass down) but she said but she doesn't do that. She said they can be dipped occasionally in oil, but never offered any advice as to how often, just said "it depends", with no further guidance, nor any oil actually offered. I guess as brand new to this we should know when oil is needed? We did learn how to cut, except it was tedious at times. For example one time she said "don't cut it that way...well you can..some people do...I don't...but you can if you want...it's really up to you"! Often when we asked "why" something was done, she couldn't really answer, and would become vague or argumentative. One time I commented on a piece of glass,mane she said it was "water glass". Not knowing what that means, I asked. She didn't really answer, but said she can just tell by looking at it. (Note going online online later I found that "water glass" is a term used when glass is stretched while being made, giving it the look of rippling water). Very frustrating when trying to learn. We chose a pattern, she then told us to first try to find pieces of glass that might fit from bins of shards from previous classes. Later, she offered some large pieces of glass to chose from, but told us she kept most of the good glass in the back, and to tell us what we wanted, and she would go back to see if she had it. Question...how are we supposed to know what colors and glass patterns we can use when we don't know what she has? Again, very frustrating. We finally said we would just take the patterns home and go online to find some colors and styles we thought might look good, and her comment was "that's cheating"...what? In our second class, we cut glass from cutouts from our patterns. Tough because trying to keep the thin printer paper she gave us from moving while trying to trace around the thin paper with a worn out markers was quite the challenge. Later online search showed lots of easier and better ways to do this. Grinding - this is where it finally got bad. After we had cut out pieces, she directed us to small table top grinders to grind the pieces to fit our patterns, and to take off sharp edges so the foil would stick...what's foil? On my grinder there was a huge amount of glass dust built up around the grinding wheel, which got worse as I ground, coating my hands with glass dust. After about 5 minutes, I overheard her tell my wife "you can spray a little water every now and then"...what...water? I asked her what she meant, and she said she forgot to tell me, and pointed out a spray bottle on the counter, and said to spray a little now and then. THIS IS NOT HOW THIS IS DONE!!! I found out later the grinders are designed to be filled with water, with a sponge that keeps the grinding wheel wet. This keeps the grinding surface cool, makes grinding much easier, keeps the grinding wheel from wearing out, and KEEPS DANGEROUS SILICA DUST FROM FORMING AND BEING BREATHED! There was no water in the grinders, and she gave us no masks or safety glasses. During our second class the AC kicked on, and we were blasted with a very bad, noxious smell. She apologized, said it has been doing this. Note: This is likely caused by never changing the filter, or the coils have severe mold buildup and have never been cleaned. Not good. After our second lesson, I went in and said we were done, didn't want to continue something that kept us frustrated, was taught incorrectly, and not safe. She argued, tried to get us to continue, and tried to justify the incorrect instruction. When she finally accepted we were done, she said she couldn't refund us for the 3 classes we had yet to take because she didn't have the money to refund us. Now it makes sense; her wanting us to try to dig through shards of previous cut glass first, and limiting what glass we actually had to choose from. Same with thin computer paper to try to trace around, worn out markers, no oil for the cutters, etc. The shop is very junky and cluttered, shards of glass everywhere. Note: if you try to contact her on the business number, you will never hear back. We called and left several messages that were never returned. When asked, she said she never checks messages or uses the business phone because of spam...what? She said that maybe we could contact her in her cell phone...but then never gave us the number! DO NOT TAKE STAINED GLASS CLASSES HERE!

I found this place looking for a painted rock to take back to Florida with me. I saw one in the…read morewindow and went in to see if the owner would trade with me for one I had painted. She was so nice and let me switch them out. The store is so amazing, it has blown glass and stained glass. We chatted with the owner and a local patron who takes local pictures. We had a great time. We had fun and purchased five stained glass ornaments and a hand blown bowl. If you are in the area stop by and see the amazing glass in the shop! They also offer classes and studio time to make stained glass pieces. I wish I lived closer!!!