Going to Market
New Homemade &
Homespun Market planned
The craft market has been added
to the Bands & BBQ event
CARROLLTON, Ky. (September 2019) – In a time when antiques and repurposed items are popular with all ages, Linda Johnson runs a business in Carrollton, Ky., that caters to all kinds of tastes. Her offerings, which include an eclectic mix of handmade items and vintage finds, ensure shoppers a one-of-a-kind experience.
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Photo provided Cara Long and her mother, Linda Johnson, own and operate The Homestead Antiques and Home Furnishings in Carrollton, Ky. This is a photo of the type of items that will be sold at the market. |
Johnson and her daughter, Cara Long, opened The Homestead Antiques & Home Furnishings in November 2014. “My mom had run an antique shop in Carrollton before” in a building rented from the library, Long said. When that building was eventually torn down, she “took a break.”
Long decided to go into business with her mother in 2011.
“We sell a lot of repurposed items – things like furniture, benches, tobacco baskets and tobacco stick stars,” said Johnson.
Knowing all things can be made new again, Johnson said, “We also make some craft items ourselves.” The mother-daughter duo are adept at coming up with creative uses for primitives and turning them into heirloom treasures.
Since Long has experience with this type of retail business and business owners, she was recruited to organize the inaugural Handmade & Homespun Market for Saturday, Sept. 14. This event will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Point Park in Carrollton in conjunction with Bands & BBQ at the Point, a barbecue cooking competition.
“Years ago there was the Goldenrod Gala craft market in Carrollton, but that was taken over by the park before it finally ended,” she said. Since Gen. Butler State Resort Park no longer puts on a craft market in Carrollton, Long was asked by Carrollton/Carroll County Tourism Office to help organize the Handmade & Homespun Market for this year.
There will be at least 40 regional vendors from places such as Elizabethtown, Shelbyville and Lexington, Ky., Cincinnati and Columbus, Ind. Shoppers will be able to browse booths and find an array of handmade items such as quilts, aprons, wooden items, fall decor, oil paintings, baskets, repurposed antiques, candles, barn quilts., hand bags, bourbon barrel furniture and recycled barn wood products.
Long said offerings are not your typical flea market finds. “This is a juried event with quality crafts.”
This market will be sponsored by the tourism office, said Misty Wheeler, director of Carrollton/Carroll County Tourism. Long was chosen to organize it because “she has an antique store in downtown Carrollton and is a wonderful community partner. She’s the perfect person to recruit vendors,” which she has been doing for the past year.
“An effort has been made to get quality handmade repurposed items,” said Wheeler. “Years ago people loved the Goldenrod Gala. We wanted to do something similar because people are still interested” in that type of event.
The family-oriented arts festival began in 1983 and had a successful run for about a decade before a lack of volunteers and other factors ended it. The Gala was revived over the ensuing years and enjoyed by the community but finally came to an end for good a few years ago.
Holding the Handmade & Homespun Market in conjunction with Bands & BBQ at the Point makes for “one more event for people to enjoy,” said Wheeler. She called it a “win-win situation” because food and entertainment were already in place. “There’s a little something for everybody.”
This market will be different from others because “there is other stuff going on as well,” said Long, to add to all of the offerings in one venue. In addition to the BBQ competition and bands at Point Park, there will be an air show, a tractor show, food vendors and fireworks that evening.
Location will be a big draw as well, she said. “Point Park is a beautiful park. There will be a sitting area to just relax and enjoy the venue.”
Long said the goal is to “have a lot of people come out and support us to make this an annual event.”
(502) 525-2575.