By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Lucille Miller shows Brianna a berry scented bath fizzie that dissolves instantly in the bathtub. Lucille makes the fizzies, or bombs, with oils and natural materials. Fizzies come in two different sizes in a number of scents, including peppermint, lime, rose, berry, and lemonade, which was very popular on this particular day. You can email Lucille about her homemade products at lvus@aol.com.

Most every time I visit my son in California, we head to the Hollywood or Studio City Sunday farmer’s markets, but I had never made it just 20 minutes down the road to the City of Newnan’s Market Day on the Square until this past weekend. The first Saturday of every month, this market features handmade, homemade and homegrown items from vendors all over the state, but many are local. Brianna and I took an initial turn around the town square, checking everything out first. Once we decided where we were going to spend our money, we went around again. This was the first market day of the season and a little early for produce from local farmers, but we found a lot of local area vendors selling their homemade products.

Bryant and Yvonne Betsill make their Nathan’s Nearly Famous Kettle Corn on site in a huge iron kettle over an open flame. After it is cooked, the corn is dumped into a cooling pot and sweetened with sugar. The Betsills use naturally grown popcorn, pure sugar and a couple of “secret” ingredients. These Fayetteville residents are the exclusive kettle corn providers at Newnan Market Days, the Fayetteville Family Market, and the Serenbe Community Artist Market, as well as a number of other festivals and markets around the area.

Katie Dearing, owner of Three Designs, creates children’s clothing, including fun, tiered skirts and appliquéd t-shirts; and Sophie’s Bows owner Crystal Burford designs and makes custom boutique hair bows in numerous fabrics.

For about 13 years, Lynn Batchelor and her husband Wally have been raising bees and making Wally Bee’s Honey. At the Newnan Market, Lynn had Tupelo, wildflower, and sourwood honey, as well as creamed honey and beeswax candles.

Magic Bean Farm’s Sara Rush comes to the Newnan Market from Griffin to sell her vegetables, plants and flowers. You can contact Magic Bean Farm at magicbeanfarm@comcast.net or at 770.227.6133.

Newnan residents Sheila McKinnon and Beth Macke took an intown pottery class several years ago. Today, they each make pottery from their homes as a hobby and sell it at the Newnan market and other festivals. For more information about their pottery, contact Sheila at sheilamck@bellsouth.net.

Open-air, Saturday morning markets are becoming quite popular across the nation, including Georgia. In these times, there’s a certain comfort in buying homegrown and handmade products, plus, these markets are just a great way to spend a couple of hours with children. Let me know of any weekend markets that you recommend.

Tags: arts & crafts, farmer's market, homemade items, Newnan

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