Creativity will be on display - and for sale - when Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church hosts its annual bazaar on Friday, Nov. 3, and Saturday, Nov. 4. It will be held at the church, 1290 River Road, Marietta, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on both days.

"Most of the things we sell are handcrafted," said Mary Ann Eshleman, bazaar organizer. "There's a core group of us, about five or six of us, who meet throughout the year. Once a month, we get together and work on craft projects, and some people do crafting at home."

The bazaar will feature crocheted items for sale, along with beaded jewelry, a variety of ornaments, gift tags and gift bags, memo pads and notebooks, Christmas wreaths and arrangements and more. Birdhouses, handcrafted by a church member and featuring old license plates as roofs, will also be sold.

"We have a bunch of wooden things, including some new items and some old favorites," Eshleman stated. "We make wooden bears each year in three different sizes, and they are very cute and usually sell out. We have pumpkins, turkeys, penguins, owls and snowmen. There are just lots of cute things to decorate your house with."

This year, the bazaar committee will sell tickets for a giveaway of a unique chair. "It is a repurposed wood chair made from an old door," Eshleman explained. "It would look great on a porch, in an entryway or mudroom."

A white elephant area of the bazaar will feature jigsaw puzzles, books, decorations, games and other gently used items. "Everything is priced very reasonably, and this area is also very popular," Eshleman said. "There's always something different there. You never know what you're going to find."

Food is also a large part of the event, she noted. "We will have cold soup and barbecue to go," she shared, adding that soup varieties will include beef vegetable, chicken corn and ham and bean, among others. "We will also have pork and hamburger barbecue."

Baked goods, candy and snacks will be sold as well. "We make these cute little candy treats out of candy bars, which we decorate to look like turkeys," Eshleman said.

Proceeds from the bazaar will be used to fund an elevator at the church and will also be split between outreach ministries. The church supports the East Donegal/Conoy Area Christian Food Bank and provides supplies for students through Tools 4 School.

Eshleman noted that the bazaar always draws a good crowd, which comes searching for bargains and unique items.

"It's just a great place to look for gifts, for yourself to decorate your home for fall or Christmas or to give to someone else," she said. "You can also get something good to take home and eat."