I have to urge shoppers to put Tarrytown on their weekend agenda.

I love to visit there any time, but two special events that kicked off this morning (and continue through Sunday) make this weekend an even better time for a shopping excursion.

I sampled both earlier today, starting off with Crafts at Lyndhurst and then moving on to the Vintage Boutique ‘n’ Antique Sale run by Pretty Funny.

(I shared details of the sale earlier — more on that in a few).

The crafts event, which is held on the grounds of Lyndhurst each September and May, gathers more than 300 of the nation’s best in contemporary crafts, showing their wares in wood, metal, glass, painting, sculpture, photography and more.

To advance the Lyndhurst show, I wrote a story about Suzanne Fonarow of Pound Ridge, who was making her show debut.

Fonarow’s the designer behind these stylishly functional totes and laptop bags, featured in her booth today:

Even though it was a bit on the nippy side — especially for May — I really enjoyed my quick tour of the grounds. I stopped by to say hello to some of the other artists I’ve written about before, including:

Soli Pierce, who continues her runaway success with her hand-painted wooden creations sold through Sherwood Forest Design in Cortlandt Manor:

Libby Denenberg of Mamaroneck, who makes delicate mosaic works — the fairies are too fun — through Wishflower Studio:

and Ardsley collage artist Susan Ullman (she’s smart; she had gloves with her), who was showing off all new work:

I also got to meet some other locals for the first time and see their works in person.

Among these were Allison Harding of Mount Vernon, who creates these distinctive handbags:

Loretta Lam of Carmel, whose jewelry is fashioned out of polymer clay:

and Pratibha Garewal of Mount Kisco, who told me how she left the accounting world to pursue her painting. Just look at the results:

There are plenty of other locals on hand, including Barbara Sandson of Piermont (photography), Katie Karram of Ardsley (jewelry), Kevin Burnett of Peekskill (painting) and wearable-fiber artists Margaret Lent of Buchanan and Susan Obrant of Cortlandt Manor.

Of course, I picked up a few things. Though I didn’t have time for a “proper� shopping trip, I did make one memorable purchase — a cameo necklace from Harriet Forman Barrett.

Many years ago I received a pair of this artist’s earrings as a very special gift, one purchased at Lyndhurst. Now, it was my turn to continue the tradition — and it just made my day talking with her and selecting the special piece.

Hope you find some treasures of your own!

The show continues to 5 p.m. today and is also open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $9, $8 for senior citizens, $4 for those ages 6 to 16 and free for those under 6. Parking is free. Call 914-631-4481.

From there, I headed back north on Route 9 toward Tarrytown’s downtown, but instead of heading to Pretty Funny at 38 Main St., I turned right on Franklin for the special sale in this giant Victorian gem at 80 S. Broadway.

Pretty Funny’s owner, Stephanie Leggio, used to run an antiques shop here and seemed quite pleased to have such spacious surroundings to show off all the items she’d gathered for the special sale.

It was fun to meet her in person (we hope to feature the shop in an upcoming story, so stay tuned) — and shop among these great vintage finds:

And jewelry lovers be warned — there are hundreds (thousands?) of pieces of costume jewelry of all kinds. Who could resist choosing something from so many $10 tables? (I couldn’t!).

This event runs to 5 p.m. tonight, and again from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday.

For details, call 914-631-3368.
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((And a quick final note  — thanks everyone for your patience. We have a new-and-improved server here at LoHud.com, so looks like I will again be able to respond to your comments directly here on the blog entries. For awhile I was having to do ‘catch-up’ comments in common postings. I’m going to try and go back and update with any I didn’t connect with before.).