Being a mom means loving your children, loving to shop and, most important, loving to shop for your children.

With Mom’s Weekend comes the Arts and Crafts Fair, where moms and their children can walk around Beasley Coliseum for hours, finding unique treats and trinkets that help them remember this special time in both of their lives.

Linda and Ginger Gallagher, mother and daughter themselves, started the craft fair 28 years ago in a church basement. Its immediate success allowed it to expand to larger venues, and it eventually became a Mom’s Weekend tradition.

“I grew up with my mom and dad always doing crafts,” Linda said. “My mom poured candles and my dad made wooden picture frames out in his shop. There wasn’t an outlet for my parents to show their wares without traveling hours away.”

This show gives the vendors an opportunity to work together and help each other out, Linda said. The hardest part every year is drawing up the map in a way that all the vendors can get the most out of the experience.

A family rule the Gallaghers have never strayed from allows for 25 percent of the vendors to be new to the show, new to the area or even new to crafting. These newbies are placed near veterans around Beasley so they can “get the most out of their neighbors,” Linda said.

In past years, craft fairs like this have died down because of the lack of inexpensive materials, Linda said. With the current trends, however, more and more are interested in natural and handmade products rather than mass-produced ones.

“People want to get back to the grassroots,” Linda said. “They want to meet and shake the hand of the person who made the product.”

The craft show has something for everyone, Linda and Ginger agreed. Every mom, Coug, and community member will find something they love.

“These are [handcrafted] items that can be personalized,” Linda said, “and made with love for you.”

The Mom’s Weekend Arts and Crafts fair will last from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on today and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Admission is free and open to the public.

“Mom’s really like to spend money on their kids,” Ginger said. “This gives them a way to do that with something a little more personal than a gift from Walmart.”