Take a glance at these critters, and you might expect them to get up, move around.

Heck, even a longer stare tricks the eye. Did the kitten’s eyes blink? Tail twitch?

“They look real, don’t they?” Bob Aebi asks, admiring his little creations.

Aebi and his shop, the Lathrop, Mo.-based Lords Inc., brought their realistic versions of stuffed animals to Sunday’s annual Fall Arts & Crafts Festival in South Park.

The 27th annual festival featured handmade crafts, sauces, paintings and at least one set of fur-lined stuffed animals from more than 150 vendors from all over the Midwest.

Booths lined almost every inch of the South Park paths, and with no commercial kits or products allowed, the hordes of shoppers were assured every product came straight from the workshop or kitchen.

Among the highlights:

¢ Aebi’s stuffed critters – cats and dogs, mainly – which were wrapped in rabbit and goat pelts to give them a strikingly real appearance.

But Aebi had all kinds of other things hanging in his booth along Massachusetts Street, including dozens of pelts and odd animal skulls.

Alligators. Snakes. Warthogs.

“All kinds of weird stuff,” he said.

¢ At a nearby booth, it looked like a slice of Texas had landed in Kansas.

Horseshoe-shaped coat hooks lined Calvin and Wanda Skeens’ iron-working table. They came emblazoned with horses, outlines of the Texas border, and, of course, stars.

“It’s got to have a star on it,” Wanda Skeens explained.

Former Lawrence-area residents, the Skeens moved to Highland Village, Texas, two years ago and began crafting these southern-flavored metal pieces.

Before the move, the couple said they made wares they considered more Lawrence-friendly – lawn sculptures, vibrant sun shapes – and brought them back this year to sell.

“It sells good up here,” Calvin Skeens said. “I like the people up here in Lawrence. They’ve been good to us.”

¢ Connie Engle sold jars of jalapeno jam like hotcakes.

“It’s our best seller,” Engle said. “It’s kind of a sweet-and-sour thing.”

Engle, who owns the Kansas City, Mo.-based ConnieSauce, brought her collection of salsas, sauces and jams to the festival for the first time Sunday.

She’s been making her own salsa for 15 years, selling it the last four. Jalapeno jam may sound odd to some, but Engle swears by it. Pour it over a block of cream cheese, she said, and there you go.

Apparently, more than a few Lawrence customers wanted to give it a shot.