Deals in Southbridge

The eighth annual Oktoberfest hosted by the Vienna Restaurant and Historic Inn heralds the wintry months ahead with an evening of feasting and festivities. Doors and unlatch at 5:30 p.m., allowing guests to mingle while dipping their fingers into complimentary hors d’oeuvres. Admission grants guests a heaping helping of dinner, served at 6:30 p.m., and including bratwurst, knackwurst, spätzle, and an apple strudel dessert sweeter than the intentions of a kindergartner pouring cereal on his mother's bed on her birthday. Scoring the evening, the Stratton Mountain Boys, who have performed at Disney World, lend their Austrian melodies to the festivities.

SureShot Portraits is a subsidiary of SureShot Videography. With the launch of SureShot Portraits, we now have the opportunity to combine both companies and provide more services to our clients. Whether you need photographs, HD video or both, we can do it. With the growing success of SureShot Videography, SureShot Portraits

Creativity blooms at Brush It Off Paint & Sip Bar, a studio where visitors create artwork in a relaxed, social environment. The studio's instructors welcome guests of all experience levels, including those with no artistic experience at all. Patrons can nibble snacks and sip wine, beer, and nonalcoholic beverages from a cash bar. In addition to regular Paint and Sip classes, the studio hosts kids' sessions for ages 8 and up, during which parents and children create artwork together. Brush It Off even hosts private events such as Ladies Night Out, birthdays, and fundraisers, for larger groups seeking a more intimate painting night.

Todd Sullivan and Tim Daley, the brewmasters at Pioneer Brewing Company, brew their golden mixtures of fresh hops, malts, and barley into an eclectic array of frothy beers with a focus on freshness and community. Each of Pioneer's beers⎯including the American nitro stout, American pale ale, and spring doppelbock⎯are brewed to not only meet their own exceedingly high standards, but particularly the high standards of their friends, regulars, and the local beer lovers who bathe in it. Todd and Tim relish their microbrew status and 150-acre Hyland apple-orchard setting, and plan to stay small in order to continue the tradition of crafting only the finest brews for themselves and their community.

Family-owned Sadie Green's has adorned limbs with innovative and antique jewelry for more than 30 years. Bring some character to your cuff with the sea glass and silver bracelet, a custom bracelet whose sea-glass shape and color varies per piece ($10). Finery fans can catch sylvan breezes with their lobes by wearing the sterling-silver leaf earrings ($38), or let ears twinkle under police flashlights the in Victorian-style Swarovski Austrian crystal post earrings ($20). Meanwhile, hammered Alpaca metal necklaces in a variety of shapes hang from necks in graceful geometrics ($18+), and colorful pashminas ($8+) and trade beads in glass ($3) or novelty and charm varieties ($2) allow vogue vixens the chance to commemorate landmark car tune-ups with chromatic splashes and charm bracelets. All jewelry purchased comes guaranteed for life.

Now in its fifth year, the Natural Living Expo illuminates the body, mind, and spirit with a full schedule of events including healthful food demos, yoga, and qi gong classes, and more than 75 workshops covering subjects such as toxin-free homes and intuitive parenting. Inside the lakeside Sturbridge Host Hotel 135 exhibitors display holistic and green products that earn a hearty thumbs-up from Mother Nature. Saturday workshops delve into animal communication and tai chi, and an evening drum jam and fire circle is open to rhythm-makers bearing bongos or pairs of cookie sheets.