By LEAH WEATHERSBY

There's a biting chill outside. The leaves and the trees have long since parted ways. The air has taken on a distinctly bake sale smell. It is time for the holidays, and by extension, time for crafts.

Ever since the Phinney Neighborhood Association started its Winter Festival & Crafts Fair 20 years ago, residents of Seattle and points beyond have made a pilgrimage to Phinney Ridge for the annual weekend of crafts, sweets and live music.

Undoubtedly this year, the 21st anniversary of the festival set for Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 1-2, will be no exception.

This year's event will feature 120 craftspersons, continuous entertainment on two stages, lunch, espresso, three bake sales, a Giving Tree and a quilt raffle.

Over the past two decades, much has been written about the Winter Festival and about the PNA itself. Of course, without artists who hock their wares there every year, this event would be nothing but a bunch of empty tables. And as it has been in past holiday seasons, the vendors at the will be a mixture of old and new, coming from near and far, but most importantly from North Seattle itself. They say that there are a million crafter's stories in the naked city. Here are some of them.

NATIONWIDE ANGEL ASSEMBLY LINE:

Ann Koziol, a Meadowbrook resident, will be returning to the Winter Festival after a five-year absence and she will be bringing clay angel statues with her. Koziol , who also works as a fish biologist and technical writer, spends her spare time making the "accessories," such as books and potted plants, which the statues hold in their hands, and helping run a family business known as Heaven Sent Originals.

The angels themselves are made by Koziol's sister, Cathy, who lives in Michigan. Then they are shipped west. Their brother, Walter Koziol, a cattle rancher who lives in Nebraska, also helps out with the family's mail order angel business. If you can't decide on the spot which angel is right for you, Koziol will no doubt give you the 1-800 number.

IS THAT BILL GATES' HEAD I SMELL?:

It just might be over at Linda Stein's table.

Stein, who lives within blocks of the PNA, specializes in cookies that look like something - Santa and his and his elves, for example. One year she she did a portrait of Bill Gates billed as "the world's richest cookie."

Stein has been in the baking business for 20 years. She also sells her creations at local stores and is willing to ship cookies to those who like a sweet they can bite the head off.

FROM JEWELRY TO PAPER IN 5 YEARS:

Jane Brown, a Greenwood resident, first hocked her wares at the Winter Festival five years ago. Back then she was selling jewelry but when she returns this year it will be with decorative paper-covered goods such as handmade frames and photo albums. Brown said the jewelry field is extremely competitive, and besides, she has always loved handcrafted paper. While she isn't able to make her full living from her crafts, she it able to make it from art. Brown works as a model for artists in the Seattle area. Asked if she is optimistic about craft sales at the Winter Festival this year, Brown said she was.

"Because things are so lousy in the world people want to have a good Christmas," she said.

SEATTLE, A GLASS CITY:

What would a Seattle craft fair be without at least one glass blower on hand? Why, for starters it would be a craft fair without Polly Cook, who has been a professional glass blower since 1991 when she first moved to Seattle from New York state. While Cook said she moved to Seattle partly for the quality of life, she added that being here definitely helped her career.

"Seattle probably has more glass studios per square foot than any other place in America," Cook said.

Cook said that she likes to make items like bowls, vases and glasses - things people can use every day.

MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT:

Those who have been to the Winter Festival before know it can be - oh - what's the word? Crowded! It is expected to attract over 4,000 people from the greater Seattle area. And when you're standing in a long line waiting to pay for those bars of glycerine soap and super funky hat you've always wanted, what's to keep you from getting a little tense?

That must be why they let the musicians in.

"(The harp) is an innately soothing instrument," said Susan Strick, a Hawthorne Hills harp teacher who will be bringing a group of her students, ages nine to 14, to the Winter Festival to perform under the name of the Shamrock Harp Ensemble. She will lead young harpists Audrey Zehren, Tim Reilly-Crank, Emily Steilstra, Maya Gainer, Jennifer Odell, Theresa Benkman and Erica Van Voast in a performance on Sunday, Dec. 2 at the Frosty Stage.

Looking for something even more exotic? Try Pat Nelson and her dulcimer hitters - oops, hammerers. Nelson, a Wallingford resident, explained that a dulcimer is a mini stringed instrument, sort of like a piano except it has no keys and you hit it with a mallet. On Saturday, Dec. 1, Nelson's students, Rebecca Morse, Kathleen Olsen, Joe Abraham, Leslie Henning, Lesley Williams, and Lisa Vanderyacht, will preform at 11 a.m. on the main stage. On Sunday, Dec. 2, Nelson will perform with Robin Stacey on the main stage, also at 11 a.m.

If by chance you're tired of soothing and ready for full-blown excitement you'll want to check out one or both of the two belly dancing groups that will be preforming at the Winter Festival, Zaphara's Middle Eastern Dancers and Shahrazad.

Zaphara Delmarter, a Fremont resident, and her group of 14 dancers have performed at various Seattle venues including the Folklife festival at Seattle Center and the Tractor Tavern in Ballard.

Shahrazad dancer Betty Bigelow, a Ballard resident, said her seven member troupe has also traveled to different venues around the Puget Sound. But perhaps most intriguing are Bigelow's personal trips to science fictions shows. A Star Trek fan, Bigelow has been known to belly dance as a Klingon. Sadly, no such costuming is planned for the Winter Festival. So there you go, holiday craft shopper. There are some of the people who make the PNA Winter Festival so unique. When you're at the Winter Festival remember: your belly dancer may be an alien, your angel may be from out of state and no, you're not seeing things - that cookie really does look like someone you know.

ABOUT THE WINTER FEST:

The 21st annual PNA Winter Festival & Crafts Fair is a fund-raising event for the Phinney Neighborhood Association, a non-profit, membership-based community organization founded by local residents and business owners to foster a sense of community and enhance the quality of life in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood. Funds raised by the Winter Festival support PNA programs such as the soup kitchen, before- and after-school child care, a preschool co-op, community projects for neighborhoods in need and local food banks.

The sponsors for this year's Winter Festival are PCC Natural Markets, Red Mill Burgers, Fred Meyer, the Jet City Maven newspaper, Greenwood Market, Starbucks Coffee and McCallum Print Group. (