It’s Over — For Me Anyway

Yesterday was the last day of the Fair — for me. The Fair will last the rest of this week concluding on Sat. But I’ve had three days of the Fair and that’s all I can take for this year.

The baking competitions that I take place in were all done Sat., Sun, and Mon. I took a salad and won 3rd place Sat. Of course there were only three entries, so I was guaranteed one of the prizes.

Sunday was almost as bad. I baked Sat. night and all morning Sun, and took six baked items — bread, coffeecake, cornbread and three kinds of muffins and received a ribbon on all of them because in most cases, there were only two or three entries in each class. How pathetic! It just takes all the fun out of it when there isn’t much competition.

However, I did get one thrill. The last class to judge was the bread made with any other ingredients not listed in the other classes. I made a zucchini bread with carrots, raisins and pecans and out of the four in this class, I won the 1st place! Then the contest for Champion ribbon is judged from all the 1st place winners in each class. There were six entries in this competition. And I won the champion ribbon on my zucchini bread!!

That’s the kind of contest I like to be in.

The ironic thing about this whole ordeal was that the zucchini bread was my second attempt to make a bread. I had made a bread with cherries, coconut, etc. the first time around. It didn’t bake well at all and I told Hubby that I can’t take this to be judged. So he told me to just make another one. It was late, and I was tired from the days’ activities. But he kept saying that I had time, etc. So I gave in and “whipped” together this zucchini bread. I didn’t even take time to “do it right.” I just wanted to get it in the oven, clean up, and go to bed as soon as it was done.

And then I got the champion ribbon on it! What a deal, as Hubby would say. I owe him one for talking me into it.

The grandparents’ cookie contest was about as pathetic as the rest of the baking classes. There was another lady who was a little bit of a competition, (not like last year where I won all the ribbons), and the kids were adorable to watch as they judged our cookies; but I still walked away with a ribbon on everything and the champion again. (I’m seriously considering not doing this cookie thing next year.)

I did pretty good with the craft sections again this year. Of course since they spread everything out and you can’t see how many entries are in each class and what you’re competing against, you have no idea if there was enough competition to warrant a ribbon or not.

Here’s a run-down on my ribbons this year.

My sis’s afghan that I made her,

My poncho and sweater. The two afghans I made are in this pic, but neither one of them have ribbons.

The knitted ear warmer for the Caps for Comfort (the gray circular one)

And the blue and white crocheted one for the Caps for Comfort.

Here’s the finger puppets for the Toys for Toddlers

They had them turned on the side and sorry about the blurry pic. (Can you see the blue ribbon?)

And the little bear going to the beach,

Here’s the little princess puppy,

Another cross-stitched stocking,

The book cover that I embroidered with ribbon yarn,

A couple of pillows, the Halloween house and the plastic canvas cow tissue holder,

That’s a white ribbon on the Halloween House. You should have seen the competition in the Halloween class!! I was lucky to get any ribbon at all.

Next pics are of my painted projects,

So not too shabby this year. I just wish I knew what my competition was. It’s hard to read a lot of the tags, so it’s anybody’s guess how many items were in each class.

I guess I’ll start on some more projects for next year. (Yeah, I’m a die-hard. What can I say?)

Ready and Waiting

I haven’t mentioned anything yet about the Fair coming to town this year. It’s because I’m usually up to my neck in unfinished projects and hurrying to finish them before the deadline, and I blog about my progress.

But this year has been quite different from years past. I’ve had all of my projects finished and just ready and waiting. Yep, imagine that — o’ procrastinator me!

The last items I had to make were the painted ones to be in the Hobby section and the toys for toddlers’ sections which were finished over a week ago. The last item to paint was something on fabric. Unfortunately, I messed it up and just wasn’t in the mood to make something else. So that’s one project that won’t be going to the Fair this year.

All of my projects are finished now and waiting for the trek down to the Fairgrounds tomorrow.

Here’s the last of my projects — a toys for toddlers bear ready to go to the beach for the animal class.

See the little fishy in her bucket?

And some finger puppets for the toys class,

Are these cute or what?

I found this pattern in an old Crochet World magazine from 1982. (Gee, it doesn’t sound like I should be saying “old”.) I had to revise the pattern to make the characters more like I wanted them to look. The crocheting was easy; it was cutting all the little felt pieces that were tedious. I used my fabric paint for some of it as well.

After I received the tags two weeks ago, I realized while attaching them to my projects that I had inadvertently put the same afghan in two different classes. So to the stash I went and started another baby afghan to put in the second class. I had it made in two days!!

Of course I used bulky yarn and a huge crochet hook which made it work up fast.

My Hobby Arts projects were all painted items.

Here’s the project on plastic or glass,

This is my old cutting board. Too good to throw away, so I painted it!

This wooden plate has been in my stash for so many years I can’t remember when I bought it.

I found this bucket at an estate sale. It was really dirty and beat up, but it looked like it needed something painted on it. I cleaned it up and copied a pattern from a napkin to paint it. Pretty cool, right?

The “any other painted project” is this small suitcase I’ve had quite a while. I can’t remember where I acquired it, but I’m thinking my father-in-law gave it to me. I’ve been wanting to paint something on it, so this is what I came up with. I love it!

The last painted project is the Christmas ornament

I have a “thing” about moose — I don’t know why.

Everything else has already been shown in past blogs.

I’ve entered 37 entries this year, but one won’t be going as I’ve mentioned earlier. That’s 26 craft projects and the rest are the food entries that I’ll be making during the Fair.

The Ozark Empire Fair will start next Thurs. July the 28th. The first day I’ll go will be Sat. the 30th. I’ll take Sis with me and we’ll walk around and look at all the goodies! Can’t wait!

A Talented Sister-in-law

My brother and his wife live in Texas, so Sis and I rarely see them. Unfortunately the last few times we have seen them was because they came for funerals.

The last time they were here, my sis-in-law showed us pictures of some of the crafts that she’s gotten into the last several years. She’s very talented and we were in awe of the things that she’s been making.

She doesn’t follow any directions exactly. She watches Utube videos and then copies them in her own version. I envy a talent like that. If I don’t have some direction, my projects turn out ready for the trash can. 😦

She likes to give her crafts away to friends and even to the place where they play Bingo to be given away as prizes. How generous is that?!

A couple of weeks ago, Sis and I received a call from our brother and he informed us that we would be getting a package in the mail soon. He wouldn’t tell us what it was, but it was something that sis-in-law made and wanted us to have.

I received my package a couple of days later and then Sis called me the next day and told me that she had received hers as well. Of course we had to call Brother and Sis-in-law to thank her.

When Sis and I got together that week, we took each other’s picture and made a thank-you card and sent them off to Sis-in-law to thank her again.

Here’s what we got. I received a set of pumpkins made from fabric, but what impressed me so much was how she made the stems and vines. Paper! She made them from paper and painted them. They’re stiff and look like the real thing! I love them!

Sis got a little box made from cording with a lid and a little bird made from some kind of clay and is standing on a little platform. Cute!! She just kept saying how cute they were and that she loved them as well. (She’s always had a thing for birds.)

What a nice surprise from our very talented Sister-in-law!

June’s Angels and Other Goodies

This month was spent making more items for the craft show coming in Oct. In fact, I’ve had a few requests from former customers who have bought things from me in the past. One of the items mentioned was angels. I’ve made several different kinds, so I’m not sure which ones they want. All they could tell me was that they had been crocheted.

I’m pretty sure that these may be the ones they’re wanting, so I’ve made a batch of them.

However, I’ve made some like these before, so I’ve made more of these as well.

While perusing Annie’s Attic web site one day, I came across another angel made with granny squares. I love granny squares and these angels are so cute. I’m working on some now; however, I don’t have any finished to show this time. Hopefully next time.

Halloween items are always good sellers at our craft sale, so I’ve been working on a few items out in my little shop out back. Here’s a project that I’ve been trying to come up with to use a glittery witch’s hat that I bought a few years back on clearance.

I painted a tray black, found some scrapbook paper that would look good with the hat, added a black bat, a little creature and a sign. I think it turned out kind of neat-looking.

These little painted treat boxes sold very well last year, so I hunted up some more and got them all painted.

I found a little crate at an estate sale that had lost one of its sides, picked it up for next to nothing, stained it, and I’ll use it to display the treat boxes at the craft sale.

Another Halloween item I came up with was a sconce (actually I had two of them) that I decorated with a silhouette of a witch carrying a lantern. I came across a couple of little lanterns at a yard sale for 50 cents each, painted them black, put a new battery in them and hung them on the pegs of the sconces.

It’s funny about the lanterns. I had started working on these sconces and was thinking that a little lantern hanging from the pegs would be pretty awesome. Just a few days after that thought went through my brain, I came across these lanterns at a yard sale that Sis and I decided at the last minute to stop and check out. And then I bought them for 50 cents each! Nothing wrong with them. It was meant to be!

One more item for Halloween is this little Frankie that I whipped up after seeing him in one of my magazines.

He can sit on a shelf with his legs dangling, or as a centerpiece on the table.

A couple of other items I’ve made for the craft sale is this snowman tree I saw in another one of my magazines, and a little plaque I made with some cross-stitching that I did a few months ago.

I think this turned out soooo cute!

And the coffee plaque,

Actually I made three of these. I glued burlap-looking scrapbook paper to a board, trimmed the edges with jute, glued the letters and the cross-stitch on top and made a hanger with more jute and wooden beads.

It occurred to me one day lately that the Fair is just around the corner. I managed to send in my entry form before the deadline, but other than that, I haven’t thought about the Fair that much. One reason for that being is that I have most of the items that I was planning on entering all finished!

This subject will have to be another time because this is already getting too long. So, next time. . . . . . .

A Little About Sis

It’s been a while since I’ve said anything about my sis, so this blog entry is about her.

We’re still getting together once a week to do our estate sale hopping. We love going through and finding a treasure, especially if it’s at a reasonable price.

The biggest thrill of it all is not knowing what we’ll find.

Here’s a pretty I found on one of our ventures,

It’s a table cover crocheted with blocks with ribbon-embroidered blocks between.

Isn’t it pretty? I don’t do ribbon embroidery, but I can certainly appreciate others’ work. So this just had to come home with me.

Sis likes to bring home little items. She buys for the g-grands and something she just knows so-and-so will like. Once in a while she’ll find something that strikes her fancy, however.

She likes flowers and anything with “bling, bling” especially Christmas ornaments.

Yes, we usually have a trunk-load of stuff to bring home.

Most of it is usually mine, but she’s been known to bring home a couple of sacks from time to time.

We don’t craft as much as we used to. Sis just can’t remember how to do things anymore. She still wants to craft because she can still remember making things, so I try to help by choosing simple items for her to paint or sew. Of course, I have to be with her while she’s working on these items. It gives me a good feeling knowing that she’s enjoyed the process after it’s finished. And that’s what it’s all about!

We went to decorate graves one day. It was an all-day adventure, but we had a nice day together and went down memory lane which was fun. It’s amazing that she can remember things that I’ve forgotten about!

I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to do these things, but I’ll take as much time as God allows us. And I’m thankful for each moment we can share together.