Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Fun at the Fair!

Liza the Showgirl up front, Mama Elsa in back
The Fair is back in town! Yay! I love (almost) everything about the County Fair. I love the crazy Fair food, the Carnies, the insane rides...I don't ride the rides because they are way too crazy for me, but I love watching. I really love the Home Arts and the livestock exhibits, the chickens in particular, although this year a lot of the birds looked pretty tattered. Made me wish that I had entered my pretty chicken, Liza, into the competition. She is a lovely little Showgirl pullet and I think she would have done very well, especially since she would have been the only Showgirl in the running. I actually did consider entering Liza, but she would have had to stay at the Fair for several days, and I didn't want her Mama, Elsa, to be left at home all alone.




I did enter a bracelet in the Home and Hobby competition, and that was pretty cool. I wasn't sure what to expect, being my first time. I wasn't even sure they would display the entries unless they won a ribbon, and I had no illusions of winning anything on my very first go-round. After sharing some
you want this, and rightly so
pastrami fires (meh) and a maple glazed bacon donut (awesome!),  we went into the Home Arts exhibit to try and find my entry. Home Arts is probably my favorite part of the Fair. The first floor is dedicated to the Student Showcase, where students from area High Schools and Junior Colleges proudly show their skills in photography, fine art, robotics, woodworking, fashion, upholstery and more. The work done by these kids is quite amazing and truly inspirational, and I am happy to see that these types of home arts are still being taught in some schools.
Made by High School Students!

Upstairs is the Home and Hobby exhibits, where people compete for ribbons, and of course all the glory, in areas such as preserved food, needle arts, cake decorating, etc. There are also entries for "collections" and, the category I was entered in, "decorative arts and crafts". There were some pretty nice quilts and some lovely knitted pieces, but overall I found it a little lacking after seeing the excellent entries in the Student Showcase. The collections in particular were hit and miss. I vowed to enter my collection of travel bars into the competition next year. I totally tried to play it cool, nonchalantly searching to see if my bracelet was on display, but after going up and then down the hall, I did not see it. Oh well. Then my son went behind on of the glass cases and pointed, "Here it is!" OMG, really? Yep, there it was, in the back of one of the cases. I bet most people would not even go around to the back side to look which was kind of lame, especially for the piece next to mine, an actual ribbon winner. I've never entered a competition like this before, and it was a little surreal seeing my bracelet there. I must admit, I got a little misty. I am already thinking about next year, and I hope to encourage others to try to enter the competition. I will be entering something amazing, something that will for sure be put in the front of the case. Maybe even win a ribbon. Yeah.

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