Our State Fair is a Great State Fair…

I love the State Fair of Texas.  There.  I’ve said it.  Well, I’ve said it lots of times, but not to you.  I missed the first Fair of my life, because I was only 3 months old.  I haven’t missed one since.

I remember when the fair was a dirty, smelly place with weird side shows and motorcycle daredevils riding in a cage.  It’s come a long way!

This is Big Tex.  He used to be a Santa Claus in a small town.  He’s been talking to us since before I was born!  He wears a size 70 boot.

The fair grounds have been around since about 1886, I think, in some form or other. The grounds are a National Historical Landmark. Many of the buildings there now were built during the 1930’s, I believe by the CCC.  Most of them are Art Deco.  Back in the 1970’s or 80’s, they started slowing restoring the buildings, and they are gorgeous today.  These murals wrap around the upper walls on the terrace of the Food and Fiber Building.

There are animals.

    

And midway rides.

   

And there are still a few weird things.

And food.  I mustn’t forget food.

One of the events of the fair is fried food.  The concessionaires compete before the fair for the most unusual, tastiest fried food.  We’ve seen fried pizza, fried PB & J, fried Latte, and fried cookie dough. The winner of Most creative 2009 was Fried Butter,  whipped butter, flavored with your choice of cherry, garlic, or something else.  I didn’t try this.  I know the fair only comes around once a year, and I don’t worry about what I eat on that one special day, but my arteries were screaming NO!!!  And so were my taste buds.  I didn’t talk to anyone who had tried it, so I can’t say much else about  it.

What I did try was Fernie’s Fried Peaches and cream.  Sheer genius.  Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take a picture before I scarfed this down.  This is how the website describes it.

“Sweet juicy peaches are coated in a delicious batter of cinnamon, ginger, coconut, graham cracker crumbs, eggs & milk, then deep fried to a crunchy golden brown on the outside, while luscious and sweet on the inside.  Served on a plate drizzled with raspberry sauce, lightly dusted with powdered sugar and topped with a cool dollop of whipped cream.  A side of vanilla butter cream icing is provided for dipping.”

They forgot to mention that the whipped cream was also drizzled with raspberry sauce, and there were a few un-fried peach slices on the side.  So, so good.  It’s a good thing I walked several miles that day!

Since there isn’t a picture of the Fried peaches, I’ll leave you with this fair food.

Yum!  Texas nachos.

Do you have a big state fair where you live?

Trying to catch the lightning

We got off work the other night, and a storm was moving in from the north.  We pulled off the road and tried to capture the lightning display.

In the meantime, while the northern sky was pitch dark and bustling with the light show, to the west, it was a lovely sunset.

This was taken from the same place, about 60 seconds after the first 3 shots.

I have much to say.

But, not today.  Today was our annual trip to the State Fair of Texas—my 56th consecutive year to attend.  I’ve actually been there probably in the neighborhood of 100 times though.  When I was a kid and lived in Dallas, I always went several times each year.  There would be a trip with my parents, one with my friends, one with a church group, one with the FHA, one with the drill team.  These days, we limit it to one.

But, I’m worn out.  Tomorrow, there will be pictures.  Tomorrow, there will be stories.  What kind of stories?

There will be stories about how my husband got a 6 year old in trouble. There will be stories about the glory of fried peaches.  There will be stories about the embroidery/quilting/sewing machine that didn’t come home with me.  Sob.

Tonight, I’m going to curl up on the couch and read.  And recuperate.

This is a picture from an earlier year.  I just wanted to whet your appetite a bit.

Welcome to Blogtoberfest!

I have shamefully neglected my blog this summer, but I have a whole array of excuses. Painting the outside of the house, rebuilding a porch, lack of time for sewing or crafts, a strong dislike for WordPress, which makes everything unpleasant.  However, I couldn't figure out how to make Blogger the home page on my website, so, here I am. Please ignore the weird, disorganized appearance.  Someday, I'll conquer WP.

Anyway, I've done the one post per day thing over on my Live Journal.  There, I talk about my house, my grandkids, my husband, my dog, the weather, my business, and anything else that I feel like discussing.  This was meant to be my craft blog.  In light of the fact that I haven't posted in two months, maybe this will become a public version of my LJ.  We will see.

So, to introduce myself, I'm all of those things in the box on the sidebar.  I am a BookCrosser.  We register books and leave them in public places for people to find and enjoy.  With luck, they journal them and we can track their journey.  I've had books travel from Texas to Central America, through Cuba, and on to Canada. We lost track there, but it may surface at any time.  One of my books was journaled almost  years after I released it.  It's a lot of fun, and there is a wonderful community there, so you might want to check it out.  I'm TexasWren there too. I don't have an etsy store, I don't sell anything, I don't design cool things. I just relax and enjoy making things that those more creative folks invent. And I thank them daily for sharing the instructions!

So, what have I been crafting lately? 
I made a puppet theater for my granddaughter.  I sort of combined the pictures from several places and put my own spin on it, and this was the result.

She has been using the curtain as a permanent part of her door, so that’s been fun.

Mostly, I’ve been working on the outside of the house.  We hired someone to paint it, but there were still a million things to do besides the paint.  Our house is over 100 years old, and I don’t think it had been painted in several decades.  It went from this:

To this:

There is still a ton of work to do-repairs (see that window frame?) and finishing the verandah. We have stained and varnished floors on the wrap-around porch, instead of painting them.  They are gorgeous, but I’m thinking they aren’t going to wear well.  If they don’t, we can always paint them.

So, that’s how I spent my summer.  How about you?

Crafts from the Past

I’m in the middle of a project, but I’m not ready to post pictures, so I thought I’d post some things from the past, just for fun.

At one time, I was a cross stitch fanatic.  These are a couple of the things I never gave away. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once upon a time, I tried oil painting.  I’ve never considered myself an artist, but I had a roommate that was an art major.  One summer, she talked me into taking this class with her.  I did a total of 2 paintings.  The other one is in the attic somewhere.  We won’t discuss that one.  ;-)

 

Some of my grandkids have Raggedy Anne and Andy dolls.  I think I burned out on them before the last two came along.  I still have one in my WIP box.  I’ll have to hurry before the last one outgrows dolls.  I used my mother’s pattern for years, and she’s been gone since 1991.  When I saw one in the pattern book last year, I bought it, just in case I wear out the original.

And then, there are always random projects.  This bear—yes, that’s a bear—was suppose to be a pillow buddy, you know, where you put a pillow in his tummy and watch tv in the floor.  This was my second prototype.  I should have gone for a third one, but I ran out of time.  It didn’t matter, he was well-loved anyway.

 

My newest favorite craft is yarn kitties.  I found instructions for them on Craftster last year, and I’ve had a lot of fun with them.  I sent 3 to the BookCrossing convention in London last year for door prizes.  One stayed in the UK, and I don’t know who got the others.  But, I do know that a member in Germany was disappointed not to get one and asked me to make another one. So, I did, and two of the kitties are international dwellers now.  Last winter, I won a blue ribbon at the county fair with a kitten.

This is why I excel at nothing.  I have a short attention span!  There are too many cool things to try to spend time perfecting anything.  I’m afraid I’m going to miss out on trying something new!

And that doesn’t even include my gourd art, my yoyos, or my patchwork pentagon toys!!  Maybe next time.

Happy Mother's Day!

Why use a yo-yo maker?

This is going to be a picture-less post. Sorry.

I like to make yo-yos. I like hand-sewing, and this requires much less concentration than cross-stitch or embroidery, so it's perfect for travelling or sitting in the dentist office.

I've read so much about the Clover yo-yo maker, so I bought one, since all I ever hear are the shouts of joy for owning one.

I must say that I don't get it. It works fine, my test yo-yo looked nice and neat, but no nicer or neater than my handmade one. I guess I'm missing something.

One of the biggest flaws is that there are only 3 sizes. I don't like being restricted to just 3 sizes--it makes me feel stifled or something.

So, for those who love their yo-yo maker, I'm very happy for you. I'll stick to the old-fashioned way. I do reserve the right to play with their flower yo-yo maker though!!