The State Fair Affair

I entered some things in the Minnesota State Fair this year. It was the first time I've entered anything in any competition. I am a highly skilled procrastinator so naturally I waited until the very last second to sign up. I entered a beaded project, a handmade doll, a knitted scarf, a small quilt and a knitted sweater. I knew that the chances of winning a ribbon for the sweater were nil because Minnesota has an abundance of wickedly clever sweater knitters. I also knew that the small quilt wouldn't have much of a chance because rumor had it there were literally hundreds of entries in that category. I thought I might have a chance at maybe winning a ribbon for one of the other things. The fair awards modest cash prizes for first, second and third place in most categories so my goal was to win enough money to buy a corn dog at the fair (it didn't have to be foot long corn dog even, a regular one would be fine).
Anyway, on the first day of the fair my friend, Carmelita Fantastica, and I headed straight to the Creative Activities building to find our stuff (she entered a gorgeous little quilt too). It was kind of like a treasure hunt because everything is arranged randomly in many glass display cases. I won't go into the hilarious details of our search, but suffice it to say, I squealed like a little girl every time we located one of our items. I believe there may have been some very excited jumping up and down and a bit of giggling as well. It was a total blast and I am happy to say that I was able to buy that corn dog (a foot long!) with my winnings. I took Adrian to see my award winning stuff later on in the evening and by the time we finished looking at everything my ego was huge. Adrian predicted correctly that I was going to be difficult to live with. Actually, I was just really, really happy to have won a ribbon for something that I've made. It was so much fun and I had a huge grin on my face for days.
Now I have to gush about another state fair winner. My pal and crafting buddy Alex won second prize for a silk corset that she made! What's so amazing about this is that she's only sixteen years old and the corset was a complete work of art. I taught Alex to sew many years ago and I am so incredibly proud of her progress. She selected the project and fabric earlier this summer and she worked on it at my house during a sew day-sleepover. I assisted her by being her ironing lackey and pattern interpreter, but she sewed every single seam on the entire corset. This is no easy task for such a complex garment and it requires a lot of precision. She did a bang up job and the corset looks and fits spectacular. She looks incredibly gorgeous in it which, I think, makes her folks a tad nervous. Alex is an incredibly brilliant and down to earth young woman and is my all time favorite sixteen year old on the planet.