A day at the fair

Yesterday was day one of fair week; the day when you show all your projects to the judges.
 As usual it was very hot and humid, and in the huge and ancient pavilion where all the judging is conducted, the heat and humidity are multiplied ten times. The lines to the photography judges was unbelievable -- I was in line for a little over an hour. One little girl had 18 different photography projects to show. There has got to be a limit of five next year. Life is tooooo short.

Ribbon color code: Purple = 1st place :: Blue = 2nd :: Red = 3rd :: White = The worst! It means that you could have done a lot better, or just "you failed."

 If the ribbon is a top purple it means the project should go to the State Fair. If it's a top blue, then its exemplary. 

 Aside from the long lines, however, I did have a good time. My two photography projects got a top purple and a top blue! My hanging basket I weaved for church got a purple as well as my drawing, and my antique college they wanted to take to State! But I said no, since the photos and letters were originals and could not be replaced if lost.
 My bread I got a blue on — big surprise there! The judge was really tough and my poor bead was heavy and dry; yet it got a blue! My little brother's bread was better and he got a red. Is there something I missed?
 My necklace also got a top blue. I don't know why I didn't get a purple, though. She said everything on it was wonderful — and then handed me a blue ribbon. ??
 I don't have pictures of my projects to share with you, as they are all down at the fairgrounds still and will be until Saturday night. But, I do have several pictures of our cool old fair buildings :)

Inside the pavilion, looking into the rafters over three stories high. Make you dizzy if you look at it too long.

Quilts for show on the second floor.

Looking out at the 4-H hall where my club's booth is.

Outside the pavilion

This is one of my favorites.

Lunch for me was... Coke and brother's purple ribbon brownies :)

On the way home...

Oh, I just have to tell you! I saw the cutest little puppy in the world yesterday! Omigoodness! A little brown and white Australian Shepherd-Corgi mix{yes, that's what Hammie is too}. Goodness gracious he was so cute! Giant brown eyes, floppy ears, big Corgi feet, and a tiny little body. And he wuves meeee... *sighs*

 I cannot believe I did not have the camera with me. That is the worst no-camera situation I have ever, ever, ever been in.

Now I must dash in a hurry, dear readers.... because I forgot about some chores I have to do. Oops!

-Gwyn

Busy, busy! Dreadfully busy..!

Anyone remember that VeggieTales song? I can't believe I do. :P But it's true none the less; my week has been packed with a capital "P". I think I mentioned in my last post that my sister who moved far away for college is back in between her semesters. We've been doing some fun stuff, and yesterday was my other sister's birthday {I'm really just going to have to name everyone - it's getting confusing even for me! I can't imagine what you guys think. I'm crazy, right?}. She is so hard to shop for so I ended up beading her a really cool necklace. I almost kept it -- almost.

 Shopping has been almost daily. Ugh. Once and a while I like it, but right now I would welcome never seeing another clothing dummy. Ever. Again. And today we went to the Big City far, far away to hit the mall to stock up on clothes. I've never been a fan of fashion trends, tending to create my own thing, and this Fall is no exception to my taste.  I was glad to see that the girl's clothes are slowly becoming more modest, pulling away from the deep cleavage that used to be so "in" awhile back, and now going more for scoop necks -- some of them aren't great, but better.
 I cannot believe some of the colors in the young men's section: pastel purples, barbie pinks, and lady-looking blue hues -- heeeellloooo! These are for guys, people!

 Alas! Areopostal(sp?) failed me this day by taking out their clearance rack. Nooooo! I loved their clearance and got many a good bargain on tees. I even got my favorite pair of jeans for $10 on it. And now it's gone. *sad face*
 I bought a bleached purple jacket there that I really like, and of course jeans. I always need jeans. :)


Great news!! The camera is functioning again! That means I'll be able to do another Little Fun Thing tutorial soon. I'm thinking of doing one on how to draw realistic eyes... Any thoughts?

 Also, this week is Fair week. I'm kind of excited -- yet not. My 4-H group is very "community service minded", i.e. that's all. we. ever. do. Cleaning up highway ditches, selling hotdogs at grungy gas stations {eep! Never do, people! Never do!} and the like at least once a month. It wouldn't be so bad if we did something fun too, but we don't. So, I'm thinking this is my last year. Heck, I've been in 4-H for 11 years!
 Anyway back to the fair... I'll be showing three necklaces - two beaded{and soon for sale!}, and one horse hair; several photographs; breads; drawings; the basket I made in weaving class at church; and... hmm... something else...? I'm sure I'm missing somethings...

 So there you have a full update on the goings on in my life. How do you like the colored text? Is it a keeper? And about the how to draw eyes, would you be interested in learning that?
 I'll try and keep in touch.

-Gwyn

A week in which much is accomplished

Hello again! I've been off for quite awhile and was, as the title suggests, very busy. Many, many, things are going to be happening and so we are preparing now as well as getting things done while we still have time.

 First and foremost, we finished the hay! Whoop! Mathematically, we got about 110 round bales{6 feet tall} per 15 square acres. Can you believe that?? We usually only get around 50! We have stacked 51 bales in our stackyard for us to keep and the rest we are selling. This grass is really good too - good enough to feed the horses this winter - so we might not have to buy loads of hay from others this year like we have in the past when our hayfields were full of pigwheat and other weeds only fit for cows to eat.


Mum and I took a day and made strawberry jam that is to die for.

There is nothing quite like homemade jams and jellies.

I have been rearranging my room just about every day, trying to get it the way I want it. I went crazy and bought a load of picture frames to put my photographs and artwork in, but I'm running out of room on my walls! My art-and-writing nook is yet to be completed. I still need to put up my gigantor corkboard. And I'm in the middle of organizing my artwork. Not an easy project!

Sunday was my little brother's 10th(!) birthday{I still can't believe he's that old! I remember turning ten!} and a few days before his was my Da's birthday. I'll be nice this time and not mention his age... :D

The second week of August is the County/4-H Fair! and things are CrAzY. This year you have to pre-register all your entries by Aug. 2nd for some incredibly vapid[new favorite word there :}] reason. They{the fair guild} don't seem to understand that, on average, each participant doesn't even know what they're taking until the night before. So we have been scrambling to get all our projects in order by... good gosh! MONDAY?? *yelps*
 I'm in all sorts of categories ranging from Breads to Educational Posters. I don't have pictures of everything, but I did take one of an antique photo collage wall hanging I did for Home Environment:

Hmm... This one turned out blurry. Drat.

The letter that makes up the background was written by my great-grandfather while he still lived in Germany!{Yes, that means it is in German :)} It's dated July 16th 1910. And I found it on... July the 16th 2010!! How cool is that?

You can see my grandpa with a friend on the far left. The faded sepia next to it is my great-uncle when he was about 3 chasing the chickens in the barnyard. Next over is the team of draft horses my grandpa's family shared with other homesteaders. And on the top is a picture of my great-aunt as a child, playing in the hayloft.

I love all things old fashioned, but photos are the best.

On top of all those things, I'm going to open an Etsy Shop for my jewelry. I have been planning on opening one since last November when I first heard of Etsy but never got round to looking into it. My Etsy has a cause behind it as well, something that has been on my mind for for a long while. I never had the answer until now.... I won't tell you more until I've fully set up everything :)

Harvest has begin with the picking of baseball bat sized summer squash. I don't know if we're going to get much more than gourds this year - the grasshoppers are worse than terrible - but I'm crossing my fingers for a few tomatoes.

Briefly, some highlights:
 We've got a big pack of coyotes nearby at the moment and they screech and holler to high heaven every night. O_O It is very hard to sleep.
 A pair of foxes had kits up in our neighbor's high pasture and omygoodness! They are the cutest things alive!! I've only gotten to see them once while I was riding up there and I sorely wished I had my camera!
 Shyanne pulled a tendon in her left hind leg so I can't ride her at the mo.
 Hooey rolled on some cactus - I had to perform "surgery".
 I plan to have another Little Fun Thing soon, but at the moment the camera isn't working so I don't know when exactly "soon" is. Hang in there!
That's what has been happening in my life.... What's going on in yours?

-Gwyn

*Whew!* The week of stress is over at last!

We did the recital Sunday and... Brother and I were awesome, if I do say so myself. I mean, for pulling it together in three days we were perfect :D Our teacher looked soooooo surprised! She must've been a bit jarred because she gave me a hug! That made it all worth it.

• Made teacher proud  *check*

That's all I asked. :D

I was grinning all over my face the rest of the day. And people kept coming up to me and my brother saying "Good job" and "That was great!"

  That was easily the best recital -- if the most stressful and hard earned.:)


Yesterday, however, was a different story.
  I had a 4-H Public Presentation where you do a demonstration in front of a judge and other 4-Hers. I've done it before so it really didn't faze me; except for the fact I learned I had to do it the morning of. Another surprise! Oh, joy!
  So I crammed together a short demo on how to make a ribbon necklace.
Well, I get there, set up and begin and.... My mind goes completely blank. Nothing. At. All.
   It wasn't like I was nervous or anything -- I felt fine -- but I couldn't remember what the heck I was supposed to say. And the judge just sat there grinning at me. Not helpful.
   Ooooooh, I botched it soooo badly! It was like I'd never done one before -- no, worse. Much worse.

 You all probably know that I'm perfectionist{you could say its my "fatal flaw"} and if you didn't -- I am. So after that disastrous attempt at a demo I was so angry with myself, and still am a bit. Ergggg... It might have been from all the stuff last week and them this coming on so suddenly leaping at me like some deranged tiger... I don't know. But I could have done so-much-better!!! Grrrr!! It makes me so mad!
*breathe*

Ah, well. Today I have nothing ---nothing at all--- to do but work with my Fur-children{horses, dogs, and cat} What could be better? I think that God seriously gave animals therapeutic powers :)

Getting over it ~Gwyn

Fair Time!!! And the end of Frog's story

Yesterday we found Frog. He was all shriveled up and hanging from a spider's web. :'( Good bye, Frog! Rest in Peace!

Anyhoo....

The 4-H fair week is coming up

 and I thought I might share some of my entries with you guys.:)

For right now it'll just be my photography but later on I post my other stuffle:) Please share your opinions!