As a mere child, every year I was dragged into the Arts & Crafts area of the State Fair of Texas by my mother. Since Dearly Demented Mom showed me how to sew, knit, and needlepoint, she always had dreams of creating the best of the best. So, she always wanted to see the competition. One day her dream finally came true of becoming a winner in that building. She knitted me a black and white sweater (I still have it) and won second place in the knitting contest. We celebrated for years.

See, I told you I still had it

I don’t know why the judges loved this sweater so much, but I guess her stitches were just perfect.

But now, the Baker name has been usurped by My Crazy Cousin who announced to me that 2 years ago she won First Place in the Green Tomato Relish Division. Dually impressed? Yes. Incredibly depressed? Yes. The family now has a blue ribbon winner. I must find something to enter so I can catch up – for the family!

Still, let’s see her winning relish, shall we?

There it is for all the world to see

Her relish sitting on a blue ribbon. Wow! How did she handle it?

I’d say she’s beaming!

This year she didn’t enter, but I still took a picture of all the winners which I found very impressive.

Looks like canning is not a dying art

By the way, that was about a third of the wall of winning canned goods. Wish spaghetti sauce was a category. I could win that puppy! (See Tomato Basil Spaghetti Sauce in my Recipes to Diet for category.)

So then we looked around at some other amazing things.

A beautifully carved gourd

Wonder if they had to grow it, too? Well, whatever, looks like to me that it best of show because there are ribbons everywhere. Pretty cool, now isn’t it?

A huge Butter Carving

Makes me gain 10 pounds just looking at it. I don’t remember which “buttery” created this, but they do one every year at the State Fair proving that once on the lips, always on the hips.

We wandered around gazing at all the beautiful handmade creations and tucked in the very back corner was something very cool. It was a contest making a display out of a shoe. There were many, many imaginative and funny winners, but this was my favorite.

Pretty funny

There was also a Derk Berkenstockinski looking like the famous Dallas Maverick, but I didn’t get a picture of it. Of course this was my favorite display and I just might enter something in it next year with My Crazy Cousin.

I love it when people celebrate my birthday!

With hopes of entering contests next year, we left the world of arts and crafts and headed off on more adventures. I found these in a large display outside the Cotton Bowl and thought you’d like them, too.

Windmills made out of license plates

There was many of them for all the different states. It was a really cool display.

Probably need to wrap up my fun at the fair soon, but tomorrow I do have the big highlight of the evening to show you. And it’s pretty tough to get this old gal excited unless it involves a man. Oh wait! It does!

Spreading laughter throughout the world…one chuckle at a time.

Mikie Baker
www.mikiebaker