Fairly Babies and Scooters Over Here

I got to spent some time with Aggie last night on the deck!

She wasn't the most chatty as she tooted or pooped her pants and then promptly fell asleep.

Leon went on Meri and my early morning walk today.  He was a grump waking up but he had insisted that I wake him up for it anyway. Okey dokey!  He scootered all the way out to Robb's stone and back, 1.5 miles! 

 He found some slopes a lot more fun and got WAY ahead of us.  He's behind that roundish sign at the bottom.  If I zoomed in further, it would get all pixalized.  I couldn't pull my phone out quick enough to get him closer.

Looking forward to a women's Bible study get together tonight!  I've got hardboiled eggs cooling now for some deviled eggs to bring.  We're studying the book Enough For Now by Sharla Fritz and into the 4th chapter that has to do with food.  I read it by cell phone flashlight on the deck early this morning.  Good stuff!

Leon has a playdate at his besties this afternoon and they're moving this weekend to Arkansas.  It'll be months before he sees her again!  Oh well.  They'll chitchat on the phones.  I wish them the best with their new restaurant!

And I'm looking forward to going to the State Fair this weekend!  Can't wait to see my items displayed and see all the craftiness that other sewists are up to.  And of course to try some new and daring fair food on a stick!  We're bringing along a young man from church, who is here for college from overseas.  I'll be meeting him this evening.  It will be interesting to see his perspective of Iowan (American) fairs.  I wonder if they have chocolate covered bacon in China.  I guess we'll find out!

Toasting the Weekend

Another whirlwind weekend and I'm ready for another not quite so busy.  

On Friday night, Robb took me out on a date!  We were on our way to Des Moines to pick up a couch for Meri but the lady selling it cancelled when we were halfway there.  So hot and sweaty in the truck with no air conditioning, we turned around to catch a quick bite in town.  I thought we were only going to just grab some fast food, but Robb had other things in mind.  Before the trip cancellation, I was reading him posts that I saw on FB and one was asking "What would make this a fantastic Friday?"  And  he came through!  We looked sweaty and disgusting but our favorite Chinese restaurant still welcomed us in and we got our usual waitress who was great!  We don't go that often but we know what we like!  And they were actually faster, tastier and more friendly than any fast food joint!

 When we got home, I got to sew and finish a tunic top thing.  It was going to be a dress, but when I tried it on for Robb, you could see my legs CLEARLY through the thin knit.  Yeah... this one will need leggings...  It's waiting to get washed to clean out the iron in tape that I used to make the most perfect hem you've ever seen!  Too bad it will be worn a lot before next years fair...  

Would it be terrible to submit a shirt to the fair that's pilled badly?  Or sweat stained?  Or has that greasy spot from a splo-der hamburger?  Probs not.  Meri or I will just wear it to death I'm sure.

On Saturday, Robb and I headed to Meri's apartment SUPER early and hit the road to see my Mom and Dad three hours away.  And while Robb, Meri and Dad went off to my brother's to pick up a banana tree that he was gifting to Meri, my mom and I went to the Good Will and did a little thrifting for some shirts for her.  She was running low.  We found her some good ones and while she was trying them on, we realized that she'd left her jacket that she wore into the store back on some rack.  No one had tried to purchase it, so we were good!

Robb picked us up then and we took them out to Coney Island for some dogs and fries.  I reminisced about working at a shoe store right around the corner in college.  We used to go buy an exuberantly priced bucket of popcorn at the theater and snack from it while we sold shoes.  That job was so much fun until they cut my hours to about 1.5 a week with no notice...  I'm pretty sure we didn't get butter on the shoes... ;)

Lunch was a lot of fun, then we delivered Mom back to the nursing home and Dad back to my sister's and hit the road for home.  We'd have stayed a lot longer, but Meri was involved with a play that evening and she needed to check in at 4:30 for costumes.

Meri and I worked hard on her Thank you notes on the way.  I got all the envelopes done while she worked on the cards to slip inside.  She's still hopelessly behind, but it'll happen.

We got home in time to change and grab a bite to eat, then headed over to the hall for the play. It was held in the same place we have Thanksgiving every year.

Meri's skit was about a browbeating girl (Meri) berating her timid boyfriend, who was remembering his ex-girlfriend that HE used to berate.  We told Meri that we needed to get her in for anger management therapy... She was just TOO good!

On Sunday, she met us at church and afterwards, she came back to the house with us. We totally cleaned out her old bedroom and put in a new bed for guests.  I must have picked up 3 pounds of bobby pins out of the carpet.  It looks so roomy now that when I said that out loud, Meri was offended and asked if she had too much junk.  Ummm yes.  She'd had a tv table, overstuffed chair with ottoman, rocking chair, 2 picnic baskets and lots of other things!  Out of all the things I mentioned here, all that is left now is a bed.  Whew!  And her fish tank.  She'll take that another day.  OH and she also took Fitz!!!  We're just down to the two dogs now.  The house is feeling SO empty!  I do believe I could get used to this.

Leon came home last night and we watched Jurassic World together.  It had been on tv and I'd taped it for us.  Robb was giving spoilers and I almost banned him from the room.  "He's about to lose an arm!"  SSSSHHHHH!!!!!  It ended up being more than that, but still.  Leon had seen it probably 20 times and every time I felt like I should cover his eyes, he said, "I've SEEN this!!!!"  

Maybe next time we'll watch the Blair Witch Project with him.

(I'm kidding!!!)

But I DO want to see The MEG.  But with Meri, not Leon.  Robb is not interested.

I just dropped Leon off at his dad's this morning.  I hope they're having a great day!

I got to sew a little last night, if by sewing I mean drawing out my plans for the bag challenge, then yes.  I cut out a piece of paper the size of the fabric I got from a canvas bag.  

All the seams have been ripped and ready for a new creation.

Our sewing group has challenged us to make a new bag out of the given bag but the secret is that we need to use up every bit of the fabric.  So...  I'm going to be as creative as possible and make a bag that would only cost $12 online or at Walmart.  Well, actually this particular one is $25 and the most expensive I could find that wasn't made entirely of leather.

Sometimes I wonder why I sew...

OH!!! On our way Saturday morning, I got a call from my brother.  He had NEVER been to the Iowa State Fair and after talking to me about my entries, decided that this was the weekend to do it.  So if we'd been on the same highway, we could have high fived each other passing.  He took one of his friends, Cathy, and hit the road.  Throughout the day, I got calls from him announcing what they were doing.  Apparently Cathy had brought a toaster and bag of bread for when they saw the butter cow.  I'm hoping they were joking, because they will NOT let her take a swipe of butter...  I told him about the apple slushies that were in that same building and they had one each.  He's a big fan now!  and I might have to go back to the fair to get one this year!  Or figure out how to make one at home.  OH YUMMMM!!!

He called later to find out which building the sewing stuff was in so I described it and they went there. He called again because they couldn't find the steps to go upstairs, but then Cathy found them.  He kept me on the phone to describe where my things were located.  Oh HERE is the dress Meri wore in Beauty and the Beast!  and HERE is her prom dress!  Weren't all these things on the deck for her party?!  He was thoroughly impressed with all the sewn items and was actually proud of his little sister!  :)  Is he the best brother or what?  

True, he is my only brother...  But it warmed my heart that he mainly went to the fair to see my things!  and probably also to use the term Beer Thirty and get introduced to the pitching cow chip game.  I haven't heard much since he went home.  Looking forward to seeing some of the pics he's taken but he hasn't shared much on FB yet.

Anyway, I should probably end this post now or I won't have anything to write about tomorrow.  Actually I'm fresh out of topics for tomorrow but I've got roughly 24 hours to come up with something.  Shouldn't be a problem for me.  My life is a soap/comedy/drama/romcom/tragedy.  

It's ALWAYS something.  OH!!!  That's another movie that I want to see so bad!!!! LOVE Gilda!!  The preview made me cry...

Ok I'm done.

Ripping Into Your Sewing

I came into the house yesterday over my afternoon break and found this on my dining room table.

Meri had dug into the wedding gown she'd found at the Good Will and had removed the bodice, crinoline and lining from it.  She hadn't found my seam ripper and had pulled it apart with a pin...

She and I looked at it closely and found that maybe to make it fit her, we'd put in a lacing up part on the back.  I'd done that with the wedding gown a couple years ago and might remember how I did it...

She plans to cut it into a shorter spring dress and then dye it.  This could work!

Ouch!

Sometimes it hurt to take a day off from work! I came back this morning to 23 emails... Granted, 14 were instant deletes, but the rest require immediate attention. all.at.once.

I went to the fair grounds the last two days. Wednesday night I dropped off my open class entries and worked the entry desk for a couple hours in air conditioning. nice...

Thursday I took the girls down again. Maddy & I worked at the entry desk in non-air conditioning and I think I lost about 5 pounds like it was a sauna... Well, maybe not. I haven't weighed myself yet today and we did eat some banana bread and apple pie that we bought at the bake sale... But I can dream.

Meri got judged on her dress and a movie she made about her puppies. She got a blue with an orange dot on her dress, which means that they're considering it for the State Fair! We'll find out on Saturday. Then a blue on the movie.

If the video doesn't have sound, sorry! Youtube didn't like the music that she chose for behind the pictures and we're doing an audio swap on it now to something that probably totally doesn't fit it like Pop Goes My Heart did...

Tonight Meri and I are going to work at the food stand and earn a little food stand spending money... Tomorrow Meri shows her hedgehog and then we need to shampoo her dogs and groom them well for the dog show on Sunday where I plan to try the deep fried Oreos.

I love fair food!

Oh and tomorrow, Robb will be wearing a kilt! just sayin'...

Have a great weekend!

And They're OFF!

Well... The girls have their photography stuff ready for the County Fair judging this morning. They spent some time yesterday gluing all their photos and matting to the foam boards that we'd cut out. Then pressing them between all my World Book Encyclopedias overnight to dry.

Who says we don't use encyclopedias anymore??!

ALL the books are on my dining room table at the moment... And I can see that I should dust my shelf before the books go back to their homes...

And the girls stacks of photos are all stacked up with the proper forms.

Last night Meri cut out the rest of her dress pieces and we found that we were short on some of the main fabric! *gasp* We bought it in January an hours drive away while doing prom dress fabric shopping.

Ain't NO way we can make it down there today....

So after their judging they'll stop by JoAnns and see if they can get a good match. She'll just need it for lining under the bodice.

So anyway... Good luck girls! May at least 2 of each yours be considered for the State Fair!!!

Sewing Frenzy before the calm

Now that the puppies are gone, well mostly... I've had a wee bit more time. Unless you count breaking the riding lawn mower and having to push a supposed self propelled mower that broke the self propelled part the same day.

Yep - that's how I fill my spare time these days! The lawn is big and the grass is long... *silly rain*

Last week I finished the purple skirt, purple shorts and pink shorts for my mom before they left for their vacation on Saturday early morning. Mom wore the pink shorts that morning.

What do you think?

Since she wasn't here to try them on while they were being sewn, I kind of guessed on some things, so they're not a perfect fit. But luckily with this style, they don't have to be exact.

I was hoping to get some more sewing in that weekend, but puppies kept me hopping and each lunch break and night this week has had something planned. So no sewing for me.

However, Meri has a dress that she's needing to complete before July 9th for the 4H style show. So she (with my supervision) managed in 30 minutes on Sunday to cut out one panel of the skirt. She'll be getting more done this weekend, I hope! Otherwise she'll not do the style show and just take it to the fair at the end of July to be judged on her sewing abilities.

I'll let you in on the pics as they get taken.

It's going to be a weird day...

Oh the sights you'll see!

Some sights that I've seen over the last few days....

Meri and a couple of her friends next to her friends heifer. A few minutes after this, my two girls and these girls had their picture taken by a photographer from a local cartoon mag that comes out every week. Yes! My girls will be published! And then immediately Maddy had another cow headbutt her on her backside.
I was sitting in a building watching some local school celebrities milk cows for sport. yes, you heard me... And I happened to look out the window and saw this little boy digging in his pocket for some rocks he'd been collecting. As he dug deeper and deeper, he was pulling his pants down. I chuckled as I grabbed for my camera, but by the time I got the silly thing on and zoomed in, his grandma came and rescued him.I mentioned milking cow race, right? It's called the Celebrity Milkoff. The teacher from our school came in 2nd place! And that was AFTER the cow tipped her bucket over and she had to start over.
And look! My girls looking like the LIKE each other! They're tired of the fair stuff as I'm sure you are too. It's been hot and today is supposed to be even hotter. I'm SO glad we don't have animals down there and have to stay the whole time!

Just one more event tomorrow evening then we can bring all our projects home! Whew! It's been some ride!

4H - Tell me if you're nauseous

Oh nevermind - I don't want to know! But I've got some 4H news from the weekend.... Grab your barf buddy bucket and come along for the ride!

On Friday, Meri and Maddy got judged on their photos and Meri's card making projects. Meri did an awesome job talking to the judges. I think we've got another Ryan on our hands when it comes to schmoozing the judges... She had that judge eating out of her hand when she waxed dramatic and told of the stories of her pets that had been sold, given away or died. Ryan's hedgehog had died the night before (This weekend gave me a plethora of blog fodder... more later on the hedgehog saga.) so she was pretty traumatized and one of her photos was another pet that she'd loved, so it got her on the topic of pets.Before the judge heard the pet stories, Meri had already gotten 7 blue ribbons off of her. After the stories, the next 3 photos got orange dots, which could turn into purple... Hmmm - strong emotions = orange dot. *check* We checked back the next day and they turned into blues instead. Then she got a blue on her card project.Maddy got 8 blues, 1 red and 1 purple on her photos! She was so shocked that the ones she felt the most strongly about didn't do as well as the photos she didn't think would even get a blue. But it's the mood of the judge and what THEY'RE looking for! darn. But she still did so well! Don't know what she's upset about really...On Friday night, Meri did the hem on her dress. Isn't that always the way? :) On Saturday morning, she wore it to meet with the judges again. She told all about her dress! How she designed it, made the pattern out of wrapping paper, cut it out and sewed it all up, all by herself. The judge was SO SEW impressed! Here is a 4th grader, 1st year 4H member that had designed and sewed a dress all on her own! How could she not be? I definitely am!

Before - link to the post about this dress.

Finished product

So at the style show that afternoon, Meri strutted her stuff. She'd taken all the advice the judge had given her. Painted her nails green, found a necklace to match, etc. She walked from one side of the stage to the other, striking a pose at each spot. Next year she has vowed to do her Blue Steel look, and possibly Magnum... (watch the movie Zoolander and you'll know what I mean...)

At the end of the show, the participants got their ribbons. The judge who had talked with Meri did the announcing and talked about Meri specifically! I was so surprised and proud of that girl that my eyes started squirting... in a good way... Meri got the Top Award for the Fashion Revue section of the show!

I guess next year, she designs a prom dress... Do 11 year olds go to prom?

Rumor has it! Almost completely...

I got a call from our 4H leader that some mayhem had happened at our local county fair grounds and then I heard from others. Apparently people have been playing a bit of phone tag with a deaf person... here's the rumor...

Someone had broken into one of the buildings with the Cloverkid/Sewing/Clothing/Cooking projects. The Cloverkid projects had chocolate syrup dumped on them and several items going to the State fair had been thrown in the trash soaked with the chocolate syrup. Also pillows had been slashed.

Here is reality...

Sometime between 9 and 10am, someone must have found a bottle of chocolate syrup in the buildings fridge and decided to wreck a poster and ribbon that a Cloverkid had done on Cystic Fibrosis. Some had gotten on other projects, but that was the main one. Nothing else had been damaged that couldn't be fixed easily.

But really now.... Why would someone destroy a project that a little kid (Cloverkids are 3rd grade and below) worked so hard on and was so proud of? I'm thinking some young kid around 10-15 who thinks this is funny.

You will be caught... Make no mistake...

None of Meri's items were touched. Whew! Meri & I went last night to the final announcements of special winners. We had missed Maddy's name being announced for the State Fair by only a few minutes. Darn. But we got to watch the cream of the crop do some championship herding. Meri thought they were mean to be herding the hogs around with sticks. They're just thick plastic and they weren't being mean...

We got our final fair food in the shape of cheese pizza, walking tacos and pickles. I don't think I got a single fried Oreo this year! There's always the State Fair tho I guess and there, they'll serve anything on a stick!

Is the best state fair in our state!!

Wow! Sunday was good! Ryan got up super early to help serve breakfast at the 4H food stand. Maddy headed off to detassel, Grandma headed off to work and the last 3 of us got ready for church. After that, Meri and I went back to the county fair and she stood up in front of about 100 people and told about her puppy poster.

Then at 6:30pm the Share the Fun show started.

Ryan sang Camp Out, which while he was singing it made me wonder if this was a very good choice for this event... How many people were wondering what's the real meaning behind the song and staring at the back of my head???... I may be a horrible mother.... He sang and played it very well tho and got a blue ribbon! He also got almost every single girl to come swooning to him later. "Oh Ryan!!! You sang that so nice!! You're so good!!"

The big news of the night!... Wait for it!!!... Maddy played A River Flows In You by Yiruma and only had a few mistakes that only her mother would hear. Well... maybe you will to. It was great and she gets to play it again at the State Fair in a few weeks!! She had been trying now for two years and she finally made it this year! WOOHOO!


Sorry for the quality of the video. Meri was holding the camera and jiggling as well as playing with the zoom. AND she's humming along.... lol! I just noticed it while I watched the video again.

A few shots so far so various fair stuff...
Meri at the small pets show.
All the Cloverkids and their small pets from our club.
Ryan tuning up before playing his own song for a judge Thursday.

Asleep on my lap amongst the flower exhibits.

Saturday Sights and Sounds

Saturday was exhausting! We made it to the fairgrounds by 10:30am after stopping for crickets for Meri's frog. She showed it at 11 and got her coveted green participation ribbon. (She can't wait until next year...)

We found a geocache on the fair grounds and Meri & I met the kid who had planted it. For the rest of the day whenever we saw him, he handed us more info on caches or gave us a geocoin or little cache bottle. He claims to have about 30 ready and waiting at home. I was beginning to wish we had not brought the coordinates with us...

After a great smoked pull pork sandwich, we said goodbye to my sister-in-law, niece and nephew as they were headed back home. Robb took the frog home and practiced bagpipes the rest of the afternoon. The kids and I worked at the 4H food stand for a couple hours, then explored until our next volunteer gig at one of the exhibit halls.

By this time, Maddy had ditched and gotten Robb to come get her. So it was just the two and me. Ryan took most of my fair food money and ran to Ames for some guitar thing he HAD to have before Sunday's Share the Fun show. So Meri and I were on our own for a little while. She was exhausted and had a headache, so we scrounged her up an ibuprofen and then went into an exhibit hall to find some chairs. So for 30 minutes she slept on my lap sprawled across some folding chairs. I think my legs fell asleep...

After that, her headache was mostly gone, but she was really weepy. We stood in line for the free BBQ but she was really weepy and draping on me. So I sat her on a bench, got our food and we ate in the car. Rather, I did. She wasn't feeling like it. So instead of going to the Celebrity Milk Off, I took her home. Ryan had gotten back to the fair just as we were leaving, so he went. Then he stayed for the teen dance.

Once home, Meri had woken up a little bit and we watched the rest of the next North & South episode and then I was exhausted and she was wide awake.

What a long day! Just reviewing my day yesterday makes me tired... Today is the Cloverkid Show & Tell time this afternoon after church, then Share the Fun talent show tonight. I should have some good pics at that. Maybe a video...

Have a great day!