I finally tracked down that picture. Your quilt is quite lovely Grandmama Congratulations again!

My husband is running my kids to Hutchinson tonight with their (and his) fair entries. I think they're excited about it, but they're also all hopped up on sugar and chocolate and are very grumpy right now.

My husband and I are going to start a new tradition we think.Around here, Mondays are dollar days at the fair, and as a result, that's the day everyone we know goes to the Fair....except us.
We went last night on our $3 exhibition tickets, bought ourselves unlimited ride bracelets, and rode rides from 1pm to 8:30pm. No lines, hardly anybody there. My parents watched our baby so we split into pairs and did lots of ferris wheels, roller coasters, fun houses, and others.
We'll still go Saturday for the buildings and exhibitions, but we'll reserve Wednesday for our ride days.

No lines, hardly anybody there.

Priceless!

Well, I wouldn't say priceless, those wristbands are quite pricey, but we certainly get our money's worth out of them hahaha!

It's summertime and my thoughts that aren't concerned with gardening or camping are turning to State Fair entries! I have a wall quilt that I plan to enter. I'd like to enter 2 things, but the garden is still taking up a lot of my time, so I may have to be content with just one.

This morning I brought my "Creative Activities" entry to the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. It feels strange to be able to drive onto the fairgrounds and to see the grounds without the throngs of people.

It was fun talking to other contributors while standing in line. I did notice that most the people were my age or older. It would be great to see more young people entering their work. Personally, it took me a long time to be convinced that my work was worth entering--an attitude that I think was false. I should have had more confidence in my work.

Just registered my kiddos for pretty much everything in the art departement...and LEGOs. Oh, and Evan wanted to make brownies.
I doubt we'll be this ambitious, but it's free to register now, and I figure I may as well leave all the options open.

The hubs is going to register tonight. I'll probably take a pass this year and focus on helping my kids.

Sounds like a fun -and busy - time, fantasia.

Good luck on your entry, Grandmama. If I'm able to make it over to Creative Activities I'll look for it (my knee will likely hinder the usual trek around the fairgrounds).

Hard to believe it's almost fair time already. Where has the year gone?

And as often seems to happen, there's one big last burst of heat around fair time, with temps expected to be close to 90F/32C next week (rather warm, by local standards, for this late in the summer).

Grandma. If I may ask, what did you enter? I have a sibling who also entered something this year. He had already entered it into the county fair. I must admit entering that building is one of the highlights of the day. I compleatly forgot about LEGOs fantasia. Now I have an excuse to look for them.
The Mrs., and I plan on attending this year, and we missed out on entering some photos of our trip to Yellowstone, and Glacier, ( such is the forgetfulness ). We have been doing some canning, and I think next year we might try some jam.
A yes, the heat. Just a reminder to us all stargazer to remain hydrated
While all the sugary drinks are tempting, they do nothing for us in the long run.

Yes, you may ask.

I entered a quilted wall hanging called "Christmas Star". It is black, red, green and gold with a pieced star in the center and some appliqued poinsettias around the outside.

What day do you plan to attend? I will probably be there Monday, the 26th since my grandkids will be at our house on opening day and I avoid weekends like the plague. However, you can view the results online so I won't have to wait 5 days to find out if it placed.

We hope to be there this weekend. But you know how "best laid plans" go. Might have a tornado, or traffic jam. We haven't had an earthquake lately.
But. We do plan on attending no matter what calamity may befall us. And I shall make a effort to look for your entry. Best of luck!
I just mentioned it to the Mrs., while sitting here, and she asked me to cpy the discription for her. She has lately caught "the quilting bug" as she calls it after making one for the offspring last year. So it is set in stone. We shall be looking.

Today was my day at "the Great Minnesota Get Together" AKA, the State Fair. I went early to avoid the crowds and managed to not have to stand in any long lines! Had some yummy fair food (a waffle folded around marinated pork, pineapple, salsa and onions) and some so-so fair food (blueberry key lime pie in a graham cracker crust). I spent most of my time admiring gorgeous quilts, wood working, stained glass, embroidery, etc in the Creative Activities building.

It started raining in the afternoon, but by then I was ready to go home, so it was a good day all around.

After spending close to 2 hours admiring all the handiwork, once I got home, I started working on an entry for next year!

You picked a great day to go, Grandmama! The weather was nice for most of your visit, and it was one of the few days this year that have not set new attendance records.

The weather is unusually pleasant for this run of the fair, for the most part, and while some years it hits 90F/32C, this year it may not even make it to 80F/27C.

I'm not sure which day I'll be attending but they all look nice weather-wise, which probably means this upcoming weekend will be really crowded.

I attended the "Great Minnesota Get-Together" yesterday with over 245,000 of my closest friends. And that figure was with some rain showers that might have kept some people away. We've talked among ourselves that they should look into extending the fair to spread out the crowds, but imagine that might be a problem with vendors having a tight schedule of various fairs to attend.

I made fewer stops than usual since my knees put up a serious fight, but it was still a fun time.

One minor fun thing that happened, unrelated to time at the fair: the park-and-ride buses are popular since they allow you to avoid the packed parking lots. While waiting for our bus to finish loading, the bus radio was playing "Bohemian Rhapsody." About half a dozen people in the bus sang along, harmonies and everything. I was impressed at how good the impromptu "bus ride karaoke" sounded.

Wrapped up our busy State Fair week this week.
My son got a blue ribbon for his brownies, which was very exciting for them (I think there were three entries, so there's that. )
Did loads of rides on Tuesday (bracelet day!) while my parents ran my youngest through all of the animal barns.
Ate all the junk food of course....
So yeah! We had a great time.

Though my husband and I were saying that in the years to come we need to make our time there more efficient because we'd try to go to one thing one child wanted, followed by another thing the second child wanted, and they'd be at the opposite ends of the fairgrounds. We'll have to remember that for next year.