Friday, July 25, 2008

County Fair

In case you didn't know, the Franklin County Fair was going on last week. Don't feel bad if you missed it. It's a rather lame fair, I must admit. In the rural area where I grew up, the county fair is a HUGE, put-on-your-Sunday-best-type of affair and well, the Franklin County fair pales in comparison. (I assume this is because the majority of Franklin County is comprised of asphalt and suburbia.) However since the fairgrounds are just a stones throw away from my house I decided this year to not only attend but actually participate! Of course, I don't have cattle, swine or goats to exhibit but there is a "Home and Fine Arts" category that I took full advantage of. I entered my strawberry jam, a couple of photographs, several sewing and craft projects and homemade bread. Unfortunately/fortunately (depending on how you look at it) the art of homemaking is NOT alive in central Ohio because due to lack of or in some cases, no competition, I took home a couple of first place ribbons, a couple of second place ribbons and even one best of show ribbon. There is also a nominal amount of money associated with each ribbon which basically covered my entry fees and the exhibitor season pass I was required to purchase. So in the end, I will have walked away with about ten bucks (woo hoo!), a handful of ribbons which I plan to frame and hang in our living room (joking), access to the fair all week (oh yeah) and bragging rights for an indefinite amount of time. Not bad. I think I'll do it again next year.

Note: If you live in the Central Ohio area and have some homemaking and/or artistic skills you want to share, you should think about participating. Seriously, the competition is slim to none which drastically increases your odds of winning. In fact, I think it was my sister who said the home and fine arts building at the fair reminded her of a creepy garage sale. If you're interested, find out more information about exhibiting your goods here.

4 comments:

Thomas Family said...

Oh Kim, I'm so proud of you!! The fair we have in our county sounds a lot like yours. I never thought about actually entering things. I bet I could give those old ladies a run for their money!

Anonymous said...

I can vouch for the quality of that strawberry jam! I took my birthday jar of jam to a dinner party that I was invited to, and we all thought that it was on the verge of decadent. Yum.

. said...

yay! congrats on all your ribbons! I don't doubt that you impressed all the judges.

Melissa said...

Way to go you crafty woman you! That sounds awesome to walk away with all those ribbons. You should frame them but tell people there were hundreds even thousands of competitors!! They'll believe you. You are amazing.