2011 Entry Completion List

Check back - as I get projects done this fall and winter I will upload photos for each completion!

We'll see - maybe another hundred is within reach!

Note on recipes:

1. In prior years rules you may use the same recipe in two different divisions.  So you may see me count the same recipe twice and for Iowa State Fair purposes that's OK!    For now I am using the 2010 Fair Entry Book so classes are subject to change. 
2. You may see a test kitchen recipe that makes its way over to my entry list.  When this is the case, I have modified the recipe so that I'm not copying someone else's work (except for canned goods - those are by the book).  
3. This will be familiar to those that followed last year - fair entry recipes will not be shared until after the fair (and only if they are ribbon winners).  
4. Finally for a recipe to be uploaded here it must be entry recipe ready (meaning I have the recipe typed up in my entry format I utilize for the fair) and filed in my 2011 ISF Entry Folder.

Entry #1:  Honey Bun Carmel Corn - 1st Division 

Entry #2: Honey Bun Caramel Corn - 2nd Division

Entry #3: Small Cross Stitch

Entry #4: Spritz Cookies

2010 Completed Entries (100)

100 Entries Completion List (101)

Ribbons Key Code:

• Overall in Class/Champion
• First
• Second
• Third
• Fourth
• Fifth

1. Foods; Division 190, Class 760, Pies with Keebler Crusts
2. Foods; Division 187, Class 757, Cherry Pie
3. Foods; Division 185, Class 755, It's Peach Pie
4. Foods; Division 183, Class 742, Lattice Top Cherry Pie
5. Foods; Division 183, Class 741 - Peach Pie
6. Foods; Division 183, Class 728 - Blueberry Pie
7. Foods; Division 173, Class 712 - Gurley's Breads
8. Foods; Division 169, Class 707 - Molasses - Breads
9. Foods; Division 132, Class 640 - Salad Dressing
10. Foods; Division 132, Class 637 - Honey Butter
11. Foods; Division 132, Class 620 - Foods Made with Honey - Oatmeal Bread
12. Foods; Division 122, Class 598 - Key Lime Challenge
13. Foods; Division 120, Class 594 - Fruit Pie
14. Foods; Division 99, Class 565 - Eggland's Egg Casserole
15. Foods; Division 98, Class 563 - Egg-ceptional Eggs Entree
16. Foods; Division 90, Class 550 - Holiday Cookies & Desserts
17. Foods; Division 89, Class 549 - Ox Yoke Restaurant's 70th Anniversary Dessert
18. Foods; Division 68, Class 521 - Pumpkin Patch Cookies
19. Foods; Division 66, Class 519 - Rollout Frosted Cookies7
20. Foods; Division 64, Class 473 - Spritz
21. Foods; Division 64, Class 461 - Brownies no frosting
22. Foods; Division 61, Class 455 - Maytag Blue Cheese
23. Foods; Division 56, Class 437 - Fruit Butters other than named
24. Foods; Division 56, Class 431 - Peach Butter
25. Foods; Division 55, Class 426 - Strawberry Preserves
26. Foods; Division 55, Class 421 - Peach Preserves
27. Foods; Division 54, Class 414 - Sweet Sauces/Topping
28. Foods; Division 54, Class 412 - Strawberry Jam
29. Foods; Division 54, Class 402 - Cherry Jam
30. Foods; Division 54, Class 399 - Cherry Jam
31. Foods; Division 53, Class 388 - Currant Jelly
32. Foods; Division 52, Class 370 - Tomato Juice
33. Foods; Division 52, Class 360 - Cream Style Corn
34. Foods; Division 52, Class 359 - Whole Kernel Corn
35. Foods; Division 52, Class 355 - Green Beans
36. Foods; Division 51, Class 354 - Canned Fruits other than named (cherries)
37. Foods; Division 50, Class 334 - Tomato Sauce (seasoned)
38. Foods; Division 50, Class 332 - Spaghetti Sauce w/out Meat
39. Foods; Division 50, Class 330 - Salsa
40. Foods; Division 49, Class 324 - Sweet Pickle Relish
41. Foods; Division 49, Class 316 - Corn Relish
42. Foods; Division 49, Class 313 - Chili Sauce
43. Foods; Division 48, Class 309 - Vegetable Pickles - other
44. Foods; Division 48, Class 293 - Sweet Pickles sliced horizontally
45. Foods; Division 48, Class 291 - Bread & Butter Pickles
46. Foods; Division 41, Class 270 - Cream Cheese Mints
47. Foods; Division 34, Class 243 - Chocolate Zucchini Cake
48. Foods; Division 27, Class 178 - Extra Special Breakfast
49. Foods; Division 23, Class 172 - Cinnamon Rolls - Non traditional
50. Foods; Division 22, Class 170 - Cinnamon Rolls - Sticky Caramel
51. Foods; Division 21, Class 168 - Sweet Rolls - other
52. Foods; Division 21, Class 166 - Coffee Cake
53. Foods; Division 21, Class 163 - Hamburger Buns
54. Foods; Division 21, Class 161 - Potato Rolls
55. Foods; Division 17, Class 153 - Rolls & Breads
56. Foods; Division 17, Class 151 - Quick Breads
57. Foods; Division 13, Class 147 - Banana Nut Bread
58. Foods; Division 13, Class 146 - Banana Bread
59. Foods; Division 11, Class 144 - Quick Bread other than Named
60. Foods; Division 11, Class 139 - Pumpkin Date Bread
61. Foods; Division 11, Class 129 - Fresh Fruit Bread
62. Foods; Division 10, Class 119 - Sally Lunn
63. Foods; Division 10, Class 115 - Rye Bread
64. Foods; Division 10, Class 109 - Potato Bread
65. Foods; Division 10, Class 107 - Oatmeal Bread
66. Foods; Division 10, Class 106 - Bread Machine Bread
67. Foods; Division 10, Class 102 - Dilly Bread
68. Foods; Division 10, Class 100 - Beer Bread
69. Foods; Division 10, Class 99 - Anadama Bread
70. Foods; Division 5, Class 91 - Appetizer
71. Foods; Division 4, Class 90 - Healthy Beef Appetizer
72. Floriculture; Division 221, Class 516 - My Favorite Flowers
73. Floriculture; Division 221, Class 515 - Antique Like Container
74. Floriculture; Division 201, Class 25 - Holiday Tree
75. Floriculture; Division 201, Class 17 - Pot of Gold
76. Floriculture; Division 201, Class 16 - Culinary Caper
77. Floriculture; Division 201, Class 15 - Country Garden
78. Floriculture; Division 209 Limited Classes, Class 459 - Tea for Two (small table)
79. Fabric; Division 64 Toys and Dolls, Class 275 - Doll Garment
80. Fabric; Division 61, Class 214 - Bag
81. Fabric; Division 63 Sewing for the Home, Class 258 - Apron
82. Fabric; Division 52, Class 32 - Verse or Motto (over 20 inches)
83.  Fabric; Division 52, Counted Cross Stitch, Class 28 - Picture (10 - 20 inches)
84. Horticulture; Division 134, Class 239 - Rosemary
85. Horticulture; Division 134, Class 237 - Thyme
86. Horticulture; Division 134, Class 236 - Sage
87. Horticulture; Division 134, Class 235 - Parsley
88. Horticulture; Division 134, Class 233 - Greek Oregano
89. Horticulture; Division 130, Class 215 - Pumpkin, ornamental, mini-white
90. Horticulture; Division 130, Class 201 - Tomatoes, Cherry, red
91. Horticulture; Division 130, Class 133 - Beans, Snap, Green
92.  Heritage; Division 714, Class 111 - Christmas Ornament
93.  Heritage; Division 714, Class 107 - Iowa Souvenir
94.  Heritage; Division 707, Class 65 - Worthy Item Not Listed
95. Heritage; Division 706, Class 55 - Book - Children's
96.  Heritage; Division 706, Class 54 - Book
97. Heritage; Division 704, Class 43 - Worthy Item Not Listed
98.  Heritage; Division 704, Class 42 - Cast iron bank
99.  Heritage; Division 702, Class 14 - Water Pitcher - Pressed
100.  Heritage; Division 701, Class 12 - Worthy Item Not Listed
101.  Heritage Exhibits; Division 700, Class 6 - Slag or Milk Glass

The Monday After

THANK YOU!

Thanks to everyone that has supported me along the way!  I hope everyone had a terrific Iowa State Fair.  My fair challenge officially ended today when I went with the family to pick up all the ribbons and entries needing to be collected (and comment cards).

I do promise that I will post the winning recipes.  I will work on those later this week along with a detailed account of how the fair went.  I apologize that I haven't blogged during the fair but between soggy basements, finishing projects and making sure my boys had the attention they needed I haven't had a lot of time.

Just a few highlights -- 100 entries was achieved on the last Friday of the ISF with some floriculuture design entries!  All told I had a 32% rate on ribbons/placing (yes, 32 ribbons from 100 entries).  I am actually pretty excited about that number.  OK - Alan had 50% (1 placing out of 2 entries) - still.

Ribbon Count:
Overall Winner in a Division: 2
First Place: 8
Second Place: 9
Third Place: 8
Fourth Place: 4
Fifth Place: 1

Hmm, tonight sounds like a good night to take it easy and start a new cross stitch project (a new pattern I ordered just arrived in the mail last week)!

Day 2 - State Fair Update

Whew!  Just sitting down to type a bit.  Just started the dishwasher and can see my kitchen counters again.  It's been a crazy few days since last I blogged.  Since I am going on very little sleep I will keep the blog short.

Saturday was pretty much spent baking bread.  I baked too long and put off the homework of entry tags and typing up recipes so was up much too late Saturday night (well into Sunday morning).  Made it to the fairgrounds early Sunday to submit the first food entries.  Mainly all breads and canned goods.  Last night as I was working on some of my recipes to complete them the nasty storm came through.  I unplugged the computer to keep working and went on battery power.  Luckily the battery does pretty well.  Then the storms got worse so I stayed up to make sure the kids would be OK.  Then we lost power (I worked on typing up some recipes by candlelight) - so stayed up later yet to make sure it came back on - otherwise I would have needed to do something different with boys' sleeping arrangements since their rooms get quite warm.  Finally went to bed only to wake up every hour as that seemed to be how often the storm intensified.

This morning the boys and I packed up and headed back to the fair with my entries to be judged today and tomorrow.  I won't be going down tomorrow - need to can up the rest of the peaches and work on some entries for later in the week.  Plus, we need groceries.  We also entered the Heritage Exhibits today.  I bribed Clark when we got there.  As we drove up the hill he saw the antique tractors that were set up and wanted to see them.  So, I told him if he was a good boy and patient (yes, he is beginning to understand that word) we'd look at tractors after we entered the exhibits.  He was good so after we went out and looked at the tractors.  I'm sure we'll be back many times in the next two weeks.  Grant practiced hill toddling.  Totally different learning how to balance going downhill.  And yet another change of muscles and balance going uphill.  It was fun to watch.

Not sure yet how most of the entries have done.  It's just too hard to stay for judging with the little ones.  I do know that in breads I had the first in class Rye Bread and Bread Machine Bread (second year in a row placing in that class - must be the awesome machine mom and dad got me as a Christmas gift).  Also, had the second place in class Beer Bread and Potato Bread.  The potato bread recipe is a keeper in my book - used fresh chives and is very yummy.

Those of you entering in the fair I hope all is going well for you!  Let me know how you do if you have the time!

Day 5 - IPTV Day

Today began the bread baking regime.  Actually not that bad.  By the end of the night I should have 4 breads done.  Have a few more in process to start right away tomorrow morning.  Below is the picture of my dilly bread I made for the TV spot.  It looked so beautiful coming out of the oven but fell completely flat after I took it out.  I let it raise too much on the second rise and thus collapse.  However, it tasted great and this meant we were able to eat bread for morning snack and with soup at lunch.  Dilly bread is our favorite bread to pair with soup.  In this family we pair breads to main dishes rather than wine - odd, I know.

IPTV came out to film a spot for the ISF show.  It was pretty fun.  Everyone got in on the action - even Clark.  They filmed Alan working on his soup and me working on some bread.

Clark pretty much played in his room but he did come out to help measure and see the action for awhile.

Why you ask am I wearing a head kerchief - food safety!  Or maybe just food etiquette.  The last thing I want is for a judge to find some of my hair so I aways make sure it's well covered.  Speaking of hair, I did go Wednesday evening to have it colored and cut.  You know, different look so no one recognizes me later this week :)  Just kidding - it was time for a change.

Now to play a bit of catch up:
Wednesday -- 
While we were at Hobby Lobby we walked past the model aisle.  I was slightly ahead of Clark when suddenly I heard - "Mommy - LOOK!"  That kid found the treasure chest of aisles.  I had been wanting to find him some glow in the dark stars for his room so we picked out a set with planets and stars.  He held it the whole way home.  Last night we put a few up to keep him satisfied.  Today we put them all on the ceiling.  He couldn't wait for it to get dark tonight!

Daddy also got out one of his StarTrek Starship Enterprises to hang on from the ceiling.  Clark was overjoyed.  I was amazed it came out of it's original packaging.  It is fun to watch the older Clark gets the more things he enjoys.  Space and anything related to it is definitely at the top of his list.

It was rather cute while we were at Hobby Lobby because Clark also picked out some craft glue (which we did need anyway) and said, "I want to go home and craft with you mommy!"  He's going to be my little crafter - he loves the craft room and all things craft related.  When we got home I showed him how to paint rocks.  He was so excited and made a very pretty rock.

Thursday:
Cleaning and Peaches.  Had to clean the house for multiple reasons.  A. this family does not function well when things are a mess, B. company was coming (with cameras) and C. I would rather work out of a clean house and come home to a clean house during this busy season.  Clark loved his newly cleaned room and today decided to pick up everything off the floor before nap to keep it nice and clean.

PEACHES!  This is why I did not blog yesterday.  I was up until midnight trying to finish off peaches before the ISF.  I just didn't want them going bad while we were busy with other things.  Put up Peach Jam (yum yum), Peach Butter and Peach Preserves.  A lot of my peaches still weren't ready so I am going to have to refrigerate them and find time to put them up.  (This is if Clark and Grant don't eat them all).

I had to share kitchen space with Alan yesterday as he worked on his soup preparations for his entry.

Mmm - roasted chicken for the soup with fresh herbs straight from the backyard.  Hard to beat. Today Grant helped with cutting the vegetables.

Anyway, I think that pretty much catches us up to date.  The next few days will be quite busy but I will try to blog as I can.  Sunday it begins - hope to see you at the fair!

Day 8 - Water Bath

This morning I asked myself - "fire up the water bath today, or not?"  Meh - I decided how could I just let it sit there.  Plus, I had a bag of garlic saying use me before I go bad.  No - my food doesn't really talk to me (it just silently sits there and guilts me into using it).  So, we made some caramelized onion and garlic jam.  I have wanted to try a savory jam and this one sounded especially good.  Clark helped with the chopping of onions by telling me - "it's OK mommy, you don't need to cry."  He also helped me wrap the garlic in foil to roast in the oven.  After nap we tried some for our afternoon snack with some crackers.  It's not too bad.  Would like to see how it goes with meat and cheese also.

Baked two cakes today.  A banana cake and a limeade cake.  I made the banana cake simply to get rid of some ripe bananas.  The limeade cake is simply yummy.  However, I discovered I had run out of the spray on baking spray with flour.  Had to grease and flour the pans the old fashioned way.  It worked but the other is better and faster.  For the limeade cake I had to use three 9" pans.  I have two sets of 9" pans.  So I used one pan from the other set to get my three layers.  I discovered this pan works so much better than the other set (that I thought was the nicer one).  Hmm, will be using the other set more frequently now.

See - look how nice this layer looks.  Yes, it is done even it doesn't look like it.

vs. 

Arghh - these released from the pans so poorly and over baked the edges. 

Amazingly these were in 5 minutes LESS than the other pan. 

All fixable but the other pan turned out so nice.

Here are the banana cake layers.

I think these would have been nicer done in the other pan set.  In the end it's all about learning.

Concluded the day by watching the boys play in the bath.  Now that they are in bed I can begin cleaning efforts.  Somehow cleaning with them underfoot ends up in at least as much mess as I started with if not more.  Although I must admit Grant loves to throw things in baskets and buckets.  And when I tell Clark his room is too messy to put the tent up the floor magically becomes clean.

Day 9 - Photo Finish

As I draw into the week of project deadlines for the ISF I find myself reminiscing on fairs past.  Why?  Mainly because I was asked today to locate old photos of myself exhibiting at past fairs.  Yes, IPTV called today and we have rescheduled for this Friday.  Along with doing the video taping here they requested I find some photos of my husband and myself at former fairs.  Tonight the family went through boxes trying to find some old photos to utilize.  Clark was pretty excited because we found a box of old toys that included some old Hot Wheels and Transformers for him to play with.  I found my old 4H record book - that brought back memories.  I suppose as much as I disliked putting it together at the time it is fun to look back at now.  I realize I was as nuts then as I am now.  I don't remember half those projects but man there were a lot of them.

Currently I am printing off some old photos of my grandmother in order to work on my scrapbook page.  I found a nice sepia tone paper that I want to use with her old ISU (should say ISC) days.

Today I managed to freeze 16 quarts of sweet corn, processed 8 pints of cream-style corn, and froze 3 dozen ears of corn on the cob.  This makes a sweet corn total of 20 quarts frozen corn, 7 quarts canned corn, 8 pints canned cream style corn and 4 dozen ears of corn on the cob.  That should see us through much of the winter.

This morning Clark asked if I would make cookies.  I asked what kind he wanted.  He told me the brown ones were his favorite.  Since that was the most detail I could get out of him I made a batch of molasses cookies.  Baking cookies in summer messes with me.  I needed to add more flour to this batch as you can plainly see.

But Clark liked them even if they were flat and smooshy.  Grant enjoyed one as well.  Alan was just happy to see cookies that didn't have to be put away for the ISF.

Finally - Beth, this photo is for you.  As I was looking through my old record book I came across this project. the doll is mine but guess who did the cute pot of flowers right next to my paper twist doll?  You should probably ask your husband.  Yes, those flowers were made by a current ISF Board member - let the games begin.

Day 11 - Weekend Update

Happy 40th Wedding Anniversary Mom & Dad!

For those of you who thought I went missing - my apologies.  We went up to visit my parents for the weekend and celebrate their wedding anniversary along with my siblings and their families.  It was a great weekend and so much fun to share time together!

I decide this was as good a time to post as any.  I am waiting for the pressure canner to finish losing pressure so the corn can come out.  After we returned home today we put up 7 quarts of whole kernel corn.  Plus, I froze another 2 quarts in pint bags and froze a dozen whole ears of corn (yummy roasted with honey in the winter).

Here's a bit of play by play from our weekend:

FRIDAY:
After lunch my sister-in-law, mom and I went into town to do some shopping downtown.  Now some laughed when Hollie suggested we shop downtown Algona but she actually had a great idea and the stores we visited were wonderful!  All I have to say is - who would believe how many items I found back in my hometown that I had been looking for in order to finish some ISF entries?

Here is my teapot set that I found (I absolutely love it!):

Look - it can be put with so many different colors and color combinations since green is a neutral color when working with flowers!  I was so excited - plus it wasn't nearly as expensive as I feared it might be.  Actually a very good price and I can use it for many years.  If only I could get my taste buds to like tea - I've tried, grandma tried - it's no use.

We also visited a scrapbook store where I found some great paper to do my scrapbook page layouts.  I can't believe the selection they had.  And Hollie and I both found some pretty tops to wear.  I decided it might be a good idea to have a couple new shirts for the state fair since getting laundry done those two weeks may prove to be a challenge (and the sale was really good).  The guys went to pick sweet corn while we went shopping. I know not such a fair trade.  However, we did bring home chocolate from the new chocolate store in town (yum)!  Also, found out that the Faye Alberta peaches were in - my sister picked up 4 lugs for me (add peaches to the to do list for the week).

That evening the boys all got to sleep out in a tent with my brother.  The boys all seemed to enjoy it (not sure about Uncle Carl).  Grandma gave them Toy Story flashlights to use (play with) in the dark.

After the boys were in bed I broke out my cake decorating supplies to put the cake together.  Dad gave me a lesson on rose making!  Don't know that I'll ever get them down as good as his but it was great to learn.  My dad actually learned the art from his dad.  My grandpa used to do the roses for all the cakes.  Grandma would bake the cake, put it together and do the frosting and grandpa would make the roses and do a lot of the piping.  This is what dad told us anyway - since we never knew our Grandpa Clark.  It was so nice to hear the story and get to know my grandpa better through story telling as we decorated the cake.

That pretty much wrapped up Friday.












SATURDAY:
In the morning Clark and his cousin Ty played hopscotch.

Grandma even joined in the fun!

The Hummer in the background is my sister's significant other's new purchase that they are now as I type driving back to Alexandria, VA.  He is a very good mechanic and on Saturday the guys all got to know each other better out in the garage : )

Meanwhile, grandma gave a tour of her garden.  It looks so much better than mine (slightly jealous mom)!  The boys helped her pick some onions and they enjoyed smelling the flowers.

After lunch we all took family pictures in our ISU gear!  There are much better photos than this one but this was one of the better ones on my camera so will have to wait until the more professional ones get uploaded.  I did have a minor meltdown after photos when I realized how bad my hair looked.  Before the ISF I will be getting my hair done!  Yeah - more stuff to cram into this next week!

After nap time the boys went out to play on the new slip and slide.  That was a great investment on my mom's part.  The boys loved it.  It took the 3 year olds a while to warm up to it but by the end they were splishin' and splashin' away with Gabe (5 years).

Grant watched from a safe distance.  Although his younger cousin Callie thought it was great fun and dived right in.

Even Aunt Em joined in the fun!

Well, that was our weekend.  Even with everything going on I managed to squeeze in some ISF related items with help from family.  The best part was just spending a relaxing time with loved ones.

And with that my corn is ready to take out of the canner and the kitchen needs cleaned because tomorrow I start on food entries with a vengeance!  Not to mention getting the rest of the corn put up and some more beans and we should probably see what the cucumbers are up to in case they need processing this week as well.  Peaches should be ready to go by mid to late week.  Happy week for the chickens with all the scraps!

Day 14 - 2 Weeks Until Opening Day!

Two weeks and counting until opening day.  However, a lot of my food entries will be entered the Sunday through Wednesday prior to that.  And then all of the floriculture and horticulture will be much later into the second week.  Speaking of floriculture and horticulture - this is where I am beginning to wonder whether I will make my 100 entry goal or not.  I was planning on having some entries in these two areas but going out to my garden after the major storms two weeks ago just depresses me.  Looks like I should have some cucumbers both pickling and slicing.  I hope to have some beans still producing.  Other than that, not sure what I'll have.  This is why you never count chickens before they hatch as grandma used to say.

So, the focus turns back to food exhibits because this is where I'll have to make up the difference.  The boys and I splurged on some fondant tools today.  What fun!  We are working on Grandma and Grandpa Clark's 40th Anniversary cakes.  Clark loves cutting the fondant and using the new fondant tools.  He had to know what each one did (I don't even know what they all do).

Last night we had some friends over and Beth commented on some of the shapes we had cut out to set up yesterday.  We both liked utilizing old egg cartons to shape flowers - they work great.

I went to show her the butterflies that we had put in an old birthday card to set the shape and the card was empty.  I asked Alan if he knew where they went.  He mentioned Clark had been playing with it but I still couldn't find them anywhere on the counter.  This morning when Clark came out to the kitchen I asked if he knew where our butterflies went that we had made yesterday.  So honest and point blank; "they went in my tummy mommy!"  Well, mystery solved.  When asked if they tasted good he replied; "yeah, they were good - they're all in my tummy."  Can't fault that logic.

As I am writing tonight I am waiting for the cakes to bake.  I doubled the Golden Vanilla Cake recipe to see if that would work.  So far so good.  This way I should have enough cake for the family get together and some cupcakes to freeze to use for a couple different classes.  We also cut enough fondant flowers to decorate a cake for the Iowa State Fair as well as the one for the family.  I like it when one batch can serve double duty.

We went to town tonight to get some supper.  Afterwards Clark wanted to walk on campus.  It was such a beautiful night it was hard to deny the request.  So we went for a campus walk.  Grant and Clark both loved the fountain outside the Memorial Union and we could have probably stayed much longer than we did.  I mention this because this has become not just a blog regarding fair entries but a daily update of our lives for me to print out for the boys so they have a glimpse as to what went on when they were little.  This little stroll also reminded me that this is where extension stems from and back in the day fair's were showcases and educational platforms for what men and women did during the year.  A way to help other community members learn new techniques as well as show pride in their work and hopefully some winning ribbons. (Currently the songs from the musical "State Fair" are running through my head - who doesn't like the family's contribution to mother's fair winning mincemeat?  If right now you are saying you have never seen State Fair - you need to watch it!).  Side note from my husband - watch the Roy Rogers version rather than the remake.


Anyway I hope there has been some of those same ideals that have gone along with the blog.  And let's not forget the ISF theme this year "Non-Stop Fun."  This has been some fun ride and really it is only now just beginning!

Welcome to those of you joining the blog after reading Cheryl Tevis' article in Successful Farming!  I think the most fun about doing this whole thing has been the new and interesting people I have been able to meet and talk to along the way.  Let me just say my little self - motivational blog for this project has certainly snowballed but I love how many people have shown encouragement along the way.  No, I'm not a crazy women (although many would beg to differ) just a very goal-oriented, progress driven one.  As a person with an Agricultural Education degree I have enjoyed teaching my boys along the way and what they have learned and the skills they show me everyday are the happiest moments of all.

Now, I must go clean my mixer bowl and make frosting.

Day 15 - First 5 Entries Officially Submitted!

Today (Wednesday) we drove to the fairgrounds to submit the first of the 100 entries!  Five down; only 95 left to go!  Since I will not be in central Iowa on Saturday when the Fabric and Thread entries are due I made arrangements with the superintendent of the department to submit my entries today.  It is amazing what Clark remembers.  As we turned onto Corporate Woods Drive in Ankeny to take the back way in to the fairgrounds Clark asked me if we were going to the fair.  Wow!  He knows the way to the fair.  I told him we were but just to drop some items off and then go to the playground on the fair grounds.  He was happy with that.  Of course the first thing he wanted to do when we arrived was ride the Sky Glide.  I told him that would have to wait a couple of weeks.

Lots of activity at the fairgrounds in preparation for the big opening.  Kind of funny because by the day the fair actually opens to the public my entries will be slowing to a trickle.

Here are the five items that are officially entered.

Reversible Apron

Counted Cross Stitch Picture

Counted Cross Stitch Verse

Doll Garment complete with under garments.  Good thing I finally have a niece to start sewing doll clothes for!

Finally the bag I made.  I went a bit off pattern and added more pockets (can never have enough pockets). Can you believe at the auction last week I discovered trim in one of the fabric boxes I bought that actually matched the vintage fabric!  Wow- vintage fabric and trim! I love it!  My husband thinks it's too retro.  I have decided I don't care what his opinion is in this one instance.  I had a hard time entering it actually because it would be such a great bag to use during the fair.  I'll just have to use it next year.

I don't expect any ribbons since I know quite well what flaws there are to find but it will be fun to see them displayed and see what awesome pieces won the classes they are in so I can try to achieve that the next year.  Oh yes, I already have projects on the burner for Fabrics and Threads for next near.  I want to more closely explore the winning exhibits in some of those classes this year to better determine what is looked for by the judges.

So much fun - so much to do!