Wes & Erica spend a weekend at the fair, part 2.

To get us in the mood for Halloween, here are my favorite pumpkins from the 4H competition: the hollowed out purple monster on the top left, the box of donuts on the top right, the ice cream cone on the bottom left and the root beer on the bottom right.

I'm back with more fair fun and pictures! As I mentioned last week, Wes & I spent a majority of the afternoon indoors instead of outside. One building that was particularly interesting was the creative arts building (aka the 4H building). I'm not sure what 4H is but I don't think it's necessarily very artistic. I suppose a lot of the children's offerings were creative, though. It was more like very advanced home economics. My public-school education didn't offer 4H but if it did, I would have probably both participated and excelled in it. It was a bunch of kids' cooking projects, home grown vegetables and random display boards with whatever projects they wanted to display. I saw a project on how to clean a gun, how to properly express emotions through facial expressions (Wes claimed that mad and angry looked identical) and the joys of raising a litter of pit bull puppies. 

My dream is to be a middle-aged lady who brings sewing projects to the fair and has people complement me on my talent all day long. 

After thoroughly exploring the 4H building and poking fun at the children's projects, we decided to head back outside. (We weren't rude and none of the children were present. Plus, who doesn't laugh when they see an entire project dedicated on the many uses of rabbit poo?)

Bees and rabbits! 

Some other things we saw throughout the day were: a martial arts demonstration (it was more of a self defense demonstration), a pair of elderly ladies walking around in those novelty t-shirts that have a sexy beach body printed on them to make it seem as if the person wearing the t-shirt is sporting the body, and I sampled peach pineapple jelly (not very tasty).

Derek Shaw's martial arts demonstration.

Next on our agenda was the Swifty Swine Pig Races. Another thing I did not know existed. There were three races and each pig in the heat had a silly name like Ba-rack-o-ribs Obama and Brad Pig. The pigs ran around a little track and the winner was awarded an Oreo. The star of the show was Swifty, who was a swimming pig. They brought him out to a cheering audience. He took a dump, jumped into a trough of water, swam across and then ate an Oreo. It doesn't sound that exciting but it was actually rather fun to watch. 

As evening came, the fair offered some live music. 

The first performance was by a trio of drummers who call themselves Junk Rock. Their drum kits are made from buckets, old drum pieces and PVC pipe. It was really neat. One of their songs was a cover of the nostalgic, Wipe Out. They asked the audience to dance along and a lot of the elderly did! I wish I'll end up happy and carefree in my old age. One of the other songs the drummers covered was Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off." All of their other songs were originals.

The next set was an Elvis impersonation contest. Behind the Zoppe circus and fair food, this was my favorite part of the day. The competition was regional so we saw Elvises from all over the United States and we also saw Cody Ray Slaughter. He is a famous Elvis impersonator who has toured & performed live as "Elvis" and appeared late night television. He sang one song and was really impressive but for some reason, he didn't dress in costume. He just wore jeans and t-shirt. Maybe he got funnel cake on his Elvis costume. We saw 6 or 7 Elvis impersonators. Most of them were the older Vegas-era Elvises. I prefer the younger Jail House Rock era Elvis but the impersonators were very entertaining. One posed down on his knees and then sang, "I hope this suit doesn't tear." The competitors who advance from our state fair move on to the finals at the Florida state fair. 

So there you have it... a very full day at the Oklahoma State Fair! The fair isn't just for children and hillbillies. Lots of good shows, food and a little bit of education. 

Erica is throwing it back to Easter Sunday

Sadie and myself in our pretty Easter dresses : )

It is growing near my bedtime as I write this so I'll make it quick. I baked oatmeal raisin cookies to bring to my mom's for Easter. I also baked some for my coworkers. I didn't want to just package them in sandwich bags so I made some super quick Easter baskets. I made these in literally like three minutes. And they were free (as in I had to buy zero materials for them). They aren't the best quality but if you go with these basic instructions, you can add some pizzazz to them and turn them into something a lot nicer.

Paper sack Easter basket tutorial:

             Materials needed - paper sacks (I used the bags that liquor stores put your wine in), clear tape and scissors.

1. Cut the top 4 inches off the paper sack.

2. Cut two slits half way down the side of the paper sack.

3. Fold the paper sack in half. Fold the sides down where the slits are. Tape the sides together after they are folded down. The paper sack will now look like a basket. 

4. Cut the remaining part of the paper sack (the top half that we cut off in step #1) into three equal pieces. 

5. Crumple each piece until it looks like a piece of rope. Tape the ends of all three pieces together and braid them together. Now you have a handle to go on your basket. Tape the handle to the basket and you're all done. I didn't have much time for decorating but I bet you could make some really nice baskets if you spend some time on it. I would have loved to paint mine or glue floral arrangements on them. But, time and I don't get along and I am running late more often than I would like.

Just for kicks, here is me and Wes' Easter picture we took at my mom's.

Merry, jolly, white Christmas from Erica and Sadie!

Last week, my work had an ornament exchange. Everyone brings an ornament; its put in a gift sack and the participant gets to draw a number in return. Later in the day, the participants get to take home the ornament that matches the number they drew in the morning. Some had secondary numbers that corresponded to matching gift cards but I didn't get one of those. I got a nice glittery ornament shaped as a sleigh filled with presents.

For this event, I wanted to make my own ornament (its so close to Christmas, I bet there aren't any good ones left at the stores anyway). I was born in Michigan so I'm pretty sure the love of snow and winter weather is in my blood. Here's a quick run down on how my sparkly snowflake ornaments came to be. They turned out a bit more elementary than I would have preferred but that makes this a great project to do with children.

Materials needed:

dowels, craft glue, wire cutters, paint, glitter, paper plate, ribbon, ruler, paint brush

1. Measure and cut the dowels into pieces to form geometric patterns. I played around with a few shapes and designs. Arrange the pieces on the paper plate into any pattern of your choosing.

2. Glue the pieces together and paint both sides of your snowflake. I waited about an hour to let my glue fully dry before painting. It probably took forever because I used an excessive amount of glue (as you can see in the picture above). Then after painting, I let 'em dry overnight (it was getting late anyway).
3. Using the paintbrush, spread glue all over the snowflake. Then sprinkle generously with glitter. Make sure the whole thing is coated!!

4. Tie ribbon on top to use as the loop to hang on the tree.

I made three so each of my coworkers could either keep one or use it to participate in the ornament exchange. Only a few more days until Christmas. Is all your crafting done? I'm done with my DIY gifts : ) Now all I have left to do is baking...chocolate peppermint bark and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. Yum!