Ren Fest with Sharon - The Final Day of Her Visit

On Monday, Labor Day, DH, Chickie, Sharon and I all gathered at the Renaissance Festival. I don't have a lot of photos from the shops - we walked into EVERY shop out there (DH made sure we didn't miss a single one), and we didn't sit often, but just enough. Aside from the birds which I'm sharing with you once again because they are so beautiful, the big news was my henna. Chickie took photos throughout the process, then one more yesterday afternoon to show how it matured. I'm calling the henna my "Tattoo Trial" because I've really been wanting a head tattoo since I lost my hair. So ... what do you think? LOL. Here's Monday - Sharon's last full day of her visit. 

Here's that lovely Harris Hawk once again. I adore this bird. 

The Peregrine Falcon was quite lively. 

Rosie, the Eurasian Eagle Owl was stately and happy to fly for
a little bit before retreating back to her home. 

The vulture was gorgeous with such a wonderful
wing span. 

I'm sharing the final view because I'm really tight on time.
Here's how my henna looks right now - an Egyptian
Winged Scarab Beetle spread across my skull. I really
love it. 

I should have had several photos of in-progress, but they didn't turn up in the file, so I'll have to track them down. Unfortunately, I'm totally out of time today and have to get to the gym, so my in-process shots for my henna will have to wait. Still, it is the after-effect that's the important thing, don't you think? Have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday - same Bat time, same Bat channel. 

MN State Fair - Day 3 With Sharon, Chickie and DH

Day three, Sunday, was cloudy with a few quick rainstorms. Fortunately we were near the Fine Arts Building at that time, so we ducked into there and looked at the art exhibit, voted for our favorite pieces, and by the time we were done, the rain was too. DH went on ahead and spent several hours on his own looking through things at his own pace. "The girls" and I headed down toward the Creative Activities Building - one of the major stops for us. Again - photo heavy, but lots of wonderful things to share with all of you. 

I'll start out with this lovely 3-D beaded holiday
ornament by my customer, Judy Fey. This was one
of three ornaments she had in the show, one of four
different items she had entered. She won ribbons
on all of her work this year, so was quite happy. 

Sara Glantz, also a long-time customer, had several
items in the show, all with either 1st or 2nd
place awards. This lovely bead-embroidered necklace
was stunning. 

Kelly Churkland does amazing renditions of artwork in
beads using peyote stitch and Delica beads. They are
all quite large and every one of them is a masterpiece.
Her daughter had requested this one. Award ribbons are
eight inches from top to bottom, so you can get an idea
of the size of this piece. All beaded in small beads, then
mounted and framed. 

In the center of one side of the large building is an area for
demonstrations. There are always at least four different crafts
being demoed in an average day. On Sunday, it was the Weaver's
Guild with spinners in one quarter and weavers in another. I loved
the balloon sheep they were all wearing (head for the back
lady, wrist on the gentleman). 

Moving along to other winners I wanted to share, here's the Muppet
Band, a sweepstakes award winner. It was so fun to see these
guys made out of yarn, but just as exuberant and boisterous as they
would be on TV. 

Every year there is an invitational for the center-front display cast. This
year it was devoted to art glass and these three peas in the pod really
caught me. Each pea uses a different technique for the glass surface, and
they are placed in a shaped piece of glass that has been carved and
roughened for the pod. It was stunning and very difficult to pull off. 

This needlepoint sweepstakes winner was stunning. It was
needlepoint on cardstock, so any/every mistake would
show. The tension had to be perfect and the color choices
had to really meld. So pretty. 

This Halloween alphabet needlepoint had all of us
laughing. Here's what it says if you can't read it easily:
All Hallow's Eve - Bat - Candy - Dress Up - Eek! -  Frog -
Ghost - Haunted House - Icky - Jack O'Lantern - Key - Leaf -
Monster - Nightmare - October - Pumpkin - Quiver -
Really Scary - Spider - Trick or Treat - Ugly - Vampire -
Witch - Xtra Creepy - Yowl - Zombie. 

This embroidered piece had us all stunned. The silk was
treated in three places to pull the color away, the leaves and
grasses, as well as the fireflies were embroidered, single
strand thick. I'm hoping you can see that there are lines going
across from left to right. Each line was a pulled thread from
the silk background, creating a precise dimension and a
real feel of depth. It was outstanding. 

This little needlepoint had all three of us laughing. We all
remember The Monkees with great fondness, and knew
who each one of these small figures were without
a second thought. 

Home arts is also a large part of Creative Activities, with everything
from canned vegetables and pickles to cakes and cookies. Here was
the sweepstakes winner of one branch of the cookies competition - a
pair of perfect macaroons. 

After much more roaming, we finally gathered together at the Frontier
to rest up and to wait for sundown. Here's a rare picture of DH on the
left, and of course, Sharon directly across from me. 

To my right was Chickie. We spent a pleasant hour or so off our feet, and
spent quite a bit of time teaching Sharon about how to use her "new"
upgraded phone. We know there's a lot to learn with the new phones, but
I hope we were some help, showing her different applications we
consider essential. 

I loved the sign across from our table and immediately
thought of my cousin who has a couple of horses on
her land in Colorado. I'm pretty sure she'd agree
with this sentiment. We sat at the Frontier until
sunset, then toured the Midway. The Carnival games
and rides are always more fun with brilliant
neon and lots of noise. We just walk through, we don't
ride anything. 

At the end of the evening, we each bought our final bits of Fair food. I
indulged and had the ice cream sandwich I had been craving and it was
pretty good. Snickerdoodle cookies and vanilla iced cream. I decided
it was worth the calories for a once-a-year treat. 

So there you have it - our final day at the State Fair. It wasn't the end of our adventures, however. On Monday, we all awakened bright and early and headed out to the Renaissance Festival. I'll have some photos of that tomorrow and that will wrap up my photo blogs of my "vacation" with Sharon, Chickie and DH. I promise, more bird photos, because they're so beautiful and amazing to watch. In the meantime, have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

The MN State Fair With Sharon - Day 2

Day 2 at the Minnesota State Fair is always our full day. We're there as soon as the first bus can get us to the gates, and we often stay until the fireworks after the evening concert (they usually are sent up between 10:00 and 10:45 pm) after DH has joined us after work. We didn't make it quite that long this time, but we did stay past sunset and wandered through the Midway, lighted everywhere by moving lights and bright neon. It's our major day for exploration and to return and purchase things we saw and wanted from the previous day. We also know that Day 3 will be shared with DH and Chickie, so Saturday is our main "must see this and do this" day. Warning - today's blog is photo-heavy. So ... here we go - a full day at the Fair. 

We started out with a peach-filled scone and cup of coffee. Sitting
at the table, we were joined by a talkative woman who worked
at the Bonsai exhibit in the Horticulture building. We actually had
toured the exhibit on Day 1. She also told us about her husband of
more than 50 years having proposed to her on that very day at
the Minnesota State Fair. Sweet! 

After breakfast we headed west to the animal barns and exhibits. Although
it sometimes doesn't seem like it, the State Fair is also an active livestock
fair with hundreds of milk cows, sheep, pigs, goats, horses,  rabbits and
chickens being exhibited and judged. Minnesota is a largely rural state and
the chance to show your animal in the State Fair is huge. Here, cows are
waiting their turn to pass into the Colosseum for judging.  

We continued through the cow barn which is huge with hundreds of cows,
and went through to the Swine Barn to look at the piglets and the
largest boar. 

The piglets were already pretty big, all crowded on top of Mama for
milk, and all grunting and rooting for a better position. 

Next to the piglet pen was the Largest Boar pen, with one very big,
very lazy boar named Charlie. He's not the biggest we're ever had
exhibited, I think that one was more than 1400 pounds, but
Charlie was impressive. 

He's definitely a big boy, just lazing around during his twelve
days at the Fair. I picked up my "I Went To The Oink Booth"
paper headband, affixed it around my hat, and we were off
once again. 

On our way to the Horticulture building, we also walked the aisles of
the milk goats in the Sheep and Goats building. These three were
a fine example of milk goats waiting their turns in the ring. I've always
loved goats, so walking through the aisles, looking at the various
breeds and petting and stroking a few of them always makes my day. 

The other half of the Sheep Barn building is the Poultry Barn half. This
switches between poultry, ducks and geese, and rabbits - usually meat
rabbits, but also rare breed exhibitors. This lovely velveteen lop-eared
bunny caught my eye. So soft and so sweet. 

A quick stop at the fish pond and wander through the DNR (Department
of Natural Resources) building, and Sharon saw an old friend. I couldn't
resist a photo of Sharon and Smokey, together again. 

We then proceeded to the Horticulture Building and waited
in a VERY long line for the Crop Art exhibit. A word of
explanation about crop art. The pictures must be made from
seeds ONLY. The detail work on them is amazing and
skilled. I'm only showing you the Blue Ribbon winners here.
I took WAY more photos of the crop art than just the
blue ribbons. 

You might get a better idea of the seeds by looking at this lovely
example. You can see the texture as well as the list of seeds used
below it. 

I loved this one - Harold Lloyd, if I'm remembering the old movie
correctly. It's a beautiful job and that cutout form isn't easy to
fill properly. 

I really loved the brilliant colors here. The artists
are allowed to dye or color their seeds, and this
dragon was beautifully done. 

The text in each of the boxes is also done with seeds. The detail work
in this piece was amazing. 

The Junior Crop Art Champion did a view of
one of our tourism campaign posters. I love the
mix of large and small seeds giving the podium
a rough look and adding dimension to the
background trees. DAMN, that reminds me - we
didn't wander through the Christmas Trees this
year. Oh well, can't catch everything. 

The Reserve Champion was a twelve-year-old from
Saint Paul. Really not bad at all for that young age. 

For "Hamilton" fans, this one should look familiar. It
richly deserved the Blue Ribbon it was awarded. 

The last Saturday of the Fair is always a busy and crowded day. I know many
of you will look at this scene of packed people and shiver. It's really not
that bad, and there are always open spaces available too. The main streets
can be crowded in some areas, but the crowds lessen a little farther on. On
this Saturday we had 266,412 people attending, on our way to a record
attendance of 2,126,551 for this year's State Fair. 

We dropped by the Grandstand a second time to purchase some
T-shirts and other items that we had seen on Friday. I loved
this hat on Sharon, but she said it was too large and didn't
buy it. I think she looks really cute in it, though. 

Our final meal of the day was two new foods from RC's Bar-B-Que.
The Jammin' Grilled Cheese was a grilled cheese with bar-b-que brisket
and a sweet onion jam. It was fabulous. The Hot Hen to the left was
barbecued potato chips smothered in pulled chicken, jalapeno peppers,
and two different types of blue cheese. I'd eat either/both of these again. 

DH came out after work and we continued wandering the Fair. I had TONS more photos, but really, I've probably photo-bombed you enough. After a long wait for our bus, we returned home and totally crashed. Tomorrow's post will be Sunday at the Fair. I'm sure it's going to be less photos, just because we were with DH and Chickie, so we were moving throughout the Fairgrounds with a different cadence and focus. Have a great Thursday and I'll return with Day 3 tomorrow. 

The MN State Fair with Sharon - Day 1 in Pictures

I'm back - did you miss me? LOL So, because I'll be playing catch-up for several days and trying hard to recover my life after four days at the MN State Fair and the Renaissance Festival with my best High School buddy, Sharon, it's photo blogs for a few days. Not a hardship, though. I'm going to take you through selected photos from my past week and the many things Sharon and I experienced at the Fair and Fest. Here we go ...

We started with breakfast at the Blue Barn. Even though they
had two new foods I was interested in, we decided to split their
bacon and deep fried potato puffs instead. We each had two and
it was plenty to start the day. After all, the coffee was the most
important thing - that and taking deep breaths of happiness. We were
at the State Fair once again and that's our happy place. 

One of the first buildings we went through was the
Grandstand. A major vendor there was celebrating
SPAM - it's a Minnesota product, and I actually enjoy
it, although opinions are divided on it. Still, I loved
the t-shirt enough to return on Day 2 and purchase one.
Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox are iconic up here. 

We dropped by the DFL booth to see what was going on and buy our
political buttons for the year. Here are the four I ended up with - the
full LGBTQIA flag, a button supporting Amy Klobuchar for
President with the State Fair ferris wheel image, button #3 says "Science
Is Not a Liberal Conspiracy" - loved that one, and the final button says
"The Oceans are Rising and So Are We". We returned the next day to
put our beans into the candidate tubes. Elizabeth Warren was ahead
by almost a full tube of votes over any other candidate. 

Later in the day we went to the Horticulture building. Their
central courtyard was dedicated to a celebration of
Minnesota legends. The actual center was a variety
of flowers, crystals and lighting celebrating Prince. 

Surrounding the central Homage to Prince were smaller
collections supporting everything Minnesota. Here are
Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox Babe surrounded by a
colorful display of blooms. 

Here's "Peanuts". Although Charles Schultz was from Minnesota, he
never liked the state. Nonetheless, we celebrate him throughout the
state. Here favorite characters Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and
Lucy are surrounded by blooms. 

You might not think of the "Wizard of Oz" being a Minnesota icon. After
all, it takes place in Kansas. But Judy Garland was a Minnesota
girl, so here we celebrate her along with her friends the
Scarecrow, and in the back left, seated, the Cowardly Lion. The
Tin Man is blocked in this shot. 

Lunch was deep fried walleye cakes (it's a fish, for those
who might not know), accompanied by Candy Apple Cider.
It was delicious. 

We topped the day off with malts from the Dairy Building. Sharon had
chocolate (of course - LOL), I had raspberry. They were fabulous. 

We walked, and walked, and walked, saw lots and lots of things, and had a fabulous time. We left "early" because we wanted to grab dinner at Outback Steakhouse where Sharon had beef of some kind, and I had a lovely maple glazed salmon. Then we were off to sleep until Day 2 - which I will share with all of you tomorrow. Have a great day!