Blue ribbon winners

It's time to announce the winners of Pearl's giveaway. Congratulations to Sondra, Anne, and cliner1004. Please send me your snail mail address and I'll have a cool ToadUSew pattern in the mail to you. Thanks so much to all who responded. Hope to have another giveaway soon, so keep reading and keep commenting!

We're back from a week away. We spent the first day at the Iowa State Fair. Nearly every year I work in the University of Iowa booth for four hours and then wander around the fair for the rest of the day.

There is so much to see and I never get tired of it—it's incomprehensible to me that many folks have lived in Iowa for years and have never been to the fair—if nothing else, it's an incredible cultural experience.



We never go on the rides, but instead enjoy just wandering around, taking it all in. Some of my favorite sights this year included the butter cow and a butter Neil Armstrong landing on the moon—there was even a butter television replaying the actual moon landing footage; the prize-winning vegetables; the biggest bull, pig, sheep, and rabbit; the kids who casually hang out in the pens with their 4-H animals—we even saw some high school-aged girls bathing and blow-drying a fancy chicken; the girls dancing to Michael Jackson, followed by the amazing boy who sang Ol' Man River, as part of the Bill Riley talent search; and of course the plethora of quilts, knitted and sewn clothing, tatting, and weaving.






I've attached a few of my "food-on-a-stick" photos for your enjoyment (including the one I ate and thoroughly enjoyed—pork chop on a stick). If you scroll to the end you'll even see a nod to healthy fair eating: salad on a stick.

I'd recommend checking out Garrison Keillor's "Top Ten State Fair Joys" from the National Geographic web site—some great photos, too.

In Pearl the Squirrel's next installment, I'll get back to the business of making things, because I definitely did that on my week away, too.