A Ribbon-Winning Summer

I guess by taking some blogging time off, I have to play a little catch up. I was going to title this post "What I Did On My Summer Vacation", but our summer brought lots of good things, and this is only some of it.

This summer I did something I have never done in my life - entered something in a County Fair. But with lots of encouragement of my girlfriends, who live north of me, I entered some of my photography, a scrapbook page, and an antique in The Morrow County Fair. Anyone living in the State could enter, so I did. (click on any photo for larger image)

This picture is of a bee balm bloom in my backyard. The category was Boomin' Blooms.
I almost didn't enter it, but it was the favorite picture of my mom's, so I did it for her.
She thinks it looks like the cartoon lemur in Madagascar - we named it "Julien".

This picture, too, was taken from my backyard. The hay in the field behind us has just been harvested, and could be seen through our old maple tree. The category was Hay Day.

This picture was my personal favorite - for many reasons. It is of a frog that lived in our yard pond. The category was Animal Life.
[side story: as I was taking the picture of this picture + ribbon, there was a lady right beside me who was loudly telling her companion why this photo won 2nd place - "because it was blurry". She had NO idea that I was the photographer of it, and I am sure she instantly wished she could have taken the words back...after I clearly set her straight - right then and there!!!! what appears to be "blurry" is depth of field and should look like that.]

This is a picture I took at The New Orleans Zoo of an old truck. It sat in the American Nature exhibit, with a plaque stating it had survived the flood of 1927 (the flood the song is written about). The category was Old Truck.

Here is another picture taken at our yard pond. The exposure was changed to sepia, and I used a piece of crinkled wax paper under the photo to accentuate the iciness. The category was Winter Shadows.

The last Arts & Crafts entry, is a scrapbook page. Its a page from a book my mom commissioned for her sister. They are both in the pictures on the page. I was as equally excited for them that the page won this ribbon.

Now, here is a bigger story. One of the categories entered was Antiques. The Class was Muff. Yes, I hear all of you snickering out there - but anyone over the age of 40, remembers a "hand muff" was something you used to keep your hands warm (yes, still more snickering). I had one as a child that was white rabbit fur. The muff shown here was given to me a few years ago by a sister-in-law (the nice one). I am not inclined to really carry it - since there are heads, arms, and tails hanging off of it! PETA would lynch me for sure!
However...... the judges at the Morrow County Fair thought it was pretty unique. This muff won the blue ribbon, Best of Class rosette, and Best in Show rosette! Also awarded, only to the Best of Show winners, was this beautiful basket.
I don't know if my nerves will survive doing it again, but this venture was SO much fun (if you ever need to know who your real friends are, just try competing against them) All of us girlfriends won ribbons. Three of us won Best in Shows.
A truly nostalgic slice of mid-western summer Americana - I can say "I won a blue ribbon at a County Fair".

Off I go, with camera in tow...