The Town Fair

I'm a winner! Again! Sort of!

This week, I took the plunge and entered a couple of my crafts at the town fair, which was held today. This is the first time I've done this, and it was a lot of fun. I will likely do it again next year.

First up is a knitting pattern I created out of my own head when my little nephew decided he was interested in all things military. He got the original creation, which had a removeable soldier with arms and legs for extra "play value". For my town fair entry, I tweaked it slightly and made just the top half of the soldier and stitched him in. I did this so that there wouldn't be any issues with him getting lost, and plus I had a deadline, so there was a bit of a time crunch involved. Anyway, this is what my entry ended up looking like:

As you may or may not be able to tell from the picture, my knitted LAV (I couldn't call it a tank because I continue to have trouble making tank treads that don't look weird with the button wheels, if you can make those out on the bottom) placed third in the Knitted Toy category. Sounds impressive, right?! What if I told you there were only THREE entries in total? Yes, it's true. Technically, I actually lost. But that's okay. My "toy" was certainly the least traditional of the three, and the other entries were very cute. And I still won two bucks!

My other entry was in the Jewellery category (incidentally, while we're on the subject, I am aware that I always spell that word the British way. I never learned to see "jewelry" as the right spelling. Just let me have my little quirks, will you?!). Again, there were only three entries, and again the other two entries were lovely. But this time I came SECOND! Here it is:

For those who care about this sort of thing, that clasp at the top is a piece of thick jewellery wire I shaped into a hook, and an odd hoop earring I forced into a ring shape. I love making necklaces, but don't often wear them, so this will dangle from a hanger until I have the rare occasion to wear it. Next year I may enter a pair of earrings if I can come up with something funky enough.

But the best win of the day wasn't mine. Firstborn's kindergarten teacher capped off the school year by entering several pieces of artwork for each of her students, and Firstborn, whose work was up against that of 15 or so others, took second place as well. Behold:

It turns out my child is a paper-plate craft prodigy! Imagine it! Five years from now, after I've secured myself the reputation of "Paper Plate Lady" at Costco and forced Firstborn to practise his skills for three hours every evening, we could be celebrities on the paper plate craft circuit! National paper plate craft competitions! An advertising deal with Dixie! Appearances on Oprah! We'll be stars! Well, until the embarrassing public meltdown, where he exposes me for having referred to Rosemary's Baby as "the one without talent" and compares me to Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate. Shudder. Perhaps we'll just stick with the town fair.

I've never much liked competing--though the Captain will undoubtedly differ here, citing several Trivial Pursuit-related "incidents"--and in all honesty, it isn't about the winning. I walked through the exhibition hall looking at quilts and photos and jars of jam and Christmas ornaments and coffee cakes, and I came home inspired to try a few new things. Firstborn was enthralled with some junior exhibits made out of LEGO, and started building as soon as we got home. It's amazing to see what other people come up with, and this little bit of competition pushed people to do some great work.

In total, Firstborn and I won $6.50 in prize money, which I forgot to collect on my way out. But that's not the point. I'm thinking we should spend our cash on some craft supplies and get to work being creative. With any luck, we'll have some fun and come up with some cool ideas for next year.

Paper plate self-portrait with googly eyes, anyone?! I sense a first place win in the making.