You know you're getting older when...

You go to pop a zit under your chin and end up with a bruise...

The list of books that I still need to do reviews on...

The Innkeepers Wife – Lynda Wilson
Lee – the Last Years – Charles Bracelen Flood
The Measure of a Man – Sidney Poiter
Burning Bright – Tracy Chevalier
The Goal –
One Good Knight – Mercedes Lackey
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – JK Rowling
No One Noticed the Cat – McCaffrey
Wedding Ring – Emilie Richards
Endless Chain – Emilie Richards
Naked Economics -
Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

And the items for the fair are submitted...

This morning I dropped off my items for the Utah State Fair. I wasn't thrilled with the quality of my stitching so for on more year, I entered in the amateur category. Next year though, I will have the confidence to move up to the advanced amateur, but then that's what I say every year.

(I just called and had them bump my category up)

Utah State Fair

And I made it to the Utah State Fair today to get pictures of my entries so I could share how I did. I was surprised at how few items there were this year. Most of the entries were quilts and I must have met and remembered something from the time I spent with the quilt quilds last year because I was amazed how many of the names I recognized. Anyway, on with the show...

This is the ribbon that I expected, my needlepoint cranes framed by Jill Rensel.

This little red musical ornament is the surprise prize. They eliminated the ornament category several years ago since there weren't enough entries. So this competed in the "Misc. Christmas Items" category. This means I compete against crocheted snowflakes, hardanger angels, and other items.

Cross-stitch stockings are their own category so they aren't in the Misc. category. It's amazing how many of the Donna Kooler stockings show up every year.

Here is my first place in the Advanced Amateur Needlepoint pillow category. This was the free ANG piece that we got at my first guild meeting. I finished it in a few days and sewed the pillow the night before I had to submit the things to the fair.

This is the piece that I would have been competing against in the Amateur Needlepoint pillow category. I'm so glad that I leveled up. The piece is a bolster pillow of Candy Cane Lane and it's gorgeous. I would have definitely lost to it.

They very nicely displayed Nicole's Guardian Angel next to my cranes. Made it easy to find her piece. She helped motivate me to get my items done in time for the Fair.

This Noah's Ark is the First place winner in the Advanced category where Nicole's Guardian Angel took the 2nd place. This piece was perfect, not a stitch mis-tensioned, not one strand out of place and you couldn't see the holes of the fabric at the corners of the stitches. It looked almost like someone had painted the picture on the canvas.

Below are some pictures of some of the other displays that I enjoyed. Usually there are more than 2 Teresa Wentzler pieces, but as I said, there were not that many entries this year. I'm sorry that the sampler on the left has glare off the non-glare glass.

The one on the right is Heirloom Homecoming by Victoria Sampler. There were some other pieces that I wanted pictures of but the fair was opening to the public and I had to get back to the Hunter Education booth before the kids got there.