Picture of Mid-South Fair winnings

Mom, Sara Hailey & I had so much fun last Saturday see what we won at the Mid-South Fair this year.

Enjoy:



Category: Color Photography/ People: Honorable Mention (Deanna)

Sara & Joshua

Youth Categories: (Sara)


Decorated Cupcakes:

BEST OF SHOW/ Ist place ribbon/ King Arthur Price Ribbon

She also won the King Arthur Cookie Cookbook (90.00 value) & the Wilton Cake Decorating Cookbook

Party Cookies: 2nd Place

Handmade Jewelry: 1st Place & Fingerprint Art: 1st Place




Decorated Bottle: 3rd Place

Any other small craft item: 3rd Place





Refrigerator Magnet: 3rd Place (it had fallen over in the case but I had the picture I took at home)




Key Chain: 1st Place

~Picture Coming Soon~

Handmade Card: Honorable Mention

Paper Bag Puppet:

Scrapbook: 1st Place

Scrapbook Page: 2nd Place

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Adult Crafts: (Donna) My beautiful mom

Childrens' wear: BEST OF SHOW/1st place

Any Felt Item:

Knitted Love Cap: 1st Place

Knitted Infant Hat: Honorable Mention

Stuffed Animal: 3rd Place

Knitted Infant Set: 2nd Place


Apron: 1st Place

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Adult crafts/culinary (Deanna) ME!

Catagories:

Fabric Purse: Chairman's Choice Award/ 1st place

Children's wear: 1st Place

Apron: 3rd Place

Fudge: 1st Place

Cheesecake Fudge: 1st place

Lemon Cake: 1st place

Any other layerd Cake: 2nd Place ribbon

~Picture coming soon~

Divinity: 2nd Place Ribbon

~Picture Coming Soon~

Baker's X 2

Tuesday was a very busy day for me. As soon as I got my daughter and my wonderful husband out the door and on the way to their school, I turned to oven onto 325 degree and that is where it stayed until it was time to pick up Sara from school that afternoon.



Wednesday was the 1st culinary show for the Midsouth Fair and I had a lot of baking to get done the 24 hours before the items were due at the judges table. I started out with making the cakes for my Lemonade Cake (my mother in laws recipe) I knew they needed to cool completely and then chill in the frig. for a bit so I could do my crumb coat of the lushes whipped frosting. This cake has to stay cool or all the lemon frosting will run down the sides.



Next I moved onto Divinity, oh such a lovely candy that so few can make. Not really sure why or how it is so hard to achieve but for most I have spoken to, the perfect divinity has always been out of their reach. I actually use my grandmother's recipe for seafoam. I can't really see the difference in the two recipes but maybe it is the way I was taught by her and what to watch for as the hot sugar mixture is mixing away with the whipped egg white and just as it loses that shiny glisten you add the broken up pecans.

Midsouth Fair : Here we come~

We are so excited about the up and coming fair. Mom, Sara Hailey and I turned in all of our completed craft and photography entries last week and the baking starts on Tuesday!!! The ladies at the Midsouth Fair office said that entries were way down this year because of the move to the Desoto Civic Center. I am sad to see it move from the fairgrounds in Memphis but times change and so must our beloved Midsouth Fair.

This is the 153rd year of the Midsouth Fair. Link to website: http://www.midsouthfair.org/

I told the ladies I would follow the fair anywhere it went because this is such a joy for me to enter every year and now that Sara Hailey is old enough to enter I am having even more fun collaborating craft ideas with her. This year we are both entered the Karo Cookie Contest. Sara is entering the No Bake Cookie Category and I am enter the Baked Cookie Category. We have worked and reworked Sara's recipe, she has had some brillant ideas about what to experiment with and change around. I am so proud of how involved she is with working up her very own recipe for the contest.

So...do we really needs so much stuff?

When I first started couponing back in July 2007, I was so excited about ALL the stuff I could get for pennies on the dollar or even better FREE. I jumped on the bandwagon and bought blood glucose meters, medicine, food items that I knew I wouldn't use just because it was SUCH A GOOD DEAL!. I think many new couponer do the same thing and it is truly a learning experience. I held onto those meters until this past spring 2009, (TWO YEARS) and realized they were not helping anyone sitting in my very small space I have to store my stockpile items so I donated them to a local charity, now I hope they are being used by someone that really needed them to begin with. The medicine and food have also found good homes.

There is always someone who needs something more than you. Isn't that what we are put on this earth to do... give more than we receive? To serve and give of ourselves, to offer what talents we have to help other around us. No, not many of us are in a position financially to give monetarily but there are so many other ways to help another person. Unfortunately society sets the standard that to give and be charitable is to GIVE money.

As I child we never have the latest toy or game, we didn't have cable tv (the horror!) I couldn't have my own phone line and I didn't get my own tv in my bedroom until I was sixteen (and I had to buy it myself). In fact, I still have that tv, its new home has been in Dave's and my bedroom for the last 11 years. My brother and I never had a need that wasn't met, we did have wants that were met and many that were not met, for good reason and I thank my parents daily for not indulging my every want. We live in a society fill, no overflowing with wants. My kids even have a hard time understand the difference between a need and a want because they have seen so many of their friends with their every little want met. How is that teaching a whole generation of children how to be diligent in being frugal.

People are so quick to say that their stuff is too old, out of date, not cool any more, or look at what he/she has, if they have one why can't I, I deserve one too. I work just as hard as them, I never get myself anything, my car isn't new enough, my house isn't big enough, my clothes aren't the correct brands for this season, my kids have to dress like all the other kids. I won't be cool if I don't get the lastest gadget.

In a week we will be having our annual neighborhood yard sale and as always I purge as much as I can out of the house. Cleaning out unused items and cleaning out my mind and body at the same time. A few years back as we were packing up the leftovers from a yard sale to stuff back into the attic and garage; I had a light bulb moment.

Why was I packing it back up and putting it back in my home? If I was willing to sale these items standing in my front yard to complete strangers, those items had no sentimental meaning to me anymore. So WHY was I not letting them go after they were the rejects of complete strangers? From then on I made a rule for myself that if it went into the yard sale in didn't come back into the house. I would donate the items to local charities or give the items to friends or family that could get good use out of it.

"Life is too short to hoard everything you have. If there is someone in need in your community then please help them. You never know when that someone could be you."

After you start stocking up on items you or your family will use, when you can get them at a great price, you will understand the importance of stockpiling. Anytime there has been a need for food, toiletries, medicine or toys I just go shopping in my garage. I still do have a few panic attacks over my stockpile because we do have more than we need but I try an reassure myself that yes we do have this stockpile BUT we haven't had to borrow money to buy groceries since November 2007.

So, do we really need all that stuff. No we don't if all we do is hoard our good fortune, whatever that fortune is. Be open to have a charitable heart and give your last bottle of spaghetti sauce to someone who might not be able to feed their kids that night or give a few blankets away that have been stuffed in the hall closest for the last few years, to a family in need; because you never know when you will be the one who needs that help.

Midsouth Fair works in progress...

Sara's Karo No Bake Bar Cookies

Sara's School Art Entry:

Artist at work:

Fabric for my apron:

Fabric for my purse:

Preparing for the MidSouth Fair~

We have a Fair in Memphis every year and of course there are contest and competitions to enter. I started entering the Photography competitions over 12 years ago and received many ribbons and also the Best of Show ribbon for my dancer series I shot my last two years of college. Actually the Best of Show print was a digital image I created using photo shop at school and was the first of its type to win and because of that they created a new category for the photography competition!

I finally decided I need to retire from the photography side and start entering the craft and cooking competitions four years ago. I also encouraged mom to start entering too. She is such a crafty lady and had always wanted to enter the Fair but my grandmother never really encouraged her to enter and compete. She won a Best of HSow ribbon the first year for a beautiful set she made Sara. I guess she just needed me to push her into it! LOL

Last year, Sara Hailey was old enough to enter and now we had three generations entered, how cool is that! So much so, that The Commercial Appeal, our local newspaper, wrote a half page article on us and printed a huge picture of all three of us and another adorable picture of Sara Hailey surrounded by all the ribbons I had won over the years. I am going to contact the writer again this year and see if she will do another feature article just on Sara Hailey.

Let me tell you, I have one very creative kid! She is entering 14 categories this year, four are in the culinary division. We have been working hard for over two weeks getting her craft ideas down on paper and then deciding what she wanted to create. She has almost all her crafts done, just a few to finish up. She made the cutest paper bag puppet and finger print picture this year, just to name a few~

We also brainstormed a recipe of the Karo No Bake Cookie contest she is entering. Sara loves to watch the Food Network and came up with a great idea for her recipe using a top secret ingredient. Recipe will be posted after the Fair!!

Link to Mid South Fair: http://www.midsouthfair.org/

Picture will be posted later today~

When the mouse is away the cats will play~

Sara Hailey had her very first sleepover last Friday with two of her friends. It was at one of the little girl's house and I actually staying a visited with the mom for a few hours because I enjoy her company and any chance I get for adult conversation I take. I was so happy to hear the next morning that Sara did fine, didn't cry but managed to stay up til MIDNIGHT! WoW didn't see that coming all three girls had a birthday party to go to the next day and boy were they tired.



Well, while she was having her waffles and dill scrambled eggs at Lily's house; Dave and I were putting her beautifully refinished antique bed together:


















Sara Hailey lost another tooth Friday night at the sleep over too!!!

Happy September everyone!!!!!

The air is cool and crisp and signs of Fall are slowly creeping into Memphis! Ahhhhhhhhhh

What a glorious time of year, in fact my favorite time of year. I know so many people say that it is the start of plants dying and trees loosing their leaves for winter. I see it as that special time of year when we thank God for the beauty of summer flowers and fresh fruits and vegetables out of our garden. The sun-glowed kiss of color on my children's faces and the beautiful highlights in their hair from all the fun days swimming.

Fall is just the beginning of planning recipes for stews and soups, making warm grilled cheese sandwiches after racking leaves, Gammie Anne's hot homemade coco with melting marshmallows making the perfect cloudy fluff on top of my cup.

I can't begin to tell you how much I love to cook during Fall and Winter. The kitchen is all toasty warm and I open my kitchen window for a cool breeze to blow through and cool things off. I starve Dave when he is outside working because the aromas of spice cakes, homemade lasagnas or chicken noodle soup fill the air outside.

Reminds me so much of my parent's old house down in Eudora, Mississppi when mom would start baking up all her yummy fall dishes. She never had to call my brother and I for dinner because the smells of homemade goodness would glide down the back gullies through the cut sue and pine trees... we knew it was time to wash up and head inside for supper.

Pulling out the soft, comforting sweaters and scarves. I love scarves, they can be such a wonderful accessory for an outfit. I found some great scarves on 90% off clearance at Target this Summer.

David's and my 11th wedding anniversary is coming up the middle of October. Ever since I was a little girl, I knew that whenever I got married it would be in October because of all the beautiful colors of nature during that wonderful time of year.