A few state fair scenes

I've taken a lot of pictures over the past couple of days at the Iowa State Fair. Here are just a few, collaged to give you a glimpse into this great institution (click on the collage to bigify).

If you ever have a chance to go, don't miss it. It really is a slice of Americana.

Cat show prep underway

The state fair household pet cat show is tomorrow. I took another look at the rules today.

Household Pet Cat Show Rule #6: Cats are judged mainly on condition, beauty, and grooming, with some attention paid to personality and stage presence.

We know that Lily may have some issues in the "personality and stage presence" areas, so in an effort to boost our scores in the "beauty" and "grooming" categories, Lily has spent the evening at her own private spa. We trimmed her nails and carefully brushed her fur. The last step in her beauty routine was the dreaded bath. The idea is for the judges to be so distracted by her attractiveness that they overlook her snarling, biting, and growling behavior.

We put a couple of inches of warm water in the tub and then placed Lily in it.
Soon Daughter joined her in the tub.

A quick shampoo/conditioner treatment followed (the operative word being "quick"). Next, Lily was thoroughly (I hope) rinsed.

After her rinse, we provided Lily with a towel for comfort and warmth. She doesn't look too happy. I think she would have preferred the pink one.

Then Lily was left alone to do her own styling.

Daughter and I discussed giving Lily one of Tinsel's Prozac pills prior to the show but decided against it. We certainly do not want to be found guilty of doping. :-) But I may take one myself.

Thank you to all who have sent good luck wishes to Lily! Look for a complete cat show report Sunday evening or Monday. Or earlier, if we're disqualified for bad behavior in the ring. :-)

Feline Friday: Eukanuba Bonanza!

After pouring Lily's food into the storage container, I made the mistake of leaving the lid off and stepping outside to toss the empty bag.

When I came back in, Lily and Tinsel were taking full advantage of the open container.

Of course, I allowed the feeding frenzy to continue only long enough to find my camera. Then snap! I closed the lid.

Fun's over, girls!

Fair competition results

Today was the opening day of our fair. Daughter did well in the competition. Her photo of tulips was selected for display in the photography salon. The fair receives around 4,000 photos to consider and displays less than half of those submitted, so it is a really big deal to have a photo displayed, even if you don't win a ribbon.

In the food competition, she received an honorable mention for the Caramel Chip Bars (of course, we still think they should have received first place!) and third place for her Cocoa Pebbles S'Mores (I'll try to post that recipe in the next few days). Her zucchini bread didn't place, but it is very tasty nonetheless. Like the photography salon, our food department receives a huge number of entries each year. In fact, it is the largest state fair food competition in the nation, so placing in any food division is also a big deal. Yippee! :-)

So far, the fair is off to a good start. But remember...Lily's appearance at the Household Pet Cat Show is on Sunday. Things could go downhill fast from here. Stay tuned for a complete report! :-)

More yummies for the fair

Yesterday was a big baking day at our house. In addition to the Caramel Chip Bars, Daughter made a batch of zucchini bread and a pan of Cocoa Pebbles s'mores for competition at our state fair. All of her entries were judged today. Tomorrow we'll see if she placed. You never know with state fair competitions. Judging is certainly not a scientific process.

Regardless of how she places in the competition, we're lucky because we get to eat the leftovers!

Wouldn't you agree? :-)

Tummy Tuesday (sounds better than Tummy Wednesday)

Today must be the day for the kitties to display their tummies. I caught both of them sleeping with tummies up. I've read that a cat must feel very secure to sleep this way, with tummy exposed.

Of course, it could also mean that they ate too much lunch. :-)

Thanks, guys!

Thanks, Toni and Linda, for sharing this BFF Gold Card! I think it's really wonderful to have "met" so many great people through blogging.

The rules for the "Blogging Friends Forever" award are:
* Only five people allowed
* Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog
* One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog or live in another part of the world.

You must link back to whoever gave you the award. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.

Here's my list for the "Blogging Friends Forever" award:

Sarah C
Lynn
Heather
Jill
Lily

More Caramel Chip Bars

In case you need more evidence of how good these bars are, I present this:

Sorry for the blur. I think you get the idea, though!

Thanks for all the nice comments you left for my daughter! If she doesn't get a ribbon on the bars this year, I'll be really surprised. Next time you need a great recipe to take to a family gathering or party, this is it.

Right now, Daughter is making zucchini bread and some new kind of s'mores treat to enter in competition. You can't put all your eggs in one basket, you know.

Gosh, our kitchen smells really good today. :-)

Yum: Caramel Chip Bars

Today Daughter whipped up a batch of her now-practically-famous Caramel Chip Bars. She's taking them to the state fair in competition. These bars are soooo good they are surely deadly!

We must give credit to my mother-in-law for finding the recipe. We've made numerous batches for all kinds of functions and everyone loves them, especially Daughter's friends.

Daughter has taken Caramel Chip Bars two or three times to the fair, receiving as high as a second place ribbon. (Keep in mind that our state fair has the biggest food entry department in the country, and competition is very intense.) This particular batch looks perfect to us, so we have high hopes for a blue ribbon this year! After the bars cool in the fridge overnight, she will cut them into 2" squares. She'll select a few perfect squares for the judges to sample, then we'll have the rest to eat! YUM!

Caramel Chip Bars

½ cup butter (no substitutes)

32 Kraft caramels

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

1 package (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix

½ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup vanilla OR white chips

2 oz Heath toffee bits

Oven 350 degrees

In large saucepan, combine butter, caramels, and milk. Stir over medium-low heat until smooth. Cool. In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, oil, and eggs; mix well. Stir in chips and toffee bits. Press ¾ dough into greased 13x9x2-in. baking pan. Bake 15 min; place pan on wire cooling rack for 10 min. Pour caramel mixture over crust. Spoon remaining dough onto caramel layer. Bake 25-30 min., or until edges are golden brown. Cool for 10 minutes; run knife around edges of pan. Cool 40 minutes longer; cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

I found this sticker...

...stuck to a book. I decided to stick it to myself.

Because you just never know. :-)

Easiest card ever

Here's a super-easy card I made for my dad using some hoarded Chatterbox paper, my handy-dandy square punch, and a VERY old metal tag. This alphabet set is so old that I do not even remember who makes it. Does anyone out there know?

So watch out...if your birthday is coming up and I still have a tag with your initial, you may get a card like this! I'm on a mission to use up old stuff! :-)

Lightening up

In the past few weeks since my mom died, I've been trying to find ways to lighten up and rid myself of some unneeded material possessions. Today I focused on my closet. I don't have a lot of clothes, but the truth is, I don't need most of what I have.

So I went through my closet and pulled out what I don't wear and boxed it up. Tomorrow I will take it to our local "clothes closet", which is a place where families in need can come and shop for free. It feels good knowing that my unneeded clothing may really help someone.

This is what my closet looks like now (I have one more small area for dresses which is not shown). I could probably take out another 30-50% of the stuff in this picture and not miss it. Much of it is just sentimental (a t-shirt from my old job, a sweatshirt from college...that kind of stuff) and not actually worn. For now, I moved it all to one end of the closet so it's not in the way.

Lightening up really does feel good.