Cookies

Every August for three years I've made a gift basket for the county fair that takes place close to where I live. The rules are simple:

4 kinds of cookies

6 cookies of each kind

None of the contents of the baskets are tasted. The whole gift-basket thing is basically an exercise in packaging. (And making durable cookies. Or at least learning how to glue and tape broken pieces of food together.)

I won't tell you all the rules for cakes, essays, beer, spices, paper-mache sculptures, fudge, quilts, bread, woodcarving, scarecrow-making, gourd growing, blackberry arranging- and goodness gracious, photography! 

(Don't get me started on that- I'll discuss it later. The photography part of the fair is my absolute favorite place. Seriously. I think I'll just camp out there for a week until the fair is over.)

Anyway.

The baskets are usually themed.

My theme for this year is "flower garden." Not terribly original, but I'm pleased with the results:

I got these amazing plastic bag gift bags a few years ago. I finally used the last of them to wrap up my cookie pops. (And yes, they ARE cookie pops. I stuck the "stems" into florists' foam hidden in the bottom of the basket.)

 

OK, so the frosting on the mushrooms got a little squashed. But I still love the color combination. (Plus they taste wonderful with all the cinnamon and chocolate...)

The chocolate biscotti look kind of unappetizing, and I'm still wincing at that squished polka-dot...but I'm done! Which makes me happy.

The fair starts next week, so sometime later I'll get to go and see if my stuff is still in one piece!

The drop-off date is Saturday, and since I'll be gone until Sunday night, my helpful grandpa is going to deliver the basket and my photos.

Speaking of photos....

Never mind.

I need to finish packing. Louis and I had a contest today to see who could pack the lightest. He won, of course. 

This is the only bag I'm taking. With a few things on the side;) I love my Pindar bag.

All for now,

Natalie

Various Things

For a long time, multiple people in my family have entered things in our county fair. June is the time when we "dust off" or more often than not- start cobbling together our entries. I can only enter three photos in the photography section, which is quite a disappointment:)

So here are the "contestants" or the photos I'm considering. (Bear with me- I know you've probably seen most of these already.)

This is one of my favorite flower shots I've taken.

Still on the fence about this one....It was extensively altered, but could it fit in the Abstract/Altered images catergory?

Here's another one that's too altered to be considered normal, and too normal to fit in the Abstract/Altered catergory.

I kind of like this guy. Not sure how he'll look blown-up, though....(I prefer to turn in large prints.)

Aww....I like this one.

And I was pleased with how this picture of my sister turned out.

Now this friends, is rather wild.....You can read the whole story here, that I posted a week ago. Maybe this odd shot would go in the photojournalism catergory....I really can't say for sure. Of course I'm pretty sure I'd rather see my cute sister and cousin hung in a gallery rather than some random guy eating cotton candy! (Besides, the whole tongue-and-finger thing is a bit weird, don't you think?)

Only three....*sigh.*

My friend Ellie has recently returned to blogging- you can see her site, "The Glamorous Life Of A Laudry Girl" at www.theglamlg.blogspot.com.

It's quite amusing. Especially the post she has up now about the woes of babysitting in a house full of Arabic books with no working computers. I recommend you go leave her a comment. Now. And while you're at it, you could leave me one too.....(just kidding!)

This Thursday I'm leaving with my dad and two of my younger siblings for our state's "desert area." If we don't come home after two days of poking around in the mountains, you can all feel free to send out search parties. We'll probably be sitting in our car in a ditch somewhere listening to Crime And Punishment - but we like company! I only have the capacity to take about 350 hi-res photos on my memory card. That said, I should have quite a few to post on here by Sunday. (I'll try to limit those "back-seat-face-making" ones. You know the kind?)

Till later,

Natalie