And now we wait

We dropped off our craft entry items at the  State Fair yesterday.  It's always exciting to see all the other creative people and their creations. Who knew a hippopotamus could be made from small crocheted granny squares? Then there was this black elephant wearing an elegant black and white blanket and headdress.  You can bet I will be looking for those items in the craft hall when we go to the Fair next weekend as well as looking to see if maybe, just maybe, one of our entries won a ribbon.

With the encouragement of my family as well as the lady from the State Fair I entered my yo-yo sweater.  The sweater was made with 866 yo-yos. The McCalls pattern I used called for 1050 yo-yos to make a medium sized sweater but as I tailored the sweater to fit me I ended up using less yo-yos, a lot less.

So, what to make with all those extra yo-yos? A yo-yo covered hanger. Which became my second entry. Coming up with how to cover the hanger was fairly easy but embellishing the hanger was a challenge, especially deciding on all the different combinations of yo-yos, colors, buttons, beads and ribbons. Again, with the help of family a final choice was made.

Vase entry for the State Fair of Virginia

Soon we will be delivering our craft entries to the State Fair of Virginia. This year Don entered his miniature dried flower vase in the Turnings classification.  The vase is turned from a banksia pod which is the fruit of the banksia tree in Australia. The pods vary in size with seed pockets running out from a solid center and are very hard and solid.

After turning the pod inlay material was added to some of the seed pockets for added color to the vase. The pods can be purchased from Woodcraft, Rockler and other wood working stores.

Inspired to try making a button flower vase

Pearls & Buttons

For me, Pinterest has been such a wonderful source for kick starting my creativity and inspiring me to try new techniques. A few months back I saw this cute vase with button flowers using a glass kitchen (I'm guessing) salt shaker. I knew there was something similar hiding in my kitchen cabinets so I dragged it out, found all the old pearl necklaces that were lying around and dug through my button jar. It surprised me how many necklaces were needed to fill my vase but I'm thrilled with the finished product that came from items that were hidden away in drawers. Now they can be seen everyday!

My "Bucket List"

Last year I marked another item off of my "bucket list." Ever since I was a little girl attending the local county fairs in California I have wanted to enter one of my craft items but the timing was never right. My favorite part of attending the fair was walking through the arts & crafts building and seeing all the creative and amazing crafts, quilts and table settings. Due to a lot of unusual circumstances it all came together for me last year and I entered my yo-yo flowerpot pincushion into the State Fair of Virginia's Adult Art's and Craft competition. What a thrill it was to win the first place ribbon!