The County Fair: How to win all the prizes
“You don’t need a man, Liz. You need a champion.”
That famous line from the film Eat, Pray, Love was on my mind this past weekend when we prepped for the local county fair. This year, we were going to enter our flowers, art, and gourds.
This year, we were going to be champions.
The prep work started in earnest. I gathered vases and snipped flowers for the flower arrangement categories. Our kid set up her craft table and got busy making posters: One of the family. Another of a beloved hobby. A pet. You name it, she drew it.
“Whip up a poster of a bird. There is a category.”
She would whip it up and I would slap the entry tag on it. Meanwhile, I was grooming the geraniums, marigolds and dahlias. I even grabbed the African Violet off the mantle and slapped an entry tag on it.
At the end of our weekend, we had two hampers full of flowers, art, and painted gourds.
We waltzed into the fairgrounds next to a guy carrying a big zucchini over his shoulder. A lady was dragging a wagon of multicoloured corncobs. I smile-snuffed at an old lady who walked in with her African Violet. She smile-snuffed back. Then we laughed.
It’s a bizarre mix of competition and cute.
The giant pumpkins were already in place. The unusual carrot category had a robust (and gnarly) showing. The flower arrangements were… um… sadly stunning. But too late now. Soldier on.
I thought a heavenly George Michael might help me out in the “Sunshine in a Mug Flower Arrangement” category.
In the junior art categories, the senior volunteers took the greatest care with the posters, beaded bracelets, and decorated boxes. They oohed and ahhed over the entries, making my seven year old beam with pride. How nice is that?
Talk about KINDNESS.
We had to wait until the next day to see if we had won anything. The first ribbon we found was an Honourable Mention for a decorated gourd. It was her first ribbon ever and she was so excited. She didn’t know what Honourable Mention meant. All she knew is she had a ribbon next to her name. WINNER.
Then we scavenger hunted for all our stuff. Three first places, a couple seconds, a few thirds, a fourth, a sixth and a seventh. And a whopping $29 in PRIZE MONEY. Even for the marigolds! (And my African Violet got 3rd after that smile-snuffer senior who won 2nd.
Robbed!
The beauty of a local fair is that friends from all over stop by the booths and see your name. A friend of mine who lives three hours away noticed the injustice of the African Violet competition and send me a funny message about it on Facebook.
Good wholesome fun.
These county fair ribbons were quite possibly the most satisfying of all prizes ever.
And I’m counting the New York Times best seller badge for Paris Letters because you never think you’ll win that one. But with my dahlias… I thought maybe. And I did. First prize. Holy Toledo!
It doesn’t look like much now, but the category was “Three of a Kind in a Bud Vase” so gimme a break. AND get this: This variety of dahlia is called Fancy Pants, which is exactly how I felt when I saw that ribbon. It’s part of the Happy Singles Dahlias from Floret Flowers. My friend Áine bought the seeds for me ages ago because the name reminded her of how we felt when we traveled together back when we were happy singles. But now we are happily marrieds, as you can plainly see:
Just look at that raw talent. 7th place!
Speaking of super duper prizes, Amazon made my 2025 Paris Planner a Top New Release:
If you were one of the people who made it a top prize, thank you. If not, feel free to pick up one or two for yourself and for any stocking stuffers. And birthday gifts. And New Year’s gifts. And, and, and, and… You get the idea.
