Who's the Fairest?

ahhh...the fair. Several years ago it was the culminating event for months of mine and my sisters' 4-H projects in sewing, baking, cake decorating, and theater. I once submitted what I affectionately named "clown pajamas" which I meticulously stitched out of spare scraps of flannel. Another year I entered snickerdoodles, which I'll have you know, won a blue ribbon even though I was too young for such a prize. I was a big fan of 4-H and have fond memories of learning new skills with neighborhood kids from our talented parents.

Nowadays going to the fair means jewelry shopping (which was unproductive this year!), an excuse to wear cowboy boots, ogling at animals, and people watching. It had been a long time since I'd seen a crop top/tight wrangler combo. My favorite find this year was a demo of a mixing/chopping device that can be used without electricity. I'm kind of sad a little that I didn't buy one.

Day of Caring

Every fall I participate in United Way's Day of Caring. This year I volunteered at El Shaddi Gardens, one of the Houston gardens that provides fresh produce to the Target Hunger project. I didn't know anyone when I got there, but there was plenty of time for conversation while we weeded, planted, and mulched.

We started the morning by doing a tai chi group stretch...

The men went off to tame the jungle and compost while the women weeded.

Here's the whole group at the end of the day.

It looks like I didn't get the memo on this one, but I assure you, the instructions were "do a funny pose." It's weird...everyone else's funny pose looks a lot like their regular pose, leaving me looking like a dork wad. Give it up for me!

Bag Ladies

K.B. Phone Home

My family finally adopted webcam technology a little while back. I have to admit, the calls are usually pretty entertaining. A typical call goes like this: my mom provides updates and is the primary conversationalist on her end, while my sister or dad sit on the side and make faces or display objects the entire time. Sometimes I can't resist taking snapshots of what I see. They make me laugh, so why keep them to myself?

Labor Day

Steve and I celebrated Labor Day by organizing an a.m. bike ride at Hershey Park on the west side of Houston. For me, bikes and holidays are fast friends (refer back to my Memorial Day post). Since Steve and I don't own our own bikes, Steve's parents graciously loaned us theirs for a few hours. (We had the most highly coveted padded seats in the group!) We rode with our friends the Hicks and Campbells through the wooded trail along the bayou. The surroundings made it hard to believe I was still in Houston, but the weather offered a fair reminder. We rode about 12 miles of ups and downs, weaving in and out of the many bikers and runners enjoying the day off.

Made in America

I finished up these reversible shoes tonight while watching America's Got Talent. Steve and I thought of several other names that would better describe what we saw. For example: America's Got Weirdos, America's Got Nothin' to Do, Look Out Vegas, Would People Seriously Pay Money to See That?, etc. You get the idea. Then during a break, there was a commerical about Kraft Singles which touted them as the cheese only Americans could make. Hmm...because all other countries make good cheese, while we're busy cranking out rubberized sheets of orange chemicals called "kraft singles"? (Sorry if you're a fan.) Needless to say, it was a bizarre evening of "American" television.

Sew Totally

Steve plays ball most Wednesday nights, so after I get home from mutual I'm free to post more on the crafter's guidebook. ha ha! My friend Rebecca hosted a sewing night at her house last night and provided us a cute Mary Jane baby shoe pattern. I brought my fat quarters (fabric and otherwise) and Confidence (my Singer machine and otherwise). As it turns out I'm not a gifted cobbler since I didn't even finish one shoe in two hours. My favorite part of the activity was one of my friend's sewing machine that brought back buried memories of when I learned to sew. She has the machine where you push the pedal and get a loud "whir" sound, then the needle takes off at warp speed and you're so startled that you sew a crooked seam every time. I laughed most of the times that happened to my friend last night. So (or should I say...sew) I'm a bad friend, whatever.

I'll put a picture up of the shoes I made when "made" is the appropriate past tense verb to describe their creation.