three pluses

Can you tell from this picture

where I got to go a couple of weekends ago??
(I grabbed this photo from Mary, thanks Mary!,

as when I was there trying to photograph,

it was wall to wall people & you could barely see

the stack of pumpkins and squash!)

It was THE Country Living Fair!!

I was gifted a ticket, so how could I not go?,

and, I did some Christmas shopping!!

Country Living Fair in town,

 plus gifted ticket,

plus Christmas shopping in September

equals three pluses

in my book! 

P.S.  My computer did end up biting the big one not being restorable,

so still not much I'm able to do on that front.

So, next on the list of things to do?

Computer shopping... uuugg.

Hope your September is going well -

can't believe there's only one week of it left!!!

Happy Stitching!

weird things

Do you ever see something and instinctively think:  "weird". 

Do you ever have that millisecond pause when you know something is out of whack, but don't really know what it is?

Or does it take a real mental smack up the side of the head to get you to notice something that is out of the ordinary?

I am the type of personality that would probably be classified as

"weird,.... noticing weird things"!

That is a REAL classification, by the way!

And so, besides BEING weird, I also enjoy taking pictures of the uncommon

(uncommon sounds nicer than weird) things. 

I will leave to my children some day 

a very, very large box of pictures classified as: just weird.

Or maybe the label on the box will say:  "things that made me smile".

The kids will just shake their heads and then hopefully smile, knowing that that was their momma.

Momma:  The weird thing picture taker and collector of weird things, who liked to smile. 

I always have wondered if this was hereditary. 

Someplace, somewhere in my lineage

was there another person that collected all things weird?

If there was, they didn't admit to it, as I have found nothing in diaries, or stories, not even pictures. 

Is this something that I can pass to my children and their children?

I have decided that I hope it CAN be passed along.  

All the weirdness shouldn't be ignored. 

 It should be used for good.  It should make you smile!

Like this picture. 

Columbus, Ohio, Summer 2009.

What does that make you think? 

Large plastic monkey convention?

Hear no, speak no, see no evil?

And wouldn't you love that job?  To drive these down the road, town to town. 

Now hopefully, that's a smiling job!

Then there's this:

See this coming up behind our car?

What does that look like?

I believe this was in the Chicago area, a couple of years ago.

The Jetson's have moved to the neighborhood?

A pod on wheels....with flags????

So I purposely moved to the center lane and s-l-o-w-e-d down

(you have to sometimes help the situation for correct picture taking oportunities!).

And this is what came up beside our car:

The Kissmobile !!!

I always wondered if there was a Kissmobile, didn't you? 

How do you suppose you get the job of driving this. 

Do you have to have a love for chocolate, or for kisses, or both? 

Is there a special driving test and classification for your license: Kiss Mobile certified?

And if you do drive it around, every time you stop, do random people ask you for kisses???

I would TOTALLY drive this everywhere.  Wonder what the mpg is.

It even looks cute driving away!!!

The next smile picture was seen at a local metro park. 

One summer afternoon, strolling the beautiful, rolling terrain, I went around the corner, out of the woods, and came to the meadow

to see this:

Notice the size compared to the trees.  Gi-normous!  And there was a whole family of them!

I supppose if you were weak in constitution, they may have been able to cause nightmares, but really, totally friendly.

Then, there are people who make me smile.

I always wonder if they do it on purpose or just have the same creative weirdness as me.

Look closely at the following:

That's all cut and stacked wood.  Stacked to look like a tree.  Isn't that great?

I want to do that next time I have wood to split and stack!!!

I must be building a reputation, 'cause, now I get friends of friends who will send me pictures of things.  Weird things.  

Uncommon things.  Even quilty, uncommon things.

Like this: 

This was taken out in Oregon, I believe.  And was sent through at least three people I don't know before it was sent to someone I do know, who sent it to me.  For my collection!

Is that good or bad that now the weirdness is coming to me from people I don't know?

And then there is this:

King Kong now has his own football team?

The King Kong that is from Ohio, as that uniform is in Ohio State colors?

This was taken at Polaris Parkway and US 71, north of Columbus.  It was only there about a week, then disappeared.  How could something that size just disappear?  Do you think he's on a "traveling" team, and is now appearing across the whole state?

Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Next up:  hot dogs:

This Oscar Meyer dog was recently at the Country Living Fair in Columbus, Ohio.

I don't know why it would be there in the historical village, but it was.  Parked in the grass beside a tent that was handing out info about the fair.  And as you can see, there were 4 chairs set up right beside it.  Do you think there was to be a weiner performance and not very many people were expected to attend? 

I wonder if this is the same weinermobile that has been around awhile. 

I remember when I was a little gal that somewhere, we, as a family, came across this vehicle at an event.  The nice weinermobile people gave me a little weiner whistle on a string necklace.  (This was before kids knew they could swallow little metal things and choke or, twist the string necklace tight enough to cause damage.)  I know, a weiner whistle sounds weird, and it was/is.  But I remembered the Oscar Meyer brand from that day forward!  I could even whistle the Oscar Meyer song... b-o-l-o-g-n-a.

(but notice that I don't remember where I saw this!)

And my list of weirdness that makes me smile just goes on and on.

Perhaps I'll share weirdness again one day.

Hope your day is a weird, smiling one!

Thanks for stopping by!

Country Living Fair in Ohio, Delaware County Fair, Centerburg Old Time Festival

This weekend was a whirlwind weekend of fun, fun, fun!
First, I visited the Ohio Historical Village for the Country Living Fair that was held here in Columbus, Ohio. 
If you have never visited the Ohio Historical Village, you should really take the time.  The first time I remember that I was there was maybe a school trip.  I say maybe, 'cause that was a LONG time ago for me and school.   I do know I was there with my children for fieldtrips, but that was also a long time ago.  The most recent time I was at the Village before this weekend was for a beautiful wedding in the old church.   Only about 100 people were in the entire village for the wedding, and I just meandered down the uncrowded boardwalks and paths. 

This weekend the Ohio Village was much different.  It was just crowded with tents and vendors and country stuff and antiques and almost antiques and rustic thingys and pumpkins and mums and fall decor and food and friendly people.

I took this picture because it shows a little of the village path and I Love the little yellow vintage trailer for lemon-shake-ups.  Double click on the pic and it will enlarge so you can see great little lemon trailer. 

This view shows from the church back toward the main vendor area. 

Notice all the people in the distance.  Notice all the people carrying shopping bags.  And weapons disguised as country thingys when you are in crowds like that. hehe
I had hoped to look for a little kit of quilting or hand embroidery, but the booth that I was looking for, Country Threads from Iowa, was just packed with people.  Just couldn't get in.  And by that time I had purchased this very nice, large, european market basket/weapon.
Here is that little something that I purchased.  It became my weapon of choice as I wandered through the crowd! 

I will fill it with cut perennials and weeds.  I joked that I had to purchase it just to carry my sweater and other finds.  It is a market basket after all.

 I found a great booth toward the back of the Village.  My favorite booth folks travelled from Pennsylvania to vend at this show.  Their display was gorgeous and made me drool.  If  I was a silly person, I would have to take a road trip for their open house later this fall. It WAS that droolably good!  My other finds I purchased from this booth.  They were a few floating things.  Yes, I said floating things.  Candles, gourds, candy corn, and little glass bubbles. I will post a picture in a few days as I change my decorations around the house.

It was a wonderful day at the Historical Village.  I just didn't expect that many people!

Then, because we could, sweetie and I went to the Delaware County Fair today.  The Delaware Fair was kind of quiet, since it was soon after church time on Sunday.  We were given a great tour by two tour guides: a Nephew and Neice who are new 4H members this year and last.  We got to see all the goats and cows and the turkey and dog and photos and posters and vegetables that they took this year as projects.

We will go back tonight for a surprise sweet 16 birthday party for a sweet 16 year old neice. Here's the pic of the cookie I made to take:

Then on to the Centerburg Old Time Festival with some neighbors.  While there, I saw a second cousin and his group of buddies.  They do entertainment for this type of outdoor show.  Their entertainment is:  you'll never guess, Tractor Square Dancing!.  Yes, square dancing on tractors in a dirt show arena.  And so that you can tell the guys from the girls while the tractors are a dancing, they put a "jean flag" on the boy tractors, and a "dress flag" on the girl tractors.  They always try to have guys drive the guy tractors and girls drive the girl tractors, but sometimes it doesn't come out evenly. They have to have a guy drive a girl tractor.  But to make it less confusing for the spectators, they have the guy driver dress like a girl on the girl tractor.  So, you can see from the pic that they didn't have enough girl drivers today and one of the guys  had to dress the girl part!

Yes, the very nicely dressed man in the pink party dress is my second cousin, Ed.   He and the other drivers are standing around having a rootbeer after the square dance.  Tractor Square Dancing is hard work.  By this time the blonde wig is off.  It's just too hot.
All in good fun, and the crowd enjoys it.


So off to the fair with the giant cookie.  And the rain has let up so maybe not as much muddy fun.
Later......