SC State Fair 2009

I absolutely LOVE the SC State Fair. I love the crazy people that come out for it (including myself), the artery clogging food, and the mark that it is officially fall. Growing up in Columbia the fair has always been a part of my life. I mean all the schools in the area would have a teacher workday one day during the week so the kids could go to the fair. I have many memories...especially in middle school...about what a huge deal it was what group you went with and which boy you sat beside on each ride. This year I decided it would be fun to enter a cake into the fair. I did not even know that people did this but my teacher had mentioned that she did it every year. I have only taken two classes but thought it would be fun.

If you have been keeping up with the blog you would know that I am pretty busy. I was out of town for a training from October 7 to October 12. Unfortunately, each fair entree had to be in before 11am on October 13th. So I packed a 64-gallon tupperware container with a bunch of cake stuff and headed to Charlotte for my training. I was taking a class to be able to review physician's impairment ratings that are placed on individuals who have sustained some sort of injury. It was 9 hours of class each day plus a huge test in order to attempt to gain certification. So here I am at the Hilton in Charlotte rolling out fondant on their executive desk in my suite (of course I laid down cutting boards so the table was unharmed)...it must have been quite a site for the maids as I would put my things away each night but I always managed to have some cornstarch still on the desk. She probably thought I was running some sort of drug ring or something and my Winnie-the-Pooh blanket on the bed was just a cover-up! Anyways, somehow I managed to finish my cake early Tuesday morning.

If you have ever entered anything into the fair, it can be very intimidating. There are all of these 60 year olds running around as if they own the place and whispers as to whose smocked dress stitching is the best and whose biscuits did not rise properly. I did not even know what category to put it in so I just asked the old woman to pick one it would fit in. She said it looked like it belonged in the Adult Novelty Division. I am still not exactly sure what that means but I just smiled and said "that's exactly what I was thinking!" I did not tell anyone that I was going to enter anything into the fair for three reasons. One- I feel like a huge country bumpkin entering something into the fair. Two- I must be getting old if this is the kind of excitement I have in my day. And Three: I have never seen the decorated cakes and I totally thought mine would be such an amateur that I would not even tell anyone as it would surely be towered over by large masterpieces.

I was so excited to find out that I actually won first place! That means I won $12 and a blue ribbon. I guess I had already spent the twelve dollars on my fried mushrooms and chocolate-covered frozen banana so I am now left with a cool blue ribbon (It is much larger than the one in this photo. They actually give you one when you got to pick it up). Everyone has been so sweet and encouraging to me letting them know that they saw it when they ventured to Carnie-Town! Kelli even put a picture of her beside it on her blog!

As most of you know, Adam loves to embarrass me. In fact, he loves to embarrass anyone and he finds a thrill in each red face he is able to initiate. I was standing about 15 feet away from the cake and enjoying watching people stop to look at it. The best part was seeing small children with their face smushed up against the glass saying "I want that for my birthday cake, Mommy!" So Adam decides to yell out among the crowd "The artist herself is standing right here" (while pointing at me and making grand gestures). Needless to say, it very quickly made me spot an exit and start my retreat but not before a few people stopped me to ask for one of my business cards. Of course, I did not have any but it was still flattering.

Here we are enjoying our ski lift ride (year after year it seems like this is the only ride we go on...man, we are getting old).

I am already looking forward to next year's fair and I hope that I will be able to enter another cake as well.