two sad little birds and one happy one

The state fair was.....ok. I regrettably forgot my camera. I wanted to get a picture of my dad's prize winning egg. However the people that set the display up not only spelled his last name wrong, but the egg is set in there backwards so the picture wouldn't have shown it off in it's full glory anyway. Seriously! It's very obvious which is the front and which is the back. The painstakingly carved out little bird was not visible. SAD! I went to one of the supervisors and told them they needed to fix it ASAP! But the kind lady explained that the display cases this year are a whole new design and they had screwed the glass fronts shut and will not be opening them until the give back day. Duh! I told the lady that that was a serious design flaw and that I would hope they change it next year. Don't worry I wasn't mean about it but I was stern.

Our good friends Lance and Lisa came with us--actually it was their idea to go in the first place. It made the fair way more enjoyable. L & L "made" us ride the giant slide, which I don't think was worth $2 a person but it was fun and now I can say that I have indeed ridden the giant slide.

There were soooo many people there! Granted we did go on a Saturday night but still. OH and the strange folk sure do come out of the woodwork for the fair! I've never seen so many mullets and shirts with the faces of country western singers proudly worn by their owners all in one place.

We saw lots of quilts and canned items and giant squash and peppers. Tiny lion head bunnies. Stinky sheep. Tons of high priced traditional fair food. The rickety fair rides and games for the kids run by the usual "carnies" as L & L called them. Sad tigers on display seemingly bored as they made endless circles around their cage. Lots of bad karaoke. Gross bathrooms. Beautiful works of fine art.

So all I have to say for next year is that I'm going on a weekday and they had better fix those damn display cases!

On another random topic...today was a good mail day! I received my purchase from The Black Apple's Etsy shop. These little buttons are sooo cute! I can't wait to put them on miscellaneous items. Like...my bags, my apron, my shoes, my dog's collar (just kidding - my James would not be too excited about that). I especially love the little bird, rabbit and tea kettle.

Here's one more random item... another little nest I found the other day in our front yard. Poor little bird. I feel so bad when I find a nest like this--so much time and labor put into it. I try not to think about the what the former owners are doing for a home. I stuck it in the coleus plants in my front yard for now.

In honor of the theme of this post, here's one of my favorite songs by The Be Good Tanyas:

Well I feel like an old hobo,
I'm sad lonesome and blue
I was fair as the summer day
Now the summer days are through
You pass through places
And places pass through you
But you carry 'em with you
On the souls of your travelin' shoes

Well I love you so dearly
I love you so clearly
Wake you up in the mornin' so early
Just to tell you I got the wanderin' blues
I got the wanderin' blues
And i'm gonna quit these ramblin' ways
one of these days soon
And I'll sing

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs...

Well it's times like these
I feel so small and wild
Like the ramblin' footsteps of a wanderin' child
And I'm lonesome as a lonesome whippoorwill
Singin' these blues with a warble and a trill
But I'm not too blue to fly
No I'm not too blue to fly cause

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs...

Meet Tessa

This is Tessa. Originally named Sheldon from the Knitty pattern but renamed Tessa thanks to my friend Halen. Tessa was deemed Tessa on knitting night because it's weird to have a pink turtle named Sheldon. It's for one of my girlfriends, Jamie, who is having a baby shower tonight. I don't think I'll be knitting one of these up again. It was quite tedious and time consuming, but well worth it because I know Jamie will appreciate it and love it--she's a knitter too.

And here are some Saartje's Bootees for her as well. I've done these for other babies and Jamie always comments on how cute these are so of course I had to make her some for her baby. Her other two adorable children have dark skin (she married to an "island boy") so these colors will be great against the new babies skin for sure.

We're going to the Utah State Fair tomorrow! I'm so excited because this year my dad won the Best of Show for one of his eggs! See more about his egg hobby from an earlier post here. I'll be sure to take pictures of the prized egg and post them.

Here's where my talent really comes from...and we all thought it was from mom!

There has been an amazing recent discovery in my family. My dad is crafty. Seriously. We've all known that he has many, many talents including, making siren noises in the car while everyone looks around for a cop, telling great stories he swears are true but are really just well told un-truths, and we all know he has an amazing singing voice that can undoubtedly be compared to Pavarotti and a more mature Josh Groban. Little did we know that my dad is on his way to being a master carver. Seriously! Who knew?? We all knew that my mom is a very crafty person. She was and is always into something like sewing, painting, making cards, cake decorating, etc. but wow, my dad is an artist, too.

It all started out with a visit to the home show a few years ago. A former dentist was demonstrating a modified dental drill making intricate pieces of art. He was carving amazing designs into wood and of all things, ostrich eggs. I can just see my dad there now, "That's pretty nifty. I can do that. Excuse me Mr. Ex-Dentist sir, where can I get one of those machines?" Actually it took a few years to decide if this was a hobby suited for a siren sounding, singing railroader. So last spring he and mom went to a free class on the whole process and he was hooked.

Now after a day of battling with vendors and managing employees for Union Pacific, he rushes to his make-shift studio in his garage. 40 to 60 hours are spent on these one-of-a-kind delicate carvings. Gone are the days of TV watching, leisurely puttering around the house, and wondering what he'll do when he retires. He's found it folks. He's an egg carver.

Oh and this is what happens when you find a passion that involves hours of tediously making microscopic marks into egg shells...you get a little loopy and send these kind of pictures to your daughter--who by the way is pretty proud of her dear dad, even though he's a bit, well...the pictures say it all.