Illinois State Fair 2009 Basket

Here is my souvenir of the state fair. I had seen them online at the fair website before we even left for our trip and I hunted it down when we got there! They had a special little wooden booth near the dairy building and two of the sweetest women were selling them. We talked "baskets" for a long time. I got one other, a 2008 (last year's on sale) that is a little different in size and accent color. It is now holding my dryer softener sheets. I just love baskets. And quilts, and samplers, and old rockers ....oops I digress. :)

Bringing in the Sheaves

The building with the exhibits from the garden and crops was so neat. There were sheaves of wheat, huge stalks of corn, jars of corn kernels, ears of corn on plates, even paper plates of kernels to judge. There were jars of jam, berry pies, and cakes....and while we were there, a cooking contest of spam recipes was happening in the cooking kitchen. Spam lives on! Gotta love it.

Beautiful workhorses

Went into the Illinois State Fair Coliseum and they were showing and judging workhorses...and most of the handlers were teen-age girls! These horses are not tiny. The girls are mostly tiny. I was so happy to see this. Women interested in farmhorses! And the horses were so magnificent!

Butter Cow and young Lincoln

I totally understand the element of "random" in this photo, but the Illinois State Fair always has a life size cow carved out of pure butter. Yes, really. Since I can ever remember. This year, they added young Abe sitting next to a cow! It was a revolving display including a milking stool and bucket , and sometimes Abe looked as if he was behind the cow's behind......but you gotta love it. A life size butter sculpture from the heart of the dairy belt. I love all things farm!

Illinois State Fair

Tom and I went to the fair last week. Here he is beside a circa 1931 tractor. A barn was devoted to the exhibit of old farm equipment, and it was one of our favorite stops at the fair. The barn also attracted vintage farmers (nicest men you would ever want to meet) and they were swapping stories about their first tractors, etc. Fun!

Things from Mom

This toaster came originally from grandma, but mom made toast in it every morning when I was really little, until she got her new 1950's toaster! The sides swing out and you put a slice of bread in on each side and the coils toast it. See the electric cord? The teapot was a wedding gift to her and dad. It cost .25, and the giver was a friend who had no money and apologized for such a small gift. But mom made daddy hot tea in it every day, and the inside is brown from all the pots of tea we enjoyed from that wedding gift. The nickel ice cream scoop with a walnut handle scooped lots of ice cream, because that was my mother's weakness. Just thought I would share some "oldies " with you!

Julia's rocker, now belongs to the grandgirls

I painted this long ago, 29 years in fact, and now little Abigail and Hannah use it all the time. So glad it spent all those years in the attic!