Opening Day

I've spent the last couple of days at the Puyallup Fair. I'd never been there on Opening Day before and my goodness (!) it was busy that first day. It's free admission until noon, which I had forgotten about, so the lines were unbelievable. The smart ones were just getting through the gates quickly, getting their hands stamped, and then heading off to work or other activities - then coming back later in the day when it wasn't so chaotic. But the rest of the crowds had paid to park, and hung out for the parade through downtown Puyallup which happened at 10am. So much frenzy! The lines for scones was so long, stacked up beyond the horizon at every window all day long. And we were slammed at the Artists in Action shop too, which was great.

I'm in lurve with Laurie Sharp's little needle-felted wool creatures. She's got darling little kits to make them, but she's also got a glass case of fantastic mermaids, sheep, cats, hedgehogs, tiny birdies - you name it. I've got my nose pressed against the glass all day, admiring their teeny happy faces and curly fur bits. But there are so many styles of tempting jewelry, gorgeous pottery pieces, racks of yarns that have me yearning to start another half-finished piece of something to join all the other ones I have sitting in my basket. We are a little haven of handmade goodness, smack dab in the middle of miraculous house cleaning gadgets, must have doodads, world's best knives, and potions that one simply can't live without - all being hawked by some charming folks on headset microphones. Actually, all that stuff is in another building. But it's still kind of a surreal place to have an art type show. It's rodeo week, and the thundering hooves overhead in the Grandstand is deafening while they are romping around. I'm enjoying the rodeo crowd though, so many variations on the western dress theme - hee. I never get to see this stuff in my normal daily routines and travel, so it's all pure entertainment.

By the second day, I just couldn't take the stink cloud of fried onions anymore. But ate a fried onion blossom, a fair burger with fried onions galore, plus french fries . . . I stopped myself cold before the funnel cakes and elephant ears. I'm not eating another fried item for a month, I swear.

So the fair is going well. I'm going to be up to my ears with restocking over there and getting to work on the orders that are streaming in this weekend since the newsletter arrived in boxes on Friday. I've got a stack here that I'm going to try to make a dent in today. I'm back at the fair next week, Tuesday and Thursday. And working at the shop on Wednesday -- a sandwich. So it's in and out and back in and back out all week - humming along.

As promised, here are a couple of photos of special new items that are at the fair only - in case you're headed over for a little hit of fried goodness and fun: the new incense wands in Sandalwood and Vanilla Spice. And the little bottles of bath and body oil in Lavender and Fresh scents.