Follow Up Friday: Fair is Fair...

I haven't done a Follow-up Friday post in a while, but there's "Fair is fair" news to catch up on, starting with our entries for this year's "Fab Fair"-themed county fair! 

Unfortunately, our fair visit this year was a mix of good news/bad news, so overall it was just, eh, fair.

If we're friends on Facebook, you already know that instead of doing the Dance of Joy, we were doing the Trudge of Dejection around the exhibition hall... 

So, let's start with the bad news... We really had high hopes for another blue ribbon this year, but it wasn't to be. 

We got 3rd place in the Needle Felting division for our Meet the Beagles:

Third place?! But look at ALL that ADORABLENESS?!

And 2nd place for our Abbey Road corgis. But the GOOD NEWS was that we won the "Special Theme Award" for being on-theme. And that was out of EVERYTHING entered in the Home & Hobby Competition (except for the cakes, which had their own special theme-related contest).

Whoo-hoo for that big green ribbon!

So... of course you know we had to find what beat us out for the blue ribbon. (Remember when we wondered last year if our bunnies were robbed by some wooly balls?) Well, it took us 3 times around the exhibition hall before we found the entry that won because it didn't look needle-felted to us. It was a wall-hanging, which we weren't expecting for needle felting.

(Ignore the wooden head... it's a hanger in front)

We only managed to find it by reading the fine-print on the tags and looking for our needle felting class number. To me, this looks wet-felted, so we wondered if it was in the wrong category (??), but then I came home and did some searching online and found something called "machine needle felting".  It doesn't make the usual 3D things like regular hand needle felting does, so maybe this is machine needle felting?? I dunno....

Anyway, we were a little bummed. But at least we won the big theme prize, which we had really targeted! Here we are, the needle-felting team, trying to look happy. (But we were dejected...)

In other good news/bad news.... there was the decadent fair food. My sis and I shared a spicy grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, and then for a treat we shared a maple bacon doughnut and a deep fried Reese's peanut butter cup.The doughnut did NOT disappoint. The deep fried Reese's did.... 

I about had a heart attack over the doughnut - not from the deep-fried-ness and all the bacon, but from the price. It was $8.75! I hadn't even looked - just ordered it figuring it would be doughnut sized and doughnut priced! But in defense of it's priceyness, I will say: it was huge; it was delicious; and it had a lotta bacon on it. We ate every bite! (I can't say the same for the Reese's...)

In Other Wee "Fair is Fair" News...
Last September, I pledged on the blog to donate 10% of the proceeds on the sales of Rescue Me, Maybe for all of 2013 to the Morris Animal Foundation. I had decided to extend that pledge for 2014 as well, so I just wanted to let you know that I sent them what I owed them for this almost-first-half of the year. 

MAF - Unite to Fight!

I was originally going to wait until June 30, but they had a matching donation fund from Blue Buffalo up to $50,000, so I wanted to donate during that. The good news is, they exceeded that $50,000 matching amount. Woot!

MAF is also holding their Unite to Fight virtual walk on June 22 to raise funds and awareness for pet cancer. If you want to donate to that cause, check out Sugar the Golden Retriever's page or the Wag N Woof crew's page as they are both entered for the virtual walk! Good job guys!

And in other cancer awareness news... mark your blogging calendars for Wed. Aug. 6, the next Give Cancer the Paw hop!

And Don't Forget the Giveaways...
Don't forget I've got 2 giveaways going... this one for Rescue Me, Maybe, a picture frame and dog treats, open to US and Canada; and this one open to US only (sorry) for a cute bag filled with 5 bestselling Women's Fiction books, including RMM! Go enter!