Thursday, December 29, 2011

Design Team Happy New Year

It is hard to believe that there is only 3 more days left in 2011.  So with the coming New Year,  Antoinette over at Inspired Stamps has asked the Design Team to create some New Year artwork.  The above card is my contribution for this week.  I have used the 1" Circle Sentiments, and Label Maker Alphabet to create this simple New Years card.

Materials Used: Inspired Stamps 1" Circle Sentiments, Label Maker Alphabet
Ctmh products used: Giggles & Grins B&T, White Daisy, Cranberry, and Black Cardstock, Black Ink, Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Bitty Sparkles, and Sparkles
Martha Stewart - Lace

Thursday, December 22, 2011

I am Dreamin of a White Christmas

Okay so it was almost 60 degrees today in dear sweet Ohio, so I don't think we will get our white Christmas this year.  So I am improvising by creating white on white Christmas cards. 

Today my Inspired Stamps Design Team artwork is this White on White Easel card using Vintage Christmas and Blessed Little Christmas Stamp sets.



Here is a close up of the front, for the "Merry Christmas" I took the Wisemen stamp from the Vintage Christmas set, and Masked out the wisemen leaving only the Merry Christmas.  The white background was run through my cuttlebug using the Swiss dots embossing folder, and the edges were inked using Lilac Mist ink.


 The inside, base sentiment is from the Blessed Little Christmas set.


Materials used:  Inspired Stamps Vintage Christmas & Blessed Little Christmas
CTMH Materials: White Daisy & Lilac Mist Cardstock, Black & Lilac Mist Ink. Gold Ribbon, CTMH Exclusive Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
Stickles Stardust, and B&T colorbok.
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder

Thanks for looking at my artwork, please visit the rest of the Design Teams Artwork, by following the links to their blogs on the left hand side.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Better Late than Never, Inspired Stamps Design Team Post

Boy things have been crazy around here, it seems like I have been meeting myself coming and going.  It has been so crazy with the boys wrestling, starting a new part-time job (my 3rd), along with my normal everyday stuff, I have lost track of what day it is.  I was on my way to work this morning when I realized that it was Thursday and I had totally forgotten to schedule my Inspired Stamps Design Team Post.  Good thing I had completed a months worth of projects 2 weeks ago, so my pictures are ready,

So without further ado, here is this weeks Inspired Stamps Christmas card.

For this card I used the Snowman from the Let It Snow Stamp Set, and the scripture is from the Vintage Christmas Inspired Stamps Set.

Materials Used: Inspired Stamps Let it Snow, & Vintage Christmas
CTMH Products Used: Lilac Mist & White Daisy Cardstock, Black Ink, Prisma Glitter, Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Dutch Blue, Orange and Lilac Mist Markers
B&T Paper Colorbok, Black Fine tip Pen

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Inspired Stamps Christmas Card

Christmas is fast approaching and I haven't come up with my Christmas card design for this year.  I have made several sample cards but have yet come up with on I feel will be easy to make and I want to make more of.  This weeks Inspired Stamps Design Team work is one of my samples.  I have used both the Blessed Little Christmas and Vintage Christmas stamp sets. 

With this card I was going for quick and simple. I achieved that with the solid B&T background, lace and sentiment, but when  it came to the Poinsettia, I failed. It might be fairly easy to make (thanks to the Cricut) but it is not quick as the scoring of all those petals takes time. The inside was fairly simple until I decided it needed a little bit more and Masked the Merry Christmas from the wisemen from the Vintage Christmas set.  I masked out the Merry Christmas by putting tape over the part I wanted removed from the image, then inked up my image, once it was all inked I removed the tape and stamped the image.  The tape prevented the ink from covering the unwanted parts and therefore it didn't appear when i stamped it. 


 

At the rate I am going I will not have a batch of matching Christmas cards done in time to give out for Christmas, but with as many samples as I have made I should have enough ready to give everyone their own unique card, which might be the way I go anyhow.  Check back next week to see another sample for my Christmas cards.

Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team created for you this week.  Links to their blogs are in the sidebar of my blog.

Materials used: Inspired stamps - Blessed Little Christmas, Vintage Christmas
CTMH Products used - Aspen B&T, White Daisy Cardstock
Crystal Blue & Outdoor Denim Ink
Glitz Glitter Gel-Silver
Clear Sparkles (colored with Yellow Permanent Marker)
CTMH Exclussive Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
Martha Stewart Lace
DCWV Glitter Stack green cardstock

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Recent Layouts for Jimmy's Sr Scrapbook

It has been awhile since I have posted any artwork other than my Inspired Stamps Design Team work.  So I thought I would post several of the layouts I got done for Jimmy's Sr. scrapbook at our November Crop.  He graduates in 6 very short months and I am so far behind on his layouts I doubt I will get them all done in time. I only have 17 years of his life to get done in a very short period of time. Here is the start of his album.

PS - You will notice I am not a chronological scrapbooker.  Instead I scrap whatever pictures I am in the mood for, so you will see Jimmy at various stages in life.


This was the Warren Township Community Center
Scrapbooking class layout for November

This first layout is from last Christmas, we were making cookies when Robbie and Jimmy took over and kicked me out of the kitchen.  So being the great mom I am I grabbed my camera and took pictures of them making the cookies.  The blank red area above the big tree is where I plan on eventually putting my journaling.  (I hate journaling so it is usually the last thing I do on a layout)

Left Side - Roughly based on Title Topper-Heading from the Reflections How to Program
the circles and Christmas Trees were cut using the
CTMH exclusive Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge


Right Side - My own design
Materials used: all CTMH unless otherwise noted
Believe Paper Pack, White Daisy, Sweet Leaf, Holiday Red cardstock
Holiday Red & Sweet Leaf Inks
Token Alpha & Holiday Wishes Stamp Sets
CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

This layout is of Jimmy in 2009, showing his 4-H market hog in showmanship.  He placed first in his showmanship class, giving him the honor of being the Top Showman for his age group.  The layout design is Role Play from the Imagine How To Program.


Left Side

Right Side
Materials used all CTMH unless otherwise specified

Colonial White, White Daisy, Desert Sand, Cocoa & Bamboo Cardstock
Desert Sand & Pacifica Ink
CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge




This layout is one of my favorites because it is totally Jimmy. We were out taking his Sr. Pictures, he had climbed a tree so I could get several pictures of him in the tree. He is taking Natural Resources at the local Career Center and part of his class work deals with trees. Not to mention he has always been a climber and a clown. After our photo shoot, Jimmy was goofing off and decided to stage a "I'm falling" look to scare his mom. He didn't scare me but I did manage to capture the whole scene on film and thought a story layout was perfect.  This layout isn't quite finished as I plan on adding one of the Art Philosophy Trees to the Below page and of course I plan on eventually adding some journaling. 


Left Side - Very loosely based on
Front & Center-Basic from the Reflections How To Program



Right Side - Very loosely based on
Front & Center-Basic from the Reflections How To Program

Materials used all CTMH
Colonial White, and Desert Sand Cardstock
Back Country B&T
Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

This layout should probably have been the first one I posted, as it is his first pictures.  I chose not to include his official hospital photo as he looks stoned in it.  This is the only layout I have completely finished as I have even done the journaling.   You can't tell it from the photo but the stars are totally coated in Glitter Glue, and the Marque with his name has glitter glue dots completely around the outside.  Of course this one also has items cut with the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.  The Stars, Ticket, and Marque are all from the AP cartridge, the alphabet is from the Doodletype cartridge.  This layout is from the CTMH how to programs

Left side - Front & Center - Accent Band From Reflections
all these pictures are the originals, as Jimmy's hospital pictures
were the only ones not in the house when it burnt down
so I didn't have to scan them in.

Right Side - Based on Sidebar-Main Frame from the Reflections
Materials Used all CTMH unless otherwise stated
Caboodle B&T, White Daisy, Heavenly Blue, Crystal Blue, Key Lime,
Buttercup and Sunkiss Yellow cardstock
( the 2 yellows are because I accidently grabbed the wrong one for a couple of the mats.)
Glitz Glitter Gel Stardust
Art Philosophy & Doodletype Cricut Cartridges

This layout was a hard one to come up with as the underwater pictures are very blue, and I had a hard time finding paper to go with it.  I had to call in my upline for her opinion as I couldn't find anything I liked.  We ended up going with the "You Rock" papers as the Orange & green added to the playfulness of the layout.  I also used the Ducks from the "Makin Waves" Stamp Set.  It might have been the hardest layout to come up with but it was the funnest to complete.  I have fallen in love with the fun little ducks and have added this stamp set to my ever growing wish list.  This layout also happened to be my only one of the day that didn't have any cuts from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.


 Layout Design: Title Topper - Photos from Reflections How to Program
Materials Used: all CTMH unless otherwise stated
You Rock B&T's, White Daisy Cardstock
Giggle Lowercase & Uppercase alphas, and  Makin Waves Stamp Sets
Sky, Pacifica and Black inks
Colored pencils 

I have entered this page in  the Art Philosophy Linky Party, to show how you can use this cartridge to spice up your scrapbook layouts.  Since I have gotten this cartridge it has not been removed from my Cricut.  It is my goto cartridge for everything, and I totally love everything about it.  Please feel free to explore the rest of my blog as just about every post from October on has something that was created using the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.





Feel free to explore the rest of the blogs in this linky blog hop.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Sneak Peek Week at Inspired Stamps


This Friday at noon Inspired Stamps will be featuring their December New Releases.  The Design Team is featuring Sneak Peeks of the new stamp sets on their blogs all week.  I get to feature the His Little Ones: Winter Boy.  Isn't this guy just totally adorable he reminds me of when my son's wore their one piece snowsuits and would go outside bundled up to play in the snow.  I can see this guy on a winter layout or two. 


I so love all the His Little Ones (HLO) they are so adorable and they are great for paper piecing, and maybe one of these days I will get brave enough to color them. I used the HLO: Winter Boy to create this Easel Christmas Card, along with Blessed Little Christmas for the sentiment & star and Let It Snow for the snowflakes.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Design Team's blogs this week as we showcase the December New Releases.



Materials Used: Inspired Stamps HLO: Winter Boy, Blessed Little Christmas, Let It Snow
Close To My Heart: Pacifica, Sky, White Daisy, Bamboo and Vanilla Cream Cardstock, Outdoor Denim, Pacifica, Sky, Key Lime, Indian Corn Blue, Desert Sand, Sunflower Ink and Black Inks, Outdoor Denim Marker, Art Philosophy CTMH Exclusive Cricut Cartridge
DCWV Glitter Cardstock and B&T,  Jelly Roll White Gel Pen
Snowball gems from stash

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Christmas Tag Blog Hop

This week at Inspired Stamps we are having a Christmas Tag Blog Hop so if you are coming from Jamie's blog you are on the right track.  If you want to start at the beginning you can go to the Inspired Stamps blog.

For this hop I couldn't stop with just one tag, so I made two.  Here are both of them together.

For the First one I used Inspired Stamps Let It Snow, I love this little snowman he is so cute.  I coated him and the snowflake with Stickles to give them extra sparkle. You can just barely see the sparkle here but in real life they both shimmer.  I am loving the old distressed look so I inked the white cardstock all over with Desert Sand ink to give it that old feel.   I added Stickles to the enter of the stamped snowflakes, and then added a silver sparkle wire to finish it off.
Materials Used: Inspired Stamps Let It Snow
CTMH Crystal Blue and White daisy Cardstock, Desert Sand and Black Ink
Ocean,  Citrus Leaf, Star Spangled Blue, and Orange Markers
Licorice Opaques, CTMH Exclusive Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
Diamond and Crystal Stickles,
Patterned Paper, Blue Snowflake and Tag  from stash

For the second one I used Inspired Stamps Vintage Christmas to create my scene and the verse

Materials Used Inspired Stamps Vintage Christmas
CTMH White Daisy Cardstock, Vineyard Berry, black and Sunny Yellow Ink
Tulip velvet ribbon.  CTMH Exclusive Art Philosophy Cricut  Cartridge
Paper and paper lace doily from stash.

Thank you for looking now hop on over to Kary's blog and check out what she made.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Circle Christmas Card for Inspired Stamps

This week for our Inspired Stamps Design Team Post we are to feature a Christmas card with His Little Ones, with a Scripture.  I created this circle card using His Little Ones: Christmas Boy, and a scripture from Vintage Christmas



Matrerials Used:  Inspired Stamps His Little Ones: Christmas Boy, Vintage Christmas
CTMH Materials Used: Believe Paper Pack, White Daisy, Sweet Leaf, Outdoor Denim, Holiday Red, Vanilla Cream, Chocolate Cardstock, Sweet Leaf, Sky, Chocolate, Black Inks, Star Spangled Blue Marker, Tulip Chalk, Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
Misc Product used:  White & Silver Jelly Roll Gel Pens, Crystal Stickles, Silver Ribbon from stash.

November Contest at Inspired Stamps Blog - Christmas Cards Antoinette over at Inspired Stamps has joined forces with Cards that Care and is hostng a Christmas Card Contest! Depending on how many enter, we will have a number of $10 Gift Certificates to the Inspired Stamps Online Store to give away to the winners we select.

While you do not have to participate by sending your cards to Cards that Care, and any Christmas Card that is new can be entered, we encourage you to consider sending cards for this wonderful cause! The cards that are received will be sent to elderly in nursing homes at Christmas. While we all send Christmas cards and love to receive them, many time the elderly in the nursing homes do not get cards. Imagine the joy your card can bring to someone this Christmas!!


The rules for sending to Cards that Care are the same rules for our contest (pretty much a Christmas Card, with no pins!)

For More information on Contest Rules and Entry please check out the post November Contest: Christmas Cards on the Inspired Stamps Blog.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Inspired Stamps Fun Fold Card

This week at Inspired Stamps we are creating Fun Fold Christmas Cards.  For my Card I took a 4-1/4"x11" piece of cardstock and folded it to create a 3x4-1/4" Card with a pocket for a gift card.  For this card I used the Blessed Little Christmas Stamp Set.

Card Front

Inside showing sentiment and Gift Card pocket

another view of the Gift Card Pocket



I found the tutorial for this card one day while surfing the net looking for interesting cards for my class to make, I had printed the directions off with the name of the blog I found it on, but since I have made several of these, and no longer need the directions I have misplaced them and can't refer you back to the original tutorial. (If you feel that I found the idea on your blog please e-mail me and let me know so I can give you credit and link to your tutorial)  In absence of the original tutorial I will make one of my own. My tutorial will hopefully be posted this weekend provided I can tackle a kid long enough to have them help me with taking pictures.

Now that you have checked out my Inspired Stamps Design Team Fun Fold card please visit the other members of the design team's blogs and see what beautiful creations they have for this week.  The links to their blogs are in the Left hand margin of this blog.  Also don't forget that we are looking for your Inspired Stamps Artwork, in the October Challenge.

Inspired Stamps Fun Fold Card Materials used:
Inspired Stamps Blessed Little Christmas
CTMH Materials used
Wonderland Paper Pack, Colonial White, Crystal Blue and  White Daisy Cardstock, Crystal Blue and Pacifica Inks,  CTMH Glitz Glitter Gel Stardust, CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
Silver Ribbon from stash

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Inspired Stamps Designers Choice

This week it is another Designers Choice week over at Inspired Stamps, so for my artwork I pulled out my current favotire stamp set His Plans for You and created this money holder card.  I intentionally kept it simple so it could be used for either a male card or a female card, with 4 boys in the house it seems I am always in need of  "Guy" cards.



Inside of Card

Wow, what a difference a week makes.  Last week's card took me 3 days to complete, and this week's card took me less than an hour to throw together.  I got my creativity back, thanks to a girl's play weekend with my niece and have been playing catch up.  I have so many other items in progress on my table that I almost forgot to get my Inspired Stamps card done for this week.  So I threw it together right before work one morning.  I love it when the Creativity is flowing. 


Card size: 8x3.5

Materials used Inspired Stamps His Plans for You
CTMH used - Roxie Paper Pack, White Daisy, and Black cardstock, Black and Desert Sand Ink.  Originals Card Confidence book for card design, Puzzle Backdrop pg 91, Licorice Opaques

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Weekend with Deanie



This weekend my 11year old niece came over and spent the night.  With her here I was able to get plenty of playtime in and guess What????  I have revived my creativity.  yeah!!!  Nothing does that better than a weekend of girl time.

My niece Nadine, I call her Deanie, loves to play with paper just as much as her favorite Aunt.  When she got here I was mowing the lawn so she went straight to my scrapbook room and the cricut and started creating.  When the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge first came out I fell in love with the Butterfly 2 image and cut out several, well Nadine saw them and had to create some for herself.  By the time I had finished the lawn she had created several of the butterflies in different color combo's.  Nadine was choosing colors I would have never put together and they all looked good together.

Here are all of Nadine's Butterflies,
ya think she had a good time with Aunt Jenn

Once I was ready to play Nadine informed me that she "had to make" a sympathy card for one of the 5th grade teachers.  This Teacher had just lost her husband to cancer within the past week, and all of my boys and Nadine's family had had her in school.  Nadine told me that the Chain links club was making "printed cards" for her, but she knew that her Aunt Jenn & her could make a really special one for her teacher.  So with Nadine's help this is the card we came up with.  Nadine wanted this card to be one that was really special, and something that her teacher would keep for a long time, so she looked through all my card designs found a style she liked.

I dug out the supplies and we started working,  This is what we came up with. 

Easel card Materials used all CTMH unless otherwise stated
Magnifique Paper, White Daisy, Outdoor Denim, Sky cardstock
Pacifica, Sky and Outdoor Denim Inks
Comforting Thoughts Stamp Set
Licorce Opaques,
Create a Shade Pearl Paint for homemade shimmer mist
sprayed on the roses.
Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge
Fiskars Border Punch, Irredescent ribbon from stash

Front of card

Inside (base) of card


Nadine picked out everything I just provided a little creative suggestions, and hands to help put it together, and roll the roses as she had a hard time with them because she has a broken thumb right now.

We also made a birthday card for Nadine's best friend, so of course this one had to be special.  While we were working on the next card Nadine told me that she doesn't like store bought cards anymore. Cause when she gives her friends handmade cards, they keep them on their dressers "forever".

Materials Used all CTMH unless otherwise noted
Wonderland and Dreamin paper packs (Dreamin is the butterfly)
White Daisy, Outdoor Denim and Crystal Blue cardstock
Pacifica, Sky & Outdoor denim inks
Find your Style and Card Chatter Birthday Stamp Sets
Glitz Glitter Gel Stardust, Licorice Opaques
Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge

Create a Shade Pearl Paint for homemade shimmer mist
sprayed on the roses.




this Easel Card has a pocket in the base so
Nadine can give her friend a gift card or cash.

I have entered this page in  the Art Philosophy Linky Party, to show how you can use this cartridge to spice up your cards.  Since I have gotten this cartridge it has not been removed from my Cricut.  It is my goto cartridge for everything, and I totally love everything about it.  Please feel free to explore the rest of my blog as just about every post from October on has something that was created using the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.

Feel free to explore the rest of the blogs in this linky blog hop.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Thankful project

Our Inspired Stamps Design Team post this week is too feature Thankful artwork.  I created this basic Thank You card using More Perfect Sentiments


I will have to admit I have been in a bit of a creative rut lately. It seems like no matter what I try, I am having the worst time getting my creative gears into action. So this weeks card looks simple but it took me 3 days to complete because I just couldn't get myself into that creative mood.   Now to find my creative side in time to finish the 5 cards and 2 layouts I need done before next weeks classes.  Hopefully next weeks post will be more inspiring.

Materials Used:  Inspired Stamps More Prefect Sentiments

CTMH materials - White Daisy and Outdoor Denim Cardstock, Outdoor Denim ink, Licorice Opaques, Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, Stardust Glitz Glitter gel
Lace is Martha Stewart, Score Board Martha Stewart
Sandpaper

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

September and our Vacation (long Post with lots of pictures)

Boy did September Fly By.  If you have ever been around our household you will know that September is a very chaotic month for us.  It starts out with the start of school, football games, and the winding down of summer, then it runs into what the boys & I call the best seven days of September, the Tuscarawas County Fair.  The boys and I are very active with our Local 4-H and so the first 2 weeks of September are spent getting ready for the Fair, and the last week is spent recovering from it.  The boys once again raised Market Hogs to show and sell at in the Jr. fair livestock competitions, and this year for the first time Robbie & Tony took Market Goats.  I had the 4-H booth to design, and  create, a vendor booth for Close To My Heart (with 2 other consultants) so I needed  items ready to sell, and on top of it all I decided to enter several items into the Fine Arts competition for stamping and photography  (what was I thinking :-)  Of course I had to get all this done around work and chasing kids. 

Dillon is #75

Tony #82
Tony & Dillon are both playing football which means at least 3 games a week, and practice every other day.  Of course with Tony being in a Freshman and Dillon only in 7th grade they both play on 2 different teams so of course their games are at different times and I have to coordinate schedules. 





Jimmy is working at Wendy's and has his own car so I don't have to worry about getting him from A to B anymore, and I am loving the fact that I can use him for pick up and delivery of his brothers when he isn't working. 

Because the boys have animals at the fair and I had the CTMH booth, we all took the week off work/school and had a camper set up at the fair, and we enjoyed a weeks vacation of action packed events.  It wall started off with decorating the hog barns Friday night (I skipped the varsity football game, to do this), then on Saturday we had Hog Weigh-In's, the camper was set up, my Fine Arts Entries were turned in and I started decorating the 4-H booth.  This year we lucked out and all 4 hogs were in the prime weigh classes, with Dillon's hog Two-Face weighing 260 lbs, Tony's hog Baby weighing 268 lbs, Jimmy's hog Ida Kno weighing 270 lbs, and finally Robbie's hog Lola weighing 275 lbs.  Surprisingly with all 4 hogs weights being so close none of the boys were in the same weight class. 



Dillon at weigh-ins with his an Jimmy's hogs.



Sunday started bright and early with the boys getting their pictures with their hogs for the buyers signs, then Robbie and Tony went and got the goats, Jimmy and Dillon moved into the camper, while I worked on getting the 4-H booth finished set up.  The goats both made weight with Robbie's Bubba weighing in at 80lbs and Tony's Leroy weighing 85lbs.  Then finally at 6pm after the 4-H booth was done Karen, Betty and I set up our Close To My Heart booth, and we were all ready for the week to begin. 


this years 4-H booth


Monday was the Opening day of the fair and the boys school actually didn't have classes this day so they hung out with their friends while I ran the CTMH booth. 

On Tuesday it was Show day for the Hogs and I took the day off from watching the CTMH booth. The boys & their hogs did fairly well this year Robbie, Jimmy, and Tony all got 5th place in their weight classes and Dillon got 9th, not bad and we all got done in time for Tony to make football practice and Dillon to make his football game.






Robbie & Lola,
Lola got 5th place in her weight class


Jimmy & Ida Kno
Ida got 5th place in her weight class




Tony & Baby
Baby got 5th place in her weight class



Dillon & Two-Face
Two-Face got 9th in her weight class

Then on Wednesday (It wasn't a good day) I watched the CTMH booth in the morning, then the boys had How showmanship at 4pm.  While I was on my way to the hog arena my Aunt and Granny stopped me, wanting to find my Dad cause my Mom had fallen and was being taken to the hospital by ambulance.  (Panic time) Luckily it didn't take long for us to find him, and while my Aunt, Granny, Dad, and Brother's family went to the hospital to be with Mom I got to watch the boys do showmanship.  It was not a good year for the boys in showmanship, Dillon did a good job showing but didn't make the final cut, Tony was complemented by the judge and you could tell he really wanted Tony in the final cut but Baby had other ideas and would not cooperate.  Jimmy did make the final cut and ended up with 5th place, Robbie automatically got first place as he was the only 18 year old showing.  Wednesday night finished with us in the ER again as Jhett, a good friend of Jimmy's,  was hurt on a ride and taken by ambulance to the hospital, so it made for a long night.

Thursday came and made up for the events of Wednesday.  Our day started bright and early as we had made arrangements the night before to help get Jhett's goat ready for the show, as we weren't sure he would be out of the ER in time to show.  (He made it with 10 minutes to spare).  This was our first year of taking goats so we were a little unsure what the judge would be looking for, though Dani did a wonderful job teaching Robbie how to show a goat cause Robbie got 2nd place in the 1st year showmanship class.  Once we got to the individual weight classes where they judged the goat and not the 4-H we hit jackpot.  Robbie got first place in his weight class!!!  Then Tony got last in his weight class, bummer but he has a couple of years left to show, for Robbie it was his last harrah. 

Robbie and Bubba getting first place in Weight Class 2


Tony walking Leroy in Weight Class 3

the best part of Thursday was when they brought in all the first and second place goats from the 4 weight classes and the judge picked out Bubba as the 2011 Tuscarawas County Fair Grand Champion Market Goat.  I don't know who had the bigger smile, Robbie or Dani. 




Robbie and Dani with the Grand Champion banner
and Bubba in front of the Ag-Land booth
where Dani works and the buyers of Bubba

After the goat show on Thursday, the rest of the week went pretty quickly.  the boys sold their hogs Thursday night and got the best overall price per pound we have gotten since they started taking hogs.  Jimmy got $3.25 a pound, Robbie & Tony got $2.75 a pound and Dillon got $2.50 a pound, we were very please with the results.  Friday was pretty much a wind down day as Tony & Dillon had the varsity football game that night, and the rest of us just hung out at the fair.  Saturday the boys sold the goats with Robbie getting $750 for Bubba and Tony getting $225 for Leroy.   Sunday came and we were in clean up mode, we cleaned out the camper, the animal pens,  tore down our booths, and said goodbye to all our fair friends for another year.  In all the 2011 Tuscarwas County Fair was a good one, and we were all sad/happy to see it come to an end.



This is the make shift sign that this display
made after my Mom fell when she missed the
step.  I of course had to snap a picture of
it for her scrapbook.