The Great Minnesota Pig Pile

It was a crowded day at the Fair on Friday, but I managed to hit the high points, like the Creative Arts building (i.e. all the sewing, quilts, knitting, other needle arts, baked and canned goods -- basically the home ec crowd). The traditional and sentimental are favored by fair judges: oil paintings of firefighters labeled "The Brave and Unappreciated," the quilt in a traditional Scandanavian pattern, the crop art of a girl hugging her 4-H calf. So I'm always pleased when the entries get a little weird:

Dig that hem:

There's a red ribbon on that bad boy! I think that's a second tier award in MN State Fair parlance. (We did things a little differently in the S.D.)

I was also digging on this awesome knit (crocheted?) hat, complete with pearly ornaments:

That would look hot on my friend Betsy. I had the requisite fried cheese:

and then moved on to the Fine Arts Building, where the populace was all about the serious art:

Bring the art to the people, man! They can't get enough. But I'm biased: I buy all my art at the Fair. Which brings me, inevitably, to the crop art. Not the most exciting showing this year-- there was a large memorial to Lillian Colton and her work, though -- but I did enjoy this bit of oddness:

This one got the main prize and place of honor and deservedly so, I think.

And check out Dolly's hair!:

I made a quick stop at the dairy barn on my way out but only one of the butter heads had been carved:

For those of you unaware of our tribal customs, the finalists in the Princess Kay of the Milky Way pageant (a.k.a. the dairy queen contest) each get their heads carved in 60 pounds of butter while the populace watches entranced. The ladies also get to take their butter busts home and, presumably, have a huge corn-on-the-cob feed at which their nearest and dearest roll hot cobs over their heads. Good times!