We got up early Saturday and headed to Salem for our second trip to the Oregon State Fair!

We got there in time for an early lunch, so the first order of business was eating some delicious fried food. We stuck with tradition and had deep-fried zucchini, but this time we ordered a sampler platter with mushrooms, artichokes and onion rings, too. Along with that magnificence, we split a corn on the cob, a huge Coke, a vegan Polish sausage dog, and of course some chocolate-dipped cheesecake on a stick.

(photo from last year, this year it disappeared too quickly to document it…)

Pearl had a great time! She loved seeing the horses, cows and sheep, pointed at everything cool-looking, danced to the music, and swiped Andrew’s Tillamook cheese sample and triumphantly wolfed it down.

Last year she was such a little baby… here she is peacefully napping with her new airbrushed hat, at four months old. Now she’s a speedy toddler who wants bites of everything!

We saw so much cool crafty stuff this time, just like last year. Pendleton hosted a wool-felting booth that was awesome, they gave each person some hanks of beautifully dyed wool and a bar of soap to put inside.

Here’s mine, once I’d picked my wool colors, and just before the soap stage:

I started my project there and brought it home to finish — but (don’t tell my Mee Mee) I realized I don’t actually own any pantyhose, the crucial last-step ingredient to the felting itself. So I don’t have an after photo to show yet, oops.

And we visited the Weaving Guild booth, where you could try carding wool (on that wild-looking contraption, and a couple of others) and spinning your own yarn, as well as check out some incredible finished art pieces. It made me even more inspired to try the Weaving Un-Loomed projects I’ve been dreaming about…

I saw this rad necktie quilt that instantly reminded me of Diane, too!

I love the Oregon Sesquicentennial (and the 1959 Centennial, too), so it was great to see some handmade 150th birthday cakes on display…

There were also a couple of Sesquicentennial Lego concoctions!

And I was thrilled to see Natalie S. Barnes’ Oregon Centennial table setting in the competition too, so cool. She wrote the sweetest letter about using her family’s collectibles from 1959 — it was such a charming effect.

If you’re nearby, don’t miss the fair this year! It runs through Labor Day (next Monday) so you still have plenty of time to head on over. I’m seriously tempted to go back again and try carding and spinning this time… along with another round of cheesecake. And maybe get an airbrushed t-shirt this time?

If you go:

Oregon State Fair
Corner of 17th St. & Sunnyview Ave., Salem, Oregon