Spizzie and I had a chance to go to the Kentucky State Fair last week. I didn’t relish the drive, but we had free tickets and a place to stay. I thought since we didn’t do anything all summer, this would be a chance to make it up. Plus, my sister lives in the area and we always like to visit!
Basically, the Fair is a ten-day-long event. I’m sure there are more days if you count the activities leading up to it, but we’ll just say ten days.
There are paid concerts, free concerts, live shows, dance competitions, singing competitions, karaoke contests, and even circus acts. There are livestock competitions and showings featuring cattle, swine, goats, sheep, mules/donkeys, and poultry. We visited the barns, but we didn’t stay overly long. We’ve been around livestock before, so most of the smells and the occasional pile of poo on the ground didn’t bother us. However, Spizzie declared that the swine “bring a whole new level of stink!” We didn’t stick around that area very long at all. Blech.
There are horse shows for 4-H, Miniature horses, and Quarter Horses. One of the big events is the World’s Championship Horse Show. There are so many divisions, styles, and classes, that you could see a show for just about any type of horse event that interests you. It is Kentucky, after all!
We actually got to visit the DeLovely Farms stalls. They apparently win a lot.
They brought over fifty horses to the show. We didn’t get to see them all, but we met this beauty.
This is Sprinkles. She isn’t just any old horse. She is a Breyer Horse and she holds multiple World and National Championship titles. (Just so you know, I had no idea what that really was! Breyer Horses are a type of collectible figurine. Sprinkles just happened to have a horse sculpted in her image!) Sprinkles was very sweet and obviously very attached to the young lady who was taking care of her. You can’t see it in this picture, but the eye on the side closest to Spizzie was almost lost due to an infection. Apparently, a piece of hay poked her in the eye. I’ve been in a few barns before, so I’m really surprised this doesn’t happen more often. Needless to say, we were happy to learn that she is almost completely recovered. And she let my horse-crazy girl pet her, so Spizzie definitely went away happy!
I took my boys to the Fair many, many years ago. I remembered enjoying all the exhibits, history, and Kentucky-made products. I think things have changed just a little, as there is way to much imported junk that you can buy just about anywhere and not enough homemade goods and demonstrations. They do have some, however, and they have a pretty large section of various art forms that were sent in for judging. There is also a separate 4-H section. There were exhibits of photography, quilting, sewing, painting, drawing, baking (some of the food in cases had mold–that was so gross), canning, cake decorating, needlepoint, recycled art, basket making, miniatures, woodwork, leather work, floral arrangements, ceramics, plaster work, gourds, and many others! The age groups were very varied too. It is amazing what some of these kids can do!
Naturally, there were lots of horse paintings and drawings. Again, the Kentucky thing!
Spizzie took a lot of the pictures for me and I let her pick out some of her favorites. This was her favorite photograph. She has a wicked sense of humor. ; )
She also wants this vest for an Ugly Christmas Outfit party and a seashell seahorse for her room. And we all thought this wreath was cute!
Myself, I thought this was one of the funniest things that I saw. I hope that was a not a used one…
There were rows and rows of quilts. Do you have any idea how much work goes into a quilt? I do. It’s a LOT!!! They were gorgeous though.
If I had to pick one of my favorite things about the Fair, it would be the dollhouses and miniatures. I’ve wanted to use a dollhouse to make a gingerbread house for some time, but now I’m thinking we need to make some Fairy Houses. It boggles the mind how detailed some of them were!
The pastry shop was made in a pastry box. The little bourbon distillery was fabulous. Spizzie loves Cleopatra, but I think it was her Marc Antony that drew some giggles! And of course, you must have Frozen-themed displays. You just must!
Naturally, I would be drawn to a Christmas house! I really think I need to make one of these.
This lunchbox display was soooo me! I would like to have a kitchen like that!
They were all very cute, but Spizzie, my sister, and I all agree that the different “fairy houses” are our favorites! There were big fairy houses:
Teeny, tiny fairy houses:
Fairy rooms (See that furniture? Little sticks glues together and painted. I might be able to manage that!):
There was a fairy house made out of an egg. I didn’t get a good close-up of the fairies. They looked like they were busy.
The absolute most amazing, fantabulous, brilliant piece of miniature art work was this one:
It’s a fairy house in a tree stump. And every where you look, there are new nooks and crannies to be discovered. There are even little fairies here and there if you can find them (probably not in these pictures though!). That is the back side. Here is the front:
Is your mind blown? I wish I’d had one of these growing up. I had a Weeble-Wobble treehouse, but it couldn’t even begin to compare!!
The State Fair also has education centers set up. There are different exhibits from different historical societies and organizations around the state. The counties also have education booths. Unfortunately, not every county has one and I think you probably miss a lot of good information!
We did finally convince Spizzie to sit in the giant rocking chair. She wouldn’t do it for me, but she did for her Sissy. She loooooves her Sissy! I want one of those chairs by the way.
And one of the counties brought this guy:
I thought it was nice of Honest Abe to help out!
Of course, no trip to the Fair is complete without visiting some of the Police/Fire/Rescue Exhibits. We thought the Super Trooper would like this “vintage” picture!
Another part of the education area was the Pioneer Exhibit. There were several different things going on including demonstrations, music, and explanations as to the hows and whys of things back in the day!
There were several interesting exhibits, but I mostly just liked this little bitty banjo.
The Education Exhibit also boasted a Discovery Farm. We call that a petting zoo. It did have some really pretty animals and they were all very clean. The little piglets were eating and well, making piggies of themselves. And there was a horse named Pete who is part of the Mounted division of Louisville metro. There were goats, sheep, mini horses, pot-bellied pigs, ducks, chickens, turkeys, and a sad-looking little donkey. Poor guy.
Spizzie and I fell in love with the ducks. There was only one smart one in the bunch, as he learned to jump up on top of the feeder and eat, but it was so much fun to watch. Too. Much. Cuteness!!
We found some tractors over near the 4-H exhibits. The Super Trooper is a farm boy, so I’m sure he’ll be John Deere Green with envy when he sees this one!
We missed out on the biggest vegetables, etc., but there were a few things like honey, sorghum molasses, and local candies for sale. We did manage to find the biggest sunflower contest. Can you even imagine what they looked like before they were cut down?
We also stumbled on some antiques. Spizzie is wild about antique books and vintage clothes. My gaze went toward the late 1800’s bridal skirt. It had such gorgeous detail. Her attention was drawn to the pink ballgown that once belonged to a professional dancer. Unfortunately, it didn’t say which one!
Sometimes at the Fair, you see random things that are just fun!
I can’t imagine the time and imagination that goes into these! This fairy one is the best though!! She’s so cute, I just want to squeeze her…oh, wait.
There is more to the Kentucky State Fair than I could even tell you about. We don’t do the Midway, so I can’t tell you about the rides. And we didn’t eat much in the way of Fair food that I would recommend to anyone, but I didn’t try all the booths, so it’s not really a “fair” assessment. (If anybody is reading this, I volunteer though. I will gladly be one of those people who travels around trying out different foods. Guy Fieri, do you hear me?!?) We did have some very nice homemade ice cream and I bought some really good homemade-in-Kentucky fudge. And my sister took us to a great local restaurant called The Silver Dollar. Even Spizzie liked that one!
There are some things that I think should be done differently to make it more of a home-grown experience, but I’m not on the Fair Board and nobody asked me! All in all, I had a nice time. I got to eat out and stay away from home and I didn’t have a laptop or a tablet or anything!! I’m telling you, it was kind of nice!
I also got to spend quality time with some of my favorite people in the world. I can’t think of anything better than that!
