Some Sights at Colorado State Fair, Pueblo, CO 2010

Some of the people, food and sights at the fair. 

 

Our booth

Matt Meister / Weatherman from KRDO-TV  13

 

Best food at the fair - Chan's Chicken on a Stick

Monster Trucks had 2 shows. 

Batman was there protecting everyone  LOL!!

The Wendy's Girl and a frosty passing out coupons. 

 and a street juggler, too. 

World's Largest Carved Watermelon Centerpiece Sept. 2010

 Chef Daniel Bartlett conceived the idea of creating a 16 foot high, carved watermelon centerpiece.  Several chefs carved 500 watermelons for many days, the last batch being done at the fair.  They are submitting documentation to be considered for a world record!!

 

We were lucky,  it was almost next to our Personalized Rice Necklace booth, so I kept dashing over there to check out their progress.  

The pictures speak for themselves!!

The frame was back-filled with watermelons and the spaces filled in with ruffled Kale. 

An eggplant with a summer squash. 

They constructed it on a Friday and had to take it down on Sunday.  I was sad to see it go.  Every time I looked at it, I saw something more amazing. 

LEGOS at Colorado State Fair 2010

Oh what fun for the kids!  They could play and build with the LEGOS all day long. 

Both sides of the trucks had pictures of all the LEGOS characters.

This is a traveling show that also passes out lanyards with LEGO trivia on it.  Did you know there are 915 ways to combine 6 eight studded bricks???

Some Animal Shows at Colorado State Fair, 2010

Each year every state fair has different attractions for free.  Many times they include animals. 

  Right behind our Personalized Rice Necklace Booth was Bixby's Rainforest Animals.  They would take the Lemur for a ride 2 x a day on the golf cart around the grounds. 

And right across from us, was Jeff, The Swampmaster who wrestled an 8 foot alligator.

These free shows are very entertaining and move to a different fair each year.

As a side note - we were next to a  H U G E alligator at the Florida State Fair "Big Al".  Pretty amusing to wonder what is store for us next year.  LOL

Colorado Springs Farmers Market, Fall 2010

Our Milkman.  They deliver 1 time a week,  year round.  The very best milk, farm raised eggs and the best dairy anywhere.  Love the cookie dough, and lemonade too. How awesome is that to have milk delivered in this day and age!!??

 

Our favorite farmer at the local markets.

Just part of their offerings.  What a bargain - fill a bag with anything on the table = $7.00 or pack a grocery, plastic bag for $10.00.

Our haul for $10.00 - Lots of eggplant, yellow and black bell peppers, 4 cukes, 6 ears of corn and fresh pulled onions.

V irtual Online Learning Webinar on ENTRECARD

Members of Danna Crawford's Virtual Online Learning are offered several opportunities, for learning all aspects of online business, through webinars, several times a month.

One of those topics was Entrecards!  This is a way for writers of blogs to promote their blog on other peoples blogs, for free.    

http://entrecard.com/

Once I signed up, I was given a virtual business card.  I visit other blogs and say "hi - I have been here", by dropping my card in the Entrecard box.  Each time I do that I get points that will allow me to place a link to my blog on theirs. 

The more cards I drop, the faster I move up in a search of different blogs under special topics. While I am watching TV in the evening I am also dropping.  Some days 50, some days up to 300.  My link is pretty much above the fold in the top 3 lines of the travel category. 

If you look on the right side of this page you can see someone else's ad on my page.  They have paid to be there and I get those points added to my account which will then allow me to place an ad on others pages.

The benefit from this is more visitors to my blog.  Google likes lots of hits and they will move that blog up in their search.  I have been on page 1 of a Google search on several subjects.  The most popular one right now is Euro Bubbles at the Florida State Fair. 

And by using Feedjit, I am able to tell where all the hits are coming from, which is from all over the world.

Has it helped my business?  I like to think yes because pro active efforts any self promotion helps.  

Once you add Entrecard to your Blog, please let me know so I can drop and advertise for you too.  

You too can be a student of these webinars that are less than an hour.  There are no assignments or time consuming homework.  There is no better bargain on the internet  

http://www.meetup.com/Virtual-Online-Learning/

Holiday Crafts Shows We Will Be At This Fall 2010

Holiday Crafts Shows We Will Be At This Fall in Colorado Springs, CO, area

It is time to think about Christmas and gift shopping.  

We will be making our Name On Rice Jewelry at these crafts and gift shows.  Each charm has at least 1 grain of rice in it with a name or message written on it. 

After we write on the rice it is placed into a tiny, glass vial, capped and attached to a necklace, key chain, charm  bracelet or as a charm for a cell phone.  

 Only a few of the 25 different bottles we have to put the rice into.

Sat and Sun. 10/2 - 10/3 - Palmer Lake 37th Arts Fest, at Town Hall Palmer Lake, CO.

Sat. 10/9 - 10 to 5; CSU /  Pueblo 1st Holiday Craft & Art Fair, Occhiato Ballroom,  Pueblo. 

Sat. 11/6 - 9 to 4; Smoky Hill High School - All handcrafted craft fair, 16100 Smoky Hill Rd, Aurora, CO

Sat. 11/13 - 9 to 4; Liberty High School 22nd Annual Craft Show, 8720 Scarborough Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 

Sat. 11/20 - 9 to 4; Sand Creek High School; 8th Annual Holiday Craft Fair, Colorado Springs, CO. 

Sat. 12/4 - 9 to 4; Doherty High School, Barnes Ave., Colorado Springs, CO. 

And we can do them at our house, too.  eMail for an appointment.  herbscraftsgifts@aol.com.  

Making Sweet Mixed Pickles Fall 2010

This is a product we can't buy in the store, so I figured I had to make them myself.  They are cucumbers; cauliflower; small, cocktail onions; garlic and green & yellow bell peppers with pickling spices. 

Boil for a few seconds so peeling comes off easier.

Cucumbers are cut with a decorative cutter in smallish bite size pieces.

I blanched the veggies for less than 1 minute ( but it is not necessary). 

Very easy to make.  They need a water bath for at least 30 minutes, depending on altitude.

 Love them with a sandwich!!!!!!!

Making Peach Jam Fall 2010

We made a new discovery this year.  Getting to the Farmer's Market fairly early let us get some bargains -specifically fruit that was slightly bruised and sold at a drastic discount.  The drawback was that it had to be prepared as soon as we got home.  Some of the peaches were soft but not rotten yet, but it would not take long before they were spoiled.

Just some of the peaches waiting to be processed, after they were washed and the bad spots cut off.

Putting them into boiling water for a few seconds, helps to loosen the skin making it easier to remove. That is the peach fuzz floating on the top of the water.

Notice how they look different after they are removed from the boiling water and placed in an ice water bath?

And the skin, slips right off.

After they were peeled, we put them through the food grinder with the medium blade. Here they are cooking in the pot following the directions in the Sure-Jel; package.

Processing in the water bath, again following directions.

MY 1st EXPERIENCE with CHOKE-CHERRIES

 

Late last week a very good friend passed on to us, 5 pounds of Choke Cherries, that she had gotten from another member of the Knights of Columbus.

I had never eaten them or even worked with them, so I knew it was going to be an adventure.

1st thing was to remove the stems and leaves. Phyllis said she popped the pit out at the same time.  Me, being a know-it-all, thought that certainly there was a tool to get the pits.   Boy was I wrong!!  

Following a recipe from the internet, I cooked them until they were soft, so that they could  easily be mashed through a strainer, sieve or food mill.

The strainer just let the juice go through and the pits got caught in the food mill.  Yee gads what a mess of this real, rich looking juice and fruit, that I know would stain our fingers, something awful.

At this point the fruit was still hot but we decided to let t cool and follow Phyllis's lead to do each one individually (daunting job to say the least!)

That worked but took the 2 of us, a few hours.  Fortunately we had plastic gloves!  

At times I can be alittle OCD and was curious how many cherries there actually were.  So we weighed 1 oz of pits and then all the pits.  There were over 4000 cherries that we had to touch them 2x.

  

 

The end result was 10 cups of fruit that I made into 4 pints and 5 -1/2 pints of jam and a pie.  The pie was yummy.  

Last year for our Christmas open house we heated Brie in the oven with raspberry jam on top and served with crackers.  This year I want to try it with the Chokecherry jam, maybe with some orange mixed in.  

BACK TO SCHOOL PROMOTION - Unique Gifts

Can you believe it? Some kids are back in school already. 

We have many unique gifts for students and teachers 

Handmade in Peru, many sizes and color combinations.

Over 100 different designs in the popular Satin Stripe fabric. All drastically marked down !

Many titles of 'Survival Kits" including this one - School Bus driver; Teacher; Student; Coach; Karate and many many others.

Perfect for the playground, these visors have a spiral lace that do not pinch or cause headaches.  Washable in the dishwasher too!

So as you can see we have a variety of many different and unique things for everyone returning to school.  You can see them all in our eBay store.

Herb's Crafts Gifts Back to School