Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Tag: Midway

The Open Category is Notoriously Difficult to Place in.

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Usually my painted ceramic sculptures get disqualified because they don’t 100% fit inside the category. This year that wasn’t even a choice to make in the guide book. So I split the difference and purposefully entered the open category for Technique not Previously Named. And I got a fourth place! I placed, which is very nice for a change. There were some very painstakingly gorgeous pieces in the category (No Needlework), so I’m just happy to get recognized and not DQ’d.

Ogre Rogue bust gets 4th place!
Got my name on the card too!
The whole category, lots of great & inspiring pieces here!

On the other hand neither of my Nuts N’ Bolts, nor my Rice Crispy Squares got anywhere near the podium for food stuffs. My Roses, Hostas, and Dahlias did pretty well this year. My wife entered all of those from our front garden. My BIL’s veggies did really well too. No surprise there, he enters 75-80% of all of the vegetable categories, so he is bound to win, or place in a good number of those. Even the kids got on the board with their crafts and photography entries. Nothing to get upset about. Fewer first place finishes, but still on the podium, or worthy of a 4th, 5th, and 6th place ribbon. No small feat given how large some of the more popular categories can be.

Spent more than five hours there in total yesterday. My hips and feet ached all last night, and my back was terribly uncomfortable for the last hour and a bit of the evening. We managed a ferris wheel ride, monster truck show, dirt bike air show, and the opening night fireworks display. My only gripe was that the Smazhed Burger folks didn’t come back this year. I searched the grounds for them last night, but to no avail. Had left over pizza when I got home instead. Now that’s not the fault of the fair, so don’t take my complaint that way. More disappointing that i couldn’t get a second bite at the burger i really, really enjoyed last year. Oh well. I did partake of a chocolate sauce filled churro, which was tasty. But not the Smashed Burger I was well and truly craving. Also at some point I will get some cinnamon dusted Tiny Tom’s donuts. Always a culinary favourite of mine. Tastes like the fair to me!

Wrapping up our Fair entries for the year.

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This whole weekend will be spent painting, crafting, sewing, baking and running around town to get the last few fair entries finished, and in some instances started & finished ahead of next Tuesdays drop off deadline. Could get rather tense! I need to grab pumpkins with my BIL to deliver to the fair grounds too. Lots to do around here in the next four days.

We need to review our photography and get those printed off, mounted, and ready for display come Saturday. We picked up our badges, ribbons and parking tags, so that much is taken care of so far. Probably need to go shopping for rice crispies so that I can make my last project on Sunday/Monday. Don’t want to make them too far in advance as they’ll go stale when it’s time for judging on Wednesday of next week.

I love fair time. If the weather holds out we always get some terrific photos of the midway and the kids smiling & having fun. Blooming onions, funnel cakes, burgers and ice creams, the occasional candy floss, or candy apples thrown into the mix. It’s great. I hope we get to see the horse pulls, demolition derby, and the monster trucks too. I’m pretty partial to wandering around the home craft building looking at all of the complex quilts and art work. My sculpting never wins any prizes but I enter them anyway no painted ceramics this year, so I have to go in for the “Technique Not Mentioned” open category. I just like having one thing to show to people.

The food trucks and the Smashed Burger folks have really good food. I’m sad that I can’t eat more of it in a day. I’ll be searching for their blue banner again this year. As much as I usually enjoy the chicken tenders and fries from the fair, the Smashed Burger really piqued my interest last year.

You should come out to see it. Parking is free, and there are nightly fireworks shows. It’s a really fun agricultural experience. Ciao Bella!

Day Four: The Last Day.

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I’m going to need a vacation from the weekend. In total over the last three days I’ve spent more than thirteen (13) hours wandering the fair grounds, and riding the midway. It’s been really fun but my feet and hips beg to differ. My eldest and wife clocked in an additional five hours yesterday over top of what I did. How did they manage such a feat you ask? Well, by splitting into groups of course, so when I took a thoroughly exhausted youngest child home the rest kept on going. We left at four pm, and the rest sauntered home around nine thirty pm. I laid down on the couch and watched tv with the youngest for a while as she ate and calmed down. Then extended family came by and took her back to the fair two hours later.

I have to tell you that I ate a fantastic burger at the fair yesterday. A place called “SuperSmash Burgs“, and the double DK burger combo was my jam. It was absolutely fantastic. Five stars, do highly reccomend. Caramelized onions, deliciously cooked patties, a very zesty aioli sauce, and fresh lettuce & pickles. A thick slab of cheese, ooh wee it was great.

Tonight sometime after dark we will all flock back to the Markham Fair with our tags in order to pick up all of our entries. That is always a bit of a mess as a thousand people go wandering about trying to all do the same thing at once.

We were all pleasantly surprised that the TSSA strike only interfered with article drop off day on Tuesday, and didn’t affect the other official four days of the event. So all in all a great time was had by all. All eyes turn to next year!

But first we have Thanksgiving next weekend, and then Fall Break, and then the second biggest day of them all – Halloween!

The Party Doesn’t Stop Until We’ve Seen Tears, Blood Stains, and Vomit.

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Welcome to the riveting weekend before Thanksgiving here in Canada, in this part of town we call that Fair Time! Fire works, rides, deep fried foods of questionable provenance, and all the friends & family you can shake a stick at. We saw the extremely loud and very entertaining Monster Trucks, we heard the truck pull, and have given the Midway a serious twice over, with about 8+ hours of hitting up the rides.

The food always smells so damn good. Reasonable pricing for a meal if you know where to look. I’m itching for some Tiny Tom’s donuts if I’m being honest. You know we work all Spring & Summer towards building a great fair experience for our kids and family, so when it finally gets here you really have to let go, be 8n the moment, and try to enjoy it all as much as possible. The weather the last two days has been exceptional given the time of year. So soak up some Rays, and have a great rest of your weekend!

I really love the fair at night. The lights, the glow and all of the hustle & bustle. Glad to have the Markham Fair back in action again. Ciao Bella!

Lots to Talk About, Nothing Much to Say.

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That’s how this whole week feels. Busy busy busy with paid work (yeah!), and the Markham Fair is in town, and acting like it’s usual Time Vampire self. Managed to get some new sculpting done in the moments in between other things. That’s always fun. September comes to a close as of tonight, and I’m nearly run off my feet busy. Busting my chops to get some larger items done prior to the weekend. But it is starting to look more like a Monday at 9:00am delivery. No matter. Push on, stiff upper lip and all.

Added an older Human Warrior into the mix.
Ferris wheel.
Midway.
Uncle going for a spin.
Posing for a pretty picture.

I could have sworn I took more pictures once the lights all came on, but apparently not. Damn it. Three more days of sunshine fair time fun ahead of us. Catch you around town. Ciao Bella!