We just go the fair for fun...don't work there. We're not staying over night this year because we have a dog this year and he needs left out. It's also easier to get a restful nights sleep by staying at home and just commuting. The tents don't allow for much quiet and the camper is hard to sleep in because Gram and Pap are up early. In previous years we have stayed, even when DS was a baby. My grandmother is 62~a young great grandmother, actually. Really she's not just on my nerves at this point, she's on everyone's. Last night she had everyone come to the camper for warm-ups and was trying to tell me how to lace my son's shoes and making fun of how my mother taught me to tie my shoes (guess they showed it on Sesame Street years ago and it was easier for me) and I just never learned the way everyone else did...but it works! Then she brought toys over to the camper for Shane that she bought at a yard sale and was yelling at him to only push one button and listen to one sound at a time...I explained that kids don't do that. I said that she didn't have all those noisy battery operated toys with her kids that we do today but that's what kids do. (Actually, it's a duh on her part...why'd she bring the noisest toy she has?) Then because she had DS's shoes and he wanted me to put them on him, she made a comment about he'll never learn to share if he's not around kids! He's around kids and he does share, it's his age and a stage he's in and I said I read in Parents magazine that 3-4 year old know how to share, they just often don't want to. They're always making jabs at me because I'm a SAHM. They had my life dreamed up for me and well, DS came along before I got to start college (I was taking a year off to work before starting). Ever since he was born, she's been trying to tell me what to do, like I can't do it. (She even stood in the delivery room and commented to my mother not to buy him too much because he may not make it..he was premature and we didn't know exactly how the situation was yet but you dont' say stuff like that at a time like that!) I said to my Dad's gf yesterday that I've raised him to this age and I haven't killed him or hurt him or made him sick yet! I guess she did the same with my Mom, too. We hear about everything we do or buy for our DS! How he acts, how we handle the situation, etc. I try to avoid her and we've actually saw them coming at the fair and went another way. Pap even made a comment last night about me maybe wanting to look nice to find someone and I'm with my son's father and have been for 4 years and he's a great father and he's great to me! He even made little comments to my Dad's new gf's daughter (she's 10) about her weight at supper! I really think they're trying to start a fight or something and I'm trying to stay away but I can't keep my mouth shut about some stuff. I'm afraid I will probably have to say something to her to get her to back off. It may not help but at least I did something and didn't allow her to walk all over me and put me down... Thanks, for the comments and advice. ~Leslie~

Oh now this is just too funny. I saw your precious pig in your post today about moving back in, and I focused in on him right away. I totally missed the chocolate cake, but I saw the pig! I had not noticed this towel pig post at all, but just now I searched for the ORIGINAL towel pig thread (just to reminisce a bit) and your post came up. Alas, the original towel pig thread DOES NOT come up. Oh, the inhumanity! Anyway, I LOVE your guy! He's perfect. I, too, have a pig that I have had for quite awhile. Finally tried him out for holding my dish rag. Guess we shall call him "dish rag pig." Don't have a pic of him in service at the moment holding said rag. I'm away from home right now, but I do have this pic to offer up to show you what he looks like...sans rag. You can just barely make him out there to the slight left of the sink...cute! When I do drape my little dish rag on his head and fold it back just a bit, he reminds me of a nun. LOL! pup

Early American Pressed Glass. With the first machines designed to form glass in a mold with a sort of plunger like apparatus ( in about 1820) the early glass was cleared with lead and full of bubbles, so made in patterns to hide imperfections and maximize sparkle. The New England Glass company and the Boston and Sandwich Glass company were early successes. As technique evolved and the glass was made better quality, they began to make glass in all sorts of forms in patterns...and it was possible to buy whole sets of one pattern.....and many companies began making glass. In the 1850's or so, patterns were heavy and smooth and blocky, as time progressed they became more fanciful and graceful. There were wonderful patterns like Baby Face, and Owl Looking at the Moon, and Lincoln Drape, and Dewey and Garfield Drape and Cameo....and after about 1860 they learned how to clear the glass with manganese and the glass became cheaper to make ( but it will turn purple in strong sunlight) and no longer rang like lead glass did. Somewhere about 1900 and on into the 1920's pressed glass began to imitate cut glass and many patterns like Daisy and Button and Aztec look very much like cut glass. About that time some glass makers started a "States series" with patterns named for the states. That's my 5 cent lesson...it's a fascinating subject....and there are lots of opportunities for collecting!

Awww....nice....yes another EAPG piece...without pouring over a bunch of books andw eb sites i can't give you an exact name...but it's one of the Cane/daisy and button/square patterns....dating about 1880 to maybe 1910. here's some idea of the possibilities..... http://patternglass.com/Store/CeleryVase/index.htm Appears to have been well used and has lots of hard water stains.....a soak in a vinegar solution would make it sparkle again.