Dakota County fair 2012 Recap

I recently completed my 15th year at the Dakota County Fair with the help of my fabulous mom!  My mom painted Monday through Thursday and I painted Friday through Sunday.  12 hours of painting and 2.5 hours of driving every day does have a way of wearing you out!  But, we made it and I'm happy to have done another fair.  It's so fun to have kids come back year after year, and to see college kids whom we've previously painted as toddlers!

This year the fair allowed a vendor to offer face painting as their free giveaway to help draw in people to their booth, which was a bummer.  Let me just say though, folks, the phrase "you get what you pay for" definitely applies to face painting!!  ;-)  But, we still did well and I hope that this sort of thing is not tolerated next year from more vendors, so that we are able to come return for a 16th year!

Here are a few photos from this year's fair...

Painting my favorite customers, my boys!

Mom and Dad!! It was weird not ever seeing each other at the fair this year!  In the past we've split a few week days, where Mom took part of the day and I took the other part.  This year we each took full days, so we never crossed paths.  Mom did a great job holding down the fort...and I mean literally!  The new banner system caused some headaches for her on one really windy day...the only downfall of being right inside the big doors! (Thanks Mom, and thanks Dad for the extra clamps!)

I always LOVE it when my husband brings my boys to visit me at the fair!  He did an awesome job taking care of them while I painted Friday through Sunday.  He took them to an indoor trampoline park, did a movie night, and went camping in the back yard just to name a few of the fun things they did!

Here are some of the paintings done during this year's fair...

Batman mask

Love these requests that aren't on my board: cow!

My first eagle eye

White & Gold Mask. This is the niece of the lady in the booth next to me...I traded this face painting for one of the pretty bracelet / cuffs she makes!

I always love the chance to sit and paint something detailed on my own arm during slow times at the fair.  Since I wasn't there during many week days this year, I had less down time to paint myself.  But, I did manage to get something on my arm each day...

Lacy heart done on my arm

Dragon done on my arm

Rose done on my arm - been working on some tribal stuff lately!

It was definitely the most gorgeous weather of all my 15 years at the fair.  In the past we've always had at least one really rainy day with major storms that caused huge mud pits around the fair!  But this year it was just beautiful every day.  The last day, Sunday, it was overcast all day and then we had some small sprinkles on and off, so it wasn't too busy.  But, luckily we got the booth torn down without getting drenched!

The last day: Sammy helping Daddy haul out the last piece of my booth: the carpet!

Huge thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth this year!  We really love to see you all every year and are honored to be a part of your annual Dakota County Fair tradition!!