17th Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival

Greetings friends! I though I would stop by this early morning and share a few FUN photos from the 17th Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. This past weekend, we took a road trip up to Iowa to see the BEST of friends and attend the 2025 Bacon Festival. Over the the last 17 years, we have made it to almost every Bacon Fest...and even though we made the move to Kansas City, we still make the annual trip back "home" for this event each year. This year the bacon festivities were held indoors at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Agriculture Building. Our group had a VIP table/tickets for the event...and we were able to attend an hour earlier than the general public. We made so many memories over the weekend...we arrived in Des Moines on Friday evening and our Iowa friends (I call them family) had a big party and we were able to see almost everyone (including two new additions - babies that were born the last year!). Then, we spent all day Saturday at Bacon Fest. The theme this year was The Bacon Boat - and the costume contest was filled with characters from the original Love Boat television show - the winners were a group that included Captain Stubing, Julie McCoy, and Isaac Washington (there's a throwback cast list for you). There was axe throwing, all sorts of photo ops, my yearly photo with the bacon belt, a silent disco, lots of live music (Yachty by Nature!), all sorts of bacon food dishes, tasty beverages, a bacon eating contest, and the best people watching around...and did I mention, all the bacon you can eat! We finished the day by visiting two local bars and laughing into the wee hours. It was the BEST two days with my Iowa family...including ending day two by cramming nine adults into one Traverse (last time is was 10 adults into one Suburban). I couldn't have asked for a better road trip and I am already looking forward to next year! Sadly, Sunday we made the drive back to Kansas City...but the whirlwind trip was so good for my soul. We made it back home just in time to head out to Children's Mercy Park for a Sporting KC MLS soccer game (it was Star Wars night!)...it was a jam packed weekend. Here are a few favorite photos from the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival...

Finishing, a Festival, and Flowers

Greetings Friends - happy Monday night! I am finally adjusting to the new night schedule and it is about 11:00 PM, as I write this post. This update is going to be a combination of creativity and personal...I have some recent needlework finishes to share...some photos from Bacon Fest 2023 (yes, we made our annual trip to Iowa for the 15th Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival)…and some photos I took today of my flower beds and new outdoor lighting. I have a pile of sewing I have to complete tonight and some design work to do, so I am going to combine all three of these subjects into one post...

Starting it off...some needlework finishing. Several projects are from other needlework designers for a client...and one is finishing of one of my own designs. I will caption the images with details, if I have them...

Bells of Christmas by With Thy Needle & Thread

2023 Collector's Heart (kit) from Heart in Hand Needleart

Perched on a Pincushion from Blue Ribbon Designs (that's me!)
This is design number four in my Rick Rack Rounds Series.

Next up, a few FUN photos from the 15th Annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. A little over a week ago, we took a road trip up to Iowa to see the BEST of friends and attend the 2023 Bacon Fest. Over the the last 15 years, we have made it to almost every Bacon Festival...and even though we made the move to Kansas City, we still make the annual trip back "home" for this event each year. This year Bacon Fest was moved from February to May (from snow to sunshine)…and from indoors to outdoors at the Iowa State Fairgrounds....and it was a TWO DAY event. We had VIP tickets to both days of the festivities...and on day one, we were first in the gate! The event photographer captured the photo of us below, all holding up one finger for being first in line. We made so many memories over the course of two days....there was bull riding, axe throwing, a sledgehammer, a golf simulator, a photo op with the bacon belt, a silent disco, lots of live music, all sorts of bacon food dishes, tasty beverages, heat and rain, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, a bacon eating contest, and the best people watching around...and did I mention, all the bacon you can eat! It was the BEST two days with my Iowa family...including ending day two by cramming ten adults into one suburban (yes, we have photo evidence). I couldn't have asked for a better road trip and I am already looking forward to next year! Here are just a few favorite photos...

Hubby on the Mechanical Bull

Me with Mark and the Bacon Belt

Bacon Pickle Mac

Best of Friends

Finally, now that spring is in full effect, I have been busy in the yard. I have planted my yearly pots - my seedlings are up and my tomatoes are taking off (I need to take a good photo)...old mulch removed and new mulch put down...I even added solar lights this year. I have been enjoying evenings on the front porch with my Siberian Iris in full bloom. Plus, thanks to mother nature sending some rain our way last week, the lawn looks great! We also recently put a French drain in our backyard and it has REALLY helped with water drainage and keeping our lawn happy - in fact, we wish we would have done it several years ago. I am loving our yard this year (even with the farm field on the other side of our backyard being developed - yep, for those who follow my journey, the cows are gone and houses are going in - we knew it was inevitable, but so sad to see the pasture being developed).
…and in exciting "for me" news, we are adding a new hot tub to our back patio. It will be delivered/installed in just over two weeks and we are really looking forward to it. Yesterday we put up another side shade on our back patio for privacy and we have found the perfect outdoor cabinet for towels, chemicals, etc....but I am still trying to find an affordable outdoor rug (keyword affordable)...it is all coming together.

I took this photo at dusk of the new lights I installed...
I put them on our front trees and side bed, as well...

Geranium Elke

Siberian Iris

Amsonia

One last thing today...one of my projects (and a quote from my blog post) for ThermOWeb is being used in one of their upcoming ads...I thought I would share a photo with you. Seriously, how cool is that?!

That is all the news that is fit for blogging today. Thank you stopping by for a visit! I am off to my sewing studio...I have a pile of project bags to finish for my Etsy Shop and a new project tutorial I am working on for the ThermOWeb blog in June. Be sure to stop back on Thursday - I will be sharing my May project tutorial that is up on the ThermOWeb blog tomorrow (Wednesday the 24th)...it is for my Starflower Scissor Station, a project you won't want to miss...

Better with Bacon...

When Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival tickets went on sale this month, I made sure to be online, as they sell out in minutes...and I was thrilled to get four tickets to the 2014 event (I blogged about the 2013 event here)! Tickets went on sale 12/12/13 at 12:12:13 and again sold out in minutes...and we are not-so-patiently anticipating this yearly festival, which is being held on February 1st. One of my very dear far-a-way friends is a bacon fanatic and she is quite knowledgeable in all things bacon...I sure wish she could be here to share the experience with me...that would definitely make it a perfect day! She did however send me a very fun and extremely unique Christmas package - it included bacon balm (yes, I said bacon flavored lip balm!), a book full of bacon recipes...and get this...she made me two of the cutest flannel pillowcases with bacon inspired fabric! I just could not stop smiling when I opened this packaged...it was a complete surprise and brightened my day immensely...

I know it is usually all about the squirrel on my blog, but today, it is all about bacon! In fact, I am getting hungry just writing this post. Time to go curl up with one of my bacon pillows and look through my new cookbook...and I may even try the bacon lip balm...an exciting Friday night...