By the time I arrived at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds yesterday, the vendors and exhibitors had packed up and were, for the most part, gone, but there were people like me, claim tickets in hand, waiting our turn to pick up our entries and return them to their natural habitat as can be seen here:

The fun part about the “after fair,”as I think of it, is that it is much less harried and there is opportunity to meet fellow crafters (however briefly), offer congratulations, and admire their handiwork whether or not their work garnered a ribbon.

The end of the fair leaves me with seemingly endless errands to run and in between those errands there is time to reflect on the season just past.

Hard work is one component of my success, and it is the one over which I have some measure of control.

Good luck is another, and it is much more sobering because it is an element over which I have no control other than to recognize it for what it is and put it to use when it presents itself, as I did today when I used a break in the errands to work on the cookie poncho.

After tracking down a skein of the Red Heart Super Saver coffee fleck, I was finished the two dark chocolate cookies I needed to complete the assortment, and while waiting for my son’s Brain Game meeting to adjourn, I made the fourth and final Peanut Butter blossom.
Here are the two panels of the cookie poncho as completed as they can be before joining:

and here they are correctly oriented for the final join:

I don’t have grandchildren of my own, but I am lucky enough to have a friend who is willing to share hers with me, and I can hardly wait to get this cookie poncho done and sent off to my friend’s granddaughter — together we can work to change the world –one stitch (and one cookie poncho) at a time.