Renaissance Festival With My Mom and Sister Part Zwei

Snot and puke were funny as usual.  They told their same old jokes, but also added a few barbs at local politicians and celebrities.

They have broad appeal. Look at who was in the row behind us.

 

After Snot and Puke, DCA went to have her cards read by Lady Karen. Lady Karen is a wonderful reader and I think she sized things up very well.

 

The cards said that my sister was thinking about a change, that she was at a decision point but tired of what she is doing and that she is looking for alternatives. She said that others see my sister as having the world and wonder how she could be dissatisfied.

They also showed her juggling finances at the moment and headed for a period of introspection and decision.

After the card reading, we headed over to the hair braiders. This is a bit of a tradition in my family. DCA has the most beautiful, long, long hair.

She chose her design out of the book and promptly discovered her hair was too long for that style, so she settled on some kind of princess design.  She got the one male braider in the outfit and he turned out to be a very interesting guy, who had lived in Austin Texas and travelled around the US quite a bit.

We chatted a bit as he worked, but luckily he wasn't easily distracted, because he did a beautiful job!

 

Here is a view from the side/back.

After the hair braiding it was time to think about food. We had tickets for the feast of fantasy, so we walked off towards Bad Manor, but of course there were interesting things to see along the way.  Thi sFaun was sitting on a rock near the privies.

 

She had a lovely, shy personality and a long tail.

 

When we reached Bad Manor there were already revelers lined up in preparation for the feast. 

After a short wait, we were serenaded by singers 

and trompeters...

...and then our hosts Lazlo and Jim came out to welcome us in. 

(I'll write about the Feast of Fantasy in my next blog.)

Visit from Some Family Renaissance Festival Part Un

My Mom and Sister came to visit last week and we had a wonderful time!  They flew into Minneapolis and we arranged to spend the night in Shakopee and then visit the Renaissance Festival on the next day. Here are a few pictures from our time at the Faire. I am fascinated by all the beautiful costumes at the Fair and someday would like to do a blog just on the lavish clothing.

We decided  to start off with a show, and on the way, we passed the belly dancers.

We ended up over at the Bakery Stage to see our favorite knife throwers and jugglers.  Mick (also known as Bald Guy) did his yo-yo tricks for us while Reynaldo's Ninja (also known as Other Guy) watched with gravity.


SUD (Spousal Unit D - notice that is SUD and NOT DUD) took a much better picture with Reynaldo also in the shot.



Somehow he decided I was angry with him (we'd had a slight disagreement about parking) so he paid a guy to insult him in the hopes that it would mollify me. Then  he made the fatal error of paying the guy to compliment me and that embarrassed me so much that I didn't want to speak to him for the rest of the morning!

Here are some pictures of the family.



My sister and spousal unit did some shopping at the bronze booth.



Look at how happy she is! They refurbished a henin she had bought from them many years ago (I wish I had taken a before and after picture! It was an amazing difference between the blackened and dingy piece she gave them and the shiny, beautiful brass piece that they handed back to her.)
My mom (often called Glam Clooney) had been fitted out with a ruddy steed that she rode skillfully throughout the day.

I am fascinated by the anachronisms of the Fair - people texting in full musketeer outfits. Belly dancers on cell phones and of course the one that I share the most in common with: Courtiers with big fancy cameras.

We managed to see a part of the parade on our way to see our next show. The Elizabethan Singers have the most gorgeous wardrobes.



And they also have voices to match. I love hearing them perform madrigals or other Renaissance pieces with multiple voice parts.



Hmm and the guy in silver seems to have found a different young lady here. I'm going to have to keep my eye on him!



 Naturally bringing up the rear is the king and queen.



It was a really dusty day as you can see from the cloud kicked up by the horse.



I seem to be out of space for photos, so I will end this post here for the nonce.

A Taste of Costumes to Come

I've been frantically working on my costume for the Renaissance Festival (which is only going to last a few more weeks. I've almost finished my petticoat. (I still have to hem the sleeves and finish one of the pieces of lace.) I finished up the skirt (but the farthingale collapses, so I am going to have to figure something else out for making the skirts stand out. Today I started work on the sleeves. I decided on a Spanish style sleeve, but am not yet satisfied. (I made the upper bell too small and the sleeve is too u.)

Nonetheless I can't resist at least putting up (a bad) picture of what I have been working on.

Tomorrow I'll adjust the size of the sleeves and work on the right side.  I also need to eventually do the cuts, but these probably won't happen for a while as it will take quite a bit of hand sewing.

Look Who Went to the Faire!

Evening Visitor

We feel very fortunate. We had an unexpected visitor tonight. When D. took the dogs out he noticed this guy.

He (or she) was way up in the top of a tree in the front yard. We backed off and went around to the back to leave him (or her) in peace after a few photos.

More Home Repair

Some tiles had come loose in the shower and when I pulled them off, I discovered that the board behind them had rotted out. Thus along with the ceiling project, I also had a shower project to take care of.

I had to pull some more stuff out of the wall and then put some new wall board in.



After putting in the durarock, I then used the old tiles and filled the hole in the wall.  It isn't perfect, but it should be a lot better:

Now If I could only get rid of the iron stains on the floor tiles! (sigh!)

New Drawing

I have finally gotten around to starting a new drawing. I want to sit in on a drawing class and they are doing my least favorite thing - Landscape.  We are supposed to choose an area of campus as a group and agree on some rules, but the person in my "group" that I called and I didn't seem to communicate very well, so all I could figure out was that they are doing a particular building.

I have SUCH a hard time with landscape, so this is my 4th attempt. (One big and then a couple of small rough sketches.

So it isn't finished, but at least I've got a beginning down on paper.